Red Crescent hits barrier as it struggles to bring aid to Fallujah

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2004

BAGHDAD (AFP) — US troops were preventing a Red Crescent convoy of emergency aid from reaching helpless residents inside Fallujah after allowing it as far as the main hospital, a spokeswoman said.

Hopes were raised that the military would make an exception to a no-entry rule when the trucks were allowed as far as the Fallujah general hospital, which was seized ahead of a US-Iraqi assault to gain control of the city.

But wounded residents inside the battle zone were unable to enter the hospital, on the western outskirts, while US forces were forbidding the aid convoy from reaching them, Red Crescent spokeswoman Ferdus al-Ibadi told AFP.

The US military was not immediately available for comment, but had said earlier that Fallujah was too dangerous to allow...