IRAQ

IPS: New Horror Stories Of GI Abuses At Iraqi Hospitals by Dahr Jamail

The U.S. military has been preventing delivery of medical care in several instances, medical staff say.

Iraqi doctors at many hospitals have reported raids by coalition forces. Some of the more recent raids have been in Amiriyat al-Fallujah, about 10km to the east of Fallujah, the town U.S. forces now hold after a bloody assault. Amiriyat al-Fallujah has been the source of several reported resistance attacks on U.S. forces.

The main hospital in Amiriyat al-Fallujah was raided twice recently by U.S. soldiers and members of the Iraqi National Guard, doctors say. "The first time was November 29 at 5:40 a.m., and the second time was the following day," said a doctor at the hospital who did not want to give his real name for fear of U.S. reprisals.

...Targeting hospitals or ambulances is in direct contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which strictly forbids attacks on emergency vehicles and the impeding of medical operations during war.