DAMASCUS, Apr 16 (IPS) - Refugees from Baquba city who have now found
shelter in Damascus describe their hometown as a "dead city" where
armed men roam the streets and al-Qaeda reigns.
Baquba, capital city of Iraq's Diyala province is located 50km
northeast of Baghdad on the Diyala river. In 2002 the estimated
population was 280,000. The city has been inhabited continuously since
pre-Islamic times and is the trade centre for Iraq's commercial orange
groves.
The city become a hot spot of resistance from early on in the
occupation. It has been torn apart in fighting between occupation
forces and the Iraqi resistance — and also between various militia
groups and al-Qaeda, its fleeing residents say.
Al-Qaeda has emerged as a distinct new group, refugees from the city
say.
By the end of 2006 the city was largely under the control of Sunni
resistance groups, but by early 2007 residents report that al-Qaeda has
formed a larger presence in the city.
As a result more than half the people in the city have fled,
refugees say.
"Life in Baquba nowadays is unbearable," Aziz Abdulla, an unemployed
university professor from Baquba who arrived in Damascus last week told
IPS. "There is no security at all. Violence is increasing day after day
because there is no control from the government and no real existence
of coalition forces there. Terrorists and other fighters rule the city.
Baquba is a city of terror."
Abdulla said that killing and kidnapping are rampant. "We have all
become used to seeing dead bodies in the streets. I've seen too many.
When we see them, nobody touches the body because if you do you are
killed by gunmen. They watch for who touches the body, and kill that
person right then or later."
No Western journalist dares go to Baquba.
"I think well over half of our city has left, and those who remain
never leave their homes," Abdulla said. "Those who are left sit in
their homes and wait for their death. They may take their fate from a
terrorist entering their house, or a car bomb, or a shooting."
Baquba General Hospital is in a state of collapse, refugees say. Dr.
Ahmed Shibad, a 30- year-old doctor from the hospital fled Baquba a
month ago and now lives in the al- Qudsiya neighbourhood on the
outskirts of Damascus with tens of thousands of other Iraqi refugees.
"I left Baquba because of the terrorists and the Iraqi Army. The
conditions at my hospital were very, very bad," he told IPS. "We had no
supplies, and the Iraqi forces occupied the hospital and used it as an
observation post, and use the roof as a sniper platform."
He, like Abdulla, said al-Qaeda was largely in control of the city,
and that U.S. forces were doing little to stop them. But his main
complaint was the Iraqi forces.
"The Iraqi forces determine who enters the hospital or not, and this
causes a big problem for the doctors," he said. "They take many
innocent people from the hospital. Our morgue in the hospitals can
holds 12 corpses, but it is always over-filled."
Dr. Shibad said prior to the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of
Iraq, Diyala province had 600 doctors. The last he knew, he said, there
were only 124 and the number is decreasing each month.
One of the U.S. bases in the city is referred to as Camp Boom by the
U.S. soldiers stationed there because it takes so many attacks from
armed groups, refugees said.
Another U.S. Forward Operating Base (FOB) called FOB Scunion is
separated from the larger Camp Freedom I by a highway known as ‘RPG
(rocket propelled grenade) Alley' because of the many attacks against
coalition forces there.
"Americans only control one kilometre of road, which is the main
road where the governor's office and court building are in central
Baquba, and they rarely run patrols in the city because they are
attacked every time," a refugee who just arrived from Baquba told IPS.
He asked to be referred to as Haida for fear of reprisal attacks
from armed groups, al- Qaeda or the U.S. forces. "Every day we see
attacks against the Americans. This is because the coalition forces
created their own enemies by being so rough on the people of Baquba
since the beginning of the occupation."
Haida said that control of the city is shared between Iraqi
resistance groups who are fighting coalition forces, and "the other
group is al-Qaeda." Either way, he said, - men carrying guns control
the majority of Baquba."
Despite its small size, Diyala province has seen the sixth largest
number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq among the 18 provinces in the
country. According to the U.S. Department of Defence, at least 144
troops have been killed there, 44 of them this year.
Haida and Abdulla, who come from different areas of Baquba, told IPS
separately that the city has almost completely shut down now. There are
no markets open and those who remain live on locally grown vegetables
and fruit.
"There is nothing transported from Baghdad because there is no way
to travel there due to the unofficial checkpoints controlled by
militias," said Haida. "If you pass through one and you are the wrong
sect of Islam, you are killed immediately. People have stopped going to
Baghdad. We are cut off."
Abdulla said petrol is too expensive for most people, and inflation
is "out of control." Petrol is in any case rarely available since
"tankers can no longer reach the city from Baghdad."
Money counts for little, he said. "There is no money at the banks
because bringing the money from Baghdad to Baquba is too dangerous. The
government cannot control it, and the money will be stolen by so many
different groups of people. Our city has become a dead city."
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