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The beginning of chaos in Iraq after the invasion |
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Eleven days after US forces occupied the city and four days after their engineers were supposed to have begun working around the clock at the power plants, the lack of amenities is fuelling the anti-American feeling in the streets. "They did the destroying, why can't they repair them?" is the most common question. Thirty-five Baghdad hospitals are closed because of looting and arson. The three still functioning are reporting water-borne diseases. And this is in a country where, Unicef reports show, the destruction of the previous war brought typhoid, dysentery, hepatitis, cholera and polio. The diseases had already reached endemic proportions and were the prime killer of children under five. Recently declassified documents of the American Defence Intelligence Agency show the Allies deliberately targeted Iraq's water supply during the previous conflict. Twelve years on, half the country's water treatment plants are still out of action. The US and Britain are blocking 14 deals valued at $22m (£14m) for water and sewage treatment under the UN oil-for food deal because the material involved is deemed to have military as well as civilian use. There is no evidence of such targeted destruction by the Americans and the British this time. But gas pipelines and diesel stocks were bombed, crippling the power stations.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=398518
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