Report: 4 children die as curfew/vehicle ban enters second week in Samarra

U.S. Soldiers with Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, stop and search motorists for weapons while on a road outside of Samarra in March. Samarra has a population of about 200,000. The insurgent bombing of the golden dome of the 1,000-year-old Imam Ali al-Hadi mausoleum there on February 22, 2006 is blamed for the sectarian violence which has wracked the country since.

BAGHDAD -- U.S. and Iraqi troops have imposed a strict security crackdown in Samarra, a city at the center of the Sunni insurgency, prompting residents to complain that basic necessities such as drinking water have not reached the city for seven days.

The desperate situation follows incidents last week when militants linked to Al Qaeda menaced the streets of the city by flying black flags and shooting recklessly before a suicide car bomber rammed a car into the police headquarters on Sunday, killing 12 officers, including the police chief, Col. Jaleel Nahi Hassoun...

Dr. Mustafa Abdul Kareem, the head of the pediatrics ward at a Samarra hospital, said the lack of fuel for generators led to equipment failures that killed four children, including two newborns in an incubator. The other two children required transport to Tikrit or Kirkuk, but he said their ambulance was blocked by U.S. and Iraqi troops.

Read the rest at the LA Times

Related Link:
Iraq commemorates bombing of the 'Mosque of the Golden Dome' in Samarra