Iraqis come back to bombed-out village, seeking care, shelter

Sgt. Shawn Myers, 34, of Bronx, N.Y., watches the line of people waiting to see U.S. Army doctors and medics. As Iraqis return to their bombed-out village of Khidr they seek medical care and shelter.


Iraqis come back to bombed-out village, seeking care, shelter
By Michael Gisick, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, January 31, 2008

KHIDR, Iraq — An old woman wailed crazily as a man whose feet were blown off months ago was wheeled past the concertina wire. Hundreds of people, virtual refugees in their hometown, lined up amid mud and rubble for a medical clinic held by American troops in this rural village northwest of Iskandariyah.

The rubble that surrounded the crumbling schoolhouse at the center of Monday’s clinic included the remains of an Iraqi health clinic.

Like much of the town, it was destroyed late last year in fighting between al-Qaida in Iraq and troops from the Army’s 3d Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment.

“The people here got run out when al-Qaida took over their houses,” said Sgt. Jeremy Ireland, a 24-year-old civil affairs specialist from Erie, Pa. “Then the U.S. came in and blew up their houses. Now people are starting to come back … they’re living 15 or 20 to a house.”

Many of the roughly 300 people who made their way to the clinic brought ailments caused by the lack of basic necessities, especially clean water, said Lt. Col. Tim Monahan, 44, of Woodstock, Conn., a dermatologist with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3/7 Infantry, based at Fort Stewart, Ga.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52067