They just got a different tool to use than we do: They kill innocent lives to achieve objectives. That's what they do. And they're good. They get on the TV screens and they get people to ask questions about, well, you know, this, that or the other. I mean, they're able to kind of say to people: Don't come and bother us, because we will kill you. Bush - Joint News Conference with Blair - 28 July '06

Monday, July 30, 2007

8 million Iraqis need urgent aid

A third of the Iraqi population needs emergency aid because of the humanitarian crisis caused by war and on-going violence, according to a new report.

About 8 million Iraqis are in urgent need of water, sanitation, food and shelter, said a joint report (pdf) released today by Oxfam and the NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq.

Although armed violence is the greatest threat facing Iraqis, the report said, the population is also experiencing another crisis of "an alarming scale and severity".

Researchers found that 15% of Iraqis cannot regularly afford to eat, 70% do not have adequate water supplies (up from 50% in 2003), 28% of children are malnourished (compared with 19% before the 2003 invasion), and 92% of children suffer learning problems.

The report also said more than 2 million people - mostly women and children - have been displaced within Iraq and have no reliable income, while another 2 million Iraqis have fled the country as refugees, mostly to neighbouring Syria and Jordan. Read more