Ramadi: it is happening again

All too familiar pattern is seen as refugees flee a US attack


(Photo © IRINnews.org)

IRIN reports that Ramadi, Iraq residents are

Worried that the offensive could proceed as it did in nearby Fallujah, where the majority of the city's population was forced to flee during a near three-month long campaign, many Ramadi families are taking personal effects and food supplies and heading to relatives' houses in the capital, or to the same camps where residents from Fallujah fled....citizens, exhausted by ongoing violence, are afraid and are choosing to leave before the situation worsens. "They want to destroy the whole area and build a New York City there, and for that they are tearing down everything. We want to live in peace. We are tired of fighting and bombs. God, please protect us," Muhammad Farhan, a father of five, who was fleeing the city with his family, told IRIN.

The escalating US offensive apparently "came quickly and without warning."

If the endgame is the same as that which befell Fallujah, this city, once with a population of 400,000, will be flattened as well.