FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - Aid from the Iraqi Red Crescent remains in at Fallujah's main hospital as relief workers negotiate with US troops for access to residents of the city.
The Red Crescent said it fears that civilians are dying of starvation and a lack of medical equipment inside Fallujah, which has been the scene of a week of fierce fighting pitting US and Iraqi government troops against militants.
It dispatched a convoy to the battle zone on Saturday, which made it as far as the general hospital on the western outskirts of the city but no further.
"They are still in the hospital and they are tring to have the facility to distribute material in Fallujah but until now they have not been able to," said Ahmed Nasser, the head of the Red Crescent's disaster management unit.
"They insist that they will stay there until (they are granted permission)," Nasser told AFP. "We hope that we can do this job."
The military was unavailable for immediate comment on the situation, but a spokesman said in an email on Saturday that he was unsure whether the convoy would be allowed to enter further, amid the inherent dangers.
Major Francis Piccoli, another military spokesman, said earlier on Sunday that humanitarian assistance was being provided "in the secured areas."
There is no clear figure on the number of people still in Fallujah, which once had a population of 300,000. Iraqi officials have said that at least two-thirds of the residents left before the fighting.
An AFP correspondent in the city said he had seen a number of families emerge from the devastation. One group among them complained Friday of severe thirst and hunger. Another was on the edge of despair.
Civilians hiding in the longtime Sunni Arab rebel stronghold are dying of starvation and thirst, and something must be done to help them, Red Crescent spokeswoman Ferdus al-Ibadi said on Saturday.
"They need us. It is our duty as a humanitarian agency to do our job for these people in these circumstances," she said.
The Iraqi government, for its part, said it was evacuating wounded civilians from Fallujah and that the main hospital would soon be operational again.
The Red Crescent believes that only 150 families are still in the heart of Fallujah, but it is equally concerned about the plight of tens of thousands of people living in villages and displaced people camps outside.
The convoy of four trucks, three ambulances and a minibus waiting at the general hospital is laden with food, water and medicines but Ibadi warned there were insufficient supplies to meet the urgent demand in and around Fallujah.
11/14/2004 - 08:50 GMT - AFP