Baghdad residents scramble for medical care and food aid

Baghdad: As the armoured truck rounds the street corner, nurse Lamia Hussain Mohammad paces the crayon-scribbled hallways of a Sadr City elementary school with an army-issued rifle over her shoulder. From inside the building, now a temporary patrol base for the US Army, she can hear the truck bouncing and jerking, full of food, cooking oil and Iraqi soldiers preparing to face a crowd of locals. The American soldiers didn't know the Iraqi army was coming today to bring food and help with medical care. Army Captain Logan Veath drops his arms in frustration. The visit was planned at the last minute, and the Iraqis failed to arrange for a female soldier to carry out full-body bomb searches of women entering the clinic set up in the school. Lamia, a medical volunteer waiting at the makeshift clinic, hands off her rifle and makes... [read full story]