Aid group 'told to freeze' Falluja work
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. forces have told the Iraqi Red Crescent to temporarily suspend its activity inside Falluja for security reasons, the IRC's general secretary said Monday.
Mazin Salloum told CNN from Baghdad that the organization evacuated its 10-member team to the capital on Sunday afternoon.
"Our team in Falluja, was informed by the MNF (Multi-National Forces/American Forces) that it's better to leave for 48 hours," Salloum said.
"We were told to freeze all activity inside Falluja for security reasons in the zone of where our office is available there."
The IRC's had located its headquarters in a private home near the center of the city. Salloum said the team would return "when everything will be secure and security will be guaranteed to our team."
"So now we freeze our activities inside Falluja for more than 48 hours and we will continue to negotiate with the MNF," he said.
An American commander, Lt. Col. Michael Ramos, said Sunday that the organiztion set up in a neighborhood that was not entirely secured and without coordinating with coalition forces.
On Friday, an intense firefight raged for hours about 300 meters (1,000 feet) from that headquarters, he said.
One insurgent was killed and two others were later detained and identified by Iraqi forces involved in the firefight, and other cell members are suspected to be in the area.
Both coalition forces and the IRC agreed to suspend the organization's activities while security operations in northeast Falluja continue, Ramos said.
Only about 100 families are thought to remain in Falluja, as most fled the city before the U.S.-led operation aimed at flushing out insurgents.
Anas Akram Mohammad, director of the group's disaster management unit, said Sunday that over the past three days, the IRC had delivered a week's supply of food, water and medical supplies to all the families it could identify in that region of the city.
Marines and Iraqi forces will continue coordination and distribution during the suspension, Ramos said.
CNN's Arwa Damon and Correspondent Jane Arraf and CNN Radio's Ninette Sosa contributed to this report.
