Word: safwan
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...stories they recount in the refugee camps in the Iraqi town of Safwan are appalling. "Iraqi troops sent a tank to knock down the door of the holy shrine of Najaf," recalls Hajj Hattin. "Then they began looting all the deserted homes. They shot people at random in front of the crowds." Hajj Mohammed remembers a helicopter gunship shooting at civilians in the streets of Najaf. Iraqi soldiers "went into schools to threaten small children into giving the names of relatives they could accuse of being rebels," he says. "If the child did not answer, they shot...
...some of the nightmarish recollections of the more than 18,000 people crammed into two huge, dusty tent camps along the Iraq-Kuwait border, one of them run by U.S. troops near the site where the Iraqi military accepted the allied cease-fire. The residents are the refugees of Safwan, most of them Shi'ites, who fled from Saddam Hussein's vengeful army when it recaptured several rebellious cities in the south after...
Though their living conditions are not as grim as those of the Kurds, the Safwan refugees have for weeks been reliving their worst dreams, fearing for their lives. Protected by U.S. troops, the camp residents have begged the soldiers not to depart, sometimes even vowing to lie down in the path of withdrawing tanks. "Everyone here believes we will be killed when the Americans leave," says Mustafa Jafar. "The Iraqis will send the secret police...