Aid agencies today warned of a major humanitarian disaster in the Iraqi city of Fallujah following a two-day US-led offensive against the rebel stronghold.
The International Committee for the Red Cross says there are thousands of elderly and women and children who have had no food or water for days. At least 20,000 have gathered in the town of Saqlawiya, south of Falluja.
"The Red Cross is very worried. We urge all combatants to guarantee passage to those who need medical care, regardless of whether they are friends or enemies," spokesman Mr Ahmad al-Raoui said. "They must be allowed to return home as soon as possible."
There are no precise figures, but it is estimated about 150,000, or half the entire population, have fled Fallujah since the US military began shaping up for its offensive in October.
Aid workers say there are still hundreds of families left in the city, which has been pummelled by sustained aerial bombardment and artillery fire in recent days.
The Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) says fighting in Fallujah has created a humanitarian disaster in which innocent people are dying because medical help can't reach them.
In one case, a pregnant woman and her child died in a refugee camp west of the city after the mother unexpectedly aborted and no doctors were on hand, an official from IRCS said.
In another case, a young boy died from a snake bite that would normally have been easily treatable, she said.
"From a humanitarian point of view it's a disaster, there's no other way to describe it. And if we don't do something about it soon, it's going to spread to other cities," she said.