By Tim Cocks and Waleed Ibrahim
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Civilians caught up in fighting betweensecurity forces and Shi'ite militiamen in a Baghdad slum arerunning out of food, water and medicines and relief agenciesare unable to bring in supplies, officials said on Thursday.
Aid officials and an Iraqi government spokesman deniedreports there had been a mass displacement of residents fromSadr City, home to 2 million people and the stronghold ofShi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia.
They said it was too dangerous to get aid into the easternBaghdad district, where several hundred people have been killedin weeks of clashes. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, seeking toimpose law and order, launched a crackdown on militias in lateMarch that some analysts believe could eventually trigger anall-out showdown with Sadr.
Dana Graber Ladek, an Iraq specialist at the U.N.International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Amman, said500 families fled when U.S. and Iraqi operations began.
"Since then, very few Iraqis have been able to leave due tocurfews and ... insecurity," Ladek said by phone. "We need thatcorridor opened to allow aid in ... by U.S. and Iraqi forces,by everyone involved in the conflict."
Ladek said relief was needed urgently. Public distributionof food rations had stopped and food prices were rising.
Water and medical services were running short in theaffected areas, especially since a U.S. missile strike near aSadr City hospital on Saturday damaged a number of ambulances.
"If (the conflict) goes on for very long ... we risk somemore serious consequences like an epidemic of cholera ormalnutrition," Ladek said.
Maliki's crackdown was initially launched in the southernShi'ite city of Basra, where the Mehdi Army put up stiffresistance for a week until Sadr ordered his fighters off thestreet. Fighting has continued in Baghdad.
The U.S. military said it had killed 17 militants invarious battles around Baghdad since Wednesday.
SOME FAMILIES FLEE
Some families could be seen fleeing Sadr City'sbattle-scarred streets. A Reuters correspondent saw sevenminibuses in different parts of the slum moving with rolled upmattresses, blankets and cooking gas tanks tied to their roofs.
Those on the move included many women wearing black robes,traditional clothes of mourning when a family member dies, andtwo men wailing after their brother was killed in a rocketattack.
Tahseen al-Sheikhli, the government's civilian spokesmanfor security in Baghdad, accused gunmen of attacking aidconvoys.
"Who is responsible for the deteriorating humanitariansituation in Sadr City? Isn't it the armed groups?" he said."We have done our best to let food aid reach affectedfamilies."
Saeed Haqi, head of the Iraqi Red Crescent, said fewer than1,000 families had fled Sadr City since the operations began.
The U.S. military and Iraqi officials denied reports fromsome residents that security forces had used loudspeakersurging people to leave their homes -- perhaps signalling amajor offensive was imminent.
"It's nonsense," said Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Stover, aspokesman for the U.S. military in Baghdad.
UNICEF Iraq spokeswoman Claire Hajij said 150,000 peoplewere trapped in the worst-affected quarter of the slum, half ofthem children. Most stayed in their homes for fear of snipers.
Maliki, himself a Shi'ite, says the crackdown is to disarmmilitias but Sadr's followers see it as an attempt to sidelinethe cleric's mass movement before local elections in October.
The prime minister caught his American backers off guardwith his offensive in Basra, but after early military setbacks,it has gone well for his forces. Political leaders acrossIraq's sectarian and ethnic divide -- apart from the Sadrists,who control 10 percent of seats in parliament -- back hiscampaign.
Sadr, who has a strong following among dispossessedShi'ites, last month threatened to scrap a truce he imposed onthe Mehdi Army in August. A few weeks later he urged his men toobserve it, leaving many guessing about his true intentions.
(Additional reporting by Aseel Kami, Khalid al-Ansary andWisam Mohammed; Writing by Tim Cocks and Dean Yates; Editing byJanet Lawrence)
