http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/chitribts/20040415/ts_chicagotrib/miseryfollowsfallujahrefugees&cid=2027&ncid=1480<snip>
Of all the areas of Baghdad, the teeming neighborhood of Jihad may be among the least able to accept hundreds of refugees on the run from the fighting in Fallujah.
But it was to these squalid streets filled with pools of sewage and trash that Mohammed Abdel Athim, a wiry 70-year-old patriarch, drove his frightened family during a lull in the Marines' drive to quell insurgents in the Sunni stronghold 35 miles west of Baghdad.
"We thought maybe the fighting would die down," Abdel Athim said, fingering pink prayer beads as he recalled his family's trek to his cousin's home in the capital. "We decided it would not subside for some days."
Across Jihad, hundreds of families like the Abdel Athims have sought refuge in mosques and in relatives' homes, relying on the duty of tribal ties or the charity of strangers while they wait for the fighting to end.
60,000 have fled Fallujah