BAGHDAD Ñ The U.S. military is feeling the
impact of a boycott by truckers of cargo to coalition units in
Iraq.
Iraqi sources said U.S. combat units outside of Baghdad have experienced
a slowdown in shipments of food, water and supplies over the past few days.
The sources said the U.S. military was increasing flights by air
transports to Baghdad and Basra to ensure supplies for U.S. troops.
[In the central Iraqi city of Najaf, fighting between U.S.-led coalition
forces and the Shi'ite Mahdi Army continued into its fifth day on Monday, Middle East Newsline reported. A
U.S. military commander said more than 360 Mahdi fighters have been killed
as the insurgency force's commander, Moqtada Sadr, has pledged not to
surrender.]
The sources said the units most affected have been in the Sunni Triangle and
Anbar province near the Syrian border.
Last week, Turkey's leading truckers association announced it was ending
cargo transports to the U.S. military. The association's announcement came
after the Tawhid and Jihad group of Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi executed a Turkish
national who worked in a U.S. military base in northern Iraq.
The sources said Asian truck drivers, particularly Indian and Filipino nationals, refused to transport supplies from Kuwait to
U.S. forces in Iraq. Theysaid the supplies to the U.S. military to southern Iraq
began to dry up over the last week.
The Indian and Philippines embassies in Kuwait have ordered their
nationals to stay out of Iraq amid the abduction and execution of foreign
nationals by Al Zarqawi's group. Most of the truck drivers who work for
Kuwaiti firms
with U.S. military contracts have been Filipinos and Indians.
Supplies from Jordan to Iraq have also decreased over the last week in
wake of an announcement by two Amman-based firms that they would no longer
supply the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.