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Friday, October 31, 2003 - Web posted at 9:52:29 GMT Bloodshed scares off aid workers ANDREW MARSHALLBAGHDAD - The United Nations pulled staff out of Baghdad yesterday and international aid agencies debated whether they could continue operating in the face of a wave of suicide bomb attacks and persistent lawlessness. |
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A UN spokeswoman in Geneva said foreign staff in Baghdad were leaving Iraq for talks on security, following Monday's bomb attack on the International Committee of the Red Cross which killed 12 people including two ICRC guards. Spokeswoman Marie Heuze said the talks would focus on the security arrangements that "we would need to take to operate in Iraq". Most foreign staff had already been pulled out following a suicide truck bomb attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad in August which killed 22 people, including head of mission Sergio Vieira de Mello. Since then, UN programmes have been run mostly by Iraqi staff. Monday's bombing of the ICRC and co-ordinated attacks on police stations in Baghdad killed up to people, in the capital's bloodiest day since Saddam Hussein fell in April. A fresh blast shook the Iraqi capital yesterday evening, setting buildings ablaze in a central residential and commercial district. Police at the scene said at least one person had been killed, but had no information of the cause of the explosion. The ICRC is also reducing its presence. It announced on Wednesday it was pulling out some foreign staff following Monday's bombing but would not cease operating in the country. Near Fallujah, a hotbed of guerrilla resistance in the 'Sunni triangle' region where support for Saddam remains widespread, a freight train carrying military supplies was hit yesterday by explosives planted on the railway. Four containers were set ablaze but there were no casualties. - Nampa-Reuters |
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