A series of bomb blasts in the Iraqi capital on Monday killed 26 civilians and eight policemen and wounded 224, interim Deputy Interior Minister Ahmed Ibrahim said.
Ibrahim said the attacks were on the headquarters of the International Committee for the Red Cross and Iraqi police stations in the neighborhoods of Al-Khadra, Al-Bayaa, Al-Shaab and Al-Dora. The worst hit Al-Elam police station is located in Al-Bayaa.
All five bombings across the Iraqi capital were suicide attacks, United States Brigadier General Mark Hertling told a pressconference.
The United Nations said the blast at the Red Cross offices in Baghdad was aimed at driving foreigners — even aid workers — out of war-ravaged Iraq.
”We are very shocked by this terrorist attack because the target of the attack was the very symbol of humanitarian aid in Iraq,” said Elisabeth Byrs, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
”It means that one of the interests of these people is to expel every foreigner without distinction of mandate,” she said.
”We are very, very shocked once again, but can you be surprised? The answer is no, not after the bombing of the UN headquarters,” she said of the August attack in the Iraqi capital that left 22 people dead, including 15 UN staff.
Byrs said the Iraqi people were the real victims of the attacks against international aid organisations, which typically have a neutral position in conflict zones.
The attack on the UN office killed at least 12 people, including two local staff with the agency, and injured 22.
The UN has drastically reduced its foreign staff in Iraq to a mere ”handful” leaving thousands of national staff to carry out its emergency aid work including food distribution in the war-torn country, Byrs said.
”It is very sad as our national staff are going to pay a high price now. They seem to be the main target,” she said.
”Iraqi people want to help their own kind and are working for the UN or other aid agencies … but now they are the victims of the attacks because we have reduced our staff.”
The UN has advised local staff to take precautions while working such as not driving around in marked UN trucks.
Despite the situation, the UN has no plans to alter its operations.
”As far as the UN agencies are concerned nothing will change for the moment,” said Byrs.
The UN human rights office also strongly condemned the attack.
”The UN … knows only too well the horror of such heinous crimes,” the acting High Commissioner for Human Rights, Bertrand Ramcharan, said in a statement. ”I condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms.” — Sapa-AFP
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