Siege of Basra: The 1.7 million people living in the Iraqi port of Basra have had minimal water for the past three days, heightening fears of an imminent humanitarian crisis if adequate supplies are not restored soon.
The city has been the scene of fierce fighting between British and US forces and Iraqi defenders. UN Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan has called for the warring parties to ensure water and electricity is restored urgently to the city. Mr Annan highlighted concerns expressed in Amman by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Mr Geoffrey Keele of UNICEF said disruption of services at the al-Zubair power plant cut the distribution of water to most of the city. International Red Cross teams partially restored power so that about 40 per cent of the population has a supply.
River water cannot be consumed because of pollution with sewage, he said at the daily press briefing by UN agencies assembled in the Jordanian capital.
Ms Fadela Chaib of the World Health Organisation warned that unless water was quickly restored children would be the first to succumb to illness. "Diarrhoeal disease is the second cause of mortality amongst children under the age of five."
Mr David Wimhurst, spokesman of the UN Office of the Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Iraq, said that an aerial attack on a Syrian convoy leaving Iraq near Rutba in the western desert killed five and wounded 16.
He said convoys of civilian vehicles should not be targeted and belligerents were obliged to protect civilians fleeing conflict. In this case, the victims' rights under the fourth Geneva Convention "were seriously violated".
An eyewitness who later travelled this road told The Irish Times that she had seen half a dozen cars, an ambulance as well as the three buses which had been struck by a missile or bomb. These were the first Syrians to die in the war; five Jordanians have been killed.
Mr Peter Kessler of the UN High Commission for Refugees said that danger on the roads leading out of the country may have caused Iraqis to stay in their homes rather than risk flight. No Iraqis have, so far, taken refuge in any of the neighbouring countries where facilities have been established to receive thousands.
Mr Christopher Lom of the International Organisation for Migration reported that over the past week 482 third-country nationals have fled Iraq, 359 have been repatriated and 123 remain in the transit camp at Ruweished in Jordan. Twenty-eight Moroccans who arrived in Syria have also flown home. Twenty-two Palestinians bearing Iraqi and Egyptian residence documents are being cared for in no-man's land between Jordan and Iraq. Jordan refuses to take them in because it rejects the "transfer" or expulsion of Palestinians from their place of residence.
Meanwhile, Mr Annan denied angry charges from Baghdad that he was helping a US-led coalition to colonise Iraq, insisting he wanted only to get aid to war victims as soon as possible. "I think I can understand the anger, the frustration," Mr Annan said. "But of course, I am doing my work as Secretary-General." (additional reporting: Reuters)