The International Committee ofthe Red Cross (ICRC) said today it was pulling someinternational staff out of Iraq following Monday's car bombattack on its Baghdad headquarters.
The Swiss-based organisation stressed its humanitarian workin the country, where it has some 600 local staff, would go on.
"We are reducing the number of international staffers,"Mr Pierre Krahenbuhl, ICRC director of operations, told a newsconference. But he said exactly how many staff would bewithdrawn was still being worked on.
Suicide bombers struck four times in Baghdad's Mondaymorning rush hour, killing 35 people and wounding more than 200in attacks on the Red Cross office and police stations.
The ICRC, which remains strictly neutral in conflicts, hasbeen in Iraq continuously since 1980 during which time thecountry has had three wars. It visits prisoners, distributesmedicines and maintains water supplies.
It had already cut its foreign staff, from a peak of around100 shortly after the toppling of Saddam Hussein, in response tothe killing of a Sri Lankan technician in July and the bombingof the United Nations' headquarters in Baghdad in August. Thelatter also prompted the UN to withdraw people.
Other aid agencies, including non-governmentalorganisations, some of which have already pulled out entirely,are expected to cut back further, dealing a fresh blow to theinternational humanitarian effort in Iraq.
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said todayit had decided to pull out four of its seven expatriate staff inIraq after the Red Cross attack.