ICRC evacuates after blowing up of its headquarters in Baghdad
The chairman of the International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC Pierre Ghasman said that the committee will start as from today ( Tuesday) to evacuate its international employees in Iraq following the explosion which targeted its headquarters in Baghdad.
Ghasman said at the German TV ARD that the committee will meet next Saturday to discuss means of continuing work with the Iraqi employees.
The spokeswoman for the ICRC Antonella Notari strongly condemned this explosion. She said that the committee will review the situation in light of this development but recognizes the extent of the need of the people of Iraq to it.
In Washington, the US President George W. Bush described the executors of the series of attacks which shook Baghdad as savage killers. Bush called following his meeting with a team of advisors for the national security and the US administrator ofIraq Paul Bremer for cooperation with the Iraqi people in order to find those responsible for the attack.
International reactions towards these attacks continued. They were deplored strongly by the British prime minister Tony Blair who described it as "a horrible terrorist act carried out by enemies of the Iraqi people." The European commission expressed its shock over the incident.
Russia also expressed its deep concern over the wave of attacks in Baghdad and called for acceleration of transferring security responsibility in the country to the Iraqis.
In Baghdad, the spokesman for the US Department Of State in Iraq Nabil Khouri expressed his conviction that Osama Bin laden will be behind the operations of the booby trapped cars and the other attacks to be by supporters of Saddam Hussein. He said in a statement to the Qatari al-Jazeera TV that the American forces will embark on new tactics and will take increased security measures in the coming days.
The spokesman for the occupation forces accused "foreign fighters" of being behind the attacks. He said that the attacks are not similar to those launched by supporters of the toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The strongest among these attacks was the one targeted al-Alam police center in al-Karakh where 13 persons were killed.
Other 12 persons were also killed in an explosion in a booby trapped ambulance car which targeted a building for the International Committee of the Red Cross when the car collided with a security barrier at the building.
The Iraqi deputy minister of the interior Ahmad Ibrahim said that a 6th attack was foiled by a booby trapped car loaded with one ton of explosives and three mortars shells.
The American forces in Iraq arrested one photographer and one driver working for al-Jazeera TV office in Baghdad while they were performing their duty in covering news of the explosion.The arrest operation was made against photographer Samer Hamzeh and driver Rasheed Wali in al-Khadra quarters, half an hour from the explosion at a police center in the said quarters.
In other field developments, one explosive went off under a train loaded by food supplies for the American forces in Hweish area near Sameraa city, 120 Km to the north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
The explosion resulted in damaging several sections of the train and the US forces evacuated other sections. American forces were also exposed to two separate attacks by mortars in Sameraa that targeted Kafer Qasem camp and al-Qalaa area.
Meantime, a spokesman for the US army admitted that two soldiers were killed and other two wounded on Sunday evening in a land mine explosion in Baghdad. Half an hour later, one American soldier was killed and two others wounded in an attack by mortars at Abu Gharib prison to the west of Baghdad.