Red Cross suspends Baghdad operations after worker goes missing
GENEVA, April 9 (AFP) - The Red Cross said on Wednesday it was temporarily suspending its operations in Baghdad after two of its vehicles were hit by gunfire and one of its staff went missing.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement from its Geneva headquarters that a Canadian aid worker was missing and feared seriously injured following the incident on Tuesday afternoon, when the car he was travelling in was either attacked or caught in crossfire.
A spokesman in Jordan said the ICRC -- one of the only international organisations working in the Iraqi capital -- was suspending its activities in Baghdad because of the fighting.
"The precarious and dangerous situation and the chaos which reigns in Baghdad obliges the ICRC, with regret, to suspend its activities temporarily in the city," ICRC spokesman Moin Kassis said.
"We regret we cannot give help to those who need it in these circumstances," he added.
The Canadian staffer, Vatche Arslanian, was missing and feared seriously injured after two vehicles clearly marked with the red cross were either attacked or caught in crossfire, the ICRC said in Geneva.
Two other staff members who were in the cars managed to escape and raise the alarm, it said.
But fellow aid workers who returned to the area to try to rescue the 48 year-old Canadian logistics expert were forced to turn back because of the fighting.
"There is at present no news of his whereabouts or condition," the ICRC said.
Foreign and local staff were unable to move around Baghdad since early Wednesday and would be taking "incalculable risks" if they tried to leave their office in the city, according to the ICRC.
"The ICRC is deeply distressed by its inability to rescue its staff member and by its temporary inability to pursue its emergency assistance for those in need," it added.
Staff in Baghdad would try to resume aid work "if and when possible".
"The ICRC team has not left Baghdad and is still in our premises there. We will assess the situation and resume our activities as soon as possible," Kassis explained.
The exact circumstances of the incident on Tuesday were not known.
"It has been impossible to establish whether the ICRC team was caught in a crossfire or came under direct attack," the statement said.
"The two vehicles were clearly marked with large red crosses visible from a distance," it added.
Arslanian has been in Iraq since July 2001 and was one of the aid workers delivering supplies to hospitals and water treatment plants.
The ICRC warned on Tuesday that hospitals in Baghdad were being overwhelmed by the number of casualties they had to treat since fighting between US and Iraqi forces hit the city's streets.
Ten foreign workers and about 100 Iraqis work for the aid agency in Iraq.
AFP 091236 GMT 04 03