United Nations staff in Iraq are expected to be evacuated to Jordan following a massive car bomb attack on their Baghdad headquarters that killed at least 20 people, according to UN sources in Baghdad Wednesday.
UN spokesman Salim Lone said he could not give official
confirmation of the reports but expected to make an
announcement shortly.
On Tuesday, a truck packed with explosives devastated the United Nations headquarters in Iraq, killing chief UN official Sergio Vieira de Mello and 19 others.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Wednesday the world body will not pull out of Iraq despite the attack.
"We will persevere. We will continue. It is essential work," Annan said at a news conference in Stockholm, where he stopped briefly before heading to UN headquarters in New York, according to AP. "We will not be intimidated."
Annan said he was to meet with the Security Council later in the day to discuss security arrangements for United Nations' workers in Iraq.
"We are reassessing our security arrangements in Iraq. We have been in Iraq for 12 years and we have never been attacked," Annan said.
Annan also said he was mourning those killed in the attack, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, whom Annan called "our brightest and best." The United Nations will continue its humanitarian mission in Iraq so that the victims' deaths "shall not be in vain."
Earlier, Salim Lone said that the bomb attack will have a profound effect on their work in Baghdad and what they can do for the people of Iraq.
There will have to be a rethink about how they operate, but at the current moment, there is no plan to close down the operation.
Lone added, according to the BBC, that the United Nations had chosen not to have tight security because they had come to help the Iraqi people. (Albawaba.com)
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