The United Nations said Wednesday it was temporarily pulling its foreign staff out of Afghanistan following a wave of terrorist attacks in the United States, reported AFP.
Without referring to the attacks in New York and Washington on Tuesday, the Pakistan-based office of the UN coordinator for Afghanistan said its international staff were "temporarily relocating."
"Due to the circumstances prevailing internationally, the United Nations system in Afghanistan is temporarily relocating international United Nations staff working in Afghanistan," it said in a statement.
"The relocation of up to 80 international staff began on September 12 and is expected to be completed by September 13.
"United Nations humanitarian agencies hope that activities can continue as normal so that critical pre-winter relief work can be completed."
Aid workers also said non-governmental organizations had already started pulling workers out of the Afghan capital on orders from their headquarters abroad.
They said safety concerns were paramount following a helicopter gunship attack by anti-Taliban opposition forces on the Kabul airport early Wednesday morning.
That attack sparked fears of US missile strikes against alleged terrorist camps in Afghanistan run by Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, one of the key suspects in the terror attacks in New York and Washington on Tuesday.
UN chief Kofi Annan of Tuesday condemned the terrorist attacks on key targets in the United States, and stressed that no “just cause could be advanced by terror.”
"There can be no doubt that these attacks are deliberate acts of terrorism, carefully planned and coordinated -- and as such I condemn them utterly," the Secretary-General said in a statement issued at United Nations Headquarters in New York.
Calling for terrorism to be fought "wherever it appears," the UN chief said that, in such moments, "cool and reasoned judgement" was more essential than ever.
"We do not know yet who is behind these acts, or what objective they hope to achieve," he said, cited by the UN news service.
Expressing condolences to the victims and their families, Annan said "our first thoughts and prayers must be for them." He also expressed condolences to "the whole people and Government of the United States."
"We are all traumatized by this terrible tragedy," the Secretary-General said. "We do not know yet how many people have been killed or injured, but inevitably the number will be high."
The statement was issued after two airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York -- collapsing them both -- and a third airplane targeted the Pentagon building in Washington, D.C., bringing a portion of it crumbling to the ground – Albawaba.com
