Aid agencies' painful Iraqi choice
By CNN's Walt Rodgers
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Damage to the ICRC's Baghdad headquarters
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LONDON, England (CNN) -- The latest suicide attack on an aid agency in Baghdad has left international relief organizations facing the painful decision on whether to stay or not.
More than 30 people were killed in a series of suicide bombings in Baghdad Monday, including 12 people who died when the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) headquarters was targeted.
It follows another attack in August when one of its workers was killed. The ICRC says it will decide whether to stay or pull out by the end of the week.
Roland Huguenin-Benjamin, of the ICRC, said: "Right now they will be reconsidering very seriously how operations can be maintained and how we might still be able to travel around to go on with rehabilitation of hospitals which are still in need up until the time there will be reconstruction. So far people still need help."
The most recent bombings in Iraq have shaken other international relief agencies to the point they refuse to discuss their plans fearing they too will become targets.
Most relief agencies cling to the belief that their neutrality will afford them greater protection than having soldiers guard them -- who, they say, send the wrong signal.
Pierre Gassmann, of the ICRC, added: "What I cannot accept is that we should be militarily protected because once that happens, how could we possibly be in service of the people. If the people want to help they are blocked by military forces."
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has urged relief agencies and private contractors to stay on, despite Monday's rash of bombings in the center of the capital -- which also included attacks on three police stations.
They are needed, but pictures of the latest carnage and chaos from Iraq suggest this will be a hard sell.
Dan Plesch, of the Royal United Services Institute, said: "At the moment, the insurgents are winning. We may think of them as the coalition does, as Saddam loyalists, as external terrorists. But we also have to consider that they may see themselves, and be regarded, as Iraqi Arab patriots fighting the occupation of their country."
