U.N. Pulls Staff Out of Baghdad While It Reviews Security: "The United Nations is withdrawing its international staff from Baghdad while it re-evaluates the security situation following a series of deadly suicide bombings in Iraq earlier this week, officials from the organization confirmed today.

'We have asked our staff in Baghdad to come out temporarily for consultations with a team from headquarters on the future of our operations, in particular security arrangements that we would need to take to operate in Iraq,' a spokeswoman, Marie Okabe, said in a statement provided by her staff."

The withdrawal will involve 12 international workers in Baghdad, another spokesman said. Officials insisted the move was not an evacuation, saying that other international workers based elsewhere in the country would remain behind with Iraqi staff.

The announcement follows a decision by the International Committee of the Red Cross to scale back its presence in Iraq. On Monday, suicide attackers killed at least 34 people and wounded more than 200 in coordinated attacks at the International Committee of the Red Cross office and four Iraqi police stations in Baghdad.

"The number of international staff is being reduced and all staff, international and national, will be asked whether they wish to carry on working in the current circumstances," the Red Cross said in a written statement. The statement pointed out that an "overwhelming majority" of Red Cross personnel in Iraq are Iraqi nationals.

Doctors Without Borders has also announced it will pull out its non-Iraqi staff of seven.

The withdrawals are a blow to the Bush administration, which had been hoping that humanitarian organizations would remain in Iraq despite the latest attacks.…

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/30/international/middleeast/29CND-NATI.html