Public health at risk as aid agencies pull out of Iraq

Four major non-governmental organisations are scaling down their operations in Iraq amid security concerns after the bombings of the UN headquarters and the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, Oxfam, Save the Children, and Merlin have withdrawn their international staff from Baghdad.

“The decision to temporarily withdraw our international staff from Iraq comes from a general insecurity since the end of the war,” said Brendan Cox, a spokesman for Oxfam.

A car bombing of the Jordanian embassy on 7 August killed at least 11 people, and on 19 August a suicide bomb attack on the UN …