NGOs keep lower profile following Baghdad hotel bombing

Following the hotel bombing on Wednesday in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, that killed at least 27 people and injured at least 45 others, several NGOs are keeping an even lower profile than usual for the next few days. The force of the blast caused windows to rattle at the HELP German based NGO, Heide Feldmann, head of mission, told IRIN. HELP plans to stay at least until the weekend but may change its plans if the security situation worsens, Feldmann said. Workers will "stay in" for the next two days because of the bombing. In addition, Saturday and Sunday are seen as a spring holiday across the country, which could bring more trouble. "There could be more trouble, but it's not clear," Feldmann said. Coalition officials called the Mount Lebanon hotel bomb an attack against Iraq's move toward democracy. At Women for Women, a US-based aid agency, workers will stay at home for an indefinite period, said Manal Omar, a worker there. At least half of the Women for Women staff have been evacuated to Jordan, Omar said, for safety reasons. The evening blast, around 8 pm local time, levelled the hotel in a commercial district near Ferdos Square where a statue of former President Saddam Hussein was toppled 11 months ago, and where other hotels nearby are filled with foreigners. Another car bomb went off on Thursday in the southern city of Basra near a hotel, killing at least four people, international media reported. Smoke rose from the Mount Lebanon rubble on Thursday morning as nearby business owners cleaned up glass from windows blown out by the blast. Authorities said a more-than-1,000-pound car bomb left a crater more than three metres deep. It contained artillery shells and PE-4 plastic explosive, which is made in Portugal and England. Many in Baghdad believe the bombing is related to the first year's anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, falling on 20 March. Workers at the Norwegian People's Aid NGO pointed out that not much work was usually done on Friday anyway, as it is a religious holiday in the Arab world. Business was normal today, said Tony Fish, a worker at Norwegian People's Aid, declining to be specific about security regulations at his agency. "We don't want to tell the world what we're doing," he told IRIN. Many aid agencies pulled out of Iraq or scaled down their operations following the bombing at the UN headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003 in which 22 people were killed. Since then a number of other aid agencies have been targeted, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). On Monday this week four foreigners working for an international aid agency were killed and another injured in a shooting in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.