MSF withdraws aid workers from Iraq

Ms Hassan, the director of the Care International charity in Iraq, has joint Iraqi, British and Irish nationality, and has lived and worked in Iraq for 30 years. MSF would not say whether its decision was directly related to her kidnapping.

"It has become impossible for MSF, as an organisation, to guarantee an acceptable level of security for our staff, be they foreign or Iraqi," Gorik Ooms, the general director of MSF in Belgium, said. "We deeply regret the fact that we will no longer be able to provide much-needed medical help to the Iraqi people."

A statement from the organisation said: "Due to the escalating violence in the country, MSF considers it is no longer acceptable to expose its staff to the serious risks that apparently come with being associated with an international humanitarian organisation."

Earlier this week, Ms Hassan's kidnappers threatened to hand her over to the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi if their demands for US-led authorities to release female Iraqi prisoners, and for British forces to move away from near Baghdad, were not met within 48 hours.

Zarqawi is believed to have murdered several foreign hostages, including the Briton Kenneth Bigley. He is believed to have beheaded Mr Bigley, and at least two American hostages, himself.

The Arabic television channel al-Jazeera said it had refused to broadcast a recent video of 59-year-old Ms Hassan on "humanitarian grounds".

The video showed the aid worker, who has an Iraqi husband and regards herself as an Iraqi, pleading for her life directly to the camera before fainting and having a bucket of water thrown over her.

Ms Hassan, who was seized by gunmen on her way to work in western Baghdad on October 19, was then reported to have been filmed lying helplessly on the ground before getting up and crying.

MSF - a politically neutral group which depends primarily on private donations - has a reputation for sending medical staff into troublespots that other agencies regard as too dangerous.

However, the organisation pulled out of Afghanistan in July this year after 24 years there because of a deterioration in security and the killings of five of its workers in June. It was the first time it had withdrawn from any country since being founded in France 33 years ago.

After pulling out of Afghanistan, MSF said the US-led coalition had put aid workers at risk by blurring the line between military and humanitarian operations.

Care International suspended its operations in Iraq after Ms Hassan was kidnapped, while most international non-governmental organisations pulled out of Iraq after two Italian aid workers were kidnapped for three weeks in September. The workers were released unharmed, apparently after Italy had paid a ransom.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1343542,00.html