"We will carry on our mandate," Annan

BAGHDAD, August 20 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan denied Wednesday, August 20, media reports that the world body would evacuate its employees from its headquarters, following the deadly bomb attack that devastated the world body's office in the Iraqi capital Tuesday, killing 17 people, including the U.N. top envoy, and injuring more than 100 others. 

"We will carry on our mandate that has been given to us by the Security Council," Al-jazeera satellite channel quoted the UN head as saying at a news conference, at Stockholm airport shortly before he was due to board a flight to New York.

A U.N. security officer was quoted earlier by media sources as saying that the U.N. would transfer its staff from Baghdad to Jordan.

Foreign U.N. staffers in the northern city of Mosul were evacuated Tuesday evening, August 19, for security reasons to the Iraqi Kurdish town of Arbil, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"International personnel were evacuated to Arbil around 6:00 pm (1400 GMT) as a security measure," an Iraqi U.N. staffer in Mosul told AFP.

The decision came after a truck bomb at the hotel, the main U.N. compound in Baghdad, which killed also the top U.N. official in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and a host of foreigners hailing from the United States, the Philippines, Egypt, Canada and Britain, among other nations.

Brazilian Vieira de Mello was the most senior UN official killed in a Middle East  attack since Folke Bernadotte, a Swedish U.N. mediator, was slain by Zionists in September 1948, according to AFP.

The blast, believed to have been ignited in a cement truck, turned an entire side of the headquarters in the Canal Hotel into smoldering chunks of concrete and triggered scenes of chaos.

As the U.N. mourned its dead, a U.S. military spokesman said the world body was responsible for its own security.

"It was a U.N. issue to provide their own security," said Lieutenant Peter Rekers.

"They had a private security company providing security around the compound," Rekers said.

The U.S.-led occupation authorities in Iraq further said that they would re-evaluate their security procedures in the aftermath of the deadly truck bombing, a spokesperson for U.S. overseer in Iraq Paul Bremer told AFP.  

"Security is getting better but we will re-evaluate our security procedures," the spokesperson said.

However, there are no plans to expand the number of occupation forces in Iraq, currently at around 150,000 soldiers, in the wake of the blast, the spokesperson added.

"We have enough forces," the spokesperson explained, adding the decision was made after consultations between Bremer and the top U.S. military commander here, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez.

Meanwhile, in Amman, King Abdullah II ordered the dispatch of a Jordanian military plane to Baghdad with an offer to transport wounded people to the Jordanian capital, officials said.

Abdullah also instructed the Jordanian field hospital in the Iraqi town of Falluja (60km from Baghdad) to be on stand-by to provide medical assistance to those hurt in the attack.

World Outrage

World condemnations for the deadliest attack since U.S.-led occupation troops rolled into Baghdad nearly four and half months ago continued for the second consecutive day.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was "shocked and saddened" at the attack, adding that the bombing underlined the importance of the "coalition's presence in the country."

"The perpetrators of the atrocity have demonstrated pure cowardice and are enemies not only of the U.N. and coalition but also of the Iraqi people," Blair said in a statement released by Downing Street.

The Prime Minister, who is on holiday in Barbados, was informed of U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello's death, and spoke by telephone with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to express his condolences.

"We will not allow terrorists to weaken our resolve in bringing about a better Iraq," Blair said.

"Their evil only serves to reiterate the importance of our presence in the country and the action we have taken to remove the regime of Saddam Hussein."

Blair added: "Mr. Vieira de Mello was doing a tremendous job working to bring peace and stability to those people. His death is a great loss."

Or his part, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw condemned as "callous" the car bomb attack.

Straw said: "Whenever such outrages take place, obviously the security consequences have to be reviewed and that's what will take place now."

He added he had been in touch with British members of the so-called Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) who were giving assistance "to the immediate work in respect of the blast".

"Sympathies go out to the relatives and friends of those who have been killed in this terrible attack and to that number of people, I'm afraid which may be large, of people who have been injured," Straw said.

Aid Organizations Condemn

Mike Aaronson, director general of Save the Children U.K., speaking on behalf of six aid agencies, said in Britain: "This bomb attack reinforces the urgent need to bring security to Iraqis and ensure that vital humanitarian operations continue.

"Security and the provision of basic services are essential to create stability in Iraq."

Aaronson was presenting a statement signed by Cafod, Care U.K., Christian Aid, Oxfam, Save the Children U.K. and World Vision.

Amnesty International also described the bomb attack as "utterly reprehensible."

In a statement released in London, the human rights organization said: "The direct targeting of the United Nations civilian headquarters can only be a major setback to the United Nations' crucial human rights and humanitarian efforts for the people of Iraq."

In a second statement, Amnesty said the attack which killed Vieira de Mello was an "outrage".

"His contribution to human rights is universally accepted and we can only send our thoughts to his family and friends," the statement added.

Egypt Wednesday strongly condemned the bombing, slamming it as "a criminal act."

"Egypt denounces this criminal act targeting people in charge of a humanitarian mission and an organization which is trying to help the Iraqi people become masters of their own destiny," Foreign Minister Ahmad Maher told reporters.

Maher voiced hope that the attack "will not discourage the U.N. from pursuing its task in helping the Iraqi people" set up a new government.

Indonesia expressed outrage on Wednesday over the bombing, dismissing it as "shocking and dastardly."

"As a country which has itself recently sustained terrorist attack, Indonesia is painfully aware that among the most heinous features of acts of terror is their indiscriminate nature," the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said Vieira de Mello "personified the high dedication and bravery of those serving humanity under the banner of the United Nations" and expressed deep sorrow at his death.

The Islamic resistance in Iraq on Tuesday also condemned the bombing attack that rocked the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, branding it as a "criminal" act, distancing all Iraqi resistance factions from attacks on the U.N. office, the Jordanian embassy and strategic sites in the occupied country, including oil pipelines.