UN to mark 15 year anniversary of deadly Baghdad HQ bombing

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – On Sunday, the United Nations (UN) will mark World Humanitarian Day, which honors aid workers who work in dangerous regions of the world and falls on the day a suicide truck bombing killed 22 at the organization's headquarters, including its top envoy in Iraq.

The events of Aug. 19, 2003, were a deep blow to the UN's efforts in Iraq for years to come and marked an important milestone in the brutal tactics jihadists used in Iraq against not only aid workers, but the entire population.

It also caused almost 600 UN staff to be evacuated from Iraq and still affects the way the UN operates in areas of conflict.

A Kurdistan 24 reporter, then a freelancer in Baghdad, recalls feeling the blast in a nearby neighborhood and taking a taxi to the Canal Hotel, being used as the base of the UN mission in Iraq.

"When I got there, the corner of the building had caved in. I made my way through a crowd in front and saw bodies being carried out," he said. "There was a group of four women standing off to the side, one of them sobbing and all of them with blood on their clothes."

A cement truck had made it through the security checkpoint and soon afterward detonated, killing over 20 people and wounding over 100, many of them critically. UN Special Representative in Iraq Sérgio Vieira de Mello was among those who did not survive the blast and appears to have been personally targetted.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of the terrorist organization Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, claimed responsibility. It was the second attack orchestrated by the group. In the years that followed, it went through several changes, later known as al-Qaeda in Iraq, and eventually, the Islamic State (IS).

Five years after the tragedy, the UN established World Humanitarian Day to be observed yearly on Aug. 19 to raise awareness of humanitarian assistance and pay tribute to the people who risk their lives to provide it.

"In addition to ensuring safe, unimpeded passage of supplies, Governments and non-State military groups are legally obligated to protect civilians and aid workers in armed conflicts," read a UN statement on Friday.

It reported that last year, 139 aid workers were killed, 102 wounded, and 72 kidnapped in the line of duty, "marking the fifth consecutive year in which more than 100 humanitarians lost their lives on the job."

"Moreover, it is the highest recorded annual death toll since 2013, when 156 humanitarians were killed."

Also, in 2017, of the 42,972 people reportedly killed or injured by explosive weapons, three out of every four victims were civilians – a 38 percent increase on the previous year.