Red Cross, Amnesty paint grim picture of post-invasion Iraq

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2008

GENEVA (AFP) — Five years after the US-led invasion, Iraq faces a major humanitarian crisis, with law and order and economic recovery a distant prospect, international aid and human rights groups said Monday.

The International Committee of the Red Cross highlighted the plight of millions of Iraqis who still have little or no access to clean water, sanitation or health care.

"The humanitarian situation in most of the country is among the most critical in the world," the Swiss-based agency said in a report.

"Better security in some parts of Iraq must not distract attention from the continuing plight of millions of people who have essentially been left to their own devices," said Beatrice Roggo, the ICRC's head of operations for the Middle East and North...