GENEVA, April 4: International aid agencies on Friday said they were alarmed by the number of civilian casualties in the war in Iraq and their inability to reach many of the wounded.

“At the moment in Iraq the biggest public health problem is the level of civilian casualties, there is no question about that,” Iain Simpson, a spokesman for the World Health Organisation (WHO) told journalists here.

“The reports from Baghdad, Karbala and Hilla are very worrying indeed,” he said, insisting that aid agencies needed access to Iraq to help the wounded.

Mr Simpson’s comments were echoed by other agencies, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

“What concerns us most in Iraq at the moment are the threats to safety and health of civilians, the two things are closely linked,” Antonella Notari, an ICRC spokeswoman said.

“With particular incidents or any observations on the way war is waged, we continue to have talks with the warring parties, but confidentially,” Mr Notari insisted.

Apart from providing aid, the ICRC also has an internationally-recognized role as the guardian of the Geneva Conventions, which protect civilians, wounded combatants and prisoners of war during conflicts.

Mr Notari said the ICRC’s staff in Baghdad was now cut off from a hospital at Hilla, south of Baghdad, where they had found 300 wounded.

The aid agencies were unable to give an estimate of the number of people killed or wounded during the war.

They also voiced concern about the use of cluster bombs.

Mr Notari underlined that the munitions — clusters of small bomblets used against troop concentrations and artillery — were not outlawed.

But she warned that armies using them were responsible for clearing any unexploded cluster bombs.

“I do notice that British forces confirmed the use of cluster bombs outside of Basra,” Mr Notari said. —AFP