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Four years after an explosives-packed suicide cement truck blew up and destroyed the U.N. headquarters building in Baghdad, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to expand its operation in Iraq. The Aug. 19, 2003, terror bombing wounded over a hundred people and murdered 22. The dead included the distinguished Brazilian diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was serving as the United Nations' "special representative" in post-Saddam Iraq. Then-U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan had prevailed on de Mello to take the job. De Mello viewed himself as a diplomat with a lot of experience in "the field" -- which he...

he US and the UK have circulated a new draft resolution to United Nations Security Council members giving the UN a more heavyweight role in Iraq. If adopted, the UN would take a larger role in its political process. The existing UN mission in Iraq has had a low-key presence ever since a truck bomb devastated its headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003. Diplomats say a vote on any resolution by 10 August, when the existing mandate for the UN's mission in Iraq expires. American and British diplomats are keen to find a way to involve the UN more in...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.N. chief Kofi Annan called Saturday for national reconciliation in Iraq during a surprise visit, arriving just as a car bomb exploded near a street market in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad and killed eight weekend shoppers. Also, the highest-ranking official still at large from Saddam Hussein's regime, a man accused by the United States of playing a key role in organizing the insurgency against coalition forces, has died, a Baathist Web site reported. Saturday's posting on a Web site run by former Baath Party members appeared to confirm an e-mail announcing the death of Izzat...

BAGHDAD, Nov 12 (Reuters) - An emotional United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan paid tribute to fallen colleagues on Saturday when he made his first visit to Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein. The United Nations has been operating at greatly reduced levels in the country since international staff were withdrawn in October 2003 after two bombings at its Baghdad offices but its operations are slowly beginning to expand. "I have been wanting to come for quite some time," Annan said, recalling his envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was among 22 people killed in a truck bombing at the...

The bomb attack killed 22 United Nations staff UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has paid tribute to the 22 workers killed in a bomb attack on the organisation's headquarters in Baghdad two years ago.He said the failure to find those behind the bombing was an example of the impunity that so often followed attacks on UN workers around the world. He commended UN staff currently in Iraq for braving hardship and fear. Among those killed in the bombing was the UN special envoy to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. snip... (excerpted)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - An al-Qaida lieutenant in custody in Iraq has confessed to masterminding most of the car bombings in Baghdad, including the bloody 2003 assault on the U.N. headquarters in the capital, authorities said Monday. Sami Mohammed Ali Said al-Jaaf, also known as Abu Omar al-Kurdi, "confessed to building approximately 75 percent of the car bombs used in attacks in Baghdad" since the Iraq war began, according to the interim Iraqi prime minister's spokesman, Thaer al-Naqib. A government statement said Al-Jaaf was taken into custody Jan. 15 and was responsible for 32 car bombings, including the bombing of...

GENEVA (AP) -- The bombing that wrecked U.N. offices in Baghdad and snatched away 22 colleagues a year ago was agony for the United Nations but terrorist threats won't deter it from helping the victims of conflict, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Thursday at a memorial. ``I lost 22 wonderful, talented friends and colleagues whom I had sent to Iraq,'' Annan said of the Aug. 19, 2003, attack that stunned U.N. employees and set off wrangling within the United Nations over its security failings. ``We will long feel the pain of the trauma we have all been through,'' he said. ``But...

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan says UN staff and property in Iraq will be guarded by the US-led multinational force. No country has volunteered to take part in a special protection force specifically for the UN. Earlier this year, the US appealed for governments to contribute troops to protect future UN missions in Iraq. Washington had hoped Muslim countries who did not join the multinational force would participate. The UN, which pulled all its staff out of Iraq last year after two suicide bombs on its headquarters, is planning to send a small team there in the near future....

UNITED NATIONS – Secretary-General Kofi Annan rejected his deputy's offer to resign but fired his security chief after a blistering report on security missteps before last year's deadly bombing of U.N. offices in Baghdad. Annan asked U.N. Security Coordinator Tun Myat of Myanmar to resign after the report concluded Myat "appeared oblivious to the developing crisis" in Baghdad before the Aug. 19 blast, which killed 22 people including mission chief Sergio Vieira de Mello, U.N. chief spokesman Fred Eckhard said yesterday. Myat was put on paid leave in November. Annan rejected a resignation offer by U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette,...

<p>UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan fired one senior U.N. official and demoted another Monday for failing to properly protect U.N. staff ahead of the Aug. 19 bombing of United Nations headquarters in Baghdad that killed 22 people.</p>

<p>UNITED NATIONS (January 13, 9:19 a.m. AST) - The United Nations plans to send a small team to Baghdad within two weeks to assess security, U.N. diplomats told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The move comes 2 1/2 months after all U.N. international staff were ordered out of Iraq following a pair of attacks on the U.N. headquarters in the Iraqi capital. The first of those attacks, in August, killed 22 people, including top envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.</p>

UN smothers critical Baghdad report By Alexander Casella Any hope that the report produced by an independent panel headed by for Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari on the August 19 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad would lead to some rethinking of the way that the UN secretariat in New York operates is now a thing of the past. This is the opinion of many diplomatic observers in New York, as well as of a number of senior UN staff. In his report, Ahtisaari, a no-nonsense administrator indebted to no one, not only qualified the UN security system as...

Western Press Review: The Bombing Of UN Headquarters In Baghdad And 50 Years After Iran's Coup By Aug 20, 2003, 22:20 By Khatya Chhor Prague, 20 August 2003 (RFE/RL) -- Press coverage today is dominated by discussion of the bombing of UN headquarters in Baghdad yesterday, which killed at least 17 people including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN's top envoy to Iraq. A few hours later, a suicide bombing in Jerusalem left at least 20 people dead and wounded over 100 others, prompting Israel to suspend all talks with the Palestinian leadership. We also take a look today at...

U.N. chief Kofi Annan has named a third panel to investigate reforms of its security operations as a result of the August 19 bombing of its Baghdad headquarters, which left 22 dead and almost 100 seriously wounded. Because of the latest investigation, Annan temporarily suspended his security chief, Tun Myat, and Ramiro Lopes da Silva, who ran operations for the U.N. in Baghdad. Tun was replaced by Catherine Bertini, currently the U.N.'s human resources director and former head of the World Food Program. Beritni, a U.S. citizen and well connected in Washington, is arguably the most powerful American now...

The head of the UN mission in Iraq and another senior official have been relieved of duties after criticism of safety precautions in the country. Ramiro Lopez da Silva and security chief Tun Myat asked to be relieved while a security review is conducted. An independent panel blamed officials for security lapses after the August bombing of the UN compound in Iraq. Mr Lopez da Silva's predecessor, Sergio Vieira de Mello, was among 23 people killed in the attack. 'Dysfunctional' Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the two men would still provide information to a new team created to investigate who was...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.N. security coordinator is being asked to step aside while an independent team assesses security failures that led to so many casualties in a bombing at U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, U.N. officials said Monday. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is expected to appoint the team of experts on Tuesday. Tun Myat of Myanmar, who has been security chief since July 2002, will go on leave at least until their assessment is completed, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. In a letter to over 25,000 U.N. staffers worldwide on Friday, Annan said he planned to...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Senior U.N. officials must share responsibility for serious lapses and ``inadequate precautions'' that caused unnecessary injuries in the bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, a confidential report says for the first time. The highly critical report, obtained late Friday by The Associated Press, said World Health Organization medical authorities estimated that ``perhaps as many as 80 percent of the injuries and perhaps some deaths were caused by flying shards of glass'' from windows that did not have shatter resistant film. The Aug. 19 truck bombing outside U.N. headquarters in the Canal Hotel killed 22 people and...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Senior U.N. officials must share responsibility for serious lapses and "inadequate precautions" that caused unnecessary injuries in the bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, a confidential report says for the first time. The highly critical report, obtained late Friday by The Associated Press, said World Health Organization medical authorities estimated that "perhaps as many as 80 percent of the injuries and perhaps some deaths were caused by flying shards of glass" from windows that did not have shatter resistant film. The Aug. 19 truck bombing outside U.N. headquarters in the Canal Hotel killed 22 people...

In a robust report into the UN headquarters bombing in Baghdad, in which 22 people died, investigators have said that "the buck stops" with the Secretary-General for the "dysfunctional" security systems in place at the compound. What procedures were in place in Baghdad on August 19 were "sloppy" in observance, and non-compliance with regulations was "commonplace", according to the report of the panel led by Martti Ahtisaari, the former President of Finland. "Everyone bears responsibility: the Member States, who are asking the UN to carry out those responsibilities, and of course the Secretary-General himself - the buck stops always with...

Iraqi bombing panel finds UN security systems dysfunctional, in need of reform 22 October – An independent panel investigating the bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad said today that the UN's security systems were "dysfunctional," providing little guarantee for personnel safety, and needing to be reformed. What procedures were in place in Baghdad when the 19 August attack took 22 lives were "sloppy" in observance, and non-compliance with regulations was "commonplace," according to the report of the panel led by Martti Ahtisaari, a former President of Finland. He was appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in September to...