Britain's Straw UN bombing targeted Iraqi people

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 21 — British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Thursday the suicide bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad had been meant to damage the Iraqi people and showed that terrorism was a global phenomenon.

''None of us can say for certain, but I believe that they targeted the United Nations because they wished to attack the interests and the people of Iraq,'' Straw told reporters during a visit to United Nations headquarters.
''No one should be in any doubt now that ... terrorism is not just against the United States or against the United Kingdom or against Israel. This is a war against the world, and attacking the United Nations was an attack on the international community, on the world, and it's an attack on the people of Iraq,'' he said.
Britain joined the United States in the mid-March invasion of Iraq and is helping Washington run the country in the postwar period.
Straw said he came to the United Nations to sign a condolence book for the victims of Tuesday's suicide bombing that killed at least 24 and injured at least 100 others.
Among the dead was Brazilian Sergio Vieira de Mello, chief of the U.N. mission in Iraq.
He said Briton Fiona Watson, who worked on the U.N. oil-for-food program, also died in the attack.
''We mourn the loss of all of these people.'' Straw said. ''We cannot allow the terrorists attacking the United Nations to succeed, because were they to succeed and drive the United Nations out of Iraq then there would be no country in the world which was not prey and menace to the terrorists.''

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