As a result of the escalation of missile-bomb strikes being carried out at Iraqi cities, casualties are growing with each passing day and destruction is becoming large-scale.

On March 28 the marketplace in the capital's Shual district became one of the targets, reportedly taking the lives of more than 50 civilians, including women and children, and injuring dozens more.

Residential sections of Mosul, Basra, Nasiriyah and other cities are also being bombed. Historical monuments and Muslim shrines are in danger of being destroyed.

This night the Iraqi Information Ministry press center was struck at, in which foreign journalists covering the real course of the war and its tragic consequences are also working.

The armed action, unleashed in violation of international law, is inflicting suffering upon innocent people. It threatens to entail disastrous humanitarian and environmental consequences. As Carol Bellamy, the Executive Director of UNICEF, has said: "A humanitarian catastrophe may occur in Iraq." Such developments must not be allowed to happen.

Resolution 1472, unanimously adopted on March 28 by the UN Security Council, reaffirms the responsibility of the occupation forces for satisfying the daily needs of the civilian population.