The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is aiming to shift more resources to Iraq's north, where attacks are reported almost daily in Nineveh province's violent capital Mosul, and to ...

It employs 415 Iraqis in the country and has an additional 57 international staff based in Iraq and Jordan, but relies on the affiliated Iraqi Red Crescent for much of its information.

Secretary of State Colin Powell urged the Red Cross and other nongovernment organizations -- as well as foreign contractors and the United Nations -- to stay in Iraq. "They are needed.

Red Cross operations in Iraq were curtailed, however, after a suicide bomber exploded a vehicle outside ICRC headquarters in Baghdad on Oct. 27.