Unicef warns thousands will die in Iraq

Unicef Ireland has warned that hundreds of thousands of children are at risk of dying if the United States and Britain press ahead with their plans to launch a war on Iraq.

The children's charity currently has 160 volunteers in the region preparing for the humanitarian disaster which will inevitably follow the war.

Maura Quinn, the executive director of Unicef Ireland, said the Iraqi people live in dense housing conditions and could die in their thousands in any US-led bombing campaign.

Thousands more would be at risk of disease and infection in the aftermath of the initial attack, particularly those who have suffered most under 12 years of crippling UN sanctions that have killed at least half a million Iraqi children.