Govt urged to seek halt in attacks on Iraqi cities

The Children's Rights Alliance has called on the Irish Government to push for an end to US attacks on urban areas of Iraq in order to protect the lives of Iraqi children.

The alliance made the call following reports of an imminent British assault on the city of Basra, where UNICEF said 100,000 children under the age of five are at risk due to the war.

The Children's Rights Alliance said unfolding events have supported the conclusions of international experts who predicted thousands of casualties among Iraqi children in the event of a US/British invasion.

Raymond Dooley, the group's chief executive, said: "To help save the lives of thousands of children, the Irish Government must call on the United States and the UK to cease the aerial bombardment of the cities and to withdraw their forces from the urban areas.

"If enough countries and enough people insist that the fate of millions of Iraqi children be accorded central and not merely peripheral status in the moral calculus of this war, their deaths may indeed be averted. With the fate of so many children hanging in the balance, all of us are morally obliged to speak and act on their behalf and to do all in our power - even at this 11th hour - to save their lives."