By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The Iraqi Red Crescent accused U.S. forces on Friday of carrying out a spate of attacks on its offices over the last three years during operations to flush out suspected militants.
Jamal Al Karbouli, vice-president of the Iraqi Red Crescent, said that in the latest incident, U.S forces had occupied and nearly destroyed its Falluja office, held staff for hours, and burned two cars clearly marked with its neutral symbol.
The only Iraqi aid agency working in all 18 provinces, its 1,000 staff and 200,000 volunteers already face extremely difficult conditions because of the growing sectarian violence, he said.
"The main difficulties we are facing, first of all, is the presence of MNF, the multinational forces, which sometimes gives us a hard time. They are attacking some offices and detaining some volunteers," Karbouli told a news conference in Geneva.
"The last example was about seven days ago in Falluja. We had our offices attacked by American forces, they detained the volunteers and staff more than two hours and they burned the cars and even the building which belonged to us," he added.
Karbouli said U.S. forces had "attacked" its Baghdad headquarters a number of times since the overthrow of former President Saddam Hussein in 2003. In most of the incidents, the Americans claimed to have received "information".
"Four to five times they have attacked the headquarters, they break doors and windows, just to see. And they didn't find anything and they left," he said.
"We don't know the reason behind it, is it to scare us or decrease our work or another reason, as they mention, fear of terrorists? We don't know."
"The Iraqi Red Crescent is the only Iraqi body working all over Iraq. Because of this, they are suspicious," Karbouli said.
U.S. CHECKING ALLEGATIONS
The U.S. military in Iraq said it was checking the allegations but said its forces do not attack sites while conducting searches.
"When we conduct searches, we do not attack the place we are searching. Coalition Forces strive to ensure they are respectful when they conduct interaction with the local population," U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver told Reuters in an e-mail reply.
Karbouli said the agency faced pressure from militant groups in Iraq, where insurgents from the minority Sunni community and militias from the majority Shi'ites are accused of atrocities against civilians.
"They try to work with us many times. We say 'No, we want to keep neutral'," he told reporters.
"Fortunately we have a good reputation with Iraqis on both sides. Both of them respect us and trust us as a neutral organisation," Karbouli said.
The Iraqi Red Crescent is providing vital medicines and other supplies to hospitals and vulnerable civilians, including some of the 100,000 uprooted families who have fled bloodshed. It also distributes messages from detainees to their families.
Multinational forces sometimes fail to recognise Iraqi Red Crescent identity cards, making it difficult for its workers to pass through checkpoints and fearful to leave home. "We are facing problems which stop us from work. At some checkpoints I.D.s are not respected," he said.
In the past three years, seven of the agency's staff or volunteers have been killed and about eight detained, either during incidents in their homes or while working, he said.