There is a tattered and torn, framed United Nations flag that has pride of place not far from the entrance to the UN Headquarters in New York. It is a salutary reminder of a bomb attack on 19 August 2003, which took the lives of 22 UN personnel and wounded more than 150. The bomb had been planted at Baghdad’s Canal Hotel, which was the headquarters for the organisation’s operations in the aftermath of the illegal US military intervention in Iraq.
Each year, UN staff across the world attend solemn ceremonies to mark what had been the deadliest attack on its civilian personnel.
