WFP raises alarm over Iraq's security situation

The WFP "is alarmed by the rise in security incidents affecting its food aid operation in Iraq over the past month. The agency has registered an increase in shootings, looting of storage facilities and attacks on trucks bringing food into southern Iraq," the statement said.

The agency, tasked with providing food rations to a population rocked by the US-led springtime war on Iraq following a decade of economic sanctions, worried about security at its storage facilities.

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"Since June 10, there have been at least 12 incidents of looting and shooting in or near these facilities," the agency said.

Last month, the WFP pulled staff from its Al Hurriyah warehouse in Baghdad after hundreds of looters ransacked the facility.