"The ICRC received alarming reports on the situation at Mahmudiyah (south of Baghdad), where the hospital is no longer able to handle the flood of injured," the ICRC said, adding that casualties could no longer be rushed to other hospitals because of the military operations.

The ICRC statement came after around a dozen mortar shells landed in central Baghdad's Saadun district and rocket fire was heard in the centre for the first time in the war.

It said water supplies were scarce in the towns of Mahmudiyah and Abu Ghurayb, west of Baghdad, and the situation in hospitals at Hilla, Kerbala and Al Anbar was also alarming.

"Nobody can keep records of admissions and the transfer of wounded people because emergencies are happening one after the other," the ICRC added.

A Red Cross medical team that visited four Baghdad hospitals on Friday saw several hundred wounded and dozens of dead from bombing and fighting, a spokesman said on Saturday.

Six ICRC expatriate staff in Baghdad have been ordered to stay in their office in the city, as the current fighting has made it too dangerous to move around.

Iraqi ICRC staff had for their part been told to stay at home.

SPACE.WIRE