The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) halted operations after one of its staff members, Canadian logistics expert Vatche Arslanian, was killed in crossfire in the east of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday.

ICRC spokeswoman Antonella Notari said the remaining team of five foreign workers and several dozen Iraqi staff was trying to visit Baghdad hospitals on Thursday to restore electricity and clean water and provide medical supplies.

But conditions deteriorated sharply during the day, with the ICRC reporting "unprecedented levels" of looting and attacks on hospitals which were hampering aid and stopping people reaching medical care.

Notari told AFP that the team was "moving with a lot of caution".

"A period like this with a shift of power, partly also a power vacuum, is always the most risky time, because it's difficult to know who controls what," she added.

Notari also said occupying powers -- the United States and Britain -- were obliged to ensure security and the well-being of the population under the Geneva Conventions.

Aid agencies have warned in recent days that they could not deliver food and emergency relief supplies deep inside Iraq because it was too dangerous.

"It's a de facto occupation. As soon as there is control of certain part of the territory, as an occupation force you become responsible for the security and well-being of the population," Notari said.

"I don't think it means they need to directly take care of all the distribution and repairs -- although it's great if they do and have the means. But there are people capable of doing that, and the occupation forces can facilitate their work," she added.

Only six of 27 operating theatres at the 650 bed "Medical City" hospital complex in Baghdad were working, ICRC said.

The hospital had no clean water and was relying on a few back-up generators for partial electricity supply.

But attempts by aid workers to reach Medical City, as well as water-starved areas in the Saddam City neighbourhood, had to be called off, ICRC spokeswoman Nada Doumani said.

The ICRC was examining ways to repatriate the bodies of Arslanian and two foreign journalists killed by US fire at the Palestine hotel on Tuesday.

It was also due to visit wounded journalists, including a Reuters journalist who was in a serious condition with a severe shrapnel wound to the head, Notari said.

SPACE.WIRE