Insurgents blasted a freight train west of Baghdad and exploded a bomb near a convoy in a northern city, injuring a US soldier yesterday as international organizations continued their exodus from Iraq.

　　Police in the capital said a motorist was arrested after trying to throw a hand grenadesintosa police station on the edge the capital's "green zone," the heavily guarded headquarters of the US occupation.

　　The United Nations said on Wednesday it was temporarily pulling its remaining international staff out of Baghdad, joining other organizations in withdrawing after Monday's deadly suicide car bombing at the Baghdad headquarters of the Red Cross.

　　The International Committee of the Red Cross and Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, said they too were pulling their workers out of Baghdad.

　　The exodus of humanitarian workers came despite assurances by top US administration officials, including President George W. Bush, that the security situation in Iraq was steadily improving. It also followed a personal appeal by Secretary of State Colin Powell to the international Red Cross to remain in Baghdad because "if they are driven out, then the terrorists win."

　　The UN decision to pull its remaining international staff out of Baghdad was an-nounced on Wednesday, two days after a deadly suicide car bombing at the Baghdad.

　　"We have asked our staff in Baghdad to come out temporarily for consultations with a team from head-quarters on the future of our operations, in particular security arrangements that we would need to take to operate in Iraq," UN spokes-woman Marie Okabe said.

　　She said it was not an "evacuation" and staff in the north would remain.

　　Meanwhile, leaflets purportedly from Saddam Hussein's "Arab Baath Socialist Party - Regional Command" appeared in the capital calling for a general strike starting tomorrow.