Wherever there are war-zones around the world we find the brave men and women who put their own lives on the line to bring help, aid and assistance to the innocent people whose lives have been devastated.

Aid workers on the front lines often survive on nothing more than their wits and blind luck, and that is especially true of those who are working in the chaos that is Iraq today.

The Human Relief Foundation, based in Bradford, is one such charity, and its members know only too well the very real dangers of warfare in the modern age.

Last month one of its workers was killed by militias in Baghdad, and this drives home just how dangerous the country has become for anyone, whether civilian, soldier or aid worker.

With shootings, car bombs and attacks on both religious and secular targets and people on a daily basis, the help provided by such organisations is more vital than ever.

It is a massive monument to the work of those who staff such aid organisations that the work they do - in this case, improving the lives of orphans and widows in the war-torn country --continues in the face of such tragedy.

But when even the Human Relief Foundation, and other charities like it, are having to re-evaluate the work they do and whether they need to re-think their strategies, it gives some indication of how hopeless the situation must be for those living in the middle of this nightmare.