Russian diplomats come under fire leaving Baghdad

A convoy of Russian diplomats came under fire Sunday as they were evacuating Baghdad, the Kremlin said.

Members of the convoy were wounded, it said, citing the Foreign Ministry.

The American and Iraqi ambassadors were immediately called in to the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow.

US Central Command in Qatar said it was investigating.

The Russian side did not indicate whether it thought coalition forces or Iraqi forces were responsible for the incident.

The convoy came under fire as it was moving toward the Syrian border, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Russian officials had long ago evacuated most of the embassy’s staff, but a core team, including the Ambassador, had remained until today.

The ministry said there were wounded but had no information on how many. It said Russian Ambassador Vladimir Titorenko was among those travelling in the convoy.

The Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed source travelling in the convoy as saying there were a total of 25 people, mostly journalists.

The source was quoted as saying that the group was first fired on about five miles outside Baghdad after it attempted to drive around shooting that it saw on the road ahead.

The convoy continued after the wounded were treated and stopped when it saw a column of jeeps, about nine miles from the city, the source said. The group stopped, sending ahead one car with a flag to explain who they were.

“They started to shoot at it (the car),” the source was quoted as saying. “Thank God no one was killed. Then the jeeps left.”

President Vladimir Putin has been informed about the incident, the Kremlin press service said.

The Foreign Ministry said it urgently called in the US and Iraqi ambassadors and asked them to take all measures necessary to guarantee Russian citizens’ safety in Iraq, to investigate the circumstances of the attack and punish those responsible.

As he left the Foreign Ministry, US Ambassador Alexander Vershbow said his Government was investigating the incident and trying to gather information from allied commanders in the area.

“We are obviously very concerned about those who have been wounded,” he said. “We still do not know which forces were involved, we don’t know anything about the circumstances of the incident.”

Vershbow confirmed that the United States had been aware of the planned evacuation ahead of time and said the US side would do its best to expedite the evacuation.

“Iraqi forces are active and there are many military exchanges going on, but we will do as much as we can to facilitate their safe departure,” he said.

In Doha, Qatar, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks told reporters at the US Central Command that the coalition was aware of the incident.

“We understand this convoy is still moving,” he said, but had no information about coalition involvement.

The alleged attack came four days after Russia protested at US air strikes which allegedly targeted a Baghdad neighbourhood where the Russian Embassy was located. Russia did not report any casualties in connection with the strikes.

It also came as US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice arrived in Moscow for discussions on deepening US-Russian co-operation.

Russia is squarely opposed to the US-led war, but Putin has adopted a softer tone toward the United States in recent days, saying that a US defeat would not be in Russia’s interests and pledging continued cooperation with the United States on arms control, the fight against terrorism and other issues.