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Iran holds US responsible for attack on diplomats in Baghdad

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-17 21:39

TEHRAN -- Iran has denounced "terror attack" on its embassy staff in Baghdad and held the United States responsible for violating diplomatic immunity in Iraq, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.

Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki attends a nuclear conference in Tehran in this March 9, 2008 file photo. [Agencies]

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki made the remarks, while strongly condemning the terror attack, said IRNA.

"Such incidents are related to the presence of those who are responsible for the insecurity in Iraq and their presence provides the excuse for them," Mottaki was quoted as saying.

The top Iranian diplomat also asked Iran's Ambassador to Baghdad Hassan Kazemi Qomi to work with Iraqi officials to transfer the wounded embassy staff to Iran for medical treatment, according to IRNA.

An Iraqi Interior Ministry source said on Friday that five Iranian embassy staff were wounded when their vehicles came under fire on Thursday night in northern Baghdad.

"Unknown gunmen opened small-arms fire on two sport utility vehicles (SUV) of the Iranian embassy at about 9:30 p.m.(1900 GMT) near Buratha Shiite mosque in Ateifiyah neighborhood," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The attack resulted in wounding five of the embassy employees and their Iraqi driver, the source said, adding that two of the embassy staff were in critical condition

However, an Iraqi military source told Xinhua a different story when he said that Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint opened fire on two SUVs carrying the Iranians after the soldiers themselves came under fire by gunmen in the vehicles.

Afterwards, the soldiers went to arrest the gunmen in the vehicles to discover they were Iranian diplomats, he said, adding Iraqi security forces were investigating the incident.