Pakistan's top envoy escapes assault in Iraq
Pakistan Times Monitoring Desk

BAGHDAD (Iraq): Gunmen attacked a convoy carrying Pakistan's top envoy to Iraq Tuesday in Baghdad, but the diplomat was not wounded in the latest assault on diplomats in the country.

The envoy, Mohammed Younis Khan, told media that gunmen riding in two cars fired on his convoy in the Mansour district of the Iraqi capital.

'Our escort fired back at them so we were able to escape without any harm,' Khan said.

Pakistan to evacuate Envoy

Meanwhile, another report says that Pakistan is to withdraw its Ambassador from violence-plagued Iraq after the envoy said he had a "very narrow escape" from an attack on his convoy in Baghdad.

Envoy Younis Khan will be shifted to the Jordanian capital Amman following the assassination attempt, the third attack in four days on a foreign diplomat in Iraq's main city, Pakistan's foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Iraq's interior ministry said the attack happened at an intersection in the upmarket Mansur district, not far from where Bahrain's envoy was wounded just hours earlier in an apparent kidnap attempt.

"I am safe but it was a very narrow escape," Khan told AFP by telephone from Baghdad.

Khan, who was only posted to Baghdad around two months ago, said gunmen in two cars opened fire on his vehicle when he was around a kilometre (half a mile) from the Pakistani embassy.

Perspective

"I was returning to my home when two cars came from behind. There were armed men inside and they fired at my car. But luckily the bullets didn't hit my car," Khan said.

Security guards in another car travelling with him immediately opened fire on his attackers, Khan said, adding that "some bullets hit one of the attackers' cars."

"We sped out of danger but it was an extremely dangerous situation," he said.

Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Naeem Khan said no one was injured in the attack on the envoy's convoy.

"We have been watching the security situation in Iraq and we have decided to relocate the ambassador to Amman. But this in no way dilutes our commitment to continuing to work for a peaceful and stable Iraq," he said.

"The decision is geared solely to ensure the safety of our personnel in Iraq and will be reviewed the moment we detect any improvement in the security situation there."

Ambassador Khan added: "It is not safe because the security situation here is extremely bad."

Recap

Pakistan opposed the March 2003 invasion of Iraq despite being a key ally in the US "war on terror". It has refused requests from both the United States and the Iraqi leadership to send peacekeeping troops.

However in April, an employee at the Pakistani embassy in Baghdad was abducted as he went to a mosque for evening prayers.

Malik Mohammad Javed, a non-diplomatic official at the Pakistani mission, was freed two weeks later after Islamabad sent a special envoy to the Iraqi capital. Pakistan denied paying a ransom.

In July 2004, two migrant workers from Pakistani Kashmir were killed in Iraq after their captors alleged they were spying for the United States and that Pakistan was planning to deploy troops in Iraq.

Another kidnapped Pakistani, Amjad Hafeez, was released the same month after eight days in captivity.

Women Killed

Another report says that four female employees at Baghdad airport were killed and three others wounded on Tuesday after gunmen attacked the minibus taking them to work, said an interior ministry source.

The attack happened at about 8:00 am (04:00 GMT) in Ameriyah, a tense area in western Baghdad and was followed by clashes between gunmen and Iraqi security forces, the source said adding it was unclear yet if there were any casualties from the fighting.

Top Bahraini diplomat Wounded

The top diplomat at the Bahrain embassy in Baghdad was wounded on Tuesday when gunmen shot at him in the centre of the city, according to hospital and security sources.

Gunmen aboard a pickup truck opened fire on Hassan al-Ansari, the embassy's charge d'affaires, while he was traveling in his diplomatic-license plate car in the upscale Mansur district, said an interior ministry source.

Yarmuk hospital said Ansari was being treated for his wounds.

Suicide attack

A suicide car bomber struck an Iraqi army convoy, killing at least three civilians and possibly causing military casualties, witnesses and a hospital official said.

Nine other people were wounded as Iraqi soldiers opened fire after the attack late last night, according to medics at Fallujah Hospital.

An eyewitness said a speeding car rammed into the convoy near a mosque in Fallujah's southern Shuhada neighborhood. He said two trucks carrying troops were seen on fire.

Bush hails Sacrifices

Meanwhile, Iraq's US-backed leaders and US President George W. Bush all hailed the human sacrifices in the war-torn country as troops combed a western section of Baghdad where an Egyptian ambassador was abducted.

The US military meanwhile announced on Monday the arrest of a Tunisian suspected of bringing more than 100 suicide bombers into Iraq on behalf of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda terrorist network.

"There were many chances to lose our heart, our nerve, or our way," Bush told thousands of cheering supporters Monday during a Fourth of July celebration marking US independence day.

"But Americans have always held firm because we have always believed in certain truths: We know that the freedom we defend is meant for all men and women, and for all times."

Bush told the crowd in the state of West Virginia to rally behind the Iraq mission despite a raging insurgency that has claimed thousands of US and Iraqi lives more than two years after the US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein's regime.●