Posted on 05/16/2008 6:09:08 AM PDT by FreeAtlanta
BAGHDAD - An Iranian Embassy convoy came under fire in Baghdad, wounding four people, including three Iranians and an Iraqi, an embassy spokesman said Friday.
Tehran issued an angry response blaming the United States for encouraging attacks against Iranian interests in Iraq with its rhetoric against the Islamic republic. The U.S. military said it "condemns any attack on guests or visitors of any country."
It was not clear who shot at the convoy. An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said Iraqi soldiers exchanged fire with guards in an argument that broke out when members of the convoy failed to produce identification cards.
Iranian Embassy spokesman Manoucher Taslimi said he did not know who the gunmen were but said the convoy was attacked while it was en route to a revered Shiite shrine in the northern neighborhood of Kazimiyah.
The shooting comes as relations between Iraq's Shiite-led government and the rulers in neighboring Iran have come under unprecedented strains as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has moved against rivals and is negotiating long-term pacts with Washington.
The U.S. military also has stepped up allegations that Tehran is arming and funding Shiite militias who have been engaged in fierce clashes with American and Iraqi troops in Baghdad. Iran denies that it is fueling the violence in Iraq.
The shooting occurred about 5:30 p.m. Thursday as the convoy approached a bridge that links Kazimiyah with the predominantly Sunni area of Azamiyah, Taslimi said.
Taslimi said those wounded, including two Iranian diplomats and an Iranian and an Iraqi administrative employee, were in stable condition.
The Interior Ministry official said five people were wounded when the two-vehicle Iranian convoy exchanged fire with Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint near the bridge after most of the Iranians failed to produce identification cards.
"The checkpoint staff asked them for ID cards, but nobody had one except for one Iranian called Abu al-Fadhil," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.
Lt. David Russell, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said the Iraqi army had found four wounded Iranians in a vehicle with an Iraqi driver.
Reports indicate the Iraqi security forces "handled the situation appropriately and with a high degree of professionalism, once again demonstrating their capability at maintaining security in their districts," Russell said in an e-mailed statement.
The discrepancy in numbers could not immediately be reconciled.
A spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry blamed the United States for the shooting, saying "the suspicious behavior of U.S. forces" has led to "increasing insecurity in Iraq."
"Responsibility for providing security to diplomats as well as diplomatic and international bodies in Iraq rests with the occupiers," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said Friday in a statement that was obtained by The Associated Press.
Hosseini said Iran will pursue the case with Iraqi government officials.
The U.S. military insisted the Americans were "in no way involved in this attack."
Meanwhile, the so-called "general military command" of the Mahdi Army militia that is loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on followers to adhere to an agreement reached this week to end clashes in Baghdad's Sadr City district.
In a statement circulated in the Mahdi Army stronghold before Friday prayers, the group praised the "resistance against occupation and tyranny."
But it called on them to "cease fire and obey orders and instructions" to prevent more bloodshed among Iraqi civilians.
"We are confident of your obedience to your leadership in spite of all the challenges, the statement said. "Let all hear, that if any party violates the agreement, we will have another attitude toward it."
___
Associated Press writer Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
Ahmanutjob gets his thong in a wad.
Good thing the bad guys didn't have any of those newfangled EFP's, eh? /sarc
If it wasn’t wiped out, it probably wasn’t us...
Pity.
What we have here is the Iraqis fed up with the Iranian meddling and being justly suspicious of their guest’s interference. When they ask them to produce the appropriate documents, the arrogant Iranians started shooting and got the worst of it.
I salute the Iraqis for defending their sovereignty.
And it’s nice to see Mookie’s thugs on the retreat. Keep it that way.
I suppose you have an alibi.
Iranian terrorists attacked in Iraq?
Who’d have thought it.
“I’m deeply saddened..”
Too bad it wasn’t us.
Those bastards deserve a little payback for arming and supporting those who are blowing U.S. servicemen to pieces with IED’s.
I'm 7,000 miles away right now?
Well, we knock out bad guys using UAVs from command posts here in the USA. What proof do you have that you are not remotely controlling the anti-Iranian forces in Iraq?
My guess is that it's just garden-variety Iranian-backed thugs who thought they were shooting at a convoy carrying Iraqi or American dignitaries.
RPG’s = $8000
AK-47’s = $3000
Per diem for Quds force trainer = $5000
Having your diplomats shot up by the very thugs you trained to fight the Great Satan... Priceless!
No, you got it wrong. It’s completely the reverse. These were government organized Iraqi units checking papers on Iranians.
And the Iranians decided to pompously attempt to shoot their way out of it.
Apparently only one person in their group had proper papers. So be happy, this is good news and hopefully is reported among the Iraqi people.
The Iraqis, Shite or Sunni have no desire to be vassals of the mullahs.
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