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Iraq…Bahrain, Pakistan Envoys Under Fire
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Blood stains in the car of the Bahraini envoy. (Reuters)
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BAGHDAD,
July 5, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Gunmen attacked
the top envoys of Bahrain and Pakistan in Baghdad Tuesday, July 5,
three days after Egypt's chief diplomat in the occupied Arab country
was abducted from the street.
About
four gunmen opened fire on the Bahraini envoy's car from a pickup
truck in the upscale Mansour district as he was driving to work,
Reuters quoted a police source as saying.
A
hospital source said Hassan Malalla Al-Ansari was hit in the right
hand by a bullet.
The
envoy's white luxury car with red diplomatic plates stood spattered
inside with blood.
At
least two bullet holes were visible in its plastic lights and its
tires were blown out, while scratches on the paintwork suggested that
armor plating may have deflected other bullets.
“He
was subjected to a kidnapping attempt by armed men while heading from
his home to the mission,” Bahrain's BNA news agency said, quoting a
deputy foreign minister.
Shortly
afterwards a bomb exploded near the Iranian embassy but police said it
targeted a US military patrol, not the mission.
Pakistani
Envoy
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Iraqi security guard stands watch outside Egyptian Embassy in Baghdad. (Reuters)
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Hours
later, two cars of gunmen fired on the motorcade of the head of the
Pakistani mission, police sources said.
They
sped off when his guards returned fire.
“There
were exchanges of fire and one of the three cars in the Pakistani
convoy was hit but the ambassador was unharmed,” a police source
told Reuters.
Pakistan's
embassy made no comment. Official data showed Mohammad Younis Khan was
Pakistan's ambassador in Iraq.
The
new Iraqi government sees the attacks as a campaign by
“insurgents” to intimidate fellow Arab or Muslim states and stop
them improving their ties with Baghdad's new US-backed administration.
“It
is not strange, the kidnapping of the Egyptian diplomat in a bid to
frighten embassies and missions. This is the goal of terrorism,”
government spokesman Laith Kubba told a briefing before the attack on
the Pakistani convoy.
Egypt's
envoy Ihab El-Sherif was snatched by gunmen off the street Saturday,
July 2, days after Iraq indicated he would become the first Arab
diplomat in Baghdad with the full rank of ambassador since the fall of
Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Egyptian
experts agreed Monday that Sherif’s abduction sent a strong message
from Iraqi resistance groups to Arab countries set to follow the
Egyptian lead by sending ambassadors to occupied Iraq.
Stressing
the same concept, Hassan Nafaa’, professor of political sciences in
Cairo University, told Al-Jazeera Tuesday that the series of attacks
on diplomats underlined the “political” messages the resistance
groups have for the Arab and Muslim countries, the new Iraqi
government and the US-led occupation authorities.
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