April 7, 2003	Monday	Safar 4, 1424

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MOSCOW, April 6: Several people were injured on Sunday when the convoy evacuating the Russian ambassador to Iraq out of Baghdad came under fire, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

It was not yet clear who was responsible for the attack, the spokesman said. US Central Command in Qatar said that Iraqi forces controlled the area where the incident took place.

A Jordan-based diplomat, quoting Russian sources, told newsmen in Amman that ambassador Vladimir Titorenko was injured in the attack.

The spokesman in Moscow, however, could not confirm if Mr Titorenko was hurt, but said “at least four or five” people were injured.

“The car convoy with members of the Russian embassy in Iraq, including the ambassador, came under attack leaving Baghdad in the direction of the Syrian border,” the Russian ministry spokesman told newsmen.

President Vladimir Putin has been informed of the incident, his spokesman Boris Gromov said.

A statement from the US Central Command said: “Based on the reported location, the incident is believed to have taken place in territory controlled by the Iraqi regime” and “initial reports” showed no presence of US-led coalition forces nearby.

Mr Titorenko left Baghdad for Damascus early Sunday as US troops advanced on the Iraqi capital. He was due to fly to Moscow later on Sunday.

A witness told Interfax news agency from Baghdad that around 23 people — mostly Russian journalists — were driving in the convoy, which he said came under attack twice.

“In Baghdad, everything went calmly. When we left the city, we saw that there was fighting up ahead, so we decided to turn around and eight kilometres from Baghdad, we came under fire. Several people were injured,” the witness told Interfax.

“We bandaged the wounded, left a car behind and kept going. But then around 15 kilometres from Baghdad we came upon a jeep convoy,” he said.

“We stopped so as not to provoke them and we sent a car ahead with a flag to show who we were, but then we came under fire again,” he told Interfax.

“Two more people were hurt — thank God no one was killed.

Russia, one of the most fervent opponents to the US-led war, had kept its Baghdad embassy operational with a skeleton staff after withdrawing all non-essential personnel in the days leading up to the start of the bombing campaign on March 20.

PENTAGON: “We still need to do some research,” said General Peter Pace, vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, adding that “there was no reporting by any ground unit of the coalition of any kind of contact” with the motorcade.

Gen Pace said US officials were warned ahead of time that the convoy would be heading out of Baghdad. “The word was passed to our troops in the field,” he told CNN.

“The best we can tell right now is they got safely through the coalition forces” positions, he said. —AFP