BAGHDAD, Jan 31: The Dutch embassy in Baghdad was engulfed in flames on Friday night after a rocket-propelled grenade struck the unoccupied building, sparking a major alert in the capital.

"The grenade started a fire that was quickly extinguished by the Baghdad fire department," a US military spokesman said.

"The Netherlands was clearly targeted in this attack," a Dutch spokeswoman said in The Hague.

She said three of the four Dutch diplomatic staff based in Iraq were in Baghdad at the time, while the charge d'affaires was in Amman. The diplomats normally stay in the embassy building but were not there at the time of the attack, said de Haan, who had earlier said all four staff were in the city.-AFP