BAGHDAD, Feb 6: Gunmen dressed in Iraqi army uniform kidnapped a top Iranian diplomat in Baghdad after an encounter with his guards, officials said on Tuesday, in an attack branded as a “terrorist” act by Tehran.

The kidnapping on Sunday of Jalal Sharafi, the second secretary at Tehran's embassy, could further fuel tensions between Iran and its arch-foe Washington after US forces arrested five Iranians last month.

It came as security forces pressed on with troop deployments in Baghdad ahead of a US-Iraqi crackdown in the capital aimed at curbing violence that left at least six people dead on Tuesday.

“There was a fight between the gunmen who were in Iraqi army uniforms and the Iranian second secretary's guards in central Karrada,” a senior Iraqi official told AFP on condition of anonymity. “After the clashes the gunmen escaped, taking Sharafi with them.”

Tehran confirmed the kidnapping, charging that it was the work of gunmen linked to the Iraqi defence ministry. “Jalal Sharafi, the second secretary at the embassy in Baghdad, was abducted on Sunday by a group linked to the defence ministry, which operates under the supervision of US forces in Iraq,” foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.—AFP