October 04, 2007	Thursday	Ramazan 21, 1428

BAGHDAD, Oct 3: Poland’s ambassador to Iraq survived an assassination attempt in Baghdad on Wednesday that left one Polish bodyguard and two Iraqis dead, officials said.

Three roadside bombs, timed to go off at short intervals, ripped through the convoy of ambassador Edward Pietrzyk as he left his residence in Al-Arasat neighbourhood at around 0700 GMT, witnesses said.

Pietrzyk was wounded, the foreign ministry confirmed in Warsaw.

A determined Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said following the attack that Poland would not withdraw the 900 troops it has stationed southwest of Baghdad.

“Desertion is always the worst option. It’s a solution which doesn’t bring anything positive, not to mention the moral side,” Kaczynski told reporters in Warsaw.

An official from Iraq’s defence ministry said that the blasts had killed two Iraqis and wounded 14 other people, among them the ambassador and two more Poles. It was not clear if the dead Iraqis were working for the embassy.

In Warsaw, the interior ministry said the ambassador’s Polish driver died in hospital of his wounds and three other bodyguards were also injured.

“We will continue to provide the medical assistance that we are apparently providing to the ambassador and three of his colleagues that are in our combat support hospital,” said US military spokesman Major General Kevin Bergner.

A medic at Baghdad’s Ibn al-Nafis hospital said 11 wounded had been taken there including four Iraqi bodyguards with serious shrapnel wounds.

Witnesses said that several shots were fired following the explosions, but hospital sources said none of the casualties had gunshot wounds.

“The ambassador was injured, but was able to leave the scene himself,” Polish foreign ministry spokesman Robert Szaniawski told AFP in Warsaw.

“Three cars in the Polish convoy were destroyed in the attack,” Szaniawski added.

Witnesses said that after the attack helicopters landed near the scene and loaded up some of the wounded, including the ambassador, before taking off again.

“I understand that there was a US embassy helicopter that supported some evacuation from the scene of the attack,” Bergner confirmed.—AFP