BAGHDAD, Oct 10: Two Iraqi security guards were killed on Monday when gunmen ambushed an Arab League delegation with anti-tank rockets and heavy machineguns amid sharp criticism of the pan-Arab group over its role in Iraq.

The visiting diplomats — on the first Arab League mission to Iraq since the invasion of March 2003 — were unharmed in the attack.

However, two police commandos from a special interior ministry protection force were killed and another seven wounded, a ministry source said.

The convoy ran into an ambush as it was heading to the headquarters of the Committee of Muslim Scholars, the main Sunni organization in Iraq, for iftar.

“We were targeted by gunfire but no member of the delegation was hit,” delegation head Ahmed Ben Helli of Algeria said. “This will not affect our mission.”

The envoys had arrived in Baghdad on Sunday to prepare for a visit by Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa, with the aim of fostering a dialogue between various Iraqi communities.

Rasul Amin Abid, one of the injured guards, said the convoy came under attack just a kilometre from the Um al Qura mosque, which serves as the headquarter for the Muslim Scholars.

“There were 15 of us in three escort cars protecting the convoy on the road in Ghazaliya when suddenly the bullets began to fly,” he said.

The convoy was sprayed with fire from anti-tank rockets, machineguns and light weapons, then snipers began shooting from rooftops, he said. “It lasted 15 interminable minutes... the shots were coming from all over the place.”

Many Iraqis feel the League has not provided enough support for the country’s reconstruction.

The League is now seeking to play a peacemaking role in the country, and Mr Mussa has been charged with promoting ‘a dialogue between different Iraqi interests on the issues of Iraqi unity, its territorial integrity, the success of the political process and the reconstruction of state institutions’.

Just hours before the attack, radical Shia leader Moqtada al Sadr had lashed out at the Arab League, urging it to clearly condemn attacks by Al Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al Zarqawi.

“We demand two things from the Arab League before it can intervene politically, and not with troops, in Iraqi affairs,” the influential Shia leader said in a statement.

“The first is to condemn crimes by occupation forces, terrorist crimes against civilians and holy sites, and the acts of the one named Zarqawi,” said the statement. presented by one of Sadr’s deputies, Abdel Hadi Darraji. “The second is to condemn the acts of Saddam Hussein’s regime and call for his execution” following a trial, which begins on Oct 19. —AFP