BAGHDAD, Jan 2: Gunmen attacked the convoy of the Turkish ambassador to Iraq in Baghdad on Monday, police said. A Turkish Foreign Ministry official said there were no casualties, although Iraqi police had earlier said envoy Unal Cevikoz had been slightly injured in the attack on Baghdad’s airport road, long notorious for assaults by Sunni insurgents.

“There was an armed attack on the three-vehicle convoy in which the ambassador was travelling to the embassy. Nobody was hurt or killed.

The people in the convoy arrived at the embassy safe and sound,” the Turkish official told Reuters.

US troops have claimed success in reducing the number of attacks on the airport road this year but foreign embassy staff have been targeted in recent months by groups like Al Qaeda to try to force them to shut their missions in Iraq and dissuade them from recognising the new Iraqi government.

Most recently, Khartoum closed its embassy in Baghdad last week after five Sudanese embassy staff were kidnapped.—Reuters