A convoy of Russian diplomats and journalists was shot at in Iraq yesterday, wounding several people. The incident has cranked up tension between Washington and anti-war Moscow, writes Daniel McLaughlin, in Moscow.
Russia demanded answers from the US and Iraq last night, after the column of cars was strafed outside Baghdad as it headed for Syria, while a Russian reporter in the convoy said it had been caught in crossfire between opposing armies.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mr Alexander Yakovenko said Moscow's ambassador to Baghdad, Mr Vladimir Titorenko, was not among the five people hurt in the shooting near the town of Feluja, about 30 km from the Iraqi capital.
Mr Yakovenko said one man had been operated upon, but none of the 23 people in the convoy had life-threatening injuries. He said both the Iraqi and US ambassadors here had been summoned to the Foreign Ministry and asked "in a pretty strong way" to investigate circumstances surrounding an incident that clouded the arrival in Moscow of US National Security Adviser Ms Condoleezza Rice.
Her planned meetings with top ministers had been intended to help heal Russian-US relations battered by discord over war in Iraq. A US embassy spokesman said of the visit: "We are committed to a long-term strategic partnership. We've been through some difficult times and differences over Iraq have strained our relationship."
Interfax news agency quoted a well-informed source as saying Ms Rice would meet Foreign Minister Mr Igor Ivanov, Defence Minister Mr Sergei Ivanov and Mr Vladimir Rushailo, the secretary of Russia's security council.
Mr Alexander Minakov, a reporter for the state-run Rossiya television channel, said Iraqi troops had come under US attack as the column of cars passed by, and had returned fire. Rossiya cited reports that bullets removed from one of the injured men were from an M-16 rifle, of the type used by US forces.
Another witness told Russia's Interfax news agency that the convoy had tried and failed to skirt fighting close to the Iraqi capital.
"When we left the city, we saw shooting ahead of us and decided to go around it. About eight kilometres from Baghdad we unexpectedly came under fire and a few people were injured," the unnamed witness said.
"We bandaged them. One car was left behind and we carried on. Fifteen kilometres [from Baghdad] we saw a column of jeeps and stopped so as not to provoke them, and sent ahead a car with a flag to show them who was in the convoy.
"But they started firing at it and injured another two. Thankfully, no one was killed. Then the jeeps left and we carried on along the main road."
US Central Command quickly said none of its troops or aircraft was in the area of the attack. Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell called Russian Foreign Minister Mr Ivanov to say he would do everything possible to ensure the diplomats' safe departure from Iraq, but he did not deny or attribute responsibility for the shooting.
Moscow protested to Washington last week over US bombs that fell close to the Russian embassy in Baghdad.
According to Russian news agencies, Moscow had earlier complained that the US ambassador here had made "veiled threats" to Russian diplomats in Baghdad, saying that it was increasingly dangerous for them to remain.
The shooting threatened to reopen a rift that has divided Washington and Moscow over the war in Iraq, where Russia staunchly opposes military action and fears for its major oil interests and the $8 billion it is owed by Baghdad.