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Iraq
Iraqi leaders ask diplomats to defy terrorists
Associated Press
Published July 9, 2005
BAGHDAD - Iraq appealed to its global partners Friday to defy al-Qaida's "blackmail" and keep their diplomats in Baghdad despite the reported slaying of Egypt's top envoy and threats against those who support the U.S.-backed administration.
Elsewhere, one American soldier was killed and six were wounded in separate insurgent attacks north and south of the Iraqi capital.
At the Group of Eight summit in Scotland, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said his government would begin withdrawing about 300 troops from Iraq in September - subject to security conditions at the time.
He denied the plan was linked to any terrorist threats.
The moves come as violent incidents in the Iraqi capital are declining since Iraq's U.S.-backed forces launched an operation against insurgents in the city six weeks ago.
The commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, Maj. Gen. William G. Webster Jr., said car bombings had dropped from 14 to 21 a week in May to about seven or eight a week now. But he said it was "very difficult to know" whether the insurgency has been broken.
Iraqi officials have become concerned about a possible diplomat flight from Baghdad after a Web site claim Thursday by al-Qaida in Iraq that it had killed Egyptian envoy Ihab al-Sherif, seized by up to eight gunmen on a street in western Baghdad last weekend.
Egyptian and Iraqi officials said Egypt would temporarily close its mission in Iraq and recall its staff - although Sherif's body has not been found and the Web statement contained no photographic evidence of his death.
Pakistan's Ambassador Mohammed Younis Khan left the country Wednesday after his convoy was fired on in a kidnap attempt. Bahrain's top envoy, Hassan Malallah al-Ansari, was expected to leave soon after he was slightly wounded in a separate attempt.
Jordanian Foreign Ministry spokesman Rajab Sukayri, said Jordan still planned to send an ambassador to Iraq and the selection process "is being sped up."
[Last modified July 9, 2005, 01:02:12]
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