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Iran envoy kidnapped in Iraq
06/02/2007 14:46 - (SA)
Baghdad - Gunmen dressed in Iraqi army uniforms kidnapped a top Iranian diplomat in Baghdad after a firefight with his guards, officials said on Tuesday, in an attack Tehran branded a "terrorist" act.
The abduction on Sunday of Jalal Sharafi, the second secretary at Tehran's embassy, is expected to further fuel tensions between Iran and its arch-foe Washington after US forces arrested five Iranians last month.
It comes as security forces were pressing on with troop deployments in Baghdad ahead of a US-Iraqi crackdown in the capital aimed at curbing violence that left at least five people dead on Tuesday.
"There was a fight between the gunmen who were in Iraqi army uniforms and the Iranian second secretary's guards in central Karrada," a senior Iraqi official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"After the clashes the gunmen escaped, taking Sharafi with them."
Tehran confirmed the abduction, charging that it was the work of gunmen linked to the Sunni-controlled Iraqi defence ministry.
'Terrorist action'
"Jalal Sharafi, the second secretary at the embassy in Baghdad, was abducted on Sunday by a group linked to the defence ministry, which operates under the supervision of US forces in Iraq," foreign ministry spokesperson Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.
He said Sharafi was snatched in a "terrorist action" outside the Baghdad branch of the Iranian state-owned Bank Melli and taken to an unknown location.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran considers this to be an aggressive move contrary to international laws and the Vienna convention and strongly condemns it," he added.
"It calls on the Iraqi government to free the diplomat as soon as possible and punish those who carry out actions that target the mutual interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Iraq."
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