WORLD : Ousted U.S. Official Leaves Iraq
An expelled U.S. diplomat left the capital today, diplomats said, hours after Iraq ordered him out in retaliation for the U.S. expulsion of an Iraqi envoy accused in a murder plot.
The diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, identified the American as Zachary White, a second secretary at the U.S. mission in Baghdad.
The U.S. Embassy refused to comment on his departure, the latest in a series of incidents that have bruised relations between Washington and Baghdad.
Iraq on Monday said it was expelling the diplomat in retaliation for the State Department’s kicking out an Iraqi diplomat working at its mission to the United Nations.
The Iraqi, Hamid al Amery, who left the United States Thursday, was reportedly involved in an assassination plot against two opponents of the Iraqi government living in California.
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