Driver Is Killed in Attack on U.N. Convoy in Iraq

An Iraqi driver for the United Nations was killed and a foreign staffer injured Sunday when their vehicle crashed into a bus after being hit by gunfire south of Baghdad, a U.N. spokesman said.

A spokesman for the U.N. special representative in Iraq said the attack on the two-car convoy was the first time that U.N. vehicles had been fired on since international staff returned to Iraq after the war that toppled Saddam Hussein.

“This is of course an isolated incident in terms of the U.N. being targeted,” said spokesman Ahmad Fawzi.

“We do not intend to allow it to curtail our humanitarian activities.”

He said a vehicle being used by the International Organization for Migration, or IOM, was fired on from a passing car and veered across the road, colliding with a bus.

The injured U.N. staff member suffered a fractured arm and ankle, but no gunshot wounds, and was being treated in Baghdad.

The IOM works with the United Nations and falls under its security umbrella.

The convoy had been traveling from Baghdad to Hillah, about 60 miles south of the Iraqi capital. A World Health Organization convoy in the area caught up with the attacked vehicles and aided the IOM staff, Fawzi said.

The State Department has said Washington is open to giving the United Nations a bigger role in Iraq, especially if other governments contribute to peacekeeping and reconstruction.