Iraqis Worry That Diplomats May Flee Violence

Iraq appealed to its global partners Friday to defy Al Qaeda and keep their diplomats in Baghdad despite the purported slaying of Egypt’s top envoy.

Iraqi officials have become concerned about possible diplomatic flight from Baghdad after a website claim Thursday by the group Al Qaeda in Iraq that it had killed Egyptian envoy Ihab Sherif, who was seized by gunmen on a street in western Baghdad last weekend.

Egyptian and Iraqi officials said Cairo would temporarily close its mission in Iraq and recall its staff, although Sherif’s body had not been found and the Web statement contained no photographic evidence of his death.

Pakistani Ambassador Mohammed Younis Khan left the country Wednesday after his convoy was fired on in a kidnapping attempt. Bahrain’s top envoy, Hassan Ansari, was expected to leave soon; he was slightly injured in a separate attempt.

Chief Iraqi government spokesman Laith Kubba said he was confident that Iraqi and U.S. authorities could protect embassies and their staffs. He said diplomats should not give in to “blackmail.”

Jordanian Foreign Ministry spokesman Rajab Sukayri said that his country planned to send an ambassador to Iraq despite the threat and that the selection process was “being sped up.”

During a special meeting called at Egypt’s request, the U.N. Security Council denounced the latest attacks against diplomats in Baghdad and welcomed Egypt’s “continued commitment” to Iraq.

Iraq’s Shiite and Sunni Muslim clerics joined Friday in condemning the attacks.

Violence continued north and south of the capital, as one U.S. soldier was killed and six were wounded in two attacks by insurgents.

A roadside bomb killed the soldier and wounded three others in Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, the military said.

Separately, a roadside bomb and gunfire wounded three U.S. soldiers in an attack on a coalition convoy 25 miles south of Baghdad, according to the Polish military.

A suicide car bomber also struck an Iraqi army convoy in Fallouja, witnesses said. Police had no details of the attack.

At the Group of 8 summit in Scotland, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Italy would start to pull about 300 of its troops out of Iraq as planned in September and would not hasten the withdrawal because of new terrorist threats.

Earlier on Friday, a group claiming links to Al Qaeda posted a message on the Internet threatening to attack Rome to punish Italy for supporting the United States.

Berlusconi said Italy was a prime target for Islamist extremists thanks partly to its troop deployment in Iraq.

But he shrugged off calls, including from within his own government, to speed up the pullout after Thursday’s bomb attacks in London.

“We have to fulfill our commitments and cannot leave the job half-done,” he told a news conference.

Italy has about 3,000 troops in Iraq.