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US National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice ended her visit
to Russia on Monday without meeting the Russian President, Vladmir
Putin, signifying that the relations between the two countries may
have turned bitterly sour after Russian diplomats fleeing Bagdhad
were fired upon by US troops on Sunday.
Akram Khuzam, Al Jazeera satellite television’s Moscow
correspondent described the visit of Rice as “fruitless” since
it achieved little in easing the row between the two countries
over the Iraq war.
Russia has steadfastly opposed the US-led war in Iraq.
Sunday’s attack on Russian diplomats have only complicated
matters further.
Meanwhile, the Russian ambassador to Iraq accused US forces of
deliberately shooting at his convoy as it was fleeing the
war-stricken country for Syria, the RIA Novosti news agency
reported.
The report, filed from the Iraqi-Syrian border, said ambassador
Vladimir Titorenko was lightly injured, with his arm hurt in the
attack.
"The Russian ambassador to Iraq Vladimir Titorenko thinks
that the column of Russian cars, filled with diplomats and
journalists, was deliberately attacked by the Americans," RIA
Novosti wrote.
Russian news reports had earlier said that the convoy was
carrying Russian flags as it left Baghdad.
Al-Jazeera TV reported today that bullets taken from wounded
Russian diplomats hurt in Sunday’s crossfire while they were
attempting to flee battle-scarred Baghdad have been found to have
American markings.
Quoting unnamed sources, the channel reported that the
removed bullets were all American made.
The Russian ambassador was among a group of five diplomats
fired upon and injured on Sunday while they were trying to flee
the Iraqi capital. Though quick to express its deep concern over
the incident, the US has so far denied any responsibility, denying
the presence of its troops in the vicinity of the spot where the
incident occurred.
But Russian journalists travelling together with the diplomats
reported that the convoy had clearly stepped into a cross-fire
between US and Iraqi troops.
Alexander Minakov, a reporter for Russia's Rossiya television
furnished a dramatic account of the event according to which
the convoy wandered into a confrontation between Iraqi and US
armour and encountered "terrible, fierce shooting".
"We'd already got to a place where Iraqi forces had their
positions - tanks, armoured personnel carriers, armoured fighting
vehicles, artillery guns, trenches," he said.
"And just as we were getting past, the Iraqi positions
absolutely unexpectedly came under what was just extremely heavy
fire. A shell hit a tank 150 metres from us and the tank exploded.
Then shells started bursting 50 to 70 metres away, and there was
massive fire from automatic rifles.
"Naturally, the Iraqis began to respond, and so we ended
up in the crossfire. The first three cars with diplomats
were practically riddled. Our ambassador, Vladimir Titorenko, was
just lucky: a bullet hit the windshield and flew between him and
the driver. But, unfortunately, three members of staff got
injured, one of them pretty heavily - he got a bullet wound in the
stomach."
---Al Jazeera Net
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