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Gunmen attacked the envoys of two Muslim states in Baghdad Tuesday, three days after Egypt's chief diplomat in Iraq was abducted from the street.
The envoy from the Gulf Arab state of Bahrain was wounded in the hand during what his government called a kidnap attempt as he drove to work. Hours later, two cars of gunmen fired on the motorcade of the head of the Pakistani mission, police sources said.
They sped off when his guards returned fire.
"There were exchanges of fire and one of the three cars in the Pakistani convoy was hit but the ambassador was unharmed," a police source said.
Pakistan's embassy made no comment. Official data showed Mohammad Younis Khan was Pakistan's ambassador in Iraq.
The new Iraqi Government sees the attacks as a campaign by Sunni Arab insurgents to intimidate fellow Arab or Muslim states and stop them improving their ties to Baghdad's new administration.
"It is not strange, the kidnapping of the Egyptian diplomat in a bid to frighten embassies and missions. This is the goal of terrorism," government spokesman Laith Kubba told a briefing before the attack on the Pakistani convoy. "This is also the case in the shooting of the Bahraini diplomat."
About four gunmen opened fire on the Bahraini envoy's car from a pickup truck in the upscale Mansour district as he was driving to work, a police source said. A hospital source said Hassan Malalla al-Ansari was hit in the right hand by a bullet.
Shortly afterwards a bomb exploded near the Iranian Embassy but police said it targeted a US military patrol, not the mission. A civilian guard was wounded, a US soldier said at the scene. Embassy staff said they heard the blast but the mission was unaffected.
Egypt's envoy Ihab el-Sherif was snatched by gunmen off the streets on Saturday, days after Iraq indicated he would become the first Arab diplomat in Baghdad with the full rank of ambassador since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
The Egyptian Government issued a statement urging the safe return of their envoy. Officials said on Monday.
Iraq's al-Qaida wing claimed in a website statement on Tuesday that it had kidnapped the Egyptian ambassador to Iraq.
Bahrain has close ties to the United States as host to a major US naval base in the Gulf that played a role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Though like most Arab states it is ruled by Sunni Muslims, most of its people are Shi'ites.
(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency July 6, 2005)
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