Muslim diplomats targeted

last updated 8 January 2015

Baghdad

The Iraqi government this week asked Arab and other governments not to let a wave of assaults on diplomats deter them from setting up embassies in Baghdad. The group calling itself Al Qaida in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, kidnapped and killed Egypt’s ambassador, Ihab el-Sherif last week. It also claimed responsibility for an attack that wounded a Bahraini diplomat. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari pledged that his government would protect foreign embassies. “Our message to ambassadors and diplomats is to respond to these attacks, threats, blackmail, and intimidation by going ahead and sending diplomats and ambassadors to Baghdad,” Zebari said. But attacks on Iraqis have stepped up as well. A suicide bomber killed 23 people at an Iraqi Army recruiting center this week, and insurgents killed nine Iraqi soldiers at an army checkpoint.