Posted on 04/06/2003 10:25:05 AM PDT by HAL9000
MOSCOW (AP) -- A Russian journalist who was in a convoy that came under fire while leaving Baghdad on Sunday said the vehicles were caught in a crossfire after passing Iraqi positions on the city's outskirts.The convoy containing the Russian ambassador to Iraq and some two dozen diplomats and journalists was passing Iraqi positions on Baghdad's edge when the positions came under heavy fire, Rossiya correspondent Alexander Minakov said on the state-run channel. The Iraqi forces answered automatic weapons fire and the convoy was caught in the crossfire, he said.
Minkaov, speaking from Iraq's border with Jordan, where he and several other journalists travlled after the incident, said three dipomats were wounded, including one who received a serious stomach wound. He did not say whether it appeared the shots that hit the convoy came from U.S.-led coaltion forces or Iraqi forces.
However, he said two bullets removed by Iraqi dpoctors from the diplomats's stomach came from a M-16. He also said it was unclear why the coalition forces would open fire on the Iraqi positions when the Russian convoy was close by, since the United States had been aware of the evacuation plans in advance.
Minakov said one bullet hit the windshield of the vehicle Russian Ambassador Alexander Titorennko was travelling in and passed between the ambassador and the driver. In Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said the ambassador was not injured but had some scratches.
Yakovenko said five people were injured, including one who was operated on, but that their livces were not in danger.
Minakov said that after the convoy of eight vehicles came under fire for about half an hour, the Russians treated the injured on the spot and prepared to move further when a "huge column" of coalition armor passed in front of them. The Russians held out flags, hoping for help, but the column passed by, he said.
After that, the convoy made its way to Fallujah, where some of the injured were treated and Titorenko decided that the diplomats would remain overnight. Minakov said that the journalists from the convoy - his TV crew and two others - decided to push on and reached the Jordanian border later Sunday.
Full justice requires their deaths in combat because they directed the Iraqis in killing our guys, but this is a start.
Consider it a shot across the bow, commies. Anymore hostile acts against us and you will get shot. In the meantime we'll just pass you by to rot in your own corruption. You asked for it; now get used to it.
I've a jpg of a titty in a ringer, but I better not.
In a stunning moment of brotherly sodidarity, Iraqi forces and American forces declared a tempory ceasefire, and both sides then proceeded to pour automatic weapons fire onto the Russian convoy.
It was unknown if it was a coicidence, but numerous coalition forces were seen holding their noses and yelling "skunks."
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