Tehran is blaming Washington for the kidnapping of an Iranian diplomat in Baghdad. Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms abducted the senior diplomat on Sunday, it emerged today.
An Iraqi official said the second secretary at the Iranian embassy in Baghdad was snatched in the central Karrada district by 30 gunmen.
They were wearing uniforms of a special operations unit that often works with US military forces in Iraq, the official said.
An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed the kidnapping of Jalal Sharafi, the Iranian Students News Agency said. He said the kidnapping happened outside a branch of Iran's Bank Melli.
The gunmen drove in four-wheel-drive vehicles and a BMW and were wearing uniforms of the Iraqi 36th Commando Battalion.
He said police close to the scene opened fire on the gunmen and arrested six of them. Later, another security force came to the police station and said they were taking the six to the Serious Crimes building in Baghdad, but the police discovered later they never arrived there.
Iran's ambassador to Iraq, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi, today blamed Washington for Sunday's kidnapping.
"It seems that this terrorist act has been committed in the framework of Bush's order and with the goal of escalating the confrontation with Iran," Mr Qomi was quoted as saying.
US forces in Iraq have arrested a number of Iranians, including some diplomats, in the past two months, and are still holding five.
Washington accuses Tehran of funding and training militants fighting US forces in Iraq. President Bush vowed in January to disrupt what he called the "flow of support" from Tehran to Iraqi militants.
Tehran denies the US claims and blames US troops for the violence and for inflaming tensions between Iraq's majority Shia and once dominant Sunni Arabs.
The governments of Iran and Iraq, which resumed diplomatic relations following the ousting of Saddam Hussein, have demanded that the United States release Iranians seized in previous raids.