clipped from: www.mcclatchydc.com BAGHDAD — Three employees of the Iranian embassy and their Iraqi driver were shot and wounded as they traveled Thursday to the Shiite Kadhemiyah Shrine in northern Baghdad.
As the Iranian men pulled into a Shiite area in Baghdad on the way to the shrine, two men on a motorbike pulled up to the vehicle and riddled their car with bullets, Iranian and Iraqi officials said.
The United States has long accused Iran of funding, training and supplying weapons to Shiite militias in Iraq. In recent weeks the Iraqi government also criticized Iran before distancing itself from the U.S. accusations.
"It seems as if they were waiting for them," Saghir said of the gunmen after speaking to the Iranian embassy.
"We don't know who did this," said the spokesman, Manoucher Taslimi. "But we know there are many sides in Iraq who do not want good relations between Iran and Iraq."