U.S.: Russians Altered Route From Baghdad

[thedrifter]

Apr 8, 11:27 AM EDT

U.S.: Russians Altered Route From Baghdad

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
Associated Press Writer


MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian diplomats who came under fire as they fled Baghdad apparently had changed their route from one that American officials had deemed safer, the U.S. ambassador to Moscow said Tuesday.

Russia's ambassador to Iraq, Vladimir Titorenko, has accused American troops of shooting at his convoy Sunday outside Baghdad, wounding at least four people, one seriously.

U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow told Echo of Moscow radio Tuesday that the Russians altered their plans without informing American officials. It was still unclear who was responsible for the shooting, American officials said.

"It is already apparent that the Russian ambassador may have decided for reasons we don't know to take a route different from the one we recommended and instead to follow the advice of the Iraqis," Vershbow said.

"At least in the initial departure from Baghdad there was a shift of the route, perhaps because of some firefights ahead of the column. We don't know fully what were the reasons, but it did seem to deviate from the original, prescribed route," he said.

Vershbow said the United States did all it could to minimize the risk to the convoy "while recognizing it was going to pass through areas that were not under the total control of American forces."

The business daily Kommersant reported Tuesday that the Russian diplomats had departed from Baghdad only after Secretary of State Colin Powell "repeatedly and persistently" demanded their evacuation.

Kommersant quoted an unidentified Russian Defense Ministry official who said Washington had demanded they leave the embassy because it suspected a global positioning system jamming device was located on the Russian grounds and was deflecting U.S. precision weapons.

Moscow denied the existence of such a device, the newspaper said. The Defense and Foreign Ministries declined to comment on the report.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman said, "We're not aware of any GPS jamming equipment being on the territory of the Russian Embassy in Iraq."

Titorenko and most of the diplomats crossed into Tanef, Syria, on Monday afternoon and were being flown to Moscow on a Russian government plane Tuesday.

One diplomat underwent surgery and was at an Iraqi-controlled hospital Monday in Fallujah, 30 miles west of Baghdad. Another stayed with him.

Sunday's shooting came as Russian and American officials tried to heal rifts over the war, which Russia opposes. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice tried to assure President Vladimir Putin on Monday that Washington values its partnership with Moscow.

Sempers,

Roger