Attack on ambassador fails to sway Poland

Baghdad: Poland's ambassador to Iraq was wounded in a triple bomb attack on his diplomatic convoy in central Baghdad yesterday, which killed a Polish bodyguard and an Iraqi passer-by, officials said.

A determined Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said following the attack that Poland would not withdraw the 900 troops it has stationed southwest of Baghdad.

Iraqi police initially said one passer-by was killed in the blasts and five people were wounded, including three embassy officials. A Polish Interior Ministry spokesman later said a Polish bodyguard died in hospital. "Our ambassador, General Edward Pietrzyk scrambled out [of the wreckage] on his own," a Polish statement said.

The attack came as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki said amid mounting anger yesterday that Blackwater should leave the country because of the mountain of evidence against the under-fire US security firm. The House of Representatives is expected to vote on legislation that could see US contractors who commit felonies in Iraq and Afghanistan being prosecuted in US federal courts, a human rights activist said yesterday.