A framed image of Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein
is seen broken as British troops patrol
the streets
of Basra in Iraq April 7, 2003. Russia
denied on
April 9 Arab and Western media reports
that
Saddam was in the compound of its embassy
in
Baghdad.
(Tony Nicolette/Daily Record/Pool via
Reuters) |
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia denied on
Wednesday Arab and Western media reports that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
was in the compound of its embassy in Baghdad.
"This type of statement is not in any way
true," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko told Russian state
television.
"This is another attempt to place our embassy
in Baghdad under threat," he said, in an apparent reference to protests
on April 2 over U.S. strikes on Baghdad which Moscow said threatened the
lives of its diplomats.
Russia has also blamed the United States
for an incident -- still unexplained -- in which a convoy of Russian diplomats
came under fire as it was leaving Baghdad.
|
