Bloomberg : Polish Ambassador Hurt, Bodyguard Dies in Baghdad Convoy Attack

Polish Ambassador Hurt, Bodyguard Dies in Baghdad Convoy Attack

By Katya Andrusz | Bloomberg | October 3, 2007

A convoy carrying Poland's ambassador to Iraq, General Edward Pietrzyk, was targeted in a Baghdad bomb attack that killed a Polish bodyguard and left the envoy hurt.

There were three blasts in today's assault, which may have been aimed directly at Pietrzyk, the Polish foreign minister's spokesman, Robert Szaniawski, said in a phone interview in Warsaw. Pietrzyk, who has headed Poland's diplomatic mission to Iraq since April, was taken to a U.S. military hospital for treatment of his injuries, which weren't serious, Szaniawski said. The bodyguard wasn't identified by the ministry.

The attack near the Polish Embassy, before 10 a.m. local time, comes as Poland's military role in Iraq grows increasingly unpopular at home. Some 80 percent of Poles are opposed to the mission, an August poll for the Warsaw-based Center for Public Research found. In January 2004, 53 percent were against the operation.

``Withdrawing in the face of terrorists is the worst possible solution,'' Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski told reporters in Warsaw after the attack. ``I'm certain that the Poles are a brave people and won't desert the field of battle.''

Arabic-language al-Arabiya television said there were two deaths in the bombing of the convoy and that a total of four people were injured.

Twenty-one Polish soldiers have died in Iraq since Poland took command of multinational forces in the south in August 2003 as part of the U.S.-led coalition, the Defense Ministry said. There are currently about 900 Polish troops stationed in Iraq.

To contact the reporter on this story: Katya Andrusz in Warsaw at kandrusz@bloomberg.net