Condoleezza Rice snubbed by Moscow

US National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice ended her visit to Russia on Monday without meeting the Russian President, Vladmir Putin, signifying that the relations between the two countries may have turned bitterly sour after Russian diplomats fleeing Bagdhad were fired upon by US troops on Sunday.

Akram Khuzam, Al Jazeera satellite television’s Moscow correspondent described the visit of Rice as “fruitless” since it achieved little in easing the row between the two countries over the Iraq war.

U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice (L) smiles as she meets with Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov late April 6, 2003

Russia has steadfastly opposed the US-led war in Iraq. Sunday’s attack on Russian diplomats have only complicated matters further.

Meanwhile, the Russian ambassador to Iraq accused US forces of deliberately shooting at his convoy as it was fleeing the war-stricken country for Syria, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

The report, filed from the Iraqi-Syrian border, said ambassador Vladimir Titorenko was lightly injured, with his arm hurt in the attack.

"The Russian ambassador to Iraq Vladimir Titorenko thinks that the column of Russian cars, filled with diplomats and journalists, was deliberately attacked by the Americans," RIA Novosti wrote.

Russian news reports had earlier said that the convoy was carrying Russian flags as it left Baghdad.

Al-Jazeera TV reported today that bullets taken from wounded Russian diplomats hurt in Sunday’s crossfire while they were attempting to flee battle-scarred Baghdad have been found to have American markings.

Quoting unnamed sources, the channel reported that the removed bullets were all American made.

The Russian ambassador was among a group of five diplomats fired upon and injured on Sunday while they were trying to flee the Iraqi capital. Though quick to express its deep concern over the incident, the US has so far denied any responsibility, denying the presence of its troops in the vicinity of the spot where the incident occurred.

But Russian journalists travelling together with the diplomats reported that the convoy had clearly stepped into a cross-fire between US and Iraqi troops.

Alexander Minakov, a reporter for Russia's Rossiya television furnished a dramatic account of the event according to which the convoy wandered into a confrontation between Iraqi and US armour and encountered "terrible, fierce shooting".

"We'd already got to a place where Iraqi forces had their positions - tanks, armoured personnel carriers, armoured fighting vehicles, artillery guns, trenches," he said.

"And just as we were getting past, the Iraqi positions absolutely unexpectedly came under what was just extremely heavy fire. A shell hit a tank 150 metres from us and the tank exploded. Then shells started bursting 50 to 70 metres away, and there was massive fire from automatic rifles.

"Naturally, the Iraqis began to respond, and so we ended up in the crossfire. The first three cars with diplomats were practically riddled. Our ambassador, Vladimir Titorenko, was just lucky: a bullet hit the windshield and flew between him and the driver. But, unfortunately, three members of staff got injured, one of them pretty heavily - he got a bullet wound in the stomach." ---Al Jazeera Net