Officials: Iranian diplomat seized by gunmen wearing army uniforms in central Baghdad

(AP) Gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms seized an Iranian diplomat as he drove through central Baghdad, officials said Tuesday. Tehran blamed the United States for the abduction, which threatened to raise already sharp tensions between the two rivals.

One Iraqi government official also said the Iranian diplomat was detained Sunday by a special Iraqi army unit that reports directly to the U.S. military. But a military spokesman denied any U.S. troops or Iraqis that report to them were involved.

"We've checked with our units and it was not an MNF-I (Multi-National Forces _ Iraq) unit that participated in that event," military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said.

Iraqis also faced more violence on Tuesday as U.S. and Iraqi forces set up more checkpoints in preparation for a security sweep in Baghdad amid complaints that the operation was moving too slowly.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged that preparations for the crackdown were off to a slow start.

"The operations will unite us and we will take action soon, God willing, even though I have the feeling that we have been late and this delay has started to give a negative message," he said in a meeting with military commanders shown on Iraqi state television. "I hope that more efforts will be exerted and more speed exerted in carrying out and achieving all the preparations to start the operations."

The Iranian government condemned the seizure of Jalal Sharafi, the second secretary at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, saying he was seized Sunday by gunmen who "operate under the supervision of the American forces in Iraq," the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran strongly condemns this aggressive act which is in violation of international law," IRNA quoted Hosseini as saying. "Iran holds American forces in Iraq responsible for the safety and life of the Iranian diplomat."

The incident comes as tensions have been rising between Iran and the United States and the Shiite-led Iraqi government has shown increasing impatience with both sides for letting their disagreements spill over the border, with the U.S. detentions of at least eight Iranians in recent months.

The White House also has authorized U.S. troops in Iraq to kill or capture Iranian agents deemed to be a threat, saying evidence was mounting that Iran is supporting terrorists inside Iraq and is a major supplier of bombs and other weapons used to target U.S. forces. Tehran has denied the charges.

The Iranian ambassador to Baghdad, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, said the gunmen used American vehicles and the diplomat's seizure appeared to be "within the framework of U.S. president's order to step up encounters with Iranians" in Iraq, Iranian state television reported.

He also told state TV that al-Maliki had appointed a team to investigate the fate of the Iranian diplomat.

Garver, the U.S. military spokesman, said the incident was being investigated but the military had not found anything to indicate its units were involved.

An official with the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the information, said the diplomat was heading to check on the planned opening of an Iranian bank Sunday in the central Karradah neighborhood when he was seized by men wearing Iraqi army uniforms.

The Iraqi government official said Iraqi soldiers in two vehicles intercepted a car carrying the diplomat at 6 p.m. Sunday in the predominantly Shiite area, then placed him in one of their vehicles that sped away.

Iraqi police, apparently suspecting that a kidnapping was taking place, opened fire on the second vehicle and detained the occupants, according to the official. He added that the men who had been detained were released Monday into the custody of members of the unit, who showed official badges and said they need to transfer the suspects to another police station.

The Iraqi troops were part of an army unit that receives direct orders from the U.S. military, the official said, declining to be identified because of the sensitivity of the information.

Two other Iraqi officials said earlier that the diplomat was kidnapped by gunmen in Karradah, which has been hit by several recently bombings, and they expected negotiations to start to secure his release.

The U.S. Embassy spokesman said he could not confirm the reports.

"There appear to be conflicting accounts of this alleged incident and we are in the process of trying to determine the facts," the spokesman, Lou Fintor, said.

The incident comes nearly a month after U.S. detained five Iranians in northern Iraq and accused them of having links to an Iranian military faction blamed for funding and arming Iraqi militants.

Two diplomats also were detained in a Dec. 21 roundup of a group of 10 suspects. The diplomats were interrogated and released to Iranian officials eight days later.

The United States and Iran have regarded each other with distrust and suspicion since the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by militant students. Most recently, tensions have flared over U.S.-led efforts to isolate Iran and force it to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons program. Iran says it wants to use the technology to generate nuclear power.

A U.S. Marine was killed in fighting in the volatile Anbar province on Monday, the military said Tuesday.

At least nine people were killed in bombs and mortar attacks nationwide, including a parked car bomb that exploded in southern Baghdad, killing three civilians and wounding three others, police said.

New checkpoints were set up overnight by Iraqi soldiers and police mainly Shiite southeastern neighborhood of New Baghdad and at the entrances to the Shiite slum of Sadr City, a stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia that has been blamed for much of the sectarian violence in the capital.

In other violence Tuesday, according to police:

_ A roadside bomb struck a police patrol in eastern Baghdad, killing one policeman and wounding three.

_ A police convoy was hit by a roadside bomb, followed by an ambush in the northern city of Mosul, killing one policeman and wounding three.

_ A mortar attack hit a residential area in Fallujah, killing three people and wounding seven.

_ A roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol in the Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding three soldiers and two civilians.

___

Associated Press Writer Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.