US warns coalition may bomb RP embassy in Baghdad

The United States embassy in Manila warned the Philippine government yesterday to brace for possible bomb attacks on foreign embassies in Iraq by coalition forces.

The warning came in the wake of reports that Iraqi soldiers are seeking refuge in diplomatic missions in Baghdad and that they are using the posts as storage areas for weapons of mass destruction.

A diplomatic source said the US Embassy made a strong warning to the Philippine government through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) regarding the situation in Baghdad.

The source noted all foreign diplomatic posts in the Iraqi capital are vulnerable amid the intense fighting between the US-led coalition troops and soldiers loyal to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Philippine diplomatic posts in Iraq are located in Masbah, Mansoor and Jadiriya in Baghdad. The Philippine Embassy is located in the upscale Jadiriya district — a few meters away from Baghdad University, where chemical and biological weapons are believed to be hidden. It is also close to the Palestine Hotel housing foreign journalists covering the war.

A Spanish broadcaster for television station Telecinco and a Reuters cameraman were killed after the hotel came under fire from US troops Tuesday.

US Central Command in Qatar said a US tank fired a single round at the hotel after soldiers were attacked from the building with grenades and small-arms fire. Journalists denied that there were any snipers in the hotel at the time.

Although the Philippine Embassy was vacated by its staff, headed by charge d’affaires Grace Escalante after hostilities commenced, equipment and records were left behind by foreign service personnel.

US-led coalition forces have entered Baghdad, but they are fighting fierce resistance put up by the elite Iraqi Republican Guard.

Asked to comment on the US warning, a senior DFA official said the Philippines could ask for a public apology and compensation from the US in the event the diplomatic mission in Baghdad is "mistakenly" bombed by coalition forces.

"We could always do what China did when it asked for a public apology and compensation for the damage" wrought to the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia after US forces bombed it in the 1990s because they used the "wrong" maps, the DFA official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Much as the Philippines wants to be on the "safer" side of the conflict in the Persian Gulf, neither the US nor Britain can guarantee that diplomatic missions of foreign governments supporting the coalition strike on Iraq will be spared in the battle to oust Saddam from power and take control of Baghdad.