3 Pinoy soldiers wounded in Iraq

Three Filipino soldiers have been wounded in an ambush by Iraqi militants on a military convoy in northern Iraq, the Philippines’ special envoy to the Middle East said Wednesday.

The Filipinos were travelling with US forces in a seven-vehicle convoy when they were waylaid Tuesday by "terrorists" near the village of Talayyi in Babil province south of Baghdad, ambassador Roy Cimatu told reporters here.

The group had been travelling to meet Iraqi officials to officially hand over a school they had built, he said.

"They were with four US military personnel who were supposed to document the turnover," Cimatu said. "Only Filipinos were injured, their vehicle was ahead of the convoy."

He said the wounded Filipino soldiers, who are among the 51-man humanitarian contingent serving with US forces, were airlifted to a military hospital and were out of danger.

The Philippines had earlier halted the deployment of civilian workers to Iraq after a Filipino truck driver was killed in a roadside bombing in April and a worker was killed in a mortar attack on a US military base in May.

Apart from the Filipino soldiers there are more than 3,000 civilian Filipino workers in Iraq, mostly employed in US military installations. — AFP