"We will not evacuate them for the time being, we will see how the situation develops," Saltanov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

The deputy minister said there are 12 Russian diplomats still in the Iraqi capital.

On Tuesday a plane landed in Moscow from the Syrian capital Damascus carrying 12 people including three Russian diplomats who were wounded when their convoy left Baghdad on Sunday, Interfax reported.

Russian ambassador to Iraq Vladimir Titorenko, who was slightly hurt in the incident along with four others, alleged that US forces had deliberately opened fire on his convoy.

He headed back to Iraq Tuesday to assist an embassy driver who was badly wounded in the incident who had been hospitalised at Fallujah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad,, a Russian diplomat in Damascus said.

An unidentified diplomatic source told the Interfax news agency in Moscow that the ambassador would be driving the wounded driver together with a Russian diplomat who had stayed to look after him to the Jordanian border.

SPACE.WIRE