Egypt Foreign Minister: Cairo to re-open Baghdad embassy (Roundup)

Oct 5, 2008, 15:39 GMT

Baghdad- Cairo will re-open its embassy in Baghdad soon, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said during an unannounced visit to Iraq on Sunday, the first visit to the country by a high- level Egyptian official since 2003.

The statement by Abul Gheit came during a press conference which was held after meeting his counterpart Hoshyar Zebari, the Egyptian state Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported.

The last Egyptian envoy to Iraq, Ehab el-Sherif, was kidnapped and killed shortly after he arrived in 2005.

Zebari described the visit of his Egyptian counterpart as 'historic.'

The Iraqi foreign minister said that the visit was a first step towards restoring full Arab diplomatic representation to Iraq and a sign of improved security conditions in Iraq, MENA reported.

Zebari also referred to the political weight of Egypt which according to him will help Iraq reintegrate in the Arab world.

Both foreign ministers insisted that the visit was had been planned well ahead.

Among those accompanying Abul Gheit was Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmy.

Both ministers also met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

The visit came as violence in Iraq continues on Sunday.

In Mosul, eleven people from one family were killed by US fire, an official security source said.

'US troops killed 11 people from one family while conducting a dawn raid on a house in the 17 Tammuz neighborhood, western Mosul,' the source told Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency.

'Iraqi army forces delivered the bodies, which had been placed in nylon bags by the US forces, to the morgue in Mosul city,' the source explained.

A morgue official told VOI that the dead included three women, three children and five men.

A three-year-old child and three-month-old baby reportedly survived the operation.

A media advisor for the Multi-National Force (MNF), al-Miqdad Jibrail, however denied that the US forces killed the family.

Jibrail said that the incident happened when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the house where the US forces were trying to storm.

Jibrail explained to VOI that the incident took place as the US forces were trying to storm a house where five combatants were hiding.

One of the combatants blew himself up with an explosive belt killing all people in the house except two children.

Mosul, the capital city of Nineveh province, lies 405 kilometres north of Baghdad.