The ministry was ready to take all Russians away even Thursday, but some were working in outlying parts of the country, and need time to get to Baghdad. Safe travel in Iraq is now possible only in the daytime.
Several ministry staff doctors and rescuers are flying to Iraq on the same aircraft.
After the company personnel leaves, no Russians but embassy people and reporters will stay in Iraq.
Two men are in a bad state after an attack on a company bus this morning. They cannot be removed from an Iraqi hospital they are in. When they get better, the men will, most probably, be taken to an American hospital to stay there till they can go home, said our interviewee.
As the Russian Embassy in Iraq said to Novosti, an unidentified man shot at the bus out of a car in a hit-and-run, at about half past seven this morning. Two Russians died. Five Russians, a driver, guards and another several Iraqis were injured.
The bus was carrying 15 or 17 Interenergoservice employees with luggage from Baghdad to their cantonment near the Dora thermal power plant, ten kilometres south of the city.
