Iraq says senior diplomat killed in Jordan

One of Iraq's top diplomats in Jordan ( has been stabbed to death, along with his wife and six other people.

Baghdad described it as a cowardly crime and is sending a senior official to Amman.

The eight -- seven of them Iraqis -- were killed at the home of a wealthy Iraqi businessman, himself among the dead.

The Jordanian police say a woman taken to hospital with serious stab wounds told them that four or five people with Iraqi accents took part in the attack.

The diplomat was known to have strong links with the Iraqi intelligence service.

The killings follow an attack on an Iraqi diplomat in Amman earlier this month and the BBC correspondent in Baghdad says it will further strain relations between the two countries, already at loggerheads over the execution by Iraq late last year of four Jordanians for smuggling.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service