Russia staff defy Iraq withdrawal

Hundreds of Russian workers have now left Iraq

Around 50 Russian workers are staying on in Iraq despite an evacuation of nearly 200 of their colleagues.

The Russian government has raised concerns that the workers are remaining in the "risky" environment.

A plane carrying 89 Interenergoservice workers left Baghdad on Friday, a day after 90 others flew home.

Interenergoservis, which has been working on rebuilding Iraq's power facilities, decided to withdraw after four of its workers were killed.

Several hundred of the firm's workers had already left Iraq after previous attacks, but more than 240 had stayed behind despite official warnings.

The leadership of the company is now working to establish the reasons why so many people are not returning to Russia Aleksandr Rybinskiy, Interenergoservis

The further pullout was sparked by last week's ambush, when two Russians and two Iraqis died as they were being bussed to work at al-Dawra power station.

Some of those injured in the attack are expected to stay on in Iraq for treatment.

Earlier on Friday there was confusion about how many Russian workers were staying.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said 80 were staying on, an Interenergoservis manager in Iraq said 50 and a company spokesman in Russia said they all should be returning.

Risky

Managing director Aleksandr Rybinskiy later told Itar-Tass that 60 people had stayed behind but "the leadership of the company is now working to establish the reasons why so many people are not returning to Russia".

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko warned that "the further presence of Russian specialists in Iraq is extremely risky".

"We regret the company's decision," he said.

Contractors' tough choices

Russia is not part of the US-led coalition, but has many workers in Iraq trying to restore the energy sector.

Correspondents say Russian experts have played a major role in reviving the Iraqi energy industry and other parts of the infrastructure.

But last month Moscow evacuated some 365 citizens of ex-Soviet countries after a spate of kidnappings of foreign nationals.

About 300 workers chose to stay behind - the great majority of them were Interenergoservis workers.

A worker from Interenergoservis died earlier in Iraq, in a 10 May ambush in which two colleagues were kidnapped.

The two were released a week later.

Three Russian and five Ukrainian employees of the company were kidnapped last month but released the next day.

The company evacuated 109 employees - about a third of its workforce - after the kidnappings, but had vowed to stay in Iraq despite the government warnings.