BAGHDAD, July 5 (Xinhuanet) -- In a new wave of insurgent attacks Tuesday, foreign diplomats in Baghdad became the target, with the top Bahrain envoy wounded and a top Pakistani diplomat escaped unhurt.

    Unknown gunmen opened fire on Hassan al-Ansari, the charge d'affaires of Bahrain's diplomatic mission to Iraq, in Harithiyah neighborhood in western Baghdad, a police officer at the scene told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

    Ansari was hit by several bullets before being evacuated to Yarmouk hospital for treatment, said the police officer.

    Hours later, the Pakistani envoy to Iraq escaped unhurt when unknown gunmen in two cars shot at his convoy in western Mansour in Baghdad.

    The gunmen fled the scene after the bodyguards returned fire, police said. Nobody was hurt in the attack.

    Tuesday's attacks targeting diplomats in Baghdad came three days after the abduction of the Egyptian envoy Ihab el-Sharif, whose whereabouts remains unclear.

    In other attacks on Tuesday, a powerful blast rocked the capital near the Iranian embassy.

    "The blast took place at about 10:15 a.m. (0615 GMT), when a bomb or several bombs blew up near the Iranian embassy, wounding acivilian and damaging two vehicles," a police colonel, who named himself Ammar, from Salhiyah police station in the area, told Xinhua.

    US and Iraqi forces cordoned off the scene, some 200 meters away from the Iranian embassy.

    It was not immediately clear whether the target was the embassyitself or the heavily fortified Green Zone nearby, which houses the US embassy and Iraqi government offices.

    Besides attacks on diplomats, unknown gunmen also ambushed a minibus with seven airport employees aboard in western Baghdad, killing four women and wounding three others early Tuesday.

    Since the Shiite-dominated government was formed in late April,insurgents have mounted attacks across the country and over 1,400 people have been killed.

    The effort to woo the Sunnis for the country's political process seems to gain progress.

    Dr. Adnan al-Dulami, spokesman for the General Conference for Sunnis in Iraq, called on Sunnis on Monday to organize themselves and take part in the coming elections.

    The Sunnis, making up around 20 percent of the Iraqi population,chose to stay away from the Jan. 30 election, which resulted in its lack of presence in the current interim Iraqi government largely dominated by Shiites and Kurds.

    The political unbalance is believed to have further boosted violence by the insurgents. Enditem