Russian Ambassador's Driver Wounded in Iraq Preparing to Return Home

Wounded in Iraq, the Russian ambassador's driver, Vladimir Arkhipov, may be able to return to Moscow in seven or ten days, said the doctor at the Russian embassy in Syria.

He rated Arkhipov's condition as "satisfactory". "The crisis is over, and we look to a further improvement in the man's health," the physician said.

Arkhipov, who is receiving treatment at one of the Damascus hospitals, told RIA Novosti that he felt "normal" and was beginning to prepare going back home.

Arkhipov was wounded in the stomach when a convoy of cars carrying staff of the Russian embassy and journalists came under fire. The convoy was heading from Baghdad towards the Syrian border. In the hospital at the Iraqi town of Falluja he was operated on, and then the Russian ambassador to Iraq, Vladimir Titorenko, had him brought to Damascus.