Mugabe backers assault US, British diplomat convoy

The diplomats were looking into political violence before a presidential election runoff, and the incident was the latest sign of how tense Zimbabwe is as Mugabe prepares to face an opposition leader who led voting in the first round.

Opposition and human rights groups accuse Mugabe of orchestrating violence to ensure he wins re-election amid growing unpopularity for his heavy-handed rule and the country's economic collapse. Police held the president's runoff rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, for nine hours Wednesday.

Late Thursday, the government ordered aid groups to halt operations in Zimbabwe. Millions of Zimbabweans depend on food handouts from such groups and the government as the economy crumbles, and critics have accused Mugabe's regime of seeking to take control of food aid to use as a political weapon.

Officials in Washington and London said the diplomats were returning from a trip to investigate violence in northern Zimbabwe when they were stopped at a roadblock on the outskirts of Harare, the capital. The convoy was halted for some six hours before it was allowed to drive on.

U.S. Ambassador James McGee, who was not with the convoy, said police and military officers detained the diplomats in an "illegal action." He said they were assisted by a crowd of "war veterans," a group whose members purportedly fought in Zimbabwe's independence war and are Mugabe's fiercest and most violent supporters.

"The war veterans threatened to burn the vehicles with my people inside unless they got out of the vehicles and accompanied the police to a station nearby," McGee told CNN.