(Adds U.S. finds details on foreign fighters, Najaf pilgrims)

By Yasser Faisal and Mussab Al-Khairalla

BAGHDAD, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Poland's ambassador to Iraq was lightly wounded in a triple bomb attack on his diplomatic convoy in central Baghdad on Wednesday which killed a Polish bodyguard and an Iraqi passer-by, officials said.

Poland, a staunch U.S. ally which has around 1,000 troops stationed in southern Iraq, vowed to maintain its military presence, saying withdrawing forces in response to the attack would be "the worst possible mistake".

"It was an assassination attempt. Our three cars drove onto mines," said a foreign ministry spokesman in Warsaw.

"A few people are wounded. Our ambassador, Gen. Edward Pietrzyk scrambled out (of the wreckage) on his own."

Iraqi police initially said one passer-by was killed in the blasts and five people were wounded, including three embassy officials. A Polish Interior Ministry spokesman later said a Polish bodyguard died in hospital.

Pietrzyk is the former head of Poland's defence forces, which joined the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein in 2003.

A majority of Poles believe the troops should be withdrawn but Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who faces elections on Oct. 21, rejected calls for a pullout.

"Desertion is always the worst option," he told reporters. "This is a difficult situation, but those who became engaged and were there for years and then withdraw are making the worst possible mistake."

The explosions hit Pietrzyk's convoy on a busy road in the Arasat district of central Baghdad, not far from the embassy.

Reuters Television pictures showed a European looking man with his head, leg and hands bandaged being evacuated in a helicopter which landed in the street after it was blocked off by Iraqi security forces.

Iraqi soldiers said the man, who was surrounded by security guards and troops, was the Polish ambassador. They said other wounded people had been taken by vehicle to the heavily fortified Green Zone for treatment.

Three cars appeared to have been hit in the attack. Two of them were burnt out and the third, a sports utility vehicle with shaded windows, carried what appeared to be a red and white Polish flag, a witness said.

DIPLOMATS TARGETED

Several diplomats have been killed by suspected al Qaeda militants in Baghdad since the invasion four years ago.

In August 2003 a truck bomb outside United Nations headquarters in the Iraqi capital killed 22 people including U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello. Since then diplomats from Russia, Japan, Iran and Egypt have also been killed.

In recent months Iraqi security forces, backed by thousands of extra U.S. troops, have imposed a security crackdown across the Iraqi capital in an effort to curb sectarian fighting and militant attacks.

Both Baghdad and Washington say their campaign has cut the violence and government data released this week showed a 50 percent fall in violent civilian deaths across Iraq last month.

In Najaf, 30,000 Iraqi security personnel deployed as thousands of Shi'ite pilgrims marked the anniversary of the death more than 13 centuries ago of Imam Ali, Prophet Mohammad's revered son-in-law and first Imam of Shi'ite Islam. It was the first major religious ceremony since clashes between Shi'ite militias killed 52 people in nearby Kerbala in late August.

The U.S. military said on Wednesday it had discovered a list of some 500 al Qaeda militants recruited to fight in Iraq from a range of European, Middle East and north African countries.

Spokesman Major-General Kevin Bergner said the information was unearthed last month when a militant involved in smuggling fighters across the border from Syria was killed.

U.S. soldiers found 143 biographies of foreign recruits, with personal data, photographs, their recruiters' names, date of entry into Iraq and the route they took, Bergner said.

"They came from a range of foreign countries that included, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Algeria, Oman, Yemen, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom," he said. (Additional reporting by Adam Jasser, Chris Borowski and Dagmara Leszkowicz in Warsaw)

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