BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraq and Jordan engaged in a tit-for-tat withdrawal of ambassadors yesterday in a growing dispute over Shiite Muslim claims that Jordan is failing to block terrorists from entering Iraq, while American forces killed 24 insurgents in a clash south of Baghdad.

An American convoy was traveling through the Salman Pak area, 20 miles southeast of Baghdad, when it was attacked, American officials said. The military returned fire and killed 24 militants. Seven militants and six soldiers were also wounded.

No further details were available about the attack or the conditions of the wounded soldiers.

The clash was among the largest involving insurgents since the January 30 elections, and came on a day of bloody attacks by militants throughout the country.

Yesterday’s diplomatic row erupted even as a Jordanian court sentenced in absentia Iraq’s most feared terrorist – who was born in Jordan – to a 15-year prison term.

As news emerged of the largely symbolic sentencing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose whereabouts are unknown, his Al Qaeda in Iraq organization claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed a top anti-corruption official in northern Mosul. Mr. al-Zarqawi already has been sentenced to death twice by Jordan.

Yesterday’s events capped a week of rising tensions that included a protest in which Shiite demonstrators raised the Iraqi flag over the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad and claims by the Shiite clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance that Jordan was allowing terrorists to slip into Iraq.

“Iraqis are feeling very bitter over what happened. We decided, as the Iraqi government, to recall the Iraqi ambassador from Amman to discuss this,” Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told the Associated Press.

Jordan acted first, when the foreign minister Hani al-Mulqi announced his charge d’affaires in Baghdad had been recalled to Amman.

“We are hoping that the Iraqi police will devise a plan to protect the embassy,” Mr. al-Mulqi said. “Meanwhile, we have asked the charge d’affaires to come back because he was living in the embassy.”

He added that other Jordanian diplomats will remain in Baghdad because they do not live in the embassy compound.

Both countries said the officials were being recalled for “consultations,” leaving open the possibility for their return.

Shiites began holding protests after the Iraqi government on Monday condemned celebrations allegedly held by the family of a Jordanian man suspected of carrying out a February 28 terrorist attack that killed 125 people in Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad. Nearly all the victims were Shiite police and army recruits.

The Jordanian daily Al-Ghad reported that Raed Mansour al-Banna carried out the attack, the single deadliest of the Iraqi insurgency. The newspaper later issued a correction, however, saying it was not known where Mr. al-Banna carried out an assault.

Mr. al-Banna’s family has denied his involvement in the Hillah attack, saying Mr. al-Banna carried out a different suicide bombing in Iraq, and Mr. al-Zarqawi’s group claimed responsibility for the Hillah bombing.

A military court sentenced Mr. al-Zarqawi to 15 years in jail and imprisoned an associate for three years for planning an attack on the Jordanian Embassy, the offices of the Jordanian military attache, and unspecified American targets, all in Iraq.

America has issued a $25 million reward for Mr. al-Zarqawi, who was previously sentenced to death twice in Jordan: once for the October 28, 2002, killing of American diplomat Laurence Foley, and again for planning to attack American and Israeli targets during 1999 New Year’s celebrations in the kingdom.