Seven Spaniards and two Japanese die in Iraq attacks

3.00pm - By LUKE BAKER

BAGHDAD - Seven Spanish intelligence agents were killed in Iraq today in an attack on their unmarked vehicles south of Baghdad, Spanish Defence Minister Federico Trillo said.

In Japan, the Foreign Ministry said two Japanese diplomats were also killed in an apparent ambush near Tikrit, hometown of Iraq's ousted leader Saddam Hussein about 180km north of the capital.

Reports of the killings came hours after the top military commander in Iraq said attacks against US forces had fallen sharply in recent weeks, despite figures showing November to be the deadliest month for US troops since the war began in March.

Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez said anti-American insurgents had struck fewer times in the past seven days than in the previous week and put the reduction down to more aggressive tactics by US forces.

A Reuters television crew at the scene of the attack on the Spaniards about 28 miles from Baghdad filmed a burned-out vehicle surrounded with spent shell casings and scattered bits of flesh.

Trillo said in a nationally televised address that another agent had been slightly hurt in the attack by guerrillas using rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles.

The attacks on both the Spaniards and the Japanese are likely to embarrass their respective governments.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar defied public opinion at home to send around 1,300 peacekeepers to Iraq after strongly endorsing the US and British decision to invade the country on March 20.

The ambush on the Japanese, in which a non-Japanese driver was wounded, is likely to complicate efforts by Japan, Washington's closest Asian ally, to decide whether to send non-combat troops to help rebuild Iraq. Voters are increasingly nervous about the dangers involved.

But Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said his country still planned to assist in Iraq's reconstruction. She said Japan would watch the situation closely to decide on the troops.

"This incident is unforgivable," she said. "There is no wavering in our country's basic stance to actively carry out reconstruction aid for Iraq without giving in to terrorism."

She named the diplomats as 45-year-old Katsuhiko Oku and Masamori Inoue, 30.

A cameraman from Britain's Sky News television said in Baghdad after he and Sky reporter David Bowden stumbled across the ambush on the Spaniards near Hilla: "There were three bodies on the side of the road and one in the grass island between the two sides of the highway. The lead vehicle was very burned and the second vehicle was burned...

"People said they were CIA. Maybe they did not know they were Spanish...Two Iraqi policemen on motorcycles drove by and did not stop at all at the scene."

Bowden said: "I got the impression it was an IED attack (improvised explosive device). It just seemed like they just waited for a...convoy to drive by and they attacked.

"There was a lot of traffic. There was one Iraqi youth standing with his foot on one of the bodies and then a child of about nine started to pretend he was kicking it.

"Some of the men were wearing checkred Arab scarves across their faces. People around the bodies were chanting 'We sacrifice our souls and blood for you Saddam'."

The Spanish force is part of a Polish-led multinational contingent responsible for security in south-central Iraq.

Mariano Rajoy, Aznar's choice to succeed him as leader of the centre-right ruling party, said: "This will not stop us...from our commitments to the Iraqi people."

The Socialist opposition, which consistently opposed the US-led invasion, expressed solidarity with the armed forces. A minute of silence was held at the start of several televised Spanish soccer league matches.

But shouts of "No to war!" could be heard at one stadium in Madrid when the tribute ended.

Spain had earlier lost two other military men: an intelligence officer attached to the Spanish embassy gunned down in the street, and a Spanish naval officer who was among 22 people killed in a suicide bomb attack on the UN mission.

Just over two weeks ago, 19 Italians were killed in an attack on a military police barracks in southern Iraq, the worst military disaster for Italy since World War two.

Britain has lost 20 soldiers in military action. A Polish army officer has also died.

Since Washington declared major combat over on May 1, 185 US soldiers have been killed in action, bringing the total of US military deaths -- combat and non-combat -- since the start of the war to 436, according to the Pentagon.


- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq