The toll of foreigners killed in Iraq rose again yesterday when seven Spanish intelligence agents were shot and beaten to death and two Japanese died in an ambush.
The Japanese — attacked near Saddam Hussein’s home town of Tikrit — may have been diplomats. A Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in Tokyo that the news of their deaths had come from the country’s embassy in Iraq. Their non-Japanese driver was injured.
The Spanish agents were travelling in a convoy about 56km from the Iraqi capital, near the town of Mahmudiya, when they were attacked by rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire.
The aftermath of the killings was seen by a camera crew from the American NBC network and a security adviser from the British security firm Centurion, who described the scene last night to The Observer .
Jim Maceda and his crew were returning from an assignment when they came across the site of the killings just after 4pm.
‘We were on our way back from Hilla when we came across what we thought at first was an accident,’ said Maceda. ‘As we approached we could see two vehicles, one on the road and another about 20 metres off it.
‘I could see two Iraqis pulling a body headfirst out of the vehicle on the road.I could see Iraqis jumping up and down on top of a third vehicle, shouting ”Death to America”.’
The deaths were confirmed by the Spanish Defence Minister, Federico Trillo, in a national TV address. He said an eighth man was only slightly hurt.The Japanese deaths are likely to complicate efforts by Japan, one of the closest US allies in Asia, to decide when to send non-combat troops to help rebuild Iraq, with voters already growing increasingly nervous about the dangers involved.
The two attacks came hours after the top American 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.
Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez said anti-American insurgents had struck fewer times in the past week than in the previous one. He attributed the reduction to more aggressive tactics used by US forces.
It is a blow to Spain which, with Britain, was one of the staunchest supporters of the invasion to oust Saddam earlier this year. It sent 1 300 soldiers to help maintain order.
In previous attacks, a Spanish diplomat attached to Spain’s intelligence agency was assassinated near his residence in Baghdad on 9 October, and a Spanish navy captain was killed in the truck bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad on 19 August. Yesterday’s attack follows the savage killings of two US servicemen in the city of Mosul earlier last week. They were shot and dragged from their car and beaten with concrete blocks.
Other partners in the US-led coalition have also been targeted. On 12 November, a truck bomb outside the Italian barracks in Nasiriyah killed 19 Italians and 14 others in an apparent attempt to weaken the resolve of Washington’s allies.
Last Thursday insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the Italian mission in Baghdad, causing damage but no injuries. – Guardian Unlimited Â