The Hindu : Resistance fighters unleash wave of attacks

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 01, 2003

International

International

Resistance fighters unleash wave of attacks

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA Nov. 30. In a fresh wave of attacks, apparently meant to dissuade foreigners from supporting the U.S. occupation of Iraq, resistance forces gunned down two Japanese diplomats hours after killing seven Spanish intelligence officers on Saturday. Resistance fighters also shot dead two American soldiers near the border with Syria in an ambush on their convoy.

Unidentified gunmen killed the Japanese diplomats when they stopped for buying food and drinks at a stand on the road between Baghdad and Tikrit, after attending a conference on Iraqi reconstruction, a U.S. military spokesperson said on Sunday. Army troops were not escorting the diplomats at the time of the attack, he said.

The seven Spanish intelligence officials died in an ambush in Mahmudiyah, around 29 km south of Baghdad. One Spaniard, however, managed to escape the attack by scrambling into a passing vehicle. Witnesses said a group of Iraqi resistance fighters travelling cars had followed the two vehicles, which the Spaniards were using. The fighters fired at one of the vehicles and managed to force it off the road. In the well-coordinated strike, another set of fighters, who had concealed themselves behind a concrete wall, then attacked the Spaniards with rocket propelled grenades and automatic rifles. The ambush lasted around 30 minutes.

Television pictures showed the charred bodies of the Spaniards lying on the dimly-lit highway, surrounded by jubilant crowds. Some in the crowd praised the former Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, saying in Arabic, "We sacrifice our souls and blood for you, oh Saddam", while others were seen kicking and stepping on some of the corpses. The bodies of the seven agents have been taken to Kuwait by a special Spanish C-130 military plane, from where they were to be flown to Madrid later on Sunday.

The killing of the Japanese officials could discourage Tokyo's plans to send forces to the volatile West Asian nation, analysts say. The Japanese are considering deployment of their forces in the so-far relatively calm southern Iraq, amid growing internal opposition to the move.

The killing of the seven Spaniards also appears to be part of an on-going effort by Iraqi fighters to dissuade countries from sending troops and personnel to support the U.S. occupation. Already, the Spanish Opposition party, the United Left Coalition, has, after the attack called for the withdrawal of the1,300-strong Spanish contingent in Iraq.

U.S. soldiers killed

Two weeks ago, suicide bombers had attacked and killed 19 Italian paramilitary troops in the southern Iraqi town of Nasiriyah and a Polish officer was slain in an ambush earlier this month.

In the multiple strikes on Saturday, two U.S. soldiers were killed and another wounded near the Syrian border, the U.S. military command on Sunday said. With that, the total number of U.S. fatalities in Iraq in November mounted to a record high of 87, the highest in a single month since the Iraq war began on March 20.

Meanwhile, contrary to past accusations by Washington that the presence of foreign fighters, some of whom are claimed to be infiltrating from Syria, had escalated attacks, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, said at a press conference in Baghdad that there was still no definite proof that the Saudi fugitive, Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network had joined combat in Iraq.

While there was suspicion about the participation of the Al-Qaeda in many of the attacks, the U.S. had still not "conclusively established an Al-Qaeda operative in this country," he said. He said some of U.S.-trained Iraqis, who had been drafted into the post-war Iraqi police force, had participated in attacking the occupation forces.

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