Posted on 11/30/2003 9:06:09 AM PST by blam
Spain pledges to stay on in Iraq
Only one Spanish officer survived the ambush
Spain's prime minister has vowed to keep troops in Iraq despite "great pain" at the killing of seven intelligence agents in an ambush. "Freedom is under threat from the terrorists," said Jose Maria Aznar, whose country is a key European member of the US-led coalition in Iraq.
Unknown attackers have also killed two Japanese diplomats, two South Koreans, a Colombian and two US soldiers.
Responding to its losses, Japan also pledged "not to give in to terrorism".
In the latest attack, South Korea confirmed that two of its citizens, both electricians, had been killed in an ambush near Tikrit on Sunday. Two others were wounded.
Earlier, the US military announced that a Colombian contractor had been killed and two wounded when their car came under fire near the town of Balad on Saturday.
Spain mourns
Mr Aznar brushed aside Spanish opposition demands for troops to be withdrawn, declaring that his country would "fulfil its commitments".
Coalition deaths in November
79 United States troops
19 Italians
7 Spaniards
1 Pole
The intelligence agents had, he said, "lost their lives doing their duty as professional soldiers, good soldiers working for peace and security".
"The international community is now facing the challenge of a tyranny which is reluctant to disappear and of a terrorist network which has become the biggest global challenge for free societies, for our societies," he said.
The agents' convoy was ambushed near the town of Hilla, as it returned from a mission. Only one man survived.
Television images showed local youths dancing, kicking the charred corpses and shouting slogans in support of Saddam Hussein.
The images were carried by Spain's leading newspapers on Sunday.
The leftist opposition has described the 1,300-strong Spanish military contingent as an invasion force and a visible target and called for its withdrawal.
A total of 106 coalition troops are reported to have died in Iraq during November.
They included 81 US troops, the seven Spaniards and 17 Italian soldiers who were killed in the bombing of the Italian military headquarters in Nasiriya.
'Furious'
In Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said his country would continue to meet its "responsibilities for humanitarian aid and reconstruction"
Japan has suffered its first deaths in Iraq
"Japan must not give in to terrorism," he told reporters.
"Why does this kind of thing happen?" he continued, visibly upset. "I am furious."
The two diplomats were shot along with their Iraqi driver as they stopped to buy food.
They have been named as Masamori Inoue, 30, who worked at the embassy in Baghdad and Katsuhiko Oku, 45, who worked at Japan's London embassy.
They had been travelling to a conference on the reconstruction of northern Iraq in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's birthplace and an anti-coalition stronghold.
And all the JAG weenies should be shipped OUT for the duration.
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