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Two U.S. Soldiers Among 12 Killed in Iraq This Weekend
Deadly Weekend Ends Deadliest Month Since March
By Andrew Marshall, Reuters
Sunday, November 30, 2003; 1:15 PM
BAGHDAD - Guerrillas killed a dozen people from four nations helping the U.S. military in Iraq in weekend ambushes, sparking new concern among Washington's allies about the risks of getting involved in stabilizing the country.
Two South Koreans died on Sunday when their car was sprayed with bullets near Saddam Hussein's hometown, a day after ambushes killed seven Spanish intelligence agents, two Japanese diplomats and their Iraqi driver, and a Colombian contractor.
The U.S. military said two American soldiers were also killed on Saturday when guerrillas attacked their convoy with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades near the Syrian border.
This rounded off the bloodiest month for occupying forces since the U.S. invasion to oust Saddam Hussein in March.
U.S. combat losses total 74 for November alone and 301 for the whole campaign. The month also saw heavy losses among other U.S. allies, notably 19 Italians killed in a suicide bombing.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he did not expect the violence to deter U.S. allies.
But the Japanese, South Korean and Spanish governments now face serious questions over their commitments to help the United States after it attacked Iraq and ousted Saddam in the face of opposition from many key United Nations allies.
Public opposition to deploying troops in Iraq is likely to be fueled by grisly photographs showing Iraqi youths celebrating and kicking the corpses of the dead Spanish agents.
On Sunday morning, youths were jumping on the wreckage of the burned-out vehicles in which the Spaniards died.
"We're happy about what happened," said 20-year-old Abdul Qader, a student. "We don't like the Americans or the Spanish."
"INCONCEIVABLE IMAGES"
Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who defied public opinion to back President Bush, remained defiant despite calls to recall the 1,300 Spanish troops in Iraq.
"The fanatical hate which accompanied this latest atrocity has given us inconceivable images which we must never forget. We have no option but to face this fanaticism head on," he said in a televised address to the nation.
"We are where we have to be and we will not leave the victims of terrorism, here or there, to their fate."
As the dead were flown home to Madrid, opposition socialists put aside their objections to the war to join the outpouring of sorrow. Other opposition parties demanded the resignation of the defense minister and a troop withdrawal.
"Spain pays a high price," the left-leaning newspaper El Pais said in an editorial. El Mundo daily described the killings as: "Deaths which require explanations and reflection."
Officials in Seoul said the South Koreans killed on Sunday were electricity workers sub-contracted to an unnamed U.S. firm. Reuters journalists at the scene saw a car peppered with bullets.
The Koreans died on the same highway as two Japanese diplomats, who were gunned down by on Saturday along with their Iraqi driver as they bought food at a roadside stall.
The Colombian civilian contractor was killed and two colleagues were wounded when their convoy was ambushed on Saturday near Balad, north of Baghdad.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun has committed to sending more South Korean troops to Iraq in addition to 675 medics and military engineers deployed since May. But he has yet to make the politically sensitive decision whether to include combat forces in the expected 3,000-strong contingent.
Asked whether the killings would affect Korea's decision to send more troops, Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck told a hastily arranged briefing in Seoul: "It is too early to comment. We must take time to analyze things."
THORNY DECISION
Japan is also struggling with the thorny decision of whether to send troops. Plans to deploy non-combat soldiers were put on hold this month after a suicide attack on an Italian base in the southern town of Nassiriya killed 19 Italians and nine Iraqis in the deadliest attack so far on multinational forces in Iraq.
Political analysts say Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi risks a serious blow to his popularity if troops are sent to Iraq and deaths occur, an especially unwelcome prospect with an election for parliament's Upper House set for next July.
But Koizumi said on Sunday that Japan would not be deterred.
"Japan must not give in to terrorism. We will firmly carry out our responsibilities for humanitarian aid and reconstruction. There is no change in this," he told reporters.
"Why does this kind of thing happen? I am furious."
The U.S. defense secretary, who arrived in Brussels ahead of a NATO meeting, called the attacks "a tragedy" but said he did not expect the violence to deter U.S. allies.
"In terms of changing policy, I don't think it will," Rumsfeld told reporters. "I think that countries who have forces there recognize that it's a dangerous place and that there are terrorists who are killing people and wounding people."
Since Bush declared major combat over on May 1, 187 American soldiers have been killed in action in Iraq, putting pressure on the president to accelerate handing control of the country back to Iraqis ahead of his own bid for re-election a year from now.
(Additional reporting by Luke Baker in Latifiya, Dean Yates in Tikrit, Emma Graham-Harrison in Madrid, Lee Suwan in Seoul and Linda Sieg and Masayuki Kitano in Tokyo)
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