Diplomats and agents killed in Iraq attacks

Gunmen ambushed a team of Spanish intelligence officers, killing seven agents in a bloody new attack on US allies in Iraq. There were also reports that two Japanese diplomats were ambushed and killed.

One Spanish agent escaped the assault in Mahmudiyah, 18 miles south of Baghdad. Journalists who arrived on the scene said a small crowd chanted praise for ousted president Saddam Hussein and some even kicked at the bodies.

The attack came a little more than two weeks after 19 Italians were killed in a suicide bombing appeared aimed at undercutting the cohesion of the US-led coalition, which includes more than 30 countries. The insurgents are also focusing on separating US forces from Iraqi allies by attacking police and local officials.

Television footage of the aftermath of the ambush showed several bodies along a road as cars, their headlights on, drove by at dusk. People milled around, and a youth – apparently aware he was being filmed – kicked his foot in the air over a body. An older youth rested his foot on a corpse, an arm raised in triumph.

“We sacrifice our souls and blood for you, oh Saddam,” some in the group chanted in Arabic, witnesses said.

Rajiv Chandrasekaran, a reporter for The Washington Post, spoke with several witnesses in the crowd following the killings. Based on what they said, he described it as a “sophisticated, co-ordinated attack”.

One or two cars with Saddam loyalists were following the Spanish team, the witnesses told him.

Near the site, they opened fire on the SUVs, forcing the lead vehicle off the road. “A second band of attackers laying in wait opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades and Kalashnikovs,” he said.

The first car caught on fire and a 20-minute gun battle ensued, he said.

Spokesmen for Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar said the attack would not cause Spain to end its presence in Iraq. The killings of the Spanish agents came more than two weeks after assailants targeted another staunch US ally, Italy, with a devastating car bomb outside the Italian barracks in Nasiriyah that killed 19 Italians and 14 others.

Mr Aznar said he would fly to Iraq to repatriate the bodies, which were evacuated from the scene by helicopters of Spain’s Plus Ultra Brigade.

US President George W Bush called Mr Aznar “to express his sympathies on behalf of the American people”, said White House spokesman Allen Abney. He said the prime minister “reaffirmed his support for our joint effort in Iraq”.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said it was investigating unconfirmed reports that two Japanese men believed to be diplomats were shot and killed yesterday and their driver seriously injured in an ambush near the Iraqi city of Tikrit.

The deaths would be the first of Japanese in Iraq since the US invasion, and comes as Japan is debating whether to send non-combat troops to Iraq to help with that country’s reconstruction.

In Baghdad, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the US commander in Iraq, said some US-trained Iraqi police and civilian informants appear to have conducted attacks on coalition targets.

“We try to do the vetting (of Iraqi employees) as close as we can,” General Sanchez said at a news conference in Baghdad. But he added: “There have been instances when police were conducting attacks against the coalition and against the people.”

Efforts to establish a reliable Iraqi security network are vital to Washington’s plans to transfer political power to a new Iraqi leadership, opening the way for the eventual withdrawal of US troops who come under daily attack.

US officials say the arrest of three North Africans in Europe this week on suspicion of recruiting militants to attack the coalition in Iraq points to an organised international campaign.

Gen Sanchez said the US suspects that operatives of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network have taken part in many of the attacks on coalition and civilian targets in Iraq, but still has no conclusive evidence of its involvement.

He acknowledged the difficulty of establishing a firm connection with al-Qaida amid the chaos of what has been the deadliest month for US soldiers since the coalition invasion on March 20 – though the number of assaults has declined in recent days.

“We still haven’t conclusively established an al Qaida operative in this country,” he said.

Guerrilla attacks on US-led forces in Iraq have dropped some 30% in the past two weeks from a daily average of 35 to 22. On the worst days earlier this month, there were as many as 50 attacks a day. At least 75 US soldiers have been killed in November.

Spain’s King Juan Carlos professed his profound sorrow over yesterday’s attack.

“We are grateful to all the people who serve Spain and Spain’s democracy beyond our borders fighting terrorism and guaranteeing freedom and democracy,” justice minister Jose Maria Michavila said.

Spain was one of the firmest supporters of the US-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein and 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 October 9, and a Spanish navy captain was killed in the truck bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad on August 19.