Spain, one of the America's most important allies in Iraq, has suffered two other casualties here: an intelligence officer with the Spanish Embassy, who was shot in the street in October, and a Spanish naval officer who died in the suicide bombing attack on the United Nations Mission here in August. Two weeks ago, 19 Italians were killed in an attack on a military police barracks in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. ''There is no change to our policy of not giving into terrorism.'' ''Japan has a responsibility to provide humanitarian and reconstruction aid in Iraq,'' Prim Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters. [On Sunday morning, the Japanese government said the killings would not change its policy toward Iraq, though it did not comment on the already postponed deployment of ground troops there. The Spanish force is part of a Polish-led multinational contingent responsible for security in the south-central part of the country. Spain has suffered nine fatalities here since March. Trillo said in Madrid that the attackers used rocket-propelled grenades and rifles, Reuters reported. The Spanish defense minister, Frederico Trillo, said he would fly to Baghdad to repatriate the bodies. Mahmudiya is a predominantly Sunni Arab town in an area dominated by Shiites, who have generally been much more receptive to the American occupation. ''They were dancing in the streets.'' Television images showed young Iraqis kicking the bodies and saluting the former Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein. ''There was a crowd of people around, and they were happy,'' Mr. The bodies of four Spaniards were splayed out on the roadside, he said. The witness, Zahir Abu Yasir, said he saw one car on fire and a second that had gone off the side of the road and plunged into an embankment below. An Iraqi witness said the Spanish agents, wearing civilian clothes, were ambushed as their four-wheel-drive vehicles made their way through the center of Mahmudiya. Also unclear was how the one Spanish man survived. It was unclear if either ambush was planned in advance, or whether, as has happened often here, the guerrillas simply seized an opportunity that presented itself. Despite extraordinary security precautions for most foreigners here, the guerrillas managed once again to find vulnerable spots.Īs on previous occasions, the insurgents chose the time, manner and place of the attack. The attacks demonstrated once again how Iraqi guerrillas, believed to be small in number, have managed to sustain an initiative against the American forces and their allies. Ricardo Sanchez, who said attacks against American soldiers and their allies had dropped sharply in the last two weeks. Word of the attack followed by hours an upbeat assessment on Saturday afternoon by the top military commander in Iraq, Lt.
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