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NYT：7スペイン人・2日本人がイラクで殺された。「2つの最も重要な同盟国」
しかし、括弧内の文章では、ブッシュが牧場から、スペイン首相には電話で、お悔やみとあるが、日本のポチは無視。兵隊を送ってないから差別扱いか。
スペイン人の死体の周りのイラク人は写真とその説明は「踏み付け」、記事では「蹴って」いる。
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/30/international/middleeast/30IRAQ.html?th
photo: Sky News, via Associated Press
Iraqis celebrated Saturday over the bodies of Spanish government officials. The Spaniards were killed in what military officials said appeared to have been an ambush in a town south of Baghdad.
November 30, 2003
INSURGENCY
7 Spanish Agents and 2 Japanese Are Slain in Iraq
By DEXTER FILKINS
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 29 -- Seven Spanish intelligence officers and two Japanese diplomats were killed Saturday in separate ambushes in Iraq, the latest in a series of attacks against America's allies that seemed intended to drive a wedge between them.
Iraqi guerrillas fired rocket-propelled grenades at two cars that eight Spaniards were riding in as they made their way through the town of Mahmudiya, a conservative Sunni Arab town about 18 miles south of the capital.
The two Japanese diplomats were killed in an apparent ambush in the city of Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein and a center of the anti-American insurgency.
It was unclear whether the attacks were coordinated, though they were clearly aimed at two of America's most important allies. Spain, which maintains 1,300 troops here, is one of America's most visible allies in Iraq. The Japanese government has been debating whether to send noncombat soldiers to Iraq.
Word of the attack followed by hours an upbeat assessment on Saturday afternoon by the top military commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who said attacks against American soldiers and their allies had dropped sharply in the last two weeks. 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. Despite extraordinary security precautions for most foreigners here, the guerrillas managed once again to find vulnerable spots.
As on previous occasions, the insurgents chose the time, manner and place of the attack. 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. Also unclear was how the one Spanish man survived. 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. 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. The bodies of four Spaniards were splayed out on the roadside, he said.
"There was a crowd of people around, and they were happy," Mr. Yasir said in an interview. "They were dancing in the streets." Television images showed young Iraqis kicking the bodies and saluting the former Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein.
Mahmudiya is a predominantly Sunni Arab town in an area dominated by Shiites, who have generally been much more receptive to the American occupation.
The Spanish defense minister, Frederico Trillo, said he would fly to Baghdad to repatriate the bodies. Speaking on Spanish television, Mr. Trillo said in Madrid that the attackers used rocket-propelled grenades and rifles, Reuters reported. Spain has suffered nine fatalities here since March.
[ From his ranch in Crawford, Tex., President Bush called the Spanish prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, to express his condolences for the killings, said Allen Abney, the White House press duty officer. Mr. Abney said that Mr. Aznar "reaffirmed his support for our joint efforts in Iraq."]
The Spanish force is part of a Polish-led multinational contingent responsible for security in the south-central part of the country.
[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. "Japan has a responsibility to provide humanitarian and reconstruction aid in Iraq," Prim Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters. "There is no change to our policy of not giving into terrorism."
[Yoriko Kawaguchi, the foreign minister, identified the two slain diplomats as Katsuhiko Oku, 45, a counselor from the Japanese Embassy in London, and Masamori Inoue, 30, a third secretary from the Japanese Embassy in Baghdad.]
Two weeks ago, 19 Italians were killed in an attack on a military police barracks in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. 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.
There have been several attacks on non-American personnel involved in the war effort in Iraq, beginning with the killing of six British military police officers on June 24. On Nov. 6, insurgents ambushed a convoy of troops from Poland near Karbala, killing one soldier. The most recent attack was on Nov. 27, when insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the Italian Mission in Baghdad, causing damage but no injuries.
At his news conference, General Sanchez said attacks on American soldiers across Iraq had dropped by almost a third in the last two weeks. He said those attacks, which as recently as two weeks ago were averaging 35 a day, had dropped to a daily average of about 22.
The general said the drop in attacks on American soldiers was being accompanied by an increase in attacks on Iraqis. Yet even when such attacks were included, he said, the activity on the part of the guerrillas had dropped sharply.
The general suggested that the insurgents were beginning to feel the pressure brought to bear by the sustained operations of the American military. He said their activity had declined most sharply in the areas where American military operations have been most intense. In Baghdad, for instance, where the First Armored Division has mounted a number of large raids in recent weeks, the number of attacks on American soldiers has declined by 70 percent.
The general suggested that attacks on Iraqis, aimed particularly at those who cooperate with the Americans, was a measure of the frustration on the part of the insurgents, who he said had found it harder to hit American targets. Since the beginning of November, the number of attacks on Iraqi targets has doubled, with a total of 74 attacks against Iraqi civilians or government officials and 82 against the Iraqi police, he said.
"The stark reality we all have to accept is that these terrorists have no vision for the future of Iraq, except to create, or rather recreate, a repressive state," General Sanchez said. "Their aim is to intimidate the population, to create fear and uncertainty and to create a fear among the people that drives them away from the coalition, the emerging governing structures and security structures that are committed to a democratic country."
"They will not succeed," he said. "Our will is unchanged."
The decline in attacks on Americans comes at a critical moment in the occupation of Iraq. The beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, which ended this week, coincided with a sharp rise in violence against the Americans. On some days, American soldiers were being attacked as many as 50 times per day.
The Bush administration, under growing political pressure at home, had already committed itself to reducing the number of American troops inside the country next year. If the drop in violence holds, it could make it easier to justify that reduction on military grounds.
The growing violence against Americans helped persuade the administration to speed up the transfer of political power to the Iraqi people. That process, which resulted in an agreement to restore Iraqi sovereignty by next July, ran into significant trouble this week, though. The improving military situation may give the Bush administration more breathing room to reach a new arrangement with the Iraqi authorities.
One military official said top commanders were divided over why the number of attacks against Americans had gone down. Despite several weeks of highly publicized American offensives here, the number of American raids and other such operations against the guerrillas has remained relatively constant over the last several months.
The military official said one explanation could be that the quality and amount of intelligence getting into American hands has improved in recent weeks. The military official said more Iraqis are cooperating with the Americans, giving them information that makes the American attacks more effective.
Last week alone, General Sanchez said, American forces detained 180 suspected insurgents, including several people suspected in connection with the rocket attack last month on the Rashid Hotel, where Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz was staying. That attack killed an American officer.
General Sanchez confirmed that American forces had tracked own and detained the wife and daughter of Gen. Izzat Ibrahim, the most wanted member of the former government with the exception of Mr. Hussein. General Ibrahim is suspected of helping to orchestrate a number of attacks against American forces.
A military official said his family had been hiding with him, suggesting that American forces had come very close to capturing him.
General Sanchez said the composition of American forces in Iraq would begin to change as the overall number of soldiers in the country began to decline early next year. "What we are in search of is a very mobile, very flexible, lethal force," he said.
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