Iraqi Insurgent’s Attack Leaves Two Japanese Diplomats Dead

At 5 p.m. on November 29, a vehicle belonging to the Japanese embassy in Baghdad was assaulted by armed Iraqi insurgents around the northern Iraq city of Tikrit, leaving two Japanese diplomats dead.

It was the first terrorist attack and murder targeted at the Japanese, in particular the foreign diplomats dispatched to the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), since the outbreak of the Iraqi war. The Japanese dailies reported this would exert an extraordinary influence on the Japanese self-defense forces’ plan to send their troops to Iraq.

The Iraqi resistance force’s level of attack has increased. Another terrorist attack occurred only one to two hours after the assault on the Japanese diplomats. The insurgents’ ambushed a civilian vehicle packed with eight Spanish intelligence agents which drove by on the highway near Al Mahmudiya, 18 kilometers south from Baghdad.

The Japanese foreign minister, Kawakuchi Yoriko, called an urgent press conference Sunday to disclose the details of the incident, remarking that Oku Kazuhiko, 45, the advisor to the Japanese embassy in U.K., who was on a business trip to Iraq, and Inoue Masamori, 30, the secretary of Japanese embassy in Iraq, were murdered.

The Japanese diplomats were on their way to the Iraq reconnaissance conference held in Tikrit.

When Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro was reported on this incident, he focused on his intention of keeping the original plan to send the self-defense force to Iraq just as before, saying, “Japan is the country responsible for the reconnaissance project being carried out in Iraq now. Our current policy to not be overcome by terrorist threats has never been altered and will not be in the future.”

On the other hand, the Korean foreign ministry ordered the Korean Embassy in Iraq to strengthen the safety surveillance just after the murder of the Japanese diplomats. “This incident is very serious one, but our initial policy which has decided to send the combat troops to Iraq may not be changed on account of this incident,” remarked a high-level official in the National Security Council (NSC).

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