IRAQ: IRAQIS IN CONDEMN ATTACK ON A SPANISH CONVOY THAT LEFT SEVEN SPANIARDS DEAD AND ONE INJURED

Record ID: 355760

  • Title: IRAQ: IRAQIS IN CONDEMN ATTACK ON A SPANISH CONVOY THAT LEFT SEVEN SPANIARDS DEAD AND ONE INJURED
  • Date: 2nd December 2003
  • Summary: (W5) NAJAF, SOUTHERN IRAQ (NOVEMBER 30, 2003)(REUTERS) 1. SLV U.S. CONVOYS LEAVING BASE; SLV STREET SCENES (7 SHOTS) 1.02 2. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MUHAMMED, SAYING "The Spaniards have come to help us and assist us, it is not right to do an act that will affect and hurt others." 1.11 3. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) HAIDER YAHYA SAYING "They are Sadd
  • Embargoed: 17th December 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NAJAF, SOUTHERN IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVAF75JKELUW2YERCCBPESV3Z17
  • Story Text: Iraqis in Spanish-controlled southern Iraq have
    condemned the attack on a Spanish convoy that has left
    seven Spaniards dead and one injured.

    A large Spanish army convoy left its base near
    the southern city of Najaf on Sunday (November 30, 2003) while
    Spanish army patrols disappeared from the area.

    Area residents in the southern cities of Najaf and
    Diwaniya condemned the attack on Spanish agents and blamed
    it on diehards of former president Saddam Hussein.

    "The Spaniards have come to help us and assist us, it
    is not right to do an act that will affect and hurt
    others," said Muhammed, a citizen of the holy Shi'ite city
    of Najaf.

    Others blamed the attack on pro-Saddam loyalists and
    called for getting rid of them all.

    "They are Saddam's men and we call on parties to uproot
    them. They are not from us. They are not from the people of
    Najaf and are not Iraqis. We hate them. They are not from
    here. They are from Falluja and from Ramadi who came to the
    holy land of Najaf," said Haider Yahya.

    Falluja and Ramadi are part of the sunni Triangle area
    that extends to the north and west of Baghdad and where
    most of the attacks on Coalition forces are concentrated.

    Seven Spanish intelligence agents were killed in Iraq
    on Saturday (November 29) in an attack on their unmarked
    vehicles south of Baghdad, Spanish Defence Minister
    Federico Trillo said, the latest assault on a close
    American ally.

    An eighth officer from Spain's CNI intelligence service
    was wounded in the ambush, Trillo said in Madrid. Trillo
    was to fly to Baghdad to assess the situation and bring
    home the dead.

    Spain has a 1,300 strong troop contingent in Iraq. Ten
    Spaniards have now been killed there since August.

    The intelligence officers were driving to Hilla, 100
    kilometres (62 miles) south of Baghdad, when they were hit,
    a spokesman for the U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq
    said.

    In Spain, where public opinion was generally against
    the war, Saturday's killing of the seven agents south of
    Baghdad re-ignited longstanding doubts about the role of
    around 1,300 Spanish troops helping to control
    south-central Iraq.

    'Spain pays a high price', the left-leaning newspaper
    El Pais said in an editorial. The El Mundo daily described
    the killings as: 'Deaths which require explanations and
    reflection'.

    Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar defied public
    opinion at home to send around 1,300 peacekeepers to Iraq
    after strongly endorsing the U.S. and British decision to
    invade the country on March 20.

    Spain had earlier lost two other military men: an
    intelligence officer attached to the Spanish embassy gunned
    down in the street and a Spanish naval officer who was
    among 22 people killed in a suicide bomb attack on the U.N.

    mission. Thousands of Shi'ites were killed by Saddam
    Hussein's troops in the early 90s after leading a failed uprising
    against the Baathist party regime.


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