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Japanese nationals killed in Iraq
Slightly EFLTwo Japanese citizens who may have been diplomats have died in an apparent ambush near the Iraqi city of Tikrit. A non-Japanese driver accompanying them was wounded, a Japanese foreign ministry spokesman said in Tokyo, quoting the embassy in Baghdad. AFP news agency reports that a single attacker shot the two Japanese near Tikrit on Saturday. Foreign ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima told Reuters news agency there was "a good possibility" that the victims were Japanese diplomats but identification could only be carried out properly on Sunday morning. Mr Takashima said the vehicle in which the two Japanese had been travelling had been identified as a black, four-wheel-drive armoured car registered in Lebanon. "That identification resembles [a vehicle] of the Japanese embassy in Baghdad," he said. The two victimsâ bodies had been taken to a hospital in Tikrit but full identification would not be possible until Sunday because of security concerns, he explained. "Unfortunately, it is night right now and because the area of Tikrit is not safe, they cannot move at the moment. As soon as the sun rises... the Japanese embassy will dispatch someone to Tikrit. Poor bastards. What with the Spanish deaths, now Japanese, are we seeing a strategy emerging?
Posted by: Bulldog 2003-11-29 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=21959 |