Murder of Japanese in Iraq complicates troops plan

US military police officer Nicole Bukowski frisks an Iraqi girl inside a house in the Baghdad predominant Muslim Sunni neighbourhood of Azamiyah early yesterday. Some 300 soldiers took part in the operation dubbed Iron Snatch, searching 400 structures for weapons and Improvised Explosive Devices (IED). PHOTO: AFP

The rising violence had already prompted Japan to delay a planned deployment of non-combat troops, while South Korea is still deciding on the mix of non-combat and combat forces, including possibly special forces, it will send.

The two countries are among the United States' staunchest allies in Asia and need Washington's help to resolve a crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

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But rising attacks in Iraq are piling on the pressure for Tokyo and Seoul, whose voters increasingly oppose sending troops into a war zone and risk seeing them come home in body bags.

Such opposition is also adding to the pressure on the Bush administration, which is trying to spread the load of taming and rebuilding Iraq ahead of next year's US presidential elections.

A South Korean Foreign Ministry official, who declined to be identified, said the ministry has asked its five-member mission in Iraq to step up security in light of the Japanese deaths.

There was no plan to withdraw from there yet, the official said. South Korea has had 675 medical and engineering personnel deployed in Iraq since May. The government is thinking of committing 3,000 more troops and President Roh Moo-hyun is believed to be close to deciding on the mix of forces to send.

AFP adds: The Spanish media yesterday questioned if the "high price" being paid by the country's troop contingent in Iraq was worth paying, a day after seven Spanish intelligence agents were killed in a grenade and mortar attack south of Baghdad.

Stunned by the latest attack, which brought the Spanish death toll in Iraq to 10, the press pondered if Madrid would stay the course with most Spaniards bitterly opposed to the whole enterprise.

"What are we doing over there in the face of opposition from the majority of the Spanish population and all political parties save for the (ruling) Popular Party?" asked Catalan daily El Periodico.

El Pais, Spain's most widely read daily, provided a blunt editorial entitled: "Spain is paying a high price" for the decision of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar to commit a 1,300-strong force to Iraq.

"This highest of prices (being paid) comes precisely in a deployment enjoying the least support of the population at large," said El Pais, noting a recent opinion poll pre-dating Saturday's attack showed public opposition to Spain's presence in Iraq running at 85 percent.

"If Washington or London can turn their soldiers into an inevitable price to pay for this political and economic plan (for Iraq) this is not the case for Spain, which should never have let itself be dragged into Iraq."

Referring to a suicide bomb earlier this month on Italian forces in Nasiriyah, El Pais added: "The brutal attack on the headquarters of the Italian Carabinieri made clear that in this Arabic country anything can happen at any moment.

"Resentment against the invaders ... is growing exponentially."

El Mundo called for "explanations and reflection," while questioning "the very nature of our agents' mission."