Six Spaniard Intelligence Officers Killed, Two Taken Prisoners, in an Iraqi attack in Baghdad

News, November 2003, www.aljazeerah.info

Saturday November 29, 2003 12:06 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) & Al-Alam TV -

At least four and possibly as many as eight members of a Spanish intelligence team were killed on Saturday in an attack on their convoy south of Baghdad, a reporter from Britain's Sky News television said. David Bowden said in a report from Baghdad after returning from the scene that he saw four bodies and that locals said eight were killed in total and another two people taken prisoner. Spanish officials said in Madrid an eight-strong team had been attacked and it was unclear how many were hurt. Al-Alam TV reported that six were killed.

"We were actually driving from the town of Hilla, which is just south of Baghdad, and we saw these men lying dead on the floor (ground) by the side of the road after the ambush," Bowden said.

"We were told by locals there that...about 30 minutes before they'd attacked a convoy of three vehicles. They pulled the people out of the vehicles. They told us that in fact they'd killed eight people and they'd captured two others.

"I only saw with my own eyes four dead bodies on the road.

"We filmed for a couple of minutes and then we became the focus of the mob's attention. They were shouting praise to Saddam (Hussein) and we disappeared pretty quickly."

Spain Confirms Six Dead, One Wounded, and one missing, in Iraq Attack
Sat November 29, 2003 01:05 PM ET

MADRID (Reuters) - Six people were killed and one wounded on Saturday when guerrillas attacked a convoy of Spanish intelligence officers south of Baghdad, a Spanish Defense Ministry spokesman said. The spokesman had no information about the eighth member of the group.

Spanish Team Hit in Iraq, Several Said Dead

Sat November 29, 2003 12:42 PM ET

By Luke Baker BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least four and possibly eight members of a Spanish intelligence team were killed south of Baghdad on Saturday, Britain's Sky News television reported, the latest guerrilla attack on a close U.S. ally in Iraq.

Sky reporter David Bowden said from Baghdad after returning from the scene that he saw four bodies and that local people said eight were killed in total and another two people taken prisoner.

Spanish officials said in Madrid an eight-strong team had been attacked, but it was unclear how many were hurt.

The ambush came hours after the top military commander in Iraq said attacks against U.S. forces had fallen sharply in recent weeks, despite figures showing November to be the deadliest month for U.S. troops since the war began.

Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez said anti-American insurgents had struck fewer times in the past seven days than in the previous week and put the reduction down to the more aggressive tactics used by U.S. forces.

The Sky reporter said of the attack on the Spaniards: "We were actually driving from the town of Hilla, which is just south of Baghdad, and we saw these men lying dead on the floor (ground) by the side of the road after the ambush.

"We were told by locals there that...about 30 minutes before, they'd attacked a convoy of three vehicles. They pulled the people out of the vehicles. They told us that in fact they'd killed eight people and they'd captured two others.

"I only saw with my own eyes four dead bodies on the road.

"We filmed for a couple of minutes and then we became the focus of the mob's attention. They were shouting praise to Saddam (Hussein) and we disappeared pretty quickly."

OTHER U.S. ALLIES ATTACKED

Just over two weeks ago, 19 Italians were killed in an attack on a military police barracks in southern Iraq, the worst military disaster for Italy since World War two.

Britain, which stood beside the United States in the March 20 invasion of Iraq, has lost 20 soldiers in military action since then. A Polish army officer has also died. 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.

In his Baghdad news conference, Sanchez said the U.S. military was reshaping its forces in Iraq to rotate in more mobile units and ship out heavy armor such as tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles.

"In the past 14 days, we have seen the daily average of engagements throughout the country decline by over 30 percent," he said.

"And over the last seven-day period, we're down to an average of 22 engagements a day," he said, against as many as 50 a day just a couple of weeks ago. "This decline has been most significant where we have taken the fight to the enemy."

Despite the decline, however, figures from U.S. military officials show at least 72 U.S. soldiers died in action in November, according to a count by Reuters.

At least four others have died in non-hostile circumstances, making November the deadliest month for U.S. forces since the war to overthrow Saddam was launched in March.

HEAVY DEATH TOLL

Since Washington declared major combat over on May 1, 185 U.S. soldiers have been killed in action, bringing the total U.S. military deaths -- combat and non-combat -- since the start of the war to 436, according to the Pentagon.

To take on insurgents more efficiently, Sanchez said the military was kicking off a new phase of the war, Iraqi Freedom II, in which more mobile infantry would replace armor.

"We are going to change the composition of the force," he said. "We're going to have additional mobility...with the right mix of heavy and light."

President Bush in his weekly radio address on Saturday expressed sympathy for the families of the some 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and urged Americans to help out their families by doing volunteer work such as preparing care packages and collecting gifts for baby showers for expectant wives.

Bush made a surprise flying visit to the U.S. base at Baghdad's heavily guarded airport for Thanksgiving on Thursday.

But his National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said it was a White House aide -- not Bush himself -- who suggested the trip.

With the president safely back at his Crawford ranch in Texas, White House supporters seized on the 2-1/2 hour visit as a public relations coup that could boost troop morale and Republican fund raising ahead of his campaign for re-election next year. (Additional reporting by Joseph Logan and Mussab Al-Khairalla)

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python (Alquds, 1/25/03.

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