Tokyo, Dec 01: Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi today condemned the "indiscriminate" attacks that killed two Japanese diplomats in Iraq, but said plans to send troops to the country remained unchanged. A day after Japan learned of its first casualties since the US-led war began on March 20, the premier said his country would not retreat in the face of terrorism.

A series of attacks in Iraq over the weekend also took the lives of seven Spanish intelligence agents, a Colombian, two Koreans and two American soldiers, in what us commanders acknowledged was a deliberate attempt to intimidate US allies.

"There are even attacks against Iraqi people," Koizumi told reporters. "They are indiscriminate."
The perpetrators "don't want to allow Iraq to be rebuilt and want to cause chaos," Koizumi said. "We cannot flinch, or the whole world will be affected."

Japan was still reeling today after two Japanese diplomats, aged 30 and 45, and their 54-year-old Iraqi driver, were killed in an ambush on their vehicle late Saturday near Tikrit in northern Iraq.

Koizumi told his foreign minister, Yoriko Kawaguchi, that "Japan's basic policy regarding the reconstruction of Iraq has not changed," according to a spokesman.

Chief cabinet secretary Yasuo Fukuda told reporters today: "Our nation's focus on helping the international community as much as possible has not changed."

Bureau Report