The killing of two Japanese journalists in Iraq has re-focused attention on worsening security and could bode ill for Japanese troops helping to rebuild the Middle Eastern nation, media said yesterday.
A third body was found near where gunmen were said to have attacked a car carrying two Japanese south of Baghdad, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said. It said the body may have been that of 33-year-old Kotaro Ogawa, a freelance journalist.
Earlier, two badly burned bodies had been taken to a hospital in Mahmudiya, a town 30km south of Baghdad near where Thursday's attack occurred. They were believed to be those of veteran war correspondent Shinsuke Hashida, 61, and his Iraqi translator. The journalists' Iraqi driver said the vehicle had been hit by a rocket-propelled grenade attack.
Relatives of Hashida and Ogawa, his nephew, yesterday left for Kuwait, where they were to be asked to identify the bodies.
The deaths, yet to be officially confirmed, take to four the number of Japanese citizens killed in Iraq since last year's US-led invasion. Two Japanese diplomats were killed in November when their car was attacked near Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's home town.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has since sent about 550 ground troops to help rebuild Iraq, Japan's riskiest military operation since World War Two.
Critics say that the deployment violates Japan's pacifist constitution and that worsening security in southern Iraq has raised questions about whether it still meets the requirement of a law limiting troop activities to "non-combat zones."
Such doubts have been fanned by recent attacks in Samawa, the area in which the troops are based, which had been considered relatively safe. In the latest incident, a rocket was fired at Iraqi security facilities in Samawa early yesterday, causing an explosion 7km from the Japanese camp, Kyodo news agency reported. There were no injuries.
Government officials said the attack on journalists would not affect the troops' status, but the opposition questioned whether conditions in Iraq still met legal requirements.
"It's not a situation where you can separate combat zones and non-combat zones," Kyodo quoted Hirohisa Fujii, secretary-general of the main opposition Democratic Party, as saying on Friday.
Newspapers said the attack had cast a pall over the mission, and shaken the Japanese troops since the journalists were attacked on their way back to Baghdad after visiting Samawa.
Whether the attack was aimed at Japanese nationals was a key issue, the Mainichi Shimbun daily said. The attack, intended to kill, was clearly different from the earlier kidnappings of five Japanese civilians in Iraq who were later freed, it said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of