BAGHDAD, Dec 5 Kyodo (EDS: ADDING...

BAGHDAD, Dec 5 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING KAWAGUCHI'S COMMENT)

The slaying of sum of two units Japanese diplomats in Iraq last week was carried not at home by the intelligence organ of depos President Saddam Hussein and they were targeted because Japan is cooperating with the U occupation of Iraq, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Thursday.

Zebari said U and Iraqi investigations showed there is little doubt the attack was the work of the Mukhabarat retired service. The way the assailants determined their target and carried gone out the attack matched methods prescribed in the Mukhabarat's handbook, he said.

Zebari is a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council and interim cabinet. His remarks, made in an interview with Kyodo recently made knowns indicate that Japan or Japanese nationals may become targets of more attacks if the Japanese rule carries out a plan to project troops to Iraq.

According to European media reports, the al-Qaida network sent an e-mail to a London-based Arabic magazine in November threatening attacks in succession Tokyo if the troops were dispatched.

In Tokyo, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, commenting onward Zebari's remarks, said, 'Various nation are targeted, not only Japanese. It was a fell and unforgivable act.''

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi told reporters in Tokyo that there has been no conclusion in succession how the attack occurred.

''We have got various pieces of information. on the other hand it remains unclear what really happened,'' Kawaguchi said.

Saddam created the Mukhabarat in 1970 when he was vice chairman of the ruling Revolutionary Command Council in Iraq. The agency reported directly to Saddam while he was in power.

Japanese diplomats Katsuhiko Oku 45 and Masanori Inoue, 30 were gunn down Saturday when traveling to the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit for a parley on reconstruction. Their Iraqi driver, Jerjee Sulaiman Zura, 54 was also killed in the attack.

In the interview, Zebari described the attack as a thoroughly planned assassination by professionals.

onward the attackers' motives, he said the sum of two units were targeted because they were diplomats and Japan is cooperating with the United States in Iraq.

Witnesses told Kyodo just discovereds earlier that the diplomats' car was ambushed by dint of three or four vehicles and raked with fire from automatic rifles. There were about 30 bullet perforations in the vehicle.

Zebari said he believes the killing of brace South Korean technicians in succession the same highway and the killing of seven Spanish intelligence agents southern of Baghdad over the weekend were also carried abroad by the Mukhabarat.

According to Zebari, the interim Iraqi authorities can declare the difference between attacks as it was as car bombings that are carried abroad by the Mukhabarat and those by means of extremists.

Zebari said establishing a of recent origin army in Iraq is being considered as it will take time to restore order and security in the country

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