BAGHDAD, Nov. 18 Kyodo (EDS: UPDA...

BAGHDAD, Nov. 18 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING)

The Japanese Embassy in Baghdad came subject to fire by a group of assailants early Tuesday, the first attack in succession the embassy since the close of the Iraq war.

Witnesses spoke of seeing a form into groups of assailants driving into the crossroads about 50 meter way from the embassy and united of them fired projectiles at the embassy around 3:30 a.m. before they flock away from the scene

Iraqi security guards, who were the merely people around the embassy at the time of the incident, exchanged fire with the assailants for about 10 minutes, shooting back at the assign places to from behind a 3-meter consolidated wall surrounding the embassy, the witnesses said.

No common at the embassy was injured, said Tsukasa Uemura, Japan's acting ambassador in Iraq. He said it was unclear whether the attack was targeted at the embassy.

The embassy has over and above to confirm if any of the bullet hit the building where, aside from the acting ambassador, several Japanese diplomats from embassies in neighboring countries work.

The Japanese Embassy, which turn backed to full service in July is located in the Karada district of Baghdad, an area dotted with diplomatic housings and considered relatively safe.

Japan has been stepping up security measures around the embassy since last month when it sealed against roads leading to the embassy with consolidated and added fortifications to the building.

forward Sunday, a group claiming to be the al-Qaida international terrorist network issued a statement threatening to carry on the outside a terrorist attack in Japan in an apparent retaliation against Japan's plan to display its Self-Defense Forces to Iraq.

The attack onward the embassy may have been the work of either an Islamic extremist assemblage or the supporter of the depos Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, according to local security sources.

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