- MADRID -- Grief and anger
ripped through Spain yesterday as the bodies of seven Spanish intelligence
officers ambushed in Iraq arrived in Madrid.
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- The attack on Saturday marked the most serious blow to
the Spanish government since hostilities began and revived popular clamour
for Spain's troops to be withdrawn.
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- But the Prime Minister, Jose Maria Aznar, went on national
television to insist that troops would remain, and appealed for Spaniards
to pull together. He said in an address to the nation: "We are where
we must be to confront fanatical terrorism. There is no alternative. We
will fulfil our commitments like all serious nations." He added, in
defiance of popular opposition to the war: "Withdrawal is the worst
possible route to take."
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- The Socialist's leader, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero,
declared solidarity with "Spanish compatriots ... our sons and brothers.
This is a day of grief and pain for everyone." But he added: "Let
our troops come home as soon as possible."
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- Spaniards were shocked by images of jubilant Iraqi youngsters
dancing around the bodies of the soldiers fallen on the bloodstained road.
One youth placed his foot on a body and raised his fist in triumph. The
moments of twilit footage were spooled endlessly into Spaniards' sitting
rooms throughout the weekend, heightening the intense emotion that gripped
the country. Mr Aznar said: "We must never forget these incredible
images; the product of fanatical hatred."
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- But criticisms quickly surfaced. A military analyst picked
holes in Spain's strategy in Iraq, namely too few troops for such perilous
conditions and the wrong equipment. An editorial in El Pais newspaper said:
"The slaughter makes Iraq the most tragic mission that Spanish troops
have carried out abroad."
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- A poll by the newspaper El Mundo found two-thirds of
respondents wanted the troops out. In a separate poll on Friday, before
the killings, more than 80 per cent opposed military intervention. Spectators
at one Saturday league football match observed a minute's silence then
cried, "No to war".
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- Gaspar Llamazares, leader of the communist-leaning United
Left, demanded that Mr Aznar appear urgently in parliament "to take
responsibility for these tragic and unnecessary deaths in what the government
told us was a humanitarian mission".
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- The attack on the eight agents was "meticulously
prepared", a Spanish television reporter said yesterday from Iraq,
amid speculation that the vehicles may have been followed from Baghdad.
The reporter added that some Iraqi policemen, trained by coalition forces,
have joined the resistance and have carried out assaults on occupying troops.
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- The latest victims were military agents for Spain's national
intelligence centre, CNI. Their role was to protect the 1,300 Spanish troops,
to infiltrate organisations for information, and to combat terrorism. To
remain inconspicuous, they wore no uniforms and carried small arms.
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- Madrid promised to step up protection for CNI agents
in Iraq following the death of Jose Antonio Bernal, an agent attached to
the Spanish consulate, who was gunned down on his Baghdad doorstep in October.
In August, Manuel Martin-Oar, the naval captain, died in a truck-bomb attack
on the UN headquarters in Baghdad that killed 24 people.
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- © 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=468906
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