In another blow to the US occupation, Japan has decided to postpone sending a team of civilian specialists to help rebuild Iraq following the weekend killing of two Japanese diplomats, a daily said Tuesday.
Tokyo had initially planned to dispatch dozens of civilians, including engineers, doctors and nurses, to Baghdad, Basra and Mosul by the end of 2003.
But the slaying of the diplomats Saturday as they were laying the ground for the arrival of the technical team has prompted Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to put the mission on hold, the Asahi Shimbun said, citing government sources.
The dispatch would be delayed until there is a "marked improvement" in security in Iraq, the daily added.
"Civilians will be unarmed, just like the diplomats. Sending them should be postponed for a while," a government official was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
Koizumi said the weekend killings had not changed that plan, but he stopped short of saying when.
Meanwhile, the Mainichi Shimbun said Tuesday the government has also decided to postpone sending a mission to Iraq to probe the killing of the diplomats for fear that mission members might be attacked.
A survey by the Mainichi showed Monday that more than 80 percent of Japanese voters want the dispatch of troops cancelled or delayed until security in Iraq improves.
Meanwhile, U.S. Army generals said Monday the Iraqi resistance in Baghdad appears to have a central leadership that funds attacks in the capital and gives orders to eight to 12 groups - some with as many as 100 fighters.
Decisions on attacks against U.S. occupation forces in the capital, however, are left up to the men who carry them out, said Brig. Gen. Martin Dempsey, according to The AP.
"I'm increasingly of the belief that there's central financial control and central communications," said Dempsey, who commands the Army's 1st Armored Division, which operates in Baghdad and the surrounding area.
In the past, American officials said resistance fighters showed evidence of regional control, but little has been made public about those networks.
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
