3RD LD: 3 attacks on GSDF, police reported in southern Iraq

SAMAWAH, Iraq, Nov. 8 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING KOIZUMI'S COMMENTS AT 9TH-10TH GRAFS)

A series of three attacks apparently targeted at Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force and local police were reported in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah on Monday night.

Initial reports indicate that a policeman and a taxi driver were injured. But no GSDF members were hurt, Japan's Defense Agency said.

The first attack came at around 9 p.m. outside a police station. An armed group drove by and fired at policemen on duty, starting a gunfight, the local police said.

A taxi driver near the scene was shot in the neck, the police said, adding the group fled the scene by car.

About an hour later, a policeman patrolling the southern part of the city came under a rocket missile attack, which injured one person and damaged a police vehicle.

Shortly after the second attack came, an attack apparently targeted at the GSDF, with a shell landing outside the camp, the police said.

In Tokyo on Tuesday, Defense Agency Director General Fukushiro Nukaga said the GSDF has not been able to confirm whether the attacks were actually targeted at its camp and that the troops will conduct investigations after the day breaks on Tuesday local time.

Nukaga suggested the humanitarian and reconstruction aid activities of the GSDF troops based at the Samawah camp are unlikely to be immediately affected by the incidents as there were no reports of injuries or damage to the GSDF members and the camp.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi stopped short of indicating if the incident near the GSDF camp will have any effect on his upcoming decision on whether to again extend the troops' one-year mission through Dec. 14 for another year.

''We always make a decision taking into account the local situation and other circumstances comprehensively,'' Koizumi told reporters at his office.

The GSDF will consult with the Australian and U.S. security troops to look into what happened exactly in the attacks, Nukaga said at a press conference.

Two attacks were reported in Samawah on Oct. 15-16 when the police exchanged fire with an armed group, while a policeman was shot to death in a city suburb.

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