TIKRIT, Iraq, : Two Japanese diplomats killed in Iraq in a new blow to the US-led coalition were shot dead as they stopped at a food stall en route to Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's birthplace, where an aid conference was taking place, a US military spokesman said.
"Two Japanese were killed as they stopped at a roadside food stall, four kilometres (two
and a half miles) south of Mukayshifa on the afternoon of November 29,"
said Colonel Bill MacDonald, spokesman for the US 4th Infantry Division, which patrols the troubled
region.
"A Lebanese national was wounded in the same incident.
"The three persons had stopped for food and drink when attackers fired small-calibre weapons at them.
"The three were taken to a Tikrit hospital. The condition of the wounded individual is unknown," said MacDonald, speaking shortly before the opening of the aid conference at the fortified 4th Infantry Division's headquarters compound in Tikrit,
180 kilometers (110 miles) north of Baghdad.
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