Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

07 November 2003

IRAQ

• Poland suffered its first combat death since the aftermath of World War II when a Polish major was fatally wounded in an ambush south of Baghdad. Two American soldiers died in attacks near the capital and along the Syrian border. The Polish officer was wounded Thursday when insurgents attacked a convoy of 16 Polish soldiers returning from a promotion ceremony for Iraqi civilian defense trainees near Baghdad. Maj. Hieronim Kupczyk, 44, died at a military hospital in Karbala, the Polish Defense Ministry said. No other Polish soldiers were killed or wounded, according to Polish Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski. "This tragic event proves that the situation in Iraq is getting complicated," Szmajdzinski told reporters in Warsaw, Poland. "The level of professionalism of the terrorists is increasing." Elsewhere, a U.S. soldier was killed Thursday when his truck hit a land mine near the Husaybah border crossing point with Syria 313 kilometers (195 miles) northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. An American paratrooper was killed and two others were wounded when their patrol came under rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire near Mahmudiyah, 25 kilometers (15 miles) south of Baghdad late Wednesday, the military said. (AP 070007 Nov 03)
  
  
• Japan plans to send troops to help rebuild postwar Iraq despite the possibility that insurgents might target diplomats and other Japanese citizens working there, media reports quoted a senior Japanese official as saying. Yukio Okamoto, who was sent by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to assess the security situation in Iraq, told reporters that Tokyo was set on offering humanitarian assistance. He urged other nations not to "give in to terrorists" by withdrawing from Iraq. Okamoto, speaking at a Baghdad hotel, said not all of Iraq was a war zone. "If current conditions remain the same, we would like to provide as much humanitarian aid as possible to help stabilize the country," he was quoted as saying. Japanese officials have said non-combat troops could be in Iraq by the end of the year, with more troops to follow. Japan's Parliament in July approved sending troops to help U.S.-led efforts to rebuild Iraq, but the deployment has been on hold amid concerns about mounting casualties in Iraq. (AP 061543 Nov 03)

WAR ON TERRORISM

• The U.S. government soon will begin grading how well states are prepared for bioterrorism and other health emergencies, including how many could immediately open mass-vaccination clinics if a single case of smallpox occurred anywhere in the world. Exactly how to measure public health preparedness is still being worked out, although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hopes to test a scoring system in January and to have full-fledged evaluations under way next summer. States are supposed to develop comprehensive programs that include ways to catch early warning signs of disease, track outbreaks, train doctors and communicate with the public. Overall preparedness aside, CDC's program to encourage voluntary smallpox vaccination for several million medical and emergency personnel who would be in immediate danger in an attack remains stalled. (AP 062324 Nov 03)

OTHER NEWS

• NATO Secretary-General designate Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has urged Moldova and its breakaway Dnestr region to push efforts to resolve a 13-year conflict, saying EU states and NATO wanted a peaceful neighbour. Moldova, one of Europe's poorest countries wedged between ex-Soviet Ukraine and Romania, is set to border NATO and the European Union when both organisations take in Romania. Romania is due to join NATO in 2004 and the European Union in 2007. "We do not want to have a conflict resembling Dnestr on our borders," de Hoop Scheffer said late on Wednesday after talks with representatives of non-governmental organisations in Moldova's capital, Chisinau. "Foreign forces cannot solve this problem. The solution must be found by the sides," said de Hoop Scheffer, also chairman of the human rights group, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). (Reuters 061254 GMT Nov 03)