Japan PM gets no respite on Iraq troop plan

For the second time in a week, Koizumi faced a grilling in parliament over his support for the war as the main opposition party stepped up its attempts to block the passage of an Iraq bill that many see as undermining Japan’s pacifist traditions.

Japanese public support for sending armed forces has been whittled away by mounting U.S. casualties, and newspapers reported the government was considering giving Japanese troops a less risky role focused on humanitarian aid.

Officials voiced hope that the deaths of Uday and Qusay Hussein would improve the security situation.

"If this helps to eliminate threats to security, it is a very good thing," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo *censored*uda told journalists. "If security is not improved, we cannot give effective support to reconstruction."

Koizumi avoided directly welcoming the deaths, but told reporters: "We would like to see as soon as possible an environment where various countries can cooperate on reconstruction in safety."

The U.S. military said half a day earlier that the two sons had been killed in a gun battle with its troops in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul after a tip-off from an Iraqi.

But the welcome relief for U.S. President George W. Bush and his allies was quickly tempered by news on Wednesday that two more U.S. soldiers had been killed in separate attacks in Iraq.

That brought to 41 the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq since Bush declared major combat over on May 1, and adds impetus to the main opposition Democratic Party’s campaign to block the Iraq bill and undermine the Koizumi government.