Two Iraqi terrorists sentenced to death for foiled attacks on S. Korean military

Two Iraqi terrorists who attempted to bomb the South Korean military facilities in Iraq have been sentenced to death in a trial there, informed military officials said Tuesday.

The terrorists were accused of firing four rockets at the compound of South Korea's Zaytun Division in the northeastern city of Irbil in May last year. In July last year, the Kurdish authorities arrested them, and the suspects confessed to the crime.

"The bombs exploded near the compound, not inside it. There were no South Korean casualties," a South Korean military official said, asking to remain anonymous because of the sensitive nature of the information. South Korea has imposed a news blackout on the incident.

In a trial held on May 29 in Iraq, the suspects, who belong to the local terrorist organization Ansar Alsunna, were sentenced to death for attempted attacks on military facilities, according to South Korea and Kurdish officials.

The 2,850-strong Zaytun, meaning "olive" in Arabic, has been deployed to help reconstruction efforts in Iraq since 2004 at the request of the U.S. government. South Korea is the second-largest coalition partner after Britain in the U.S.-led war against terrorism in Iraq.

Earlier this year, South Korea began cutting the number of troops stationed in Iraq, sending about 1,100 soldiers to the war-torn country while bringing home about 1,350.

South Korea plans to downsize its military contingent there to 2,300 by the end of this year.

The Defense Ministry is considering whether to submit a bill to extend the presence of the South Korean unit in Iraq. Its deployment mandate is to expire at the end of December.

Some civic groups demand an immediate pullout of the Korean troops, saying the U.S.-led war in Iraq is a lost cause and that South Korea has no specific mission related to reconstruction efforts.

Seoul, Sept. 19 (Yonhap News)