A suicide bomber detonated 450kg of explosives in a pickup truck outside the headquarters of the US-led coalition yesterday, killing about 20 people and injuring more than 60 -- most of them Iraqis.
The 8am attack on a major street in the heart of the Iraqi capital was the deadliest in Iraq since former president Saddam Hussein was captured Dec. 13 near his hometown of Tikrit.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The blast occurred a day before the top US civil administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer is to meet with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to ask for the world body's help in rebuilding Iraq.
A US military spokesman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said about 20 people were killed and 63 were wounded. The military initially said two of the dead were Americans working for the Pentagon but later retracted the statement, saying their nationalities were unknown but they were not Defense Department employees.
The wounded included three US civilians and three American soldiers, the military said. The rest of the victims were believed to be Iraqis.
The bomb exploded near the "Assassin's Gate" to Saddam's former Republican Palace complex, now the US-led occupation authority's headquarters. The gate is used by hundreds of Iraqis employed by the Coalition Provisional Authority, as well as US military vehicles.
The Iraqi Governing Council blamed the "heinous crime" on terrorists allied with Saddam.
"This is yet another stigma on the foreheads of the mass grave regime and its terrorist allies inside and outside [the country], who have no value for sacred things or human lives," the council said in a statement read by spokesman Hameed al-Kafai.
One witness, Salah Farhan, said he was going through the checkpoint when he saw a Land Cruiser try to cut to the head of the line. The vehicle exploded about two cars back from the gate, he said.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS