A crowd of cheering Iraqis dragged the charred and mutilated bodies of four contractors working for the US-led coalition, including a woman and one American man, through the streets of Falluja yesterday after they died in an ambush.
In separate attacks, five American soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb was detonated beside their convoy west of Baghdad and three British soldiers were wounded by the explosion of a roadside bomb near the southern port city of Basra.
A suicide bomber also detonated his car in Baquba, about 40km north of Baghdad, killing himself and wounding 14 other people.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The Falluja violence began when two four-wheel-drive vehicles were attacked by guerrillas on a main road in the town, 50km west of Baghdad. A crowd then set the vehicles ablaze and hurled stones into the burning wreckage.
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the US army in Iraq, said all four contractors in the vehicles were killed. He did not give their nationalities.
Television pictures showed one incinerated body being kicked and stamped on by a member of the jubilant crowd, while others dragged a blackened body down the road by its feet. TV footage showed one American passport near a body and a US Department of Defense identification card belonging to another man.
As one body lay burning on the ground, an Iraqi came and doused it with gasoline, sending flames soaring.
At least two bodies were tied to cars and pulled through the streets, witnesses said.
"This is the fate of all Americans who come to Falluja," said Mohammad Nafik, one of the crowd surrounding the bodies.
Some body parts were pulled off and left hanging from a telephone cable, while two incinerated bodies were later strung from a bridge and left dangling there.
As the victims lay burning, a crowd of around 150 men chanted "Long live Islam" and Allahu Akbar ("God is Greatest") while flashing victory signs.
No US soldiers or Iraqi police were seen in the area for hours after the attack, but a US fighter plane screamed overhead, prompting the crowd to scatter.
Falluja has been one of the most violent, restive towns in Iraq since the US-led occupation began. There are almost daily attacks on US military convoys in the area.
With less than 100 days to go before US authorities hand over sovereignty to an Iraqi government, the US military, Iraqi police and other local security forces are still battling to bring security to the country.
Also See Story:
Iraqi authority looks abroad for public relations assistance
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS