Iraqi troops foiled an attempted car bombing yesterday outside their headquarters in a city northeast of Baghdad after security forces opened fire on a man who threatened to blow up his vehicle, according to local officials.
Meanwhile, a Lebanese foreign ministry official said that Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun, a 24-year old US Marine of Lebanese heritage, was believed to have been killed by insurgents in Iraq.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity yesterday, said the ministry received a call from Lebanon's chief of mission in Baghdad saying Hassoun had been killed.
"He [the diplomat] is trying to confirm the killing 100 percent, but it seems to be over. He is now trying to learn where his body is. He believes it is in Fallujah," the official said. "We understand that he was slaughtered. God help him."
The killing was first claimed by an Iraqi militant group -- the Army of Ansar al-Sunna -- in an Islamic Web site positing on Saturday. The US military in Baghdad said it was checking into the report of Hassoun's death but had no confirmation.
However, the Army of Ansar al-Sunna issued a statement on its Web site yesterday denying reports that it had killed the Marine.
"This statement that claimed to be from us has no basis in truth ... and we have an official Web site through which we publish statements," the group said, referring to a statement issued on two Islamist Web sites on Saturday in the name of Ansar which said the militant group had beheaded the Marine.
The posting on Saturday claimed Hassoun had been killed after he was lured into a trap involving a love affair with an Arab woman. That statement said video would be released later. It also said the group had taken another hostage but did not give details.
Hassoun's brother Sami said from the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli that "we don't have any news."
Iraqi officials in the city of Baqubah said yesterday morning that a man driving a car rigged with explosives tried to attack the National Guard building there.
The attacker got out of the car and the Iraqi troops opened fire, killing the man and setting off the explosives in the car, according to police chief Waleed al-Azawi.
Hospital officials reported that two bystanders were killed in the explosion.
Another car bombing targeted a passing US convoy west of Baghdad around 8:30am causing no injuries, said Major Phil Smith of the 1st Cavalry Division.
In Baghdad, an explosion shook the home of an Education Ministry employee, in another attack targeting officials working with the interim government.
An Iraqi police official announced yesterday that US and Iraqi forces have detained six members of a militant group suspected of carrying out a string of assassinations in the north.
The men were reportedly members of Ansar al-Islam, a Kurdish group believed linked to al-Qaeda, said Colonel Sarhat Qader of the Iraqi police.
Also see story:
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS