A car bomb targeting Iraq's new justice minister blew up in western Baghdad yesterday, killing four of his bodyguards and wounding seven other people, authorities said. Justice Minister Malik Dohan al-Hassan was not injured.
The blast, the latest in a wave of assassination attempts of high-level government officials, ripped through an intersection 500m from al-Hassan's home, striking the tail end of his convoy.
"A car was parking on the opposite direction of the road, when the driver, God curse him, saw us and exploded himself," said Loae Hassan, one of his bodyguards.
South of the capital, another car bomb exploded outside an Iraqi National Guard headquarters in Mahmudiyah, 30km from Baghdad, killing two people and wounding 47 others, hospital officials said.
The blast that struck the minister's convoy carved a crater 2m in diameter and half a meter deep into the pavement. Flames lapped the charred skeleton of one car stopped alongside a pylon supporting a bridge.
Hassan said several members of the minister's security detail were killed in the blast that completely destroyed three vehicles in the convoy. Among the dead was the minister's nephew.
Though al-Hassan's bodyguards initially said five people had died, the Health Ministry put the number at four.
Shortly afterward, insurgents lobbed a hand grenade at a police patrol in the same neighborhood, badly injuring two police officers, said police Major Hashim Raed.
Insurgents also shot and killed a Jordanian truck driver in western Iraq yesterday and then gouged out his eyes, leaving his body by the side of the road, witnesses said.
The Philippines withdrew 11 more soldiers from Iraq on Friday to meet the demands of kidnappers holding a truck driver hostage, ignoring warnings from the US that the move sends the wrong signal to terrorists.
An Egyptian hostage being held in Iraq will also be released today, his Saudi employer said yesterday.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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