US troops suffered their worst one-month losses in Iraq last month since the US-led invasion in March last year, according to statistics released by the US military yesterday.
The number of US killed in one month rose above 100 for the second time since April of this year, with 136 personnel dead as of yesterday morning.
Until then April had been the worst month, when 135 died as the insurgence flared in Fallujah and elsewhere in the so-called Sunni Triangle where US forces and their Iraqi allies lost a large measure of control.
On Nov. 8, US forces launched an offensive to retake Fallujah and more than 50 US troops have been killed in Fallujah since then. The Pentagon has not provided a casualty count for Fallujah for more than a week.
Each month's death toll since the interim Iraqi government was put in power June 28 has been higher than the last, with the single exception of October, when it was 63.
The monthly totals grew from 42 in June to 54 in July to 65 in August and to 80 in September.
The Pentagon's official death toll for Iraq, dating to the start of the war, stood at 1,251 on Monday.
Meanwhile, a car bomb exploded in a crowded market in a town north of Baghdad yesterday, killing at least seven people and wounding 20. The bomb went off in a busy staging area in the oil-refining town of Baiji, 180km north of Baghdad, as a US military patrol was passing.
A US military spokesman said two soldiers were wounded in the blast, which destroyed market stalls and caused panic among the throng of shoppers, witnesses said.
In London, the British-based charity Medact released a report yesterday that said the war in Iraq has caused a public health disaster that has left the country's medical system in tatters and increased the risk of disease and death.
"The health of the Iraqi people has deteriorated since the 2003 invasion," Gill Reeve, the deputy director of Medact, told a news conference to launch the report.
"Immediate action is needed to halt this health disaster," Reeve said.
The report, which is based on interviews in Jordan with Iraqi civilians, relief organizations and health professionals who worked in Iraq, called for Britain to set up an independent commission to investigate civilian casualties and to provide emergency relief and a better health system.
The report details a recurrence of previously well-controlled illnesses like diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections and typhoid.
The report urges coalition forces to monitor casualties and re-evaluate the impact of weapons used in populated areas.
"We hope that by highlighting health we can make sure that all sides in the conflict know the price the civilian population is paying for the ongoing violence," Rowson said.
In other news, Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi was scheduled to travel to Jordan yesterday to meet with Iraqis outside the country as part of attempts to get as many Iraqis as possible to participate in upcoming elections, diplomats and Iraqi officials said.
But Allawi himself played down expectations that the meetings would be a major overture to oppositionists.
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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