The US military was re-examining security measures at bases across Iraq yesterday, a day after saying an attack that killed 22 people at a camp near Mosul was likely carried out by a suicide bomber who may have had inside information.
The explosion on Monday at the tightly guarded US base raised questions about how the attacker infiltrated the compound, which is surrounded by blast walls and barbed wire and watched by US troops who search every person going in and check his identity.
However Iraqis do a variety of jobs at the base, including translation, cleaning, cooking, construction and office duties.
A spokesman for the US military command in Baghdad said yesterday security measures are subjected to changes when needed.
"It is a fluid situation where our security measures and plans are constantly being adapted and reworked," said First Sergeant Steve Valley.
The apparent sophistication of Tuesday's operation -- the deadliest single attack on a US base -- indicated the attacker probably had inside knowledge of the base's layout and the soldiers' schedule. The blast came at lunchtime.
"We always have force protection keeping their eyes out," Lieutenant Colonel Paul Hastings, spokesman for Task Force Olympia, the main force that controls northern Iraq, said yesterday. "For somebody that wants to take his life and kill himself, it's very difficult to stop those people."
Asked how will they act following the attack, Hastings said that now that the cause of the attack is known, "a full investigation is now ongoing and from that full investigation we will act according[ly]."
At the Pentagon Wednesday, General Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a suicide bomber had apparently strapped an explosive device to his body and entered the dining hall where the blast occurred.
In western Baghdad, a US soldier was killed and two were wounded by a roadside bomb, the US command said. The attack occurred at 8am Thursday and the victims were members of the US Army's Task Force Baghdad, which is in charge of security in the Iraqi capital.
The death raises the number of US troops who have died since the start of the war in March last year to at least 1,322 members, according to an unofficial count by reporters.
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 —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS