Suicide bombers struck Iraq yesterday, killing at least 33 people and wounding dozens more in three attacks on an army recruiting center, a police convoy and civilians, authorities said.
The attacks pushed the death count to over 1,500 people killed in violence since April 28, when Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his Shiite- and Kurd-dominated government in a country under attack from an insurgency led by Iraq's Sunni Arab minority.
In the deadliest blast yesterday, a man strapped with explosives blew himself up at an Iraqi military recruiting center at Muthana airfield near central Baghdad, killing 25 and wounding 47, the US military and hospital officials said.
Baghdad's Yarmouk Hospital confirmed that it had received that number of victims, emergency room Dr Muhanad Jawad said. Hospital officials didn't rule out that other victims might have been taken elsewhere.
The explosion occurred just before 9am at the recruiting center, which had been hit several times before by suicide attackers. About 400 would-be recruits jammed the gate before the bomber detonated himself, police Sergeant Ali Hussein said.
In February, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd outside the recruiting center, killing 21 people and wounding 27 more.
Separately, a suicide car bomber rammed into a police convoy near the northern city of Mosul, killing four policemen and wounding three, police said. The convoy was carrying Brigadier General Salim Salih Meshaal, who escaped injury.
In a third attack, a suicide car bomb exploded in Kirkuk, killing at least four civilians and wounding 15 more, police said. The attack occurred on a highway near a hospital and municipal building.
The bomber used a Mercedes Benz and the target appeared to be civilians because there were no military or police convoys nearby, authorities said.
Most of the casualties were people headed to Kirkuk General Hospital, police said. Three of the wounded were hospital employees.
The force of the blast toppled a few trees and shattered several windows in surrounding buildings.
US troops carried out a controlled explosion on a parked car rigged with a bomb less than 100m away from the first blast in Kirkuk. The second car was intended to cause more casualties as security forces arrived at the scene, police said.
A third car bomb was found near the bus station in Kirkuk and authorities evacuated the area and police said they were looking for two other car bombs in the city.
Other violence overnight Saturday and into yesterday killed at least 13 others in Iraq, including a Shiite family of eight killed in their sleep, a police colonel shot in Baghdad, two other policeman killed in the capital, a security official in Kirkuk and a civilian in Baghdad.
The prime minister, meanwhile, held a news conference to salve relations with Egypt following comments made by Iraq's government spokesman that top Egyptian diplomat Ihab al-Sherif was likely on his way to meet with insurgents when he was abducted last week. It has also been reported that al-Sherif was kidnapped while alone buying a newspaper in Baghdad a week ago.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq later claimed in a Web posting that it killed him.
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
RSS