An attack on a US convoy sparked a large fire in a marketplace in eastern Baghdad yesterday, as gunmen in Basra assassinated a police commander who was also a senior member of a leading Shiite political party.
Dozens of stalls were set ablaze at 2am local time when a bomb exploded next to a convoy of US military vehicles driving down a commercial street in the capital’s eastern district.
A Humvee was damaged in the blast, said an Iraqi police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
Residents said more than a dozen US and Iraqi firefighting vehicles rushed to the scene to put out the blaze which continued until morning. The US military did not comment.
The attack comes amid continuing clashes between US and Iraqi forces and Shiite militias in eastern Baghdad.
The US military said militants firing rocket propelled grenades ambushed a patrol by US troops in eastern Baghdad late on Sunday night.
Armed helicopters and an Abrams main battle tank repulsed the attack, killing six of the gunmen, the statement said.
The government is demanding that radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr disband his Mehdi Army militia which has strongholds in Baghdad’s sprawling Sadr City neighborhood, the port city of Basra and other locations in southern Iraq.
Clashes in Basra have abated since a failed government offensive last month to dislodge militia groups. But sporadic violence has been continuing in the country’s oil capital.
Late on Sunday, unknown gunmen assassinated police Major Ali Haider, a commander in the department’s serious crimes directorate. Police said Haider was a member of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, a Shiite political party that is part of Maliki’s governing coalition.
Elsewhere in Iraq, US soldiers discovered a mass grave near Muqdadiyah, 90km north of Baghdad, the military said yesterday.
The grave site, which was unearthed on Sunday, contained 20 to 30 badly decomposed bodies that appeared to have been buried for nearly eight months, the statement said.
Meanwhile, Iraqi forces freed British journalist Richard Butler, a photographer for the US network CBS, who was kidnapped in Basra in February, Defence Ministry spokesman Major-General Mohammed al-Askary said.
“He is in good health. He is fine. He’s here with me,” Askary said by telephone from Basra.
PLA MANEUVERS: Although Beijing has yet to formally announce military drills, its coast guard vessels have been spotted near and around Taiwan since Friday The Taiwanese military is on high alert and is closely monitoring the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) air and naval deployments after Beijing yesterday reserved seven airspace areas east of its Zhejiang and Fujian provinces through Wednesday. Beijing’s action was perceived as a precursor to a potential third “Joint Sword” military exercise, which national security experts said the PLA could launch following President William Lai’s (賴清德) state visits to the nation’s three Pacific allies and stopovers in Hawaii and Guam last week. Unlike the Joint Sword military exercises in May and October, when Beijing provided detailed information about the affected areas, it
Five flights have been arranged to help nearly 2,000 Taiwanese tourists return home from Okinawa after being stranded due to cruise ship maintenance issues, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced yesterday. China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) have arranged five flights with a total of 748 additional seats to transport 1,857 passengers from the MSC Bellissima back to Taiwan, the ministry said. The flights have been scheduled for yesterday and today by the Civil Aviation Administration, with the cruise operator covering all associated costs. The MSC Bellissima, carrying 4,341 passengers, departed from Keelung on Wednesday last week for Okinawa,
US president-elect Donald Trump said he would “never say” if Washington is committed to defending Taiwan from China, but “I would prefer that they do not do it [ an attack],” adding that he has a “good relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). “I never say because I have to negotiate things, right?” Trump said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press host Kristen Welker after saying he would not reveal his incoming administration’s stance on Taiwan’s defense in the event of an attack. Asked the question again, Trump, in a reference to China, said: “I would prefer that they
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: MOFA demanded Beijing stop its military intimidation and ‘irrational behavior’ that endanger peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region The Presidential Office yesterday called on China to stop all “provocative acts,” saying ongoing Chinese military activity in the nearby waters of Taiwan was a “blatant disruption” of the “status quo” of security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. Defense officials said they have detected Chinese ships since Monday, both off Taiwan and farther out along the first island chain. They described the formations as two walls designed to demonstrate that the waters belong to China. The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said it had detected 53 military aircraft operating around the nation over the past 24 hours, as well
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