Prime Minister Ayad Allawi made an unusually strong warning to Iraq's neighbors to crack down on insurgents infiltrating from their territory, saying that Iraq's patience was wearing thin. Al-Qaeda, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for a bold attack on US troops.
Iraqi officials have repeatedly accused Syria and Iran of supporting the insurgents waging a campaign of violence against American forces and Allawi's US-backed government. Both countries have denied helping militants or allowing them to cross the borders into Iraq.
But Allawi's comments on Friday to Baghdad's Al-Iraqiya television were among his toughest yet. "Some countries are hosting people who are involved in harming the Iraqi people," he said, without naming any nations. "Harming Iraq and its people is not allowed."
He said his government had contacted the countries and was waiting for their reply. "According to the answers we will decide what the next step will be," he said.
"Iraq is not a weak country. Iraq is passing through a difficult period but Iraq can respond in a strong way if needed," he said. "Patience has limits and it is beginning to run out."
In new violence, a US Marine assigned to the I Marine Expeditionary Force was killed in action on Friday during security operations in the Al Anbar Province, the Marines said in a release, which did not provide any other details.
Meanwhile, the US first Infantry Division detained 49 suspected guerrillas during a midnight raid in the town of Duluiyah, 72km north of Baghdad, it said on Friday. The sweep appeared to be the latest in a series of anti-insurgency campaigns in the so-called Sunni Triangle in central Iraq.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by the country's most wanted terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for a well-coordinated attack on Wednesday on a US post in the northern city of Mosul. The US military said one American soldier and 25 insurgents were killed in the battle.
The militants, however, claimed they had suffered no casualties.
"We, al-Qaeda in Iraq, claim responsibility for the battles of Mosul, may God cleanse it from the impurities of the infidels," said a statement posted on a Web site that often carries militant claims.
Wednesday's attack began with a massive truck bomb exploding just outside a US checkpoint, followed by attacks by squads of 10 to 12 insurgents.
A Stryker vehicle reinforcing the Americans was hit by a roadside bomb and a second car bomb. US forces then called in airstrikes by F-18 and F-16 fighter jets, which launched three Maverick missiles and conducted several strafing runs.
In new violence, a car bomb exploded next to a taxi carrying Iraqi national guardsmen in the town of Beiji, 249km north of Baghdad. A passenger car, which happened to be passing by at that moment, absorbed the brunt of the blast, killing its two occupants while five guardsmen were wounded, Major Neil O'Brien said.
North of Fallujah, a body of an Iraqi national guardsman was found with a handwritten note pinned to it saying: "This is the fate of anyone who collaborates with the occupation forces."
Insurgents have intensified their strikes in a campaign to disrupt the Jan. 30 general elections for a constitutional assembly that will set up the next government and write a new constitution. Rebels have targeted members of the interim government's security forces, perceived as collaborators with American occupiers.
During Friday's prayers in a Baghdad mosque, Sheik Ahmed Abdul-Ghafour Al-Samarie of the Association of Muslim Scholars -- an influential Sunni group -- demanded that the US troops pull out of Iraq.
"We have to realize that God is mightier than America and more powerful than the occupation forces," he said.
"America, which conducted crimes everywhere and supported Israel against Muslims, should take the lesson of the torrent and surge of the ocean in Asia," Al-Samarie said, adding that the US could be destroyed in a similar manner.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency and the Pentagon on Monday said that some North Korean troops have been killed during combat against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region. Those are the first reported casualties since the US and Ukraine announced that North Korea had sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to help it in the almost three-year war. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said that about 30 North Korean troops were killed or wounded during a battle with the Ukrainian army at the weekend. The casualties occurred around three villages in Kursk, where Russia has for four months been trying to quash a
FREEDOM NO MORE: Today, protests in Macau are just a memory after Beijing launched measures over the past few years that chilled free speech A decade ago, the elegant cobblestone streets of Macau’s Tap Seac Square were jam-packed with people clamouring for change and government accountability — the high-water mark for the former Portuguese colony’s political awakening. Now as Macau prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of its handover to China tomorrow, the territory’s democracy movement is all but over and the protests of 2014 no more than a memory. “Macau’s civil society is relatively docile and obedient, that’s the truth,” said Au Kam-san (歐錦新), 67, a schoolteacher who became one of Macau’s longest-serving pro-democracy legislators. “But if that were totally true, we wouldn’t
SUPPORT: Elon Musk’s backing for the far-right AfD is also an implicit rebuke of center-right Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz, who is leading polls German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took a swipe at Elon Musk over his political judgement, escalating a spat between the German government and the world’s richest person. Scholz, speaking to reporters in Berlin on Friday, was asked about a post Musk made on his X platform earlier the same day asserting that only the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party “can save Germany.” “We have freedom of speech, and that also applies to multi-billionaires,” Scholz said alongside Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal. “But freedom of speech also means that you can say things that are not right and do not contain
TRUDEAU IN TROUBLE: US president-elect Donald Trump reacted to Chrystia Freeland’s departure, saying: ‘Her behavior was totally toxic, and not at all conducive to making deals Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland on Monday quit in a surprise move after disagreeing with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over US president-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threats. The resignation of Freeland, 56, who also stepped down as finance minister, marked the first open dissent against Trudeau from within his Cabinet, and could threaten his hold on power. Liberal leader Trudeau lags 20 points in polls behind his main rival, Conservative Pierre Poilievre, who has tried three times since September to topple the government and force a snap election. “It’s not been an easy day,” Trudeau said at a fundraiser Monday evening, but
RSS