Militants unleashed attacks in a northeastern Iraq city that left four people wounded, officials said yesterday, as the country hosted US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Gunmen opened fire late on Monday on a police patrol in the city of Kirkuk, injuring two security service members, police Brigadier Sarhat Kadier said.
Attackers also placed a bomb in the undercarriage of a doctor's car, but the device exploded as the physician entered a Kirkuk store to buy bread, sparing him but wounding two nearby civilians, Kadir said. It wasn't known why attackers targeted the doctor.
Kirkuk is 290km north of Baghdad -- where Rumsfeld arrived before dawn yesterday for his second visit in three months.
The visit by Rumsfeld, who helped design the US-led March 2003 invasion and troubled occupation since, reflected a desire to push the political and military momentum that he believes has been growing since the Jan. 30 elections for a national assembly.
Rumsfeld was expected to meet later yesterday with interim President Jalal Talabani, a former Kurdish rebel leader, and Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite Muslim.
En route from Washington, Rumsfeld told reporters he would press the new Iraqi leadership to avoid delays on either the political or security front at a time when US troops are still being killed or wounded and billions of US taxpayer dollars are being invested in rebuilding the country.
"It's important that the new government be attentive to the competence of the people in the ministries and that they avoid unnecessary turbulence," Rumsfeld said.
Some in the administration of US President George W. Bush are concerned that factional maneuvering during the formation of the transitional government could undermine the counterinsurgency effort that is a key to eventually pulling US troops out of Iraq.
"Anything that would delay that or disrupt that as a result of turbulence or incompetence or corruption in government would be unfortunate," Rumsfeld said.
Late Monday, the US embassy in Iraq announced the kidnapping of a US citizen.
A spokesman said the US contractor, who was working on a reconstruction project, had been abducted around noon Monday. The spokesman didn't release the contractor's identity or other details, but said the abductee's family had been informed.
In a small victory against a spate of kidnappings targeting Iraqis and foreigners, a Defense Ministry official said on Monday that Iraqi security forces arrested a man who claimed responsibility for last year's kidnapping of two French journalists.
The hostages, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, were released last December after four months in captivity.
Iraqi soldiers captured Amer Hussein Sheikhan in the Mahmoudiya area on April 4, the official said, without further details.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
China has built a land-based prototype nuclear reactor for a large surface warship, in the clearest sign yet Beijing is advancing toward producing the nation’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to a new analysis of satellite imagery and Chinese government documents provided to The Associated Press. There have long been rumors that China is planning to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, but the research by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California is the first to confirm it is working on a nuclear-powered propulsion system for a carrier-sized surface warship. Why is China’s pursuit of nuclear-powered carriers significant? China’s navy is already
‘SIGNS OF ESCALATION’: Russian forces have been aiming to capture Ukraine’s eastern Donbas province and have been capturing new villages as they move toward Pokrovsk Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi on Saturday said that Ukraine faced increasing difficulties in its fight against Moscow’s invasion as Russian forces advance and North Korean troops prepare to join the Kremlin’s campaign. Syrskyi, relating comments he made to a top US general, said outnumbered Ukrainian forces faced Russian attacks in key sectors of the more than two-and-a-half-year-old war with Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a nightly address said that Ukraine’s military command was focused on defending around the town of Kurakhove — a target of Russia’s advances along with Pokrovsk, a logistical hub to the north. He decried strikes
RSS