US troops killed nine US-trained Iraqi guards and a Jordanian on Friday after mistaking the Iraqis for rebels in the heartland of resistance to the American-led occupation, Iraqi police said.
Elsewhere in the rebellious "Sunni Triangle," where deposed dictator Saddam Hussein may be hiding, two US soldiers died, seven were wounded, and three Iraqis were reported killed in a botched raid in the town of Ramadi.
US President George W. Bush kept up pressure on the international community to back up its 130,000-strong contingent in Iraq, saying free nations cannot be neutral in the "fight between civilization and chaos."
In a speech to returning American soldiers, Bush added: "Terrorists in Iraq have attacked representatives of the civilized world, and opposing them and defeating them must be the cause of the civilized world."
In the Iraqi town of Falluja, police officer Assem Mohammed said a joint force of the local police and the US-backed security force were chasing thieves in a car shortly after midnight when US soldiers opened fire.
"They continued firing for about an hour despite our pleas for them to stop and to tell them we are police and security," Mohammed, who was wounded in the incident, said from his hospital bed in Falluja, 50km west of Baghdad.
The US military apologized yesterday for the incident.
"The senior military leadership of the coalition has been in contact with the Jordanian military and Iraqi authorities to express our deep regrets and apologies," said a statement read by Lieutenant Colonel George Krivo.
Iraqi police yesterday revised their death toll from the incident, saying it included nine Iraqi security personnel, one Jordanian guard at the hospital and two thieves who were being chased down.
The Jordanian military hospital in the area was badly damaged in the firing, its side peppered by bullets and shells. Spent bullet casings littered the road nearby, next to dried pools of blood.
An official at the hospital, set up in April to provide medical services to the Iraqi people, confirmed a Jordanian guard died of wounds he received in the incident.
The Falluja Protection Force was set up by the US military with volunteers to help Iraqi police control the unruly town.
In the Ramadi incident, two US soldiers were killed and seven wounded when an American force raided a house in the town, 100km west of Baghdad in the US-labelled "Sunni Triangle" where support for Saddam is strongest.
Pools of blood marked the sight of what witnesses described as a vicious gunbattle involving small arms and grenades in the early hours of the morning. In confused accounts, neighbors said three Iraqis also died.
"Look at the blood all over the house," housewife Samam Kadhim said. "This is the American behavior -- aggression towards Muslim houses."
There were chaotic scenes yesterday at Falluja's main mosque, where several hundred people carrying an Iraqi flag gathered to pray over the coffins of the dead guards and protest against the US military.
"There is only one God, America is the enemy of God," the crowd chanted.
Witnesses in Falluja said Iraqi guerrillas fired on a US base just outside the town in the early hours of yesterday, but US soldiers on the scene said there were no casualties.
Also See Story:
Iraqi handover unrealistic, Powell says
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique