American troops killed 54 suspected Iraqi insurgents, which Iraqi medics say included eight civilians, capping the worst weekend of violence in seven months of occupation, which saw the deaths of seven Spaniards, two Koreans, two Japanese, two US soldiers and a Colombian.
US commanders previously said they killed 46 Iraqis, all of them insurgents, in the clashes on Sunday afternoon and evening, which they described as the heaviest faced in Iraq by the 4th Infantry Division (4ID), which patrols the region.
Yesterday they upped the death toll to 54, without specifying whether the additional dead were insurgents or civilians.
PHOTO: AFP
But a medic at Samarra hospital said the bodies of "eight civilians including a woman and a child" were received at the hospital.
It was not immediately clear whether the figure included two Iranian pilgrims said to have been killed in their bus.
Hospital director Abed Tawfiq told AFP: "More than 60 people wounded by gunfire and shrapnel from US rounds are being treated at the hospital."
He said there were so many casualties from US fire during the intense clashes with insurgents who ambushed American convoys in the town Sunday afternoon and evening that they had to be treated in the hospital's corridors.
The town's police chief, Colonel Ismail Mahmud Mohammed, said around 20 of the wounded sustained their injuries while worshipping at a mosque during sunset prayers.
He said the insurgents who had attacked US forces had already withdrawn when the Americans returned fire, and charged that the troops had done so indiscriminately, with all weapons in their arsenal.
Lieutenant Colonel Bill MacDonald, a spokesman for the 4ID, previously described the events in Samarra as the biggest attack on the division in Iraq to date and said all those killed had been attackers.
US military and residents alike spoke of multiple attacks around the city, where Washington's public enemy number two in Iraq, Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri -- Saddam Hussein's longtime deputy and the alleged paymaster of many attacks against the coalition -- maintained two houses that were destroyed by US warplanes last month.
The troops "repelled multiple ambush attempts on two separate logistical convoys, killing 46 attackers, wounding at least 18 and capturing eight" during the afternoon, said the US spokesman.
He said US forces destroyed three buildings used in the attacks and fired tank guns against the attackers, who were wearing the black uniforms of pro-Saddam Fedayeen fighters.
"We're sending a clear message that anyone who attempts to attack our convoys will pay the price," said MacDonald.
The US military has taken off its gloves in its battle with Iraqi insurgents in the past couple of weeks, launching massive counterinsurgency operations both in and around Baghdad and in the 4 ID's operational area in north-central Iraq.
Sunday's bloodshed topped a series of assaults on the US-led coalition and its allies in Iraq over the weekend. The assaults took the lives of seven Spanish intelligence agents, two Japanese diplomats, a Colombian and two South Koreans, as well as two American soldiers, in what US commanders called a deliberate attempt to intimidate Washington's allies.
Meanwhile, three men suspected of belonging to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network were captured by US troops in the main northern Iraqi city of Mosul, a US military spokesman said yesterday.
The suspects, whose nationality was not disclosed, were arrested in Mosul two weeks ago and transferred to Baghdad, said Major Hugh Cate from the Mosul-based 101st Airborne Division.
US President George W. Bush's administration has long argued that toppled Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's regime had links with bin Laden's militant network.
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