Guerrillas killed three US soldiers and two Iraqi civil defense officials in a huge bomb attack north of Baghdad yesterday as Washington insisted it would hand over political power in Iraq in mid-2004 as scheduled.
The deaths take the number of US troops killed in Iraq since the invasion last year to 499.
The mounting death toll is a problem for US President George W. Bush as he seeks re-election in November this year.
Bush held talks with US governor of Iraq Paul Bremer on Friday after which Bremer said Washington was willing to adjust plans for handing over power to appease Iraq's top Shiite cleric, but was unlikely to meet his key demand for elections this year.
He also stressed that the June 30 deadline for transferring power to an Iraqi government would not be extended.
Bremer will meet with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan tomorrow and is expected to press him to send a UN team to Iraq to convince Shiites that direct elections are not feasible or suggest a workable compromise.
In the latest attack, a huge roadside bomb near the town of Taji, 30km north of Baghdad, set a Bradley armored vehicle on fire and killed five inside, said Lieutenant Colonel William Macdonald of the US Army's 4th Infantry Division.
Apart from the three US and two Iraqi deaths, two US soldiers were injured, he said. Troops also arrested three Iraqi men in a sweep of the area shortly afterwards when a truck they were traveling in was found to contain bomb-making material.
Meanwhile, Japanese troops arrived in Kuwait yesterday ahead of a humanitarian mission in Iraq in the country's most controversial military deployment since World War II.
The troops move into Iraq next week and any casualty could rock Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government.
"We are making history today. It is the first time that we have Japanese troops going into a combat zone since World War II," US forces spokesman Captain Randall Baucom said.
In Washington, Bremer expressed "doubts" about Shiite demands for elections before the transfer of power, but said: "These are questions that, obviously, need to be looked at."
He said Washington may alter the way a transitional Iraqi assembly is selected and make other "clarifications," but gave few details.
Bremer's comments were unlikely to impress Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, one of the most revered men in Iraq, who has demanded that the transitional assembly be elected, instead of being chosen by regional caucuses.
Aides have said he could issue a fatwa, or edict, banning his followers from cooperating with the US authority in Iraq if his demands were not met.
Bremer insisted before his planned meeting with Annan that the mid-2004 handover could not be changed.
"We have doubts -- as does the secretary-general -- that elections can in fact be called in the time frame of the return of sovereignty to the Iraqi people on June 30," he said.
Annan withdrew all international staff from Iraq in October last year after attacks on relief workers and the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad on Aug. 19 that killed 22 people.
Annan wants the UN role in Iraq clarified, clearly wanting to avoid rubber-stamping US policy.
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
MAKING WAVES: China’s maritime militia could become a nontraditional threat in war, clogging up shipping lanes to prevent US or Japanese intervention, a report said About 1,900 Chinese ships flying flags of convenience and fishing vessels that participated in China’s military exercises around Taiwan last month and in January last year have been listed for monitoring, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said yesterday. Following amendments to the Commercial Port Act (商港法) and the Law of Ships (船舶法) last month, the CGA can designate possible berthing areas or deny ports of call for vessels suspected of loitering around areas where undersea cables can be accessed, Oceans Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. The list of suspected ships, originally 300, had risen to about
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
Japan’s strategic alliance with the US would collapse if Tokyo were to turn away from a conflict in Taiwan, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday, but distanced herself from previous comments that suggested a possible military response in such an event. Takaichi expressed her latest views on a nationally broadcast TV program late on Monday, where an opposition party leader criticized her for igniting tensions with China with the earlier remarks. Ties between Japan and China have sunk to the worst level in years after Takaichi said in November that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could bring about a Japanese
RSS