Kidnappers seized at least six foreign hostages and threatened to burn three Japanese captives alive if Tokyo didn't withdraw its troops from Iraq as fighting in Fallujah raged yesterday between insurgents and US forces. Shiite rebels held part or all of three southern cities in the worst violence since Baghdad fell one year ago.
The top US general in Iraq, Army Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez, said US forces would move "imminently" to break Shiite rebels' hold over the city of Kut and to wipe out the insurgency throughout the country in "Operation Resolute Sword." The rebels also control large swaths of the cities of Kufa and Najaf.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, meanwhile, said the abduction of his nation's citizens was "cowardly" and he vowed not to withdraw 530 troops doing aid and reconstruction work in the south.
The Arab satellite network Al-Jazeera broadcast images -- that were rebroadcast during prime time in Japan -- showing two Japanese aid workers and a Japanese journalist wide-eyed and moaning in terror as black-clad men held knives to their throats, shouting "God is Great" in Arabic. It was not clear when the three were captured.
Two Arab aid workers from Jerusalem were abducted in a separate incident, and a Syrian-born Canadian humanitarian aid worker for the International Rescue Committee was taken hostage Wednesday by a militia in Najaf.
Seven South Korean Christian missionaries were freed by gunmen outside Baghdad after one of the missionaries escaped. The seizure did not appear to sway Korean leaders, though, as officials in Seoul said they stood by plans to send 3,600 troops to Iraq.
Iraq's US administrator Paul Bremer said US forces had unilaterally suspended operations in the Sunni town of Falluja at midday after this week's crackdown on guerrillas.
He said the US ceasefire would allow humanitarian access and what would be unprecedented talks with insurgents.
About 10 bodies lay in the streets of the town west of Baghdad after heavy overnight fighting, witnesses said. A rocket hit a house before the truce came into force, killing all five family members inside, including three children.
This week's bloodshed, engulfing the hitherto quiescent Shiite south as well as the bastions of Sunni insurgency in central Iraq, has shown how far the US is from securing the country whose dictator it toppled on April 9 last year.
Since Sunday, at least 41 US and allied soldiers and hundreds of Iraqis have been killed in fighting. Baghdad streets were quiet yesterday as many residents stayed indoors fearing more violence on the anniversary.
US-led troops retook the eastern town of Kut two days after Ukrainian forces withdrew after clashes with Shiite militiamen loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Sadr's followers launched an uprising this week, battling US-led forces in Shiite areas across Iraq. One Ukrainian soldier was killed this week in the fighting in Kut.
Bremer announced the Falluja ceasefire after five days of street fighting in which up to 300 Iraqis have been reported killed and US Marines have also taken casualties.
The Marines launched "Operation Iron Resolve" after last week's killing and mutilation of four US private security guards showed the depth of anti-American feeling in Falluja.
Clashes erupted after Friday prayers in the mixed Sunni-Shiite town of Baquba, as insurgents fought US troops and attacked buildings, witnesses said. Explosions were heard near the US base in the town, 65km north of Baghdad.
Insurgents also attacked a US fuel convoy west of Baghdad yesterday, killing at least nine people, witnesses said.
A Reuters photographer at the scene said he saw bodies burning inside the vehicles near Abu Ghraib. A dead foreigner lay on the road with a bloody head as an Iraqi beat him.
In the shrine city of Kerbala, overnight clashes between Shiite fighters and Polish and Bulgarian troops killed 15 Iraqis, and six Iranian pilgrims were shot dead near a Polish checkpoint between Babel and Kerbala, police said.
Shiite militiamen still control the centre of the shrine city of Najaf, where Sadr is thought to be holed up. The violence erupted as Shiite pilgrims thronged Kerbala for Arbain, a religious occasion that climaxes this weekend.
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
DETERMINATION: Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said. The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as
‘TROUBLEMAKER’: Most countries believe that it is China — rather than Taiwan — that is undermining regional peace and stability with its coercive tactics, the president said China should restrain itself and refrain from being a troublemaker that sabotages peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. Lai made the remarks after China Coast Guard vessels sailed into disputed waters off the Senkaku Islands — known as the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in Taiwan — following a remark Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made regarding Taiwan. Takaichi during a parliamentary session on Nov. 7 said that a “Taiwan contingency” involving a Chinese naval blockade could qualify as a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, and trigger Tokyo’s deployment of its military for defense. Asked about the escalating tensions
The Ministry of Economic Affairs said it plans to revise the export control list for strategic high-tech products by adding 18 items under three categories — advanced 3D printing equipment, advanced semiconductor equipment and quantum computers — which would require local manufacturers to obtain licenses for their export. The ministry’s announcement yesterday came as the International Trade Administration issued a 60-day preview period for planned revisions to the Export Control List for Dual Use Items and Technology (軍商兩用貨品及技術出口管制清單) and the Common Military List (一般軍用貨品清單), which fall under regulations governing export destinations for strategic high-tech commodities and specific strategic high-tech commodities. The
RSS