An explosion leveled a building in Baghdad as US troops raided it yesterday, wounding at least one US soldier and several Iraqis. West of the capital, heavy fighting broke out in Fallujah despite attempts to extend a ceasefire.
In the south, US troops rolled into a base in Najaf to replace Spanish forces who are withdrawing and to increase pressure on the militia of anti-US Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The deployment brings the Americans about 6km away from holy sites at the heart of the city.
PHOTO: REUTERS
US commanders have said they will not go near the holy shrines in the city's ancient center, a move that would spark widespread outrage among Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority.
The US military will take over security duties throughout Najaf province and the neighboring province of Qadisiyah after the withdrawal of Spanish, Dominican and Honduran forces this month, said a Polish spokesman, whose country's forces lead multinational peacekeepers in the area.
The extension of US forces would be a major reversal of American efforts to hand security duties in the south to its allies. But the coalition has been frayed by the Spanish-led pullout and the eruption of fighting in the previously more peaceful south.
The Baghdad explosion occurred when US troops broke into a shop on the ground floor of a building in the northern Waziriya district. Moments afterward, the blast went off, leveling the front half of the one-story building and setting ablaze four Humvees parked outside.
A female American soldier was seen being taken away by troops, her face and chest severely burned. Witnesses reported seeing up to 10 US soldiers being loaded into ambulances. A US military spokesman confirmed Humvees were destroyed in the blast, but could not confirm US casualties.
Several Iraqis were pulled out of the building's rubble.
Later, teenagers dragged away one of the burnt out Humvees, stripped it of equipment then set it ablaze again with fuel. Some were seen afterward, waving US weapons.
"This is for the madman Bush, for the madman Bremer," said one youth, waving a rifle and referring to US President George W. Bush and the top American administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer.
Residents differed over what was in the targeted building. Some said it held a perfume factory, others said it was once a scrap metal workshop that repaired weapons and recycled old ammunition.
The fighting in Fallujah yesterday sent two large palls of heavy black smoke over the northern Jolan district, a poor neighborhood thought to have a large concentration of Sunni insurgents. Explosions rang out, along with the sound of mortars and heavy machine guns.
The fighting came a day after US officials announced that a fragile ceasefire would be extended for two days and that political efforts at a resolution would continue, backing off warnings earlier this week that US Marines could launch a full-fledged offensive in the city within days.
As part of the extended ceasefire, Marines are to begin joint patrols in Fallujah alongside Iraqi security forces -- a measure aimed at showing some degree of control in the city without launching a new assault.
Marines began training Iraqi security forces yesterday to join them on patrols, which are due to start by Thursday.
The move carries a risk: There was little guarantee that guerrillas -- who Marines say have not abided by other parts of past negotiated agreements -- will not attack the patrols.
Marine Lieutenant-Colonel Brennan Byrne said the foot patrols would be backed by armor and air support. He said patrols coming under fire wouldn't necessarily spark a renewal of a general Marine offensive.
"We're perfectly happy to move down the street, destroy a bad guy over here and just continue on with the patrol," he said.
In the south, about 200 troops and Military Police rolled into the Spanish base in Najaf yesterday morning. The move deploys US troops within the Najaf urban area for the first time since a large force massed outside the city earlier this month to put down the al-Mahdi Army militia of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The base compound was pockmarked with shells and shrapnel from earlier attacks. The golden domes of the Shiite shrines at Najaf's center -- a no-go zone for the Americans -- were visible from inside the compound.
Overnight, al-Sadr's forces shelled the base with 21 mortars, and one Salvadoran soldier was wounded, said Colonel Pat White, commander of the US 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment, which moved into the base.
Spanish troops at the base are due to leave within days, and the Americans moved in to ensure al-Sadr militiamen did not overrun the site.
"We are going in to allow the Spanish troops to leave safely and so that the compound is not left empty," said White, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment. "We don't want al-Sadr's militia to take it over. It is not an offensive operation."
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS