Guerrillas detonated a car bomb outside an Iraqi security force base just north of Baghdad yesterday, killing nine people and wounding dozens in the latest attack on Iraqis cooperating with occupying troops.
With the formal handover of sovereignty to an Iraqi government less than four weeks away, Baghdad has seen a surge in deadly attacks in recent days.
The 15-nation UN Security Council was called into a special session yesterday amid signs that the US is close to securing agreement on a draft UN resolution on the future of Iraq after June 30.
"A vehicle-borne improvised explosive device was detonated," US Major Andreas Dekunpfy said at the scene of the blast at the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps base in Taji. US troops are also based nearby.
It was not clear whether the bombing was a suicide attack, a tactic regularly used by insurgents.
The US military said six people were killed, but hospital officials later said nine Iraqis were killed and 61 wounded.
On Saturday, two soldiers were killed and two wounded when a bomb was detonated near their convoy in the northeast of the capital. The previous day, five soldiers were killed in a guerrilla attack in the same area.
Insurgents also attacked foreigners traveling in civilian four-wheel drive vehicles on the airport road on Saturday. After the attack two vehicles were in flames and witnesses said they saw at least two bodies. The US military had no information.
South of Baghdad, gunmen burst into a police station in the town of Mussayab on Saturday and forced police into a cell before detonating explosives in the building, police said. They said at least 10 policemen and two civilians were killed.
Iraqi police and security personnel are regularly targeted by guerrillas, who have repeatedly threatened Iraqis who work with occupying troops and foreign organizations.
Also see story:
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not
RSS