Explosions and gunfire rocked the turbulent city of Fallujah for a second day Friday, after coordinated attacks in other Iraqi cities killed about 100 people less than a week before Iraq's new government takes power.
US tanks and armored vehicles maneuvered on the highway near the edges of Fallujah, firing in all directions, while armed men in an eastern suburb returned fire, witnesses said. Seven people died in two days of exchanges there, hospital officials said.
Hours later, a roadside bomb exploded in a residential neighborhood in Baghdad, killing one Iraqi policeman and wounding another, police said.
PHOTO: AP
The attacks on security forces fit a pattern of violence that targeted several cities on Thursday, when insurgents set off car bombs and seized police stations in an offensive aimed at creating chaos just days before the handover of power to a new Iraqi government. US and Iraqi forces regained control in heavy fighting, but the day's violence killed about 100 people, most of them Iraqi civilians.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror network claimed responsibility for the attacks Thursday. A large number were killed in simultaneous car bombings in the northern city of Mosul, but some also died as US troops battled the guerrillas. Three US soldiers were among the dead. At least 320 people were wounded, including 12 Americans.
As the situation worsened, Iraq's interim vice president warned that a drastic deterioration in the country's security could result in the implementation of emergency laws or martial rule -- however undesirable such measures may be.
"Announcing emergency laws or martial law depends on the nature of the situation. In normal situations, there is clearly no need for that [step]," Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite and member of the Islamic Dawa Party, told reporters in an interview late Thursday.
"But in cases of excess challenges, emergency laws have their place," he said, adding that any such laws would fall within a "democratic framework that respects the rights of Iraqis."
In Mosul, residents said the city was tense yesterday, with a marked increase in the number of police on the streets. Fewer people ventured out to markets for fear of more attacks.
Elsewhere, three mortar shells exploded early yesterday near a pipeline damaged last week by sabotage, police Captain Mushtaq Talib said. The latest explosion caused no damage, Talib said.
Iraq's new leaders have recently begun to suggest the possibility of at least partial martial rule in some hotspots around the country as a way of stemming the tide of violence. It is unclear, however, whether US officials would go along with the idea. The UN Security Council resolution approved this month gives the US a primary security role in Iraq even after the transfer of sovereignty Wednesday.
US and Iraqi forces regained control in heavy fighting and American forces set up checkpoints around Iraq to intercept weapons, guerrillas and bombs.
They fear that al-Zarqawi, the militant who claimed responsibility for the offensive, plans a string of car bombings in Baghdad, said Colonel Michael Formica, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division's 2nd Brigade.
"There is clearly a transnational threat, as represented by al-Zarqawi, and that threats appears -- based on what we've seen in Fallujah and Mosul today -- to want to bring the attack to Baghdad," Formica said Thursday.
A large number of the dead from Thursday's attacks were killed in simultaneous car bombings in the northern city of Mosul, but some also died as US troops battled the guerrillas.
The US military responded with heavy firepower, dropping 11 500-pound bombs and a 2,000-pound bomb.
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
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘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
RSS