Three people were killed yesterday, including a US-led coalition soldier, when a military convoy was hit by a roadside bomb south of Iraq's main northern city of Mosul, the US military said.
Another soldier from the US-dominated Task Force Olympia, which patrols northern Iraq, was also wounded in the blast.
"While the injured soldier was being treated following the explosion, a vehicle approached at a high rate of speed and fired on the convoy. The soldiers returned fire, killing the driver. The roadside bomb explosion also killed an Iraqi citizen that was driving behind the Task Force Olympia convoy," the military's statement said.
The statement did not specify the soldiers' nationalities, but the force has only small numbers of Albanian and Australian troops alongside the main US force.
A militant group linked to Jordanian terror suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi yesterday claimed responsibility for an attack on a military headquarters in the city of Samarra that killed five US soldiers and an Iraqi National Guardsman.
The claim by al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad movement, posted on an Islamic Web site, said the assault on Thursday killed dozens of Americans and hundreds of Iraqis. The military said insurgents detonated a car bomb and then fired mortars at the building used jointly by the 1st Infantry Division and Iraqi guardsmen.
"One of the lions of the martyrs' brigade entered the building and destroyed it completely, plus six Hummers, including those who were inside them, thank God," the group said in its statement.
The movement said that as troops tried to escape from the building, "the soldiers of God were waiting for them and rained those who came with mortar shells."
The military said five soldiers and one Iraqi guardsman were killed in the attack.
Until last month, al-Zarqawi's network was thought to be responsible for car bombings and other terrorist-style attacks in Iraq that often killed dozens of civilians.
But last month, the group claimed responsibility for a spate of near-simultaneous attacks in four cities across Iraq that included car bombings as well as military-style ambushes on Iraqi security forces and US troops.
US military officials speculated Iraq's secular guerrillas, tied to the former regime of Saddam Hussein, were coordinating their attacks with al-Zarqawi, an alliance that alarmed military analysts in Iraq, which has been torn by violence since Saddam's fall more than 14 months ago.
On Saturday, US Marines clashed with guerrillas taking cover at a taxi stand in Ramadi, a stronghold of support for the former regime, killing three people and wounding five, military and hospital officials said.
Meanwhile, Bulgaria expressed hope that two Bulgarian truck drivers also kidnapped by militants remained alive.
Al-Zarqawi's group threatened to kill the men if the US did not release all Iraqi detainees -- an ultimatum that has expired.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary