A car bomb exploded yesterday near the Ministry of Education in a busy commercial area in northern Baghdad, killing at least eight people, according to the Interior Ministry and hospital officials.
The blast in the mainly Sunni Adhamiya district badly damaged the Education Ministry building and destroyed 31 cars. The body of an elderly man lay on the ground on fire after the explosion, which scattered body parts across the street.
The bomb exploded in a side-street near a ministry building wall at about 9:30am, gouging a big crater in the tarmac. Water from burst pipes flooded the street.
Interior Ministry spokesman Colonel Adnan Abdul-Rahman said the blast was caused by a car bomb.
Hospital officials said a woman was among the dead and a child was among the wounded.
Among the casualties was Abbas Kadhim, 32, who was hit in the stomach by fragments of concrete as he sat in his car.
He wept after being treated at the nearby Noman hospital.
"I'm not crying because I'm wounded, but because of my brother. I was with him and I don't know what happened to him," he said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Insurgents also captured a US soldier in the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, an Iraqi police spokesman said yesterday.
Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Ahmed told reporters the soldier had been seized on Monday night by gunmen in two Opel cars. He said US troops were out in force in the streets of the Sunni Muslim city yesterday.
A US military spokesman said he had no information on the incident. Ahmed said the Americans had alerted Iraqi security forces and asked them to look out for the missing soldier.
In other developments, saboteurs also mounted the biggest attacks yet on Iraq's oil infrastructure, blowing up three pipelines in the north on Monday night and halting exports via Turkey, oil officials said.
A roadside bomb exploded near a convoy of Iraqi National Guard vehicles near Abu Ghraib, in Baghdad's western outskirts, wounding two guardsmen, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.
The US military said an air strike on Monday night had destroyed an arms cache in a southeastern part of Falluja. Hospital officials said five people were wounded in the raid.
US Marines are poised for a new offensive against Falluja and its sister city of Ramadi, where hospital staff said 10 people were killed and nine wounded in clashes on Monday.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
TRAGEDY STRIKES TAIPEI: The suspect died after falling off a building after he threw smoke grenades into Taipei Main Station and went on a killing spree in Zhongshan A 27-year-old suspect allegedly threw smoke grenades in Taipei Main Station and then proceeded to Zhongshan MRT Station in a random killing spree that resulted in the death of the suspect and two other civilians, and seven injured, including one in critical condition, as of press time last night. The suspect, identified as a man surnamed Chang Wen (張文), allegedly began the attack at Taipei Main Station, the Taipei Fire Department said, adding that it received a report at 5:24pm that smoke grenades had been thrown in the station. One man in his 50s was rushed to hospital after a cardiac arrest
PUBLIC SAFETY: The premier said that security would be tightened in transport hubs, while President Lai commended the public for their bravery The government is to deploy more police, including rapid response units, in crowded public areas to ensure a swift response to any threats, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after a knife attack killed three people and injured 11 in Taipei the previous day. Lai made the remarks following a briefing by the National Police Agency on the progress of the investigation, saying that the attack underscored the importance of cooperation in public security between the central and local governments. The attack unfolded in the early evening on Friday around Taipei Main Station’s M7 exit and later near the Taipei MRT’s Zhongshan
ON ALERT: Taiwan’s partners would issue warnings if China attempted to use Interpol to target Taiwanese, and the global body has mechanisms to prevent it, an official said China has stationed two to four people specializing in Taiwan affairs at its embassies in several democratic countries to monitor and harass Taiwanese, actions that the host nations would not tolerate, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which asked him and Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to report on potential conflicts in the Taiwan Strait and military preparedness. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) expressed concern that Beijing has posted personnel from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office to its
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