US forces hammered southern Fallujah with renewed airstrikes and artillery yesterday, hitting mortar positions and sniper nests, in preparation for a ground assault on insurgents trapped in this part of the former militant stronghold.
Loud explosions rocked the city throughout the morning as gunfire reverberated across town. Smoke rose above Fallujah as helicopters hovered overhead. Marines were seen perched on rooftops. Many buildings were heavily damaged with few signs of civilians.
In the past 24 hours of fighting, three US troops were killed while another 17 were wounded in Fallujah, the US military said. The number of enemy fighters killed were not available, with US officials saying rebel casualties from airstrikes was difficult to confirm.
US troops were steadily advancing through the city from the northern end, pushing militants slowly into the southern half of Fallujah. With US units positioned to the south and east, and the Euphrates River on the west, insurgents are being squeezed into a corner, the military said.
US troops, on the verge of gaining control of the city, have been fighting pockets of resistance in this former militant stronghold as an Iraqi commander reported the discovery of "hostage slaughterhouses" in which foreign captives had been killed.
Insurgents have sought to open a second front elsewhere in Iraq, mounting attacks outside Fallujah and kidnapping three relatives of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Militants also claimed to have abducted 20 Iraqi National Guard (ING) troops in Fallujah.
The latest kidnappings were part of a surge of attacks outside the city -- an attempt by militants to divert US-Iraqi forces.
Yesterday, a car bomb hit central Baghdad around 11:40am, sending out huge plumes of black smoke over the heart of the capital. Police said the bomb detonated along Saadoun Street, a densely populated commercial area with major hotels housing foreigners. At least one body was seen being pulled from the rubble, as bloodied and burned victims were carried off.
Another car bomb exploded in northern Iraq near a convoy carrying the governor of Kirkuk province, killing one bystander and injuring 14 others. Police said Governor Abdul-Rahman Mustafa, a Kurd, was unharmed.
Early yesterday, al-Jazeera television reported 32 people were killed and about 50 injured in politically motivated violence Wednesday throughout Iraq, but it was unclear if the figures included deaths and injuries in Fallujah.
A day earlier, US warplanes fired on the city's main street and market as well as Jolan, one of several neighborhoods where troops were skirmishing with militants.
In what could be a sign of progress, the Marines began turning over the northern neighborhood of Jolan to Iraqi forces, signaling that Marines consider the area relatively secure. Jolan was considered one of the strongest positions held by militants inside Fallujah.
In one of the most dramatic clashes Wednesday, snipers fired on US and Iraqi troops from the minarets of the Khulafah Al Rashid mosque, the military said. US Marines called in an airstrike, and an F-18 dropped a bomb on the mosque, destroying both minarets
Also See Story:
Arab world divided over Fallujah
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
INTENSIFYING THREATS: Beijing’s tactics include massive attacks on the government service network, aircraft and naval vessel incursions and damaging undersea cables China is prepared to interfere in November’s nine-in-one local elections by launching massive attacks on the Taiwanese government’s service network (GSN), a report published by the National Security Bureau showed. The report was submitted to the Legislative Yuan ahead of the bureau’s scheduled briefing at the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The national security team has identified about 13,000 suspicious Internet accounts and 860,000 disputed messages, the bureau said of China’s cognitive warfare against Taiwan. The disputed messages focus on major foreign affairs, national defense and economic issues, which were produced using generative artificial intelligence (AI) and distributed through Chinese
COUNTERING HOSTILITY: The draft bill would require the US to increase diplomatic pressure on China and would impose sanctions on those who sabotage undersea cable networks US lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bipartisan bill to bolster the resilience of Taiwan’s submarine cables to counter China’s hostile activities. The proposal, titled the critical undersea infrastructure resilience initiative act, was cosponsored by Republican representatives Mike Lawler and Greg Stanton, and Democratic Representative Dave Min. US Senators John Curtis and Jacky Rosen also introduced a companion bill in the US Senate, which has passed markup at the chamber’s Committee on Foreign Relations. The House’s version of the bill would prioritize the deployment of sensors to detect disruptions or potential sabotage in real-time and enhance early warning capabilities through global intelligence sharing frameworks,
RSS