A guerrilla attack on a tented dining hall at a US base in northern Iraq killed 18 Americans and four Iraqis in the deadliest strike on US forces since last year's war to oust Saddam Hussein.
US officials initially said a number of rocket and mortar rounds were fired at the base in the northern city of Mosul on Tuesday, but a militant group claimed a suicide bomber was behind the attack, in which a further 72 people were wounded.
"A suicide bomber has not been ruled out," a US Army official said later in Washington.
The military in Baghdad said 14 US soldiers, four US civilians and four Iraqi security force members were killed.
Fifty-one of the wounded were US military personnel. Of the 72 hurt, 43 were still being treated.
A spokesman in Mosul said it could take days before a clear picture emerged of what happened and who was killed.
"There's some tedious forensic work to be done. It could be a couple of days," said Captain Phil Ludvigson, who said it was not clear what caused the explosion.
Mosul residents said US forces sealed off areas of the city yesterday, including bridges crossing the Tigris river, and carried out raids in a hunt for suspects behind the attack.
Two French journalists, held hostage for four months were freed, ending a saga that had embarrassed the Paris government.
French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said the two journalists would be home for Christmas. A military plane was due to arrive in Baghdad from Paris to take them home.
Meanwhile, Iran's most senior dissident cleric urged Iraqis to vote and said their planned Jan. 30 elections could mean peace and independence.
"Under the supervision of the top clerics, all Iraqis should vote to form a powerful government through free, nationwide and broad-based elections," Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri said in a letter to leading Iraqi Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
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
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
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)