Two US security contractors were killed and a third wounded in a roadside bomb attack south of the Iraqi capital, the US Embassy said yesterday.
The three were working for Blackwater Security, a North Carolina-based contracting firm that provides security for US State Department officials in Iraq. They were attacked on the main road to Hillah, south of Baghdad, US Embassy spokesman Bob Callahan said.
In Sharqat, 260km northwest of Baghdad, a suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle on Saturday outside the house of the town's chief of special police forces, police Colonel Jassim al-Jubouri said in Tikrit, further south. Four people were killed and several others were injured, he said.
In other violence, a US soldier was gunned down late Saturday in a small arms fire attack in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, 360km northwest of Baghdad, the US command said Sunday.
The death brought to at least 1,514 the number of members of the US military who've died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Foreign contractors, too, are often targeted by anti-US guerrillas. At least 232 US civilian security and reconstruction contractors were killed in Iraq up to the end of last year, according to the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
The Blackwater employees killed Saturday were in the last vehicle in a four-vehicle convoy and were traveling to Hillah from Baghdad, Callahan said.
The road south traverses an area known as the "Triangle of Death" because of the frequency of insurgent attacks.
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ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
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