Five US soldiers were killed in fighting around Baghdad, including four in one attack, the US military said yesterday, as Iraqis mourned an assassinated provincial governor and police chief.
The Americans were killed on Saturday and all belonged to Task Force Marne, which was deployed in the southern belt of the Iraqi capital as part of the US counter-insurgency troop "surge."
Four of the soldiers died and four more were wounded in an explosion during fighting south of Baghdad. The fifth was killed by small arms fire while on foot patrol southeast of the capital, the military said.
At least 29 US soldiers have now died in Iraq this month.
In one of the most high-profile assassinations in months, a bomb attack killed the governor and police chief for the southern mainly Shiite province of Qadisiyah on Saturday as they were coming home from a funeral.
Governor Khalil Jalil Hamza belonged to the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council Party, part of the ruling coalition, while police chief Khalid Hassan was a political independent.
"We have issued orders for an investigation into this criminal act and for those who carried out this cruel crime to be detained so that justice can be done," the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in a statement.
Hundreds of mourners attended the joint funeral of the governor and police chief held under tight security, walking behind their cortege in the holy Shiite city of Najaf to hear prayers at the revered Imam Ali mausoleum.
Carrying Iraqi flags and posters of revered Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the mourners set out from the local Shiite Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council office, joined by governorate and political officials.
Iraqi police and soldiers tightly guarded Najaf's old city around the shrine and vast cemetery where the governor and police chief were to be buried.
In Diwaniyah, the provincial capital of Qadisiyah, deputy governor Diaa Abdulkarim, lifted a curfew ordered after the killings and confirmed that while an investigation was underway, it had yielded no results.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
RSS