Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki yesterday welcomed a pact to end violence between the country's two most powerful Shiite leaders, Moqtada al-Sadr and Abdel Aziz al-Hakim.
Sadr, the leader of Iraq's most popular Shiite movement, and Hakim, the head of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), a pillar of Maliki's ruling coalition, announced their deal on Saturday.
"We received news of the signing of an agreement between the leaders of SIIC and the Sadr Movement with deep comfort," Maliki said in a statement.
"This agreement came at the right time and expressed a high sense of religious and national responsibility," said Maliki, himself a Shiite who leads the Dawa party at the head of the ruling coalition.
Sadr's six ministers have boycotted Maliki's government since April and his spokesman said yesterday that the accord did not signify a turnaround on the political front.
But an official in al-Sadr's office in Najaf called the agreement a "fresh start."
The three-point agreement appeared to be aimed at reining in rival militants loyal to al-Sadr and al-Hakim before the fighting erupts into a full-fledged conflict that could shatter the relative unity of the Shiite-led governing apparatus.
Meanwhile, bombings across Baghdad killed at least nine Iraqi civilians and wounded 12 in three separate attacks early yesterday, Iraqi police officials said.
The incidents began about 7am when a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol exploded near a minibus carrying workers into central Baghdad. Three people were killed and four wounded in the Shiite-dominated neighborhood of Baladiyat in the eastern part of the capital, said a police official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The inside of the mangled minibus was soaked in blood, the metal hulk was pummeled by shrapnel and the windows were shattered, TV footage showed.
A half-hour later, in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Dora in southern Baghdad, a second roadside bomb targeting a US patrol missed its target, killing three Iraqi civilians and wounding three, police said.
And in the downtown commercial area of Salihiyah, a bomb planted in the back of a car parked near the Iranian embassy exploded about 8:30am, killing three Iraqi passers-by and wounding five, police said. Dozens of people gathered to examine the smoldering wreckage at the side of the road, TV footage showed.
In other developments, the US military commander in Iraq has stepped up accusations that Iran was stoking violence in Iraq and said Tehran's ambassador to Baghdad was a member of the Revolutionary Guards Qods force.
General David Petraeus, speaking at a US military base near the Iranian border on Saturday, said Iran was giving advanced weaponry to militias in Iraq.
"They are responsible for providing the weapons, the training, the funding and in some cases the direction for operations that have indeed killed US soldiers," Petraeus told a small group of reporters when asked if the Iranian government was responsible for killing US troops.
"There is no question about the connection between Iran and these components, [the] attacks that have killed our soldiers," he said.
‘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 &
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
‘BOOMING’: ’ The number of partners we have here is incredible. You can see from their stock prices. They’re doing so well, they’re so happy,’ Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp’s spending in Taiwan has ballooned to about US$150 billion a year, 10 times the US$10 billion to US$15 billion the company spent five years ago, Nvidia chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, suggesting Taiwan’s strategic importance in the global artificial intelligence (AI) supply chain. “Taiwan is the epicenter of the AI revolution. This is where the chips come, packaging comes. This is where the systems are made. This is where AI supercomputers were created,” Huang said at a meeting for the company’s employees in Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei, the planned site of Nvidia’s Taipei headquarters. “Taiwan
GREATER REACH? Auto parts and wood products would face tariffs of up to 15%, matching those targeting the EU, Japan and South Korea, Vice Premier said The US has announced that preferential tariff treatment for Taiwan’s non-semiconductor Section 232 goods would take effect retroactively from May 1, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The US government yesterday posted a notice on the Federal Register’s public inspection Web site previewing tariff concessions for Taiwan under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Taiwan-US investment after two months of negotiations. The MOU signed on Jan. 15 stipulated three major preferential tariff arrangements: a 15 percent “reciprocal” tariff rate for Taiwan without stacking most-favored nation (MFN) rates; preferential Section 232 treatment for semiconductors and related products; and preferential Section 232 treatment for non-semiconductor
RSS