Officials in Iraq are growing increasingly concerned over an unabated spike in violence that claimed at least another 33 lives in bomb blasts on Thursday and is reviving fears of a return to widespread sectarian fighting.
Authorities on Thursday announced plans to impose a sweeping ban on many cars across the Iraqi capital of Baghdad starting early yesterday in an apparent effort to thwart car bombings, as the UN envoy to Iraq warned that “systemic violence is ready to explode.”
Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was shown on state TV visiting security checkpoints around Baghdad the previous night as part of a three-hour inspection tour, underscoring the government’s efforts to show it is acting to curtail the bloodshed.
Iraqi security forces are struggling to contain the country’s most relentless round of violence since the 2011 US military withdrawal.
The rise in violence follows months of protests against the Shiite-led government by Iraq’s Sunni minority, many of whom feel they have been marginalized and unfairly treated since the 2003 US-led invasion. Tensions escalated sharply last month after a deadly crackdown by security forces on a Sunni protest camp.
Sunni militants have long targeted Iraq’s Shiite majority and government security forces. However, Sunni mosques and other targets have also been struck over the past several weeks, raising the possibility that Shiite militias are also growing more active.
Several members of the security forces were killed in Thursday’s bombings. The attacks also included an assassination attempt by a suicide bomber targeting a provincial governor.
The spike in violence, which has gained momentum since the middle of last month, is raising worries that Iraq is heading back toward the widespread sectarian bloodletting that spiked in 2006 and 2007, and pushed the country to the brink of civil war.
More than 500 people were killed last month. April was Iraq’s deadliest since June 2008, according to a UN tally that put the death toll at more than 700.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique