Saboteurs blew up a key oil pipeline in northern Iraq, as former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's eldest daughter, Raghad, accused his aides of "betraying" the deposed Iraqi president and causing the fall of Baghdad.
The charges came as the CIA said the latest audiotape purportedly made by Saddam and aired Friday by Al-Jazeera was likely authentic.
PHOTO: REUTERS
"The CIA has concluded after a technical analysis of the voice that there is a high likelihood it is that of Saddam," said an agency official.
PHOTO: REUTERS
In the tape, Saddam calls on Iraqis to safeguard properties of the state and his Baath party until "things return to normal" and spoke of the need to "salvage" Iraqis who have "strayed."
The pipeline fire in the northern refinery hub of Baiji, still raging late Friday, was certain to throw off US plans to further resuscitate Iraq's massive but crippled energy sector.
Only a day earlier, US officials hailed the expected reopening early this month of the country's main oil pipeline from the petroleum centre of Kirkuk to the Turkish Mediterranean terminal of Ceyhan, wrecked in a previous sabotage attack.
Oil exports are supposed to go toward paying the massive bill for Iraqi reconstruction, expected to run to tens of billions of dollars per year.
Suspected former regime loyalists in the Fallujah area again clashed with US troops amid an escalation of anti-US violence in the region west of Baghdad seen as a haven of Saddam supporters.
Four Iraqi men were killed when they attacked a US military convoy with rocket-propelled grenades, Sergeant Keith O'Donnell said at a US base in Ramadi, near Fallujah, where US troops come under fire almost daily.
"It was one of eight attacks in the last 24 hours west of Baghdad, the most extensive attacks in a while," O'Donnell said.
As the assaults on US forces continued unabated, so did the hunt for Iraq's most-wanted man.
Finding Saddam is clearly a top priority for the US, which has handed out retouched photographs showing the ousted strongman in several possible changes of appearance.
The photos were the latest indication of an increasingly concentrated search for Saddam, who US intelligence sources assume has tried to change his appearance to escape capture after four months on the run.
Washington, which says it has already paid US$30 million to the Iraqi who fingered Saddam's two sons, Uday and Qusay, is offering a US$25 million reward for Saddam himself, dead or alive.
The ousted dictator's daughter Raghad said the betrayal came from the people whom Saddam trusted fully.
"They betrayed their country before betraying Saddam Hussein," she told the Dubai-based al-Arabiya satellite news channel in Amman.
Raghad, who arrived in the Jordanian capital with her sister Rana and their nine children on Thursday after being granted refuge, termed the sudden fall of Baghdad on April 9 "a great shock."
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese