Insurgents hit a US base in central Iraq with mortar shells and ambushed a US military convoy in Baghdad, killing three soldiers, the military said on Saturday.
Two US soldiers in a convoy in Baghdad's al-Rashid district were killed on Friday when a bomb exploded and the troops came under small arms fire, a military spokesman said. Three others were injured, the military said in a statement.
In Balad, north of Baghdad, shells struck a base of the Army's 4th Infantry Division on Friday night, Sergeant Robert Cargie said.
One of the shells exploded near a trailer used as a bedroom by some troops, and a soldier standing in its doorway was killed, he said. Two other soldiers were struck by shrapnel and taken to a combat support hospital, where they were in stable condition, Cargie said.
In response, helicopters took to the air to help in the search for the assailants, checkpoints were set up in and around town and vehicles searched, and six people were detained for questioning, he said.
The names of the slain soldiers were withheld pending notification of next of kin.
Northwest of Baghdad, hundreds of residents protested on Saturday in Hadithah, saying US soldiers had raided the town overnight. A cameraman for Associated Press Television News filmed four shroud-covered bodies, as well at least one person injured by a gunshot, in a hospital.
Residents said the four died in the US raid, but there was no way to immediately verify the claim. The military had no immediate comment.
The soldiers were in armored vehicles and "targeted three houses -- my sister's house, my uncle's and my own," said Abdel Meguid Awad, a resident.
Hadithah is part of the so-called "Sunni Triangle," the former heartland of Saddam Hussein's support and a center of opposition to the US-led occupation. The American search for fugitives and insurgents is focused on the region.
Friday night, the US military shelled the sparsely populated southern edge of Baghdad to root out insurgents believed to be launching mortar shells and rockets.
A military spokesman said the shelling of the Doura neighborhood was part of an offensive dubbed Operation Iron Grip. Residents said it appeared US fire was targeting fields in the neighborhood.
Bordered by date palm farms, Doura was once home to a number of former officials in Saddam Hussein's government and is now the site of a US military base.
The military is conducting operations like Iron Grip "in response to mortar rounds being fired" from specific locations around the city, US Army Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told reporters.
The operations send "a very clear message to anybody who thinks that they can run around Baghdad without worrying about the consequences of firing [rocket propelled grenades], firing mortars," he said.
‘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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in