An Iraqi woman translator working for the US military was shot dead and her brother wounded in an attack in the northern city of Mosul on yesterday, witnesses and police said.
They said the woman had been on her way to work at the main US military base in Mosul when her car came under small arms fire in the city's northern suburb of al-Muthanna.
The shooting occurred a day after gunmen attacked five US civilians driving through the city. Three of the Americans were killed in the attack and another died in hospital yesterday morning, the US military said. The fifth was in hospital.
The victims were missionaries with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board, based in Virginia, according to a report on the board's Web site.
Witnesses said the victims had been driving through the city, 390km north of Baghdad, in a civilian vehicle without a military escort on Monday when attackers raked their car with AK-47 assault rifles. Helicopters ferried the wounded to a US army hospital, and police sealed off the area.
Last Tuesday, two US civilians seconded from the Department of Defense and their Iraqi translator were shot dead in an ambush on a road south of Baghdad.
They were the first American employees of the US-led civilian administration to be killed in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein on April 9 last year.
An FBI team is looking into the killings of the Americans, named as Fern Holland, 33, a lawyer, and Robert Zangas, 44, a press officer.
The US military said six people had been detained in connection with the incident and that four were believed to be members of the Iraqi police force.
Optimism
But despite the ongoing violence, most Iraqis have high hopes for the future and say their lives are going well, even as they harbor mixed feelings about the US-led invasion of their country, according to a nationwide poll.
Iraqis are divided over whether the invasion by US and British troops a year ago humiliated their country or liberated it, according to the poll conducted by ABC News and several other media organizations released Monday.
They have considerable worries about joblessness, security and basic services like electricity, according to the poll.
"The positive attitudes and the high expectations and optimism are quite striking, with majorities telling us their lives are going well," ABC polling director Gary Langer said.
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
RSS