At least six people including three paramilitary policemen -- were killed in separate rebel strikes in Baghdad on Thursday, as the resistance kept up their campaign to derail Iraq's upcoming general election.
Wednesday's launch of the campaign for the Jan. 30 vote for a 275-member National Assembly was marred by an explosion near one of Shia Islam's holiest shrines in the southern city of Karbala.
PHOTO: AFP
Attack
The attack in the heartland of Iraqi's majority Shiite population killed eight people and wounded 40, including a prominent cleric, Sheik Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalayee.
Local leaders said the attack was an attempt by militants to fuel a civil war between the Shiites and the minority Sunnis.
The start of campaigning was subdued due to security fears, with no media blitzes or rallies.
In the capital, unidentified gunmen on Thursday shot dead Qassim Mehawi, deputy head of the Communications Ministry as he was heading to work, police officials said.
Injured
Eight of Mehawi's bodyguards were injured in the attack and were taken to the hospital.
Government officials are frequent targets of the insurgents, who accuse them of collaborating with the Americans.
In the west of the capital, a roadside bomb exploded near a passing SUV, badly damaging the vehicle, police said.
Blast
After the blast, gunmen opened up on the survivors with automatic fire, killing two foreigners and wounding two others, Al-Khadra police commissioner Ali Hussein Al-Hamadani said.
There was no immediate information on their nationality.
Al-Hamadani said three Iraqi National Guardsmen died and six others were injured when another roadside bomb exploded in western Baghdad as their pickup truck was driving by.
And a US soldier was wounded when an Abrams main battle tank he was riding in struck a mine near Beiji, 250km north of Baghdad, a spokesman said Thursday.
Postponed
In the northern city of Kirkuk, several thousand Arab residents rallied Thursday in front of the governor's office to demand that the elections be postponed.
The protesters said they were worried that a campaign to return displaced Kurds to the city, where former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's regime drove out many Kurds and replaced them with Arabs from other areas, would alter Kirkuk's ethnic mix.
The electoral campaign kicked off as a government official said that Saddam Hussein's notorious right-hand man, Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali," will be the first among 12 former regime members to appear at an initial investigative court hearing next week.
Majid will be facing charges for crimes allegedly committed during Saddam's 35-year dictatorship.
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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
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