Pitched battles between US troops and Iraqi insurgents in strife-torn Mosul left at least 26 dead, including one US soldier, as two Lebanese businessmen were kidnapped in Baghdad overnight.
The fresh violence came after 30 people were killed when a Baghdad house rigged with explosives blew up during a police raid.
PHOTO: AFP
Despite the volatile security situation, US President George W. Bush insisted Iraq's landmark national elections must go ahead, while a hardline Islamist militant group reiterated its intention to cause bloodshed on polling day, Jan. 30.
In the northern city of Mosul, insurgents detonated car bombs against a US patrol and a combat outpost and about 50 fighters launched an assault on the outpost, firing small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, the military said.
US forces called in air strikes and at least 25 insurgents were killed, said Lieutenant Colonel Paul Hastings.
A military statement yesterday said a US soldier died of wounds suffered in one of the car bombings.
Masked gunmen were seen running down Mosul's deserted streets, firing off guns and rocket-propelled grenades, as a column of smoke shot up into the sky.
Violence has paralyzed the city of 1.5 million, where US forces are expected to increase their numbers ahead of the elections for an Iraqi national parliament.
As the clock ticked down to the election, doubts loom over whether US and Iraqi forces can pacify cities like Mosul, a bastion of the Sunni Muslim minority whose alienation from the US-backed political order is fueling the lethal insurgency.
The Iraqi government said it had captured a militant in Mosul linked to al-Qaeda operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has a US$25 million price on his head.
The government identified the fighter as Abu Marwan, 33, a senior commander with Mosul-based Abu Talha groups, which the government said was linked to the Jordanian-born Zarqawi.
The deaths raised to almost 100 the number of people killed in Iraq in 48 hours as insurgents carried out a series of brazen attacks on Tuesday on police stations and checkpoints in the Sunni Muslim heartland north of Baghdad.
Apparently lured into a trap, police raided a home in Baghdad's squalid western Ghazaliya district late on Tuesday, and were still inside when a massive blast leveled the house, an official said.
Thirty people died, six of them police, the ministry said. Another 25 were wounded, including four policemen, and four police were listed as missing.
The attack resembled those in Fallujah during last month's US-led offensive on the city, where rebels rigged homes to blow up on ground troops.
Two Lebanese businessmen were kidnapped by masked gunmen from their home in Baghdad's upscale Mansur neighborhood, the scene of previous abductions, police said yesterday.
About 30 Lebanese working for private companies in Iraq have been kidnapped and later freed. However, in September, one was killed by his captors and three others killed during an attempted kidnap.
In other unrest, an Iraqi businessman, a female engineer working for the US military and a Turkish truck driver were killed in separate attacks to the north of Baghdad, police said.
And Iraqi authorities said they had arrested 59 people, including an Egyptian, suspected of involvement in violence after raids by the Iraqi National Guard in Baghdad and its regions.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
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