A pair of car bombs exploded near government offices in the Iraqi capital yesterday, killing 11 and wounding over 20 as insurgent attacks against the nation's nascent security forces left at least eight others dead countrywide.
The near-simultaneous explosions in a southeastern Baghdad neighborhood targeted one of the ministry's satellite offices, killing at least 11, an Interior Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
At least 20 people injured in the blast were taken to Yarmouk Teaching Hospital, doctors and witnesses said. Hospital staff said four policemen were among the wounded in the bombings, which shook central Baghdad and sent two plumes of smoke boiling into the sky.
PHOTO: EPA
Insurgents kept up attacks yesterday against Iraq's security services, forces which the US military says must be able to impose a level of calm in the country before US troops can depart.
Gunmen hit police patroling near the central Iraq city of Baqubah, killing one officer and wounding three, Lieutenant Colonel Muthafar al-Jubori said.
In the capital, attackers shot 1st Lieutenant Firas Hussein in the head and torso as he made his way to work at Iraq's intelligence service, police Major Mousa Abdul Karim said.
In Kirkuk, seven gunmen riding in two vehicles fired on the police station just south of Kirkuk shortly after dawn yesterday, killing five police officers and one civilian, police Brigadier Sarhat Qadir said.
Militant group Ansar al-Sunnah claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in an Internet posting that its "knights of Islam" attacked "renegade policemen doing their morning training." The claim couldn't be independently verified.
Ansar al-Sunnah also said it had teamed up with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaeda in Iraq group for a day-earlier attack in Kirkuk -- an unusual mention of cooperation among Iraq's disparate and sometimes competing militant groups.
The Web posting, which couldn't be independently corroborated, said the Wednesday explosive device that killed 12 police was composed of three bombs buried under a decoy device -- a lure to draw policemen to the blast site.
In Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown 130km north of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded outside a US military installation, injuring nine civilians and setting nearby houses ablaze, police Lieutenant Colonel Amer Ahmed said.
The US military said one US soldier and two Iraqi troops suffered injuries in the bomb blast -- but maintained there were no civilian casualties.
On Wednesday, an American was shown at gunpoint on a videotape aired by al-Jazeera television, two days after he was kidnapped from a water treatment plant near Baghdad. The station said he pleaded for his life and urged US troops to withdraw from Iraq.
In LaPorte, Indiana, a yellow ribbon was tied Wednesday around a tree outside Jeffrey Ake's one-story brick house, and an American flag fluttered on a pole from the home. The US Embassy said the man on the video appeared to be Ake, a contract worker who was kidnapped around noon Monday.
Ake -- the 47-year-old president and CEO of Equipment Express, a company that manufacturers bottled water equipment -- is the latest of more than 200 foreigners seized in Iraq in the past year.
The al-Jazeera tape showed a man sitting behind a desk with at least three assailants -- two hooded and one off-camera -- pointing assault rifles at him. Ake, wearing an open-collar shirt with rolled-up shirt sleeves, was sitting or kneeling behind a wooden desk and holding what appeared to be a passport.
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
A South Korean judge who last week more than doubled former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee’s prison sentence was found dead yesterday, police said. Shin Jong-o was found unconscious at about 1am at the Seoul High Court building, an investigator at the Seocho District Police Station in Seoul said. Shin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said. “There is no sign of foul play in the death,” the investigator added. Local media reported that Shin had left a suicide note, but the investigator said there was none. On Tuesday last week, Shin presided over 53-year-old Kim’s appeal trial, finding her guilty
RSS