Egypt's top envoy to post-Saddam Hussein Iraq has been kidnapped in Baghdad just weeks after arriving in the war-torn country, Egyptian diplomats said yesterday.
Two diplomats, speaking in Cairo and Baghdad on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Ihab al-Sherif was kidnapped late Saturday in the Iraqi capital.
Al-Sherif had arrived in Baghdad on June 1. In the middle of last month, the Egyptian government said it would upgrade relations with Iraq to full embassy status headed by an ambassador, but it was not immediately clear if al-Sherif currently held the full ambassador title.
The diplomats gave no immediate details on the kidnapping.
Egypt had withdrawn its ambassador in 1991 when it backed the US-led alliance against Saddam, after he invaded Kuwait.
Meanwhile, an Iraqi army battalion backed by US Marines will be stationed in Hit, making it the first deployment to regularly police a city in the volatile western Anbar province, military commanders said Saturday.
The new strategy is designed to restore order in the region and not pull back as in previous offensives in the area when US Marines would conduct raids over several days and then leave.
"We're not going to let [residents] down by pulling out three weeks from now," said Marine Colonel Stephen Davis, who commands the Second Regimental Combat Team. "We've got to pay attention."
Previously, there haven't been enough Marines to stay and police the vast Anbar province, which is near the porous Syrian border -- a main entry point for foreign fighters.
The decision for a military force to remain behind was met with a cool reception from city officials.
More than 1,000 US and Iraqi troops have been camped around Hit since Tuesday, when they launched Operation Sword to break up foreign fighter networks in the area.
US military commanders declined to say how many Marines would remain after the counterinsurgency sweep, though there has been a small US presence on the outskirts of the city for some time.
The threat of insurgent attacks, however, has prevented Marines from conducting regular patrols.
Sitting in Hit's courthouse, the mayor was not pleased when US commanders told him that a joint force planned to remain in the city, 140km west of Baghdad.
Mayor Ali Hamdi Nasir complained that the military presence disrupts everyday life. Stores remained closed and streets have been empty since Operation Sword began.
Marines shot and killed a driver who apparently didn't respond to instructions when they first entered Hit.
Troops have commandeered houses and schools to sleep in and park tanks on major roads, according to a reporter at the scene. When Marines could not break the locks on houses, they often used explosives to blow holes through front doors and gates.
The US military also said Saturday that security forces captured a doctor who allegedly worked for an al-Qaeda in Iraq leader, helping him plan kidnappings to fund insurgent attacks.
Safa Ali Chiad Mashul was captured during a raid in the Baghdad area on June 21, the military said. He was also known as Dr. Mushin or Abu Sayf.
On Wednesday, the government announced the detention of an al-Qaeda in Iraq leader identified as Samir Ammar Hamid Mahmoud, known as Abu Aqil. He was detained in Baghdad on June 26, authorities said.
The doctor helped Abu Aqil plan terrorist attacks and operations, the US military said. He was also allegedly responsible for collecting ransom funds from kidnappings for a terrorist cell.
Mashul also treated numerous al-Qaeda in Iraq militants wounded by security forces, the military said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
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Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not