Insurgents killed nine Iraqi soldiers yesterday in a town north of Baghdad -- seven of them in an armed assault on a checkpoint and two others in a car bombing more than an hour later, Iraqi officials said.
The attacks came a day after a surge in violence -- including suicide bombings and ambushes -- killed at least 60 people across the country, shattering a relative lull for the previous week.
Yesterday's first attack occurred about 5am when gunmen firing mortars, machine guns and semiautomatic weapons stormed a checkpoint in Khalis, northeast of Baghdad. Seven soldiers were killed., and three injured.
PHOTO: AP
At 6:30am, a car bomb parked alongside a road exploded as an Iraqi army patrol passed, killing two soldiers and wounding another.
The deadliest bombing Sunday hit an army recruiting center at Muthana airfield in central Baghdad when a man dressed in civilian clothes detonated two explosive-laden belts among a crowd of recruits, killing 25 others and wounding nearly 50. Most of the dead were believed to have been recruits.
It was the bloodiest attack in the capital since July 2 when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a recruiting center in west Baghdad's Yarmouk neighborhood, killing 20.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack.
In other violence Sunday, a Shiite mother and eight of her children were found shot dead in their beds Sunday in Baghdad. One boy survived. The father, who was not at home at the time, blamed the killings on sectarian hatred.
Also on Sunday, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari criticized US and multinational forces for shooting at Iraqi civilians who act suspiciously near patrols or military areas; the US blamed the problem on the growing use of suicide car bombs as an insurgent weapon.
"Terrorists, through use of suicide [vehicles], have caused this predicament," said Lieutenant Colonel Steven Boylan. "They have affected the normal level of trust that people have for one another and have made it difficult to distinguish between normal traffic and a grave potential threat."
Al-Jaafari said that such cases should be handled in a "civilized" way, such as shooting at tires instead of passengers.
Suicide bombers struck elsewhere across the country Sunday. At the Walid border crossing into Syria, two suicide car bombers killed at least seven Iraqi customs officials.
Also, near the northern city of Mosul, a suicide car bomber rammed into a police convoy carrying an Iraqi brigadier general, killing five policemen.
A suicide car bomb in Kirkuk killed at least four civilians Sunday, according to police. A second car bomb was rigged to explode as rescuers rushed to the scene, but it was found and detonated by US troops.
Indonesia yesterday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022. It
US President Donald Trump on Friday said Washington was “locked and loaded” to respond if Iran killed protesters, prompting Tehran to warn that intervention would destabilize the region. Protesters and security forces on Thursday clashed in several Iranian cities, with six people reported killed, the first deaths since the unrest escalated. Shopkeepers in Tehran on Sunday last week went on strike over high prices and economic stagnation, actions that have since spread into a protest movement that has swept into other parts of the country. If Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
RSS