A car bomb exploded yesterday in the ethnically tense northern oil city of Kirkuk, killing at least three people and wounding 15, police said. A US soldier died of injuries suffered in a land mine explosion south of the capital, the US command said.
The car bomb went off in the industrial district of Kirkuk as pedestrians were passing by, police Captain Farhad Talabani said. Police said it did not appear to have been a suicide attack, and no group claimed responsibility.
Kirkuk, 290km north of Baghdad, is located in one of the richest oil fields in the Middle East and is home to Arab, Kurdish and Turkomen communities, each vying for power there.
Iraqi troops, meanwhile, detonated about 3 tonnes of explosives found near oil fields in southern Iraq, a military spokesman said. The explosives, including 1,282 mines, 628 mortar rounds and 825 artillery shells, were discovered by Oil Protection Services who called the army to remove them, Captain Firas al-Tamimi said.
Al-Tamimi said the explosives were believed to have been planted by former president Saddam Hussein's forces after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait -- possibly to prevent the oilfields from falling to US-led troops when they drove Iraqi troops from the emirate the following year.
Three other US soldiers were injured in the land mine explosion Monday, which occurred near Mahmoudiya, about 30km south of Baghdad, the US military said. The religiously mixed area is one of the hotbeds of tension between majority Shiite Muslims and minority Sunnis.
At least 1,756 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq War in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,352 died as a result of hostile action. The figures include five military civilians.
Yesterday, police said an explosion struck a US military convoy in eastern Baghdad, damaging one Humvee. The US military made no statement about the attack but said two roadside bombs struck US and Iraqi convoys near Baghdad, injuring six Iraqi soldiers and damaging one Humvee.
A roadside bomb exploded against a US convoy yesterday in Samarra, damaging a Humvee, Iraqi police said. There was no US comment on the report. In Baghdad, gunmen fired at security guards at a health clinic, killing a policeman and wounding a child, officials said.
On Monday, an influential Sunni clerical organization accused Iraqi security forces of detaining, torturing and killing 10 Sunnis in Baghdad. Government officials had no comment, but a doctor at Yarmouk hospital confirmed receiving the bodies, which he said showed signs of abuse. The doctor spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisal.
The Association of Muslim Scholars said members of an Interior Ministry commando brigade detained the men Sunday in Baghdad's predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Shula.
"The men were taken to a detention center where they were tortured, then locked in a container where they suffocated," the association said.
However, the doctor said one of the men was killed and the other nine detained after the troops came under fire on Sunday in Shula. An Interior Ministry official said he had no immediate comment.
IDENTITY: A sex extortion scandal involving Thai monks has deeply shaken public trust in the clergy, with 11 monks implicated in financial misconduct Reverence for the saffron-robed Buddhist monkhood is deeply woven into Thai society, but a sex extortion scandal has besmirched the clergy and left the devout questioning their faith. Thai police this week arrested a woman accused of bedding at least 11 monks in breach of their vows of celibacy, before blackmailing them with thousands of secretly taken photos of their trysts. The monks are said to have paid nearly US$12 million, funneled out of their monasteries, funded by donations from laypeople hoping to increase their merit and prospects for reincarnation. The scandal provoked outrage over hypocrisy in the monkhood, concern that their status
The United States Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to adopt rules to bar companies from connecting undersea submarine communication cables to the US that include Chinese technology or equipment. “We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign adversaries, like China,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement. “We are therefore taking action here to guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical threats.” The United States has for years expressed concerns about China’s role in handling network traffic and the potential for espionage. The U.S. has
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is
The US Department of Education on Tuesday said it opened a foreign funding investigation into the University of Michigan (UM) while alleging it found “inaccurate and incomplete disclosures” in a review of the university’s foreign reports, after two Chinese scientists linked to the school were separately charged with smuggling biological materials into the US. As part of the investigation, the department asked the university to share, within 30 days, tax records related to foreign funding, a list of foreign gifts, grants and contracts with any foreign source, and other documents, the department said in a statement and in a letter to
RSS