Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki yesterday vowed to use "maximum force against terrorism," as bombs exploded in Baghdad during the first meeting of his national unity Cabinet.
Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Maliki said, however, that his government would hold out the offer of dialogue to those prepared to renounce violence.
"We will use maximum force against terrorism, but we also need a national initiative," he said.
PHOTO: AP
Maliki's Cabinet of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds was formed in the hope that a broad-based coalition will ease sectarian violence and consolidate a US-piloted transition to democracy.
US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, a key power broker behind the scenes in Baghdad, said the formation of the government, with crucial involvement from former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's once dominant fellow Sunnis, brought US troops closer to going home.
"I believe that, with the political changes taking place -- the emphasis on unity and reconciliation, with effective ministers ... -- that conditions are likely to move in the right direction and that would allow adjustment in terms of the size, composition and mission of our forces," he said.
"We are going to be moving in the direction of downsizing our forces. But that is always dependent on the conditions," Khalilzad said.
Maliki, outlining his program to parliament, said his government aimed to complete rebuilding Iraq's armed forces with "an objective timetable for ... the end of the tasks of the multinational forces and their return to their countries."
A suicide bomber killed at least 12 people and injured 14 after detonating his explosive vest inside a downtown Baghdad restaurant popular with police officers, police said.
The 12 dead included three police officers, said Police Colonel Abbas Mohammed.
In the second of yesterday's bomb attacks two devices exploded in a crowded fruit market in New Baghdad, a mixed area in an eastern part of the capital, said police Lieutenant Ali Abbas.
Police found the first bomb and detonated it after trying to evacuate the market, Abbas said. But a second hidden bomb exploded moments later, killing three civilians and wounding 23, all of whom had ignored the evacuation order, he said.
Earlier, a roadside bomb on the eastern bank of the Tigris killed three people and wounded 24 in a blast apparently targeting Iraqi police in a busy commercial street.
Elsewhere gunmen killed Ali Abdul-Hussein al-Kinani, 57, who was standing outside his food store in the mostly Shiite neighborhood of Ubaidi, said a police spokesman.
Meanwhile Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said on Saturday that the Italian government would begin planning the withdrawal of its troops from Iraq next week.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
RSS