Fresh American troops are to be brought into Baghdad, US officers said yesterday, even as Iraq's embattled government insisted it remained on course to gradually take full control of the country's security.
A six-week-old security clampdown in the capital has failed to quell a surge in sectarian violence, but Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki defended his record and said US soldiers would not stay in Iraq for decades or "even years."
Nevertheless, while Maliki began a trip to Britain and the US, the violence raged on at home.
One Iraqi soldier was killed and two wounded Monday in one of three Baghdad bombings in which one civilian was also killed, defense officials said.
The bodyguard of a Sunni politician was shot dead in west Baghdad, and the bodies of at least 27 murder victims were discovered, including eight found shot dead and dumped by the roadside in the southwest of the city.
Outside the capital, suicide bombings against security forces in the northern cities of Mosul and Samarra left five soldiers and one civilian dead and wounded 21 people, including six children.
On Sunday, two bomb attacks in the mainly Shiite east of the capital killed at least 42 people, and a car bomb outside a courthouse in the northern oil city of Kirkuk ripped through a crowded street killing 22 people.
The size of the redeployment has not been revealed, but units which were due to be sent elsewhere in the country are being diverted to the capital.
"They've been redirected to Baghdad," US Major Scott Coulson said. "Where they were going before, they're not going now."
Trial
Meanwhile, deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein boycotted the latest hearing in his trial for crimes against humanity yesterday, amid reports that a 17-day-old hunger strike has weakened him.
No defense lawyers and only one of Saddam's co-defendants came to the hearing at the Iraqi High Tribunal in Baghdad, triggering the ire of judge Rauf Abdel Rahman, who accused them of political grandstanding.
"The decision of the lawyers to boycott the hearing is designed to generate publicity and thwart the course of justice," he declared.
Saddam and seven former allies are accused of having overseen the execution of 148 Shiite civilians from the village of Dujail in revenge for an alleged 1983 bid to assassinate the then Iraqi leader.
The defendants and their legal team claim that the court is a front for US forces in Iraq and have refused to accept its authority. On July 7, Saddam and three defendants began a hunger strike in protest at their treatment.
Saddam's half-brother and former secret police chief Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti did come to court, but then refused to accept a court-appointed lawyer and demanded to be excused and allowed to return to his cell.
The judge refused, and insisted that the defendant remain in place while the stand-in counsel pursued the case for his defense.
"Your lawyers are boycotting the procedure for political reasons," the Kurdish judge Abdel Rahman said, insisting that his court is impartial.
Saddam's defense team, three of whom have been murdered since the trial, are based in the Jordanian capital Amman, from where on Sunday they announced their intention to boycott the hearings.
"I'm here against my will," declared Barzan al-Tikriti, but after being admonished by the judge he agreed to sit quietly in his pristine white robe and traditional red head-dress to hear the court-appointed lawyer's defense.
"This tribunal is not legitimate, because the United States invaded Iraq without a resolution from the UN Security Council. My presence here is contrary to the Geneva Conventions," he said.
Over the weekend, prosecutors said that 68-year-old Saddam's hunger strike was harming his health and had led to him being given hospital treatment, but on Monday a spokesman for Saddam's US jailers said his life was not in danger.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the