About 10,000 US soldiers launched an offensive early yesterday northeast of Baghdad against al-Qaeda in Iraq, killing more than 22 insurgents, the US military said.
The raids, dubbed "Operation Arrowhead Ripper," took place in Baqubah, the capital of Diyala Province, and involved air assaults under the cover of darkness, the military said in a statement.
The operation was still in its opening stages, it said.
The US soldiers were accompanied by attack helicopters, Strykers and Bradley Fighting Vehicles, the statement said.
Shortly after the raids were launched, a truck bomb exploded outside a Shiite mosque in central Baghdad, killing at least 75 people and wounding 200 others, Iraqi security and hospital officials said.
A truck parked near Al-Kholani mosque exploded just before 2pm, sending smoke billowing over concrete buildings in over the Sinak district, officials said.
Meanwhile, the commander of Iraqi military operations in Diyala Province, Major General Abdul-Karim al-Rubaie, said yesterday that handcuffs, swords and electricity cables -- apparently used as torture implements -- had been seized from militant safe houses in the area.
The operation was part of new US and Iraqi attacks on Baghdad's northern and southern flanks, which military officials said were aimed at clearing out Sunni insurgents, al-Qaeda fighters and Shiite militiamen who had fled the city and Anbar during a four-month-old security operation.
A top US military official said on Monday that US forces were taking advantage of the arrival of a final brigade of 30,000 additional US troops to open the concerted attacks.
"We are going into the areas that have been sanctuaries of al-Qaeda and other extremists to take them on and weed them out, to help get the areas clear and to really take on al-Qaeda," the official said on condition of anonymity.
"Those are areas in the belts around Baghdad, some parts in Anbar Province and specifically Diyala Province," he said.
Al-Qaeda has proven to be an extremely agile foe for US and Iraqi forces, as shown by its ability to transfer major operations to Baqubah from Anbar Province, the sprawling desert region in western Iraq. There is no guarantee that driving the organization out of current sanctuaries would prevent it from migrating to other regions to continue the fight.
In recent months, the verdant orange and palm groves of Diyala have become one of the most fiercely contested regions in Iraq. The province is a tangle of Shiite and Sunni villages that has played into the hands of al-Qaeda and allied militants who have melted into the tense region and sought to inflame existing sectarian troubles.
Al-Qaeda has conducted public executions in Baqubah's main square and otherwise sought to enforce an extreme Taliban-style Islamic code.
The terror organization's actions in the province have caused some Sunni militants, al-Qaeda's natural allies, to turn their guns on the group with US assistance and blessing. Some militant Shiites are likewise joining government forces in a bid to oust the foreign fighters and Muslim extremists.
In southern Iraq, police and hospital officials said the death toll reached 22 in clashes that continued into a second day between Mehdi Army fighters and Iraqi security forces in Nasiriyah, about 320km southeast of Baghdad.
More than 60 people, many of them policemen, were injured, authorities said.
Nine mortar shells were launched early yesterday at police headquarters in the town, and three policemen were injured, police said. A vehicle was also destroyed in the shelling, they said.
A curfew was imposed on Nasiriyah on Monday, and were still in effect yesterday.
The death of a former head of China’s one-child policy has been met not by tributes, but by castigation of the abandoned policy on social media this week. State media praised Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), former head of China’s National Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as “an outstanding leader” in her work related to women and children. The reaction on Chinese social media to Peng’s death in Beijing on Sunday, just shy of her 96th birthday, was less positive. “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there” in the afterlife, one person posted on China’s Sina Weibo platform. China’s
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday announced plans for a national bravery award to recognize civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during an anti-Semitic terror attack that left 15 dead and has cast a heavy shadow over the nation’s holiday season. Albanese said he plans to establish a special honors system for those who placed themselves in harm’s way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself. Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the Dec. 14 attack, and
RUSHED: The US pushed for the October deal to be ready for a ceremony with Trump, but sometimes it takes time to create an agreement that can hold, a Thai official said Defense officials from Thailand and Cambodia are to meet tomorrow to discuss the possibility of resuming a ceasefire between the two countries, Thailand’s top diplomat said yesterday, as border fighting entered a third week. A ceasefire agreement in October was rushed to ensure it could be witnessed by US President Donald Trump and lacked sufficient details to ensure the deal to end the armed conflict would hold, Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs Sihasak Phuangketkeow said after an ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur. The two countries agreed to hold talks using their General Border Committee, an established bilateral mechanism, with Thailand
RSS