Bomb attacks killed 36 Iraqis yesterday as a suicide bomber blew up a truck packed with explosives in a northern Shiite village and a booby trap killed nine people in a Baghdad minibus line.
The truck bomber detonated his deadly charge in Al-Quba, killing at least 28 people and wounding another 50, eight of them seriously, said provincial police spokesman Brigadier General Abdulkarim Khalaf al-Juburi.
The reported death toll climbed rapidly through the morning as the village is 20km north of the much larger town of Tal Afar and the nearest emergency services.
As thousands of US and Iraqi security forces focus on pushing insurgents out of Baghdad and other flashpoint cities under a five-month-old security plan, militants have increasingly resorted to attacks in villages and rural areas.
In the capital, a roadside bomb killed nine Iraqis, ripping through an unofficial stop for one of the battered minibuses used by thousands of people in the city, security and medical officials said.
The device, hidden on the side of the road, blew up after a minibus stopped to collect waiting passengers in the Diyala Bridge neighborhood in the southern suburbs, security officials said.
Shrapnel sprayed the area as Iraqis got on and off the minibus shortly before the main rush hour, and as others stood waiting for a different line.
The Al-Zafaraniyah hospital said nine people were killed, including a woman, and eight wounded were brought in with mainly burns injuries.
Yesterday's violence came as Iranian and US officials held security talks in Baghdad in a bid to ease the violent insurgency in war-torn Iraq that has put the two arch-foes at loggerheads.
A US official said on condition of anonymity that the meeting began at the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in the heavily fortified Green Zone that houses the government and US embassy.
"It's at experts' level, people who are experts in the security field," said another US embassy official. "As far as I know, only security will be discussed."
In Tehran, the ISNA news agency quoted Iran's ambassador in Baghdad, Hossein Kazemi Qomi, as saying that Iran-US talks would begin yesterday.
Kazemi Qomi had told ISNA that talks with the Americans this week would discuss the makeup and responsibilities of a tripartite security committee.
On July 24 the delegations of Iran and the US, led by Kazemi Qomi and US ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker respectively, were unable to agree during a landmark second meeting on ways to restore security to Iraq.
But the arch-foes did agree to create a tripartite security committee aimed at curbing militia activity, battling al-Qaeda and securing borders, albeit without reference to the Shiite militias Iran stands accused of arming.
The US military in Iraq regularly accuses groups linked to Iran of training extremists in the war-ravaged country and supplying them with explosives capable of penetrating US armored vehicles.
Iran denies supporting insurgent groups in Iraq.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack confirmed on July 25 that Washington was examining the idea of establishing a subcommittee "which would actually be lower level, technically oriented officials."
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the