A rocket slammed into Baghdad’s city hall and another hit a downtown park as more frightened civilians fled a Shiite militia stronghold where US-led forces are locked in fierce street battles.
The US push in the Sadr City district — launched on Tuesday after an Iraqi government crackdown on armed Shiite groups began in late March — is trying to weaken the militia grip in a key corner of Baghdad and disrupt rocket and mortar strikes on the US-protected Green Zone.
But fresh salvos of rockets from militants arced over the city, wounding at least 16 people and drawing US retaliation that escalated civilian panic and flight to safer areas.
One rocket — apparently aimed at the Green Zone — blasted the nearby city hall. Three 122mm rockets hit parts of central Baghdad, including destroying some playground equipment in a park. An Iraqi police station was damaged by a rocket that failed to detonate, the US military said.
US forces used airstrikes and tank fire against suspected militia positions following a rocket attack late on Monday in Sadr City, the military said. At least six people were killed.
An attack aircraft later fired two Hellfire missiles and killed three militants who were planting a roadside bomb in the Shiite neighborhood of New Baghdad on Tuesday, the military said.
At least four civilians were killed in the clashes, hospital officials said.
More families, meanwhile, sought refuge in neighborhoods away from the fighting, which showed no sign of easing.
A senior member of the municipal council in Sadr City estimated 8,000 families had fled the teeming slum since the battles began six weeks ago.
A woman, said many families had left Sadr City.
“They fled bombardment. Their houses were destroyed and sewage floated into their homes,” she said outside Sadr City — the stronghold for the Mehdi Army militia of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Meanwhile in Washington, a new Democratic-sponsored war spending bill in the House of Representatives would prohibit using US aid to rebuild towns or equip security forces in Iraq unless Baghdad matches every dollar spent, lawmakers said on Tuesday.
The US$195 billion measure, to be voted on as early as today, would fulfill US President George W. Bush’s demands for military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan until the next president can set his or her own policy early next year.
Lacking the votes to force troops home as they would like, Democrats are using the bill instead to assert to voters that the war is to blame for the country’s economic woes.
In addition to restricting US aid, the bill would require Bush to negotiate an agreement with Baghdad to subsidize the US military’s fuel costs so troops operating in Iraq are not paying any more than Iraqi citizens are.
A recent report found that troops are paying the market average of US$0.80 a liter for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, while Baghdad subsidies put domestic consumption inside the country at about US$0.34 a liter.
Iraq is looking toward a massive budget surplus this year. With the country’s oil production on the rise and record-high fuel prices, Iraq is expected to reap some US$70 billion in oil revenues.
“In effect, [the bill] says they have to come up with the money like we did,” said Representative John Murtha, chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee. Murtha, a Democrat, said “The public has lost confidence” that the US government is committed to forcing Iraq to take responsibility for its own security and reconstruction.
‘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
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
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in