Iraqi officials said a suicide bomber killed at least two people and wounded eight in an attack outside a police intelligence unit in Baghdad.
A police official says the bomber struck yesterday as nightshift employees were leaving the building in the Karadah neighborhood of central Baghdad.
Witnesses told police the bomber was walking among the employees and then triggered a belt packed with explosives.
PHOTO: AP
A hospital official said two people were killed and eight wounded. Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information.
The attack occurred a day after shells hit a main US-Iraqi base in the northern city of Mosul, killing one US soldier and striking at the Iraqi command directing an offensive against insurgents waging some of their bloodiest attacks in recent months.
The barrage underscored the resilience of al-Qaeda in Iraq and other groups after repeated attempts to break their hold in Mosul — where at least seven US soldiers have been killed since early last month.
The city — one of the insurgents’ last urban strongholds — represents one of the key showdowns with the US combat role set to end in August next year. US military planners have backed up Iraqi forces in the latest crackdown in Mosul launched late last month.
The rounds hit the base in southern Mosul, known as Forward Operating Base Diamondback by US forces, the US military said. US officials did not give other details, but Iraqi police described the shelling as mortar strikes.
The site includes the Iraqi security command for the entire province, which is coordinating the current offensive. The last mortar barrage on the site was nearly two months ago, the Iraqi official said.
But insurgents have targeted forces with repeated roadside bombings and suicide attacks.
Last month, a suicide car bomber struck a US patrol in Mosul, killing four US soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter in the deadliest single attack against US forces in nine months. Then last week, two Iraqi policeman opened fire on visiting US soldiers, killing one American in an attack that deepened worries of possible infiltration of security forces.
Despite the clashes in Mosul, the overall level of violence has leveled off.
Casualties among Iraqi civilians and security forces in February hit their second-lowest level in nearly four years with 283 deaths linked to war-related violence.
Meanwhile, in a ceremony in one of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s palaces, more than 250 US soldiers became American citizens.
The soldiers each received a citizenship certificate and a US flag. Some of the soldiers had their weapons slung over their shoulders.
Since 2004, active-duty immigrant soldiers can apply for citizenship without the normal three-year waiting period and without being inside the US.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not