Suspected car bombs exploded outside two Baghdad churches last night, killing at least two people, the US military and medics said.
The blasts destroyed cars and sent plumes of black smoke into the sky.
The first bomb detonated outside an Armenian church in a busy neighbourhood of Baghdad populated by many Christians. The second blast, outside another Christian church, killed two people, an ambulance driver said.
The US military said it had found the shell of a mortar near the site of the first explosion.The blasts appeared to have been car bombs, witnesses said.
A car bomb exploded outside a police station in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul earlier yesterday, killing at least five people and injuring 53 others, police said.
The blast followed a night of clashes between US troops and insurgents that left 10 dead and 27 wounded in the troubled city of Fallujah, west of the capital. Northwest of Baghdad, insurgents detonated a bomb late Saturday that wounded four US troops, who shot dead one attacker, the military said.
In central Baghdad, guerrillas set off a roadside bomb yesterday that killed two civilians and wounded two others, said Fawad Allah, an officer at Karradah police station. The blast sent plumes of black smoke rising above Abu Nawas street, on the eastern banks of the Tigris River.
The 8am blast in Mosul occurred when a white four-wheel drive vehicle sped into a restricted entrance outside the Summar police station, prompting guards to open fire, said Abdella Zuheir, a policeman at the scene. The vehicle then came to halt and exploded, he said.
The bomb killed at least five people, including three police, said AbdelAzil Hafoudi, an officer at al-Salam hospital. He said 53 people were also wounded, among them 8 police.
A US military spokesman confirmed the attack and put the toll at three dead and 49 wounded. He said no coalition forces were involved.
Insurgents have been pressing a campaign to destabilize the interim government despite last months transfer of sovereignty from the US occupation authority. About 160,000 coalition troops, mostly Americans, remain in Iraq.
"We were expecting such terrorist attacks against us," Zuheir said. "This is a cowardly act."
Witnesses said the police station was also damaged, along with five cars and several nearby shops.
A 3m-wide crater could be seen at the site and shattered glass and debris littered the road. The engine of one car lay overturned. One policeman sat outside the station weeping.
In Fallujah, at least 10 people were killed and 27 wounded during fighting late Saturday and early yesterday in the eastern part of the city, hospital officials said.
Huge explosions were heard in Fallujah overnight as US forces tried to enter the town, residents said.
Clashes occurred on one of Fallujah's main streets and US helicopters fired up to eight rockets into an industrial area, they said. The US military said assailants firing mortars, machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades "repeatedly attacked a position held by Marines," who returned fire with tanks but suffered no casualties.
Also see story:
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS