Fighting flared across Iraq on Friday as US-led coalition troops battled militiamen loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in several cities for a second day in an apparent resurgence of the widespread Shiite rebellion that ended two months ago.
The two days of fighting left dozens dead and wounded over 100 others, witnesses and officials said.
In the holy city of Najaf in southern Iraq, helicopter gunships pounded militant positions in fierce fighting that started Thursday and spread to other Shiite areas, including Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood.
Clashes were also reported Friday between US troops and insurgents north of the capital in Samarra.
Elsewhere, Italian soldiers exchanged gunfire with militants who attacked their positions and a police station in the southern city of Nasiriyah, an Italian military spokesman said.
The fighting raised fears of a return of the large-scale uprising launched in April by al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which at that time battled US and coalition troops in several cities in the first major Shiite violence against the US personnel.
Al-Sadr's aides called yesterday for a return to the truce and asked for the UN and Iraq's interim government to stop the violence.
"We call upon the government -- that has announced that it is sovereign -- to intervene to stop the American attacks," Mahmoud al-Sudani, a spokesman of al-Sadr in Baghdad, told reporters.
In Najaf, 160km south of Baghdad, US choppers attacked militants hiding in a cemetery near the Imam Ali Shrine in the old city at Najaf's center, where smoke could be seen rising.
Gunfire and explosions rang out as US soldiers and Iraqi policemen advanced toward the area, witnesses said. The streets were otherwise deserted and shops were closed.
Battles between the two sides in Najaf have killed at least 10 people and wounded 40 others, according to Hussein Hadi of Najaf General Hospital official. The US military said Thursday it had lost one soldier in the battle, killed seven militants and detained dozens of people.
Ahmed al-Shaibany, an official with al-Sadr's office in Najaf, described the clashes yesterday as "fierce."
"The area near the [Imam Ali Shrine] is being subjected to a war," he said. "Najaf is being subjected to ... total destruction," he said. "We call on the Islamic world and the civilized world to save the city."
The US military has accused the militants of hiding in the shrine compound to avoid retaliation by US forces.
In the southern city of Nasiriyah, assailants attacked Italian troops with automatic weapons, an Italian military spokesman said on condition of anonymity. They also attacked a police station, prompting the local governor to call for Italian military assistance, he said. There were no coalition casualties, the spokesman said.
The fighting, which lasted until dawn yesterday, killed eight Iraqis, including five militants, and injured 13 others, according to Abdel Khuder al-Tahir, a senior Interior Ministry official.
"Today, the city is more stable. Policemen and National Guard are in control of government buildings one side of the city, while Italian forces are in control of the other side," he said.
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