At least one car bomb exploded in Iraq's main northern city of Mosul yesterday, without causing any casualties, the US Army and Iraqi police said.
A US military patrol found a car loaded with explosives parked on an intersection northeast of the city center and called a bomb-disposal unit, said US military spokeswoman Captain Angela Bowman.
"While they were waiting the car bomb went off, there were no casualties reported," she said.
An Iraqi police office said two car bombs had exploded.
"One car exploded to the right of the road and another to the left in the path of a US Army convoy," said police Lieutenant Yassine Mohammad Faraj.
He could not say whether there had been any injuries.
The windows of local houses and shops were blown out by the force of the blast, said a reporter on the scene.
Car bombs are a favorite tool in a bloody insurgency that has ravaged the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein last year.
Four people were killed and four wounded Monday in a double car bombing against the provincial government offices in Mosul and other administrative targets. The US military said three people killed in one of the bombings were all attackers and that the device had exploded prematurely.
Meanwhile, US troops cut roads and reinforced positions around Fallujah yesterday after an air strike aimed at Arab militants said to roam the rebel-held city.
Witnesses said US tanks and armored vehicles blocked the main highway to Jordan that runs just north of Fallujah, as warplanes crisscrossed the skies. Troops took up positions in empty buildings on the Sunni Muslim city's southern perimeter.
A civilian driver was shot dead near a US checkpoint on the highway, witnesses said. The military said it was checking the report. Only one road leading northwest out of Fallujah was open to civilian traffic.
Many families have already fled Fallujah fearing a widely expected US assault designed to bring the city under the interim government's control before elections due in January.
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
TYPHOON DAY: Taitung, Pingtung, Tainan, Chiayi, Hualien and Kaohsiung canceled work and classes today. The storm is to start moving north this afternoon The outer rim of Typhoon Krathon made landfall in Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at about noon yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, adding that the eye of the storm was expected to hit land tomorrow. The CWA at 2:30pm yesterday issued a land alert for Krathon after issuing a sea alert on Sunday. It also expanded the scope of the sea alert to include waters north of Taiwan Strait, in addition to its south, from the Bashi Channel to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). As of 6pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 160km south of
STILL DANGEROUS: The typhoon was expected to weaken, but it would still maintain its structure, with high winds and heavy rain, the weather agency said One person had died amid heavy winds and rain brought by Typhoon Krathon, while 70 were injured and two people were unaccounted for, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday, while work and classes have been canceled nationwide today for the second day. The Hualien County Fire Department said that a man in his 70s had fallen to his death at about 11am on Tuesday while trimming a tree at his home in Shoufeng Township (壽豐). Meanwhile, the Yunlin County Fire Department received a report of a person falling into the sea at about 1pm on Tuesday, but had to suspend search-and-rescue
RSS