Guards working for an Australian-owned security company fired on a car as it approached their convoy, killing two women civilians before speeding away in the latest bloodshed blamed on the deadly mix of heavily armed protection details on Baghdad's crowded streets.
The deaths on Tuesday of the two Iraqi Christians -- including one who used the white sedan as an unofficial taxi to raise money for her family -- came a day after the Iraqi government handed US officials a report demanding hefty payments and the ouster from Iraq of embattled Blackwater USA for a chaotic shooting last month that left at least 17 civilians dead.
"We deeply regret this incident," said a statement from Michael Priddin, the chief operating officer of Unity Resources Group, a security company owned by Australian partners but with headquarters in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
Priddin said that the company would disclose more details of the shooting after "the facts have been verified and the necessary people and authorities notified."
DWINDLING
Meanwhile, Britain's decision to bring half of its 5,000 troops home from Iraq by spring was the latest blow to the US-led coalition -- but it was not the only one.
The alliance is crumbling, and fast. Half a dozen other members are withdrawing troops or intend to. By the middle of next year, excluding US forces, there will be about 7,000 troops in the multinational force, down from a peak of about 50,000 at the start of the war four-and-a-half years ago.
US troops have already been stretched thin trying to contain Sunni and Shiite extremists. But defense experts say the shrunken coalition would probably not make much of a difference because non-US forces have stuck to limited rules of engagement.
"This is a US and Iraqi coalition -- nothing more and nothing less," said Anthony Cordesman, former director of intelligence assessment at the Pentagon and now an analyst with the private Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
"A British withdrawal and that of other countries really doesn't matter very much. They're playing a very limited role," he said.
EMBASSY WOES
Shoddy construction work, safety lapses, kickbacks, internal disputes and ballooning costs -- the new US embassy complex in Baghdad is mired in a deluge of problems, with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the frontline of fire from lawmakers.
Three months after the US State Department told Congress that the world's biggest US embassy would be completed on schedule, officials are now saying that it will be delayed indefinitely, with one report saying by more than a year.
A multitude of questions have been raised over the safety of the complex, budgeted originally at about US$600 million.
Based on inspections conducted days before its scheduled completion, the fire service mains are deficient, there is no reliable automatic fire sprinkler system coverage in any of the compound's 21 buildings and none of the fire alarm detection systems was ready for testing, a State Department report said.
The "entire installation is not acceptable," said the report on the embassy's fire suppression system.
FIVE-YEAR WINDOW? A defense institute CEO said a timeline for a potential Chinese invasion was based on expected ‘tough measures’ when Xi Jinping seeks a new term Most Taiwanese are willing to defend the nation against a Chinese attack, but the majority believe Beijing is unlikely to invade within the next five years, a poll showed yesterday. The poll carried out last month was commissioned by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taipei-based think tank, and released ahead of Double Ten National Day today, when President William Lai (賴清德) is to deliver a speech. China maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan and has held three rounds of war games in the past two years. CIA Director William Burns last year said that Chinese President Xi Jinping
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that China has “no right to represent Taiwan,” but stressed that the nation was willing to work with Beijing on issues of mutual interest. “The Republic of China has already put down roots in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu,” Lai said in his first Double Ten National Day address outside the Presidential Office Building in Taipei. “And the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China [PRC] are not subordinate to each other.” “The People’s Republic of China has no right to represent Taiwan,” he said at the event marking the 113th National Day of
REACTION TO LAI: A former US official said William Lai took a step toward stability with his National Day speech and the question was how Beijing would respond US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday warned China against taking any “provocative” action on Taiwan after Beijing’s reaction to President William Lai’s (賴清德) speech on Double Ten National Day on Thursday. Blinken, speaking in Laos after an ASEAN East Asia Summit, called the speech by Lai, in which he vowed to “resist annexation,” a “regular exercise.” “China should not use it in any fashion as a pretext for provocative actions,” Blinken told reporters. “On the contrary, we want to reinforce — and many other countries want to reinforce — the imperative of preserving the status quo, and neither party taking any
SPEECH IMPEDIMENT? The state department said that using routine celebrations or public remarks as a pretext for provocation would undermine peace and stability Beijing’s expected use of President William Lai’s (賴清德) Double Ten National Day speech today as a pretext for provocative measures would undermine peace and stability, the US Department of State said on Tuesday. Taiwanese officials have said that China is likely to launch military drills near Taiwan in response to Lai’s speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims. A state department spokesperson said it could not speculate on what China would or would not do. “However, it is worth emphasizing that using routine annual celebrations or public remarks as a pretext or excuse for provocative or coercive
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