Shiite militiamen attacked a US convoy in southern Iraq, killing two soldiers and setting vehicles on fire, even as mediators were trying yesterday to find a resolution to the US standoff with the militia's leader. Two other American soldiers were killed in Baghdad.
The convoy attack came Saturday evening outside the city of Amarah, 300km south of the capital, when gunmen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr opened fire with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, a US military official said.
A number of Humvees and trucks were in flames on the road outside the city hours later, witnesses said.
PHOTO: AP/COURTESY OF ``THE NEW YORKER'
British forces battled members of al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army militia for 12 hours in Amarah in fighting that lasted until early yesterday and left five Iraqis dead and eight British soldiers wounded.
The clash began when gunmen attacked a British patrol, wounding one soldier, said a British military spokesman. Five more troops were wounded as a team rescued the first man, said British Royal Air Force Squadron Leader Jonathan Arnold, a military spokesman.
In the evening, the fighting revived when insurgents fired mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades at the British base in the city, and British soldiers lobbed flares into the night sky to illuminate and fire on the attackers. Two more British soldiers were wounded. Witnesses said two British trucks were burned in the fighting. An Iraqi civilian working on the base was wounded by shrapnel from an exploding mortar shell, the British military said.
Two more US soldiers were killed before dawn yesterday in an attack in northwest Baghdad that also wounded two Iraqi security officers and another American, the military said, without providing details on the attack.
The deaths raised the US death toll to 144 since a wave of violence began on April 1. At least 746 US troops have died in Iraq since the war began in March last year. Up to 1,200 Iraqis also have been killed this month.
Meanwhile, Marines who pulled back from enforcing a cordon on the southern Fallujah had returned to their previous duties, patrolling villages away from the city, giving way to a newly created Iraqi brigade that the Americans said would root out die-hard guerrillas in the Sunni militant stronghold.
US Marine Lieutenant-General James Conway said the US withdrawal did not mean a let-up in the pursuit of the guerrillas.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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