US troops killed three suspected insurgents wearing Iraqi police uniforms yesterday in the northern city of Kirkuk, the military said.
The US military also announced the death of a US soldier in roadside blast in Baghdad.
US spokesman Major Jeff Allen said a gun battle broke out at a checkpoint in Kirkuk, 290km north of Baghdad, and three men wearing Iraqi police uniforms inside a car were shot dead.
PHOTO: AFP
US troops captured a fourth man in the car, but found no police identity documents on the men. Iraqi police Brigadier Serhad Qadir said the four were suspected insurgents disguised as policemen.
The US military was investigating the situation.
The US soldier was killed when a roadside bomb struck his vehicle on Saturday evening in Baghdad, the military said yesterday. The military had previously reported the death of another soldier in a similar but separate attack on Saturday in Baghdad.
Gunmen killed Lieutenant General Mahmoud Idham, a high-ranking officer in the former Iraqi Army, yesterday outside his house just north of former president Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, 130km north of Baghdad, said police Captain Thaer Hameed.
An Iraqi policeman was killed and another wounded when their patrol was ambushed by armed men yesterday near the prison in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, Diyala police's Joint Coordination Center said. A civilian was also wounded.
A mortar round was fired toward Baqouba's police headquarters but exploded in a nearby residential area, wounding two civilians and two policemen, police said.
Meanwhile, four Western peace advocates abducted last November were shown in a videotape broadcast on Saturday, and their captors renewed their threat to kill the hostages if all Iraqi prisoners were not set free.
The video, played on the Arabic-language television station al-Jazeera, showed the four men -- a Briton, an American and two Canadians -- looking gaunt and standing against a white wall. They were shown speaking, but their voices could not be heard, an increasingly common feature of such videos here.
The tape, bearing the date Jan. 21, was broadcast on a day when at least 13 Iraqis were killed in attacks in Baghdad and south of the capital.
Al-Jazeera said the video came with a statement from the kidnappers, the Swords of Truth, saying that the men would be killed if the US and Iraqi authorities did not release all Iraqi prisoners.
The aid group, Christian Peacemaker Teams, has identified the four men as Norman Kember, 74, of London; Tom Fox, 54, of Clearbrook, Virginia; James Loney, 41, of Toronto, Canada; and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, also a Canadian. They were kidnapped on Nov. 26.
In the video, three of the men were wearing wool hats. All wore ordinary clothing rather than the orange prison-style jumpsuits captives sometimes wear. Each stood with his hands clasped in front of him as he briefly addressed the camera.
The captors have threatened to kill the men before, and previously set a deadline of Dec. 10. The video broadcast on Saturday was the first news of the hostages since that threat.
In Iskandariya, south of Baghdad, 10 Iraqis were killed and three were wounded when a bomb exploded inside a candy shop on Saturday evening, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.
Among the three Iraqis killed Saturday in Baghdad was Abdul Razzaq al-Na'ash, a Baghdad university professor in his 50s. He was gunned down near the university's management institute at 2:45pm, according to an Interior Ministry official said.
A member of Iraq's largest Sunni Arab party, the Iraqi Islamic Party, said that al-Na'ash was a member of the dominant Baath Party during Saddam's reign, and speculated that that might have been a factor in his the killing.
A plan by Switzerland’s right-wing People’s Party to cap the population at 10 million has the backing of almost half the country, according to a poll before an expected vote next year. The party, which has long campaigned against immigration, argues that too-fast population growth is overwhelming housing, transport and public services. The level of support comes despite the government urging voters to reject it, warning that strict curbs would damage the economy and prosperity, as Swiss companies depend on foreign workers. The poll by newspaper group Tamedia/20 Minuten and released yesterday showed that 48 percent of the population plan to vote
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
RELAXED: After talks on Ukraine and trade, the French president met with students while his wife visited pandas, after the pair parted ways with their Chinese counterparts French President Emmanuel Macron concluded his fourth state visit to China yesterday in Chengdu, striking a more relaxed note after tough discussions on Ukraine and trade with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) a day earlier. Far from the imposing Great Hall of the People in Beijing where the two leaders held talks, Xi and China’s first lady, Peng Liyuan (彭麗媛), showed Macron and his wife Brigitte around the centuries-old Dujiangyan Dam, a World Heritage Site set against the mountainous landscape of Sichuan Province. Macron was told through an interpreter about the ancient irrigation system, which dates back to the third century
RSS