Three bombs killed 13 Iraqis in Baghdad yesterday, and the US military announced the deaths of three US soldiers.
Iraqi forces backed by US troops captured an al-Qaeda in Iraq terror cell leader south of Baghdad, the US military said yesterday. The suspect, who was detained on Tuesday, is believed responsible for kidnapping two US soldiers from a checkpoint in June, the military said in a statement. The soldiers were later found tortured and murdered.
Two bombs exploded shortly after 10am opposite a park in the South Gate area, killing nine civilians and wounding 43, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because of security concerns. South Gate is often crowded with commuters and shoppers.
A bomb planted under a car killed two civilians and wounded eight others near al-Shaab stadium in eastern Baghdad, police said.
Another blast targeted a police patrol in western Baghdad but missed, killing two civilians instead, police said. Four others were wounded and taken to Yarmouk Hospital.
The US military said three US soldiers died in roadside bombs on Wednesday. Two soldiers were killed when a bomb exploded near their foot patrol southwest of Baghdad, and one died in a bombing in an eastern section of the Iraqi capital.
With 98 American troops dead so far this month, December is the second-deadliest month of this year for US military personnel. A total of 105 troops died in October.
"This has been a difficult month for coalition forces," Major General William Caldwell, a spokesman for US forces in Iraq, said on Wednesday.
"And the month is not over yet," Caldwell said. "Our deepest condolences to those families and friends who've lost someone near and dear to them."
At least 2,986 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.
Meanwhile, US President George W. Bush huddled with top advisers at his Texas ranch yesterday to hash out options for a new Iraq strategy that he wants to unveil next month to a US public weary of the war.
Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley were to attend the session.
Among the options Bush has been considering is a short-term troop "surge" aimed at containing rampant violence.
Democrats say results of November elections in which they took control of Congress from the Republican Party reflected public discontent with the Iraq war and desire for change.
Senator Joseph Biden, the Delaware Democrat who will be the next chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has expressed opposition to a troop increase.
"I hope that Senator Biden would wait to hear what the president has to say before announcing what he's opposed to," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.
"President Bush will talk soon to our troops, to the American people and to the Iraqi people about the new way forward in Iraq that will lead to a democratic and unified country that can sustain, govern, and defend itself," he said.
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
Germany is considering Australia’s Ghost Bat robot fighter as it looks to select a combat drone to modernize its air force, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said yesterday. Germany has said it wants to field hundreds of uncrewed fighter jets by 2029, and would make a decision soon as it considers a range of German, European and US projects developing so-called “collaborative combat aircraft.” Australia has said it will integrate the Ghost Bat, jointly developed by Boeing Australia and the Royal Australian Air Force, into its military after a successful weapons test last year. After inspecting the Ghost Bat in Queensland yesterday,
A pro-Iran hacking group claimed to breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal e-mail inbox and posted some of the contents online. The e-mails provided by the hacking group include travel details, correspondence with leasing agents in Washington and global entry, and loyalty account numbers. The e-mail address the hackers claim to have compromised has been previously tied to Patel’s personal details, and the leaked e-mails contain photos of Patel and others, in addition to correspondence with family members and colleagues. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” the agency said in a statement on
RIVALRY: ‘We know that these are merely symbolic investigations initiated by China, which is in fact the world’s most profligate disrupter of supply chains,’ a US official said China has started a pair of investigations into US trade practices, retaliating against similar probes by US President Donald Trump’s administration as the superpowers stake out positions before an expected presidential summit in May. The move, announced by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Friday, is a direct mirror of steps Trump took to revive his tariff agenda after the US Supreme Court last month struck down some of his duties. “China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to these actions,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement, referring to the so-called Section 301 investigations initiated on March 11.
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