No image available
/ 12 June 2004

Deputy minister killed in Baghdad

Assailants killed an Iraqi deputy foreign minister on Saturday in an ambush that occurred as he was travelling to his Baghdad office, the Foreign Ministry said. Gunmen shot Bassam Salih Kubba in Baghdad’s Azimiyah district, a Sunni Muslim neighborhood where support for Saddam Hussein’s regime had been strong.

No image available
/ 11 June 2004

UN vote finds favour…

…But the reaction of groups excluded from the interim government could spell trouble. Mainstream Shia and Sunni Arab politicians this week welcomed a new United Nations resolution unanimously agreed by the UN Security Council on Tuesday, which promises broad powers to the interim government after June 30.

No image available
/ 10 June 2004

Gunmen seize Iraq police station

Shi’ite gunmen seized an Iraq police station in the Shi’ite holy city of Najaf and held it for two hours on Thursday in the first outbreak of fighting since an agreement to end weeks of bloody clashes between United States troops and militia forces. Four Iraqis were killed and 13 were injured, hospital and militia officials said.

No image available
/ 4 June 2004

Four US soldiers die in attack

Four United States soldiers were killed and five wounded on Friday when a blast struck their convoy on the edge of the Shi’ite militia stronghold of Sadr City, the US military said. Witnesses said the convoy was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade before a roadside bomb was detonated.

No image available
/ 4 June 2004

Iraq minister to ask UN for more power

Iraq’s interim Foreign Minister, Hoshiyar Zebari, flew to New York on Wednesday night, determined to press the United Nations Security Council for ”as much sovereignty as possible” during talks on Thursday over a new draft resolution. The United States-British proposal, revealed on Tuesday, is designed to underpin the country’s transition from occupation to independence.

No image available
/ 31 May 2004

Baghdad car bomb kills at least four

At least four people, including a woman, were killed and more than 20 wounded on Monday when at least one car bomb exploded in a western Baghdad neighbourhood, witnesses and hospital sources said. The blast happened in front of a house belonging to a former senior Ba’ath official from Saddam Hussein’s regime.

No image available
/ 17 May 2004

Deadly nerve gas round explodes in Iraq

An artillery round containing deadly sarin nerve gas exploded after it was discovered by coalition forces in Iraq, causing a ”very small dispersal of agent”, a United States military spokesperson said on Monday. Sarin works by being inhaled or absorbed through the skin and kills by crippling the nervous system.

No image available
/ 11 May 2004

Iraq battles rage as US, UK grilled about torture

The United States army kept up a deadly battle against radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr as the US-British allies faced a grilling on Tuesday over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners and foreigners came under renewed attack. US forces said they killed 13 members of al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia in an overnight clash outside Kufa near Najaf.

No image available
/ 26 April 2004

Eight die in Fallujah as chemical blast kills two

Eight Iraqi rebels were killed and at least four United States marines wounded in fierce fighting in the besieged city of Fallujah on Monday while a powerful blast at a Baghdad chemical plant claimed two lives. Vital oil exports from Iraq’s main southern terminals resumed after a brief halt caused by foiled suicide boat raids at the weekend.

No image available
/ 22 April 2004

SA security guard shot dead in Baghdad

A South African security guard working for the United States-led coalition was shot dead in the Sunni Muslim district of Al-Adhamiyah in Baghdad on Thursday, Iraq’s interim health minister said. A local policeman said US troops rushed to the area, put the body in a plastic bag and took it away.

No image available
/ 13 April 2004

Al-Jazeera airs hostage video

The Arabic television station Al-Jazeera showed footage on Tuesday of what it said are four Italian hostages abducted by insurgents in Iraq, as the top Italian diplomat in Baghdad confirmed four nationals are missing. A statement from the kidnappers called for ”a commitment to withdraw Italian troops from Iraq”, the station said.

No image available
/ 13 April 2004

‘Half the Iraqis killed were civilians’

Half the Iraqis killed in the United States offensive in the town of Fallujah were women, children and elderly people, a mediator said on Tuesday, but US officials insisted they take all precautions to avoid non-combatants. Meanwhile, a crashed US Apache helicopter was seen burning on the ground outside Fallujah on Tuesday.

  • Al-Jazeera airs hostage video
  • US pledges to arrest or kill Shia cleric
  • No image available
    / 8 April 2004

    Insurgents threaten to burn hostages

    Eight South Koreans and three Japanese were kidnapped by insurgents in Iraq, and captors armed with automatic rifles and swords threatened on Thursday to burn the Japanese alive if Tokyo does not withdraw from the United States-led coalition. The group calls itself the ”Mujahedeen Squadrons”.

    No image available
    / 1 April 2004

    Iraq killings ‘will not go unpunished’

    United States overseer in Iraq Paul Bremer vowed on Thursday that the grisly killing of four civilian contractors will ”not go unpunished”, amid reactions of horror at images of the burning and dismemberment of the Americans. Bremer said the four, along with five US troops killed in the same area west of Baghdad, ”have not died in vain”.

    No image available
    / 18 March 2004

    Baghdad hotel blast kills 27

    A powerful explosion destroyed a hotel in central Baghdad on Wenesday night, killing at least 27 people and injuring 40, including two Britons. The blast, three days before the anniversary of the United States-led invasion, left a crater six metres across and three metres deep outside the Mount Lebanon hotel.

    No image available
    / 17 March 2004

    Four killed in rocket strike on Baghdad

    Three children and one adult were killed in a series of rocket strikes by insurgents on Baghdad on Tuesday night, a United States army officer said on Wednesday. ”Three rockets were fired. They were from outside the city. One landed in the south, one in the north and one in the city centre,” the officer said.