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BAGHDAD: Three US soldiers were killed and six others were
wounded when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in eastern
Baghdad, the military said on Wednesday. The device was an
explosively formed penetrator, a roadside bomb that fires a ball of
molten metal capable of destroying heavily armored vehicles, and
which US commanders say are smuggled in from Iran. The attack, which
took place on Tuesday, brings US losses in Iraq since the March 2003
invasion to 3,652, with 82 soldiers killed in July, according to an
Agence France-Presse count based on Pentagon figures.
GHAZNI,
Afghanistan: The bodies of four Afghan court officials
kidnapped nearly two weeks ago were found early Wednesday in the
province where Taliban militants are holding 21 South Koreans,
police said. The Taliban, waging a bloody insurgency in Afghanistan
since their hard-line regime was toppled nearly six years ago, said
it had killed the four men, whom it identified as judges. “We
killed them because they worked for the government,” Taliban
spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP. The four were kidnapped two weeks
ago in Ghazni, the same province where 23 South Koreans were
captured on July 19 and where two have been found dead in murders
also claimed by the militants.
BEIJING: China celebrated its
military’s 80th anniversary on Wednesday with a promise by
President Hu Jintao to spend even more money on the world’s
biggest fighting force. Hu made the pledge at a grand ceremony of
national leaders and top military brass in the Great Hall of the
People in Beijing, in a speech that was broadcast live on national
television. “We will gradually increase input in national defense
as the economy grows, and continue to modernize national defense and
the armed forces in a way that serves the interests of national
security and development,” said Hu.
BAGHDAD: The US government cannot account
for 190,000 weapons issued to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and
2005, according to an investigation carried out by the Government
Accountability Office. According to the July 31 report, the
military “cannot fully account for about 110,000 AK-47 assault
rifles, 80,000 pistols, 135,000 items of body armor and 115,000
helmets reported as issued to Iraqi forces.” The weapons
disappeared from records between June 2004 and September 2005, as
the military struggled to rebuild the disbanded Iraqi forces from
scratch amid mounting attacks from Sunni insurgents and Shiite
militias.
JAKARTA: Toxic bacteria in a local
delicacy most likely killed 10 Indonesians who died mysteriously
last month in a village on the densely populated island of Java, a
senior health official said Wednesday. The deadly illness, which has
also sickened 23 others in Kanigoro village in Central Java’s
Magelang district since July 22, has puzzled authorities and caused
panicky villagers to flee the area. Almost all of the victims had
eaten a cheap local dish made from fermented soybean residue that
was sold by a street vendor on July 21, said I Nyoman Kandun, the
health ministry’s director general for contagious disease control.
YALA,
Thailand: Seven coordinated bomb blasts rocked
Thailand’s Muslim-majority south Wednesday, killing one and
wounding at least 12, police said. The blasts all happened around
7:45 a.m. (0045 GMT) Wednesday at locations around Narathiwat, one
of three provinces along the southern border with Malaysia hit by
deadly separatist unrest. A 49-year-old Buddhist woman was killed
and 10 others injured when a bomb hidden in a motorcycle exploded in
a busy market, police said. A roadside bomb injured two Marines who
were part of a security detail protecting a convoy of
schoolteachers.
GHAZNI,
Afghanistan: Talks aimed at freeing 21 South Korean
hostages resumed Wednesday after no overnight breakthrough as a noon
(0730 GMT) deadline set by their Taliban abductors loomed,
negotiators said. The militants have threatened to kill more
hostages after murdering one man late Monday following the expiry of
other deadlines. He was the second of the Christian aid workers to
be killed since the group’s July 19 abduction in the southern
province of Ghazni.
--AFP
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