| Robots to the rescue at international trials in Florida Posted: 21 Dec 2013 12:03 PM PST  The robot, developed by the Tartan Rescue team from the National Robotics Engineering Center at Carnegie Mellon University, is one of 17 competing in the U.S. military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Robotics Challenge. The challenge was launched in 2011 in response to the meltdown of Japan's Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant after it was hit by a massive earthquake-spawned tsunami. The backup power systems needed to cool plant's reactors failed and an emergency team from Tokyo Electric Power Company was unable to enter the damaged reactor building due to the intense radiation. DARPA sent robots designed to disarm improvised explosive devices in Iraq to Japan, yet by the time workers were trained to use them it was too late to prevent a nuclear meltdown.
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| Iraq general among 15 soldiers killed in raid on Qaeda Posted: 21 Dec 2013 10:20 AM PST  Ramadi (Iraq) (AFP) - Five senior Iraqi officers, including a divisional commander, and 10 soldiers were killed Saturday in a raid on an Al-Qaeda hideout in the west of the country, military officers said. Violence elsewhere killed 10 people, including a police chief, four other police and a soldier, security officials and doctors said. Mohammed al-Karoui, the commander of the army's 7th Division, was leading an operation to attack "hideouts of militants belonging to the Al-Qaeda organisation" in Sunni-majority Anbar province, which borders Syria. He was killed along with four other senior army officers and 10 soldiers when they attacked a camp near Rutba, 380 kilometres (235 miles) west of Baghdad, the military officers said.
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| Attacks in Iraq kill 17, including military leader Posted: 21 Dec 2013 08:14 AM PST  BAGHDAD (AP) — A string of attacks across Iraq killed 17 people on Saturday, including a senior military commander, a colonel and five soldiers who all died during a raid on an al-Qaida hideout, officials said.
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| Iraqi militants kill at least 18 soldiers, including commander Posted: 21 Dec 2013 07:50 AM PST  By Kamal Namaa RAMADI, Iraq (Reuters) - Militants killed at least 18 Iraqi officers and soldiers in Sunni-dominated Anbar province on Saturday, including a commander who oversaw a crackdown on Sunni protesters earlier this year, military sources said. Islamist militants' posts on online forums called the slain commander, Mohammed Ahmed al-Kurwi, a "criminal" and celebrated the attack, which security sources described as carefully planned and executed. Al Qaeda-linked Sunni militants have intensified attacks on Iraq's security forces, civilians and anyone seen as supporting the Shi'ite-led government in recent months in the country's deadliest violence in five years. The Defense Ministry said Kurwi, commander of the army's Seventh Division, and several other high-ranking officers were killed by a roadside bomb while pursuing militants from an al Qaeda training camp in Anbar's desert.
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| Attacks across Iraq leave 15 people dead Posted: 21 Dec 2013 04:01 AM PST  BAGHDAD (AP) — A string of attacks across Iraq killed 15 people on Saturday, including a senior military commander, a colonel and five soldiers who all died during a raid on an al-Qaida hideout, officials said.
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| Attacks across Iraq leave 13 people dead Posted: 21 Dec 2013 01:58 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — A string of attacks across Iraq killed 13 people on Saturday, including a senior military commander and four soldiers who died during a raid on an al-Qaida hideout, officials said. |
| Attacks in Iraq kill 4 policemen, 2 pilgrims Posted: 21 Dec 2013 12:26 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Officials say attacks in western Iraq and south of Baghdad have killed six people — four policemen and two Shiite pilgrims. |
