Iraqi forces foil bomb attacks on bases: officer



BAGHDAD // Iraqi security forces used anti-tank missiles to repel suicide bombers driving explosives-rigged vehicles who attacked two military bases west of Baghdad, an army officer said on Thursday.

It came a day after an air strike in northern Iraq destroyed one of ISIL’s largest car bomb factories, which may help to curb one of the extremist group’s deadliest tactics, officials said.

ISIL attacked a base north of Fallujah with two explosives-rigged vehicles driven by suicide bombers, and another south of the city with four more, including a bulldozer, an army colonel said.

However, the attacks were foiled using Russian Kornet anti-tank missiles.

Last month, ISIL used an unprecedented wave of lorry and car bombs when it seized the city of Ramadi, farther west, after which the United States said it would send 2,000 anti-tank systems to help repel such attacks.

The group’s capture of Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar, marked its most significant advance since the US-led anti-ISIL coalition began its air campaign against the extremists last year.

On Wednesday, Iraqi officials said an air strike hit an ISIL car bomb plant at the entrance to the town of Hawijah in north Iraq that was “the biggest factory in Iraq and Syria”, according to an Iraqi colonel.

Both that officer and Mohammed Khalil Al Juburi, the deputy head of the Kirkuk provincial security committee, said the blast caused heavy casualties among both ISIL and civilians.

The huge explosion could be heard in Kirkuk, 55 kilometres away, while mobile phone photos said to show the site of the explosion reveal damage on a massive scale.

The images show a huge field of debris – cinderblocks, metal roofing, the twisted remains of vehicles – that stretches as far as the eye can see.

Iraqi officials said the strike was carried out by the US-led coalition.

The coalition issued a statement saying that it had bombed an ISIL “VBIED (vehicle-born improvised explosive device) facility” in the Hawijah area but did not provide any details.

Also on Thursday, the White House said that US president Barack Obama will meet with Iraqi prime minister Haider Al Abadi on the sidelines of a Group of Seven summit, which is taking place in Germany on Saturday and Sunday.

The meeting will allow Mr Obama to discuss the “situation on the ground and our effort to support Iraqi forces,” senior White House aide Ben Rhodes told reporters in a conference call ahead of the US president’s trip.

* Agence France-Presse with additional reporting by Reuters and Associated Press

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The years Ramadan fell in May

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The specs

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Torque: 250Nm
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Tuesday results:

  • Singapore bt Malaysia by 29 runs
  • UAE bt Oman by 13 runs
  • Hong Kong bt Nepal by 3 wickets

Final:
Thursday, UAE v Hong Kong

How to invest in gold

Investors can tap into the gold price by purchasing physical jewellery, coins and even gold bars, but these need to be stored safely and possibly insured.

A cheaper and more straightforward way to benefit from gold price growth is to buy an exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Most advisers suggest sticking to “physical” ETFs. These hold actual gold bullion, bars and coins in a vault on investors’ behalf. Others do not hold gold but use derivatives to track the price instead, adding an extra layer of risk. The two biggest physical gold ETFs are SPDR Gold Trust and iShares Gold Trust.

Another way to invest in gold’s success is to buy gold mining stocks, but Mr Gravier says this brings added risks and can be more volatile. “They have a serious downside potential should the price consolidate.”

Mr Kyprianou says gold and gold miners are two different asset classes. “One is a commodity and the other is a company stock, which means they behave differently.”

Mining companies are a business, susceptible to other market forces, such as worker availability, health and safety, strikes, debt levels, and so on. “These have nothing to do with gold at all. It means that some companies will survive, others won’t.”

By contrast, when gold is mined, it just sits in a vault. “It doesn’t even rust, which means it retains its value,” Mr Kyprianou says.

You may already have exposure to gold miners in your portfolio, say, through an international ETF or actively managed mutual fund.

You could spread this risk with an actively managed fund that invests in a spread of gold miners, with the best known being BlackRock Gold & General. It is up an incredible 55 per cent over the past year, and 240 per cent over five years. As always, past performance is no guide to the future.

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
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Game Of Thrones Season Seven: A Bluffers Guide

Want to sound on message about the biggest show on television without actually watching it? Best not to get locked into the labyrinthine tales of revenge and royalty: as Isaac Hempstead Wright put it, all you really need to know from now on is that there’s going to be a huge fight between humans and the armies of undead White Walkers.

The season ended with a dragon captured by the Night King blowing apart the huge wall of ice that separates the human world from its less appealing counterpart. Not that some of the humans in Westeros have been particularly appealing, either.

Anyway, the White Walkers are now free to cause any kind of havoc they wish, and as Liam Cunningham told us: “Westeros may be zombie land after the Night King has finished.” If the various human factions don’t put aside their differences in season 8, we could be looking at The Walking Dead: The Medieval Years

 

COMPANY PROFILE

Company: Bidzi

● Started: 2024

● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid

● Based: Dubai, UAE

● Industry: M&A

● Funding size: Bootstrapped

● No of employees: Nine

Cricket World Cup League 2

UAE squad

Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind

Fixtures

Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE

The years Ramadan fell in May

1987

1954

1921

1888

Singham Again

Director: Rohit Shetty

Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone

Rating: 3/5

VEZEETA PROFILE

Date started: 2012

Founder: Amir Barsoum

Based: Dubai, UAE

Sector: HealthTech / MedTech

Size: 300 employees

Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)

Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC

Profile of Tamatem

Date started: March 2013

Founder: Hussam Hammo

Based: Amman, Jordan

Employees: 55

Funding: $6m

Funders: Wamda Capital, Modern Electronics (part of Al Falaisah Group) and North Base Media

Jigra
Director: Vasan Bala
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
Rated: 3.5/5
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Our legal columnist

Name: Yousef Al Bahar

Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994

Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
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RESULTS

5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 2,200m
Winner: Arjan, Fabrice Veron (jockey), Eric Lemartinel (trainer).

5.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,400m​​​​​​​
Winner: Jap Nazaa, Royston Ffrench, Irfan Ellahi.

6pm: Al Ruwais Group 3 (PA) Dh300,000 1,200m​​​​​​​
Winner: RB Lam Tara, Fabrice Veron, Eric Lemartinal.

6.30pm: Shadwell Gold Cup Prestige Dh125,000 1,600m​​​​​​​
Winner: AF Sanad, Bernardo Pinheiro, Khalifa Al Neyadi.

7pm: Shadwell Farm Stallions Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 1,600m​​​​​​​
Winner: Jawal Al Reef, Patrick Cosgrave, Abdallah Al Hammadi.

7.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh80,000 1,600m​​​​​​​
Winner: Dubai Canal, Harry Bentley, Satish Seemar.

FORSPOKEN
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Moon Music

Artist: Coldplay

Label: Parlophone/Atlantic

Number of tracks: 10

Rating: 3/5

Electric scooters: some rules to remember
  • Riders must be 14-years-old or over
  • Wear a protective helmet
  • Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
  • Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
  • Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
  • Do not drive outside designated lanes
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)

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In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter

Price: From Dh2,099