Security Incidents for Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Guardian photographer Sean Smith is embedded with the US military in Iraq. The pictures here were taken as the troops he is attached to were called to the site of an explosion - an improvised explosive device (IED) that had destroyed an armoured vehicle.

In Country:
#1: Three soldiers from the Wisconsin Army National Guard's 1157th Transportation Company were injured while conducting convoy operations over the weekend in Iraq. Lt. Col. Tim Donovan, director of public affairs for the Wisconsin National Guard, said the soldiers from the Oshkosh-based unit are being treated for their injuries, and the families of the soldiers have been notified. Donovan said no additional information would be released without the consent of the soldiers.


Baghdad:
#1: A parked car bomb ripped through a crowded outdoor market in southwestern Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 25 people despite a 3-month-old security crackdown meant to reduce violence in the capital. At least 60 people were wounded in the 10 a.m. blast in the Shiite-dominated neighborhood of Amil. Nearby buildings were badly damaged and set ablaze, while others were reduced to rubble.

#2: gunmen in two cars drove through the nearby Khadra neighborhood and ambushed a civilian car carrying three plainclothes police officers from the major crimes unit, killing two and wounding the third, police said.

#3: Another police officer was killed when a roadside bomb exploded next to a police patrol driving through an eastern Baghdad neighborhood about 9 a.m., police said. Three other officers were wounded in the attack.

#4: Later Tuesday, two mortar shells slammed into a teacher's college affiliated with Baghdad University, killing three students and injuring seven, police said.

#5: In the Baghdad neighborhood of Dora, a sniper shot two civilians, killing one and wounding the other, police said.

#6: In central Baghdad, around seven people were killed and tens were wounded when an explosives-laden car was detonated.

#7: five Iraqis were wounded in a separate incident in al-Mansour district, western Baghdad, where a similar explosive charge was used.

#8: Separately, the cousin of the speaker of the Iraqi parliament was freed from his captors, also on Tuesday, the Iraqi military said while denying reports that he had been killed.

#9: In Zaytouna, eastern Baghdad, an explosive device blew up, killing a civilian and wounding three others.

#10: At least four college students were killed and 25 wounded in a mortar attack at Ibn al-Haitham college in Adhamiya district in northern Baghdad, police said.

#11: Iraqi security forces killed four gunmen, arrested 30 people and detained nine others in several areas of Baghdad during the past 24 hours as part of the security crackdown launched by the Iraqi government in mid-February 2007, the Baghdad operations command said on Tuesday.

#12: Iraqi forces also managed to defuse a bomb car in al-Rasheed district in southern Baghdad, in addition to eight explosive devices in several areas in Baghdad, the statement added. Explaining the losses to Iraqi security forces over the past 24 hours, the statement indicated that five Iraqi soldiers were killed and four others were wounded in a combat operation.

#13: At least eight college students were killed and another three wounded when gunmen opened fire on their minibus in northern Baghdad on Tuesday, police said. The students were travelling to their homes in Tunis, a religiously mixed district of the Iraqi capital, when gunmen in a car sprayed their bus with bullets. No other details were immediately available.

#14: A civilian was killed by the American troops in Al Bayaa neighborhood south Baghdad at 5,00.

#15: National police abducted 4 civilians in Al Risala neighborhood south west Baghdad around 6,00 pm

#16: A member of national police forces was killed and three others wounded when a suicide car bomber attacked their patrol under Al Mikaneek bridge in Doura neighborhood south Baghdad at 7,00 pm.

#17: 33 bodies were found in Baghdad today. 27 bodies were found in Karkh, the western part of Baghdad in the following neighborhoods (12 bodies in Amil, 6 bodies in Bayaa, 3 bodies in Saidiyah, 2 bodies Shoala, 2 bodies in Jihad, 1 body in Jamia and 1 body in Amiriyah). 6 bodies were found in Rusafa, the eastern part of Baghdad in the following neighborhoods (2 bodies in Sadr city, 2 bodies in Zafaraniyah and 2 bodies Al Ubeidi).


Diyala Prv:
Khalis:
#1: But outside the capital insurgents and militias continue to launch brutal attacks. On Tuesday gunmen opened fire on a car travelling north of Baghdad near Khalis, killing a family of six. "Armed men set up an illegal checkpoint and then opened fire on the car as it approached, killing a mother, a father, and four children," said Lieutenant Ahmed Ali, a local police officer from the restive Diyala province.


Mahmudiya:
#1: One person was killed and five wounded, all from the same family, by a mortar round in the town of Mahmudiya, about 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.


Basra:
#1: A police source in Basra city said that gunmen killed Soltan Hairan, a member in the local council of Zuber district (30 Kms west of Basra city). The source said that the gunmen attacked Hairan in his house shooting him in the head.


Yathrib:
#1: the joint coordination center in Salahuddin said that gunmen kidnapped Sheikh Mohammed Jasim Al Abbas, the sheikh of Al Ahbab tribe. The source said that the incident happened yesterday evening (Monday evening )when the gunmen set a faked check point near Yathrib district east of Balad town north of Baghdad. The gunmen stooped the car in which Sheikh Al Abbas was taking him to an unknown place.


Hawija:
#1: A roadside bomb killed one person and wounded another near the town of Hawija, 70 km (40 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, police said.


Riyadh:
#1: The bodies of two Arbil airport employees were found shot and tortured in the town of Riyadh, 60 km (40 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, police said.


Kirkuk:
#1: Two civilians were wounded when an explosive device ripped through a crowded marketplace in the city of Kirkuk, an official source in the Iraqi police said on Tuesday. "The explosive charge went off late at night on Monday in front of a building in the crowded al-Jumhuriya street," the source, who is from the Kirkuk police joint operations room, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) on condition of anonymity.

#2: Meanwhile, the same source said another group of gunmen attacked a truck, causing several wounds to the driver. "The gunmen opened fire at the truck on the Kirkuk-al-Rashad highway near a village located 35 km west of Kirkuk, wounding the driver," the source told VOI.

#3: Iraqi police found a body on Kirkuk- Qar Hanjeer motorway near asphalt factory east Kirkuk very early morning. The police sources said that the body was found after receiving information from citizens. The body was handcuffed and blindfold with signs of shooting in the head.

#4: Iraqi army found the body of an Asian man on Tikrit- Kirkuk main street (60 Kms west of Kirkuk


Al Anbar Prv:
Garma:
#1: In the western Anbar province, where several local tribes have recently broken with the Sunni insurgency, US and Iraqi troops clashed with a local kidnapping gang, killing nine alleged insurgents and freeing 12 hostages.

#2: (see #1) U.S. forces killed nine insurgents in a ground and air attack and freed 12 hostages held near the town of Garma, about 50 km (35 miles) west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

Allous:
#1: Armed gunmen attacked a U.S. army patrol on Tuesday, south of the city of al-Haqlaniya in the Sunni al-Anbar province, local residents said. "Unidentified gunmen ambushed a U.S. army patrol of several Hummer and Humvee vehicles in the village of Allous, south of Haqlaniya, with RPG-7 shells," an eyewitness told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). The witness added that a Humvee was severely damaged and the gunmen escaped after U.S. reinforcements arrived at the scene.




Afghanistan:
#1: In one of the new attacks, two Afghan soldiers were killed when a bomb struck their vehicle in the eastern province of Khost, army commander General Sami ul-Haq Badar told AFP. Another was wounded.

#2: A district chief in the southern province of Kandahar said meanwhile that a policeman was killed in fighting that erupted overnight after Taliban fighters attacked a police checkpost. Ten of the attackers were also killed in the battle in Zhari district, said the official, named only Khairuddin. The claim could not be independently verified.

#3: In nearby Kandahar city on Tuesday a remote-controlled bomb killed a border policeman and wounded three more, border police chief General Abdur Razeq said. Three civilians were wounded.

#4: Separately Taliban-led insurgents attacked another police check post early Tuesday in the eastern province of Paktia and two were killed, provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Sarjang said. "Their bodies were recovered," the police commander said.

#5: Pakistani troops killed at least three militants in an operation Tuesday to eradicate a "terrorist" training camp in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan. The private Geo TV quoted military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad as saying that at least three militants were killed in the raid and some "terrorist" training materials including explosives had been seized. Soldiers stormed the camp at the Zargarkhel village in the troubled North Waziristan district after militants refused to meet a peace delegation flown in by helicopter and opened fire on security forces, a military statement said. "The security forces returned fire and are in the process of clearing the miscreants' training facility," the statement said.

#6: Norwegian soldiers out on patrol in Afghanistan escaped an attempt on their lives when a bomb hidden in a hay bale apparently failed to detonate. The incident occurred on Monday, when the soldiers were on routine patrol in the city of Meymaneh in northern Afghanistan. Norway has about 100 soldiers placed in the city, and the patrol group was about to pass the bale of hay set out along the road when it suddenly caught fire. The soldiers chose to pull back. Military officials now believe they were targets of insurgents who often attack International Security and Assistance /ISAF) forces in Afghanistan with improvised bombings.