Security Incidents for Friday, June 01, 07


(1) Boston station WCVB is reporting the death of Private First Class Matthew Bean, 22 of Pembroke, Massachusetts, in Iraq. Bean was shot in the head by a sniper on May 19th during a door-to-door search for the captured U-S soldiers. He was flown to Germany for surgery and then to Bethesda Naval Medical Center on May 23rd according to his sister. Bean was removed from life support Wednesday and died on Thursday, May 31st. He was a member of the Army's 10th Mountain Division and a 2003 graduate of Silver Lake Regional High School in Kingston.

(2) The NATO ISAF website has posted confirmation of the death of one of its servicemembers during combat operations in Regional Command East on Friday, June 1st. Agence France-Presse has the details, stating that one of NATO's vehicles struck a roadside bomb on the outskirts of the city of Mehtar Lam in Laghman Province about 100 km east of Kabul. The blast also wounded three NATO soldiers.


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Baghdad:
#1: (update from 21) Meanwhile, an Iraqi security source said that 29 unidentified bodies had been found in the 24 hours to Friday in different parts of the Iraqi capital.

#2: Iraqi and U.S. troops fanned out in a devastated Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad on Friday, residents said, adding they were holed up in their houses under a curfew that was imposed to restore calm after days of internal fighting between insurgent groups. Other residents, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared retribution, said the clashes began after al-Qaida abducted and tortured Sunnis from the area, prompting a large number of residents, many members of the rival Islamic Army armed with guns and rocket-propelled grenades, to rise up against the terror network. Official casualty figures were not immediately available. But a local council member, who declined to be identified because of security concerns, said at least 31 people, including six al-Qaida militants, were killed and 45 other fighters were detained in the clashes.

#3: Around 11:30 a.m. an IED exploded in Al Khadra neighborhood targeting civilians. 1 killed and 2 injured.

#4: Around midday mortar shells slammed in Saba Al Bour area. 1 citizen killed and 2 injured.

#5: Around 1 p.m. an IED exploded in Al Doura. The explosion targeted Iraqi national police vehicle. 4 policemen were injured.


Diyala Prv:
Baquba
#1: In a related development, the public hospital in Baquba received 15 unidentified bodies from several areas in the city, Voices of Iraq reported, citing a medical source. The bodies, including those of two women, showed signs of having been tortured and shot in the head, the source said. Most of the victims were blindfolded and had their hands tied.

#2: Northeast of Baghdad, an al-Qaida-linked suicide bomber blew himself up Friday in a house sheltering members of the rival 1920 Revolution Brigades, killing two of the other militants and wounding four in the strife-ridden city of Baqouba, police said.


Mahmudiya:
#1: Two civilians were killed and four wounded when mortar rounds landed on a residential area of Mahmudiya, 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.


Basra:
#1: Four policemen were injured on early Friday when the joint Coordination Center was shelled in al-Hekemiya region in central Basra," the source, who asked not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) over the phone.

#2: Meanwhile, the same source said that a policeman was injured during clashes between the Basra police forces and a kidnapping and looting gang in the early hours of Friday in al-Qebla region in western Basra, noting that the two-member gang was arrested


Dujail:
#1: Unidentified gunmen kidnapped three truck drivers and their trucks on Friday morning near al-Dujail, Salah al-Din province, a source from the joint coordination center in Tikrit said. "The trucks, loaded with vegetables and fruit, were heading to Baghdad near Um al-Qura station, south of Dujail district," the source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq


Kirkuk:
#1: Some security force personnel belonging to oil facilities in the area were ambushed by armed men on the main road to the south-west of Kirkuk, which is 290 kilometres north of Baghdad, independent Voices of Iraq news agency reported. The forces were seized and taken to an unknown place, the source said.

#2: Meanwhile, the same source said an unidentified body was found on Friday morning in al-Musalla area, 5 km north of Kirkuk, adding, the body "showed signs of having been tortured and shot all over."

#3: A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol in the northern city of Kirkuk wounded five policemen, police said.

#4: A suicide truck bomber in Uweidla village near Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, killed five people and wounded 25, police said




Afghanistan:
#1: A roadside bombing killed one soldier of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and injured three others in Laghman province of eastern Afghanistan on Friday morning, a witness told Xinhua. Rahmanullah, an Afghan working for ISAF, said the incident occurred near Mihtarlam, the provincial capital.

A roadside bomb, meanwhile, exploded on a convoy of U.S.-led coalition forces in Laghman province, causing a number of casualties, the U.S.-led coalition said without providing any further details.

#2: In the southern battle, troops from NATO's International Security Assistance Force as well as Afghan police and soldiers battled Taliban fighters in the Zhari district of Kandahar province, and the three-hour battle left 20 Taliban dead, said Khairuddin Khan, the Zhari district chief. A Taliban commander called Mullah Naqibullah was among the dead, Khan said. Neither NATO or Afghan forces suffered any casualties, he said.

#3: In the east, Taliban fighters attacked the home of a police official in Zurmat district of Paktia province late Thursday, said Ghulam Dastagir, deputy provincial police chief. Police reinforcements were called in, sparking a battle that left six Taliban dead, he said.

#4: Five rockets were fired from the top of a mountain in Kunar province, hitting several civilian homes and killing two women, said provincial police chief Abdul Jalal Jalal. Five more civilians were injured.

#5: In Khost province, small bombs exploded before dawn Friday outside the houses of six government officials and a man working as a translator for the U.S. military, said Wazir Pacha, a police spokesman. No one was hurt.