Security Incidents for Saturday, June 16, 07




(1) The Associated Press is reporting that a U.S. Air Force F-16 has crashed in Iraq on Friday, June 15th. It's pilot, the sole crewmember, is presumed dead. The craft was assigned to the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing currently stationed at Balad Air Base. The actual Air Force announcement of the crash referred to it as an "accident".

(2) The Kennebec (Maine) Journal is reporting the death of a Maine Army National Guardsman in Iraq: Sergeant Richard K. Parker, 26, of Avon and Phillips in Maine. He died on Wednesday, June 13th, according to a statement issued by the office of Maine's governor, John Baldacci. We have no CENTCOM report of a death that matches this one, so we are considering him to be a new death. Parker had already served one tour of duty in Iraq, but volunteered for a second "to be with his buddies". He was originally from Avon, Maine ... in fact, his family still lives there. He graduated from high school in 1999. According to the Kennebec Journal article, Parker was looking forward to coming home to see his girlfriend, who gave birth to his son this

(3) The BBC is reporting the death of a British soldier in Iraq when his Warrior armoured vehicle rolled off of a bridge and fell into the water below. Two other soldiers were injured in the incident which happened in the As Sarraji District near Basra City. The Warrior was part of a supply convoy. The article does not give a date of death, so we are assuming Saturday, June 16th, for the time being until the British MOD confirms. The soldier was a member of Badger Squadron, 2 Royal Tank Regiment, The Royal Armoured Corps.past January ... a son he'd never seen.

(4) Reuters is reporting the death of a 20-year-old Dutch NATO soldier when a suicide bomber rammed his car into a NATO convoy in Tarin Kowt, the capital of Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan, on Friday, June 15th. The Dutch Ministry of Defense has confirmed the death.

(5) The Chinese news service Xinhua is citing a "coalition statement" in reporting the death of a U.S.-led coalition soldier in Oruzgan Province, Afghanistan, when his vehicle was struck by a rocket propelled grenade on Saturday, June 16th. As the bulk of these forces are American, we are guessing that the dead soldier was an American.

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In Country:
#1: One in seven supply convoys protected by private forces has come under attack this year, according to previously unreleased statistics; one security company reported nearly 300 "hostile actions" in the first four months.

#2: A former Moore County deputy who was working in Iraq has died. Authorities say 48-year-old Daniel Scott likely died of natural causes, but they are investigating. His widow, Tilly Scott, says her husband signed on with Dyncorp for additional time in Iraq after his first year ended. She says he liked the Iraqi people and was trying to make a difference.

#3: The U.S. military, which just days ago completed its latest troop buildup in Iraq, has launched a large offensive operation in several al-Qaida strongholds around Baghdad, the top U.S. commander said Saturday. Gen. David Petraeus said the operation began in the last 24 hours, and will put forces into key areas surrounding Baghdad


Baghdad:
#1: Three Iranian diplomats were briefly detained in Iraq, the U.S. military said on Saturday, but it played the incident down as a simple curfew break while Tehran condemned it as the latest case of harassment. A U.S. military spokesman said three Iranian diplomats were among a group of 10 people stopped by the Iraqi Army for driving in east Baghdad on Thursday, despite a curfew. "After questioning, Iraqi officials verified three of the men held Iranian diplomatic passports and thus were released shortly thereafter to their embassy representatives," Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver said in a statement. The Iranian foreign ministry said that this broke international rules and complained that their diplomats were questioned for hours by Americans.

#2: The U.S. military said U.S. and Iraqi soldiers killed one suspected insurgent, wounded another and detained 10 during operations in Baghdad's Shi'ite neighbourhood of Sadr City. Iraqi police said six civilians were killed and 25 wounded in gunbattles between the Shi'ite Mehdi Army militia and U.S forces in Sadr City.

#3: U.S. and Iraqi forces killed four suspected insurgents and detained 20 others during operations in Falluja, Mosul and Baghdad, the U.S military said.

#4: At least four civilians were killed and 18 others wounded on Saturday morning when U.S. copters dropped bombs onto a residential area in northeastern Baghdad, local residents said. "U.S. copters dropped bombs, this morning, on a number of houses in al-Hussiyaniya district, northeastern Baghdad," an eyewitness told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) over the phone. Another eyewitness said "four people were killed and 18 more were wounded in the attack." He added "three houses were also burned."


Diyala Prv:
Muqdadiya:
#1: Iraqi security forces on Saturday killed one gunman and arrested five suspected militants in a security crackdown in Muqdadiya, while two car bombs were defused and a weapons cache was found in other parts of Diala province, central Iraq, a police source said on Saturday.

Khanqin:
#1: At least four troops from the Iraqi borders forces were wounded on Saturday when an explosive charge went off near their patrol vehicle in Khanqin district near to the Iranian borders, a police source said. "An explosive charge went off, today, near a vehicle patrol from the borders forces near the oil compound in Nafitkhanah, wounding four troops and damaging their vehicle," the source, who asked not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq


Tallil:
#1: THREE Australian soldiers have been injured in southern Iraq when their patrol vehicle rolled over. The soldiers, from the Overwatch Battle Group West, were conducting a patrol near Tallil yesterday when their Bushmaster vehicle rolled, the defence force said today. At the time there was limited visibility due to a sandstorm and the soldiers were travelling over steep terrain. One soldier suffered a broken arm while the two others received bruising and abrasions.


Kut:
#1: U.S. warplanes dropped cluster bombs on southern Kut, 180 km southeast of Baghdad, wounding five civilians, local residents said on Saturday


al-Zubair :
#1: The British forces opened fire on protestors at a demonstration against the presence of British troops in Basra, a media spokesman for the MNF in southern Iraq, Major Matthew Berd, said on Saturday. VOI "The British forces came under small arms attack and opened fire in self-defense," he explained. "The Iraqi army urged our forces to leave the area. Upon leaving, the British patrol was attacked with small arms and RPG7 rockets and engaged in clashes with armed men," Maj. Berd added, noting that no casualties to the Multi-National Force (MNF) were reported. The spokesman did not indicate whether there were casualties among the demonstrators


Basra:
#1: Another Sunni mosque was levelled by an explosion on Saturday in Basra, residents say, in the second retaliatory attack for the downing of Shiite minarets in as many days. Iraqi police did not immediately respond to the bombing of the al-Ashrah al-Mubashra mosque, witnesses said, raising fears that the city's Shiite-dominated security forces were unwilling to stop sectarian attacks on Sunni landmarks.

#2: A British soldier has died after a road accident near Basra, southern Iraq. The soldier, from Badger Squadron, 2 Royal Tank Regiment, died in a crash involving a Warrior armoured vehicle in the As Sarraji district.


Balad:
#1: (update) An Ohio National Guard pilot was killed when his F-16 fighter crashed shortly after takeoff from Balad Air Base in central Iraq, an Air Force spokesman reported Saturday.


Kirkuk:
#1: Three elements from the oil protection force were wounded on Saturday when an explosive charge detonated near their patrol vehicle near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, a police source said. "An explosive charge went off, this morning, near a patrol vehicle belonging to the oil protection force on the Riadh-Kirkuk road, wounding three elements," the source, who asked not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq

#2: Meanwhile, the same source said "an explosive charge went off, this morning, near a police vehicle patrol in Kirkuk with no casualties."


Al Anbar Prv:
Ramadi:
#1: The decomposed bodies of at least 13 martial arts experts have been found more than a year after they were kidnapped in an al Qaeda stronghold west of Baghdad, local officials and family members said on Saturday. The bodies were found on Thursday in a ditch in the desert about 100 km (60 miles) west of Ramadi in Anbar province, one of Iraq's most violent areas and where al Qaeda and Sunni Arab insurgents are battling U.S. and Iraqi forces.

Fallujah:
#1: Two bullet-riddled bodies were found in Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, police said



Afghanistan:
#1: A suicide car bomb exploded near a NATO convoy in a busy residential area of the Afghan capital on Saturday, killing three Afghan civilians and wounding five more, the interior ministry said. “It was a suicide car bomb attack against a foreign forces vehicle,” the head of the city police’s criminal department, Alishah Paktiawal, told AFP at the scene. “One foreign national has been slightly wounded,” along with four Afghan civilians, he added.

#2: The Afghan Government says US soldiers have opened fire at the scene of a suicide attack in the capital, Kabul, killing a civilian and wounding three others. Kabul deputy police chief Zalmai Oriakhil says the shooting led hundreds of people to mob soldiers in a convoy in a tense stand-off that ended only after Afghan elders and police intervened.

#3: BRITISH troops in Afghanistan are facing severe shortages of helicopters and armoured vehicles, according to reports. It was claimed that only half the Apache helicopter gunships with the force are working, while just 70 per cent of the Chinook transport helicopters are available. Tony Blair had previously promised British commanders would get all the equipment they needed. However, reports said that the shortage of Chinooks meant in one recent incident a British garrison was down to its last 200 mortar rounds because it could not be resupplied.

#4: An employee of an Italian aid group, arrested three months ago in Afghanistan and accused of involvement in the kidnapping of an Italian journalist, has been released, a spokesman for the group said Saturday. Rahmatullah Hanefi, the Afghan head of a hospital run by the group, Emergency, in southern Afghanistan, "was freed Saturday morning and is currently at our hospital in Kabul", spokesman Vauro Senesi said.

#5: A suicide bomber attacked a reconstruction team's convoy in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Saturday, killing one person and wounding seven others, local security and health officials said. It was the fourth suicide bombing in Afghanistan in two days and came hours after a similar attack on a military-civilian convoy on the outskirts of Kabul. At least three civilians were killed in the bombing in the capital.

#6: A soldier of the U.S.-led coalition forces was killed by militants in Uruzgan province of southern Afghanistan Saturday afternoon, a coalition statement said. The soldier was killed while conducting a combat operation at around 3 p.m. (1030 GMT), the statement said, adding a rocket-propelled grenade struck the vehicle carrying the soldier. Three Afghan soldiers were injured in the attack and are being treated at a nearby coalition medical facility, according to the statement.