Security Incidents for Wednesday, June 20, 07



(1) MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Task Force Marne soldier in a roadside bomb attack south of Baghdad on Monday, June 18th. Three other soldiers were injured in the blast.

(2) MNF-Iraq is also reporting the death of a Task Force Lightning soldier in an explosion in Diyala Province on Tuesday, June 19th. Two other soldiers were injured in the attack.

(3) AFP is reporting the deaths of three NATO soldiers in a roadside bomb blast in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, June 20th, citing a NATO source. As usual, the nationalities of the soldiers are not immediately available.

(4) It is with great sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the death of a soldier from the 4th Battalion The Rifles in Basra City today, Wednesday 20 June 2007. The soldier died as a result of an indirect fire attack on the Provincial Joint Coordination Centre in Basra in the early hours of the morning, local time.


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Baghdad:
#1: A Task Force Marne Soldier was killed and three were wounded when their patrol was struck by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad Monday. The Soldiers were responding to another improvised explosive device attack that wounded one Soldier.

#2: (update from 21 bodies) The bodies of 33 people were found abandoned in different districts of Baghdad on Tuesday, police said. They had all been shot.

#3: Four U.S. soldiers were killed and three Iraqi civilians were injured when an explosive charge went off near a U.S. military vehicle in southern Baghdad, a police source said on Wednesday. "A roadside bomb was detonated on Tuesday night targeting a U.S. Hummer on the main road connecting Baghdad to the southern provinces, destroying the vehicle completely," the source, who asked not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). "The blast killed all four U.S. soldiers on board, while three nearby Iraqi civilians were injured," the source added. "U.S. forces sealed off the scene, while choppers hovered over the area," he noted. No word was available from the U.S. army on the incident.

#4: U.S. forces raided two neighborhoods in Sadr city in eastern Baghdad and arrested a number of civilians, local residents said on Wednesday. "On Tuesday night a U.S. force raided a number of houses in two neighborhoods in Sadr city and arrested some civilians, while U.S. helicopters hovered over the area," an eyewitness told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). Another eyewitness said that "fierce clashes broke out between the troops and gunmen in the city during the crackdown operation," noting that the operation started at 1:00 am on Wednesday and lasted for two hours.

#5: 1 policeman (national police) was killed and 3 others wounded in an IED explosion targeted their patrol around 3,15 pm

#6: 3 civilians were wounded when a mortar shell hit Al Saidiyah neighborhood south Baghdad around 3,00 pm.

#7: Gunmen assassinated the general director of the Iraq American contracts company Ali Kadhim Jwad Allaw in Sleikh neighborhood north Baghdad around 3,30 pm.

#8: An IED exploded targeting an American convoy in Hurriyah neighborhood west Baghdad around 3,00pm. No casualties reported.

#9: A mortar shell hit the US embassy inside the Green Zoon downtown Baghdad around 7 pm. No casualties reported.

#10: 29 anonymous bodies were found in Baghdad today. 19 bodies were found in Karkh, the western side of Baghdad in the following neighborhoods (4 bodies in Saidiyah, 3 bodies in Amil, 3 bodies in Bayaa, 2 bodies in Ghazaliyah, 2 bodies in Jihad, 2 bodies in Mansour, 2 bodies in Jamiaa and 1 body in Qadisiyah). 10 bodies were found in Rusafa, the eastern side of Baghdad in the following neighborhood (3 bodies in Sleikh, 2 bodies in Sadr, 2 bodies in Zayuna, 2 bodies in Rashad and 1 body in Al Qanat Street. Diyala.

#11: 7 policemen including an officer (killed?) when gunmen attacked their check point in Al Tahwila area in Khalis town north of Baquba. A governmental source said that the attach happened around 5,15 when more than 30 gunmen attacked the check point.


Diyala Prv:
#1: One Task Force Lightning Soldier died as a result of injuries sustained from an explosion near his vehicle while conducting operations in Diyala Province June 19. Two Soldiers were also wounded and transported to a Coalition medical facility for treatment.

#2: US and Iraqi forces killed at least 30 Al Qaeda suspects during a major offensive on militant strongholds in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, the US military said Wednesday. The troops also used guided missiles to destroy a known Al Qaeda weapon cache located inside a safe house, the statement added.


Haswa:
#1: Sectarian violence persisted to the south, with suspected Shiite militiamen detonating a bomb inside a Sunni mosque in Haswa, 30 miles south of Baghdad, at about 1 a.m.


Hilla:
#1: then in another mosque near Hillah, about 60 miles south of the capital, about six hours later, local police officers said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns. The attackers near Hillah also targeted the imam's house near the mosque, but the cleric fled when he saw them coming, according to the police.


Iskandariya:
#1:" A bomb planted inside a Sunni mosque badly damaged it in the town of Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad on Tuesday, police said.

The Osama Ibn Zayd and Abdullah al-Juburi mosques in al-Askandariya

#2: A Sunni mosque suffered minor damage from a bomb attack in the town of Iskandariya on Tuesday, police said.


Kut:
#1: The bodies of a young woman and a man were found in the city of Kut, 170 km (100 miles) southeast of Bagdad, police said. They had been shot.


Aziziya:
#1: Gunmen killed a police major in the town of Aziziya, 80 km (50 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.


Numaniyah:
#1: Four soldiers were killed and a Humvee was burned in nearly two hours of clashes in the Shiite town of Numaniyah, 77 miles southeast of Baghdad, police said.


Madain:
#1: The fighting erupted hours after five other Iraqi soldiers were killed and three were wounded by a roadside bomb in the mainly Sunni town of Madain, on the southeastern outskirts of Baghdad.


Basra:
#1: It is with great sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the death of a soldier from the 4th Battalion The Rifles in Basra City today, Wednesday 20 June 2007. The soldier died as a result of an indirect fire attack on the Provincial Joint Coordination Centre in Basra in the early hours of the morning, local time.


Mosul:
#1: Gunmen kidnapped eight Christian university students and a lecturer in northern Iraq on Wednesday, police said. They said the group was snatched off a bus east of the city of Mosul. The students were going home after completing exams.



Afghanistan:
#1: What appears to have been a missile attack killed more than 20 people Tuesday in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region close to the Afghan border, Pakistani security officials said. The attack, on what they called a training camp for foreign militants, came from across the Afghanistan border, where U.S. and NATO forces operate against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, according to the security officials. A spokesman for the Pakistani military, Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, denied that U.S. or NATO forces operating in Afghanistan were involved. According to accounts from locals in the village of Mamerogha, 28 miles west of the regional capital, Miram Shah, three missiles hit a religious school, killing up to 32.
#2: In the mosque attack in Ismail Kheil, a village in Khost province, two gunmen entered the building and fatally shot three people while wounding an additional four, said Wazir Pacha, a provincial police spokesman. The unidentified assailants fled and the motive for the shooting remained unknown, Pacha said.

#3: In the volatile south, police clashed with insurgents and retook control of Miya Nishin district in Kandahar late Tuesday, a day after militants overran it, said Esmatullah Alizai, provincial police chief. However, hours later, Alizai said his forces lost Ghorak district in the same province to the militants.

#4: Assailants also ambushed a U.N. convoy on the main Kabul-Kandahar highway, killing two Afghan guards, wounding another and damaging two vehicles, said Jailani Khan, highway police chief for Zabul province.

#5: Three soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force were killed in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday when a bomb blast struck their vehicle. The vehicle was "struck by an improvised explosive device," the 37-nation force said in a statement that did not release the nationalities of the troops killed or give any other details.

#6: Military officials say Canadian and Afghan soldiers have killed 15 Taliban in a four-hour running battle in southern Kandahar province. Two Canadians and three Afghan soldiers suffered minor injuries in the clash. Maj. Dave Quick, officer commanding of India Company, says troops raced over compounds and farmers houses during the battle in the province's Zhari district

#7: In a separate incident, a roadside bomb killed the police chief of a district in the southeastern province of Khost. The Taliban claimed responsibility for that blast too.

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