Security Incidents for Friday, July 27, 2007

Photo: Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev attends a concert in Moscow's Musical Centre, March 1, 2006. REUTERS/Dmitry Lekay/Kommersant

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev criticized the United States, and current President George W. Bush in particular, on Friday for sowing disorder across the world by seeking to build an empire. Gorbachev, who presided over the break-up of the Soviet Union, said Washington had sought to build an empire after the Cold War ended but had failed to understand the changing world.

"The Americans then gave birth to the idea of a new empire, world leadership by a single power, and what followed?" Gorbachev asked reporters at a news conference in Moscow. "What has followed are unilateral actions, what has followed are wars, what has followed is ignoring the U.N. Security Council, ignoring international law and ignoring the will of the people, even the American people."

__________________________________

(1) MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Task Force Lightning soldier in an explosion near his vehicle in Diyala Province on Thursday, July 26th.

__________________________________


In Country:
#1: With five days to go before the end of July, an Associated Press count showed that at least 1,759 Iraqis were killed in warrelated violence through Thursday , an increase of more than 7 percent over the 1,640 who were reported killed in all of June.


Baghdad:
#1: A highly sophisticated simultaneous truck bombing and rocket attack devastated a Shiite market district in one of Baghdad’s safest central neighborhoods Thursday, killing at least 28 people and wounding 95. An explosives-laden garbage truck exploded near the market about the same time as a Katyusha rocket slammed into a three-story residential building about 100 yards away. Three columns of smoke billowed into the sky and fires burned on the ground after the thunderous explosions, which set cars and buildings ablaze.

#2: Unidentified gunmen attacked a power station in southern Baghdad and destroyed its content, an Iraqi police source said on Friday. "The gunmen attacked the al-Samadiya power station in the strip stretching from al-Madaen district and Diala bridge, southern Baghdad," the source, who refused to have his name mentioned, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). Power was cut off completely in the districts of al-Wihda in southern Baghdad and al-Madaen, added the source. He said the attack started with seven mortar shells fired on the station, followed by a raid in which the gunmen destroyed the station's content.

#3: Around 10 a.m. Gunmen released a man after packing explosives into his car this morning in Saidiyah. The car exploded as the man was driving through a police check point. The freed hostage was killed and two policemen were injured.

#4: Around 11 a.m. Gunmen stormed engineer’s Adeeb Abdul Salam house killing him with his wife in Saidiyah.

#5: Around 1 p.m. a mortar shell landed in Zafaraniyah. 4 civilians were injured.


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, Thursday.

Muqdadiyah:
#1: Iraqi army handed two dead bodies to Al Muqdadiyah hospital today.

#2: A road side bomb exploded in Al Mualmenn area in Al Muqdadiyah. 1 man was killed and 5 others were injured.

Baquba:
#1: Police found one dead body in Baqouba today

Buhruz:
#1: Gunmen killed one man in Buhruz today


Karbala:
#1: Nine people were killed, including several civilians, in clashes between U.S. soldiers and militia fighters in Iraq's holy Shi'ite city of Kerbala on Friday, police and hospital sources said. The clashes broke out at about dawn when U.S. soldiers entered Kerbala, 110 km (70 miles) southwest of Baghdad, and tried to arrest several militiamen from the Mehdi Army, the feared Shi'ite militia of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Helicopters were called in to support the U.S. troops. At least 25 people were wounded in the fighting, including a number of civilians, a hospital source said. Six militiamen were arrested.

Witnesses in Karbala, 100 kilometres south of the capital Baghdad, said that following the withdrawal of US forces after the clash, further fighting broke out between militiamen and Iraqi soldiers, with casualties on both sides as well as among civilians.

#2: Karbala governor Uqeil al-Khazaali said unidentified gunmen attacked his house in Islah neighbourhood in southern Karbala on Friday morning and clashed with his bodyguards, Voices of Iraq reported. However, no casualties were reported.

The U.S. military said on Friday it had killed around 17 militia fighters in clashes in Iraq's holy Shi'ite city of Kerbala, but hospital and police sources said some civilians were among the dead.


Mahmudiya:
#1: Two mortar bombs killed one women and wounded two others, including a child, in Mahmudiya, 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.


Kirkuk:
#1: Six people were wounded by a roadside bomb in Kirkuk, police said.

#2: Insurgents killed one Iraqi soldier in a drive-by shooting at an army checkpoint southwest of Kirkuk on Thursday, police said.

#3: Two people were killed and another wounded in a rocket attack which destroyed a house in southern Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.



Afghanistan:
#1: NATO and Afghan troops clashed with Taliban insurgents and called in airstrikes, killing at least 50 suspected militants and dozens of civilians, local officials and villagers said Friday. The fighting started Thursday night in the village of Kumbarak in Helmand province, and NATO forces told residents to evacuate their homes because of the clashes, said Gereshk district chief Abdul Manaf Khan. The airstrikes killed 50 Taliban and 28 civilians, Khan said, citing villagers' reports. He said the bodies have already been buried, and the fighting continued Friday. NATO's International Security Assistance Force said it did not have any information about the incident and was looking into it. The report could not be immediately verified due to the area's remoteness and instability, although a local lawmaker and a resident also said there were civilians among the dead.

#2: The commander of Canada’s current mission in war-torn Afghanistan escaped unharmed Thursday when a convoy he was travelling in was attacked by a suicide bomber. Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant was riding in one of three vehicles in the convoy when a suicide bomber detonated a car nearby, military officials said. There were no reports of injuries in the attack southeast of Kandahar City. Maj. Chip Madic said the explosion happened at 5:30 p.m. when a convoy of three Canadian military vehicles — two RG-31 Nayala vehicles and one LAV-3 light armoured vehicle — was returning to Kandahar City from the town of Shur Andan, about 18 kilometres southeast of the Canadian base.
#3: An ISAF helicopter made a precautionary landing in the Nari district of Kunar province today. The helicopter is secured and the crew was safely recovered with no injuries. At 2:30 p.m., an AH-64 Apache, an attack helicopter carrying a two-person crew, was providing support for a medical evacuation of ISAF personnel. The crew made the controlled landing after noting a possible failing engine. Insurgent activity was reported in the vicinity where the helicopter was supporting the medical mission.

.