The present-day U.S. military qualifies by any measure as highly professional, much more so than its Cold War predecessor. Yet the purpose of today’s professionals is not to preserve peace but to fight unending wars in distant places. Intoxicated by a post-Cold War belief in its own omnipotence, the United States allowed itself to be drawn into a long series of armed conflicts, almost all of them yielding unintended consequences and imposing greater than anticipated costs. Since the end of the Cold War, U.S. forces have destroyed many targets and killed many people. Only rarely, however, have they succeeded in accomplishing their assigned political purposes. . . . [F]rom our present vantage point, it becomes apparent that the “Revolution of ‘89” did not initiate a new era of history. At most, the events of that year fostered various unhelpful illusions that impeded our capacity to recognize and respond to the forces of change that actually matter.

Andrew Bacevich


Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Security Incidents for Tuesday, July 10, 2007

(1) Reuters is reporting the death of a soldier from the U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan at an Afghan army base in the city of Herat in the far west of the country. A Taliban insurgent had apparently infiltrated the ranks of Afghan soldiers at the base and opened fire on troops on Monday, July 9th. Four Afghan soldiers died immediately, with 10 more wounded in the incident. Local government officials said that two American soldiers were wounded as well. Because Americans form the bulk of the U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, we are assuming for now that the dead foreign soldier was American. He died later in the day at a medical facility from his wounds.

(2) The DoD is reporting a new Operation Enduring Freedom death, not previously reported by CENTCOM. Sergeant 1st Class Sean K. Mitchell, 35, of Monterey, California, died of a non-hostile, unspecified cause in Kidal, Mali, on Saturday, July 7th. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group, out of Stuttgart, Germany.

_________________________________


Baghdad:
#1: A security detainee died at the Theater Internment Facility at Camp Cropper, Iraq July 7 from injuries sustained after apparently being assaulted by other detainees.

#2: Two civilians were killed and four others wounded in U.S. aerial operations in a number of districts in Sadr city on Tuesday morning, a media source from Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr's office said. "The shelling burnt two civilian vehicles and caused damage to five others and an electricity store," the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI), adding that U.S. raids on al-Kayara region, eastern Baghdad, accompanied the shelling. A U.S. force raided three districts in al-Kayara region and arrested a number of civilians, while U.S. helicopters fired at several houses in the city, killing and injuring several civilians, an eyewitness told VOI.

#3: A NUMBER of mortars struck the Green Zone in Baghdad today and Reuters reporters saw smoke rising in the vicinity of the US embassy. About 23 mortars landed in the heavily fortified compound where the Iraqi Government and Parliament are based and which is also home to many foreign embassies. A US Embassy official was not able to comment on whether the embassy, which covers a substantial area, had been struck, or if there were any casualties.

#4: Iraqi soldiers killed 37 militants, arrested 51 and detained 65 other suspects during the past 24 hours in Iraq, the Defence Ministry said in a statement

#5: Two people wounded by a car bomb near a police station in al-Khadhra, south western Baghdad, police said.

#6: Three Iraqi soldiers and four policemen were killed on Monday when a suicide car bomber rammed their checkpoint in south Baghdad, U.S. military said on Tuesday.


Diyala Prv:
Sherween:
#1: Sunni extremists attacked an isolated village northwest of Baghdad in a fierce battle with residents that reportedly left dozens dead, the deputy governor of Iraq's Diyala province said Tuesday. Residents of the village of Sherween called Deputy Gov. Auf Rahim appealing for help, saying there were no Iraqi police or army units nearby to protect them, according to an Associated Press reporter who was in Rahim's office in the city of Baqouba when he received the call. Rahim said he was told in the call that the attackers were believed to belong to al-Qaida and that the fighting the was still going on but the insurgents appeared to have control over the village. It was not clear how many extremists were involved. Rahim said the villagers reported that 25 extremists and 18 local residents were killed in the battles and 40 people wounded. The casualty figures could not be independently confirmed.


Najaf:
#1: Gunmen killed one person and wounded another near Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.


Iskandariya:
#1: A woman was wounded when a mortar round landed on her house in Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said


al-Majar al-Kabir:
#1: The British military said Tuesday warplanes struck the day before in the southern town of al-Majar al-Kabir near the Iranian border, killing three militants suspected of smuggling weapons into Iraq. Iraqi police officials said a British helicopter strike killed the brother and two guards of radical Shiite cleric Sheik Abu Jamal al-Fartousi, whom the British military accused of being a leader in Iran's elite Quds Force suspected of arming militants.


Balad:
#1: Gunmen killed three policemen and wounded another officer at a fake checkpoint near Balad, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Samarra:
#1: Gunmen killed five Iraqi soldiers and wounded three others when they attacked a military checkpoint near Samarra, 100 km (62 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Ishaqi:
#1: Gunmen killed one person when they attacked the house of a tribal leader near Ishaqi on Monday, police said.

#2: Gunmen kidnapped three brothers at a fake checkpoint near Ishaqi, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Mosul:
#1: Gunmen kidnapped army Brigadier-General Abdul Razaq Asel, director of a joint security centre in the northern city of Mosul, while he was visiting his family in the Adhamiya district in Baghdad on Monday, police said.


Kirkuk:
#1: Iraqi police found two bodies near Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. They had been tortured and shot.



Afghanistan:
#1: At least 17 people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack on a NATO patrol in a crowded Afghan marketplace today. Officials say 30 others, including seven Western soldiers, were also injured in the blast in the southern province of Uruzgan. The nationalities of the injured soldiers have not been disclosed, but most NATO personnel in Uruzgan are Dutch

#2: An American soldier has died in Afghanistan several hours after being wounded during a shooting rampage. The American was a training adviser and was shot by an Afghan soldier inside a military base in the western city of Herat. Three Afghan soldiers and a civilian were also killed and 12 other people, including an American, were wounded.

#3: A foreign military helicopter has crashed in Afghanistan's eastern province of Laghman but no casualties have been reported. "The helicopter crashed in the Ali Nigar district and people have gone to the site," a provincial official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters. "We do not know if there were any casualties." The cause of the crash and the type of helicopter could not be immediately ascertained. But a US military spokesman denied there had been any crash. "All coalition aircraft are accounted for," the spokesman said, adding he was referring to both the NATO-led and US-led forces in the region, which is a bastion for Taliban insurgents. A NATO spokesman said he had no word of any crash.

.

0 comments: