Security Incidents for Wednesday, July 25, 2007

(1) MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) soldier from a non-hostile, unspecified cause on Tuesday, July 24th. The release is datelined "FOB Q-West", or Qayyarrah West, about 30 miles south of Mosul in Ninewa Province. Otherwise, no specific place of death is given.

(2) The Associated Press is reporting the death of a French soldier in Afghanistan, citing French Defense Ministry officials. The soldier was a non-commissioned officer stationed in Wardak Province just west of Kabul to train Afghan soldiers. He died from injuries sustained in a rocket attack on the Afghan army quarters there. The exact date of death has not been given, so we are assuming a date of July 24th for the time being. The soldier's name has not been released yet.

______________________________________


Baghdad:
#1: In fighting Wednesday, a joint U.S.-Iraqi force backed with helicopter gunships clashed with suspected Shiite militiamen when they raided several homes in eastern Baghdad. Six people were killed and 10 wounded, police said.

#2: Six Iranian passengers were injured when anonymous gunmen attacked on Wednesday a bus in Al-Mahdia city, southern Baghdad, police sources said. Sources told KUNA the gunmen used light weapons in the attack on the bus carrying Iranians from Karbala to Baghdad. The attackers had posted a mock check point in Al-Doura area in Baghdad and opened fire on the bus that did not stop, and six of the passengers were injured.

#3: A car bomb exploded near a group of soccer fans celebrating Iraq's Asian Cup victory over South Korea on Wednesday, killing 10 people and wounding 20, police in Baghdad said. Police said the blast took place in the capital's western Mansour district. One police source said the bomb was placed in a parked car. A second source said the blast was caused by a suicide bomber.

One massive car bomb detonated in the formerly upscale western neighbourhood of Mansour in the middle of a crowd, killing at least nine men. Another 62 people, including women and children, were wounded in the blast, according to an official at Baghdad's Yarmukh hospital.

#4: Another car bomb went off in Zayuna, a mixed neighbourhood near the city centre, killing at least four people, security and hospital officials said.

#5: Another two people were killed by stray rounds when citizens rushed into the streets and fired in the air, an Arab tradition that has grown more lethal as firearms have proliferated in the war-torn Iraqi capital.

#6: A suicide car bomber attacked an army checkpoint in eastern Baghdad's Ghadeer district, killing 16 people and wounding 57, many of them soccer fans, police said. The dead also included two soldiers.

#7: A civilian was killed by the US troops in Al Qahira neighborhood north Baghdad around 2,30 pm

#8: 2 civilians were injured by US troops fire in Shaab neighborhood north Baghdad around 3,00 pm.

#9: 2 policemen were injured when a mortar shell hit Al Khadhraa police station west Baghdad around 4,00 pm

#10: 3 civilians were killed and 2 others wounded when an IED exploded inside a sedan car in Shaab neighborhood north Baghdad around 4,00 pm.

#11: 18 anonymous bodies were found in Baghdad today. 15 bodies were found in Karkh, the western side of Baghdad in the following neighborhoods ( 5 bodies in Bayaa, 3 bodies in Amil, 3 bodies in Saidiyah, 2 bodies in Shoala and 2 bodies in Elam). 3 bodies were found in Rusafa, the eastern side of Baghdad in the following neighborhoods (2 bodies in Sleikh and 1 body in Amin)


Diya;a Prv:
#1: A security source in Sadiyah town gunmen kidnapped 4 young men who are relatives of the official of the Turkmen front in Himreen area north west Baghdad today afternoon. The heads of the bodies were found 4 hours later.

Baquba:
#1: The heads of 3 men and the bodies of another 5 were found in Gatoon neighborhood west Baquba city yesterday afternoon.


Karbala:
#1: South of Baghdad, a senior police officer in the Shiite holy city of Karbala escaped an assassination attempt Wednesday when a roadside bomb targeted his five-car convoy while he was on his way to work, police said. Karbala police chief Brig. Raid Shakir Jawdat was not injured, but three of his guards were killed, according to police in Karbala


Iskandariya:
#1: Police found the bodies of five people in the town of Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said


Basra:
#1: Nearly 150 doctors in Basra, Iraq's second largest city about 600km south of Baghdad, began a three-day strike on 23 July, demanding the government protect them and their families. "We will not attend our clinics and will not do operations for three days to draw to the government's attention our plight as doctors living in harsh conditions," said Dr Muaid Jumaa, head of the Basra Doctors' Association. Jumaa said 12 doctors had been killed in Basra by unidentified gunmen since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, and dozens of others had fled the city.


Hawija:
#1: Gunmen killed two people in the town of Hawija, 70 km (45 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, police said.


Kirkuk:
#1: 2 civilians (farmers) were killed when gunmen shot them dead near the technical institute downtown Kirkuk city north of Baghdad around 12,00 pm.

#2: Gunmen kidnapped Mustafa Qais Mizhir Al Asi the son of Al Obeidi tribe. The incident happened on Kirkuk - Biji street north of Baghdad around 1,00 pm.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: A 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) Soldier died of a non-battle related cause July 24. (FOB Q-WEST, Iraq )




Afghanistan:
#1: A French soldier was killed in Afghanistan in a rocket attack on Afghan army quarters southwest of Kabul, the French defence ministry said on Wednesday. The attack happened in the province of Wardak where the non-commissioned officer was training a unit of the Afghan army.

#2: The Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it was investigating claims that a German journalist may have been abducted in Afghanistan, and a national magazine said one of its reporters might be missing. German news magazine Stern said that one of its reporters had been vacationing in Afghanistan and may have been abducted. ''We have heard about reports that a German journalist was kidnapped in Afghanistan and also heard rumors that it might be our Stern colleague Christoph Reuter,'' said Isabelle Haesler, a spokeswoman for the Hamburg-based weekly said. ''We are very worried about Christoph Reuter and we are trying to get in touch with him.''

#3: Suspected militants fired four rockets into a city in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing 10 people as they slammed into houses and a mosque, police said. The rocket attack hit Bannu, a troubled city in North West Frontier Province, at about 2 a.m. and also injured 35, said Khwaja Mohammed, a city police official. He said five of the 10 dead were police officers and described the attack as “terrorist activity.” But he said it was too early to say more about who was behind it

#4: On Tuesday morning, the beheaded bodies of two soldiers abducted the night before were found in the Bajur tribal area, north of Waziristan. A note found in the hand of one of the slain men said that spies for U.S. President George W. Bush or Gen. Musharraf would meet the same fate, said Sardar Yousaf, a local government official

#5: It is with deep sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the death of a soldier from the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment in southern Afghanistan today, Wednesday 25 July 2007. The soldier was killed and two others injured in an explosion at around 0550 hours local time in the north eastern outskirts of Sangin in Helmand province. The soldiers had been taking part in a routine patrol and were returning to their patrol base when the explosion struck their Vector vehicle.

.