Security Incidents for Tuesday, August 14, 2007

(1) MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldier from enemy action in a western neighborhood of Baghdad on Monday, August 13th.

(2) MNF-Iraq is reporting the deaths of three Task Force Lightning soldiers in a roadside bombing in Ninawa Province on Monday, August 13th. In addition, one other soldier was injured in the attack.

(3) MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldier from enemy action in a western neighborhood of Baghdad on Tuesday, August 14th. three other soldiers were wounded

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In Country:
#1: A total of 42,000 detainees are being held in U.S. and Iraqi-run prisons and detention centres throughout Iraq, an official from the Interior Ministry said on Monday. "21,000 detainees are being held so far in the Multi-National forces' detention centres and there are 21,000 others in Iraqi interior, justice and defense ministries' jails," Chief of the National Command Center, Brigadier-General Abdul Karim Khalaf told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq


Baghdad:
#1: Police found ( 18) dead bodies in the following neighborhoods in Baghdad : ( 8 ) were found in west Baghdad ( Karkh bank) ; 3 in Saidiyah , 3 in Amil and 2 in Bayaa. While (10) were found in east Baghdad ( Risafa bank) ; 4 in Sadr city , 1 in Rashad , 1 in Zayuna , 1 in Kemb Sara , 1 in Qahira, ,1 in Bub Al-Sham and 1 in Karrada

#2: U.S. forces said they killed four people in a raid in Iraq's sprawling Shi'ite slum of Sadr City early on Tuesday, while relatives said the dead included a 5-year-old girl sleeping with her family on the roof. U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver said: "Our troops at the site did not inflict any casualties on civilians. The only people they fired at were people who fired at them." An official at Sadr City's Imam Ali hospital, Qasim Abdul Zahara, said the hospital's morgue had received three dead bodies, including a 5-year-old girl and her father, both killed by gun wounds to the head. Four wounded were also treated at the hospital, including an elderly woman and her elderly husband, he added.

#3: Two civilians were wounded by a roadside bomb in the Yarmouk district of western Baghdad, police said.

#4: 2 civilians were injured in clashes between the Iraqi army and gunmen in Shorja market neighborhood downtown Baghdad around 12,00 pm.

#5: One Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldier was killed and three others wounded during combat operations in a western section of the Iraqi capital Aug. 14.

#6: Dozens of uniformed gunmen in 17 official vehicles stormed an Oil Ministry compound in Baghdad and abducted a deputy oil minister and three other officials, a ministry spokesman and police said. Abdel-Jabar al-Wagaa, the senior assistant to Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, was spirited away by more than 50 gunmen wearing security forces uniforms and driving what were believed to be stolen military vehicles, said Assem Jihad, the oil ministry spokesman. An Interior Minister official, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to release the information, said a top official in the State Oil Marketing Organization and three directors general in the operation also were kidnapped. The official said five bodyguards were wounded in the raid on the State Oil Marketing Organization complex in eastern Baghdad.

#7: Gunmen opened fire targeting the civilians in Al Jami’aa neighborhood west Baghdad killing 1 civilian and injuring 4.

#8: 3 civilians were wounded when mortar shell hit Al Shaab neighborhood north Baghdad around 7,00 pm.

#9: Police found 15 anonymous bodies in Baghdad today. 9 bodies were found in Karkh, the western side of Baghdad in the following neighborhoods (2 bodies in Ghazaliyah, 2 bodies in Bayaa, 2 bodies in Amil, 1 body in Doura, 1 body in Saidiyah and 1 body in Jihad). 6 bodies were found in Rusafa, the eastern side of Baghdad in the following neighborhoods (3 bodies in Adhemiyah, 2 bodies in Sadr city and 1 body in Talbiyah).


Diyala Prv:
Ghraiya:
#1: In a separate pre-dawn attack, gunmen killed three women and a man in the mainly Shiite village of Ghraiya northeast of Baghdad in the restive province of Diyala, a local medic said. Doctor Ahmed Fuad from the general hospital in the provincial capital of Baquba said the attackers shot dead the four people "who were sleeping on the roof of their house."

Baquba:
#1: Fuad said his hospital had also received bodies of three insurgents who were killed in a separate battle with Iraqi soldiers.

#2: About 16,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops began a new operation north of Baquba targeting insurgents who have fled a crackdown in the restive city of Baqouba, the military said Tuesday.

Khalis:
#1: The bodies of 15 Sunni Arab men were found shot and dumped near a petrol station in the town of Khalis, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Suweira:
#1: Gunmen early Tuesday slaughtered the pregnant wife of a police officer, his brother and 12-year-old son, while three women and a man were shot dead in their sleep, in a night of vicious violence in Iraq. Police Major Akil Radi Edan from the town of Suweira, 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Baghdad, said his two other sons were wounded when armed men swarmed into his house and blazed away at those inside. The attack was confirmed by First Lieutenant Ali Muhsan of Suweira police.


Diwaniya:
#1: Gunmen killed a policeman near his house in a drive-by shooting in Diwaniya, 180 km (110 miles) south of Baghdad, police said


Hilla:
#1: An explosive device went off near a U.S. convoy north of Hilla during the early hours of Tuesday, followed by clashes between U.S. forces and gunmen, a source from Babel police said. "A U.S. fuel tanker was detonated by means of remote control and set ablaze before the clashes erupted," the source, who asked not to be named, told the independent news agency voices of Iraq

#2: Gunmen killed a guard and wounded two others in a drive-by attack on a police patrol in Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.


Basra:
#1: The spokesman of Basra police Colonel Abdul Kareem Al Zaidi said that 2 civilians were killed and another one injured when one of the rockets launched by gunmen hit a house in Al Maqal neighborhood north Basra city yesterday evening.


Taiji:
#1: A suicide truck bomb killed 10 people and wounded six at a bridge linking Baghdad to northern Iraq on Tuesday, police said. Police said the explosion happened in the middle of the bridge and it collapsed, sending three civilian cars into a branch of the Tigris river.

A suicide truck bomb killed two people, wounded five and badly damaged a bridge linking Baghdad to northern Iraq on Tuesday, Iraqi security forces said. Part of the bridge collapsed in the attack near Taiji, in which a fuel tanker was used. One side of the bridge, which links the capital to northern Iraq, was badly damaged in a previous bombing on May 11 and traffic was using the remaining lanes when the bomber struck.


Kirkuk:
#1: Three policemen and four civilians were wounded when two roadside bombs exploded in quick succession near a police patrol in Kirkuk, police said.

#2: A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol wounded two policemen and a civilian in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

#3: A suicide bomber detonated, this evening, a car rigged with explosives near a police vehicle patrol in the Festivals Square, central Kirkuk, killing a policeman and wounding 21 people, mostly civilians," the source, who preferred his name not to be mentioned, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq


Al Anbar Prv:
Fallujah:
#1: Police found the body of a man shot and tortured in the city of Falluja, 50 km (35 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.

Taqaddum air base:
#1: A U.S. transport helicopter went down Tuesday near an air base west of Baghdad, the military said. The CH-47 Chinook helicopter was conducting a routine post-maintenance test flight when it went down near Taqaddum air base, said 1st Lt. Shawn Mercer, a Marine spokesman. He said emergency response crews had sealed off the site and the cause was being investigated. The e-mailed statement provided no information about how many people were on the helicopter or their status.

The CH-47 Chinook helicopter was conducting a routine post-maintenance test flight when it went down near Taqaddum air base, said 1st Lt Shawn Mercer, a Marine spokesman.



Afghanistan:
#1: Suspected pro-Taliban militants beheaded one of 16 kidnapped Pakistani soldiers and threatened to kill more unless authorities release 10 of their men, officials said on Tuesday. The headless body of the soldier from the paramilitary Frontier Corps was dumped early on Tuesday near the main market in Jandola town next to the lawless South Waziristan tribal district near the Afghan border. A note found near the body warned that other soldiers would be murdered if the demands were not met, local official Latifur Rehman told AFP. Unidentified gunmen abducted the 16 troops last Thursday as they travelled in civilian clothes from Jandola Camp to a nearby base in South Waziristan.

#2: One ISAF soldier was killed and eight ANA soldiers and three civilians were injured in separate incidents of violence in the southeastern provinces of Khost and Paktia on Tuesday. Press office official of the International Security Assistance Force in the southeastern zone said one of their soldiers was killed and five Afghan soldiers injured in the ambush. However, the Afghan military said three ANA soldiers and as many women were injured in the attack. Col. Sayed Waqif Shah, spokesman for the 203 Thunder Corps in Gardez, told Pajhwok the joint ANA and ISAF convoy was ambushed in Shwak district of Paktia. He said five Taliban had also been killed in the ensuing fight.
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#3: Two helicopters of the U.S.-led Coalition forces made hard landings in Afghanistan's mountainous eastern region, a statement of the Coalition received Tuesday said. "Two Coalition helicopters made hard landings in eastern Afghanistan Monday while flying in bad weather. There is no indication of enemy involvement in the incidents," the statement stressed. It did not specify the location of the site and casualties inflicted to crews. A search and rescue operation was launched immediately to secure the sites, recover the crews and transport injured personnel to Coalition medical facilities for treatment. An investigation would be conducted to verify the cause of the hard landings. It also did not disclose the type of the helicopters.

#4: British forces were caught up in a ferocious gun battle in southern Afghanistan today after a Taliban ambush in a cornfield. Two soldiers were helicoptered to hospital for emergency surgery – one with very serious injuries – when insurgents opened fire with machine guns and Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs) just metres away. Minutes beforehand, the troops from the 1st Battalion the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment (1WFR) had been standing in a suspected Taliban compound in no-man’s-land deep inside Helmand Province’s notorious “Green Zone”. But as a platoon from the regiment’s B Company made their way into the adjoining field – creeping along a perimeter ditch, out of sight behind ripening corn, the Taliban were lying in wait. They were among British forces taking part in a fresh push against the Taliban front line codenamed Operation “Naiza” – meaning spike – inside the Green Zone, a lush streak of land cutting through the desert where the insurgents have taken refuge. The operation began late last night with scores of soldiers patrolling across the Green Zone in darkness to a fortress-like outpost held by 1WFR troops throughout the summer.

#5: Poland suffered its first casualty in a dangerous stabilisation mission in Afghanistan Tuesday when a Polish troop patrol came under fire from unknown assailants, Poland's TVN24 news channel reported. Lukasz Kurowski, 28, died while being airlifted to a field hospital by helicopter from the site of the attack near Gardez, south-east Afghanistan.

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