Security Incidents for Wednesday, August 01, 2007

This has got to be a first:

I can't recall any other instant where any of this current administration officials ever admitted that they were incorrect about anything.

Cheney admits was wrong about "last throes" in Iraq


Photo: Another $80 millon dollars shot to hell--Second Predator crashes in Iraq in two days



(1) MNF-Iraq is reporting the deaths of three Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldiers when an explosively formed penetrator detonated in an eastern neighborhood of Baghdad on Tuesday, July 31st. Six other soldiers were wounded in the incident.

(2) The Associated Press is reporting the death of Army Staff Sergeant Jack D. Richards, 39, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Richards nearly lost a leg in a roadside bombing in Iraq in 2004. His sister was quoted as saying, "They've been trying to repair him for three years, and they were still in the process when we lost him." Apparently, he was currently being treated at a North Carolina hospital on or near Fort Bragg, NC, when he requested leave and left the hospital on July 25th accompanied by a machine to administer morphine. His family could not reach him for several days afterward. He was found dead on Sunday, July 29th. Richards had graduated from high school in Broken Arrow in 1986 and Rhema Bible College in 1993. He was 29 when he enlisted, serving for 10 years as a paratrooper in Albania, Kosovo, Korea, Iraq and Germany.

(3) MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldier in a small arms fire attack in an eastern neighborhood of Baghdad on Tuesday, July 31st.

(4) The British Ministry of Defense has announced the death of a 2nd Royal Tank Regiment soldier in an improvised explosive device attack in the Mustashfa district of Basra City on Tuesday, July 31st.

(5) The ISAF website is reporting the death of a NATO soldier in a firefight with insurgents in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, July 31st. The soldier's nationality has not been revealed yet. However, most NATO troops in eastern Afghanistan are American.

_________________________________________


In Country:
#1: At least 1,652 civilians were killed in Iraq in July, one third more than in the previous month, according to figures compiled from three Iraqi ministries and seen by AFP. July's toll is also slightly higher than the number for February, when the United States launched a "surge" aimed at flooding the Iraqi capital with troop reinforcements to stem Iraq's sectarian bloodletting. In that month, 1,626 civilians were killed according to the ministries' figures. In June 1,241 were killed, inspiring hope that the troop reinforcements were having an effect, but that figure climbed 33 percent in July


Baghdad:
#1: Three Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldiers were killed and six others wounded when an explosively formed penetrator detonated near their patrol during combat operations in an eastern section of the Iraqi capital July 31.

#2: A fuel tanker packed with explosives detonated at a gas station Wednesday, killing at least 50 people and wounding 60 others in western Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said. Ten cars were burned in the early afternoon blast in the Mansour district of the capital.

At least 50 were killed when a fuel tanker exploded today near a gas station on the capital's west side

#3: A car bomb parked near a communications centre in the Karrada neighbourhood went off, killing more than 18 and wounding 34, an Iraqi police source said. The explosion also caused damage to a number of nearby vehicles.

#4: A Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldier was killed by small arms fire during combat operations in an eastern section of the Iraqi capital July 31.

#5: Gunmen killed Major-General Maher Nouri, a senior traffic police officer, in a drive-by shooting in central Baghdad, police said.

#6: The bodies of 19 people were found in different areas of Baghdad on Tuesday, police said.

#7: A parked car bomb killed three people and wounded five in Baghdad's southern Doura district, police said.

#8: Iraqi soldiers killed 14 insurgents and arrested 89 during the last 24 hours, the Iraqi army said in a statement

#9: a roadside bomb damaged and set fire to a US army Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, an armoured troop transporter patrolling in the Al-Amin neighbourhood of southeast Baghdad, witnesses said. The military confirmed the attack, but could not say if troops were hurt.

#10: A mortar was fired at the backyard of al-Rasheed Hotel in central Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, eyewitnesses said on Wednesday. The explosion occurred close to a gathering of journalists heading towards the Iraqi cabinet, but no casualties were reported, an eyewitness told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq


Iskandariya:
#1: A roadside bomb killed one soldier and wounded three others in Iskandariya 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.


Basra:
#1: It is with much sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the death of a British soldier from the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment in Basra City, southern Iraq last night, Tuesday 31 July 2007. The soldier died as a result of injuries sustained by an Improvised Explosive Device attack which targeted a British Forces Warrior vehicle patrol that was carrying out routine duties in the Mustashfa district of Basra City.

#2: "Gunmen attacked, today at dawn, the Iraqi-British joint coordination centre in al-Hakimiyah district, central Basra, with RPGs. The British forces fired back killing a number of the attackers," the spokesman for the MNF-South of Iraq Major Mathew Berd told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI), without specifically giving the number of the gunmen killed in the incident.

#3: Meanwhile, the spokesman said "an explosive charge detonated near a British vehicle patrol in al-Mishraq neighborhood, central Basra, with no reports of casualties or damage."

#4: The source also said that the British base at Basra international airport came under attacks with indirect fire during the last 24 hours without casualties.


Balad:
#1: An Air Force MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle crashed off base Tuesday at approximately 8 p.m. local time. This was the second Predator to crash in Iraq in two days. Hostile activity does not appear to be a factor in either crash. The crash site is in an unpopulated area and no collateral damage or injuries occurred.

#2: kidnappers ambushed 18 civilians during the night on the main road as they were travelling home northwards from Baghdad. Balad has become the scene of many tit-for-tat sectarian killings between Shiite militias and Sunni al-Qaeda terrorists.

Suspected al Qaeda insurgents kidnapped 18 Shi'ite men at a fake checkpoint near the town of Balad, 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, on Tuesday, police said.


Mosul:
#1: Nineveh province police chief, Wathiq al-Hamedani, escaped a roadside bomb attack on his convoy in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. Four people, including two policemen, were wounded in the incident but Hamedani was unharmed.


Kirkuk:
#1: 8 people were injured in a car bomb targeted the convoy of the police commander of Raheem Awa police station in Kirkuk city yesterday evening.

#2: A civilian was injured in two IEDs explosions targeted police patrols downtown Kirkuk city north of Baghdad around 7,15 pm.


Afghanistan:
#1: Pakistani authorities found the body of a soldier kidnapped by Islamic militants near the Afghan border, officials said Wednesday. The soldier was one of four abducted at gunpoint Tuesday as the group travelled from the garrison town of Bannu to the rebel hotbed of Mir Ali in North Waziristan, a senior security official told AFP. The trooper’s body was dumped on a roadside, the official said. The other three were recovered alive after their captors fled from a clash with security forces searching for their colleagues, he added. Later on Tuesday another three soldiers were kidnapped in the same area and are still being held, he added

#2: Separately a paramilitary soldier was wounded in fresh overnight clashes at a checkpoint in another part of North Waziristan, where 18 militants were killed Tuesday in intense fighting, officials said.

#3: Militants also fired five rockets at a military post on the border, while another rocket aimed at an army camp in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, missed its target and exploded near a hospital, they said. There were no casualties from the rocket strike, the official said.

#4: The bodies of four Afghan court officials kidnapped nearly two weeks ago were found early Wednesday in the same province where Taliban are holding 21 South Koreans, police said. Police said the bodies of the four men -- one shot in the head, the others in the body -- had been dumped in a village in southern Ghazni province.
#5: The Afghan army said Wednesday it has begun a major operation against Taliban militants in Ghazni province, where 21 South Korean hostages are believed held, but insisted it was not aimed at freeing the captives. Four Taliban militants were killed as part of the operation on Tuesday in the Andar district. Afghan army helicopters dropped leaflets over the area exhorting civilians to flee to safety, Azimi said, adding that the operation was to be expanded

#6: Meanwhile in fighting in the east of the country on Tuesday on member of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan was killed and one was wounded, officials said. No details as to the nationality of the victims were given.

.