War News for Monday, October 08, 2007

The Australian Department of Defense is confirming the death of an Australian soldier in a roadside bombing in Oruzgan Province in Afghanistan on Monday, October 8th. Another Australian soldier was injured in the attack. According to a report from ABC Radio Australia, the bombing occurred as a regular patrol passed along a road in the southern part of the province.


Security incidents:


Baghdad:
#1: A car bomb exploded near the Polish embassy in Baghdad on Monday, killing one person. The bomb blast about 100 metres (yards) from the embassy in Baghdad's inner Al-Arasat district killed a passerby

Acting ambassador Waldemar Figaj told Reuters that four explosions hit near the embassy on Monday and described the first blast as "very, very powerful". Windows at the embassy were blown open, but not damaged, by the shockwave from the blast, he said. "I don't believe we were targeted. We just felt the impact," Figaj said. Iraqi police said a car bomb near the embassy killed two people and wounded five.

"There were four explosions at different distances (from the embassy)," Figaj said, adding that at least one of the blasts was about 200 metres away. "It happened in the morning and early afternoon."

#2: A roadside bomb went off in a busy square in northern Baghdad on Monday, wounding four civilians, an Interior Ministry source said. The blast took place before noon near minibuses carrying passengers near the Salahudin Square in the Kadhimiyah neighborhood,the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

#3: After midday, two car bombs detonated in two neighborhoods in eastern Baghdad, killing a total of three people and the wounding of six others, according to the source.

A car bomb killed one person and wounded six in the al-Kamaliya district of eastern Baghdad, police said.

#4: U.S. troops killed five and detained three suspected rogue Shiite militants in an operation in eastern Baghdad early Monday that meant to provide support for local reconciliation efforts, the military said. The U.S. military also said 14 insurgents were detained and one was killed in three separate operations conducted with Iraqi security forces across the country on Sunday. The military statement said U.S. troops took small-arms fire upon arrival at the targeted suspect's location and responded, killing four gunmen and wounding three. Another suspect was killed as he attempted to plant a roadside bomb in the path of U.S. soldiers. Earlier, an Iraqi police official reported a lower toll in what he described as a joint Iraqi-U.S. troops raid Monday on Sadr City in eastern Baghdad.

#5: A roadside bomb targeting a U.S. patrol wounded two civilians in eastern Baghdad, police said.

#6: Six bodies were found in different areas of Baghdad on Sunday, police said.

#7: A car bomb killed four people and wounded 10, including four women and three children, near the Technology University in central Baghdad, police said. Another police source said it was a roadside bomb attack.


Diyala Prv:
Khalis:
#1: At least seven policemen were wounded on Monday when a suicide bomber detonated a car rigged with explosives in Diala, central Iraq, a security source said. "A suicide attacker detonated a car rigged with explosives, today at noon, near a police checkpoint in al-Khalis district, wounding seven policemen," the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq


Diwaniya:
#1: The Multi-National Forces' Echo base was rocketed in the predominantly Shiite city of Diwaniya, a police source said on Sunday. "The Polish forces' Echo base was attacked, this evening, with 12 Katyusha rockets," the source, who asked not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). The source who could not say if there were casualties among the Polish soldiers added "Polish forces' helicopters flew over the area following the attack."


Tikrit:
#1: A suicide truck bomber killed three people and wounded 13 at a police checkpoint near the city of Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Mosul:
#1: At least three policemen were wounded on Monday as a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol in Kirkuk, a police source said. "An explosive device went off, in early Monday, near a police vehicle patrol on the main road linking Kirkuk to Daquq district," the source, who asked not to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq


Kirkuk:
#1: Gunmen killed a barber while he was in his car on the street between the villages of Ubaidyah and Hawdh 13 west of Kirkuk city today morning.


Duhuk Prv:
#1: "Eight border villages of Duhuk province were pounded late Sunday by Turkish artillery," the source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) on condition of anonymity, noting that the shelling resulted in no human losses. "More than 200 rounds hit different border regions in Duhuk," he explained. A local resident from Sharanish village said that the Turkish shelling set parts of nearby forests ablaze.



Afghanistan:
#1: One Australian soldier is dead and at least one wounded after a roadside bomb which hit a convoy of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan. ADF spokesman Brigadier Andrew Nikolic told The Age shortly after 8pm that he could not confirm any deaths, and would say only that Australian soldiers had been involved in an incident involving "an improvised explosive device". "We're waiting for more information out of the theatre, and then we'll put out more details," Brigadier Nikolic said.

The Australian military has confirmed that a number of Australian soldiers have been injured by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. The Australian Defence Force has refused to confirm reports that there's been a fatality, but NATO says a soldier in the area has been killed. Our South Asia correspondent, Peter Lloyd, reports the bomb exploded as a regular patrol passed along a road in southern Oruzgan province.
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#2: About 50 Pakistani soldiers are missing after clashes with Islamic militants in a troubled tribal region bordering Afghanistan, the army said Monday.

#3: A suicide bomber struck near a NATO-led military convoy in southern Afghanistan, injuring two civilians, police said. The bomber had been trying to target the convoy in Lashkargah, the capital of volatile Helmand province, in the latest attack in a wave of deadly suicide blasts across the war-ravaged country, police said.

#4: Airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan killed 16 militants fighting under a wanted Uzbek warlord with a $200,000 bounty on his head, while seven militants were killed elsewhere, officials said Monday. U.S. forces early Sunday called in airstrikes against fighters of Tahir Yuldash, the leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and an al Qaeda operational commander, said Nabi Jan Mullahkhail, the provincial police chief of Paktika province. Sixteen militants were killed, he said.

Casualty Reports:

Wounded soldier Edward "E.J." Trautner, of Valparaiso, has endured so many surgeries that he's lost count. Trautner, who was shot in the head by a sniper while manning an Iraqi checkpoint on Aug. 24, 2006. Trautner, who still has a few more surgeries on the horizon, plans to retire from the Army in the near future and hopes to attend law school at Valparaiso University with the goal of becoming a district attorney. He gave up his original plan to be a police officer because he lost his right eye in the sniper attack in Iraq.

.U.S. Army Spc. Saul Martinez, 22. who lost both legs in the Iraq war. Martinez, who wore prosthetics and uses a cane to walk. gt. Blake C. Stephens and Spc. Kyle Little who were killed by the explosion that wounded Martinez.

Jacob Castro, 22, While on patrol in Tikrit, Iraq an explosion tore through his legs. It nearly killed him. Though he left the battlefield for a military hospital in Germany, the fight was far from over for the soldier. He battled for the next nine months to stay alive, receiving a bone transplant to save his legs.

Eric Edmundson, a sergeant in the U.S. Army, was injured two years ago in Iraq. Edmundson was injured Oct. 2, 2005. A roadside bomb hit the assault vehicle he was driving. He suffered injuries to his abdomen, right leg, vertebrae and spleen. He has not been able to walk since the explosion. He cannot talk.

Pvt. Adrian Garcia was injured in March while serving in Iraq. He was hurt when the Humvee he was riding in came under insurgent fire. The vehicle blew up when a rocket-propelled grenade struck it, and doctors were forced to amputate both of Garcia's legs just above the knee.

Steven Keyes returned home Sept. 28 after six months of service to recover from injuries he sustained during an incident that occurred on Sept. 10 near Baghdad. As he and his squadron were returning from a late-night raid in the Baghdad suburb of Shula at around 5 a.m., one of their transport truck's tires blew out as they were crossing an overpass, Keyes said. The driver lost control and the truck went off the bridge into a type of junkyard. "It was probably a 30- to 40-foot drop when the truck landed on its roof with nothing to break our fall," said Keyes. Keyes, who is recovering from extensive injuries, including a broken femur, two broken ribs, two collapsed lungs, a broken radius and ulna in one arm, as well as having to have his spleen removed.