War News for Thursday, October 04, 2007

Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded near people on line at a gas station, killing four civilians and wounding eight others, police said. The device had been placed in a car parked about 110 yards from the station in the southeastern Baghdad area of Zafaraniyah, according to a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

#2: while another (car bomb) killed three and wounded eight in Garage Amana in the centre of the capital, the officials said

#3: an explosive charge planted inside a bus in Baghdad's northern neighbourhood of Waziriya detonated Thursday, killing and injuring an unidentified number of people, media reports said. No further details were immediately available.

#4: A roadside bomb killed one person and wounded six others in northern Baghdad, police said.

#5: U.S. forces killed one gunman and detained eight others on Wednesday and Thursday while conducting operations in northern and central Iraq, U.S. military said.

#6: The Iraqi army killed six insurgents and arrested 57 in the last 24 hours in different parts of Iraq, the Defence Ministry said.

#7: Police found 6 unidentified bodies in Baghdad today. 4 bodies were found in Karkh, the western side of Baghdad in the following neighborhoods (2 bodies in Amil, 1 body in Jisr Diyala, 1 body in Bayaa and 1 body in Doura). 1 body was found in Ur neighborhood in the eastern side of Baghdad.


Diyala Prv:
Balad Ruz:
#1: Iraqi security forces killed two gunmen and detained six more during a security crackdown in Diala, central Iraq, a security source said. "An Iraqi force launched a wide-scale military operation, on Wednesday evening, in Baladruz district, killing two al-Qaeda fighters and detaining six more," General Abdul Karim al-Rubaie, Diala operations Commander, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq

Baquba:
#1: General al-Rubaie said that Iraqi forces regained control over Baaquba city, 57 km northeast of Baghdad, after clashes erupted on Wednesday morning between police forces and gunmen in the city.

#2: Wednesday night , a roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol on the high way of Imam Weis near Khanaqeen city ( north Baquba) . No casualties reported .

Khalis:
#1: At least six Iraqi army troops were wounded on Thursday morning in an armed attack in Diala, central Iraq, a security source said. "Six Commandos soldiers were wounded, this morning, when they came under small-arms fire near al-Tahwilah village, southern Khalis," the source, who requested anonymity, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). The source said "the attack occurred while the soldiers were wrapping up a security crackdown in the area." The attack also damaged an army vehicle, he added.

#2: the same source said that a number of mortars landed into Khalis district, 15 km north of Baaquba, without human losses.


Iskandariya:
#1: The mayor of the religiously mixed town of Iskandariyah was killed along with four of his guards in a roadside bomb attack Thursday, police said. Abbas Hassan Hamza, who belonged to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa party, was killed about 10:30 a.m. as he headed to work about 30 miles south of Baghdad, according to a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons. Hamza's convoy was targeted by the blast, which also wounded a fifth guard, police said.

#2: A body was found with gunshot wounds in Iskandariya, police said.

#3: Gunmen killed a police brigadier-general in Iskandariya on Wednesday, police said.

gunmen killed police Brigadier General Ihsan Abdul Karim in a drive-by shooting as he left his home in Babel, in the south of Baghdad, police said.


Kut:
#1: A corporal from the 3rd infantry brigade, Zurab Chigoshvili, committed suicide while serving in Iraq, the Georgian Ministry of Defense confirmed on October 2. The incident occurred on September 30 in the city of Al Kut, where Georgian troops are deployed, according to the MoD

#2: Two gunmen on a motorbike killed a policeman near his house west of Kut, 170 km (105 miles) south east of Baghdad, police said.


Suwayra:
#1: Gunmen killed a Sunni tribal leader when they stormed his house in the town of Suwayra, 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad on Wednesday, police said.


Hilla:
#1: A body riddled with bullets was found near a school in the city of Hilla, police said.

#2: Assailants killed a local official in the city of Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad on Wednesday, police said.


Basra:
#1: The British base in Basra city, southern Iraq, was mortared on Thursday morning, eyewitnesses said. "More than ten mortars were fired in the direction of the British base, today at dawn," a witness from a residential compound in the airport environs told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). "Sirens wailed more than once at the British base," he said. The British side could not be contacted immediately to learn whether there were casualties in the attack, the second of its kind after British forces left the former presidential palaces in central Basra last month.


Samarra:
#1: Further south in Samarra, the Iraqi police found the decapitated body of another officer, a day after he had been abducted on his way home in the town of Duluiyah, 70 kilometres north of Baghdad. The body bore signs of torture.

#2: Sheikh Muawiya Jebara, a member of the "awakening" council of tribes in Salahuddin Province fighting al Qaeda, was seriously wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near his motorcade near the city of Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, Abdullah Jebara, the deputy governor of Salahuddin told Reuters. Three of his guards were killed.


Dawr:
#1: In the town of Dawr, about 10 kilometres east of Tikrit, gunmen attacked a police station killing two policemen, a source in the Salahaddin operations centre said. One gunman was killed in the clash and five others captured.


Daqouq:
#1: unknown gunmen abducted a contractor in a village in Daqouq district at a late hour on Wednesday night," the same source indicated.


Sharqat:
#1: Unknown gunmen on Thursday morning shot dead three Iraqi police officers in the Sharqat area in the northern tip of the province, senior officer Hassan Ahmed said. Before escaping, the militants set fire to the officers' car with the policemen's bodies still inside, Ahmed added.


Kirkuk:
#1: A policeman was wounded as a motorbike rigged with explosives went off near his patrol car in western Kirkuk, "An explosives-rigged motorbike was detonated this morning near a patrol vehicle in al-Riyadh district in western Kirkuk, injuring a policeman," the source, who declined to have his name mentioned, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq


Mosul:
#1: Thursday morning , gunmen opened fire on a house at Zimmar neighborhood (north of Mosul ) injuring a woman of about 45 years .Police said the woman’s son belongs to PDK ( Patriotic Democratic of Kurdstan ) who was the target on that attack.


Arbil:
#1: Wednesday night , police found a dead body for a young woman ( about 25 years old) having 4 bullets on the body in Arbil city



Afghanistan:
#1: An Italian intelligence agent who was kidnapped last month in Afghanistan and wounded during a NATO-led raid that freed him died on Thursday, the Defence Ministry said. Lorenzo D'Auria, 33, was one of two Italian agents briefly abducted by captors who NATO identified as Taliban. The two were freed by Italian and British special forces. But D'Auria suffered gunshots in his head and neck and had to be put on a respirator soon after his release.

#2: Afghan troops backed by NATO-led forces clashed with suspected Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, leaving 20 militants dead, a provincial police chief said Thursday. The authorities recovered three dead bodies of the militants alongside numerous weapons after the clash in Shah Wali Kot district in Kandahar province late Wednesday, said Kandahar police chief Sayed Agha Saqib. There were no injuries among Afghan and NATO troops. Retreating militants took 17 bodies off the battlefield, Saqib said. NATO officials could not immediately confirm Saqib's account, and said they were checking the report

#3: militants attacked a police checkpoint in Arghistan district, also in Kandahar province, wounding three officers on Wednesday, Saqib said. There were no report of militant casualties from that clash.

#4: Three of Pakistan's 260 soldiers taken hostage in the country's tribal areas along the Afghan border were found dead on Thursday, raising fears for the safety of the remaining troops. A Pakistani intelligence official says the bullet-riddled bodies of the three men were found near Jandola, a town in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). The soldiers' bodies were discovered a day after the militants holding them captive threatened to kill three soldiers every day unless the government accepted their demands which include the release of at least ten hardcore Islamic militants in official custody.

Casualty Reports:

#1: Lubbock (Texas) station KCBD is reporting the death of a Lubbock sailor in Afghanistan on Tuesday, October 2nd. According to his father, Mark Cannon was shot in the chest while on patrol. He was a Navy medic assigned to a Marine unit currently deployed to Afghanistan. No other details are available at this time. Cannon is likely the death described in this CENTCOM release.

#2: The DoD has confirmed the death of Navy hospital corpsman Petty Officer 3rd Class Mark R. Cannon, 31, of Lubbock, Texas, during combat operations in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, on Tuesday, October 2nd. Although a sailor, he had been assigned to the 3rd Marines, 3rd Marine Division, III MEF, out of Kaneohe Bay, HI.

#3: Newsday is reporting that Army Specialist Chirasak Vidhyarkorn, who died from a non-hostile, unspecified cause in Qadisiya Province, Iraq, on September 29th, was actually assigned to the Arkansas Army National Guard out of Ozark, AR ... not the Mississippi ANG out of Camp Shelby as stated on the DoD release. Few details of Vidhyarkorn's life have been released at the request of his parents who are citizens of Thailand. They have obtained visas to travel to the U.S. and will be arriving in New York City for the funeral on the next available flight. The 32-year-old specialist lived in Queens, New York.