War News for Monday, November 12, 2007

CJTF-82 is reporting the death of a U.S.-led force servicemember in a Direct fire engagement near Tagab Valley in Kapisa Province on Saturday, November 10th. Two other servicemember was injured. No nationalities were given in the report. Our assumption is that they were American.

The Times of India is reporting the deaths of two NATO soldiers in the Bermal district, Paktika province eastern Afghanistan according to NATO. The soldiers died when an IED hit their vehicle on Monday, November 12. An Afghan interpreter was also killed and one other One soldier was wounded.


Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: A taxi driver has been shot dead by a guard hired to protect US diplomats in Baghdad, sparking a fresh row over the deployment of private security companies in Iraq. A policeman who witnessed the shooting by the guard from US company Dyncorp, in the north Baghdad neighbourhood of Utafiya, said the incident was unprovoked. Major General Abdul Karim Khalaf, director of operations of the Interior Ministry, confirmed the shooting. "One person was killed by a security company at 11:30 am in Utafiyah on Saturday," he said.

#2: Lieut. Maj. Salam Ismael was critically wounded when a roadside bomb detonated near his car in Baghdad's western neighborhood of al-Dakhiliyah, while he was heading to work in the Iraqi Interior Ministry," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

An explosive charge blew up near a vehicle boarded by Lt. Colonel Sallam Ismael in al-Yarmuk neighborhood, southern Baghdad, wounding him and severely damaging the car

#3: Another roadside bomb went off in Mansour district in western the capital, injuring three civilians, the source said.

Three civilians were wounded when an improvised explosive device went off near a cell phone company in the western Baghdad district of al-Mansour on Monday, a security source said. "The three civilians sustained varied wounds from an IED planted by unidentified gunmen near the Iraqna cell phone company," the source, who declined having his name mentioned, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq

#4: An explosive device planted by unknown gunmen in Falasteen Street blew up at a late hour on Sunday evening, totally destroying a U.S. Hummer-modeled vehicle that was passing the location," an official security source, who requested anonymity, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). The source did not indicate whether any casualties were reported on the U.S. side, but said that U.S. forces sealed off the scene immediately after the blast.

#5: The Iraqi army additionally said it killed eight gunmen and arrested 60 suspects in raids launched across the country over the previous 24 hours, VOI cited a military statement as saying.

#6: Around 6:30 a.m. an IED exploded inside a house in Al Adhemiyah, a US military convoy was near the incident site closed the roads leading to it and investigated the incident, Iraqi police said.

#7: Around 7:30 a.m. Three mortar shells slammed into Al Shaab neighborhood targeting a military base in the area.


Diyala Prv:
Baquba:
#1: In the city of Baquba, gunmen fired on a vehicle, killing Dr Haitham Abdel-Salam, an academic from the university of Kirkuk, and a second passenger and wounding a third, police sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Khalis:
#1: On Sunday, five gunmen of al-Qaeda, including three amirs of the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq, were killed in clashes between gunmen and security forces in the district of al-Khalis, 15 km north of Baaquba. "Security forces, backed by the tribesmen in the village of al-Ujaimi, al-Salam area, al-Khalis, killed five members of al-Qaeda, including three amirs of the Islamic State of Iraq," an official security source told VOI.


Mahmoudiyah:
#1: Early in the day, gunmen clashed with Iraqi Army soldiers and fighters from the anti-Qaida Awakening councils in the town of Mahmoudiyah, 30 km south of Baghdad, wounding four people, including two Awakening fighters, the source said. It was unclear whether the gunmen sustained any casualties as tension grew high in the area after the clashes, he added.


Basra:
#1: Gunmen stormed Majsa mosque in the town of Zubair, west of Basra, and held several worshippers captive before leaving without hurting anyone.

Unknown gunmen shot down Ahmed Qasim al-Khiraz in front of his shop in al-Banat market in central al-Zubeir city, western Basra, and fled," the source, who requested anonymity, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq


Tuz Khormato:
#1: Five guards of the Dijla Construction Contracting Company were wounded when an improvised explosive device went off near their vehicle in Touz Khormato district, a police official said on Monday. An IED targeted the vehicle of workers for the Dijla Company, which carries concrete material to the U.S. and Iraqi forces in the district of Soliman Bek, Touz Khormato, wounding all five guards on board on Sunday midnight," the official, who refused to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq


Hawija:
#1: Policemen found an unidentified headless body near the district of al-Huweija, 30 km southwest of Kirkuk, where an explosive device detonated near a police patrol on Monday but caused no casualties, a security source said.


Kirkuk:
#1: An explosive charge targeted a Kirkuk police patrol in the al-Khadra neighborhood, southern Kirkuk. The blast caused severe damage to the patrol vehicle but left no casualties," the source, who refused to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq

#2: Iraqi police said an American military convoy killed Khalaf Hussein and his wife Safra Ibraheem as he was approaching the convoy on a main road west of Kirkuk yesterday.

#3: A roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in southern Kirkuk yesterday, one policeman was killed.

#4: Around 9 a.m. a roadside bomb targeted Al Rashad town police chief in Al Rashad town west of Kirkuk, causing no damages or casualties.

#5: Around 11:30 a.m. an IED inside a garbage plastic bag exploded near a power plant causing no damages or casualties.


Tal Afar:
#1: In the city of Talafar in the northern province of Nineveh, a tribal chief, Mubarak al-Jihishi, was killed by gunmen, the Voices of Iraq news agency reported. The police chased the assailants, killing four of them and arresting two following clashes in a village near Talafar. Weapons were also seized.



Afghanistan:
#1: At least 18 people are dead in southern Afghanistan in U.S.-coalition raids on suspected bomb-making compounds. The worst of the damage in Sunday's raids came from a single grenade lobbed at a building where militants were holed up. The building collapsed, killing several militants along with a woman and two children. Coalition troops had come under heavy fire.

#2: In central Afghanistan, militants ambushed a police convoy Sunday, killing four officers and wounding two others.


Casualty Reports:

Pfc. Robert King’s convoy had just entered Baqubah, Iraq. As usual, King was driving the lead Humvee.
An improvised explosive device blasted through the bottom of King’s truck and and sent it into the night sky. “I lost consciousness for about a second, but when I woke up, the truck was in the air,” said 20-year-old King from his hospital room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. “The truck hit the ground on fire, and I realized my right leg was broken, and I couldn’t do anything with it.” But on Sept. 20, King was severely wounded by that improvised explosive device. King shattered his right tibia and fibula, burned the right side of his face — his lips were completely burned, his nose scabbed over from the flames and the right side of his face injured. He had shrapnel wounds in his right arm and in his left leg, and shrapnel in his right side, about an inch below his armpit, as well as shrapnel cuts to his neck.

Pvt. Gregory "Hutch" Hutchinson the IED exploded just after daybreak, while Hutch passed on patrol, side hatches open, in a Stryker armored vehicle. Hutch had been in Iraq less than two months. On Friday Hutch was flown from Iraq to Germany, transferring to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the largest American hospital outside the United States. Hutchinson no longer believes his son's injuries are "not bad." Hutch reveled more details about the attack, saying they were going for a "snatch and grab" of an insurgent located near a school. They saw the lights in the buildings flickering on and off, and know now it must have been the signal. Hutch stood in the rear hatch of the Stryker as the IED detonated.

Sergeant Peter Damon after an accident in Iraq ripped off Damon's arms and killed his comrade in 2003, creating soft-hued seascapes and suburban scenes with a brush or pencil clamped in his prosthesis has helped this Brockton native cope with his mental trauma, overcome his injury, and reclaim his civilian life after the war. In October 2003, when Damon was inflating a tire of a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter with high-pressure nitrogen at the US military Camp Anaconda in Balad, Iraq, the tire and the rim of the wheel blew apart. The rim killed Damon's partner, Alabama Army National Guard Specialist Paul Bueche, who was 19 years old. The force of the explosion tore off Damon's left wrist and his right arm above the elbow, and knocked him unconscious.

Capt. Patrick Horan The night of July 7, the 35-year-old platoon leader was coming down from a Ba ghdad rooftop where his soldiers had been watching a roadway. That's when a nervous Iraqi army soldier at an outpost across the street mistakenly opened fire, according to what Army officials told Horan's wife, Patty. The bullet struck her husband under the rim of his helmet, just behind his left temple. He has spent the subsequent months recovering first at Bethesda (Md.) Naval Medical Center and, since Aug. 23, at the private Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, where he's learning to walk and talk again.

COMBAT engineer Sergeant Michael Lyddiard has lost an eye, most of one arm and suffered serious injuries after a bomb blew up in his face in Afghanistan. The Townsville-based bomb disposal expert was just one metre from the device and was about to examine it when it detonated on Friday. It is understood he almost died at the scene due to blood loss and massive trauma. Defence listed his condition as serious, but insiders told The Advertiser that his condition was actually critical but stable. Most of his lower right arm was lost to the blast and doctors have amputated it above the elbow. In addition to losing an eye, Sgt Lydiard suffered serious shrapnel and blast wounds to the face and debris and shrapnel wounds to the legs.

the family of Middlesbrough soldier Paul Dunn, 19, who serves in the 1st Battalion of the Coldstream Guards are waiting desperately for news on his condition. he was about to go for an operation to remove shrapnel from his leg. All they have said is that a bomb’s gone off and he’s getting operated on. They haven’t told us how he is. We have had the news on constantly and nothing has come up. A TEESSIDE soldier has been badly injured in a bomb blast in Afghanistan.

Sergeant Corey Briest of Yankton, South Dakota was nearly killed by a roadside bomb while serving in Iraq. Sergeant Briest suffers from traumatic brain injury,

Logan Thompson, who will be 21 on Sunday, told his parents, Glenn and Penny Thompson, that he was wounded in his right leg and ankle when an improvised explosive device exploded. Surgery to remove shrapnel from his leg and ankle was successful, and he hopes to return to his unit after recovery and rehabilitation at a hospital in Germany. Thompson was one of three soldiers who were injured while on a mission Wednesday, his father said. Their unit had come under small arms fire, and Thompson and two others were advancing to return fire when the explosive detonated.