War News for Saturday, November 17, 2007

The Canadian Press is reporting the deaths of two Canadian soldiers when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb north of a FOB near Bazar-e Panjwaii on Saturday, November 17th. An Afghan interpreter also died and three Canadian soldiers were also wounded in the blast. The Canadian Department of National Defence has confirmed the deaths.

Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: In the Iraqi capital, U.S. soldiers captured six suspects in raids targeting Iraqis accused of helping foreign insurgents, the military said. One of the men was on the military's wanted list, it said.

#2: an Iraqi television reporter was abudcted on his way to work in central Baghdad, his station said Saturday. Muntadhar al-Zaidi, a 28-year-old reporter for the Iraqi satellite channel al-Baghdadiyah, disappeared Friday, according to an editor at the channel, cited by AFP.

#3: U.S. forces killed six gunmen and detained 10 others during operations in central and northern Iraq, the U.S. military said.


Diyala Prv:
Khalis:
#1: In other violence Saturday, police reported that three civilians were wounded in a drive-by shooing in Khalis, 50 miles north of Baghdad.

Khanaqan:
#1: Six Iraqi soldiers were also wounded when a land mine exploded in Khanaqin, a Kurdish town near the Iranian border in Diyala province, the Iraqi Army said. The soldiers were transporting old rusted munitions that had been dumped in the area when the blast went off, an officer said.

Muqdadiyah:
#1: A policeman was also seriously wounded by gunmen in Muqdadiyah, 60 miles northeast of the Iraqi capital, police said.


Latifiya:
#1: A 'massive' fire, whose source remains unclear, was reported in the crude oil reserves in the town of Latifiyah near Hilla, 100 kilometres south of Baghdad, local authorities said. Clouds of smoke have covered the area and could be spotted 30 kilometres away, a police source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Saturday. Iraqi army forces, in addition to police troops and ambulances, were called in from the capital Baghdad. No further details were yet disclosed.


Owesap and Betra::
#1: The operation came a day after hundreds of American and Iraqi troops backed by helicopters descended on a remote desert area southwest of Baghdad to root out al-Qaida in Iraq and search for two U.S. soldiers missing after a deadly insurgent ambush six months ago. The soldiers dug with shovels through heaps of sand and went house-to-house after a dramatic pre-dawn air assault into two Sunni villages near the boundary with Anbar province. U.S. officers said there was no sign of the missing soldiers but stressed it was only the first day of the operation dubbed Marne Courageous, which also aimed to establish a long-term presence west of the Euphrates River in a former al-Qaida stronghold.


Samarra:
#1: In one operation northeast of Samarra, American troops killed two armed suspects in a house believed to be used as an al-Qaeda in Iraq propaganda base, the U.S. military said in a statement. Four other suspects were seen running into an adjacent building, the statement said. U.S. forces called for them to come out, but no one responded, so the Americans "engaged the armed men, killing four" of them, it said.


Hawija:
#1: A roadside bomb targeting Iraqi troops wounded four Iraqi soldiers on Friday near Hawija, 70 km (43 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, the Iraqi army said.


Kirkuk:
#1: Friday night, a roadside bomb targeted an oil well ( No.64 ) on the way of Kirkuk –Dibis which lies about 3 km behind ( Hineijara ) oil site ( south of Kirkuk ). No casualties or damage recorded.

#2: Friday night, a roadside bomb targeted the Khanaqeen brigade commander’s convoy ( general brigadier ) Hama Khan Haji Dara when it was over the third bridge in Kirkuk city . No casualties recorded,but one vehicle damaged.

#3: Friday night, a police patrol found a roadside bomb at Qasab Khana near the law college downtown Kirkuk defusing it .Meanwhile , another roadside exploded at the front gate of the college . No casualties recorded on both incidents.



Afghanistan:
#1: U.S.-led coalition forces killed 23 militants during weapons searches in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said on Saturday. Coalition forces searched compounds in the Garmser district of Helmand province looking for weapons. "Several armed militants threatening coalition forces were engaged and killed during the course of this operation," a U.S. military statement said. Another 11 suspects were also detained, it said.

#2: A suicide bomber blew himself while targeting U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan, but no one else was hurt in the attack, the Jalalabad provincial spokesman said.

#3: In the usually more peaceful north, armed gunmen loyal to a former warlord killed nine policemen and wounded another five in an ambush, the provincial police chief said on Saturday. "The police team was sent to the Shahrak district to disarm an irresponsible armed group posing a threat to the people," Shah Jahan Noori, the police chief of Ghor province.

#4: In the west, five rockets landed at Herat airport overnight, the Herat border police chief Rahmatullah Safai said.
"Initial reports indicate that no one was killed, but we don't know the extent of damage at the moment," he said. Herat airport is also used by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the Taliban said the international troops were the target of the attacks.

#5: Canadian troops shot and killed an Afghan civilian and wounded another, the International Security Assistance Force and Canadian military said late Friday. "We deeply regret the loss of innocent civilian lives and a full investigation is being carried out," said Wing Cmdr. Antony McCord, an ISAF spokesman for Regional Command South. ISAF said a taxi had approached a patrol convoy Thursday, and had ignored visual signs to stop. "Warning shots were fired and the ISAF troops then carried on with their patrol," a news release late Friday said. "The occupants of the taxi were subsequently treated at a hospital where one later died of gunshot wounds. The other injured occupant was transferred to the Multinational Medical Unit at Kandahar Airfield, where he underwent medical treatment, and is expected to be discharged shortly."

#6: a double wedding convoy travelling between Herat and Kandahar City was attacked Friday, killing the two grooms and one child. There were no ISAF or military forces there, said Syed Agha Saqib, the provincial police chief. He said gunmen opened fire on the three-vehicle convoy near the village of Howz-e-Madad in Zhari district at about 11 a.m. One man and one child were also wounded.

#7: a roadside bomb in the south killed two NATO soldiers and their translator on Saturday, the alliance said in a statement. Three other NATO soldiers were wounded in the blast that hit their vehicle, the statement said.The nationalities of the NATO dead and wounded was not disclosed, nor the location of the bombing.
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