War News for Thursday, December 27, 2007

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of two Multi-National Division - North Soldiers from small-arms fire in Mosul on Wednesday, December 26th. Three other soldier were wounded in the attack.

The DoD is reporting a new death previously not reported by CENTCOM. Sgt. Peter C. Neesley died from an undetermined cause in a non-combat environment in Baghdad on Tuesday, December 25th. No other details were released and the circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation.

The DoD is reporting a new death previously not reported by CENTCOM. Senior Airman Nicholas D. Eischen died in a non-combat related incident in Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan on Monday, December 24th. No other details were released and the circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation. According to the Fresno Bee Tim Rolen, a Clovis pastor, said airman Nicholas Eischen died in his sleep Christmas Eve; his family was unaware of any health problems.


Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: A roadside bomb exploded near a mini-bus, killing two of its passengers and wounding 10 in the Baladiyat district of eastern Baghdad, police said.

Meanwhile, a bomb left inside a bus in eastern Baghdad exploded and killed two passengers and wounded 12 others, police said.

#2: A roadside bomb wounded two people in the Karrada district of central Baghdad, police said.

A roadside bomb exploded this afternoon near a fuel station in al-Nedal street in central Baghdad, wounding three civilians," the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq


Diyala Prv:
#1: A group of gunmen, suspected of being al-Qaeda members, on Thursday kidnapped 22 persons at a fake checkpoint between Kanaan and Baladruz districts in Diala, a security source said.

Baquba:
#1: Three neighbourhood patrol members were killed and two wounded on Wednesday as they entered a booby-trapped house in the city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Muhdadiyah:
#1: The U.S. military said in a statement that troops killed 12 suspected al-Qaida in Iraq terrorists and detained 37 others during a four-day operation near Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad. One suspect was later freed.


Kut:
#1: U.S. troops killed 11 members of a Mahdi Army splinter group early Thursday, American officials said. Thursday's fighting took place in the early morning hours in Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, a local police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. The officer who spoke condition of anonymity said eight militia members were killed; the U.S. military said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that it killed an ``estimated'' 11 fighters. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.

Four fighters of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army were killed and three others were injured by U.S. helicopters on Thursday in western Kut, a source from al-Sadr's office in Wassit said. Meanwhile, eyewitnesses from al-Jihad neighborhood said that the bombing left six civilians injured.



Afghanistan:
#1: Islamic militants seized 10 policemen in an overnight raid on a security checkpoint in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). Dozens of heavily armed fighters surrounded the checkpoint in Bannu district, disarmed 10 security personnel and took them away before blowing up their building with explosives on Wednesday evening, the Dawn newspaper reported. Five members of a local football team who were returning to their village after training were injured in the blast as they passed by the checkpoint.


Casualty Reports:

Sept. 16, 2005, began like any other day during Chief Warrant Officer 3 James Williamson’s deployment in Iraq. The forward operating base on which Williamson and Chachere’s helicopter was refueling was hit with mortar rounds so they quickly finished fueling the aircraft and started back to their home base. However, since they were the closest reconnaissance aircraft available, they accepted a request to fly around the area to find out who was responsible for the mortar attack. Not long after beginning the search, Williamson spotted two men running from a mortar tube through an open field. “I grabbed the controls and executed a hard left turn to climb up and dive back down on them. As I came up on them, they ran into a tree line,” Williamson said. While Williamson was descending toward the tree line, he began explaining the enemies’ location to his co-pilot. Then everything went black. Williamson was shot on the left side of his helmet and slumped over the controls. “It actually went through my clear visor, went through my hairline, out my helmet, through the top of the aircraft, (ricocheted) off the hydraulic reservoir and embedded in the rotor blade,” Williamson said. Doctors removed helmet and bullet fragments from his face and around his eye, and because of a concussion, he was grounded for 30 days.