War News for Monday, March 24, 2008

MNF-Iraq is reporting the deaths four Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers in a roadside bombing in an southern neighborhood of Baghdad on Sunday, March 23rd.. One other soldier were wounded in the attack.

The DoD is reporting a new death previously unreported by the military. Tech. Sgt. William H. Jefferson, Jr. died in an improvised explosive device explosion near Sperwan Ghar, Afghanistan, on Friday, March 22nd. No other details were released.

CJTF-82 is reporting the deaths of two U.S. coalition soldiers in an improvised explosive device explosion in the Zharmi District, Kandahar Province, on Friday, March 21st. No other details were released.

The overall U.S. death toll in Iraq rose to 4,000 after four soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing in Baghdad


Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: update At least five people were injured in the Green Zone, a U.S. Embassy statement said without specifying nationalities. The zone includes the U.S. and British embassies as well as major Iraqi government offices. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to release the information, said those injured included an American and four third-country nationals, meaning they were not American, British or Iraqi.

Iraqi police said 10 civilians were killed and more than 20 were injured in rocket or mortar blasts in scattered areas of eastern Baghdad — some of them probably due to misfired rounds.

#2: Four Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers were killed at approximately 10 p.m. March 23 after terrorists attacked them with an improvised-explosive device in southern Baghdad while conducting a mounted vehicular patrol. One additional Soldier was injured from this attack.

#3: Ali Mahmoud, 45, who lives on the street, said the explosion was the first in the neighborhood in two years. “The American warplanes were shelling most of the area all last night because of the Madhi Army,” he said. It dominates the neighborhood, he said.

#4: One policeman was wounded by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad's Zayouna district, police said.

A policeman was injured in an IED explosion that targeted Iraqi police patrol on Mohammed al Qasim high way in east Baghdad around 8:00 a.m.

#5: Iraq's Oil Ministry says crude oil exports in February amounted to 56.1 million barrels.
That's a slight decrease from the 59.6 million barrels exported in the previous month. But revenues increased due to the rise in world oil prices. Iraq's average production for February was 2.4 million barrels per day. Exports averaged 1.93 million barrels per day.

#6: Three policemen were injured in an IED explosion that targeted a walking police patrol in Zayuna neighborhood in east Baghdad around 9:00 a.m.

Three policemen were injured on Monday afternoon in an armed attack east of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said."Unidentified gunmen opened fire on a number of policemen in Ziyouna region in eastern Baghdad, injuring three of them," the source Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq


Diyala Prv:
Baquba:
#1: Two children in Baquba, a 10-year-old and an 8-year-old, also died Sunday. They were playing in a street when a homemade bomb hidden under garbage detonated, killing them instantly. When the authorities reached the scene, the security official said, all they found were pieces of the children’s bodies.

#2: Three policemen were killed and two civilians were injured in an IED explosion that targeted a police patrol in Sadiyah town north of Baquba on Monday morning.

Bohruz
#1: One popular committee's senior element was killed on Monday and another was wounded by U.S. army gunfire south of Baaquba, an authorized security source in Diala province said. "U.S. forces opened fire on a popular committee's pedestrian patrol at the major market in Bohroz suburb, 5 km south of Baaquba," the source said to Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI) on condition of anonymity. He added, "Popular committee's senior element, Ammar Abdul-Jaleel, was killed in the incident, while one of his fellow elements was wounded."

Khaniqeen:
#1: Two Iraqi army soldiers were killed and five others were injured on Monday when in a roadside bomb explosion in northeast of Baaquba, an official security source said. "An improvised explosive device exploded on the main road in Imam Weis region in Khaniqeen district, northeast of Baaquba, targeting an army vehicle patrol," the source, who refused to mention his name, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq


Qurna:
#1: One police officer was wounded in clashes between Iraqi police and militants on Sunday and Monday in the southern Iraqi town of Qurna, police said.

One civilian was killed and a policeman wounded in clashes that erupted in northern Basra on Sunday evening and continued until the early hours of Monday between security forces and gunmen, police said.


Thi Qar Prv:
#1: Personnel from the Special Missions squad killed a wanted man and arrested another after clashes in southern Thi-Qar province on Monday, a police media official said


Baili:
#1: A civilian was killed when a mortar shell hit Tal Jwad village near Biji city north of Tikrit on Monday morning.


Kirkuk:
#1: In Kirkuk, gunmen shot four Iraqi soldiers and burned their armored vehicle


Mosul:
#1: Iraqi army forces detonated vehicle rigged with explosives and arrested two bombers without incident, according to an Iraqi army source in Ninewa province on Monday.

#2: Five civilians were injured on Monday in a booby-trapped car explosion targeting a U.S. vehicle patrol in southeastern Mosul, the official spokesman for the Ninewa operations command said. "A car rigged with explosives went off this afternoon targeting a U.S. vehicle patrol in al-Wehda neighborhood in southeastern Mosul, injuring five passing civilians," Brigadier Khaled Abdul Sattar Saadon told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq



Afghanistan:
#1: Nearly 40 trucks carrying fuel to U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan have been destroyed in two bomb attacks on the Pakistani border. Officials say about 100 people have been injured. Local government official Muhammad Iqbal Khan said the blasts late Sunday were from two bombs planted in a parking lot on the Pakistani side of the Torkham customs post.

#2: Around 100 police officers on Afghanistan's poppy eradication force were killed in the line of duty over the last year, an official said Monday

#3: The police in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan killed at least 12 Taliban insurgents, provincial police chief Juma Gul Humat told Xinhua on Monday. "The clash, during which 12 rebels were killed, took place on Sunday in Chora district when police backed by the international troops launched a clean-up operation against militants in that area," Humat told Xinhua. Three policemen were wounded in the operation, he said.

#4: A group of armed gunmen attacked a convoy of deminers in relatively peaceful northern Afghanistan, killing five workers and wounding another seven, the director of the demining organization said on Monday. The attack took place in Afghanya area, near Sheberghan city, the capital of northern Jawzjan province on Sunday afternoon, Kefayatullah Eblagh, director of Afghan Technical Consultants (ATC), an Afghan demining non governmental organization said. "The gunmen attacked one of the four-vehicle convoy by small arms fire," Eblagh told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. He said five men - a section leader, three deminers and a driver - were killed and seven others were wounded in the attack.