War News for Tuesday, March 25, 2008

The DoD is reporting a new death previously unreported by the military. Pfc. Antione V. Robinson of injuries sustained when the vehicle he was repairing collapsed in Nawa, Afghanistan, on Wednesday, March 19th. No other details were released.

The Corvallis Gazette Times is reporting the death of a civilian working for the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, part of the U.S. Department of Defense. Paul Converse died by rockets and mortars that hammered the Green Zone in centrial Baghdad on Easter Sunday, March 23rd


Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: Gunmen also attacked an office and clashed with guards from the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council at the entrance of Baghdad's main Mahdi Army stronghold of Sadr City, police said. SIIC's armed wing, the Badr Brigade, is the main rival of the Mahdi Army.

Gunmen attacked headquarter of Badr organization in Habibiyah area causing no casualties.

Unidentified armed groups attacked on Tuesday an office of the Dawa Party – Iraq Organization in Sadr City, eastern Baghdad, and set it ablaze but no casualties were reported, a party legislator said.

#2: In Baghdad's Sadr City, a sprawling slum of about 2 million people that is Sadr's biggest stronghold, residents said armed Mehdi Army fighters had appeared on the streets and ordered Iraqi police and soldiers to get out of the district.

#3: Baghdad, clashes erupted between militia members and Iraqi soldiers in al-Hamza Square at the edge of Sadr City, the sprawling slum in eastern Baghdad that is a Mehdi Army stronghold. Fighting then spread to other neighborhoods including Shaab and Amin. In the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Abu Disher, al-Sadr's office called for citizens to engage in civil disobedience. Stores closed and people took to the streets to protest military operations and arrests. The Interior Ministry said civil disobedience tactics were seen in five Baghdad neighboroods.

Police said fighting erupted in several Sadr City neighborhoods between Mehdi Army fighters and the Badr Organization, the armed wing of a rival Shi'ite faction.

#4: A former Corvallis city councilman has died from injuries sustained when rockets pounded Baghdad's U.S.-protected Green Zone on Easter, a newspaper reported. Dick and Leona Converse of Corvallis told the Gazette-Times newspaper they learned Sunday that their son, Paul Converse, had been injured and likely wouldn't survive. On Monday, two officers from the Oregon Army National Guard arrived at their door. Converse, 56, was a financial analyst who audited contracts in Iraq, said Kristine Belisle, a spokeswoman for the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, part of the U.S. Department of Defense.

#5: smoke could be seen over the Green Zone after an apparent mortar or rocket attack.

Three mortar shells hit the Green Zone today.

Several volleys of mortars or rockets struck inside the Green Zone, the government and diplomatic compound.

The Green Zone, the government and diplomatic compound, came under 12 indirect attacks that included 16 rockets, the U.S. military said. At least three people were wounded from the attacks, while structural damage in the compound was limited.

#6: Two roadside bombs killed one person and wounded eight others in Bab al-Sheikh district of central Baghdad, police said.

#7: Gunmen seized two police vehicles and kidnapped six policemen in the Maamil district of northeastern Baghdad, police said.

#8: Six missiles were fired by unidentified men in Abu Dshir neighborhood, in the southern Baghdad district of al-Dora on Tuesday, eyewitnesses said. "The missiles landed in the neighborhood while supporters of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr are conducting a peaceful sit-in protest," a local resident told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).Another eyewitness said light gunfire was heard after the rockets fell. No comments were made by police and nothing is yet reported on whether there were any casualties or damage sustained.

#9: U.S. military helicopters fired on armed gunmen in Sadr City to support coalition and Iraqi security forces protecting the area's checkpoints.

#10: A mortar attack killed one U.S. soldier on patrol in the Adhamiya district of Baghdada, the U.S. military said. The mortar was fired from the vicinity of Sadr City.

#11: U.S. forces surrounded Sadr city, eastern Baghdad, while the Baghdad Operations Command imposed a curfew on it as of this afternoon until Wednesday morning, the official spokesman for the Baghdad's operations said on Tuesday. Eyewitnesses also said that sounds of discontinuous gunfire and explosions are heard at different neighborhoods of the city. Power went off at some parts of Sadr city, while people there rushed to buy foodstuff preparing for security deterioration. One of the eyewitnesses told VOI "U.S. forces allowed four firefighting trucks and three ambulances to enter the city."

#12: Three mortar shells targeted a police station in Al Qanat area injuring two policemen.

#13: Police found 5 dead bodies throughout Baghdad, one in Palestine Street, two in Sleikh, one in Nahdha, one in Saidiyah.

#14: A Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldier was killed by a hostile fire attack at approximately 5 p.m. March 25 while conducting combat operations.


Diyala Prv:
#1: and a U.S.-allied Sunni fighter also was killed in a drive-by shooting northeast of the capital, police said.


Kut:
#1: Gunmen and police clashed in the southern city of Kut, where last week Mehdi Army fighters battled police. A Reuters witness said he could hear the sounds of gunfire. The streets were empty and shops closed. Police said a curfew had been imposed.

#2: Armed followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr seized control of five districts in the southern Iraqi town of Kut on Tuesday, police sources said. The sources said Sadr's Mehdi Army militia were in control of the Jihad, Shuhada, Zahara, Sharqiya and Hawi districts of the city, which has 18 districts in total. A Reuters witness in the city said he could hear shooting and explosions. U.S. warplanes were circling overhead.

#3: Clashes raged sporadically in Kut as militants fought Iraqi and US forces but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

#4: Mortar attacks wounded two civilians in Kut, police said.


Hilla:
#1: Gunmen wounded three police officers on patrol in the city of Hilla, 100 km (62 km) south of Baghdad.

#2: At least two people died in the Hilla clashes, security officials said.

#3: Two bodyguards of the Babel province's governor were wounded on Tuesday in an armed attack on his house in central Hilla, a police source said. "Unidentified gunmen attacked Babel governor's house at Al-Aoroba neighborhood in central Hilla," the source told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI) on condition of anonymity." Fierce clashes took place between the governor's guards and the gunmen, during which two of the guards were wounded," he explained.


Najaf:
#1: Three rockets hit the technical institute that the American forces using according to police.


Aziziya:
#1: Eight or ten policemen were wounded in clashes in Aziziya town, north of Kut, police said.

Muthanna Prv:
#1: In Samawa, capital of southern Muthanna province, police imposed a curfew after Mehdi Army fighters appeared on the streets. Curfews were also imposed in Hilla and Kut, police said.


Qurna:
#1: One militant and one police officer were wounded in clashes in the southern Iraqi town of Qurna, 80 km (50 miles) north of Basra, police said.


Basra:
#1: Iraqi forces clashed with Shiite militias in the southern oil port of Basra on Tuesday as a security plan to clamp down on violence between rival militia factions in the region began. AP Television News video showed smoke from explosions rising over the city and Iraqi soldiers exchanging gunfire with militia members.

Maj. Abbas Youssef, a police officer in the Basra hospital, said four civilians had been killed and at least 18 injured in the fighting. The U.S. military said Tuesday that five suspected militants were killed in Basra while attempting to place a roadside bomb. Ten others were injured after being spotted conducting suspicious activity, the statement said.

A hospital source said "tens of wounded" were arriving at hospitals with some too busy to accept more casualties.

Eight civilians and four soldiers of the Mahdi army, a militia loyal to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, were reported killed, while 26 others were wounded, security sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Two ambulance drivers said they had transported eight bodies to Basra's Sadr Educational hospital. A police major at al-Mawana Hospital said it had received four bodies and 18 wounded.

Police and hospital officials reported that at least 22 people had been killed and 58 wounded in the clashes. Iraqi authorities on Monday imposed an indefinite nighttime curfew on the city.

#2: At least one Iraqi battalion has already been sent to Basra, an official in the defense ministry said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't supposed to talk to the media. Other battalions may be called from Iraq's southern provinces.

#3: Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad al-Boulani survived an assassination attempt on his motorcade in Basra, security officials said Monday. The officials said Boulani's motorcade was attacked late Sunday by men attacking with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, reported KUNA, the Kuwaiti news agency. Boulani wasn't hurt in the attack but several cars of the motorcade were damaged.

#4: Eyewitnesses from the neighboring areas of al-Jumhuriya and al-Aaliya, central Basra, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI) on Tuesday that the violent clashes in Basra were continuing from 12:00 a.m. until the present time, adding security forces were using tanks and artillery while the gunmen were using mortars and RPG-7 rockets.

#5: In Tamimiya, central Basra, known to be the most important stronghold of gunmen in Basra, eyewitnesses said a large force, backed by fighter planes and helicopters, besieged the area, where it managed to wield power after violent confrontations.

#6: In al-Jamiyat area, 8 km western Basra, another local resident said clashes were going on since the midnight of Monday with different kinds of weapons used, adding fighter planes were heard pounding some targets.

#7: An eyewitness from al-Maaqal, 10 km north of Basra, said "clashes in the area left two gunmen killed in al-Kaziza district, noting "their bodies were still littering main street there. "He said three people from the al-Kaziza fuel station were wounded and a child from the area was severely wounded from a stray bullet. "The child will most probably die due to failure to have him rushed to a hospital," said the witness.

#8: Early in the morning a mortar barrage struck the headquarters of the Iraqi Army 14th Brigade near the Jesr al-Zubair area in western the city, but there was no reports on casualties, a local police source told Xinhua.

#9: Another mortar barrage targeted the Shatt al-Arab Hotel in central the city, where the Iraqi Army operations office based, the source said without providing further details.

#10: British troops remained at their base at the airport outside Basra and were not involved in the ground fighting Tuesday, according to the British Ministry of Defense. Air support was being provided, but a spokesman could not say if it was U.S. or British planes.

#11: Gunmen kidnapped three Iraqi policemen guarding a police training centre, police said.

#12: An AFP correspondent said fighting in Basra died away late afternoon and the streets were empty even of security force vehicles.


Mosul:
#1: Meanwhile, the brigadier said an explosive device was detonated targeting a military ambulance belonging to the 2nd division of the Iraqi army near al-Haramat region in western Mosul, causing some material damage to the ambulance."The explosion caused no casualties," he said.

#2: Unidentified gunmen blew up a house of a policeman's father in Somer neighborhood, southeastern Mosul, using bombs," a police source said. "They booby-trapped it and remotely detonated it, causing severe material damage to the house but without casualties," the source, who requested anonymity, told VOI.

#3: Police patrols found an unknown body in al-Muthanna neighborhood in eastern Mosul," Brig. Khaled Abdul Sattar Saadon told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq.

Six bodies were found in different districts of Mosul, police said.

#4: Unidentified gunmen killed an employee working in a morgue in the city of Mosul on Tuesday, police said. "The gunmen killed the employee near his home in al-Rifaie neighborhood, west of Mosul," a security source, who did not want his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI). "The victim, a relative of Ninewa Governor Dreid Kashmoula, is the second morgue employee to be killed," the source said, adding no further details.

#5: Gunmen abducted the son of an official of the journalists' union, Ghanim Ismail, outside his house in eastern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Al Anbar Prv:
Haditha:
#1: Iraqi police killed a militant who was trying to throw a grenade at a police patrol on Monday in Haditha, 250 km (150 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.



Afghanistan:
#1: Four policemen and two civilians have been killed as a group of Taliban insurgents ambushed Afghan border policemen patrolling near the border with Iran in western Afghan province of Herat, said a police officer on Tuesday. Rahmatullah Safi, the provincial border police chief told Xinhua that the attack came on Monday evening when the border police were patrolling with vehicle in Shindand district.

#2: Gunmen fatally shot two Afghan members of a mine-clearing team on Monday, a day after five members of another team were killed in an attack in a nearby province. The latest killings came after a ceremony in the Archi district of Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan to mark the completion of a de-mining project, said Gen. Ayub Salangi, the provincial police chief. Gunmen shot at one of the team's cars, killing a driver and a team member from the Mine Detection and Dog Center, a UN-funded local group, Salangi said. He said he didn't know who the attackers were or if the shooting was motivated by a private grudge or anti-government hostility.


Casualty Reports:

Former marine Josh Hoffman spent months recovering at a hospital in Virginia while his comrades returned home. A sniper's bullet in the neck left him paralyzed from the shoulders down in January of 2007.

Staff Sargent David DeCann of Newark was clearing roadside bombs when one went off right next to him. His parents say his survival is a miracle. While clearing roads south of Baghdad, a roadside bomb went off right next to him. Don said, "He doesn't know if he stepped on it or the other guy stepped on it. One of them stepped on the pressure plate." DeCann suffered shrapnel wounds to his hip, a perforated eardrum, and cuts and scrapes.