War News for Monday, May 05, 2008

Baghdad:
#1: Iraqi health officials on Monday said 41 people, including women and children, have been wounded since Sunday in the militia stronghold of Sadr City, mostly in clashes.

#2: The military confirmed Monday that two Iraqi civilians were wounded in a Hellfire missile attack late Sunday in Baghdad's southwestern Aamel neighborhood and were evacuated to a military hospital.

#3: Clashes erupted before noon Monday in the militia stronghold of Shula and heavy gunfire could be heard. Apache attack helicopters circled the center of Shula and U.S. armored vehicles blocked entrances into the neighborhood, an Associated Press photographer witnessed.

#4: Earlier Monday, U.S. soldiers called for air support after coming under fire from a rocket propelled grenade and small arms in Kazimiyah district. More than one hour later, one militant was killed with 40 mm cannon rounds from an AC-130 gunship, the military said.

#5: In other violence on Monday, an Abrams tank fired a 120 mm round from its cannon, killing two militants who attacked a U.S. patrol with a roadside bomb between the militia strongholds of New Baghdad and Sadr City, the military said.

At around 1:00 am on Monday, two more militiamen were killed after a roadside bomb struck a US military vehicle in the district, Stover said.

#6: The U.S. military killed six other militants in separate clashes on Sunday. In Aamel, an attack aircraft fired three Hellfire missiles at Shiite extremists who opened fire from a building, killing three of them, the military said Monday.

Five people were killed including three members of one family (parents and their child) and eight others were wounded when the American forces bombed Amil neighborhood in west Baghdad. The US military said in an e-mailed statement that the American soldiers responded to an attack from one of the buildings, killing three insurgents.

#7: A roadside bomb wounded two soldiers on patrol on the northwestern outskirts of Baghdad on Sunday, police said.

#8: A roadside bomb wounded three people, including two children, in eastern Baghdad's Zayouna district on Sunday, police said.

#9: A mortar bomb wounded five people on Sunday in Ghadir district in eastern Baghdad, police said.

#10: The Iraqi army killed six militants and detained 149 others in separate incidents across the country over the past 24 hours, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.

#11: Two policemen were wounded when gunmen opened fire targeting a police patrol in Bab al Sheikh neighborhood in downtown Baghdad on Sunday evening.

#12: Iraqi and US-led coalition troops shot dead a gunman as he tried to penetrate the tight security around Baghdad's fortified government and embassy compound on Monday, military officials said. The unidentified man opened fire at a coalition soldier just outside the defence ministry which lies within the Green Zone compound, the officials said. "Both the coalition forces service member and the gunman were transported to a military medical facility, but the gunman died of his wounds," a US military official told AFP.


Diyala Prv:
#1: Three soldiers were wounded in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast that targeted their vehicle near the village of Qurrat Tabbah, northeast of Baaquba an Iraqi army source said. “An IED went off on Monday near a patrol of the Iraqi army’s 32nd Brigade on the main road between the villages of Qurrat Tabbah and Lahib, injuring three personnel,” Maj. Kamran Ali told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.

Seven Iraqi soldiers were wounded in a roadside bomb that targeted their patrol in Qara Tabba area around 12:00 p.m.

#2: An IED blast had ripped through an area near Qurrat Tabbah earlier on Monday, wounding two civilians.

#3: Gunmen kidnapped three truck drivers while they were coming from Khanaqin town towards Qara Tabba area, 93 miles northeast of Baquba city on Monday morning.

Balad Ruz:
#1: Three policemen were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion that targeted their patrol in Baladroz town 28 miles east of Baquba around 11:15 a.m.

#2: militants killed 10 Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint in Iraq's restive Diyala province north of Baghdad on Monday, the U.S. military said. The military said 13 soldiers were also wounded in the attack. It gave no details of the incident, but an Iraqi army source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the victims were decapitated after being shot. The account could not be independently confirmed. The army source said the attack took place in the town of Balad Ruz.


Babel Prv:
#1: Unknown gunmen on Monday assassinated a senior commander of the disbanded Baath party in Babel, a security source said. “unknown gunmen in pick-up trucks hauled Hamid Suleiman, a senior commander of the disbanded Baath party in Babel, from his house in Hashmiya district, 30 km south Hilla, leading him to an unknown location,” a security source in Babel police, who requested anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq. “Police patrols pursued the gunmen for a brief period, and discovered the body of the senior commander dumped in one of al-Muamira district ranches, with bullet wounds to the head and chest,” the source added.


Basra:
#1: Militants fired two rockets at a water treatment plant in Basra, 550 km (340 miles) south of Baghdad, but failed to cause any damage, the British military in Basra said.


Shatt al-Arab waterway :
#1: The Iranian Coast Guard shot dead two Iraqi fishermen and wounded another on Sunday in the Shatt al-Arab waterway in southern Iraq, police in the port city of Basra said. It was not clear why they had opened fire, but in previous incidents, the Coast Guard shot at fishermen who entered Iranian territorial waters, the police said.


Kirkuk:
#1: A roadside bomb blast killed one policeman and wounded five others when it hit their patrol in central Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police and hospital sources said.

One policeman was killed and seven others wounded on Monday when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near their patrol in central Kirkuk, police said. A police patrol was the target of an IED attack near the al-Matar street, central Kirkuk, as one policeman was killed and seven others injured,” a security source, who declined to have his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.


Mosul:
#1: Meanwhile, the same source said, an IED went off near a military patrol in the western Mosul area of Badosh, causing severe damage to a patrol vehicle but left no casualties.

#2: Gunmen stormed an apartment and shot dead three women and wounded two others in northern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.



Afghanistan:
#1: A contracted helicopter made an emergency landing in Konar province after coming under fire from insurgents. The helicopter made a landing at an ISAF base, in central Konar, after taking machine-gun fire from an unknown number of insurgents. The aircrew inspected the aircraft and found one bullet hole that did minor damage to the helicopter. No one aboard the contracted helicopter was injured and repairs are underway to get the helicopter operational.

#2: Four children and three policemen were killed in the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday by two accidental munitions blasts, the Interior Ministry said. One of the blasts happened as children knocked the munition against a rock in a residential area that was the scene of bitter fighting between rival Afghan factions in the 1990s, it said. The other blast was caused after a rocket fell from the hands of a policeman in the main anti-drugs force base in Kabul, the ministry said in statement.

A policeman dropped a rocket-propelled grenade that exploded as his unit set off from Kabul on Monday on an opium poppy eradication mission north of the city, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary. One policeman was killed and at least eight were wounded, said Dr. Ahmad Zia Aftali, chief of the hospital where the injured were taken for treatment. However, Khodadad, a policeman who goes by one name and witnessed the blast, said more than 15 were hurt.

Also Monday, three children died and two others were wounded when an old artillery shell they were playing with exploded, Bashary said. Another police official, Sayed Ekramudin, said two civilians were killed and 13 others wounded in an explosion Sunday at a refuse dump in the city's northern outskirts. Ekramudin said a truck had hit a buried explosive.


Casualty Reports:

Cpl. Steven Kiernan, 20, lost his left foot and right leg below the knee after he was injured by an explosive device while on ground patrol in Fallujah at 11 a.m., according to his family. He also suffered shrapnel wounds.He was transported to Baghdad for medical treatment. He was critically injured in Iraq on Sunday (5-4-08)