War News for Monday, June 23, 2008

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Coalition Force soldier (Multi-National Division – North) in three roadside bomb attacks on Coalition force patrols in Diyala province on Friday, June 29th. Five other soldier were wounded in the attacks.

IC Publications is reporting the death of a U.S. soldier from small arms fire in Madain Iraq on Monday, June 23rd. Five additional soldiers were wounded in the attack as reported by the U.S. military.

CJTF-101 is reporting the deaths of four coalition soldiers from an IED attack in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan on Saturday, June 21st. Two other soldiers were wounded in the attack.

NATO is reporting the death of one ISAF soldier from an IED attack in Paktika Province, Afghanistan on Saturday, June 21st. Four additional soldiers were wounded in the attack. Nowe Media is reporting the soldier is from the Polish contingency was an officer and the attack was 40 kilometres from Wazi Khwa base.

CJTF-101 is reporting the death of a coalition soldier in an IED attack while conducting combat operations in Farah province, Afghanistan on Friday, June 20th. Two other soldiers and one Afghani civilian were wounded in the attack.

CJTF-101 is reporting the death of a coalition service member in a suicide attack and small arms fire in Helmand province, Afghanistan on Friday, June 20th. One Afghani civilian was killed in the attack.

The DoD is reporting a new death previously unreported by CENTCOM. Hospitalman Dustin Kelby Burnett. He died while conducting combat operations in Farah Province, Afghanistan on Friday, June 20th. No other details were released.

PNC News is reporting the death of a civilian security company personal. Christopher Quitugua died in a convoy accident in Iraq on an undisclosed date. No other details were released. According to Pacific Daily News Christopher Quitugua's grandparents, Albert A. Quitugua and Maria C. Quitugua, their grandson and three others were in a vehicle in a convoy when a tire blowout caused the vehicle to flip.


OIF/OEF fatalities. PDF

June 20 airpower summary:

June 21 airpower summary:

A Sunni legislator said on Monday that the security agreement to be signed between Baghdad and Washington would allow the latter to attack any country from Iraqi territories. "The Iraqi-U.S. agreement contains several items that impinge upon the sovereignty of Iraq, including the right of the U.S. forces in Iraq to attack any nation and raid any Iraqi house and arrest people without prior permission from the Iraqi government," Khalaf al-Alyan, a member of parliament from the Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF), told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.

Reporters Say Networks Block War Reports

video: Afghanistan: Lost in translation


Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: A roadside bomb targeted a National Police patrol in Waziriyah, near the cotton wool plant intersection at 11.30 a.m. Monday, injuring three policemen.

#2: A roadside bomb targeted a US military convoy in Qahira, near the water reservoir at noon. No casualties were reported.

#3: A roadside bomb targeted a US military convoy in Salahuddin Square, Kathimiyah neighbourhood at around noon. No casualties were reported.

#4: A roadside bomb targeted a US military convoy in Adil neighbourhood at around 1 p.m. No casualties were reported.


Diyala Prv:
#1: At least 10 people were killed when insurgents fired off a spate of mortar rounds which fell on houses in Iraq's restive province of Diyala, officials told AFP on Monday. The projectiles, fired during the night in the town of Al-Adhaim, were apparently aimed at the police headquarters and the mayor's office but fell instead on people's homes, a government security official said. The mortars killed at least 10 people and wounded around 20, the official added. The attack was confirmed by Abdul Jabbar al-Obeidi, mayor of Adhaim, which is about 70 kilometres (43 miles) north of the provincial capital Baquba.


Kut:
#1: A woman was wounded when a mortar shell landed in the heart of al-Nasr neighborhood, western Kut, on Monday, police said. "The woman was rushed to a hospital from the mortar shell of 120 mm., which also damaged a civilian vehicle," a security source, who requested anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq. "The shell perhaps targeted the Delta base, where the Multi-National Force (MNF) troops are stations in Wassit," the source said, adding the police started to investigate the incident.The Delta base is 15 km western Kut city.


Mosul:
#1: A suicide car bomb attacked a police patrol in the city of Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, wounding 14 people, including 4 policemen, a provincial police source said on Monday. The attack occurred late on Sunday in the al-Wihda neighborhood in southern Mosul, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

#2: Three Iraqi army servicemen, including an officer in the rank of major, were wounded while trying to dismantle an improvised explosive device (IED) in northern Mosul on Monday, an official army source said. The IED went off while a bomb squad was trying to defuse it in al-Rashidiya neighborhood, seriously wounding Maj. Fakher Braori, the commander of the Iraqi army's 3rd contingent, 8th Brigade, and two other soldiers," the source told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq. "Maj. Braori lost a hand and a leg," the source said, adding the wounded were rushed to a hospital for treatment. He did not give further information on the incident.

#3: A policeman and a woman were killed and two civilians were wounded in an armed attack in western Mosul, a security source said on Monday. "Unidentified gunmen opened fire on a police checkpoint in Mosul al-Jadida region in western Mosul, killing one policeman and a woman and injuring two more, including a child," the source told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq.

#4: Gunmen killed a university student in a drive-by shooting in northern Mosul, police said.

#5: Gunmen killed an off-duty policemen at a market in western Mosul, police said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: The U.S. military will transfer control of security in Iraq's Anbar province to Iraqi forces this week.



Afghanistan:
#1: The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan says it has killed 55 militants in the east of the country.
A coalition statement said the battle took place on Friday in Paktika province, which borders Pakistan. It said militants ambushed a patrol with rocket and gun fire, prompting troops to fire back and call in warplanes.

#2: Suspected pro-Taliban Militants kidnapped 17 Pakistani policemen from posts on the road through the Khyber Pass, the latest insecurity on the vital supply route for Western forces in Afghanistan. Militants attacked four checkposts on the winding road through the pass that leads to the Afghan border on Sunday night, kidnapping the policemen and wounding one in a brief exchange of fire, a senior government official in the region said. "Our 17 khasadar are missing," said the official in Landikotal, the main town in the Khyber region, referring to members of special police forces raised in ethnic Pashtun tribal agencies.

#3: An Afghan official says police and U.S.-led forces attacked militants planting a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan and one insurgent and two civilians were killed. Zalmay Dadak, mayor of Khogyani district of Nangarhar province, said police shot dead one suspect shortly before midnight Sunday and gave chase to the others. Dadak said a helicopter from the U.S.-led coalition fired at the militants but also hit a house in a village, killing a man and a young child.

#4: At least 11 Shia Muslims were executed by a rival Sunni group in Pakistan's Kurram agency, a volatile north-western tribal district, a tribal leader said Monday. The beheaded bodies of eight people from the Shia tribe Toori were found dumped in Arawali and three in the Sadda area of the district, tribal chief Ali Akbar told the Geo news television channel. All those killed were abducted Friday when a food convoy they were travelling with came under attack in the Sunni-dominated area of Pir Qayyum, about 30 kilometres south-east of Kurram's central town of Parachinar.

#5: Four people, including a security guard, were killed in the ambush. Later, government forces, backed by helicopter gunships, chased the attackers, killing five of them.

#6: NATO forces struck back with two artillery attacks across the border into Pakistan after attackers hiding there fired a barrage of rockets into Afghanistan that killed three children, officials said Sunday. NATO said five rockets were fired at one of its bases in Khost province overnight. At least one hit a house in Kunday, a small village that sits between two military bases, killing the three children. Another hit a NATO base, wounding an Afghan man, the alliance said. NATO said its forces responded "in self-defense" to the attack "with artillery fire on the launch site located about 300 meters (yards) inside Pakistan." In an earlier attack Saturday afternoon, three rounds of "indirect fire" — which often refers to mortar or rocket attacks — landed near a NATO outpost in neighboring Paktika province, the alliance said. Three more landed in an Afghan army compound. No casualties were reported. NATO said those rounds also came from inside Pakistan and responded with artillery fire. NATO reported that another overnight barrage of rockets aimed at a base in Khost — this time from inside Afghanistan — killed another civilian. It responded with an airstrike as well as artillery fire, it said.

#7: Record duo face Taliban rocket attack with Scots forces. (this is worth reading)

#8: TALIBAN fighters have ambushed a food convoy intended for foreign soldiers, killing one truck driver and wounding another, a local police chief said. The militants claimed four security guards hired to protect the convoy had been killed and several trucks were burned in Sunday's attack. But a police spokesmen in the province said only one driver was killed and another wounded in the ambush, which happened in the Showak district of Paktia province. Two vehicles were set on fire during the attack, the spokesman said. The convoy was on its way from Gardez to Khost city to carry food to US-led troops based in Khost province.

#9: A Canadian soldier remained in serious condition Sunday following a traffic accident Saturday afternoon when an RG-31, or Nyala, armoured vehicle rolled over in Kandahar City. Three soldiers were injured in the incident, which occurred at approximately 5:30 p.m. local time. One soldier was flown by helicopter to the multinational medical unit at Kandahar airfield. The two others were treated for minor injuries and did not require hospitalization.

#10: U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops killed several Taliban insurgents in an air and ground assault in Sangin district of southern Afghanistan on Sunday, a U.S. military statement said on Monday.

#11: Several militants were killed during U.S.led coalition operation in the southern Afghan province of Helmand of Sunday, U.S. military said in a statement on Monday.

#12: Police say a suspected suicide car bomb has killed four civilians in western Afghanistan.
Police official Abdul Shuqur says the sports utility vehicle exploded at a market in the town of Shindand on Monday afternoon. Shuqur says witnesses told him that seconds before the blast the vehicle approached a convoy of foreign troops and that the troops opened fire on it. He says 12 other people were wounded.