War News for Friday, July 04, 2008

The LA Times is reporting the death of a Marine unreported by the military. Marine Sgt. Sean Webster was severely injured by an anti-tank mine explosion in September 2005 near the Iraqi border with Syria. On June 23, Webster's body was found in an isolated part of the Wounded Warrior Battalion base. The Naval Criminal Investigate Service is probing the death as a "probable" suicide. At this time we are not certain this death will count in the official casualty count pending DoD confirmation.

The DoD is report a new death of a soldier, Spc. Estell L. Turner died July 2 at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., of wounds suffered on June 28 in Malikheyl, Afghanistan, when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device. No other details were released.

The news source Smashits is reporting the death of a coalition service member died here today from a non-combat injury.' As according to statement from US military base in Bagram said. No other details were released. This death is pending official confirmation.


July 2 airpower summary:

'The 42-month guy' awaits next tour of duty in Iraq:

Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: Four people were killed and eight others wounded when a car bomb went off near a gate of the al-Yarmuk hospital in western Baghdad, Iraqi police said. "A car bomb parked near one of the gates of al-Yarmuk hospital on Thursday evening, killing four civilians and wounding eight others," a police source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq. "Policemen and hospital guards were among the wounded in the blast that also caused damage to nearby vehicles," the source added.

#2: Thursday Four unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad by Iraqi Police today; one in Waziriyah, one in Shaab, one in Ali al-Salih and one in Shoala.

#3: Two unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad by Iraqi Police today; one in Kathimiyah and the other in Talbiyah.


Diyala Prv:
#1: U.S military forces storm the house of Hasen Atiyah al-Iqabi, leader in the Mahdi Army in Mahdi neighbourhood, Muqdadiyah district 38 km to the east of Baquba at 3.30 Friday, and were engaged in an armed fight by his four elder sons. Al-Iqabi's daughter, six years old was killed as was his son of eight years; his four elder sons and wife were injured. The U.S. forces then left the house taking with them the injured people for treatment as their target, al-Iqabi, was not in his home. No comment from the U.S. military was available at time of publication.


Iskandariya:
#1: another force found an unidentified body in two separate security operations in al-Iskandariya district, 50 km northern Babel province, police said on Friday.


Basra:
#1: One civilian killed and two wounded by American fire on the highway west of Basra city, according to spokeswoman for the MNF-I, Southern Region Iraq. Captain Ford, clarifies, "A civilian vehicle carrying three civilians approached a U.S. military convoy on the highway Basra-Nasiriyah, 40 km to the west of Basra which caused the soldiers in the American convoy to fire warning shots at the vehicle. The firing caused the death of one of the civilians and the injury of the other two."



Afghanistan:
#1: The militants attacked the police check post in Panjwayi district in the southern province of Kandahar late Thursday night killing at least eight officers and injuring another, provincial police chief Mateuallah Khan said.

The provincial police chief said: "In the deadliest incident, attackers tossed a grenade into a police post in Panjwayi district of troubled southern Kandahar province and then opened fire into the building, killing eight policemen." General Mutihullah Khan said that another two policemen were missing after the midnight attack and two were wounded.

#2: Separately three policemen were killed and two were wounded Friday in the central province of Ghazni when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb, provincial government spokesman Ismail Jahangir said.

#3: Six civilians, three women and three men, were killed in an air strike by foreign troops late on Thursday in the western province of Farah, several residents said. The provincial police chief confirmed the attack by U.S.-led troops in the area but could not give details of the target or casualties. U.S. military spokesmen were not available for comment.

#4: Al Qaeda-linked militants have abducted two Pakistani journalists whom they accused of snooping on their members and positions near the Afghan border.The militants detained freelance reporter Pir Zubair Shah and photographer Akhtar Soomro in Ziarat village, in the Mohmand region late, on Thursday.

#5: A row is simmering between Islamabad and Washington on whether the US military has the authority to hit Al Qaeda targets on Pakistani territories. America’s top military official said this week that he has all the authority he needed for targeting senior Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders in Pakistan’s tribal areas but refused to say if US troops were also allowed to operate inside the Pakistani territory.

#6: Twenty-two civilians, including women and children, were killed in an air strike by U.S.-led forces on Friday in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nuristan, an official said. The attack happened on a road in Want district while the noncombatants were traveling in two vehicles, the district chief, Zia-Ul Rahman, told reporters. "The civilians were in two vehicles when killed by the air raid," he added. The U.S. military had no immediate comment about the incident.


Casualty Reports:

Tony Odierno, 29, lost his left arm when a rocket-propelled grenade smashed through his Humvee in Iraq almost four years ago. As an Army lieutenant, he was leading three vehicles through southwest Baghdad when his life changed. The grenade cost Odierno an arm and his driver his life.

Scott Quilty, 28, lost his right arm and leg in October 2006 to a roadside bomb while serving in Iraq.