War News for Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The Danish military is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier in an IED attack in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, August 26th. No other details were released. Here is the NATO statement.


Bomb wounds 20 at rally in southwestern Pakistan:

Afghanistan demands review of international troops: (what a joke)

U.N. says has evidence air strikes killed 90 Afghans

The United Nations said on Tuesday it had found convincing evidence that 90 Afghan civilians, most of them children, were killed in air strikes by U.S.-led coalition forces in western Afghanistan last week.

Battles kill 15 rebels, 7 soldiers in Sri Lanka:

Reaper UAS Completes First Weapons Engagement In Iraq:

Human error is causing most Predator crashes:

Kuwaitis in Iraqi jails found infected with TB:

How Russia clobbered Georgia - and lost the war: (commentary)

N. Korea says it halts nuclear reactor disablement:

Kurdish rebels clash with Turkish military, 11 die:


Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: Four persons, including two policemen, were wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) targeted a police patrol near the Maysaloun square in eastern Baghdad on Tuesday, an Iraqi police source said."An IED went off near the Maysaloun squre in al-Ghadir area, eastern Baghdad, targeting a police patrol. The explosion left four people, including two policemen, wounded," the source, who did not want his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.

#2: A roadside bomb targeted a Sahwa patrol, the U.S. backed militia, in al-Mowasalat neighbourhood, western Baghdad at 10 a.m. Tuesday injuring two Sahwa members.

#3: A roadside bomb in targeted a police patrol in Ghadeer neighbourhood at noon injuring two policemen and two civilians.


Diyala Prv:
Julula:
#1: Iraqi security officials say at least nine people have been killed in the northeastern Diyala province. Tuesday's blast struck the town of Jalula but officials have offered conflicting reports about the circumstances of the explosion and the casualty count. Col. Sarchal Abdul-Karim of the Iraqi border guards in the area says nine people were killed and 25 wounded. Local police have put the number of dead at 12 and said 40 people were wounded.

A SUICIDE bomber today rushed into a crowd of police recruits in central Iraq and detonated his explosives-laden vest, killing at least 25 people and wounding 40, the local police chief said.
Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Khalifa said the attack targeted a crowd of young Iraqis at a police recruiting centre in Jalawla, 150km north of Baghdad. Most of those killed had been waiting to join the police, he added. Earlier, officials said a man wearing an explosives-laden vest arrived by car and was stopped by police. He then leapt from the car and ran into the crowd where he detonated his bomb.

At least 35 people were killed and 47 were injured Tuesday in a suicide attack in front of a police station in Iraq's Diyala province, medical and witnesses said.

Mandali:
#1: Elsewhere in Diyala, a roadside bomb struck a van carrying a Sunni family near the town of Mandali along the Iranian border, said Col. Sarchal Abdul-Karim, a spokesman of Iraqi border guards in the area. Five members of the family were killed, including two women and two children, the spokesman said. The family was on the way to a religious shrine, the colonel added.


Kut:
#1: Two policemen were wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near their patrol in the district of al-Aziziya, north of Kut city, on Tuesday, police said. "The IED went off today in the area of al-Dayniya, eastern Aziziya, (90 km) north of Kut, targeting a police patrol. Two policemen were injured in the explosion, which also destroyed a patrol vehicle," a security source told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.


Tikrit:
#1: A police official says a bomb planted in a parked car has killed four people and wounded six _ including three policemen _ in the city of Tikrit north of Baghdad. The official says Tuesday’s blast happened at 7:30 a.m. on a major central street used by local government officials to commute to work. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

In the second attack, a car exploded at the Salahaddin provincial health center, killing four people, including two security men, police officer Hassan Ahmed told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. Six people were injured in the blast as a preliminary casualty count, Ahmed added.

#2: In one attack in city of Tikrit in the northern Salahaddin province, a car bomb targeting a police patrol killed two civilians and wounded 12 persons, police officer Abdullah Qatan told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency. He said that of those wounded, four were police and the rest were civilians, reported dpa.


Hawija:
#1: Four police personnel were wounded on Tuesday in an explosive charge attack that targeted their patrol in southwestern Kirkuk, a police source said. "While conducting a raid-and-search campaign in al-Safra village (10 km southwest of al-Huweija district), an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near one of the patrol vehicles belonging to the force, wounding four police personnel," Brigadier Sarhad Qadir told Aswat al-Iraq­- Voices of Iraq.


Kirkuk:
#1: Unidentified gunmen kidnapped a civilian man in al-Wasiti neighborhood, southwest of Kirkuk city, on Tuesday, a security source in the Kirkuk police department said. An armed group kidnapped a civilian man near his home in al-Wasiti neighborhood, southwest of Kirkuk, and led him to an unknown place," the source, who declined to have his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.


Mosul:
#1: Unidentified gunmen wounded a policeman in central Mosul on Tuesday while policemen killed a gunman and wounded another, the official spokesman for the Ninewa Operations Command (NOC) said. "Unidentified gunmen on Tuesday waged an armed attack on a policeman near his home in the area of Bab Lakash, central Mosul, seriously wounding him," Brig. Khaled Abdelsattar told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq. "The patrol near the scene tracked down the gunmen, killing one of them and injuring another who managed to escape to an unknown place," Abdelsattar added.



Afghanistan:
#1: Gunmen opened fire on the top U.S. diplomat in northwestern Pakistan early Tuesday as she left for work in her armored vehicle, police and embassy officials said. No one was killed in the attack. Lynne Tracy, principal officer for the consulate in the bustling city of Peshawar, was 100 yards from her house when two men with AK-47s jumped out of their dark blue Land Cruiser and sprayed her car with dozens of rounds of ammunition. Her driver reversed the vehicle and peeled back to her home, said Arshad Khan, the local police chief and senior investigator in the case. Though no one was killed by the gunfire, a rickshaw driver was hurt when his three-wheeled taxi was hit by the consulate vehicle, he said. The man was hospitalized, but the extent of his injuries was not immediately known.

#2: A Japanese aid worker was kidnapped at gunpoint with his driver in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, and a spokesman for the Taliban has claimed the group was involved, the government and news reports said. The Japanese aid worker was abducted in early Tuesday, according to the Foreign Ministry. Kyodo News agency said a Taliban spokesman in Kabul claimed the group was involved, but it offered no immediate details. The Foreign Ministry said Kazuya Ito, 31, was kidnapped near the city of Jalalabad. It established a task force in Kabul to seek his release. The government said it had not confirmed whether Ito was injured in the kidnapping, and could not confirm the reports of the Taliban being involved. Kyodo News agency said Ito and his driver were abducted by a group of armed assailants. It said the driver was released soon afterward. TV Asahi, a major network, said Ito was alive. The government said no ransom demands were made.

Afghan police clashed with the kidnappers of a male Japanese aid worker in eastern Nangarhar province on Tuesday, freeing the man's local driver, a police spokesman said. The Japanese aid worker was seized earlier on Tuesday while he worked on a construction project in the Daraye Noor area of Nangarhar, provincial police spokesman Ghafour Khan said. "In the clash, one kidnapper was also wounded and efforts are underway to release the Japanese," he said.

#3: A Czech military police officer was wounded in a road accident in the Afghan province Logar, where the Czech Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) operates, on Monday, Jana Ruzickova from the general staff told CTK today. He suffered medium injuries, Ruzickova said. The soldier was in a convoy of vehicles of the military police that was moving from the Czech base in Logar to Kabul. Half way through, one of the vehicles turned over following a defect on its wheel.
One of its four soldiers fell out from it and was injured. He was airlifted to the U.S. field hospital in Bagram from where he will be moved to the Czech Republic.


Casualty Reports:

Sgt. Thomas Green III was wounded in April 2004 during Operation Iraqi Freedom when his truck, returning from a trip delivering soldiers and supplies, was in an explosion and flipped several times. Green sustained a crushed pelvis, fractured back, and brain damage, and has short-term memory loss and chronic headaches.