War News for Thursday, September 11, 2008

The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF soldier from an explosion near Musa Qaleh in Helmand province, Afghanistan on Wednesday, September 10th. No other details were released.

The Santa Barbara News-Press is reporting the death of a U.S. ISAF soldier in an attack on a compound in an eastern Province of Afghanistan on Thursday, September 11. No other details were released.


Sept. 9 airpower summary:

Two Russian bombers land in Venezuela:

Japan to end controversial Iraq mission:

Cholera in Iraqi water spreading:

U.S. Refuses to Aid Israel in Iran Attack: (?)

Report: Bush OK'd secret raids inside Pakistan:

Iraq cancels six no-bid service contracts for oil:


Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: Three civil servants from the housing and construction ministry were killed and three were wounded when a bomb exploded near a ministry minibus in eastern Baghdad, police said.

Iraqi authorities say a bomb concealed in a pickup belonging to the Iraqi housing ministry has killed three employees and wounded three others. Police and medics say the bomb went off Thursday morning in Baghdad's Shiite district of Sadr City. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

#2: Al-Sadr hospital in eastern Baghdad on Thursday received three policemen, who were injured in a bomb explosion targeting their vehicle patrol in eastern Baghdad, a medical source said. "The explosion occurred near al-Habibiya car fairs in eastern Baghdad," the source told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq on condition of anonymity.

#3: Wednesday Police found two dead bodies throughout Baghdad, one in Adhemiyah, one in Mansour.

#4: A bomb in a parked truck exploded in Dora neighborhood around 3 p.m., killing one civilian and injuring three others.


Diyala Prv:
#1: Five persons were killed and two others were wounded in an armed attack in central al-Saadiya district, Diala, the mayor of the district said. "Unknown gunmen attacked a group of young men in al-Taakhi neighborhood in central al-Saadiya, southwest of Khaniqeen, killing five and injuring two," Ahmed Zarkoushi told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq.

#2: The chieftain of al-Jayayla tribe and his son were killed by unknown gunmen in Khalis district, north of Baaquba, a security source said. "Unidentified armed men stormed the house of Sheikh Rokan al-Jayayli, the chieftain of al-Jayayla tribe, in Khalis and opened fire on him, killing him and his son on the spot," the source, who preferred anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq.


Karbala:
#1: Three civilians were killed and 12 people wounded in an explosion late Wednesday in the Shiite-dominated city of Karbala, 110 km southwest of Baghdad, sources said. Medical sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that two children and a woman were dead. Meanwhile, a police source told the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency that the explosion took place only 1,000 metres from the mausoleum of Imam al-Hussein, grandson of the prophet Mohammad.


Mosul:
#1: Wednesday Police found four dead bodies throughout Mosul city, the capital of the province.

#2: Police forces found on Thursday two unidentified corpses in separate areas in Mosul, a police source said."The forces found the two bodies in al-Sidieq and al-Nabi Younis regions in northern and eastern Mosul," the source, who wished to remain anonymous, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq.

#3: "The first bomb exploded targeting the head of the municipality council of al-Shura district, south of Mosul, while he was heading to his work," the source told VOI."The explosion left no casualties but caused material damage to his car," he added.

#4: "The second bomb went off targeting a police vehicle patrol in 17 Tamouz region, western Mosul, without causing casualties also," the source said.



Afghanistan:
#1: A suicide car bomb blew up near a convoy of private security guards in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar Thursday, killing two Afghan civilian passers-by, a governor's spokesman said. "Two civilians were killed and six were wounded," he said. A witness said that one of the dead was a boy on his way to school and the other was an adult male. Ayobi said the attack was against a convoy of Afghan guards from a security company but the targeted vehicle appeared to have driven off. Canadian troops immediately sealed off the area as ambulances rushed the wounded to hospital, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

#2: Taliban militants Thursday beheaded two police recruits one week after abducting them from a troubled tribal region in northwestern Pakistan, officials said. The rebels dumped the bodies in the mountainous town of Shahu Khel in Orakzai, local police chief Sher Bahadur told AFP.

#3: A bomb planted on a bicycle went off near the governor's office in the southern Afghan province of Ghazni on Thursday, wounding seven people, an official said.

#4: International forces killed several suspected militants in eastern Afghanistan in a raid on a "terrorist leader" said to be helping foreign fighters enter the country, the US-led coalition said Thursday. "Coalition forces targeted a regional terrorist leader in Andar district, Ghazni province, who is suspected of facilitating the movement of foreign fighters into Afghanistan," it said. When soldiers arrived in the area, they came under attack and responded, killing "several militants" and arresting two, it said, without giving a number of the dead or making it clear if the targeted man was killed or captured.



Casualty Reports:

Army 1st Lt. Brian Brennan, 23, lost his legs to amputation and suffers from an acute brain injury. He was critically injured while on a mission in the 2nd Platoon Delta Company, 506th Infantry Division, 101st Airborne, patrolling villages in Afghanistan. According to information provided by his family, "On March 20, improvised explosive devices blew up the Humvee in which Brian was riding, splitting the vehicle in half and hurling Brian and the driver, Spc. Ryan Price of California, a distance of 40 feet in separate directions. The second explosion killed the three young men in the back of the Humvee."

Corporal Mark Sutcliffe, from Peterborough, who has served in conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone lost his left leg in a terrorist attack.

Charles "Chas" Shaffer, 23, had his right leg amputated above the knee as a result of the blast that hit the armored vehicle he was driving on Aug. 31. Shaffer also suffered shrapnel injuries to his left leg as well as bruises to his lungs. After the attack, Shaffer, a combat engineer with the U.S. Army, was flown to Landstuhl, Germany, for treatment."They had to do several clean-up surgeries on his left leg, but I guess he's doing as well as can be expected given the circumstances," said Charles "Chip" Shaffer, the 23-year-old soldier's father, who is currently in Washington with his son. "The good news is that the left leg is going to be OK. He was on a ventilator until Saturday when they were finally able to take him off it. He'll be in intensive care for a couple of more days.