War News for Wednesday, September 03, 2008

The Canadian DND is reporting the deaths of three Canadian ISAF soldiers in an insurgent attack in Zharey district, Kandahar province, Afghanistan on Wednesday, September 3rd. Five additional soldiers were wounded in the attack.


Health Ministry confirms cholera cases:

Shots fired at Pakistani PM's motorcade:


Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: An Iraqi Kurdish journalist was seriously wounded when gunmen dressed in military uniforms shot him in his Baghdad home last month, media watchdog Reporters without Borders said on Monday. Sadeq Jaafar Bashir, a journalist with Kurdish monthly magazine Araa, was hit in the stomach and arm but his sister was killed when seven gunmen opened fire on them on August 24, the Paris-based group said in a statement. Bashir's mother and his sister's three-year-old daughter were also wounded in the attack, it said.

#2: Two civilians were wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off in the area of al-Waziriya, northern Baghdad, on Wednesday, an Iraqi police source said."The IED detonated as a U.S. army patrol was passing by in al-Waziriya, leaving two civilians injured," the source, who did not want his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.


Diyala Prv:
Balad Ruz:
#1: "A roadside bomb went off targeting an Iraqi army patrol in Dainiya district of Baladruz town, 45 km south-east Baquba, leaving one soldier killed and four others wounded.

Muqdadiya:
#1: "Earlier, a Diala security source said a roadside bombing that blew up against on a civilian vehicle in Muqdadiya, 45 km north-east Baaquba, left one civilian killed.


Iskandariya:
#1: One civilian man was killed and seven others wounded when an improvised explosive device went off in northern Babel on Wednesday, while another IED that exploded later destroyed a house, a Babel police source said. "An IED ripped through al-Iskandariya souk (market), 60 km northern Babel, on Wenesday, killing a civilian and wounding seven others and damaging nearby shops," the source, who declined to be named, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.

#2: "Another IED went off a while later in the same spot near a house, destroying it but leaving no casualties," the source added.

#3: The rail traffic heading from the Iraqi capital to the south of the country stopped on Wednesday after an improvised explosive device (IED) was found on the railroad line in northern Babel province, a police source said.


Tarmiyah:
#1: A friendly fire shootout early Wednesday between Iraqi security forces and American soldiers killed six Iraqis north of Baghdad, police and security officials said. Iraqi forces at a checkpoint started shooting at approaching American military boats on the Tigris River in Tarmiyah, 30 miles north of Baghdad, the Iraqi officials said. They didn't realize the boats, which had their lights turned off, were American, they said. The U.S. soldiers fired back, killing two Iraqi soldiers, two police officers and two U.S.-backed Sunni tribesmen, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to release the information to the media. Two American helicopters later fired on a one-room house on an island in the river, the Iraqis added.


Tikrit:
#1: An American squad raided a house in Alam village (about 6 miles north east of Tikrit). Tahseen Mikhlif who is a student was killed by that squad, police said. While the MNF-I says “Coalition forces killed a weapons facilitator in Tikrit during an operation to disrupt the AQI bombing network in the Tigris River Valley.


Mosul:
#1: Two Iraqi soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their patrol in western Mosul, police said.

#2: Two gunmen were killed and another "seriously wounded" when an improvised explosive device (IED) they planned to emplace in eastern Mosul went off on Wednesday, a security source from the Ninewa province said on Wednesday.

#3: Unknown gunmen blew up a house of Ninewa's operations spokesman in the northern city of Mosul, a security source said." Unknown gunmen broke into the house of Ninewa operations spokesman Brig. Khalid Abdel Sattar in al-Sukr district, north Mosul, and blew it up," a Ninewa security source, who requested anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq.

#4: Unknown gunmen on Wednesday blew up the house of a judge who was assassinated last July, the second explosion of its kind to occur in Mosul today, according to Iraqi police. "On Wednesday, unidentified gunmen detonated the house of Judge Mohammed Khalaf al-Sabeel in al-Siddeeq neighborhood, northern Mosul," a police source, who preferred to remain unnamed, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq.



Afghanistan:
#1: Australian troops clashed with Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan late Tuesday in fighting that left several insurgents dead and nine Australian soldiers wounded, the military said. The fighting reflected rising violence in southern Uruzgan province, where attacks on foreign forces by the resurgent Taliban have increased in recent months. Australian Defense spokesman Brig. Brian Dawson said the battle occurred as commandoes took part in an ongoing Australian operation to disrupt Taliban networks. It was not immediately clear if the Australian troops attacked the Taliban, or vice versa. One Australian soldier suffered life-threatening injuries, five had serious wounds and the wounds to three others were reported to be slight, Dawson said. A more precise number of Taliban casualties wasn't immediately available.

#2: Women and children were among 15 people killed in an attack Wednesday involving U.S.-led forces in a Pakistani village near the border with Afghanistan, officials and a resident said. 1st Lt. Nathan Perry, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, said it had "no information to give" about the alleged operation, while a spokesman for NATO troops there denied any involvement. Officials gave differing accounts of the pre-dawn raid in the South Waziristan region, part of the tribal belt where officials suspect Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri are hiding. It was unclear whether any militant leaders had been killed or captured. The governor of North West Frontier Province, the chief administrator for the tribal belt, said three coalition helicopter gunships and commandos carried out an "outrageous" attack on a village. "At least 20 innocent civilians of Pakistan including women and children were martyred," Gov. Owais Ahmed Ghani said in a statement. However, Defense Minister Ahmad Mukhtar told reporters in Lahore that homes near the border had been attacked by NATO aircraft and made no mention of ground forces. Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Murad Khan said it also had reports that 15 people, including women and children, died in the attack near Angoor Ada, a town in South Waziristan.

#3: Ghulam Jailani Khan, police chief of Zabul province, says 22 Taliban were killed in a clash in the province's Naw Bahar district on Tuesday. Khan says seven Arab fighters were among the dead.

#4: Mohammad Hussein Andiwal, the police chief of Helmand province, says another 10 militants died in clashes with Afghan and foreign troops in Nad Ali district. The clash happened on Tuesday evening.


Casualty Reports:

Army Cpl. Christopher Levi, 25, left, who lost both legs in an explosion in March in Iraq. He is recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He lost both legs in March when a shaped charge explosive shattered the Humvee in which he was riding in Baghdad's infamous Sadr City neighborhood. His legs were severed at mid-thigh, and part of a bone in his right hand was blown off.Levi is recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, where he is expected to spend most of the next year learning to get around on prosthetic legs.

David Mayer will undergo a variety of operations over the coming months. Two bones in his index finger are separated and would be fused. His left leg, amputated below the thigh, has developed “spontaneous bone growth,” a condition Mayer said has puzzled doctors since the onset of the Iraq war. The bone near his injury has grown erratically, like lace. It’s jagged and aggravates nearby muscle tissue. Mayer said the contact is painful and inconvenient.
Mayer was injured serving his second tour of duty in Iraq when a mine exploded through the wheel-well of his ASV (Armored Service Vehicle). The explosive device, he said, was a pipe bomb with a copper top “that goes through just about everything we have, even a tank.” The copper melted upon denotation, firing upwards through armor at a high rate. The molten projectile turned to shrapnel, as well as turning to shrapnel everything it touched, Mayer said.
“Including my leg,” he said, adding that some of his bone ended up wounding another soldier in the vehicle. Three of the crewmen lost limbs.

Charles "Chas" Shaffer, 23, a combat engineer with the the Army's 1-8th 3rd BN 4th Division out of Ft. Carson, Colo. lost his right leg when an improvised explosive device hit his unit Sunday night, according to his father Charles "Chip" Shaffer of O'Fallon. His lungs were also bruised by shrapnel and he received additional injuries to his left leg. Four other members of his unit were also seriously injured in the attack.

Ranger Andy Allen, 19, right leg was ripped off in a Taliban bomb attack has now lost his other leg and may not regain his sight, it has emerged. Ranger Andy Allen's devastated mother spoke yesterday of the horrifying aftermath of the ambush in Afghanistan which left her son with facial burns and unable to talk for a month. Royal Irish soldier Andy was hit when insurgents detonated a massive bomb in July in the town of Musa Qala in the volatile Helmand province.His right leg was blown off and the blast tore a huge chunk of muscle from his left thigh, burnt his face and eyeballs and peppered his face and body with shrapnel.Just 10 days later his severely infected left leg had to be amputated as he lay blind at Selly Oak military hospital in Birmingham