War News for Thursday, October 09, 2008

Oct. 7 airpower summary:


Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: A bomb struck a convoy carrying lawmakers loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Thursday in Baghdad, seriously wounding a senior member of the Shiite bloc, officials said.
The explosion occurred as Saleh al-Auqaeili car passed about 200 yards (meters) away from an Iraqi army checkpoint in the Habibiyah area near Baghdad's main Shiite district of Sadr City, according to one of his colleagues. But Shanshal said the explosives had been planted in a hole dug into a nearby sidewalk. An Interior Ministry official, who declined to be identified because he wasn't authorized to release the information, confirmed it was a roadside bomb and said two people were killed in the blast.

Sadrist MP Saleh al-Eikeli died in the hospital of wounds he sustained from the explosion that targeted his car in eastern Baghdad, the spokesman for the Sadrist bloc said on Thursday

#2: A civilian was killed and four more were wounded in a bomb explosion in eastern Baghdad on Thursday, the second of its kind today, a police source said. "An explosive device, planted by unknown gunmen near al-Muthafar square in Sadr city in eastern Baghdad, exploded, killing a civilian and injuring four," the source told Aswat al-Iraq. "Ambulances rushed the wounded to nearby hospitals, while security forces cordoned off the area and prevented civilians from entering it," he added. A medical source had said earlier a Sadrist lawmaker was seriously injured on Thursday in a bomb explosion in eastern Baghdad.

#3: Around 8 am a roadside bomb targeted a traffic police patrol in Mudhafar intersection in Sadr city. Four people were injured including two traffic policemen.


Diyala Prv:
Baquba:
#1: A Iraqi Sunni militia leader working with US forces was killed in a roadside blast along with two of his children and a nephews on Thursday north of Baghdad, security officials said. Abbas Khudair, who heads a Sahwa, or Awakening group, that is paid by American forces, was targeted as he drove with his family in the Al-Uthaim area in Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, officials said.


Iskandayiya:
#1: Three Iranian pilgrims were wounded on Wednesday night when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle on the main road near Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. They were heading to the holy city of Najaf.


Al Shamaliya/Karbala:
#1: A sticky bomb attached to a car carrying employees of Kerbala governing council, killed one and wounded two in the village of al-Shamaliya, west of the Shi'ite holy city of Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad, police said on Thursday.

The director of the Karbala provincial council was killed and two employees were wounded on Thursday morning in a bomb blast in central Karbala, an official source said. "An explosive charge, placed inside a car belongs to the Karbala provincial council carrying the director of the council and a number of employees, went off at the center of the city, killing the director and wounding two employees," the source told Aswat al-Iraq.


Sulaimaniya Prv:
#1: Iranian heavy artillery pounded cross-border areas in Sulaimaniya province, but no casualties were reported, a senior official said on Thursday. "Heavy artillery shelling began last midnight and continued for an hour," the director of Sulaimaniya's Zarawa district, Ezad Wasso, told Aswat al-Iraq. The shelling targeted the areas of Razka, Mardo, Shanawa, and Arka, nearly 15 km from the Iraqi-Iranian borders, the director explained, noting that no casualties were reported.


Kirkuk:
#1: Two women were wounded on Wednesday when a mortar round landed on their house in the northern city of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Three mortars hit the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) headquarters in Kirkuk city on Wednesday night. Two women were wounded.

#2: Meanwhile, in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, another Sahwa leader was shot dead on Wednesday night by unidentified gunmen, police Captain Firas al-Juburi said.

#3: Gunmen killed an intelligence member of the PatrioticUnion of Kurdistan (PUK) with a civilian who was with him in Aghjlar town( east of Kirkuk) on Wednesday night.


Mosul:
#1: A roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol, wounding one civilian and one policeman in Mosul on Wednesday, police said.

#2: Police found a body of undentified man who was shot in the head and chest in eastern Mosul.

#3: Gunmen killed a Christian man on Wednesday near his home in eastern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

#4: Gunmen killed an off-duty policeman in a drive-by shooting in eastern Mosul, police said.


Tal Afar:
#1: A civilian and a policeman were killed and three more civilians were wounded when an improvised explosive device went off in Talafar district in west of Mosul, a police source said. "An explosive charge was detonated today inside a restaurant in al-Atebaa street in Talafar, killing a civilian and a cop and injuring three civilians," the source told Aswat al-Iraq.



Afghanistan:
#1: Coalition troops on a security patrol Wednesday in the Shaheed Hasas district of Uruzgan province repelled an ambush by insurgents, killing 12 militants, the U.S. military said in a statement. There were no coalition casualties. The statement said fire from militants in the area killed 10 civilians and wounded three women and six children. Uruzgan's provincial governor, Asadullah Hamdam, could only confirm that six civilians were wounded when an insurgent rocket missed a coalition convoy and hit a nearby village. It was not immediately clear if the incidents were related, and there was no independent confirmation of the coalition account because of the remoteness of the area.

#2: In neighboring Helmand province on Wednesday, coalition troops called in an airstrike after a group of militants attacked their convoy, the U.S. military said in separate statement Thursday. Nine militants were killed and there were no coalition casualties, it said.

#3: An explosives-laden vehicle blew up an anti-terrorist squad building and wounded nine people Thursday in a police complex in Pakistan's capital just moments after a man delivered sweets to the facility, officials said. Police said they are probing whether it was a suicide attack and whether the delivery of sweets was at all linked. Some body parts were found that might belong to a suicide bomber, Islamabad Police Chief Asghar Gardaizi said. The incident occurred as lawmakers gathered for a security briefing. Pakistan, a U.S. ally in the war on terror, is besieged by militancy, and the capital has been under tight security because of the private session.

#4: At least six militants, including a commander have been killed in air bombardment by coalition forces in Afghanistan's Farah province. An Afghan Army commander, Farooq Naimi, said that the bombardment was “apparently in reaction to a Taliban ambush on coalition forces in the province," Press TV's correspondent in Afghanistan reported.

#5: Ten Taliban insurgents were killed when a rocket they were trying to launch exploded in the Jalrez district some 55 km (35 miles) southwest of Kabul on Wednesday, provincial governor's spokesman Adam Khan Seerat said.

#6: One insurgent was killed and one Afghan soldier was wounded while a roadside bomb he was trying to plant exploded in the Zani Khail district of Khost province, some 150 km (90 kms) east of Kabul, on Wednesday.

#7: Three children, two police and three prisoners died when a roadside bomb exploded on a prison vehicle and caught a schoolbus in its wake in the Dir region, government official Habib Rehman said.


Casualty Reports:

Sgt. Brian Scott who was stationed in East Baghdad in Iraq, was in charge of supervising and helping the Iraqi police force in East Baghdad. Scott's humvee was attacked by enemy fire while waiting outside the Iraqi police station where an attack had occurred only minutes before. a piece of shrapnel was lodged into Scott's head and he was pinned between the seat of the humvee and the dashboard. Preceding the incident, Brian Scott was flown to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where he was treated for his injury. Although he was told that the piece of shrapnel can never be removed in fear of brain damage.