War News for Tuesday, October 07, 2008

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - North soldier a small-arms fire attack in Mosul on Tuesday, October 7th. One Iraqi Police was also killed in the attack.

The DoD is reporting what appears to be a new death previously unreported by the military. Sgt. William P. Rudd died from small arms fire in Mosul on Sunday, October 5th. He was an Army Ranger.

The DoD is reporting what appears to be another new death previously unreported by the military. Spc. Jason E. von Zerneck died from a vehicle incident in Qara Bagh Karez, Afghanistan, on Thursday, October 2nd. No other details were released.


Oct. 5 airpower summary:

Mind training helps troops with combat, then PTSD:

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened on Tuesday to launch an incursion into northern Iraq to target Kurdish rebels if necessary, after a bloody attack last week left 17 soldiers dead.

Iraq, US Near Deal on Status of US Troops:

Secrets of Iraq's death chamber revealed: Prisoners are being summarily executed in the government's high-security detention centre in Baghdad. Robert Fisk reports...(This is well worth the read.)

200 soldiers killed, 997 injured in September in Sri Lanka:

AFGHANISTAN: El-Tor cholera leaves 17 dead

Here's an interactive polling map. I'm not the biggest fan of pollsters because it's very easy to manipulate the questions to lead for a desired answered but if it's done correctly with the proper demographics then the results are statistically accurate.


Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: Two powerful bombs exploded outside the Iraqi capital's tightly-guarded Green Zone on Tuesday as US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte was ending a visit focused on a controversial military pact. An Iraqi military officer said at least one soldier was wounded in the blasts which went off in quick succession at a time of heavy traffic. The first blast targeted a parked Iraqi armoured vehicle and a car bomb went off minutes later at a nearby parking lot opposite the foreign ministry, on the edge of the Green Zone where Iraq's government and the US embassy are located. Witnesses said a limpet-type magnetic mine had been used in the first attack against the armoured vehicle parked at a security checkpoint leading to the Green Zone. The tyres of the vehicle caught fire and the doors were blown out. Minutes after the attacks, Negroponte began his scheduled press conference with Zebari. The latest attacks in the central Salhiyah neighbourhood of Baghdad came despite a tight security cordon and stepped-up checks on vehicles and followed a spate of bombings in the capital last week.

Iraqi police say that two blasts in front of the Foreign Ministry have wounded at least five people.

#2: Five civilians were wounded when two mortar shells landed in central Baghdad on Tuesday, an Iraqi police official said. "One of the two mortars landed on a civilian vehicles parking lot in al-Allawi area, central Baghdad, leaving five civilians wounded," the source told Aswat al-Iraq.

#3: Police forces on Tuesday found two unknown bodies in southeast of Baghdad, a police source said. “The forces found the two bodies in al-Baladiyat district and al-Re’asa neighborhood in western Sadr City in southeast of Baghdad,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.


Kut:
#1: A civilian man was killed by the fire of unidentified gunmen, two of them were wounded in a feud with the killed man's family in eastern Kut city, a police source in Wassit said. "Unidentified gunmen waged an armed attack during the early hours of Tuesady on a family in Anwar al-Sadr area, eastern Kut, leaving one member killed. Two of the gunmen were injured in the clashes," the source told Aswat al-Iraq.

#2: Policemen found two unidentified bodies of a young man and a young woman in the area of al-Ghabat, eastern Kut city, on Tuesday, a police source in Wassit province said.


Mosul:
#1: One U.S. soldier and one Iraqi policeman were killed in a shootout overnight on Tuesday in the Hay Domiz neighbourhood of southeastern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraqi police and the U.S. military said. One gunmen was also reported killed and four others were arrested. Another police officer was also wounded.

#2: Gunmen killed a shop owner in central Mosul.

#3: Gunmen killed a governmental employee in al Quds neighborhood in Mosul.

#4: Gunmen killed a butcher and injured his son in their shop in Mosul.

#5: A child was killed and ten civilians were wounded on Tuesday in a suicide car bomb explosion in western Mosul, a security source said. “A suicide bomber blew up a car rigged with explosives targeting a U.S. vehicle patrol between Sheikh Fathi and al-Boursa regions in western Baghdad,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq. “The explosion killed a child and injured ten civilians,” he added, without giving details on casualties among U.S. forces.


Northern Iraq:
#1: Turkish warplanes bombed suspected Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey on Tuesday, in new air strikes responding to an attack that killed 17 soldiers at a military outpost four days ago. The military said its fighter jets attacked 21 rebel positions early Tuesday in Iraq's Avasin Baysan region and Turkey's Iki Yaka and Buzul Dagi mountains that border Iraq.



Afghanistan:
#1: The US coalition says its forces have killed 43 militants in southern Afghanistan. The coalition said in a statement that Afghan and U.S. troops battled the militants in Qalat district of Zabul province Sunday. It said militants ambushed the patrol before the joint force fought back and called in airstrikes that killed the militants.


Casualty Reports:

Sgt. Joshua Haun, of Paradise, was injured when on a supply mission with the 49th Military Police Brigade in northern Iraq in August 2006. The convoy he was in was hit by a roadside bomb. Haun was severely injured during the incident and continues to recover more than two years later.

Sgt. First Class Diaz, 46, formerly of Brooklyn, is a U.S. Army combat medic stationed in Heidelberg, Germany is back on active duty, has a chronic neck injury as a result of a car bombing earlier this year during his second tour of Iraq.