War News for Wednesday, October 15, 2008

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldier from small-arms fire in a western neighborhood of Baghdad on Thursday, October 14th. No other details were released.


Oct. 13 airpower summary:

Thai, Cambodian troops exchange border gunfire:

5 Afghan scholars missing from U.S. university:

US warns on ageing Iraqi oil pipelines:

Buckley leaves National Review after Obama endorsement:

140 Iraqi refugees in Syria head home:

Christian families fleeing Mosul number 1,390:


Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: Al-Kindi hospital received on Wednesday morning a body and four wounded persons as a result of a bomb explosion in southeastern Baghdad, a medical source said. “An improvised explosive device went off this morning in Jisr Diala region in southeastern Baghdad, killing a person and wounding four, who were sent to the al-Kindi hospital for treatment,” he added. He did not give further details.

#2: Tuesday Around 8:00 p.m. an adhesive bomb stuck to a sedan detonated in Karrada neighborhood in downtown Baghdad. When the police patrols came to the area of the explosion, a roadside bomb detonated injuring three policemen.

#3: Tuesday Police found one unidentified body in Jamia’a neighborhood in west Baghdad.

#4: Five mortar rounds landed in an unoccupied area close to Baghdad International Airport, police said. A source in the airport said there no casualties were reported in the attack.

#5: Police said five mortar rounds landed in the fortified Green Zone which houses the U.S. embassy and some Iraqi ministries and officials. The U.S. military said no mortar attacks on the Green Zone had been reported.

#6: Two roadside bombs exploded in quick succession inside the base of the U.S.-backed neighbourhood groups, wounding two of them and four Iraqi soldiers visiting the base in Doura district of southern Baghdad, police said.

#7: Three policemen were wounded when a bomb exploded near their patrol on Tuesday in Karrada district of central Baghdad, police said.

#8: Three policemen were wounded on Wednesday in a bomb explosion in southern Baghdad, a police source said. “A roadside bomb, planted by unknown gunmen on the main road in al-Doura neighborhood in southern Baghdad, went off targeting a police vehicle patrol, injuring three policemen,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.

#9: A least four civilians were wounded when mortars fell near a mosque in Baghdad, a police source said. “A mortar landed in an rea near Abu Hanifa mosque in al-Adhamiya district, north Baghdad, leaving four civilians variably wounded, “a Baghdad police source told Aswat al-Iraq.

#10: The U.S military said it carried out a series of controlled detonations around Baghdad's airport and fortified Green Zone compound, denying earlier Iraqi police reports that mortars had struck the two areas. No injuries were reported.


Diyala Prv:
Balad ruz:
#1: A bomb went off on Wednesday morning in Baquba as a minibus was passing the Balad Roze neighbourhood. Two people were killed in the attack and four injured.


Kut:
#1: A civilian was killed on Wednesday by unknown gunmen in eastern Kut city, a police source said. “Unidentified gunmen opened fire at a civilian in Anwar region in eastern Kut, killing him instantly,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.


Karbala:
#1: Iraqi national guards found 22 unknown bodies in a mass grave in western Karbala, a well-known source said on Wednesday. “The 4th battalion of the Iraqi national guards found a mass grave containing 22 unidentified bodies in western Baghdad after receiving intelligence information,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq. “The bodies belongs to civilians seem to be killed by gunmen months ago,” he added. “The corpses were sent to the forensic medicine department,” he noted.In July 2007, gunmen, wearing police uniform, kidnapped 22 shepherds in al-Rafeea region in north of Karbala.

#2: Major-General Ali al-Hamdani, intelligence chief for three of Iraq's southern provinces, was injured in a roadside bomb blast on Wednesday along with his two children, police in Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad, said.


Mosul:
#1: “An explosive charge went off targeting an Iraqi army vehicle patrol in al-Intesar neighborhood in southeastern Mosul, injuring two Iraqi soldiers,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.

#2: “Nine civilians were injured in a roadside bomb blast targeting another Iraqi army vehicle patrol late Tuesday in al-Resala neighborhood in western Mosul,” he explained.

#3: Police killed one attacker when gunmen attacked their patrol in Mosul, police said.

#4: A police patrol mistakenly opened fire in central Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, killing a civilian man and wounding a woman, police said.

#5: U.S. forces said on Wednesday they had killed the second-in-command of al Qaeda in Iraq, the Sunni Islamist militants who ally themselves with Osama bin Laden's organisation. They said Abu Qaswarah, a Moroccan, had been identified this week after being killed in Mosul on Oct. 5.

#6: Two children were wounded in a bomb explosion in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

#7: One gunman was killed in clashes with police in southeastern Mosul, police said.



Afghanistan:
#1: In the morning of October 14, ISAF soldiers followed escalation of force procedures when a motorcycle approached a vehicle checkpoint near an ISAF base in Sangin district, Helmand.
When the rider failed to stop, an ISAF soldier fired a warning shot, which ricocheted off the ground and hit the man in the foot.

#2: Taliban militants attacked police checkpoints ringing a key provincial capital in southern Afghanistan for the second time in a week, sparking a battle in which 18 insurgents were killed, an official said Wednesday. Tuesday's battle killed 18 militants and wounded three police, said provincial police chief Assadullah Sherzad. Sherzad said authorities recovered only one militant body and that the others were carried away by fighters. Afghan officials say they rely on intelligence reports to form militant death tolls, but government officials have been known to exaggerate such tolls in past battles.

About 70 Taliban fighters were killed in an overnight air strike by foreign forces in the southern Afghan province of Helmand near the Pakistan border, the provincial governor's spokesman said on Wednesday. The attack took place late on Tuesday in Helmand's Baram Cha district. Provincial authorities said earlier on Wednesday that another 22 Taliban insurgents and six Afghan policemen were killed in overnight clashes in the south.

#3: In a separate incident, six policemen died after a shootout among officers inside a police checkpoint about 15 miles north of Lashkar Gah, said Daud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the provincial governor.

In another incident, gunmen killed six Afghan policemen at their checkpost in the same district, Ahmadi said.

#4: NATO-led Afghan troops also killed four Taliban fighters in the Andar district of Ghazni province on Tuesday, said senior provincial police officer General Naorooz.


Casualty Reports:

Corporal Chris Kotch, 21, was hit by an improvised explosive device in September 2003 while on routine patrol near Al'Fallujah in Iraq. His left vocal chord is now paralyzed, due to a procedure following his injury, and you’ll hear the effects of that damage in his voice.