War News for Friday, November 14, 2008

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Coalition force Soldier from a non-combat related cause somewhere in western Iraq on Thursday, November 13th. No other details were released.


Nov. 12 airpower summary:

Mideast weather roundup:

Iraq's al-Sadr renews threats to attack US:

Azerbaijan to withdraw troops from Iraq:

Militants Turn to Small Bombs in Iraq Attacks:

Secretary of Sri Lanka's former rebel leader shot dead:

Carshalton man held as Iraq terrorist after pacemaker mistaken for bomb:

Pakistan looting stops food aid convoys to Afghanistan:


Reported Security incidents:

Kirkuk:
#1: A civilian was wounded on Friday in a bomb explosion targeting a police vehicle patrol in southern Kirkuk, a police source said. “An explosive charge went off targeting a police vehicle patrol at the end of the al-Rabeaa bridge in southern Kirkuk, injuring a passing civilian,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.


Mosul:
#1: Meanwhile, a police source said that a roadside bomb exploded on Thursday night in al-Masaref neighborhood in northern Mosul, injuring a child and his mother as well as causing material damage to a nearby vehicle.



Afghanistan:
#1: A Japanese journalist was wounded in an apparent kidnap attempt in the frontier city of Peshawar on Friday _ the latest in a spate of attacks and abductions of foreigners in the city, police said. The Japanese journalist was traveling with a Pakistani assistant in a car in Peshawar when gunmen opened fire, said police officer Mohammed Khan. He was identified as Motoki Yotsukura from the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. Khan said Yotsukura was wounded in the leg. It was unclear how serious his assistant's injuries were. No other information was immediately available.

#2: Also on Friday, missiles apparently fired by U.S. unmanned aircraft hit a village near the Afghan border killed at least 12 people, including several foreign militants, Pakistani officials said. Three Pakistani intelligence officials told The Associated Press that at least two missiles hit a house in Ghari Wam, a village about 18 miles from the frontier, early Friday morning. Two officials said the death toll was 12, including several suspected foreign militants. Their exact identity was not immediately clear. Taliban gunmen had cordoned the area and removed the bodies, one official said. Another official put the toll at 13 and said that 10 of them were foreigners.

#3: Three Afghan construction workers were gunned down by militants. The three men working for a private building firm were shot and killed by attackers in a passing vehicle in the eastern province of Khost, Ismail Khail district governor Dawlat Khan Qayomi said. "They were shot and killed as they left their house," Qayomi said. The attackers fled and police were looking for them, he said.

#4: In the same province, a suicide attacker detonated an explosives-filled car near a police vehicle just outside of Khost city. Three policemen were wounded, provincial governor Arsala Jamal said. "One of the three wounded policemen is in critical condition," Jamal said.

#5: The U.S.-led force in Afghanistan announced meanwhile its soldiers had killed four al-Qaida-linked militants Thursday in an operation aimed at a network helping to move Arab and other foreign fighters into the country. The U.S. soldiers shot dead the four close to the border with Pakistan in the eastern province of Paktia's Zurmat district, the force said in a statement.

#6: Suspected Taliban militants killed a religious leader in western Afghanistan after he criticized the use of suicide attacks as a weapon of war in the country, an Afghan official said Friday. Militants kidnapped Shamsudin Agha in Farah province's Anar Dara district on Tuesday, days after he led prayers condemning the practice of using suicide attacks, said provincial police Chief Abdul Ghafar Watandar.