War News for Friday, January 09, 2009

"This is a farewell kiss, you dog. This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq." Muntazer al-Zaidi 12-14-08


The NY Times is reporting the deaths of three U.S. ISAF soldiers from a roadside bombing in Zabul Province, near the border of neighboring Kandahar Province on Friday, January 9th. Here's the ISAF release.

The Tri-city Herald is reporting the death of a civilian contractor, Paula Loyd, at the Brooke Army Medical Center on Wednesday, January 7th, from wounds she received from being doused with fuel and set on fire in Maywand, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008.


Jan. 6 airpower summary:

U.S. says Iraqis may still be held without charge: (Here we go...it's only been ten days and we're rewriting the agreement.)

Wounded, but still battling:

Cheney slams irresponsible Iraq pullout: (Eleven days and counting)

Post-traumatic stress blamed after soldiers shot at base:

Iraq police no longer infiltrated by militias - PM:

Iraqis march against Israel, cleric wants revenge :


Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: A roadside bomb targeted worshipers in al Bawi Mosque in Maamil neighbourhood, northeastern Baghdad after they finished prayersat around 1.30 p.m. Friday killing one and injuring six.

Iraqi police say a roadside bomb targeting worshippers on their way to pray at a Shiite mosque in Baghdad has killed three people.


Diyala Prv:
Al Saadiya:
#1: One child was killed and another wounded on Friday when an improvised explosive device went off in a village of al-Saadiya district, a police source in Khanaqin said. “An IED went off in the village of Hamrin, southern Saadiya, (35 km) south of Khanaqin district, on Friday (Jan. 9), killing a 12-year-old boy and seriously wounding a 10-year-old girl,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Basra:
#1: The al-Fayhaa hospital received 20 civilians wounded in random shootout from separate areas of Basra, said a medic on Friday. “The al-Fayhaa hospital on Thursday night (Jan. 9) received 20 civilians; most of them were wounded by bullets while others were wounded by a rocket’s shrapnels,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, noting that some of the wounded were in a critical condition.

Eyewitnesses said that a Katyusha rocket targeted a checkpoint in al Mwafaqiyah neighbourhood, Thursday evening, after which the security manning the checkpoint opened fire randomly, injuring civilians.


Baiji:
#1: A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol killed five soldiers today in the town of Baiji, 110 miles north of Baghdad.


Mosul:
#1: In Mosul, a security source said that two soldiers were killed and another one was injured in an armed attack on an Iraqi army checkpoint I al-Qahera neighborhood in northern Mosul.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body inside a produce shop in southern Afghanistan on Friday, killing six people, the provincial governor said. The bomber was apparently targeting a police official who was inside the shop, said Ghulam Dastagir Azad, the governor of Nimroz province. The explosion in the provincial capital killed the official and five civilians, he said.

A suicide bomber killed more than 10 civilians and a senior Afghan police officer and his bodyguard in southwest Afghanistan on Friday, a provincial governor said. The deputy chief of the highway police and his bodyguard were buying fruit in the market in Zaranj, the provincial capital of Nimroz province, when the attacker struck, Ghulam Dastegir-Azad, the governor of Nimroz, said.

#2: In another attack against foreign soldiers, a remote-controlled bomb struck convoys in the eastern province of Khost Friday, wounding two soldiers in a US-led coalition that works alongside ISAF, a military official said.

#3: The US military in Afghanistan said Friday that its forces killed five Taliban insurgents in a raid in the restive south. Thursday's raid in the southern province of Zabul targeted a militant the force said known to have been involved in bomb attacks on civilians and international soldiers. Militants holed up in compound ignored demands to surrender and continued to shoot at the troops, the US military said in a statement. "Having moved the women and children to safety, the force entered the buildings, killing five armed militants and detaining three suspected militants during the operation," it said.


Casualty Reports:

Marine sergeant Ian LeJeune was serving in Iraq when a rocket burst into his barracks and exploded. As a result, LeJeune has undergone 18 surgeries. He has gone from using a wheelchair to a walker and now a cane. His left Achilles tendon is severed, he wears a leg brace, and there are plates inside his left foot and right knee. Doctors put a spinal cord stimulator in his back to help with the pain in his legs. A wire leads to batteries, which he can signal to send a tingling sensation.