War News for Monday, February 09, 2009

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldier from a non-combat related incident in an undisclosed location in Iraq on Sunday, February 8th.

IC Publications is reporting the deaths of four American soldiers in a suicide car bombing attack in Mosul, Iraq on Monday February 9th. An Iraqi interpreter was also killed in the attack.

Feb. 6 Airpower Summary:

Feb. 7 Airpower Summary:

Iraq's roads wear on military vehicles:

40,000 Iraq security personnel to protect pilgrims:

4 Iraqis moved from Guantanamo to Iraq:

Suicide Bomber Kills 23 in Sri Lanka:

A Military Tactician's Political Strategy:


Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: Seven people were wounded on Sunday night when a mortar round landed in a courtyard in the Kadhimiya district of northwestern Baghdad, police said.


Diwaniya:
#1: An 8-year-old Iraqi girl was killed and several others were wounded when gunfire from a US military convoy struck a crowd of Sh'iite pilgrims traveling to the holy city of Karbala, witnesses and Iraqi officials said. The US military confirmed that there had been an accidental discharge of a weapon and that it had reports of two people wounded in Diwaniya, the area in central Iraq where the shooting took place Saturday. It said it was starting an investigation.


Kirkuk:
#1: A policeman was wounded by a roadside bomb which targeted a police patrol in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Mosul:
#1: U.S. forces killed a man on Sunday when he threw a grenade at their patrol in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

#2: Gunmen in a speeding car shot dead a taxi driver on Sunday in Mosul, police said.

#3: A roadside bomb wounded two children in eastern Mosul on Sunday, police said.

#4: Three persons, including two cops, on Monday were wounded in a car bomb explosion in western Mosul city, according to a local source. “A suicide car bomber detonated his car near an American patrol in Mosul al-Jadida area, western Mosul, wounding three persons, including two policemen,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The policemen were manning a checkpoint close to the scene of the blast,” the source explained.

A suicide car bomber targeted an American patrol in the New Mosul neighborhood (west Mosul) around 12:40 p.m. Three people were wounded included two policemen who were at a check point at the scene.

#5: Police said they found the body of a 16 year-old teenage girl from the Yazidi religious minority, slain in northern Mosul.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: An Air Force MQ-1 Predator unmanned aircraft crashed in southern Afghanistan Feb. 8 at approx 11:35 a.m. local time. The aircraft is a medium-altitude, long-endurance, remotely piloted aircraft. The MQ-1's primary mission is conducting armed reconnaissance.

#2: A roadside bomb ripped through a police vehicle in Khogyani district, near the border with Pakistan, killing two police and wounding three civilians, said Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, spokesman for the provincial governor.

#3: A suicide bomber attacked a group of Afghan soldiers Sunday in southwestern Nimroz province, killing one soldier and two civilians, Gov. Ghulam Dastagir Azad said.

#4: A Pakistani Taliban commander and key aide to tribal warlord Baitullah Mehsud was wounded on Monday in a bomb attack that killed his driver near the Afghan border, officials said. A remote-controlled bomb exploded by the side of a road in the Tanga area of South Waziristan, a semi-autonomous tribal district, when Noor Syed Mehsud was passing in a vehicle en route to Jandola village. "According to reports received here Mehsud was slightly injured, while his driver died in the bomb blast," a security official in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan, said.

#5: Media reports claimed on Monday that Simon Paramanathan, an Indian worker kidnapped in Afghanistan, has been killed by his abductors, the Taliban. Paramanathan, who was working in the Herat province, was abducted in October last year.

#6: Eighteen policemen were injured in a suicide attack on a police checkpoint in Bannu on Monday. According to police sources, a suicide bomber exploded his car at Baranpul police checkpoint on Miranshah road that damaged the building of the checkpost. Eighteen including 16 FC officials and two policemen were injured in the attack The injured were shifted to district hospital Bannu. DSP Tahir Dawar has confirmed that 11 officials sustained injuries. He said security has been tightened after the blast.

#7: A driver was killed and his cleaner injured in firing on NATO trailer between Khuzdar and Surab Sunday. According to details, a trailer was carrying goods for NATO forces in Kandahar from Karachi today. Unknown persons opened fire on the trailer near Lakhorian about 50 Km from Khuzdar. Bullets shattered windowpanes of the trailer. Driver Sawar Khan was killed and cleaner Azam sustained injuries. He was removed to Khuzdar where he was admitted for treatment.

#8: Two civilians were wounded after NATO-led troops responded with air strikes to an insurgent ambush in southern Afghanistan on Saturday. It was not clear who was responsible for the wounds, the NATO-led force said.

#9: Afghan police assisted by U.S.-led coalition troops killed a suspected mid-level Taliban commander after a raid on his house in Washir district, some 590 km (365 miles) southwest of Kabul on Saturday. The suspect fled the building and fired on the patrol which then killed him and detained four others, the U.S. military said in a statement.

#10: Pakistani Taliban militants in North Waziristan killed a man they accused of being a U.S. spy and dumped his body by the side of a road near the Afghan border, residents and a government official said. A note left with the body warned that other spies would face the same fate.

#11: 13 tribesmen were killed Monday when a house was hit by rocket shells in northwestern Pakistan, according to the private Dawn TV. Dawn TV quoted official sources as saying that the incident occurred at the Dera Adam Khel tribal town in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP).


Casualty Reports:

Canadian Adam Boutilier, 29, sustained two fractured legs when the light armoured vehicle he was travelling in hit a roadside bomb last week. Boutilier says her son is "doing great," despite having both of his legs fractured and a heel crushed in the explosion.