War News for Friday, April 10, 2009

MNF-Iraq is reporting the deaths of five U.S. Coalition Soldiers in a suicide vehicle borne improvised explosive device attack in an Mosul, Iraq of Baghdad on Friday, April 10th. One additional soldier was wounded in the attack. Two Iraqi Security Forces were also killed and 20 others were wounded.


April 7 airpower summary:

In other developments, Iraq planned to create an atomic energy agency nearly three decades after Israeli bombers destroyed a reactor being built by Saddam Hussein, the government spokesman said. Ali al-Dabbagh said the government has decided to create a national nuclear energy commission that will be responsible for controlling nuclear activities in the country and assuring they are in line with international regulations.

US marine cleared of Iraq killing: Sgt Ryan Weemer's court-martial was sparked by his own alleged confession to the 2004 killing in Falluja during a lie-detector test. The jury of eight US marines also cleared him of dereliction of duty.

'Fallujah never leaves my mind' By Laith Mushtaq, cameraman, Al Jazeera:

Blackwater out of Iraq in name only:

U.S. military concedes Afghan civilian casualties: The U.S. military has conceded that troops under its command in Afghanistan killed a group of civilians in an operation this week, not militants as earlier reported.

Obama requests $83B for operations in Iraq, Afghanistan:

C.I.A. to Close Secret Prisons for Terror Suspects: (Yea right, i really believe this one...whisker)


Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: A Katyusha missile hit a house in Taji district, a northern suburb of Baghdad injuring two women and causing extensive material damage to the house.

#2: A roadside bomb targeted civilians in the city of Yousifiyah, 25 km to the south of Baghdad City killing two, injuring four others.


Diyala Prv:
#1: Two people, including a woman, were killed when a civilian car was damaged by a roadside bomb in al-Mansorea district, about 35 km east of Baqubah, the capital city of Diyala province. Five others were also injured in the bombing, according to the source.

#2: In a separate incident, at least 10 people were injured by a cycle bomb detonated near a wedding party in al-Askaree district, about 30 km east of Baqubah, the source said.

#3: The Diala police chief announced on Friday that the fourth Operation “New Dawn” started in central Baaquba. “Police forces started on the wee small hours of Friday morning (April 10) the fourth Operation (New Dawn) to hunt down al-Qaeda strongholds in al-Mafraq, al-Katoun and al-Mualameen neighborhoods in central Baaquba,” General Abdul Hussein al-Shemri told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#4: Around 4:15 p.m. one construction worker was killed and another wounded by an IED inside Saad Camp for the Iraqi army in eastern Baquba on Thursday.

#5: Thursday Around 5:15 p.m. a bicycle bomb detonated among people who were attending a wedding party in downtown Balad Ruz (about 25 miles southeast Baquba). Six people were wounded, two women and four men.


Amarra:
#1: A roadside bomb on Thursday went off targeting a police patrol in northern Amara city, without causing any casualties, said a source from Missan province’s police. “The incident took place in al-Moalimeen neighborhood, northern Amara,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The explosion caused no casualties, but damaged the patrol’s vehicle,” he said.


Basra:
#1: The bomb which went off in Basra on Thursday targeted the Iraqi army not the Multinational forces, the media advisor of the U.S. forces said on Friday. “An explosive charge went off on Thursday (April 9) targeting an Iraqi army vehicle patrol in Basra,” al-Muqdad Jebreel told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. A source from Basra Operations Room had said Thursday a roadside bomb went off targeting a Multi-National Forces (MNF) patrol in Iraq’s southern city of Basra, without causing any damages or casualties. “The incident took place while the patrol was en-route to its base at Basra International Airport,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Riyadh:
#1: One gunman was wounded while he was attempting to plant a grenade to target a Sahwa (Awakening) checkpoint, to the southwest of Kirkuk, said a source from the province’s police. “The incident took place in al-Riyadh district, 45 km southwest of Kirkuk,” Brigadier Serhad Qadir told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The wounded gunman was immediately arrested by Sahwa fighters,” he said.


Mosul:
#1: A suicide bomber detonated a truck packed with explosives outside an Iraqi army and police base in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, killing one soldier and wounding 30 other people, police said. The toll of dead and wounded was only preliminary, and likely to rise, said a police source, who declined to be named. He said 15 of the wounded were police.

At least eight people were killed and 20 wounded in a suicide truck bombing in Iraq's restive northern city of Mosul on Friday, security sources told. The blast occurred in the southern part of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed al-Juburi told. An interior ministry official said at least eight people were killed.

A suicide bomber detonated a truck packed with explosives outside an Iraqi army and police base in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Friday, killing two people and wounding 70 others, police said. The attack killed one soldier and one policeman, and at least 15 other policemen were among the wounded, police said. The blast destroyed five Iraqi and two U.S. armoured vehicles. The U.S. military was not immediately available to comment.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: SUSPECTED Taliban militants planted a bomb in northwest Pakistan that destroyed six tankers supplying fuel to NATO troops in neighbouring Afghanistan, officials said today. Around 35 tankers were parked overnight at the Chamkani area, outside Peshawar, when militants placed a bomb under one of the vehicles loaded with diesel, petrol and aviation fuel, police official Asmatullah Khan said. The blast triggered a fire which spread to another five tankers, he said, adding that the blaze was only brought under control by Pakistan air force vehicles after local firefighters failed to tame the flames.

#2: Separately, three people were wounded today in a blast in the northwestern rural town of Havaid, close to the restive North Waziristan tribal district where Taliban militants are active, police said. The blast took place at a bunker dug by volunteer tribesmen fighting Taliban militants around 25km west of the garrison town of Bannu.

#3: A Swedish patrol, part of the international Isaf forces, were shot at near Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan yesterday evening. The Defence force is very confidential about what happened but it is clear that they were shoot at and that some kind of explosives were involved. The incident took place thirty kilometers west of Mazar-i-Sharif in the Balkh province during a joint operation with the Afghan police. The Swedes were unharmed but an Afghan police officer was killed. None of the attackers are reported to have been killed or injured.

#4: The US military said Friday that its troops working with Afghan soldiers killed five militants from a network linked to a suicide attack that claimed the life of a foreign soldier earlier this year. The operation late Thursday was conducted in the Maywand district of the southern province of Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold where the US-led coalition has conducted other raids in the past week that it said killed 10 militants.

#5: Al Qaeda-linked militants shot dead a man and beheaded another in the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border, accusing them of being "U.S. spies", security officials and residents said.

#6: Suspected separatist militants attacked a paramilitary vehicle with a grenade, wounding five soldiers, police said. (province of Baluchistan, Pakistan)

#7: Afghan troops and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the latest operation against Taliban insurgents in southern Afghan province of Helmand killed 36 insurgents and wounded 18 more on Friday, officials said. Daud Ahmadi, the spokesman of provincial administration, told Xinhua that the clash erupted in Nad Ali district at 4 a.m. local time Friday (2330 GMT Thursday) when the joint patrol of Afghan and ISAF troops engaged with Taliban militants. Ahmadi said no casualties were caused on the joint forces while they eliminated 36 insurgents and injured 18 others.

#8: Taliban insurgents attacked a police post in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province Friday, killing six policemen and wounding another seven, the provincial government said. The attack occurred in the Nawa district, just outside the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, provincial government spokesman Daud Ahmadi said.


Casualty Reports:

1st Lt. Josh Darnell was patrolling in a local market in Hutal, a village about 80-kilometers west of Kandahar, Afghanistan. "A suicide bomber waited." When the Soldiers got closer to the robed bomber, he detonated about 40 to 50 pounds of a homemade explosive combined with items which could have included ball-bearings and nails. The device killed two Soldiers and injured another 12; about 20 Afghan natives were killed or injured in the blast, which tore through Darnell's right arm taking his elbow with it. Shrapnel pierced his hips and legs.
Only hours after the explosion, he was headed to Germany, where he spent four days then it was back to the United States. "Initially, I was supposed to go to Walter Reed, but my surgeon heard I had Family in North Georgia," he said.