War News for Saturday, April 25, 2009

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - North soldier from a non-combat related incident in Salah ad Din province on Friday, April 24th. No other details were released.


April 23 airpower summary:

Dozens of CIA ”Ghost Prisoners” Missing:

Taliban insurgents ambush U.S. patrol in Afghan village:

Storm of Violence in Iraq Strains Its Security Forces:


Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: Friday Around 8:30 p.m. a magnetic bomb attached to a police officer’s car in Saidiyah neighborhood in southern Baghdad on Friday. Major Raad Meki was killed at once and three other people were wounded who were in the area.


Diyala prv:
#1: A car bomb detonated in Jalwlaa town in northeast Diyala targeting a police patrol around 7:15 p.m. Two people were killed and 26 others were wounded including 6 policemen.

Khanaqin:
#1: Three persons on Saturday were killed while planting an improvised explosive device (IED) near Khanaqin district, according to Diala’s police chief. “A fourth person, a Saudi, was arrested by the Diala police,” Abdulhussein al-Shamri told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Dujail:
#1: Six Iraqis were wounded in an armed attack in downtown al-Dujail district, Salah al-Din province, a local security source said on Saturday. “Last night (April 24), four unidentified gunmen driving a civilian vehicle attacked a group of Iraqi pilgrims who were on their way back from a visit to the two holy shrines of the Imams al-Askari in Samarra on the Baghdad-Mosul road, downtown al-Dujail district (120 km south of Tikrit),” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The wounded were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment,” the source added.An Iraqi army force engaged in clashes with the attackers, who made their way to al-Nibaie area, one of al-Qaeda’s strongholds in the area, the source explained.


Mosul:
#1: A son of a chieftain of the Shamar clan was killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in Sinjar district, west of Mosul city, on Friday, a security source in Ninewa said. “The IED targeted the vehicle of the chieftain’s son near the main road of al-Biaaj district, west of Sinjar, (110 km) west of Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Three suicide bombers penetrated the governor's compound in Afghanistan's largest southern city Saturday, killing at least five police officers in the latest multi-pronged attack in the Taliban's spiritual birthplace. The three bombers were able to get past a first security checkpoint in the governor's compound, and one bomber exploded himself at a second checkpoint, said Ahmad Wali Karzai, the president's brother and the head of Kandahar's provincial council. The two other bombers moved deeper into the compound before police fired on them and their explosives detonated, Karzai said. At least five police died in the attack and nine people were wounded, hospital officials said. The Kandahar governor was not harmed, but officials were searching for a possible fourth suicide bomber, Karzai said.

#2: Afghan troops with the support of the U.S.-led Coalition forces have killed six Taliban fighters including a local commander in the eastern Paktika province over the past two days, a spokesman of the local administration Jehanzeb Sulimankhil said Saturday. Afghan forces with the U.S.-led coalition forces conducted a joint operation which was launched in Khoshamnd district two days ago and wrapped up on Friday, killing Taliban commander Mullah Qazi and his five men," Sulimankhil told Xinhua.

#3: As many as nine people were killed in a blast in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, local TV channels reported. Children at Luqman Banda village in Dir district of North West Frontier Province found a bomb disguised as a toy outside their school and brought it home, said the report.

#4: One person was killed while another sustained critical injuries in a landmine blast in southwestern Pakistan on Saturday. Two people identified as Murad and Lesi were on their way to their village Kandoi in Dera Bugti of Balochistan province, when one of them mistakenly stepped over a landmine planted by unknown miscreants beside the road, according to official Associated Press of Pakistan.