War News for Saturday, July 11, 2009

The British MoD is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier in an explosion near Nad e-Ali, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Friday, July 10th.

The British MoD is reporting the deaths of another five ISAF soldiers in two explosions near Sangin, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Friday, July 10th.


July 7 airpower summary:

Two Newnan Guardsmen among three wounded in Afghanistan:

Amherst man loses leg in Afghanistan:

U.S. Inaction Seen After Taliban P.O.W.’s Died: After a mass killing of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Taliban prisoners of war by the forces of an American-backed warlord during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, Bush administration officials repeatedly discouraged efforts to investigate the episode, according to government officials and human rights organizations.

Ex KBR Iraq worker held on sexual assault charge:


Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: Friday Gunmen attacked a checkpoint of a local Awakening council, American formed militia, in Al Amil killing one and injuring one around five a.m.


Diyala Prv:
#1: The driver of a car was killed in a head-on collision with a U.S. Army Stryker vehicle outside the city of Al Khalis in western Diyala province at approximately 9:20 p.m., July 9. The car struck the lead vehicle of a combined U.S. forces and Iraqi Army convoy as it was returning to Forward Operating Base Grizzly after a routine patrol. According to reports, the convoy slowed its speed to approximately 30 mph and moved to the shoulder of the road to allow the on-coming car room to pass. However, the car hit the lead vehicle head-on, killing the driver and injuring at least one Soldier inside the Stryker.


Abu Ghraib:
#1: Gunmen on Saturday killed one civilian in al-Wadi village, northern Abu Ghraib suburb (west of Baghdad), according to a security source. “The incident took place at noon,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.“The gunmen were driving a small saloon car,” he said.“They opened fire on a civilian in the village,” he added.


Jurf al Sakhar:
#1: Gunmen killed one member of a government-backed militia and wounded another in Jurf al-Sakhar, about 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.


Amarra:
#1: Three Katyusha rockets landed Friday on al-Batira airstrip northwest the city of al-Amara with no casualties or losses reported, a security source in Missan province said. “Al-Batira military landing strip, (5 km) northwest of al-Amara, came today (July 10) under an attack with three Katyusha missiles, but caused no casualties or losses,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Tikrit:
#1: A truck driver was mistakenly killed by American forces outside the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit, the US army said on Saturday. The troops had stopped along a highway between Tikrit and Balad, north of the capital, after one of the vehicles in their logistics convoy broke down early Friday. They signalled for the truck, which was approaching the convoy from the rear, to stop but it sped up as it closed in, according to a statement. A soldier then fired on the truck after the driver did not respond to the warnings, killing him. A teenage passenger was unharmed, and the incident is under joint US-Iraqi investigation.


Kirkuk:
#1: Two persons on Saturday were arrested while trying to plant an explosive charge near Kirkuk city, according to a local security source. “This morning, Iraqi army forces arrested two men while they were trying to plant an improvised explosive device (IED) on the main road linking Sulayman Bik to Touz Khormato (80 km south of Kirkuk city),” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Mosul:
#1: A policeman was killed when an improvised explosive device went off near a checkpoint west of Mosul city on Friday, a police source in Ninewa said. “The explosive charge went off near a checkpoint in al-Shifaa neighborhood, western Mosul, leaving a policeman killed,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: US-led troops killed a former high-ranking policeman in a raid near Kabul overnight. Mohammada Jan, retired director of traffic police in the province of Logar was killed as US-led troops and Afghan police attacked his house in an overnight raid, provincial police chief Ghulam Mustafah told AFP. "We had intelligence reports about his sons' involvement in destructive activities but we had no information about him being involved in such activities," Mustafah said.

#2: Another civilian was killed and seven injured when gunfire from a NATO-led base hit their home in the eastern province of Kunar overnight, a local police official said. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) could not confirm this immediately.

#3: Four security guards were meanwhile killed in an insurgent attack in southern province of Ghazni on Saturday, Afghan authorities said, claiming to have killed up to 30 rebels. The security guards were killed when a supply convoy they were escorting to a NATO-led base came under insurgent rocket attack, Ghazni's police chief Kheyal Baz Sherzai told AFP.

#4: A day earlier, 11 rebels were killed in an operation by Afghan and international forces elsewhere in Ghazni, provincial governor Mohammad Osman Osmani told AFP separately.

Four Taliban militants were killed and five others sustained injuries as the Taliban insurgents stormed police checkpoint in the relatively peaceful Baghlan province, north of Afghanistan, police said. "A group of militants raided police checkpoint in Gerdab area Friday night, and police returned fire, killing four rebels and injuring five others," Daud Behsharat the spokesman of police in the province told Xinhua.

#5: Also on Friday, in the province of Uruzgan in the south, 29 rebels were killed in similar operations, the interior ministry said in the capital, Kabul.

#6: Indian external affairs ministry officials Saturday said there was 'no confirmation' of Pakistani media reports that six Indian nationals were killed in a Taliban attack in Afghanistan. According to Dawn News of Pakistan, six Indian nationals were among 18 people killed in a Taliban attack on an Indian construction company in Afghanistan's Paktia province Friday night. The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in which 20 people were also injured.

#7: Fifteen Taliban insurgents were killed as clash erupted in a far-flanged village of Herat province in west Afghanistan, a senior police officer in the province Dilawar Shah Dilawar said Saturday. "The clash flared up in Darai Takht of Chasht district Friday morning and lasted for more than seven hours during which 15 insurgents were killed and 10 others sustained injuries," Dilawar told Xinhua. One police constable was killed and another sustained injuries, he added.

#8: Anti-government militants raided a local construction firm in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province and kidnapped four employees, officials said Saturday. "The armed militants took away an engineer, a worker and two guards of the firm Safi Construction Company on Friday night," director of the company Gul Miran told Xinhua. The company was busy in construction of the building of prison in Kunar's provincial capital Asadabad at a cost of 1.7 million U.S. dollars financed by the United States.

#9: Clashes killed six security personnel in the latest setback for Pakistan's fight against Islamists in the tribal belt, where air raids left more than 20 militants dead, officials said Friday.
Some 20 to 25 armed rebels targeted a checkpoint manned by local tribal police overnight near Khar, the main town in the semi-autonomous region of Bajaur, where Islamist militants have a significant presence, officials said. "The armed militants attacked the post killing all (four) policemen inside," local government official Adialat Khan told news agency AFP.

#10: Other security officials confirmed the incident, which came after another government official said gunmen abducted a policeman in Mamoun, 15 km northeast of Khar.

#11: On Friday, militants ambushed security forces conducting search operations in the Chinnar and Manoogi areas of Bajaur. Ensuing clashes killed two security personnel and wounded five others, military and government officials said. Helicopter gunships and artillery were used in the counter-attack in which 12 militants died, local government official Mohammad Jamil Khan told AFP.