War News for Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Foreign firms snub Iraq oil industry:

Pertamina Consortium Withdraws Bid For Iraq Oil Block-Official:

No major Iraq oil production next 5 years: IEA:

Iraq approves BP oil deal, rejects other bids:

Iraq: Mission Not Yet Accomplished:

Have We Forgotten Iraq?:

Foreign forces losing in Afghanistan: UK:

Obama aide says no more troops to Afghanistan:

Second Thoughts on North Korea’s Inscrutable Ship:


Reported Security incidents:




Makhmour:
#1: Iraqi army forces on Wednesday found an unknown body in west of Makhmour district in northern Iraq, an army source said. “Iraqi army forces found on Wednesday (July 1) an unidentified body of a 50-year-old man near Diwazenty village in west of Makhmour,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: At least one person was killed while four others sustained injuries when four rockets were fired from an unidentified location Wednesday in the northwestern Pakistan's Nowshera district. According to police sources, four fired rockets hit separate areas killing one sweeper besides injuring four others. The injured persons were shifted to hospital where they were provided treatment facilities.

#2: Meanwhile, a tribal chief in Khyber agency bordering Afghanistan was killed along with his driver and bodyguard in an ambush Wednesday morning. Tribal elder Haji Gul Shah of Kokikhel tribe Haji Gul Shah and two others were killed at Tehsil Jamrud when unknown assailants ambushed his vehicle on the way from his hometown to Peshawar, the capital city of the North West Frontier Province.

#3: At least 18 wounded Taliban militants were slaughtered by their own men after the terrorists failed to evacuate them during fierce fighting in Pakistan's tribal belt, the military has said. The military yesterday said it had "reliably learnt that during the clearance of Biha valley (in Swat), 18 wounded terrorists, who could not have been taken to safety, were slaughtered by their own people on the orders of their commanders".

#4: Meanwhile, the Army said it is winding down the operations against the Taliban in Swat and other areas of Malakand division in the North West Frontier Province. It claimed that nearly 1,600 militants have been killed in the operations, however the figure cannot be independently confirmed as journalists are barred from reporting from the conflict zone.

#5: Four Taliban insurgents were killed as they came in contact with Afghan National Police and U.S. -led Coalition troops in southern Afghan province of Ghazni Wednesday morning, police said. "It was 09:30 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) when the rebels ambushed a joint convoy of police and coalition forces, and four rebels were killed after exchanging fire," provincial police chief of Ghazni Khial Baz Shirzai told Xinhua.

#6: In a separate incident, Taliban militants kidnapped 11 community elders Tuesday night in Arizo area in suburban area of provincial capital Ghazni city. According to police chief, Taliban conducted the crime for revenge of which the elders stopped the insurgents from planting mines on the roads to attack security forces.

#7: One Taliban fighter was killed and two others were made captive as they came in contact with German forces stationed in Jauzjan province, north of Afghanistan, a local official said Wednesday. "A team of German forces was on patrol in Qardara village of Darzab district Tuesday evening when Taliban insurgents attacked and the troops returned fire killing one insurgent and arrested two others," Gildi Murad the governor of Darzab district told Xinhua.

#8: Four Taliban insurgents were killed while planting a landmine in Ghazni province, southwest of Kabul, overnight, the interior ministry said.

#9: Three members of a family, including two children, were killed and four wounded when a rocket hit a house in eastern Kunar province, a provincial official said. It was not clear who fired the rocket.

#10: One policeman was killed and three wounded when their checkpoint was attacked by insurgents in Rabaat Sangee district, close to the border with Iran and Turkmenistan, on Tuesday night, said Herat security spokesman Samanwal Nourkhan Nikzad. A spokesman for Harakat-ul Mujahedin, a new Herat-based militant group which says its is a Taliban offshoot, said they killed six police officers and captured six more. Nikzad denied their claim.