War News for Wednesday, August 05, 2009

The British MoD is reporting the death of a British IEAF soldier in an IED attack in the Babaji district, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Tuesday, August 4th.

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - South soldier of a non-combat related injury in an undisclosed location in Iraq on Tuesday, August 4th.


Aug. 2 airpower summary:

Russia keeping US Humvees as war trophies:

Russian Subs Patrolling Off East Coast of U.S.

UK troops trucks are stuck in Dubai:

AI: Afghanistan: Ten-Point Agenda for Human Rights:

Government map shows dire Afghan security picture:

New militant group unearthed in Afghanistan:

Iraq Drought Cuts Harvest, Boosts Imports as Oil Cash Slips:

Neighbors by Day, Soldiers by Night in Afghanistan:


Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: Five Iraqi police were killed and eight people were injured in a midnight bomb attack at a market in Baghdad's south, police said Wednesday. The roadside bomb exploded as the policemen were travelling by car through the market in the Sunni-dominated Baghdad neighbourhood of Dora around midnight Tuesday, a police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Five civilians in a nearby crowd were among those injured, he said.


Diyala Prv:
#1: Unidentified gunmen kidnapped on Tuesday (Aug. 4) two civilians on Touz-Tikrit road and took them to unknown place,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: Policemen found a body of a 30-year-old civilian in Imam Wes region in north of Khanaqin,” he added, noting that the body bore signs of gunshot wounds to his chest.

#3: A shepherd was killed when a roadside bomb went off in Jalawlaa district, a security source said Wednesday. “The incident took place at Biza village of Jalawlaa, 30 km southwest of Khanaqin district,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The 17-year-old shepherd died in hospital of wounds,” he said.


Abu Gharak: (?)
#1: Gunmen on Wednesday kidnapped 11 Iraqi pilgrims travelling in a minibus on their way to the holy Shiite city of Karbala for a religious festival, a police officer said. "Gunmen stopped them and took them with the bus onto a dirt road," Hilla police Lieutenant Kadhim al-Salami said, adding that the driver was also kidnapped, citing witness accounts. The minibus was stopped on a highway near the town of Abu Gharak on its way to Karbala for commemoration ceremonies marking the birth of Imam Mahdi, who is revered by Shiites as the coming Messiah.


Jurf al-Sakhar:
#1: A roadside bomb wounded two civilians when it struck an Iraqi army patrol in Jurf al-Sakhar, 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, police said, adding the patrol escaped unharmed.


Amarra:
#1: A fire broke out Tuesday in an ice factory in northern Amara due to an electrical wiring, a source from the department of civil defense said. “A fire erupted on Tuesday afternoon (Aug. 4) in an ice factory, northern Amara, Lieutenant Adnan Awda told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, noting that the fire is caused by an electrical wiring. “The factory was completely destroyed, but without causing human casualties” he added.


Mosul:
#1: An Iraqi soldier was injured Tuesday in a random shooting in eastern Mosul, a security source said. “The soldier was wounded on Tuesday afternoon (Aug. 4) in a random shooting in al-Muthanna neighborhood, eastern Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, noting that the soldier was wounded while on duty.

#2: A sticky bomb went off Tuesday on an oil container in a refinery in south of Mosul, without leaving casualties, according to a security source. “A bomb, stuck to an empty oil container in al-Qayara refinery in south of Mosul, went off, destroying the container but without leaving casualties,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: A fire broke out early Wednesday at the third floor of Sinjar Cement Factory, west of Mosul, without any casualties, said an official source from the factory. “Fires erupted at 3:00 am on Wednesday at the Factory’s chemistry laboratory,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.“Fires swallowed the lab entirely,” he said.

#4: Clashes between gunmen and police killed a police officer and two attackers, and wounded three other gunmen and a civilian in northern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: One woman was killed and six persons were wounded in a car bomb blast in central Anbar (Ramadi), a police source said Wednesday. “The car bomb that went off near Anbar Criminal Court on Wednesday (Aug. 5) killed a woman ad injured six people, inculding a policeman,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The blast set two nearby civilian vehicles ablaze,” he added. A police source had said earlier that a car bomb went off near Anbar Criminal Court, central Anbar, leaving unspecified number of casualties.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Two Airmen were injured in a landmine explosion Aug. 2 about 12:30 p.m. at an off-base location near Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan.

#2: Two Pakistani intelligence and one army official said Wednesday that a U.S. missile strike in northeastern Pakistan had killed a wife of top Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. Mehsud's associates would not confirm the report, although they did say a woman was killed in the missile strike in South Waziristan, part of the lawless tribal region along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan and where Taliban and al-Qaida leaders are believed to be hiding. Two intelligence and one army official, who all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the strike had destroyed the home of Mehsud's father-in-law, Akramud Din, and that two people had been killed, including one of Mehsud's two wives. One of the intelligence officials said agents were trying to get details about the second person who died.

Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was not present when a U.S. missile killed his wife on Wednesday in an attack that targeted the house of his father-in-law, a relative said. "Baitullah is safe and alive," Iqbal Mehsud, a cousin of the militant's dead wife told Reuters by telephone.

#3: Outraged southern Afghan villagers said Wednesday that a pre-dawn airstrike by foreign troops killed three children and a man in the latest case of civilian deaths at the hands of Western troops. The U.S. military said it had killed four insurgents on motorcycles in that area and could not confirm any civilian fatalities. An Associated Press reporter and photographer saw residents of Kowuk bring the bodies of three boys and a man to the guesthouse of the Kandahar governor from their village, which is 12 miles (20 kilometres) north of the provincial capital, Kandahar city. The angry villagers shouted "Death to America! Death to infidels!" as they displayed the corpses in the back of a pickup truck.

#4: In eastern Afghanistan, meanwhile, a roadside bomb killed two tribal elders and four armed guards Wednesday, said Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, the spokesman for Nangarhar province. The incident happened in the Pachir Agha district of the province as the six were going to a meeting to discuss road security.

#5: A district security official who was targeted by a Taliban bomb in Herat city, west Afghanistan, on Monday, died of his wounds at a military hospital in Kandahar, south Afghanistan, said Samanwar Noorkhan Nikzhad, a spokesman for Herat's security directorate. The death raised the toll from the incident to 13.

#6: Pakistan's security forces killed eight militants and arrested 14 others in the continued search and clearance operations in northwest Pakistan's Swat and Malakand districts during the last 24 hours, the army said Wednesday.


Casualty Reports:

Gunnery Sgt. Nick Popaditch is rehabilitating from extensive wounds he received in Iraq when a rocket-propelled grenade was shot into his tank. He instantly lost sight in both his eyes and his ability to hear, among other injuries. "When it hit me, my helmet detonated it," he said. "I knew I'd been hit with a rocket because it made a hissing noise." The permanent damage done to Popaditch's eyes and hearing from the April 2004 incident forced his retirement from active duty in the Marines.

Sgt. Brad Rokicki, a paralegal specialist who was on his third deployment to the Middle East, received a traumatic head injury when he was thrown into a concrete barrier during a blast at Camp Basra on July 16, according to his wife, Lindsay Rokicki.


DoD: Capt. Ronald G. Luce Jr.

DoD: Sgt. 1st Class Alejandro Granado

D0D: Sgt. 1st Class Severin W. Summers III