War News for Tuesday, October 13, 2009

No International Security Assistance Force service members were killed during the past 24 hours.


Support troops swelling U.S. force in Afghanistan: President Obama announced in March that he would be sending 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. But in an unannounced and largely unnoticed move, the White House has also authorized – and the Pentagon is deploying – at least 13,000 troops beyond that number, according to defense officials.

Afghan leader accused of meddling in fraud probe:


Reported Security incidents:

Diyala Prv:
#1: The mayor of Abu Khamees area on Monday was wounded while three of his sons were killed or wounded in an explosive charge blast in Diala province, according to a local security source. “On Monday, an explosive charge hit a civilian vehicle carrying the mayor of Abu Khamees area, and his family, killing two of his sons, and wounding him, along with one his sons,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Basra:
#1: Basra International Airport came on Monday evening under indirect fire attack, with no word on casualties, the airport’s employees said. “Four Katyusha rockets landed on the airport at 9:00pm on Monday (Oct. 12), without information about casualties of damage the rockets left,” an employee told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “U.S. helicopters kept hovering over the airport after the attack,” another employee said. No word was immediately available from the U.S. army on the attack.


Kirkuk:
#1: Two Iraqi soldiers were killed and four others wounded in an improvised explosive device attack southwest of Kirkuk city on Tuesday, a senior security official said. “An IED went off near an Iraqi army patrol near the district of al-Rashad, (35 km) southwest of Kirkuk, leaving two soldiers of the Kirkuk 1st Contingent’s 47th Brigade killed and four others wounded,” Brig. Sarhad Qader, the Kirkuk Districts’ Police Department (KDPD), told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Mosul:
#1: A military force on Monday defused an improvised explosive device in western Mosul without casualties, an army source said.

#2: One civilian was killed on Monday in a tribal clash in southern Mosul, a police source said. “The civilian, from al-Hajj village, was killed in a tribal clash erupted this afternoon (Oct. 12) in the village in southern Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: A policeman was wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near his patrol in northern Mosul city on Tuesday, a Ninewa police sources said. “An IED went off near a patrol of the Emergency Police Department’s 2nd Contingent in al-Mohandessin neighborhood, northern Mosul, leaving one policeman wounded and damaging a patrol vehicle,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Al AnbarPrv:
#1: Police forces managed on Monday to defuse an improvised explosive device in central Falluja without casualties, a police source said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: An Afghan National Army soldier has been badly wounded and two Australian soldiers suffered non life threatening wounds, when an IED detonated close to their partnered patrol in southern Afghanistan on 12 October 2009.

#2: Pakistani jets bombed militant targets in the main insurgent stronghold along the Afghan border Tuesday ahead of an expected ground offensive there, an official said. Bombing runs Tuesday destroyed around 15 houses in the Makeen, Ladha and Barwand regions of South Waziristan, a local intelligence official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief to the media.

#3: In one incident, Taliban fighters stormed a clinic in the rugged Sar-i-Pul Province, seizing eight health workers including women, said Bilal Nairam, a senior provincial police officer. He said a search was under way to find those kidnapped in the province (northern Afghanistan) which has so far escaped the spread of the Taliban insurgency.

#4: In the second kidnapping which also occurred overnight in the neighboring Faryab Province, Taliban fighters staged an attack on a police post and took away eight police officers, the provincial police chief, Khalil Andarabi, said.

#5: A pilotless plane with the U.S.-led Coalition Forces crashed in Sabari district of Khost province in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, said the Coalition press office in the region. However, the press office, set in the provincial capital Khost city, denied the drone was shot down by militants, putting technical problem behind the incident.


MoD: Lance Corporal James Hill

DoD: Spc. George W. Cauley