War News for Tuesday, January 12, 2010

MLive (AP) is reporting the death of a second French soldier in an insurgent attack in the Alasay valley, some 80km (50 miles) northeast of Kabul, Afghanistan on presumably on Tuesday, January 12th.

The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF soldier in an "explosion" in the Musa Qaleh area, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Monday, January 11th.


Bomb Blast Kills Nuclear Physicist in Tehran:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: An election worker has been killed and another one kidnapped over the last two weeks, a senior Iraqi election official said Monday, in a worrying sign of the dangers facing election workers as the country's March 7 parliamentary election draws closer. She said numerous employees have also received death threats, and others have had family members kidnapped or killed. She gave no figures or specifics.

#2: Large amounts of explosives were seized today during search raids in the capital, the Baghdad Operations Command (BOC) said. “The seized explosives included 200 km of TNT, 200 kg of C4, 250 liters of ammonium nitrate and 60 mortar shells,” the semi-official al-Iraqiya TV said today.


Diyala Prv:
#1: The manager of the economic security Directorate Captain Raid Akram was killed with three of his guards when a suicide car bomb targeted their convoy in Sadiyah town northeast of Baquba city around 2 p.m. Two other guards were wounded.


Hilla:
#1: A U.S. base in Hilla was mortared on Monday, according to a U.S. spokesman. “A number of mortar shells hit the U.S. base on the al-Mussayab river in north of Hilla,” the spokesman told Aswat al-Iraq over the phone. “A number of mortar shells landed on nearby houses without causing damage,” he added.


Amarra:
#1: An emergency police official in Missan has survived an assassination attempt in downtown Amara City, a local police chief said on Tuesday. “This morning, the director of the office of the emergency police chief in Missan, Lt. Raed Waleed, was wounded when unknown gunmen opened fire on him in Qitaa 30 area, downtown Amara,” Staff Col. Sadeq Abduladheem told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Thirteen insurgents were killed Tuesday in southern Afghanistan by a missile that international forces fired from an unmanned aerial vehicle, NATO said. NATO said coalition troops saw a group of insurgents near a safe house preparing ammunition as well as insurgent mortar teams moving equipment in the Naw Zad area of Helmand province. The international force launched one missile, killing the 13 militants.

NATO-led troops opened fire in Germsir district of Helmand province in south Afghanistan on Tuesday, leaving 13 civilians dead and two dozen others injured, locals said. "The NATO-led troops raided a civilian house in Germsir district Monday afternoon," local people Nasratullah Khan told Xinhua. "To protest the action, some 400 locals this morning gathered near a U.S. military base in the district and started throwing stones. The troops opened fire, killing 13 and injuring two dozen civilians."

#2: On Monday, another missile fired from an unmanned aircraft killed three insurgents farther south in the Nad Ali district of Helmand, NATO said.

#3: In the south-central part of the country, a member of the Afghan National Police was killed and two others were wounded in a suicide attack Monday evening at a police station in Uruzgan province, police chief Juma Gul Hamit said. The suicide bomber detonated his cache of explosives near the gate of the police chief's office in Dihrawud district. Hamit said the attacker tried to enter the office where a meeting was under way. Although wounded by police, the bomber detonated his explosive vest, killing the one policeman and injuring the two others who kept him from going inside.

#4: At least one person was killed and five others sustained injuries when unknown assailants fired a rocket Monday morning on a two story-building in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan, local TV channels reported. Eyewitnesses confirmed the rocket attack coming from unidentified location, which leveled the building to ground, but the police denied any rocket firing.

#5: Dozens of Taliban insurgents stormed a Pakistani military post in a tribal town near the Afghan border on Tuesday, killing one paramilitary soldier and wounding three others, officials said.More than 30 militants attacked the checkpost in the mountainous town of Ghanan Shah in northwest Mohmand district before dawn. "They came from three sides and attacked the post with automatic weapons and rocket launchers," local administration official Zabit Khan told AFP. "One soldier was killed and three were wounded. "A military official confirmed the casualties and said security forces retaliated, killing four Taliban attackers. The post is located about 40 kilometres (25 miles) southwest of Khar, the main town in the troubled tribal region of Bajaur.

#6: A road-side bomb planted on a route between two bases operated by Afghan and Australian soldiers in the Chora Valley has killed eight Afghan National Army (ANA) troops. At the time of the incident, on Thursday 7 January, ANA soldiers from the Australian-mentored 2nd Kandak were conducting a logistics task. There were no Australian or coalition soldiers involved in the explosion.


DoD: Sgt. 1st Class Jason O. B. Hickman

DoD: Lance Cpl. Mark D. Juarez

DoD: Lance Cpl. Jacob A. Meinert