War News for Friday, March 12, 2010

Afghan Tribal Rivalries Bedevil a U.S. Plan:

Russia criticizes US, NATO over Afghan drugs:


Reported security incidents

Nassiriya:
#1: An improvised explosive device went off on Friday targeting a U.S. convoy in northern Nassiriya City, without causing casualties, according to an official spokesman for the U.S. army in southern Iraq. “The bomb went off on the road between Nassiriya and al-Shtara cities, northern Nassiriya, targeting a joint patrol of U.S. and police forces while escorting a foreign reconstruction team,” Maj. Miles told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The explosion caused no casualties,” he added.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Security forces found on Friday morning a car-bomb factory in western Anbar, a media official said. “Acting on intelligence information, police forces raided a house in the border region of al-Qaem in western Anbar,” Major Rahim Zubn told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, noting that the force found materials used to booby trap cars and to make explosive belts.

#2: One child was killed and his younger brother was wounded in an explosion in east of Falluja city, a police source said on Friday. “An armed group blew up a house of a policeman after planting explosives inside it in Zoubaa region in east of Falluja,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The explosion killed a child and injured his brother, who was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: “A police force waged on Friday a security operation in central al-Karma district, eastern Falluja, where they defused three bombs.” The source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A pair of suicide bombers targeting army vehicles detonated explosives within seconds of each other Friday, killing at least 39 people in this eastern city and wounding nearly 100, police said. The bombers, who were on foot, struck RA Bazaar, a residential and commercial neighborhood where several security agencies have facilities. Senior police official Tariq Saleem Dogar said 39 people were killed, and another 95 were hurt.

#2: Insurgents attacked a police post in eastern Afghanistan with guns and then detonated a roadside bomb as reinforcements sped to the scene, killing three members of an elite strike force, police said Friday. Among the dead was the commander of the new police rapid-reaction force created in Paktia province to respond to Taliban threats, provincial police Chief Azizudin Wardak said. Gunmen launched the attack on a post outside Gardez, the provincial capital, on Thursday night. When the rapid-response force rushed to aid the fight, the militants detonated a roadside bomb as their vehicle passed. Two other members of the force were wounded, Wardak said. Another police officer was wounded in the gunbattle at the police post, but the small group of insurgents retreated after the bomb was detonated, he said.

#3: A Swedish woman from Örebro in eastern Sweden was shot and killed in Kabul in January. The woman was visiting relatives in the Afghan capital, according to a report in Nerikes Allehanda. The woman died when men unknown to her opened fire as she sat in a car with a relative. Swedish authorities have been informed, but have not been told any more details of the events surrounding the killing.


DoD: Sgt. Jonathan J. Richardson

DoD: Pfc. Jason M. Kropat