War News for Monday, March 15, 2010

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier in a vehicle accident in an undisclosed area of southern Afghanistan on Sunday, March 14th.


Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill Militants:

Declining morale of US troops in Afghanistan:

U.S. struggles to track arms in Afghanistan:

New US troops to join Poles in Afghanistan:


Reported security incidents

Mosul:
#1: A policeman was killed by gunmen in an attack west of Mosul city on Sunday, according to a security source in Ninewa. “Gunmen opened fire on the policeman, who was on a leave of absence from duty and inside his vehicle, in the suburb of Tal Abta, killing him instantly and escaping to an unknown place,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: A policeman was wounded in a hand-grenade attack that targeted a police patrol in central Mosul city on Sunday, according to a local police source in Ninewa province. “A hand-grenade blast targeted a police patrol in the area of al-Maydan, central Mosul, leaving one policeman wounded,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: An Iraqi soldier was wounded in a thermal bomb blast in western Mosul on Sunday, a local security source said. “The bomb blast targeted an Iraqi army patrol in the area of Wadi Akkab, western Mosul, leaving one patrolman wounded,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#4: An improvised explosive device went off, killing one civilian, in the centre of the city of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

#5: Armed men killed a prison guard in front of his home in the western part of Mosul, according to the police.

#6: Gunmen killed an off-duty policeman as he was driving his car in a town west of Mosul, police said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: A suicide car bomber killed four people and wounded 29 others when his vehicle exploded in a busy street during the morning rush hour in western Iraq. The blast took place shortly before 9 a.m. in a central street in Fallujah, 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad. The blast went off during the morning rush hour as the street filled with pedestrians, stalls selling tea and day laborers gathering for work, a Fallujah police officer said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

A car bomb in Iraq's western Anbar province killed seven civilians and wounded 13 on Monday, police said. The bomb exploded in a car parked near an army patrol in the city of Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: An early morning rocket attack on the largest U.S. military hub in Afghanistan killed one person Monday, NATO said. NATO confirmed that the sprawling Bagram Air Field, north of the Afghan capital of Kabul, came under attack on Monday, but a spokesman disclosed no details other than the death. Abdullah Adil, the police chief in the Bagram district of Parwan province, says one rocket was fired onto the base's grounds at about 4 a.m. A Taliban spokesman told The Associated Press that two rockets were fired on the base.

#2: On Monday in eastern Afghanistan, police said Afghan security forces killed three suicide bombers in Paktika province before they could launch an attack on security posts in Barmal district.

#3: Separately in Ghazni province, Afghan police say three civilians were killed and three others were wounded when their vehicle hit a roadside mine while they were moving household goods.

#4: Also Monday, the U.S. military confirmed that an unmanned Predator drone aircraft crashed on takeoff in southern Afghanistan. The crash late Sunday night was not caused by enemy fire and the site was quickly secured, an Air Force release said.

#5: Twelve suspected militants were killed in military airstrikes in Pakistan's tribal region, two Pakistani military officials told CNN. Pakistani jet fighters launched the airstrikes around 2 p.m. (5 a.m. ET) Sunday against militant hideouts in Kalaya, a village in Orakzai, one of seven districts in Pakistan's tribal region along the Afghan border, the officials said.

At least 13 militants were killed and a number of their hideouts and camps destroyed in air and artillery attacks in Orakzai Agency on Sunday. Intermittent shelling by helicopters and artillery also destroyed a large food storage facility. A spokesman for the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan denied the official claims about casualty and said that three militants had been injured and a house damaged in the attacks. Military planes pounded suspected training camps and hideouts in Merobak area where the houses of Haji Nasrullah, father-in-law of militant ‘commander’ Aslam Farooqui, and Akhtar Jan, were razed. A girls’ school where Taliban had set up a camp was also destroyed.

#6: A roadside bomb killed a Pakistani construction worker and wounded six of his compatriots on Sunday when the device hit their vehicle here, a provincial police officer said.

#7: Twelve civilians, including women and children, were killed in two separate operations by foreign troops in Kandahar and Kunar provinces, the presidential palace said in a statement. The statement did not give any further details and palace officials could not say when the incidents took place. A spokesman for the Nato-led force said he was not aware of the incidents and would look into the allegations.