War News for Wednesday, March 10, 2010

NATO is reporting the deaths of two ISAF soldiers in a suicide bombing at a border post in Khost Province, Afghanistan on Tuesday, March 9th. "Several" other soldiers were wounded in the attack.


Gates: Some troops could leave Afghanistan early:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Two gunmen were killed and a third one was arrested in a failed attack in central Baghdad on Tuesday, a police source said. “Three gunmen, driving a modern car, opened fire on a checkpoint in Abu Nawas street in al-Karada region, injuring a policemen,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, on condition of anonymity. “The policemen responded to the attack, killing two of them and arresting the third,” he added.

#2: A traffic police officer and a gunman were killed and two gunmen were wounded in a shootout on Abu Nawas Street in central Baghdad on Tuesday, security officials said in a statement. A car driven by the gunmen carried explosives and was destroyed by police in a controlled explosion, officials said.


Kut:
#1: Five bombs were defused on Wednesday in southern Kut, according to a security source. “Anti-explosives experts defused on Wednesday to defuse five bombs in Sheikh Saad district, southern Kut, without casualties,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Dalouioya:
#1: Unidentified gunmen on Tuesday attacked a vehicle of a security company in Dalouiya district, a police source said. “The gunmen on Tuesday (March 9) attacked a patrol of a security company by thermal bombs near al-Dalouiya bridge in east Dalouiya, destroying a vehicle and injuring those inside it,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Mosul:
#1: Army forces on Tuesday defused a car bomb and arrested its driver after wounding him in eastern Mosul, an army source said. “A force from the 2nd division of the Iraqi army managed on Tuesday afternoon (March 9) to defuse a booby-trapped car and to arrest the gunman who was driving it after shooting him,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: One policeman and a gunman were killed in clashes that erupted in central Mosul, according to a police source. “The policeman was killed when gunmen opened fire on a police checkpoint in central Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The forces responded to the attackers and exchanged fire with them, killing one of them,” the source added.

#3: Unknown gunmen killed a civilian in central Mosul on Tuesday, according to a security source. “Unidentified gunmen opened fire on a civilian in Khaled Ibn al-Wallied street, central Mosul, killing him on the spot and fled to an unknown place,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The victim was working in a garage,” he added, without giving further details.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Two policemen were wounded in a bomb explosion in eastern Falluja, a police source said on Wednesday. “The bomb went off in al-Rashad region in central al-Karma district in eastern Falluja, targeting a police vehicle patrol, injuring two policemen and damaging the vehicle,” Captain Rasoul al-Jameli told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Suspected militants armed with grenades attacked the offices of a Christian aid group helping earthquake survivors in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing six employees and wounding several others, police and the organization said. All the victims of the assault on World Vision, a major international humanitarian group, were Pakistanis. The attack took place in Ogi, a small town in Mansehra district, which was badly hit by the 2005 Kashmir earthquake. Two women were among the six dead, said local police chief Sajid Khan. Four people were wounded. He said about 10 gunmen took part in the raid. "They went inside, opened fire indiscriminately and then threw grenades before fleeing," said Khan.

#2: A car bomb killed five people in Afghanistan on Wednesday. The attack killed Afghan security personnel at a security post in Paktika, the eastern province which has become a flashpoint for a Taliban insurgency now in its ninth year and which borders militant strongholds in Pakistan. Militants fired eight rockets at the post after the bombing, and it was not immediately clear if the number of casualties would increase, provincial police chief Dawlat Khan Zadran told AFP.

'Three Afghan army soldiers and two border policemen were killed in the attack,' Daulat Zadran, the provincial police chief for Paktika, said. He said several others were wounded when the bomber targeted the combined forces in Bermal district. It was not immediately known if there were any casualties among NATO soldiers.

#3: An official for Afghanistan's intelligence agency was shot dead in Ghazni which lies to the southwest of Kabul on Tuesday, an official said.

#4: Taliban militants Wednesday raided a police outpost in the country's relatively peaceful Kunduz province in northern Afghanistan early Wednesday, killing one police constable and wounding another, an official said. "Armed militants raided a police checkpoint in Taloka area in the outskirt of provincial capital Kunduz city at 01:00 a.m. local time today killing one police and injuring another," provincial administration spokesman Mahboubullah Sayedi told Xinhua.
Police also returned fire and inflected casualties on attackers, he further said.

#5: In separate incident unknown armed med gunned down two persons and wounded another from same family in Banu district of the neighboring Baghlan province Tuesday night, district chief Abdul Wali said.

#6: Three civilians were killed and four others got wounded as a roadside bomb struck their car in Taliban former bastion Marja district of Afghanistan' s southern Helmand province on Wednesday, spokesman for provincial administration Daud Ahmadi said. "Three innocent Afghan civilians were killed and four others sustained injuries as their car ran over a mine planted by militants in Marja district this morning," Ahmadi told Xinhua.


MoD: Lance Corporal Tom Keogh

MoD: Corporal Stephen Thompson