War News for Friday, April 30, 2010

The DoD is reporting the death of Sgt. Grant A. Wichmann who died at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C., on Saturday, April 24th. He was originally wounded in a small arms fire at Out Post Bari Alai, Kunar province, Afghanistan on Monday, April 10th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, April 29th.


Fort Bliss soldier might have killed self:

In Shift, Pakistan Considers Attack on Militant Lair:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A car bomb parked next to an alcohol beverages store exploded in Al Shorta Al Rabiia region, southwestern Baghdad, on Thursday night, Baghdad Operations Command Qassem Ata told Alsumaria News. The explosion killed three people and wounded 12 others.

#2: One U.S. soldier was wounded by a roadside bomb in in Baghdad's northern Adhamiya district on Thursday night, the U.S military said


Mosul:
#1: Iraqi army forces on Friday defused a bomb in eastern Mosul, according to an army source. “The forces defused the bomb, which was planted near a communication tower of AsiaCell Company in al-Intesar neighborhood in eastern Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Two people were killed and nine wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in a market in western Iraq on Friday, a local police source said. The blast struck a popular market in Fallujah, some 65 km west of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: At least 10 militants were killed in a clash with security forces in lower Orakzai tribal region, northwest of Pakistan, official sources said Friday. Two soldiers and four militants also sustained injuries in the gun battle and two compounds of militants were destroyed.

#2: Lt. Steven Warner and five other soldiers were traveling in Afghanistan on April 22 when there vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device, or IED. Steven Warner's gunner, driver and a passenger had to be medically evacuated from the combat situation; Lt. Warner and two other passengers were badly shaken.

#3: Five Afghan civilians were wounded when explosives planted in a bicyle went off in the Musa Qala district of southern Helmand province, said Dawood Ahmadi, provincial government spokesman.


DoD: Lance Cpl. Thomas E. Rivers Jr.,

DoD: Sgt. Grant A. Wichmann

DoD: Sgt. Keith A. Coe

War News for Thursday, April 29, 2010

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier in an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, April 28th.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Four mortar rounds hit the Green Zone on Thursday morning causing damages to Al Najda Al Nahriya Police building, a security source said.

#2: Five people were killed and 10 wounded, including several police officers, when two suspected suicide car bombers attacked police checkpoints in southern Baghdad on Wednesday, police said. In Wednesday's attacks in Abu Dsheer, suicide bombers in two cars drove at two checkpoints at more or less the same time, and blew themselves up, a police source said.

#3: Six persons were wounded on Thursday in an improvised explosive device blast in eastern Baghdad, a police source said. “The bomb was detonated this morning near al-Ghadier bridge in eastern Baghdad, targeting a police patrol,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol in eastern Baghdad wounded four police officers and two civilians, police said.

#4: A bomb on a pickup truck attached to the Electricity Ministry wounded two ministry employees and two bystanders in the Mansour district of western Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

#5: Wednesday Two mortar rounds landed in the heavily fortified Green Zone government and diplomatic neighbourhood of Baghdad, without causing any casualties, the office of the Baghdad security command said.


Diyala Prv:
#1: In Diyala province, a civilian was killed and two injured in a roadside bomb explosion near their vehicle close to the town of Wajihiyah, near the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, an anonymous provincial police source told Xinhua.

#2: In a separate incident, Iraqi security forces captured five al- Qaida militants while they were planting three roadside bombs at the residential area of al-Gatoon in western Baquba, the source added.


Abu Ghraib:
#1: A bomb stuck to a civilian car in Al Shohadaa’ District in Abu Ghraib region wounded the driver, police said.


Kirkuk:
#1: An Iraqi human-rights worker was killed by a roadside bomb in the disputed northern city of Kirkuk Thursday, police told the German Press Agency dpa. Police Colonel Salah al-Din Taha said the man was critically injured by a roadside bomb as he drove down al-Quds street in Kirkuk.

#2: One civilian was killed on Thursday in a sticky bomb blast in central Kirkuk, a source from the joint coordination center said. “The sticky bomb went off at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday (April 29) on a civilian car behind al-Haja Sabriya mosque in central Kirkuk, killing the driver, Sirwan Hamid, and destroying the car,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: An Iraqi soldier was killed on Thursday by a bomb blast in western Anbar, a security source said. “An improvised explosive device went off on Thursday (April 29), targeting a military vehicle patrol in Jabla region between al-Qaem and Rawa districts in western Anbar, killing a soldier and damaging the vehicle,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Afghan troops and US special forces killed a Taliban commander and his bodyguard Thursday in northern Afghanistan, a provincial governor said. Mullah Daoud and one of his men were killed in a pre-dawn operation in Ghor Tapa, an area in Kunduz city, the capital of the province of the same name, Governor Mohammad Omar said.

#2: U.S. troops raided the home of a female member of the Afghan parliament and killed a neighbor who was one of her relatives, the MP said on Thursday, an incident that sparked angry protests in the east. A spokesman for foreign forces in Afghanistan said Western and Afghan troops had raided a house in the area and shot dead an armed man but was not able to comment on whether the house belonged to a member of parliament.

War News for Wednesday, April 28, 2010

MNF-Iraq (OIF) is reporting the death of a United States Division-North Soldier in a roadside bombing in Diyala Province, Iraq presumably on Tuesday, April 27th.


Rights group: Torture routine in secret Iraq jail

Two Turkish soldiers killed in PKK ambush in Şemdinli

2,000 containers with ISAF goods still missing:

Army Releases March Suicide Data:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Three civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb went off on Wednesday in southern Baghdad.

#2: Three civilians were wounded when a roadside bomb went off on Wednesday in western Baghdad.

#3: Four persons, from the same family, were killed and two more were wounded in a sticky bomb explosion in northern Baghdad, according to a security source. “A bomb, stuck to a taxi, went off in al-Bunouk region in northern Baghdad, killing four family members as well as two passing civilians,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Mosul:
#1: An improvised explosive device exploded targeting a police vehicle patrol in al-Resala neighborhood in western Mosul, injuring a police lieutenant,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: One civilian was wounded when a gunman threw a hand grenade on a police patrol in al-Kourniesh street in central Mosul,” he added.

#3: A policeman was killed and three persons were wounded in western Mosul, a police source said on Tuesday. “A policeman was killed on Tuesday and another one was wounded when gunmen opened fire at them using guns with silencers at a police checkpoint in al-Zenjili region, western Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The policemen responded by opening fire randomly, injuring a passing child and a civilian,” he added.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: At least six civilians were killed driving home from the shops when their vehicle struck an improvised bomb in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, an official said. They were heading home from a weekly shopping trip when the roadside bomb, widely seen in Taliban attacks on military targets, struck their vehicle, Mubarez Zadran, a spokesman for the provincial government told foreign news agency. The incident in Tani district, a troubled region in Khost province, is the latest in a string of Taliban-related violence taking its toll on Afghan civilians -- about 2,000 of whom are killed each year, the United Nations has said. "According to initial information from the area six people, all civilians, have been killed and four others injured," he said.

#2: Four police officials embraced martyrdom whereas six others were wounded, one of them critically, as explosive laden vehicle hit police post here at Pir Bala area in the suburbs of Provincial capital on Wednesday morning. CCPO Peshawar Liaqat Ali told media that the terrorists struck explosive laden pick up with police post Pir Bala killing four cops on the spot while injuring six others. The injured police officials were shifted to Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar where condition of one cop Zeeshan is stated to be critical.

#3: Kandahar Police Chief Sher Mohammed Zazai said militants detonated explosives near the city in an attack targeting a compound providing logistical support to NATO forces. He said at least three people were killed about one mile (two kilometers) from Kandahar Air Field. Hospital workers said at least 35 others were injured.
There were conflicting casualty reports. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf said one suicide bomber and two armed insurgents killed 15 people and wounded 60 others and burned eight oil tankers on the site. Zulmai Ayubi, a spokesman for the Kandahar provincial governor, put the death toll at four and said 30 were injured.

#4: Also Tuesday, Afghanistan's Interior Ministry said a rocket attack killed three civilians and wounded three others in a home in the northern Kunduz province. The ministry blamed insurgents for the Monday night attack.

#5: Afghan forces eliminated seven Taliban insurgents and injured several others in Baghlan province north of Afghanistan, commander of Afghan army in northern region General Murad Ali Murad said Wednesday.

War News for Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Whisker is still having technical difficulties, so I posted this for him. -- C

An ISAF service member died as a result of a small-arms attack in eastern Afghanistan today.


Official Calls Wounded Warriors Report ‘Unrepresentative’

Iraq oil exports via Turkey resume after sabotage.

Pentagon Wounded Warrior care official forced out.

We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint.

At Iraqi border outpost, a U.S.-Iran game of 'spy vs. spy'




Baghdad:
#1: Two Iraqi soldiers were killed Tuesday in an overnight mortar attack on a security station in a Shiite neighborhood in northern Baghdad, police and hospitals officials said. Another 14 people were wounded in the 1 a.m. attack on the joint Iraqi army-police office in the capital's Hurriyah area, the officials said. Three mortars hit the security station, according to two Iraqi police officials, and an army colonel was among the wounded.


Hilla:
#1: unknown gunmen attacked a US military camp in Hillah, the capital of Babil Province, destroying some of the buildings, earlier on Sunday.


Qadisiyah Prv:
#1: a roadside bomb went off as a US patrol vehicle was passing on the Diwaniya-Shoumli road in Al-Qadisiyah Province.


Amarra:
#1: An Iraqi army checkpoint in northern Amara city opened fire on a civilian who was passing through the point on his motorcycle, killing him instantly. “The civilian died instantantly,” a local security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency on Tuesday.


Kirkuk:
#1: Gunmen shot dead two students and wounded another outside a college dormitory in the city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq on Tuesday, a provincial police source said. "Unidentified armed men in a car opened fire on students while they were leaving the dormitory of the College of Education in the city of Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, killing two students and wounding another before they fled the scene," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.



Afghanistan:
#1: Three children were killed and four people were injured when a bomb hidden in a donkey-drawn cart exploded in southern Afghanistan, officials have said. The cart was abandoned in front a tribal chief's residence in the centre of Kandahar city Monday afternoon and was then remotely detonated, said Zalmai Ayoubi, spokesman for the provincial governor of Kandahar province. Haji Fazelluddin, the former governor of Spin Boldak district, was not hurt in the attack, but three of his nephews, aged 12 to 14, were killed, he said, adding that two police officers guarding the residence and two civilian passers-by were injured.

#2: Continuing their crackdown in the restive tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, Pakistani security forces in an operation today killed five Taliban fighters and captured 18 others, including two commanders, official sources said. The militants were killed and captured during an operation conducted in Akakhel area of Khyber Agency, the sources said.

#3: Three rockets fired by militants hit residential areas in Afghanistan's northern province Kunduz, claiming the lives of three civilians and injuring four others, the Interior Ministry said in a statement Tuesday. "The enemy launched rocket attacks late Monday night in Nahri Sufi and Zaman Shahir villages of Dasht-e-Archi district in Kunduz province. As a result, three civilians were killed and four others injured," the statement said.

#4: In separate incident, a woman and a child were injured in country's southern Ghazni province on the same night as an explosive device went off, according to the statement.

War News for Monday, April 26, 2010

Blogger isn't letting me cut and past anything into the database this morning so until I figure this one out I can't post anything. There's no way in hell I can hand type everything so enjoy your day.
Peace
E whisker

News of the Day for Sunday, April 25, 2010

Mahdi Saleh, center, reacts during the funeral for his brother, Hadi Salih, 22, in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, April 25, 2010. Saleh was killed when bombs hidden in three plastic bags exploded simultaneously in a billiard hall on Saturday in a religiously mixed neighborhood in western Baghdad, killing 13 people and wounding 25 others. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed) Note: This is higher than the casualty toll that has been reported elsewhere, but may well be more accurate. -- C




Reported Security Incidents

Baghdad

Six people killed, 19 injured by three bombs hidden in a billiard parlor late Saturday.

Iraqi Army Lt. Colonel, 3 civilians, injured in a sticky bomb attack in northern Baghdad.

Two Sahwa fighters, 3 civilians injured in bomb attack near a Sahwa checkpoint.

Hamrin, Diyala Province

Former Saddam Hussein deputy Izzat al-Douri reportedly captured by joint Iraqi-U.S. operation, according to the Iraqi newspaper al-Sabah al-Jadid. No confirmation at this time.


Other News of the Day

Internet posting purportedly by Islamic State of Iraq confirms the deaths of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri, as previously claimed by U.S. and Iraqi officials.


A mortar round in a pile of scrap metal explodes in a foundry in Irbil, killing 5 workers. Police say the incident was an accident, but this is the kind of thing that happens when you have wars -- leftover munitions keep exploding for a long time.

This somewhat confusing story by AP's Lara Jakes discusses the somewhat ambiguous pronouncement by Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday, in which his offer to supply "hundreds of believers" to join Iraqi forces in defending the people was taken by some as a veiled threat to reactivate the Mahdi Army. Sadrist spokesmen insist he was only offering support for the Iraqi state; but there appears to be at least a subtle dig to the effect that the state has been inadequate so far in providing security.

Afghanistan Update

Dozens of schoolgirls and teachers sickened in a poison gas attack on a girls' school. Excerpt:

"I was in class when a smell like a flower reached my nose," said Sumaila, 12, one of the girls hospitalised after the attack. "I saw my classmates and my teacher collapse and when I opened my eyes I was in hospital," she said. Azizullah Safar, head of the Kunduz hospital, said many of the girls were still suffering from pain, dizziness and vomiting.

The Taliban banned all education for girls when they ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001 and it remains a disputed issue in much of Afghanistan. Similar attacks have been carried out in other parts of Afghanistan over the past few years, including areas where there is little Taliban presence.

Yaqubi said 20 girls had fallen ill in a suspected poison attack on another Kunduz school last week. In the south and east, where the Taliban control towns and villages, girls' schools remain shut, teachers have been threatened and some girls have been attacked with acid.

Despite the attacks, Sumaila said she hoped to return to school, if her father allows her.

Protests in Lograr Province against a killing by NATO forces leads to torching of NATO fuel tankers. Excerpt:

In the early morning darkness, a joint U.S. and Afghan patrol killed three people and arrested two others in the village of Nasir near the Logar provincial capital, according to Afghan officials. A NATO statement said the men were shot when they displayed "hostile intent," and that one of those captured was a low-level Taliban commander who planned suicide bombings.

But a few hours after dawn, more than 100 people had gathered on a main road and insisted the slain men were innocent civilians. The furious crowd blocked traffic and set fire to at least 10 fuel tankers using hand grenades, said provincial police chief Ghulam Mustafa Moisini. By midday, the fire was still raging and neighbors evacuated their homes.

Suicide bomb attack on a private security convoy in Shah Joi, Zabul Province, kills 1 guard, two passersby, and the attacker.

Bomb attack on a NATO convoy in Logar Province. Casualties are feared but no more information is available at this time.

Quote of the Day

It's not surprising that Republicans oppose the Obama Administration - they want to suck up to the rich by maintaining the status quo. And it's not surprising that they lie - this is, after all, the Party that created the fictional Iraqi atomic bomb threat so they would have a winning issue in the 2002 mid-term elections. What is surprising is that they've been so successful. Why are Republican supporters so enthusiastic when they've been force-fed a diet of BS?

Bob Burnett

War News for Saturday, April 24, 2010

Iraqi officials shut down secret jail:

2nd SEAL cleared in beating case:

Study highlights problems for U.S. strategy in Afghanistan:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: update At least 10 car bombs and roadside attacks struck the capital, according to Iraqi police. killed at least 69 people on yesterday.

Casualties from Friday’s earlier five blasts that ripped through Baghdad rose to 54 deaths and 180 others wounded, a security source said on Friday.


Diyala Prv:
#1: Four civilians were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in north of Baaquba, a police source said. “The bomb exploded in Abu Bakr village in al-Aazeem district, north of Baaquba, injuring four civilians, including a child,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Shirqat:
#1: Police found a body of man with gunshot wounds in the head and chest near the river in Shirqat, 300 km (190 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Mosul:
#1: A civilian man was killed and a policeman wounded in an attack by gunmen in western Mosul city on Saturday, a local security source in Ninewa said. “Gunmen opened fire on a policeman and his civilian friend in Dawrat al-Hamameel area, western Mosul, killing the civilian and wounding the policeman,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The policeman was on a leave of absence when gunmen in a vehicle opened drive-by fire on him and his friend before they managed to escape to an unknown place,” the source added.

#2: An Iraqi soldier was wounded in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in western Mosul city on Saturday, a local police source in Ninewa said. “An IED attached to a lamp post went off in the area of al-Faisaliya, eastern Mosul, leaving an Iraqi soldier injured,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The soldier was being deployed near a checkpoint in the area when the explosive charge went off,” the source added.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Insurgents separately killed three Afghan women in the eastern province of Paktika, the Interior Ministry said. "Three women were martyred and another three men were wounded when terrorists opened fire on a civilian station wagon in the morning today," it said in a statement.

#2: Also Saturday, Taliban fighters ambushed a patrol led by Jamtullah Khan, the police chief of Shaigal district in Kunar province on the border with Pakistan, and abducted the officer and two other policemen, police said.

#3: Twelve militants were, meanwhile, killed in Helmand, officials said. Four were blown up by a roadside bomb that they were installing.

#4: In Afghanistan, at least 13 Taliban militants including their commander were killed as they came under air attack in northern province of Kunduz last night. A security official said that the air raids took place in Dasht-e-Archi district after intelligence reports indicated militants' activities. A NATO statement said the militants, who had barricaded themselves in the buildings, exchanged fire with joint forces resulting in the killings


DoD: Command Sgt. Maj. John K. Laborde

War News for Friday, April 23, 2010

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a U.S.soldier from non-combat-related injuries in an undisclosed location in Iraq on Thursday, April 22nd.

2 U.S. soldiers died in Afghanistan note see Afghanistan #3


Nato ministers consider Afghanistan pull-out plan:

Tajikistan hit by deadly polio outbreak: WHO:

Killings Rattle Pakistan’s Swat Valley:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Separately, three people were killed and 15 others wounded when a car bomb went off near a Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad's northwestern neighbourhood of al-Hurriya.

At least 10 people were killed and more than that number wounded when a car bomb exploded on Friday in a Shi'ite neighborhood of the Iraqi capital, an official said.

At least 25 people were killed and more than 100 wounded when a series of bombs exploded in Shi'ite areas of Baghdad on Friday, Iraqi police said.

#2: Five civilians were wounded on Friday in a bomb explosion in southern Baghdad, a police source said. “An explosive device went off inside a store in central al-Doura city, southern Baghdad, wounding five civilians and damaging the store and a number of nearby stores,” he added.

#3: another bomb exploded near Shiite Muhsen al-Hakim mosque in al-Amin neighborhood in southern Baghdad, injuring two people,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#4: A car crammed with explosives went off in Sadr City, eastern Baghdad, near al-Sadr office, injuring four people.


Diyala Prv:
#1: A civilian man was killed and three others wounded when a car bomb went off in Jalawlaa district, east of Baaquba city, on Thursday, an official security source said. “A civilian Jeep full of explosives went off on Thursday near a residential building owned by an official working for the anti-terror department in Jalawlaa, Khanaqin district, (155 km) east of Baaquba,” leaving one civilian killed and three others wounded,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

The director of the al-Saadiya district’s Criminal Investigation Bureau and five of his family members were among the wounded in Jalawlaa’s earlier bombing attack, a local security source in Diala said. “Cap. Khaleel Dhahir, his wife and four of his children were wounded in Thursday’s car bomb blast right off their house in the area of Souz, central Jalawlaa, Khanaqin district, (155 km) east of Baaquba,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Kut:
#1: Quick Response Department forces on Friday defused a bomb near a mosque in the city of Kut, commander of the QRD said. “The forces managed on Friday (April 23) to defuse a bomb, planted near Abu Tarab mosque in 14 Tamouz neighborhood in central Kut,” Major Azeez Al-Amara told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Mosul:
#1: An Iraqi soldier was wounded in armed clashes in western Mosul city on Thursday, an Iraqi army source said. “Clashes erupted between gunmen and personnel in an Iraqi army checkpoint in al-Siha neighborhood, western Mosul, leaving a soldier wounded,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The clashes lasted for a few minutes as the gunmen escaped. The wounded serviceman was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment,” he added.

#2: Two al-Qaeda leaders and a policeman were killed in clashes flared up in eastern Mosul, according to a security source on Friday. “Quick Response Department forces (SWAT) waged on the wee small hours of Friday a security operation in al-Hadbaa region in eastern Mosul, where they clashed with two al-Qaeda leaders,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The two leaders and a policeman were killed in the operation,” he added.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1-6: Militants simultaneously detonated six roadside bombs in Khalidiya planted outside houses, including the homes of law enforcement officials. At least 10 people were wounded in the blasts, including two police.

Four bombs exploded early morning in Khaldiya, 75km from the capital in Al-Anbar province, said Lieutenant Khoder Ahmed al-Alwani. "Four homes were hit by homemade bombs and C4 (plastic explosive)," the officer said. Police discovered seven other bombs, and eight people have been arrested, Alwani said. Five people were killed, including a child and a woman, and 12 people were injured, including three children and two women."

#1: Seven members of one family were killed in one blast in Khalidiya, a town in Iraq's turbulent western province of Anbar about 83 km (50 miles) west of Baghdad.

#2-3: A policeman was killed when security forces were trying to defuse two more bombs found in the same area.

#4: "At four in the morning, I heard a movement behind my house and found some barrels nearby, so I took my family out of the house," said Fadhil Salih, a judge at the Khalidiya courthouse. "An hour later the bomb went off and destroyed by house, but thank God there were no casualties in my family," Salih said, adding that he survived another bomb attack in the past months.

The first bomb struck the house of Judge Fadhel Mahmud Saleh, who recently sent three insurgents to jail for 15 years. He was unharmed but two of his sons were wounded.


Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: At least seven soldiers have been killed in an ambush by militants in the Pakistani tribal region of North Waziristan, officials say. The insurgents ambushed the troops on Thursday in the Dattakhel area. At least 16 soldiers were injured.

#2: Meanwhile suspected Taliban militants in the same region have killed four men they accused of spying for the US.

#3: NATO and Afghan forces came under heavy fire while searching a compound in eastern Afghanistan, sparking a gunbattle that killed two U.S. soldiers and five insurgents, NATO said Friday. The casualties came during a joint military operation in the Puli Alam district, where coalition forces had gotten word of "insurgent activity" in the compound. "As the combined force approached the compound they began receiving hostile fire from different points, including heavy machine gun fire," NATO said in a statement.

Scores of angry protesters came out onto the main highway towards Kabul on Friday morning to protest against the incident, chanting "Death to America" and anti-government slogans. "Why do the Americans kill our people brutally everyday? We want them to stop this or we will pick up weapons and fight them," said a protester, Nawid, who goes only by one name. Deen Mohammad, a school student and neighbour of the house where the raid took place, said the five who were killed were two brothers who owned the house, and "three of their guests who had nothing to do with the Taliban."


DoD: Staff Sgt. James R. Patton

DoD: Pfc. Charlie C. Antonio

DoD: Sgt. Robert J. Barrett

War News for Thursday, April 22, 2010

US military jury clears SEAL in Iraq abuse case:

Coroner confirms Caernarfon man was killed by roadside bomb in Iraq:

Afghanistan becomes more dangerous for contractors: U.S. government contractor deaths in Afghanistan more than doubled last year as violence and American troop levels increased, federal government records show. The Labor Department received at least 141 insurance claims for contractor deaths in Afghanistan last year, up from 55 in 2008, department records show. U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan doubled to 311 last year.

One soldier killed in land mine blast in southeast Turkey


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A police colonel was wounded on Thursday when a sticky bomb attached to his car went off on a bridge in southern Baghdad. “A civilian who was in the car with the officer was also injured,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

A bomb attached to the car of the head of security for the power grid in western Iraq exploded in Baghdad's southern district of Doura, seriously wounding him and one other person, police said.

#2: A roadside bomb went off on Thursday targeting a U.S. army patrol in eastern Baghdad. “No information so far about casualties,” an Iraqi police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: A roadside bomb went off in the southern Baghdad district of Saidiya, wounding three people, police said.


Mosul:
#1: A bomb destroyed a section of the oil pipeline linking northern Iraqi oil fields with the Turkish port of Ceyhan, police said Thursday. A tower of flame, 'huge clouds of smoke' and 'large quantities of crude oil' were pouring from the pipeline near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police told the German Press Agency dpa.

#2: Two policemen were wounded when a roadside bomb went off on Thursday in southern Mosul city.

#3: Four civilians and two Iraqi army soldiers were wounded on Thursday when a roadside bomb went off in eastern Mosul.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Four civilians were wounded on Wednesday in a mortar attack in northern Ramadi, a media source said. “Four mortar shells hit five houses in Albu Faraj region in northern Ramadi, injuring four civilians and damaging the houses,” Major Raheem Zubn told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: Police forces defused on Thursday three roadside bombs south of Falluja city.

#3: Eight people were wounded, including three policemen, after bombs planted on the outskirts of Ramadi, 100 km (60 miles) west of Baghdad, destroyed six houses, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Unknown men shot and killed an official of the agriculture department of Kandahar province late Wednesday as we was on his way home, the provincial governor's spokesman Zalmai Ayoubi said. The Interior Ministry released a statement saying that another man was also killed in the attack, but had not yet been identified.

#2: Also in Kandahar, Haji Bahloul, a tribal chief in the province's Spin Boldak district, was killed Tuesday, the ministry said in a separate statement. The attackers fled the area following the shooting.

#3: In the south-western province of Nimruz, armed men on Wednesday killed government official Ahmad Shah, who previously led the counter-terrorism department of police in the province, the ministry said.

#4: Afghan and NATO forces took hostile fire during a search early Thursday for Taliban facilitators in Shah Joy district of southern province of Zabul, the alliance said in a statement. The combined forces returned fire and killed "several insurgents" in and around the targeted compound, it said.

#5: The Pakistani security forces managed to kill four militants in Seegram area in Kabl tehsil of the Swat valley on Thursday in a new move to clear militants from the region, a Press TV correspondent reported.

#6: Elsewhere, five Taliban militants were slain and several others injured in Meshti Mela in Orakzai Agency. No security force fatalities have been reported yet.

#7: At least 25 militants were killed and 23 others injured in the latest military operation in northwest Pakistan's Orakzai tribal agency on Thursday, army sources said. During the clashes with militants in Lower Orakzai area, one soldier was killed and three others injured, the army said. Three militants were arrested during the search and clearance operation.

#8: An explosion rocked Khost city, the capital of Khost province in east Afghanistan Thursday afternoon, police said. "The blast occurred in front of a government office injuring at least one police constable," a police officer told Xinhua but refused to be named.

War News for Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Court-martial of Navy SEAL opens in Iraq:

US soldiers wounded in Afghanistan sent to Iraq for medical care:

Wider Recount of Iraq Ballots Is Requested by Vote Leader:

U.S. denies CIA kidnapped Pakistani ex-agent:

Kidnapped ex-ISI official’s wife accuses CIA of ‘picking up’ her husband:

Kentucky soldier found dead in Afghanistan:

India won’t scale down activities in Afghanistan: Krishna


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Four persons were wounded on Tuesday in a bomb explosion in south of Baghdad, a security source said. “An improvised explosive device went off on Tuesday (April 20) near al-Rashied market in south of Baghdad, targeting a police vehicle patrol, injuring two policemen and two civilians,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: Police forces found on Wednesday two unknown bodies in Baghdad, a police source said. “The first corpse was found on the raod in al-Aalam neighborhood in southwestern Baghdad, while the second one was found in Jakouk neighborhood, northwestern Baghdad,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: Two separate roadside bombs wounded five people, including two policemen, in eastern Baghdad, police said.

#4: A roadside bomb went off near a police patrol and wounded a policeman in Baghdad's southern district of Doura, police said.


Diyala Prv:
#1: A car bomb went off on Wednesday in central Baaquba, leaving unspecified number of casualties, according to a security source. “A car rigged with explosives went off in Khresan street in central Baaquba on Wednesday (April 21), leaving unspecified number of casualties,” the source, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

A parked car bomb targeted a restaurant popular with security personnel in Baquba, 60 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad killing three people, including a female teacher, a school boy and a security guard from a nearby primary school, police said. Seven others were wounded in the blast, including five bodyguards of the governor of Diyala province.

#2: Four policemen were wounded on Wednesday in an improvised explosive device explosion in southeast of Baaquba, a security source said. “An explosive device exploded this morning on the main street in Baladruz, southeast of Baaquba, targeting a police vehicle patrol, injuring four policemen, some of them in serious condition,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Mussayyab:
#1: An Iraqi military vehicle was destroyed on Tuesday in a roadside bomb blast, a police source said. “The bomb exploded on the road in al-Faresi region in al-Musayyab district, north of Hilla, destroying a Hummar belongs to the 8th division of the Iraqi army,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

Two servicemen were killed in a bomb explosion in northern Babel, a police source said. “An explosive charge went off in al-Muaalameen neighborhood in al-Musayyab district, north of Hilla, killing two servicemen, including a lieutenant,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Wassit Prv:
#1: An improvised explosive device went off on Tuesday targeting a U.S. convoy in Wassit, without causing damage, a media advisor of the U.S. army said. “A U.S. convoy was attacked on Tuesday by an explosive device, without causing damage,” Nader Soliaman told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.An eyewitness said a U.S. vehicle was damaged in the explosion.


Sulaimaniya Prv:
#1: An Iranian citizen, suspected of being a smuggler, was wounded and four mules killed during an artillery bombardment by the Iranian military of a remote mountain area in Iraq's northern Kurdish province of Sulaimaniya, border guards said.


Mosul:
#1: An Iraqi soldier was wounded on Tuesday in clashes with gunmen in southeastern Mosul, a police source said. “Clashes flared up this afternoon between gunmen and an army force at a checkpoint in Yarmaja region in southeastern Mosul, where a soldier was wounded,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Four German soldiers were injured in an armored vehicle crash in Afghanistan on Tuesday, confirmed by Germany's military command center.The "Eagle IV" armored vehicle crashed on Tuesday morning in German time, about 30 kilometers west of Fayzabad, in the north part of the country, said by a spokesman at Germany's military command center in Potsdam.The vehicle was on its return journey from Kunduz to Fayzabad, after a regional reconstruction project.

#2: A blast hit a convoy of Pakistani security forces on Tuesday in the country's northwestern tribal area, killing four people and injuring 11 others, local sources said. Three security personnel and one civilian was killed and 11 others injured in the roadside bomb blast which occurred near Thal- Parachinar road closed to the border with Afghanistan.Local journalist Yousaf Haroon told Xinhua that the incident took place when security forces convoy moving from Thal area of Hangu to Kurram.

#3: At least three volunteers of peace committee were killed in a clash with militants in lower Orakzai tribal region in northwest Pakistan, official sources said Wednesday. Local official sources told Xinhua that the incident occurred in Khostorikhel area of lower Orakzai. Locals have established a peace armed group Lashkar to wipe militants out of the area.

#4: Two Afghan police officers were killed and another sustained injuries as a result of mine explosion in south of Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday, Interior Ministry said Wednesday.
"Two officers with Afghan National Police (ANP) were killed and another sustained injuries as a result of mine explosion in Qalai Abdul Rauf of Musahi district in Kabul on Tuesday," the statement said.


DoD: Sgt. Randolph A. Sigley

War News for Tuesday, April 20, 2010

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a United States Division-South soldier from non-combat-related injuries in an undisclosed location in Iraq on Sunday, April 18th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an "explosion" at an Afghan National Army facility in Kabul Province, Afghanistan on Monday, April 19th. Several other soldiers were wounded in the incident.


Iraq's oil exports dip in March by 11 percent:

Russia to tell NATO if it will supply choppers to Afghanistan:

Bajaur declared conflict-free zone:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: In Baghdad, three roadside bombs targeted U.S. military convoys on main roads in Khadraa district of western Baghdad in the early morning, the source added. But it is not immediately known whether the U.S. troops sustained any casualty.

#2: In a separate incident, a makeshift bomb detonated in New Baghdad neighborhood in east of the capital, wounding two civilians, said the source.

#3: A roadside bomb wounded two civilians when it exploded near a police patrol in Baghdad's southern district of Doura, police said.


Diyala Prv:
#1: Two civilians were killed and two others were wounded in a bomb explosion in north of Baaquba, a security source said on Monday. “An improvised explosive device went off near a civilian car in al-Azeem district, north of Baaquba, killing two civilians and injuring two more, all from the same family,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Diwaniya:
#1: Two rockets fell on the U.S.-run Camp Echo in western Diwaniya province on Monday, according to a military source. “Two rockets landed at 8:00pm on Monday (April 19) on the Echo Camp in western Diwaniya,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The two rockets were launched from a region between al-Saniya, north of Diwaniya, and al-Daghara, northeast of Diwaniya,” he added.


Mahmudiya:
#1: A roadside bomb exploded inside a marketplace in Mahmudiya, 30 km (20 miles) south of Baghdad, wounding six civilians, police said.


Tarmiyah:
#1: In one incident north of Baghdad, gunmen stormed into the home of a member of a Sunni group that joined forces with the Americans to fight al-Qaida in Iraq, killing his wife, his 22-year-old daughter, and his three other children ages 8 to 12, a police officer said. The member of the local Sahwa, or Awakening Council, was working a shift at a nearby checkpoint and discovered the bodies when he returned to his home in Tarmiyah, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Baghdad, the officer said. An Interior Ministry official confirmed the deaths.


Kirkuk:
#1: In Kirkuk, a high-ranking police officer survived an attack targeting his patrol as he was not in the vehicle when the explosive device went off, a source in Kirkuk police told dpa. Two of his security staff were injured.

#2: One policeman was seriously wounded on Tuesday when he came under gunmen’s fire in central Kirkuk city. “The gunmen were driving in a vehicle when they opened fire on a police patrol in central Kirkuk,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He noted that one of the patrol’s personnel was seriously injured in his head.


Ninevah Prv:
#1: In a joint morning raid, U.S. and Iraqi forces acting on intelligence information killed suspected insurgent leader Ahmed al-Obeidi in the northern province of Ninevah, Iraqi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said.

#2: Security forces in Ninewa province on Monday found two unknown dead bodies. “The two corpses were admitted to the morgue in Mosul city,” a local security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He explained that signs of bullets were found on the two bodies’ heads and chests


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Elsewhere, a police colonel and his driver were killed by a roadside bomb in the western city of Hit, while seven other policemen and four civilians were injured in bombings in Ramadi and Baghdad, according to police officers in the cities.

#2: Another blast in al-Tamim area, southern Ramadi, left four policemen injured, the source added.

#3: In the central Falluja area of al-Mohamadiya, a blast targeting another police patrol left two civilians injured.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A provincial government official said Tuesday that NATO forces shot dead four Afghan civilians, but NATO said those killed were Taliban militants and their associates. The incident happened roughly 1 kilometre south of Khost city, the capital of the south-eastern province of Khost on Monday night, Mubarez Mohammad Zadran, a spokesman for the provincial governor, told the German Press Agency dpa. He said all the deceased were civilians, who were driving in a vehicle that failed to stop at military checkpoint. "We condemn the attack," he said. However, NATO said in a statement that two of the dead people were "known insurgents" and the other two were their associates. A vehicle approached a military convoy and did not stop despite warning shots, it said, adding, "Several rounds were fired in an attempt to disable the vehicle, and finally shots were fired into the vehicle itself."

#2: Separately, a bomb strapped to a bicycle was detonated in the centre of Khost city close to the main police headquarters on Tuesday, causing no death or damage, Zadran said.

#3: Unidentified armed men have killed the deputy mayor of Afghanistan's restive southern city of Kandahar while he was at a mosque, taking part in evening prayer. Gunmen entered the mosque and shot Azizullah Yarmal while he and dozens of others were praying during services on Monday night, a Press TV correspondent reported.

#4: Eight employees of a construction company went missing in Kunduz province north of Afghanistan Tuesday, spokesman for provincial administration said and accused Taliban militants for their abduction. "Taliban militants abducted eight employees of a local construction company this morning from Omar Khil area in Ali Abad district," Mahboubullah Saydi told Xinhua. One of the abductees is a Pakistani engineer and the remaining seven including an engineer and a driver are Afghans, he stressed.

War News for Monday, April 19, 2010

Secret prison for Sunnis revealed in Baghdad:

Iraqi panel orders vote recount in Baghdad:

Taliban building up for summer showdown:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A policeman was wounded in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in western Baghdad on Sunday, a local security source said. “An IED went off near a police patrol in al-Ghazaliya neighborhood, wounding a soldier,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Diyala Prv:
#1: A magnetic bomb that was stuck to a parked civilian car detonated in the main marketplace in Anasfiyah neighbourhood, central Baquba, Sunday, killing one woman and seriously injuring one man.


Kirkuk:
#1: A police brigadier survived an assassination attempt on Monday when he came under gunmen’s fire in central Kirkuk city. “The officer and his driver were wounded,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Mosul:
#1: Seven civilians were wounded when a bomb went off on Monday in central Mosul city.
“The blast attempted to target a police patrol in central Mosul,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: Armed men broke into a home in Bab al Beedh neighbourhood, central Mosul and shot and killed one man and three women who were inside the house.

#3: Armed men threw a home made bomb at an army checkpoint in Darghazliyah neighbourhood, east Mosul, injuring one civilian.

#4: Armed men opened fire upon a police patrol in Mashahdah neighbourhood, west Mosul, injuring two police officers.

#5: Armed men wounded two retired senior army officers after they left a mosque in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A bomb attack in a restive Pakistani tribal area on Monday destroyed two tankers carrying fuel for NATO forces in Afghanistan, local officials said. The bomb planted under one tanker exploded near the village of Takhtabeg in the lawless Khyber tribal district, turning the vehicle into a huge ball of flames, administration official Rehan Gul Khattak said. Six people were injured. The second tanker and a goods truck passing by also caught fire and the blaze spread to a petrol pump and timber stores on the roadside, he added. The tankers were carrying fuel for NATO forces in Afghanistan, Khyber administration chief Shafeerullah Wazir told AFP.

#2: Afghanistan's defense ministry says an explosion has killed one Afghan army soldier and wounded three during a military training exercise in Kabul.The Taliban claimed responsibility for the explosion Monday, saying it was a suicide attack. But Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi denied that. He said the blast was likely caused by an old land mine or by one of the mortars that were used in the exercise. He said authorities were still investigating.Azimi said one soldier was killed and three wounded.

#3: An explosion shook an area of Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar on Monday, sending smoke and dust into the sky, a Reuters witness said. It was not immediately clear what caused the blast and if there were any casualties. The blast happened in an area where several government buildings are located.

News of the Day for Sunday, April 18, 2010

The family of Army Spc. Thomas 'T.J' Barbieri, from Gaithersburg, Md., sit around his grave at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Sunday, April 11, 2010, as they get ready to celebrate what would have been his 28th birthday. Barbieri was killed south of Baghdad, Iraq, in August 2006. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)


Reported Security Incidents


Tikrit

A U.S. helicopter crashes in the early morning in bad weather. At this time, no information on the model of helicopter or any casualties. UPDATE: Military issues a statement saying that one soldier is dead, 3 injured, in the crash, offers no further details.

Anbar Province

Police arrest a member of the Islamic State of Iraq, 2 police officers and the arrestee are injured in a shootout. (VoI places this event in the "Rawa District," I have not been able to determine exactly where that is.)

Basra

After a grenade attack on the house of a Sahwa member Friday kills the man's wife, injures him and his son, police arrest two people they say may have been involved. The report of this on Saturday did not say that the man himself was injured, so consider this an update of the casualty toll. -- C

Mosul

Body of a Shiite civilian, shot in the head and chest, is found on farmland. I have noticed that this pattern of gunshots to the head and chest is typical of assassinations in that area lately. -- C

Other News of the Day

This widely distributed AFP report discusses the recent tactic of renting apartments or shops, and then blowing them up, called by the U.S. military the "House-Borne IED" or "H bomb." According to the report, the tactic is considered disreputable even by segments of the insurgency. Brian Fishman is quoted saying "al-Qaeda in Iraq's propaganda arm has disavowed the tactic and urged supporters to distribute their statement widely ... but that doesn't mean they are not doing it."

In Ohio, "an Iraq War veteran wearing military fatigues stood in predawn quiet Friday at a monument to soldiers and fatally shot himself with an assault rifle outside the Veterans Affairs medical center where he had been a patient, authorities said."

Clive Stafford Smith says the UK has secretly rendered two apparently innocent men to the U.S. Gulag in Afghanistan, into which they have disappeared.

Iraq joins Syria and Lebanon in backing Iran's nuclear program, calling for Israel to give up its nuclear weapons. Excerpt:

We reject any threat against Iran and insist on Iran's rights to use peaceful nuclear energy, Hoshyar Zebari, Iraqi foreign minister said. The three leaders, however, strongly urged Zionist regime to join the NPT.

The major threat in the region is Israel which has nuclear warheads. Israel must join this treaty and take quick steps to destroy its nuclear weapons which number over 200 warheads, Muallem said. Shami said Zionist regime needed to be stripped off its nuclear arsenal.

There is more need to strip Zionist regime of its nuclear arsenal, as the international community is aware of its nuclear weapons capability and that this regime has defiantly declared it will use these weapons whenever it wants, he said.

"Since the atomic weapons of the Zionist regime are not inspected, there is a danger of these weapons being used in future. This regime must join the NPT without any conditions.", Shami added. Zebari said Zionist regime must allow UN inspectors in to its nuclear facilities.

Afghanistan Update

Two Dutch soldiers are killed in a roadside bomb attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan. This Quqnoos report gives their nationality as unconfirmed, but later reports seem to confirm it.

Apparently a third NATO soldier, of undisclosed nationality, was also killed in a separate incident.

Afghan Interior Minister spokesman Zemeri Bashary says 29 militants killed in fighting in the north to protect supply routes. Evidently all were killed by NATO air strikes. At least three Afghan police and four German soldiers have also died in the battle, which continues. Bashary says he has no information about civilians casualties.

Mullah Omar reportedly has indicated interest in peace talks. Excerpt:

In an interview with The Sunday Times, two of the Taliban's senior scholars have relayed a message from the Quetta shura, the Taliban’s ruling council, that Mullah Omar no longer aims to rule Afghanistan. According to the report of the British newspaper, the Taliban supreme leader was prepared to engage in "sincere and honest" talks.

A senior US military source said the remarks reflected a growing belief that a "breakthrough" was possible. "There is evidence from many intelligence sources [that] the Taliban are ready for some kind of peace process," the source said.

At a meeting held at night deep inside Taliban-controlled territory, the Taliban leaders told this newspaper that their military campaign had only three objectives: the return of sharia (Islamic law), the expulsion of foreigners and the restoration of security.

Quote of the Day

After all, nine years earlier U.S. envoys had taken a huge gamble: rescuing this president from exile and political obscurity, installing him in the palace, and ousting a legitimate monarch whose family had ruled the country for centuries. Now, he repays this political debt by taunting America. He insists on untrammeled sovereignty and threatens to ally with our enemies if we continue to demand reforms of him. Yet Washington is so deeply identified with the counterinsurgency campaign in his country that walking away no longer seems like an option.

This scenario is obviously a description of the Obama administration’s devolving relations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul this April. It is also an eerie summary of relations between the Kennedy administration and South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem in Saigon nearly half a century earlier, in August 1963. If these parallels are troubling, they reveal the central paradox of American power over the past half-century in its dealings with embattled autocrats like Karzai and Diem across that vast, impoverished swath of the globe once known as the Third World.

Alfred McCoy (and do read the whole thing)

War News for Saturday, April 17, 2010

The DoD is reporting a new death. Pfc. Jonathon D. Hall died at at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany on Thursday, April 8th. He was originally wounded in an ied attack at Contingency Outpost Khayr-Kot-Castle, Afghanistan on some unknown date.


Volcano sparks more flight disruptions: The military also had to adjust. Five German soldiers wounded in Afghanistan were diverted to Turkey instead of Germany, while U.S. medical evacuations for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are being flown directly from the warfronts to Washington rather than to a care facility in Germany. The U.S. military has also stopped using temporarily closed air bases in the U.K. and Germany.

UN guard probably killed by Afghan police - officials:

McChrystal: too many contractors in Afghanistan:

U.S. Indicts 5 Blackwater Ex-Officials:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Iraqi police killed a gunman who opened fire on a police checkpoint in the Amiriya district in western Baghdad, Baghdad security command said in a statement.

#2: A bomb attached to a car exploded in the Doura district in southern Baghdad, wounding one civilian, police said.

#3: Gunmen killed a civilian in Amil district in southwestern Baghdad, police said.


Basra:
#1: A bomb planted in the house of a leader of the local government-backed council leader exploded in central Basra, 420 km (260 miles) southeast of Baghdad on Friday night, killing his wife and wounding his son, police said.


Baaj:
#1: Police found the bodies of two men with gunshot wounds to the head in Baaj, 375 km (233 miles) northeeast of Baghdad, police aid.


Tuz Khurmato:
#1: A bomb attached to a vehicle exploded in Tuz Khurmato, 170 km (105 miles) north of Baghdad, wounding six people including two police officers, the police said


Mosul:
#1: Iraqi security forces killed a suspect al-Qaeda in Iraq leader in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad during a joint operation with U.S. troops, the U.S. military said



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: At least 32 people were killed and more than 50 were injured in suicide attacks Saturday at a camp for displaced people in northwest Pakistan, officials said. The attacks occurred about noon in Kohat town in the North West Frontier Province, said Khalid Khan Umarzai, a local commissioner. There were two blasts from two separate suicide attackers at the camp, which is for people who have fled the military offensive in the area, officials said. Police said both suicide bombers were wearing burqas. When people came to help those injured in the first blast, a second one went off, wounding and killing more people.

#2: Pakistani security forces have killed at least 25 suspected militants in overnight raids near the Afghan border, officials said. Local government official Samiullah Khan says several other insurgents were wounded when troops backed by artillery and helicopters targeted militant positions in the troubled Orakzai tribal region. He says helicopters also targeted militant positions in Orakzai.

#3: A roadside bomb struck a police van in the eastern Afghan province of Khost Saturday morning, killing two policemen and wounding three others, a local official said. "The incident occurred in Dawamanda district at 09:30 a.m. local time, killing two policemen and wounding three others," Syed Ahmad Khan Wafa, the governor of Dawamanda district told Xinhua. He also said that the police were on the way to Gerdez city when faced the deadly blast.

#4: Hours ago, another blast targeted a van of intelligence organ in Jalalabad city, the capital of eastern Nangarhar province, injuring six persons, according to officials there.


DoD: Pfc. Jonathon D. Hall

War News for Friday, April 16, 2010

NATO is reporting the deaths of four ISAF soldiers in an insurgent attack in an undisclosed area of northern Afghanistan on Thursday, April 15th. Various news reports that four German soldiers died in an IED and or small arms fire/rocket attack on their patrol in the Baghlan region, about 100 kilometers south of the German base in Kunduz province. Two Afghan soldiers were also killed in the attack and five additional German soldiers were wounded


Free speech behind armoured doors in Iraq:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Armed men blew up a 50 m high phone-net tower that belongs to Asiacell company in Abu Ghraib district, Thursday.

#2: Gunmen in a speeding car fired on an Iraqi army checkpoint in western Baghdad, wounding one soldier. Soldiers returned fire, killing three alleged attackers, the spokesman for the Baghdad security operations centre said.


Diyala Prv:
#1: Six Peshmerga forces were wounded on Friday in a bomb blast in north of Baaquba, a police source said. “An improvised explosive device went off targeting a Peshmerga patrol at a checkpoint between al-Saadiya and Jalawlaa districts, injuring six personnel, including an officer,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Abu Ghraib:
#1: A suicide car bomb driven by a suicide bomber targeted an Army checkpoint in Abu Ghraib district, Tuesday, killing two soldiers and injuring 15 others. The whole district has been besieged by security forces since the explosions that followed the elections.


Samarra:
#1: Policemen on Thursday found 14 decayed bodies in a mass grave to the west of Samarra, a media police source said. “Emergency police forces found on Thursday afternoon (April 15) a mass grave with 14 decayed bodies, in Shannana region in west of Samarra,” Colonel Hatem Akram told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The victims were shot and most of them wearing civilian clothes,” he added.


Kirkuk:
#1: Unknown rocket landed on a residential area late Thursday in western Kirkuk, a source from the joint coordination center said on Friday. “The rocket was launched from the old recruitment area in central Kirkuk and landed in Dour al-Faylaq region near the sixth gate in western Kirkuk, without causing damage,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Hawija:
#1: Multinational forces defused an explosive charge in southwest of Kirkuk late Thursday, according to a source from the joint coordination center. “Police forces found late Thursday (April 15) a bomb in al-Huweija district, 65 km southwest of Kirkuk,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Mosul:
#1: Unidentified gunmen on Thursday shot dead four members of the same family inside their own house in central Mosul city, according to a police source in Ninewa. “The gunmen opened fire on people inside their house in the area of Bab al-Bayd, central Mosul, killing a man and three women,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: Armed men attacked a checkpoint in 17 July neighbourhood, west Mosul, Thursday, killing two soldiers.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: A roadside bomb targeted police patrol in Gattana neighbourhood, central Ramadi, at 9 a.m. Thursday, injuring all six policemen inside the vehicle, three of whom are critical.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: The United Nations said five of its Afghan employees were missing Friday amid reports their vehicles were hijacked in the same northern province where fierce fighting killed four German soldiers and three Afghan police the previous day. Word of the U.N. workers' disappearance in Baghlan province. A Baghlan police official said the U.N. employees had been kidnapped by Taliban insurgents. Dan McNorton, a spokesman for the world body in Kabul, said only that the five Afghans, who worked for the U.N. Office for Project Services, were missing.

#2: A suicide bomber attacked a hospital emergency room where Shiite Muslims were mourning a slain bank manager on Friday, killing eight people including a journalist and two policemen in Pakistan's main southwestern city, police said. Gunshots rang out after the explosion at the Civil Hospital, and rescuers carried away the dead and wounded, TV footage showed.Among the dead was a cameraman working for Pakistan's Samaa TV, said Saifuddin Khan, a hospital official. Two policemen also died, while 35 people were wounded in the apparent "sectarian attack," said Qazi Abdul Wahid, a senior police investigator.

#3: A suspected U.S. missile strike, meanwhile, killed four alleged militants in the country's northwestern tribal belt, officials said. The alleged missile strike took place in the Toorkhel area in North Waziristan, a tribal region filled with al-Qaida and Taliban fighters focused on attacking U.S. and NATO troops across the border in Afghanistan. At least four suspected militants were killed, said Noor Ahmad, a government official, and two intelligence officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

#4-5: the dual bombings in the southern city of Kandahar that killed at least three people. Thursday's attacks on a hotel and compound housing foreign companies showed how vulnerable targets remain in the city where NATO forces are gearing up for a major operation to drive out the Taliban. The death toll from the latest attacks remained unclear. Karzai initially reported three foreigners and three Afghans were killed in the more powerful of the two explosions that occurred after sundown when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vehicle at the inner security barrier of a compound shared by several Western companies.

No foreigners are believed to have died in a suicide bombing that struck a compound of foreign staff in southern Afghanistan, despite initial reports that Westerners were among the dead, the U.S. embassy said on Friday. “No foreigners were killed that I’m aware of,” U.S. embassy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said. She said at least two Americans were among the wounded in the attack in Kandahar on Thursday. Britain has said at least one British civilian was also hurt. Western officials say the nationalities of all the casualties have yet to be determined.
The governor of Kandahar, Tooryalai Wesa, said three Afghans were killed in the strike and 26 people, including foreigners and Afghans, were wounded. Earlier, Afghan officials had said foreign security contractors were also killed. The head of the Kandahar provincial council, Ahmad Wali Karzai, said initial reports were that three foreigners had died in the attack, one of two bombing in Kandahar that night.

#4: A car bomb exploded in central Kandahar Thursday, wounding at least six people in the latest in a spate of attacks on the Taliban stronghold that has been earmarked as the focus of a forthcoming offensive by NATO and Afghan forces. A car bomb explosion wounded at least six people in central Kandahar on Thursday, police said, the latest in a string of attacks in the volatile southern Afghan city.

#5: Earlier Thursday, a remotely detonated car bomb went off in front of the Noor Jehan Hotel, which includes the offices of several foreign news organizations, wounding eight people and shattering windows in the four-story building.

#6: Pakistani security forces Friday killed 17 more militants in the ongoing campaign against miscreants in Orakzai tribal region, the northwest of Pakistan, local sources said. The troops advanced to Sanghar area of central Orakzai region and attacked the hideouts of militants to clear the area, killing 17 militants and arrested several others.

War News for Thursday, April 15, 2010

Red Cross says civilian bomb injuries rise 30-40 per cent in southern Afghanistan over 2009:

Candian troops killed Afghan teen, inquiry told:

20,000 US troops transited through Russia for Afghanistan:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A bomb placed inside a sportswear shop killed one person and wounded five others in central Baghdad, the Baghdad security office said.


Diala Prv:
#1: Five army soldiers were wounded on Wednesday in a bomb explosion in Jalawlaa, a police source said. “An improvised explosive device went off in Bayza village in Jalawlaa, southwest of Khanaqin, targeting an army vehicle patrol, injuring five soldiers,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Kut:
#1: The forensic medicine department in Kut received on Thursday the body of a young man, which was fished out from the Tigris river, a medic said. “The decayed body, belongs to a 20-year-old man, bore signs of torture,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Irbil Prv:
#1: A woman and her daughter were wounded in a landmine explosion in northeastern Arbil, an official source in Kurdistan said on Wednesday. “The landmine went off in Bawa Krawa village in Jouman district, northeastern Arbil, injuring a woman and her daughter,” Akou Azeez told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Hawija:
#1: A Sahwa leader survived an attempt on his life on Wednesday when a bomb went off targeting him, a senior police officer said. “An explosive charge exploded this afternoon in al-Huweija district, southwest of Kirkuk, while Sahwa leader, Colonel Khalaf Ibrahim, was passing,” KDPD chief Brig. Sarhad Qader told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.“The explosion injured him along with four of his bodyguards,” he added.


Mosul:
#1: One Iraqi army soldier was killed when unknown gunmen opened fire on Wednesday targeting an army checkpoint in western Mosul city. “The gunmen opened fire on the checkpoint from one of the nearby narrow roads,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: Unknown gunmen killed a civilian on Wednesday in front of his house in eastern Mosul city. “The incident took place in the al-Quds (Jerusalem) neighborhood, eastern Mosul,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: One civilian was killed on Thursday by gunmen in western Mosul, according to a security source. “Unknown armed men shot and killed a civilian in al-Zanjili region in western Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: At least five Pakistani soldiers were killed and several others injured in a pre-dawn attack on a security check post in the restive Orakzai Agency of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) on Friday. According to sources, a senior military officer Lt. Col. Anwar Abbas was among those killed in the militant strike, which is supposed to have been carried out by Taliban insurgents. Following the strike, security forces launched a massive counter attack in the region killing at least 25 extremists at Kayala checkpost in region, Xinhua reported. However, the casualties were not confirmed through independent sources.

#2: Spanish legionaire injured in Afghanistan. A new Lince armoured vehicle hit a mineA legionnaire from Coín, Juan González, has been injured by a mine in Afghanistan. He has only been in the country for a month and was hit by the blast in his new armoured Lince vehicle he was driving with three others on Wednesday. It happened on the dangerous Lithium route. His leg injuries are not life-threatening, and he is now recovering in hospital in Herat.

#3: US missiles struck a vehicle carrying militants in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, killing four alleged insurgents. The strike occurred in the Anbar Shaga area of North Waziristan tribal region near the border with Afghanistan. At least three suspected militants also were wounded in Wednesday’s strike, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record. The exact identities of the wounded and killed were not immediately known.

#4: An explosion rocked Kandahar province in south Afghanistan and claimed the lives of five persons including four children and injured eight others on Thursday, spokesman for provincial administration Zalmai Ayubi said. "The blast occurred inside a lorry in Takhta Pul district at noon time, leaving four children and the driver dead and injuring eight others, all civilians," Ayubi told Xinhua.


DoD: Spc. Joseph T. Caron

DoD: Cpl. Michael D. Jankiewicz

War News for Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Iraq to establish 4th state oil company:

US forces leave Afghanistan's Korengal Valley:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Gunmen killed a Sunni cleric early Wednesday, spraying him with bullets outside a Baghdad mosque where he had just finished leading morning prayers, officials said.Sheik Ghazi Jabouri was gunned down in a hail of automatic-weapons fire outside the al-Rahman mosque in the primarily Sunni-neighborhood of Azamiyah in north Baghdad at about 5 a.m., a police officer said. An army officer confirmed the report.

#2: Elsewhere in the capital, a high-ranking police officer was killed when a so-called "sticky bomb" on his car exploded as he drove to work, an Interior Ministry official said.The official said that in addition to killing Brig. Gen. Arkan Ali, who served on the ministry's anti-terrorism force, the explosion in western Baghdad's al-Nisoor Square also injured four bystanders, a traffic policeman and another ministry official who was in the car.

#3: Another bomb exploded in Ali al-Saleh region, western Baghdad, injuring two persons,” he added.“The wounded were carried to nearby hospitals for treatment,” he noted.

#4: At least three people were wounded in a bomb explosion near a bridge in central Baghdad on Wednesday, an Interior Ministry source said. The blast took place at about 1:45 p.m. (1045 GMT) near the al- Ahrar bridge on the eastern bank of the Tigris River that bisects the Iraqi capital, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.


Basra:
#1: The body an unknown girl was found on Wednesday morning in central Basra city. “The corpse was found behind a school in al-Dhubat neighborhood, near the Military Hospital, central Basra,” a local security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He said that the girl was killed with gunfire, and her dead body had been placed in a plastic bag.


Tikrit:
#1: Unknown gunmen on Wednesday opened fire targeting the house of a member of Salah al-Din’s Provincial Council. “The attack caused no casualties,” a local security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Kirkuk:
#1: Multinational forces defused a bomb in southwest of Kirkuk on Tuesday, a source from the joint coordination center said. “A police patrol and soldiers of the 46th brigade of the Iraqi army found the bomb near Sheikh Ahmad al-Tayyar village in Riyadh district, 45 km west of Kirkuk,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “A force from the Riyadh police station rushed to the area with the multinational forces, who detonated the bomb without damage,” he added.

#2: The commander of Kirkuk’s Emergency police Brigadier Khatab Umar survived an assassination attempt on Wednesday. “A roadside bomb went off today at noon in central Kirkuk city targeting Brigadier Umar’s motorcade,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He noted that the blast caused no casualties or damage to the motorcade.


Mosul:
#1: Iraqi army forces killed a gunman and arrested another one on Tuesday in eastern Mosul, a police source said. “An army force killed on Tuesday evening (April 13) a gunman and arrested another one after wounding him in al-Jazaer neighborhood in eastern Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: Unknown gunmen killed a civilian on Wednesday in front of his house in eastern Mosul city.
“The incident took place in the al-Quds (Jerusalem) neighborhood, eastern Mosul,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: An improvised explosive device went off in northern Ramadi without leaving casualties, a police source said on Tuesday. “The bomb exploded on a road in al-Jazeera region in northern Ramadi targeting a police vehicle patrol, without causing casualties,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol went off in Ramadi 100 km (62 miles) west of Baghdad, wounding three police officers, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Sayed Ismail Jahangir, spokesman for the governor of Ghazni province, said militants fired on Afghan police patrolling in Gelan district Tuesday night. Police chased a vehicle filled with insurgents to an area where more militants were lying in wait. The policeman and an insurgent were killed in a one-hour battle that followed.

#2: The governor's spokesman said the boy died last night in Ghazni's Andar district when he stumbled onto the roadside bomb on his way home.

#3: A gunman lying in wait shot and killed an 18-year-old woman as she left her job at a U.S.-based development company Tuesday, casting a spotlight on a stepped-up campaign of Taliban intimidation against women in this southern city where U.S. troops plan a major operation in the coming weeks. In Tuesday's attack, the gunman emerged from a hiding place and shot the woman, whose first name was Hossai, after she stepped out of her office building, said deputy police chief Fazle Ahmed Shehzad. Hossai died at the hospital, and the assailant escaped. Hossai worked for Development Alternatives Inc., a Washington-based global consulting firm that "provides social and economic development solutions to business, government, and civil society in developing and transitioning countries," according to its Web site.


DoD: Spc. Joseph T. Caron

DoD: Cpl. Michael D. Jankiewicz