War News for Saturday, April 03, 2010

NATO is reporting the deaths of three ISAF soldiers in an "engagement with insurgents" in an undisclosed location in northern Afghanistan on Friday, April 2nd. News reports that three German soldiers were killed and five others were wounded when insurgents attacked with small arms fire and IED ('s) during a mine clearing operation in Kunduz province.


Sadrists Hold Unofficial Vote for Iraqi Leader:

UK troops suffer in Sangin, the most dangerous place in Afghanistan: British troops based in the town of Sangin are suffering more than 12 times the average casualty rate for Nato troops in Afghanistan


Reported security incidents

Diyala Prv:
#1: A man and his son were killed and the wife were wounded in an improvised explosive device blast in Jalawlaa district in Diala, a security source said on Friday. “An explosive charge went off on Friday near a civilian vehicle in Tabj region in Jalawlaa, southwest of Khanaqin, killing the driver and his son and seriously wounding his wife,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Hilla:
#1: Seven civilians were wounded in an improvised explosive device attack that targeted a passenger bus north of al-Hilla city on Saturday, a local police source in Babel said. “An IED went off on Saturday near a bus boarding civilian passengers in al-Sadda suburb, (40 km) north of Hilla, wounding seven of them,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Arab Jabour:
#1: Gunmen wearing Iraqi military uniforms raided homes in a Sunni village south of Baghdad, killing at least 24 people, including five women, execution-style, officials said Saturday. At least seven people were found alive, bound with handcuffs, said Baghdad's security spokesman, Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi. Many of the dead were members of local Sahwa, or Awakening Councils. Mustafa Kamel, a Sahwa leader south of Baghdad, said the attack happened late Friday in a village in the Arab Jabour area, about 15 miles (25 kilometers) south of Baghdad. Arab Jabour is a collection of industrial zones, villages and palm and citrus groves in the Sunni belt around Baghdad's southern doorstep.


Kirkuk:
#1: Two children were killed and two others wounded when an explosive charge went off southwest of Kirkuk city on Saturday, according to a senior security official. “The charge went off on Saturday morning in the area of Dor al-Rai, al-Moltaqa suburb, (25 km) southwest of Kirkuk, leaving two children killed and two others wounded,” Brig. Sarhad Qader, the director of the Kirkuk Districts Police Department (KDPD), told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Mosul:
#1: A woman was wounded in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast that targeted an Iraqi army patrol in eastern Mosul on Friday, a police source in Ninewa said. “An IED attack targeted an Iraqi army patrol in al-Darkazliya area, eastern Mosul, wounding a woman who happened to be near the attack site,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: Twenty-three prisoners convicted of terrorism charges escaped from a prison in Iraq's turbulent city of Mosul on Friday, police said. The inmates fled through a hole they made in a wall at Ghazlani prison in the southern area of the city, which is an al Qaeda stronghold about 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad. The escape happened in the morning but prison guards did not discover it until the afternoon, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Pakistani security forces attacked a militant hide-out in a troubled tribal region near Afghanistan on Saturday, killing at least 27 militants, an official said. The latest military action in the Orakzai tribal region. Government official Sami Ullah said ground forces and army helicopters took part in Saturday's offensive against militants in Orakzai and troops captured six insurgents after the fighting.

#2: In a bloody day in Kunduz province, friendly fire by German troops killed six Afghan soldiers. The incident occurred shortly after three German soldiers were killed in a Taliban attack that lasted several hours. The German military asserted that the Afghan soldiers were in civilian cars, but the Afghan Ministry of Defense and the Kunduz governor said the soldiers were riding in military vehicles and that they were on their way to give logistical support to their Afghan comrades who had been fighting with the Germans.

#3: Unknown armed men gunned down a senior police officer of Kunduz province in north Afghanistan Saturday morning, provincial police chief Abdul Razaq Yaqubi said. "Abdul Latif the deputy to Crime and Investigation Branch of Kunduz police was on way to office this morning when unidentified armed men opened fire on his car and killing him on the spot," Yaqubi told Xinhua.

#4: Eight suspected criminals and three policemen were killed in a shootout on the outskirts of main northwestern city of Peshawar, police said. The suspects were involved in robberies and kidnapping and also had links with Islamist militants.


MoD: Guardsman Michael Sweeney