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.