War News for Wednesday, July 07, 2010

The Washington Post is reporting the deaths of three American ISAF soldiers in a roadside bombing in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, July 6th. Here's the ISAF release on one of the soldiers who died after being evacuated presumably to a hospital in Kandahar.

The French MoD is reporting the death of a French ISAF soldier in an IED attack in Kapisa province, Afghanistan on Tuesday, July 6th.


Turkey hints major offensive against PKK in N. Iraq

Turkish soldier killed in PKK attack

Britain to hand control of Afghan troublespot to US: Britain was to announce Wednesday that its troops will withdraw from an area of southern Afghanistan where they have suffered heavy losses and hand control to the United States. British Defence Secretary Liam Fox is expected to announce that British forces will pull out of Sangin district in the north of Helmand province by the end of year, reports said.

Ex-Taliban governor calls Afghan peace overtures a joke


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: In a separate attack in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Dora in southern Baghdad, police Maj. Abdul-Rahman Sobhi was killed when a bomb attached to his car detonated as he drove to work on Wednesday morning, police said. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

#2: On Tuesday, nine Shiite Muslims taking part in the pilgrimage in Baghdad were killed and dozens were wounded in mortar attacks and roadside bomb explosions.

A roadside bomb wounded three Shi'ite pilgrims in the Bayaa district of southwestern Baghdad as they marched towards Kadhimiya, police said.

Three mortar rounds killed one Shi'ite pilgrim and wounded nine others in the Shula district of northwestern Baghdad as they made their way to Kadhimiya.

#3: “An improvised explosive device went off in al-Fadiliya region, southeastern Baghdad, injuring five pilgrims,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

A roadside bomb wounded five Shi'ite pilgrims in northeastern Baghdad, police said.

#4: “Three more pilgrims were injured in a bomb blast in southern Baghdad,” he added.

A roadside bomb wounded three Shi'ite pilgrims in Abu Dsheer, in southern Baghdad, police said.
#5: “One more pilgrim was wounded when another roadside bomb went off at the Mohammed al-Qassim highway, central Baghdad,” the source continued.

#6: Three Iraqi army soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb went off on Wednesday in western Baghdad. “The blast occurred in the Nafaq al-Shurtta area in western Baghdad,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#7: A roadside bomb targeting Shi'ite pilgrims killed two and wounded five in the New Baghdad district of the Iraqi capital, police said.

#8: A roadside bomb in the Kadhimiya district wounded four Shi'ite pilgrims, police said.


Abu Ghraib:
#1: Militants targeted the homes of Iraq's security forces west of Baghdad on Wednesday, blowing them up and killing three family members despite heightened security around the capital for a Shiite religious occasion. Police officials said militants attacked the homes of two police officers, two members of an anti-al-Qaida Awakening Council and that of an ambulance driver in the dawn attacks in Baghdad's western suburb of Abu Ghraib. None of the targeted men were at home at the time of the attacks, but three of the men's family members were killed, police and hospital officials in Abu Ghraib said.


Tikrit:
#1: A lawmaker of the al-Iraqiya bloc, Dr. Qutiebya Ibrahim al-Juburi, survived an attempt on his life on Tuesday when his motorcade came under an armed attack in south of Tikrit while returning from Baghdad. The lawmaker told Aswat al-Iraq news agency that four gunmen opened fire on his motorcade in north of Dejla district, south of Tikrit, noting that a clash erupted between his bodyguards and the attackers, who surrendered and were handed to the police.


Mosul:
#1: Gunmen shot dead two women passersby in western Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: A reporter for al-Iraqiya state-run TV station in the al-Anbar province has survived an armed attack that targeted his house in Ramadi city on Wednesday. “Unknown gunmen opened fire targeting the reporter’s house on Wednesday, around 1:00 a.m.,” an advocate of journalists’ rights told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He noted that neither the reporter nor his family were harmed, but the house was heavily damaged.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Nato mistakenly killed five of its Afghan army allies in an airstrike today while the Afghans were attacking insurgents in the country's east, officials said. An Afghan defence official condemned the latest "friendly fire" deaths, which came at a time when international troops are trying to improve coordination with Afghan forces in hopes of handing over more security to them nearly nine years into the war. The Afghan soldiers were launching an ambush before dawn against insurgents reportedly on the move in Ghazni province when Nato aircraft began firing on them without warning,said an Afghan defense ministry spokesman, Gen Mohammad Zahir Azimi. Five Afghan soldiers died and two more were wounded in the airstrike in Ghazni's Andar district, he said. "This is not the first time such an incident has happened, but we wish that at least this would be the last one," Gen Azimi said.

#2: South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff ( JCS) said Wednesday it would beef up its surveillance against possible attacks on South Korean civilian aid workers based in Afghanistan following a rocket attack last week, local media reported. Unidentified insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades toward the construction site on June 30. No casualties or significant property damage occurred.

#3: At least two people were injured in a handgrenade attack on a NATO oil tank in Pakistan's southwest city of Chaman which borders Afghanistan, local media reported on Wednesday morning. No further details are immediately available about the attack.

#4: Six militants were killed in an air strike by foreign troops while planting land mines in two separate areas of southern Kandahar province overnight, a provincial official said on Wednesday.
#5: A roadside bomb killed four police on Tuesday in Logar province to the south of Kabul, the interior ministry said.

#6: Foreign troops killed several insurgents in a raid overnight in southeastern Paktika province, ISAF said.


MoD: Trooper James Anthony Leverett

DoD: Spc. Louis R. Fastuca

DoD: Spc. Clayton D. McGarrah

DoD: Pfc. David Jefferson

DoD: Sgt. Jordan E. Tuttle