War News for Monday, August 09, 2010

MNF-Iraq (OIF) is reporting the death of a United States Division- South soldier from an unreported combat related cause somewhere in Babil province, Iraq on Saturday, August 7th.

The Danish DM is reporting the deaths of two Danish ISAF soldiers in a roadside bombing the area around Patrol Base Line, about six kilometres (four miles) northeast of the town of Gereshk, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Sunday, August 8th. Three additional soldiers were wounded in the attack.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed area in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, August 8th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed area in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, August 7th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed area in southern Afghanistan on Monday, August 9th.

NATO is reporting the deaths of two ISAF soldiers from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, August 7th. A follow-up release reports these to be Marines killed during a prisoner escape attempt.


Ex-British soldier dies in Iraqi Kurdistan blaze

Turkish soldiers kill 5 Kurd fighters laying mines


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A suicide car bomber struck a police patrol west of Baghdad Sunday and killed eight people, most of them civilians standing in line outside a post office to collect the monthly stipend for the country’s poorest, police officials said.

#2: A policeman and a civilian were killed in a roadside bomb explosion in the morning near the traffic police department in the Ghazaliyah district in western Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Five traffic policemen and three civilians were wounded by the blast, the source said.

#3: In another incident, gunmen in a car opened fire from their assault rifles late on Sunday at the home of Sinan al-Shibibi, Iraq's central bank governor, in Jadriyah neighborhood in capital' s south, wounding one of his bodyguards, the source said.

#4: A roadside bomb targeting a traffic police patrol in central Baghdad went off late on Sunday and wounded three people including a traffic policeman, police said.


Basra:
#1: The explosion of a power generator, possibly triggered by a bomb, at a busy market in Iraq’s southern oil hub Basra on Saturday killed dozens of people and wounded scores more, morgue and security sources said. A source at the city’s morgue said at least 25 bodies had been taken there. A security source who asked not to be identified said the toll was 45 killed and 162 wounded while a hospital source said 16 had died and at least 110 were wounded. Witnesses reported that two or three explosions struck the popular market in the centre of Basra and two security sources said at least one of the blasts was the detonation of a car bomb. Basra Police Chief Adil Daham told al-Hurra television the explosion was caused by a malfunctioning generator.


Kirkuk:
#1: Gunmen shot dead a town official and wounded two of his bodyguards in al-Multaqa, southwest of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, on Sunday, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A former policeman from Co Tyrone working for a security company in Afghanistan has been shot dead. Ken McGonigle was killed by an escaped prisoner in the Musa Qala district of Helmand Province on Saturday. Two US marines are also believed to have been killed in the incident along with the gunman. Mr McGonigle was in Afghanistan working as a police mentor for security services company New Century, headed up by former Royal Irish Regiment commander Colonel Tim Collins.

Two U.S. Marines were killed during an attempted prisoner escape at the weekend in southern Afghanistan. NATO said Monday that the Marines died while trying to subdue a prisoner who had escaped a room where he was observing prayers. The prisoner acquired a rifle and engaged Afghan and coalition forces. The prisoner was later shot and killed in Saturday's escape bid. NATO did not disclose the exact location of the prison. It said the incident is being investigated.

#2: An unmanned plane of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) crashed in Kunduz province north of Afghanistan on Monday, a press release of the alliance said. "An International Security Assistance Force unmanned aerial vehicle went down in Kunduz province today," the press release added. It also added that the vehicle, a German Army Kleinflugger Zielortung, or KZO, was remotely piloted from a ground station and contains no weapons or intelligence that could be exploited by enemy forces. Meantime, authorities in Kunduz province told Xinhua that the pilotless plane went down in Ludin area, a suburban of provincial capital Kunduz city at 01:30 a.m. local time but caused no loss of life or damage.

#3: Insurgents attacked three NATO combat posts in southeastern Afghanistan, sparking clashes on Monday, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said. The troops came under attack in the rural province of Paktika, which shares a long, porous border with Pakistani areas troubled by Taliban militancy. NATO has bases in a few locations in the province close to the border. "US and Afghan forces are thwarting insurgent attacks on three combat operation posts in... Paktika province today," said ISAF. The alliance said fighting was continuing and that it could not give further details on any casualties.

#4: an Afghan child was shot dead the day before during a gunbattle between NATO forces and insurgents in Kunar province in the east, the alliance said. Sunday's fighting in eastern Kunar province started when militants attacked a small U.S. base in Watahpur district, according to Maj. Michael Johnson, a spokesman for the coalition. Insurgents fired on the outpost and soldiers saw the rounds hit two children nearby, killing one and wounding the other, Johnson said.

#5: Nato aircraft could hit even a funeral as it happened recently in Khogiani district in Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan when a vehicle carrying a coffin and the dead man’s relatives was bombed and 11 civilians including women and children were killed. The incident happened in Hashimkhel Khwar area on August 5. The sad and surprising aspect of the bombing was that it happened five kilometres away from the site of an earlier battle that day between Taliban fighters and foreign forces in Kooz Koruna locality of Nakurkhel village. In that clash, the Nato jetfighters had also bombed the area killing 13 persons. The Nato authorities claimed all 13 were Taliban, but this was not true as among them were 12 and 13-year-old youngsters and every villager vouchsafed that they were not Taliban fighters.


Glen Lapp

Brian Carderelli

Daniela Beyer

Tom Little

Dr. Thomas Grams

Dr. Karen Woo

Glen Lapp

Cheryl Beckett

DK/DM: LCpl. Rolandsen

DK/DM: Pfc. Petersen