War News for Saturday, August 14, 2010

The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF soldier from small arms fire in the Sangin district, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Friday, August 13th.

The British MoD is reporting the death of another British ISAF soldier from small arms fire in the Nad-e Ali District, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Friday, August 13th.

The Australian DoD is reporting the death of an Australian SAS soldier from small arms fire in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, August 14th.

The Washington Post is reporting the death of an American ISAF soldier in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan presumably on Saturday, August 14th.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: In the first attack, gunmen armed with silenced pistols killed two policemen asleep in their patrol car at a security checkpoint in the Shiite-dominated New Baghdad neighborhood, said an officer with the federal police in Baghdad. The assailants then set the car on fire and fled, he said.
#2: A half-hour later, a drive-by shooting on a checkpoint killed two more policemen in the Amil area, another Shiite neighborhood, in southwest Baghdad, two other Baghdad police officials said. Two passers-by were injured, they said.

#3: Around the same time, gunmen attacked a checkpoint manned by government-backed Sunni fighters from groups known as Awakening Councils in the mostly Shiite Shaab area in the capital’s northeast. One of the fighters was killed and two were injured, the police officials said.

#4: Iraqi civilians also are coming under attack. A bomb attached to a car in the Amil area of Baghdad blew up Saturday morning, injuring its driver and three bystanders, officials said.

A bomb attached to car wounded a passenger and a policeman in southwestern Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

#5: Two roadside bombs went off in synchronicity in al-Amil neighborhood, wounding two policemen,” the source added.


Samarra:
#1: Several bombs exploded outside the house of a police officer, severely damaging his home and setting his car on fire. When police and Sons of Iraq fighters arrived at the scene and entered the apparently booby-trapped house, it exploded, wounding eight people, including two children and a woman, police said.

#2: In another incident in the al-Shuhadaa neighborhood of Samarra, a number of bombs exploded outside the house of another police officer, authorities said, wounding six members of his family and severely damaging his home.

#3: The home of a Sons of Iraq leader in the al-Jubairiya neighborhood in the city was targeted in another attack, police said. Attackers planted several bombs and gas cylinders with TNT outside his house. At least four members of his family were wounded.

#4: A roadside bomb wounded six policemen when it exploded near their patrol in central Samarra, 100 km (62 miles) north of Baghdad, on Friday, police said.


Hawija:
#1: A bomb attached to a bike wounded a policeman and a civilian when it exploded near a police patrol in Hawija, 210 km (130 miles) north of Baghdad, on Friday, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Gunmen have attacked a passenger bus and shot dead at least 10 people in insurgency-hit south-west Pakistan, officials said on Saturday. The incident took place in Aab-e-Gum area, 75 kilometres south-east of Quetta, the capital of oil and gas rich Baluchistan province, on Friday night. "A group of 30-35 gunmen stopped the bus in Aab-e-Gum area, off-loaded passengers at gunpoint and shot dead 10 of them," said top provincial home department official Akbar Hussain Durrani. He said the bus was travelling to Quetta from the eastern city of Lahore and all those killed in the attack were Punjabi-speaking people. A senior local official in Aab-e-Gum area, Ismail Kurd, also confirmed the incident and casualties.

#2: Taliban militants attacked a private company in west Afghanistan leaving three guards of the company dead and injured 13 others, police spokesman in western region Abdul Rauf Ahmadi said Saturday. "A group of armed Taliban rebels raided the company on Herat- Badghis highway on Friday as a result three guards of the company were killed and 13 others were injured," Ahmadi told Xinhua, adding that one Taliban militant was also killed in the firefight lasted for several hours. However, he could not give the name of the company, saying it was a local company escorted oil tankers supplying fuel to NATO- led troops in the western region.

#3: A joint Afghan and NATO-led forces conducting operations in Kunduz province north of Afghanistan had killed two insurgents on Saturday after the combined forces came under attack from small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a press release. "With support from Luna unmanned aerial vehicle, the International Security Assistance Force operating in Kunduz province was able to identify and destroy an insurgent cannon firing position located inside a compound with a guided anti-tank missile," the press release added. Through the course of the operation, it said, ISAF forces received small arms and RPG fire from multiple locations, adding no ISAF troops were injured during the course of the attack and no civilian injuries were reported.

#4: Four policemen were killed and four others were injured as their van ran over a mine in Helmand province south of Afghanistan on Saturday, spokesman for provincial administration Daud Ahmadi said. "The incident occurred in Ghershk district this morning as a mine planted by militants struck a police van killing four police constables on the spot and wounding four others," Ahmadi told Xinhua.

#5: Also in the south, three Afghan civilians were killed and another was wounded by insurgents in three separate incidents in Kandahar province on Friday. Two of the civilians were killed when a rocket-propelled grenade hit their vehicle in Arghandab district. Another was fatally stabbed by insurgents near the governor's compound in Kandahar city.

#6: In the north, NATO and coalition troops killed two insurgents Saturday after a patrol came under small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire in Kunduz province, NATO said.


MoD: Lieutenant John Charles Sanderson

DoD: Cpl. Kristopher D. Greer

DoD: Sgt. Jose L. Saenz III

DoD: Sgt. Christopher N. Karch

DoD: Cpl. Kristopher D. Greer

AU/DoD: Trooper Jason Thomas Brown