War News for Thursday, August 05, 2010

Each transport convoy a gamble for Canadian troops in Afghanistan

Iraq sets free Saddam Hussien's top loyalist (I wonder how long it will take before this guy get's hit)


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Iraqi officials say three traffic policemen have died in drive-by shootings in western Baghdad. The Wednesday night shootings raise to at least five the number of traffic policemen killed since Tuesday in Baghdad.


Abu Ghraib:
#1: In the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad, police officials say gunmen stormed a policeman's house, killing him, his wife and a relative.


Kut:
#1: Meanwhile, an explosive device was found in the city of Kut, which witnessed a car bomb explosion on Tuesday (Aug. 3), during which scores were killed or wounded. “Anti-explosives department found the bomb near al-Batoul hospital in central Kut,” Wassit Governor Latief Mohammad told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Tikrit:
#1: Three Sahwa fighters were killed by gunmen in west of Tikrit, a source from the Salah al-Din police department said on Thursday. “The gunmen attacked a checkpoint late Wednesday (Aug. 4) using machineguns, killing three Sahwa fighters,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Kirkuk:
#1: Gunmen in a car opened fire on an off-duty policeman and wounded him severely in northern Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said


Mosul:
#1: A police force on Wednesday defused two sticky bombs that were attached to a civil servant’s car in the Ninewa provincial building. “The civil servant is the director of organizations at the Ninewa provincial authority,” a local provincial source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He noted that the two bombs were detected at the building’s major gate.

#2: Army forces killed a gunman during a foiled armed attack on an army checkpoint in west of Mosul on Thursday, a military source said. “Gunmen on Thursday morning (Aug. 5) waged an armed attack on an army checkpoint in Tal Abta district, west of Mosul, and clashed with the forces,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The forces killed a gunman, destroyed two cars and seized an amount of their weapons,” he added, noting that the clashes lasted for 30 minutes.


Tal Afar:
#1: Acting on intelligence information, Iraqi forces found a car crammed with explosives in al-Tenk neighborhood in Hasnouki region, northern Talafar, 60 km northwest of Mosul,” an official security source in Ninewa told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The car was laden with 11 different bombs and other explosives,” he added, pointing out that bombs experts managed to defuse the car this afternoon without damage.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A suicide car bomber struck a convoy of NATO troops and Afghan police Thursday in northern Afghanistan, killing seven police officers and wounding at least 11 people. The attack occurred in the early morning in Kunduz province's Imam Sahib district, according to an Interior Ministry statement. In addition to the deaths, six police and five civilians were wounded, the ministry said. No NATO troops were killed in the bombing, said Maj. Michael Johnson, a NATO forces spokesman. He said some NATO forces were wounded, but declined to say how many or how seriously. The vehicles were stopped in preparation of an operation in the area and the killed police officers had been standing outside of their trucks as they mobilized, said Abdul Rahman Aqtash, deputy police chief of Kunduz province.

#2: A bomb exploded in the Afghan capital on Thursday, hitting a police car, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, police said. “A police vehicle was struck by a mine in police district eight (east of the city) but there are no casualties,” said an official at Kabul's main police office.

#3: A suicide bomb attack killed four people in the northwest Pakistan city of Peshawar yesterday, including a top national police official who appeared to be the target of the blast. Sifwat Ghayur, commander of a paramilitary police force called the Frontier Constabulary, was killed when a lone suicide bomber on foot approached his car at a traffic light and detonated explosives, authorities in Peshawar said. Two of Ghayur's bodyguards and a passerby also were killed. Eleven people were injured.

#4: Dozens of civilians have been killed and several others injured in Afghanistan after US warplanes bombarded the country's east, according to witnesses. The American forces launched two airstrikes in Nangarhar province on Thursday morning, witnesses said. One of the attacks left at least 30 people dead and injured. The other strike, which hit a funeral procession in a separate area, killed 28 civilians including two children.

#5: Nine civilians were killed as their vehicle stuck a mine planted by militants in Helmand province south of Afghanistan, spokesman for provincial administration Daud Ahmadi said Thursday. "The bloody incident happened in Khanshin district on Wednesday leaving nine dead on the spot," Ahmadi told Xinhua.

#6: A helicopter of NATO- led forces crashed in Taliban birthplace kandahar in south Afghanistan on Thursday, officials said. "The helicopter crashed in Panjwai district at around 02:00 p. m. local time,"an official with the press department of NATO-led forces in Kandahar told Xinhua, but did not give more details. An eye witness Abdul Rahman also said that the helicopter crashed outside Panwai bazaar on a land and another chopper is hovering the area.

NATO forces say a Canadian helicopter has gone down in southern Afghanistan but no one was injured. The craft went down Thursday afternoon in Kandahar province's Panjwai District, a volatile area under the command of Canadian forces. NATO forces spokesman Maj. Michael Johnson says the craft made a "hard landing" and then caught fire. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claimed the insurgent group shot the craft down with a rocket. Johnson said the cause of the incident is being investigated and hostile fire has not been ruled out. A shopkeeper said he heard a loud bang, then saw smoke and the helicopter falling into a field. Johnson said the five crew members and five passengers have been recovered safely.