War News for Wednesday, August 18, 2010

More attacks on Norwegian soldiers: Norwegian soldiers have come under fire 165 times in the first six months of 2010. The majority of these have been roadside bombs and direct or indirect attacks.

Iraqi Leaders Fear for Future After Their Past Missteps


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Also Wednesday, police said gunmen in western Baghdad killed an employee of the Ministry of Housing and Reconstruction as he was driving to work.

#2: “A roadside bomb went off today in the Zayiona neighborhood, eastern Baghdad, wounding two civilians,” a local security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: “A roadside bomb went off today at the Beirut Square, eastern Baghdad, wounding four civilians,” the source added.

#4: Armed men opened fire on a car, wounding three people, in eastern Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

#5: A generator exploded in eastern Baghdad, setting fire to stores and wounding 25 people, an Interior Ministry source said. A police source said the incident may have involved a bomb, and that six people were killed, but a local resident said it was an accident and three people were killed.

#6: Men in a car threw a hand grenade into the street, wounding one policeman and a civilian, in Baghdad's western district of Mansour, an Interior Ministry source said.

#7: roadside bomb wounded four people in Palestine street in northeastern Baghdad, police said.

#8: A roadside bomb wounded two people in the eastern Baghdad district of Zayouna, police said.


Diyala Prv:
#1: Three murdered farmers whose bodies bore leaflets warning against cooperation with US and Iraqi forces were among six people killed in violence in Iraq on Wednesday, security officials said. In the village of Rabiyah, northeast of Baghdad in central Diyala province, 10 masked gunmen carrying machine guns and silenced pistols and claiming to be members of Al-Qaeda raided the houses of three Shiite farmers, dragged them outside and shot them dead. "They brought them outside of their homes and then shot them," said police Major Mohammed al-Karkhi. "Then they left leaflets on their bodies which said, 'This is the future for all those who cooperate with the US military and Iraqi security forces.'"


Abu Ghraib:
#1: The manager of the Financial Supervisory Authority was killed on Tuesday in an armed attack in western Baghdad, a police source said.“Unknown gunmen attacked Hassan Abdullatief, the manager of the Financial Supervisory Authority of the trade ministry, while driving his car in al-Madayef street in al-Ameriya region, western Baghdad, killing him using guns with silencers,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “An explosive charge went off targeting a police vehicle patrol in Abu Gharieb region, western Baghdad, killing a civilian and injuring two others, including a policeman,” the same source said.


Tikrit:
#1: A bomb planted near a courthouse in Saddam Hussein's hometown killed two security guards on Wednesday, Iraqi police and hospital officials said. Security officials at the civil court in Tikrit, located some 80 miles (130 kilometres) north of Baghdad, discovered a pair of bombs near the main entrance to the building early Wednesday morning as people were arriving for work. Authorities evacuated the courthouse, but one of the bombs went off around 7:40 local time, killing the two guards and wounding three civilians, police and hospital officials said.


Kirkuk:
#1: Two policemen were killed by gunmen in southern Kirkuk on Tuesday, Domiz police chief said. “Unidentified gunmen opened fire on a police checkpoint in Domiz region in southern Kirkuk, killing two policemen,” Colonel Anwar Qader told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Mosul:
#1: Unknown gunmen killed an employee working in Badoush jail, west of Mosul, near his house in al-Harmat region, western Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: “A policeman was killed on Tuesday afternoon by armed men near his house in al-Salahiya region in Hamam al-Alil district, south of Mosul,” the source said.

#3: Police found the body of an unidentified man with head and chest bullet wounds in eastern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Islamist militants attacked police posts in Pakistan's northwest and killed two civilians active in an anti-Taliban militia, challenging a security establishment straining under a national flooding disaster, police said Wednesday. A group of militants first killed two members of a militia in the Adezai area of Peshawar as they headed to pray at a mosque late Tuesday, said Liaqat Ali Khan, Peshawar police chief. In the hours after, dozens of militants from the Khyber tribal region, which lies near Peshawar and along the Afghan border, attacked police posts in the Sarband area of Peshawar. The two sides exchanged fire for about an hour before the militants retreated to Khyber, Khan said. He said several militants were killed, but there were no police casualties.

#2: Taliban insurgents broke into the home of a provincial official in southern Afghanistan and killed him and his wife, the latest targeted attack on those with links to the government or international forces, authorities said Wednesday. Atta Jan Kajrwal, the Zabul province director of border and tribal affairs, was killed along with his wife in the attack Tuesday night in Shahjoy district, said Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar, a spokesman for the governor. Another person in the house was injured, he said.

#3: Also Tuesday, a joint coalition-Afghan force raided a compound used by the Taliban as a prison, freeing 27 Afghan civilians who were shackled and held captive, an official said. Thirteen Taliban fighters were killed in the raid in the Musa Qala district of the southern province of Helmand, provincial spokesman Dawood Ahmadi said Wednesday. Five captives had been slain before the force arrived, he said.

#4: In the east, hundreds of demonstrators blocked a main highway between Kabul and the eastern city of Jalalabad on Wednesday to protest two deaths in a night raid. The protesters said the two men killed were innocent civilians, while NATO said its forces killed two insurgents. Ghafor Khan, chief of Surkh Rod district, said a father and his son were killed and three others were wounded in the Tuesday night operation. He said police were trying to control the crowd to keep the demonstration peaceful.

#5: NATO said Afghan and coalition troops killed two insurgents and detained several others while pursuing a bomb-making expert who was making sophisticated explosives for the Taliban. The coalition said the joint force took enemy fire before fatally shooting two men.

#6: In a separate incident, NATO said a civilian irrigating a field in the Arghandab district of Kandahar province was killed Tuesday during a fire fight. The coalition said the civilian was shot and killed when a joint force being attacked by insurgents returned fire. Coalition forces planned to meet with local elders about the shooting, which remains under investigation.

#7: Also in Kandahar, NATO said a joint force killed 10 insurgents Tuesday while pursuing a Taliban commander responsible for arranging weapons deliveries. Six insurgents who ran from a compound in Panjwai district were killed in an air strike and four others were killed by ground forces.

#8: Four soldiers of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) received injuries as they came under attack in east Afghanistan, a press release of the alliance said Wednesday. "Four International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service members were wounded by a grenade in eastern Afghanistan Tuesday," the press release added. ISAF and Afghan National Army forces were conducting a partnered patrol in the Sayyidabad district, Wardak province, when the grenade was thrown from a mosque wounding four service members.

#9: An explosion heard in Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday. Meantime, an official who declined to be identified told Xinhua that the blast was a controlled-explosion carried by security forces in the eastern part of the city.

#10: A road construction worker was killed and one other was wounded in a road side bomb explosion in southern Paktia Province, provincial officials said. Confirming the incident, a spokesperson for governor of Paktia said after a vehicle of the road construction company hit a road side mine in Gardez, the provincial capital, earlier today, one worker of the company was killed and the other was injured.

#11: It was a morning filled with tragedy, tears and grievance for the local villagers of Dam Abad when an insurgent rocket landed in their village, killing three small children and injuring their mother. "This morning three insurgent rockets were launched toward Camp Salerno," said Capt. Anthony Clark, commander of the base defense force, Task Force Red Knight, 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, from Louisville, Ky. "One of the rockets struck the village near the base, killing two Afghan girls, ages 4 and 5, and injuring a third girl, as well as their mother. The other two rockets were ineffective."

#12: An unmanned drone air craft crashed in southeastern Paktika province, ISAF said. The crash was caused by mechanical failure and the wreckage was recovered, it said


DoD: Spc. Jamal M. Rhett