War News for Friday, December 11, 2010

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED blast in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Friday, December 10th.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Two roadside bombs planted next to each other in Al Aazamiya region, northeastern Baghdad, wounded an Iraqi soldier and officer, a police source told Alsumaria News.

#2: Gunmen in a civilian car opened fire in a drive-by shooting on Saturday on an Interior Minister Major in Al Ghazaliya region. The attack using muted weapons killed the major on the spot.

An Iraqi police officer with captain rank has been assassinated by a group of armed men, who shot him with silencer-pistols west of Baghdad on Saturday, a Baghdad security source said. “A group of armed men, opened fire from silencer-pistols on a police officer with captain rank, working for the anti-criminal investigations office, while he was in a police vehicle in west Baghdad’s Mansour district on Saturday,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Coalition forces in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday killed seven armed men who are believed to have been part of a private security firm, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

At least seven Afghan civilians have been killed during the latest spate of US-led air strike in Afghanistan amid the rise in civilian casualties in the war-torn country. The attack took place in Zarmat district in Paktia province on Saturday as a group of Afghan road construction workers were working on a project, a Press TV correspondent reported. Reports say local people have gathered at the site of the attack and there is extreme anger over the event.

#2: A roadside bomb attack blamed on Taliban militants killed 15 civilians, including children, in southern Afghanistan. The 15 died when the truck they were travelling in from Khair Abad village to Khansheen district in Helmand province was hit by a homemade device late Friday, provincial spokesman Daud Ahmadi told AFP. Story continues below "The blast killed 15 civilians and wounded another four," he said, adding that children were among the dead.

#3: On Saturday, a car bomb went off close to police headquarters in Kandahar city, also in the south, wounding four policemen and two civilians. "There was a car bomb explosion at the car park of Kandahar city police headquarters. Four policemen and two civilians are wounded in the blast," provincial spokesman Zalmai Ayobi told AFP.

#4: Separately, in the north of the country, a suicide attacker drove a stolen police pick-up truck packed with explosives into an army checkpost in Chahar Dara district of Kunduz province. "Four soldiers and four civilians were wounded in the suicide attack," Abdul Rehmand Aqtash, deputy provincial police chief, told AFP.

#5: Pakistani security forces killed five militants in an exchange of fire in the northwestern valley of Swat on Saturday, government officials said. The army says the valley has been largely cleared after a military operation launched in April, 2009.

#6: Security forces killed four militants and wounded three in a clash that erupted after insurgents attacked a military check post in the northwestern tribal region of Mohmand on the Afghan border, senior government official Amjad Ali Khan said. Militants often dispute and dismiss official death tolls.

#7: At least four people were killed and two others injured in a U.S. drone strike launched Friday evening in Pakistan's northwest tribal area along the Afghan border, reported local Urdu TV channel Geo. According to the report, four missiles were fired by U.S. drones at a vehicle suspected of carrying militants in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan, a place believed to be a stronghold of Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.


DoD: Sgt. James A. Ayube

DoD: Spc. Kelly J. Mixon