War News for Thursday, May 12, 2011

Kurdish rebels kill police officer in attack - agency


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: In Baghdad, a roadside bomb struck a vehicle belonging to the Ministry of National Security in al-Ghazaliyah district in western the capital, wounding two ministry employees aboard, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Iraqi security forces rushed to the site of the first blast, but another roadside bomb exploded near their vehicles and wounded two policemen and a soldier, the source said.

#2: In a separate incident, a bomb detonated at a liquor store in Bab al-Sharji district in downtown Baghdad, wounding a civilian and damaging the store, the source said.

#3: In eastern Baghdad, a roadside bomb went off near a U.S. military convoy in Baladiyat district, the source said without giving further details.

#4: Five casualties were reported in north-east Baghdad following an explosion in the area, security sources said today (Wednesday). The source told Aswat al-Iraq that "a bomb exploded in Palestine Street, wounding five civilians."


Mussayab:
#1: Police found the bodies of two men with gunshot wounds in the town of Mussayab, 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, a Babil province police official said.


Hilla:
#1: Police found the body of a teenager bearing signs of torture in a town near the city of Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, a Babil province police official said.


Tikrit:
#1: The Director of Tuz township’s Nationality Certificates Office Director in Salahal-Din Province has been injured in an explosive charge blast in his car on Thursday, a police source said. “An explosive charge, stuck to the car of Tuz township’s Nationality Certificates Director, Lt.
Brig. Madih Nouri, blew of under his car in the city of Tikrit on Thursday, seriously injuring him,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Kirkuk:
#1: Iraqi police say a lawmaker from the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc escaped an assassination attempt in the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk. Police Brig. Gen. Khattab Omar says bombs exploded Thursday morning near the house of Arshad al-Salehi, a Turkomen member of Iraqiya. Al-Salehi and his family were in the house at the time but suffered no injuries.

A mortar round landed in the early morning on the house of Arshad al-Salihi, a Member of Parliament and head of a political group represents the Iraqi Turkoman minority, destroying part of his house, a local security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

#2: Hours later, two people were wounded in central Kirkuk when a roadside bomb struck the convoy of Major General Jamal Tahir, a chief police in Kirkuk, while he was visiting the house of Arshad al-Salihi which was attacked by a mortar round earlier in the day, the source added.


Mosul:
#1: A roadside bomb went off near a police patrol on Wednesday, wounding three policemen and one civilian, in western Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: One Afghan civilian was killed and nine were wounded when a bag packed with explosives exploded near a shop in Khost city, capital of southeastern Khost province, provincial police chief Abdul Hakim Eshaqzai said. He gave no further details and it was not immediately clear what had been the target of the bomb.

#2: U.S. missiles killed at least five alleged militants Thursday in a tribal region along the Afghan border. Two Pakistani intelligence officials said Thursday's drone-fired missiles hit a vehicle in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan, an al-Qaida and Taliban stronghold that has been subject to frequent missile attacks.

#3: NATO says its troops and Afghan forces mistakenly killed a young girl and a man who turned out to be a police officer during an overnight raid in eastern Afghanistan. A NATO statement Thursday says a combined NATO-Afghan force was pursuing a Taleban leader in Nangarhar province’s Surkh Rod district on Wednesday, when a man came out of the targeted house threatening them with a gun. It says the troops killed the man and then discovered he was a police officer. The troops also shot at someone running out of the back of the compound who they believed had a weapon. The soldiers later realized there was no weapon and that they had killed “an unarmed Afghan female adolescent.” A neighbor, who goes by the name of Ayatullah, says the girl was 12 years old.

#4: Five people were killed in a cross-border clash between Pakistani tribesmen and Afghan forces on Thursday. Sources said that the clashes began after the Afghan National Army carried out unprovoked firing in the Lawa Mandi area on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Three of those killed are reported to local tribesmen and two Afghan army men, local security officials said. There has been no official confirmation on why the clash erupted and authorities are trying to control the situation.