War News for Thursday, June 02, 2011

Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: In downtown Baghdad, a roadside bomb went off near a police patrol in an intersection in Bab al-Mu'adham area, damaging a police vehicle and wounding two policemen aboard, the source said on condition of anonymity. Three civilians were also wounded by the blast, along with damaging several nearby civilian cars, the source said.

#2: In a separate incident, a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in al-Nidhal Street in Baghdad's central district of Karrada, wounding four passers-by, the source added.

#3: In western Baghdad, a roadside bomb ripped through Iskan neighborhood, wounding two civilians, he said.


Mussayab:
#1: Six people were killed and at least 11 wounded when a bomb exploded in a wedding party in al-Hamya village in Mussayab, 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.


Al Qurna:
#1: An unknown group attacked today a U.S. military convoy in Qurna with a grenade, U.S. forces source announced here today. No casualties were reported. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that the attack did not result in major damages. He added that the U.S. patrol did not return fire after the attack.


Basra:
#1: The Operations Command in southern Iraq’s Basra port-city has been attacked by three mortar shells on Wednesday, according to a security source in the Command, adding that the attack had caused no casualties. “Three mortar shells fell before noon today (Wednesday) on the building of Basra Operations Command in the center of the city, but caused no material or human losses,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Irbil:
#1: Kurdish security forces dismantled a sticky bomb in a civilian car, as stated by Kurdistan Security Department today. The statement, as received by Aswat al-Iraq , added that the bomb was dismantled on Tuesday night on the main gate of the city on Arbil-Kirkuk road.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Unknown gunmen assassinated the Sheikh of Mahamda tribe, in the center of Falluja city, security sources said today. The source added to Aswat al-Iraq that Sheikh Hameed Ahmed was assassinated today, but the culprit ran away.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Twenty-five Pakistani security forces have been killed in fighting in northwest Pakistan after about 200 militants crossed over from Afghanistan and attacked a security checkpost, a government official said on Thursday. Skirmishes had been going on for 24 hours in a village in Dir region, Ghulam Mohammad Khan, a top local government official, said by telephone.


Hundreds of heavily armed Taliban besieged a Pakistani checkpoint on the Afghan border for a second day Thursday, killing 28 police and six civilians in the deadliest fighting for months. A senior police official told AFP that 500 militants, including Afghan Taliban from across the border and Pakistani Taliban, took part in the attack which began before dawn on Wednesday and continued more than 24 hours later. The Pakistani military sent reinforcements to the police checkpost, deploying helicopter gunships in a bid to quell the attack in an area accessible on the ground only by foot. "We have regained control of most of the area but fighting is still going on in some parts near the (checkpoint), which was attacked by around 500 Pakistani and Afghan Taliban," regional police chief Qazi Jamil ur-Rehman told AFP. He said 34 people were killed in the attack, including 28 policemen and six civilians, among them two women and two children, who died when mortar rounds struck nearby houses. He had earlier put the death toll at 28. "Twelve houses were hit by mortar shelling. Militants are now on the run and we are confident to be in control of the entire area by this evening," he said. Rehman said more than 20 police were wounded, but he had no information on casualties among the Taliban. By early afternoon, residents and a local official said thuds of gunfire could be heard intermittently in the area.

#2: A landmine blast wounded six people traveling in a pick-up van in the southwestern Baluchistan province, police said.

#3: The German Army says six German soldiers have been wounded in a bomb attack in Afghanistan. A spokesman for the Bundeswehr Operations Command in Potsdam said the attack on the German ISAF soldiers took place Thursday morning in the province of Baghlan, around 35 kilometers south of the city of Kunduz.


DoD: Capt. Joseph W. Schultz

DoD: Staff Sgt. Martin R. Apolinar

DoD: Sgt. Aaron J. Blasjo

DoD: Spc. Richard C. Emmons III