War News for Wednesday, August 31, 2011

The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF Marine from an IED blast in the Sukmanda area of the Nahr-e Saraj (South) district, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Tuesday, August 30. This was posted yesterday as this NATO release.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from a roadside bombing attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, August 31st.


Maliki: US troops will leave Iraq on time


Reported security incidents

Diyala Prv:
#1: A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol wounded three policemen when it went off in southern Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, police said.

Five cops were injured in a bomb blast in the center of Baaquba, security sources said today. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that a bomb exploded in the main street of Baaquba city targeting a police patrol, which led to injuring five, including a captain.


Hilla:
#1: Police found the burnt bodies of a government employee and his wife inside their house on Monday in central Hilla, 100 km (62 miles) south of Baghdad, a police source said. The source said an initial investigation showed they had been killed by a sharp weapon before being set alight



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: We're learning on this Wednesday that a Korean base in northern Afghanistan came under another rocket attack earlier this month, but no casualties were reported. An official at Seoul's foreign ministry said Wednesday that six rounds of rocket-propelled grenades were fired toward the base in Charikar, which houses Korea's Provincial Reconstruction Team, on August 15th. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack which is the 13th of its kind for this year alone.

#2: Eleven people were killed and 21 injured when a car bomb exploded Wednesday near a crowd of worshippers celebrating Eid al-Fitr in southwest Pakistan, police said. The attack occurred in the city of Quetta in Balochistan province, said Abdullah Afridi, a senior police official. The suicide bomber was trying to get farther into the crowd to cause maximum damage but was stopped by strict security measures, Afridi said. The car filled with explosives detonated prematurely, but still caused mayhem in the crowded area, Afridi said.

War News for Tuesday, August 30, 2011

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, August 30th.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Three policemen on a foot patrol were killed by armed men in a speeding car in eastern Baghdad, according to hospital and police officials.

Two federal cops were killed and one wounded when they were attacked by unknown group with weapons equipped with silencers, security sources said here today. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that the attackers stormed in a federal police check point east of Baghdad, which led to the killings.


Diyala Prv:
#1: Five cops were injured in a bomb blast in the center of Baaquba, security sources said today. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that a bomb exploded in the main street of Baaquba city targeting a police patrol, which led to injuring five, including a captain.


Sulaimaniyah:
#1: An Iraqi Kurdish journalist told AFP on Tuesday he was beaten with the butt of a pistol outside his office. Asos Hardi, the journalist who helped found two of the region's biggest independent newspapers, told AFP that he did not expect the police to catch his assailant, despite official pledges to bring him to justice. Hardi, who suffered six wounds to his head, said his attacker only left when two men saw what was happening and rushed to the scene.


Kirkuk:
#1: A woman and her daughter were hit by a bomb blast south of Kirkuk, security sources said here today. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that the bomb was implanted in cemetery in Daqooq area, south Kirkuk, which led to the injuries.


Mosul:
#1: A parked car bomb killed an Iraqi soldier and wounded nine people, including a traffic policeman, when it went off in the northern outskirts of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

#2: Police found the body of a young man with gunshot wounds to his head and chest in the western outskirts of Mosul, police said.

#3: A car exploded near a police center north west Mosul, with no casualties, as reported by a security source in the province. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that the explosion was partial near Rabee'a police station, 120 km north west Mosul. This is the second car explosion in Mosul today.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: A parked car bomb went off in the centre of Falluja city, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, targeting an Iraqi army patrol, wounding seven soldiers and nine civilians sitting in a nearby cafe, according to local police.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A total of 10 insurgents were killed and nine others captured when Afghan and NATO-led forces conducted joint operations in the country's eastern Ghazni and Wardak province, the NATO said on Tuesday. "A combined Afghan and coalition security force killed more than 10 insurgents and detained another nine during separate, overnight searches targeting a Haqqani network attack cell in eastern Afghanistan," said a statement issued by NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

#2: A remote controlled mine on Monday wounded two policemen and two civilians in the northern Kunduz province, regional police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini said. He added that the mine had targeted a police vehicle.


DoD: Spc. Douglas J. Green

War News for Monday, August 29, 2011

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, August 27th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, August 28th.

NATO is reporting the death of another ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, August 28th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, August 28th.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A suicide bomber blew himself up inside Baghdad's largest Sunni mosque Sunday night, killing 29 people during prayers. Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, a spokesman for Baghdad's military operations command, confirmed the bombing happened inside the Um al-Qura mosque during prayers in the western Baghdad neighborhood of al-Jamiaah. The blue-domed building is the largest Sunni mosque in Baghdad.

#2: A roadside bomb went off and wounded five people, including two policemen, in the Zaafaraniya district of south-eastern Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

#3: A parked car bomb blew up near a mosque in south-western Baghdad late on Sunday, killing one person and wounding eight others, an Interior Ministry source said.


Diyala Prv:
#1: Two cops were killed and two wounded due to an armed attack in the center of Baaquba city, Diala province security sources said here today. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that an armed group attacked Monday morning a police check point in mid of the city and shot them which led to two killings and two wounded cops.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Security forces had killed 12 Taliban militants in Helmand province 555 km south of capital city Kabul on Sunday, spokesman for provincial administration Daud Ahmadi said Monday. "Security forces came in contact with a group of armed Taliban rebels in Washir district on Sunday during which 12 insurgents were killed," Ahmadi told Xinhua. A Taliban commander Mullah Salam sustained injuries during the fighting, he said. There were no casualties on the troops, he emphasized.

#2: Three militants were killed when a roadside bomb they were planting exploded in the eastern Paktika province on Sunday, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

#3: Afghan security forces and ISAF troops killed an insurgent in northern Kunduz province on Sunday, the coalition said in a statement.

#4: Afghan forces and ISAF troops killed six insurgents overnight in central Ghazni province, regional governor spokesman Mahrof Ayoubi said

#5: A government health worker and his driver were killed Sunday in a roadside bomb blast in northern Afghanistan, officials said. Dr. Ahmad Jawed Karim and his driver hit an explosive as they were driving in Takhar provinc's Dahana Sangi district, the health ministry said in a statement.


DoD: Pfc. Brandon S. Mullins

DoD: Pfc. Jesse W. Dietrich

DoD: Spc. Michael C. Roberts

News of the Day for Sunday, August 28, 2011

I'll have to work fast today because my power is out due to the hurricane and I'm having to conserve battery power -- it's likely to be a while. -- C

Reported Security Incidents

Tuz Khurmato

Roadside bomb attack on the car of police major Mohammed Taqi injures him, his bodyguard, and a passerby.

Jalawla

Jawad Kadhim, an official of the national security ministry, is killed in a driveby shooting, along with his driver.

Baghdad

Roadside bomb in Shu’ala district injures 2 people. Separately, 3 people are injured by an explosion in Zaafaraniya.

A woman is killed, 3 police and 1 civilian injured in attack on a police checkpoint near Salman Pak.

Three civilians injured by an explosion in Tarmiya.

ammam al-Alil township, south of Mosul

Five Iraqi soldiers and a policeman injured by a car bomb. A civilian is injured in a separate explosion Saturday afternoon.

Mosul

Bomb attack on an army patrol injures 6 civilians and 2 Iraqi soldiers.

Other News of the Day

Former director of MI5, Dame Eliza Manningham Buller, tells an interviewer that Iraq posed no threat to the UK at the time of the invasion, saying "Intelligence isn't complete without the full picture and the full picture is all about doubt. Otherwise, you go the way of George Bush."

Amnesty International calls for investigation of the deaths of seven members of one family who died in a Turkish missile strike on their car in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Twenty five people, mostly women and children, are killed in Kirkuk when a bus catches fire after a collision.

Afghanistan Update

An ISAF member is killed in southern Afghanistan, no further details available at this time.

Taliban claim to have killed 12 people in a suicide car bomb attack on what they say was a "CIA" convoy. However, the Afghan Interior Ministry says the bomb exploded prematurely, killing only the bomber. The Taliban are making other extravagant claims about killing large numbers of U.S. troops, but there is no indication so far there is any truth to these.

Suicide car bomb attack on police and soldiers lining up for their pay kills 4 people, 3 of them children, in Lashkar Gah.

Rockets are fired from Afghanistan into South Waziristan, apparently harmlessly.

War News for Saturday, August 27, 2011

BBC journalist killed during Taliban attack 'may have been shot by US forces'


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A sticky bomb attached to the car of a police officer killed him and wounded two passers-by when it went off on Friday in Baghdad's central Karrada district, an Interior Ministry source said.

#2: A roadside bomb went off near a liquor store, wounding two civilians in central Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

#3: Three civilians were wounded when three mortar rounds landed in northern Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.


Jebla:
#1: Gunmen in a car shot dead a civilian late on Friday in Jbela, 65 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, a local police source said.


Um Qsar:
#1: update The head of the security commission in Basra said today that the rockets launched yesterday were not directed against the Kuwaiti Mobarak Terminal, but Pokka prison, charging that it is an attempt to destroy the Iraqi economy. Ali al-Maliki told Aswat al-Iraq that "the rockets were launched against Pokka prison, 2 km west of Um Qasr port, 60 km west of Basra city, which is the center of the Iraqi naval forces and foreign companies. The rockets were newly designed rockets with a range of one kilometer.


Tarmiya:
#1: A roadside bomb went off near a mosque and wounded three civilians in Tarmiya, 25 km (15 miles) north of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.


Kirkuk:
#1: Police found the body of an unidentified man in his forties just north of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, a source in Kirkuk police operations room said late on Friday. The source said the man had been handcuffed and blindfolded and his body was riddled with bullets.


Mosul:
#1: An armed man has been killed while trying to plant an explosive charge in Mosul, the center of northern Iraq’s Ninewa Province on Friday, a Ninewa security source reported. “An armed man has been killed on Friday in an explosive charge he tried to plant on the main highway connecting Mosul with Hammam al-Ajil township, 20 km from the city,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Hundreds of militants crossed the Afghan border Saturday and attacked three security checkpoints in northwestern Pakistan, killing 12 people including 10 paramilitary soldiers and two policemen, officials said. The militants seized control of a local village after attacking the security checkpoints in Chitral district, said local police official Nizam Khan. Pakistani forces responded to the raid and killed nine insurgents, he said. But fighting was still ongoing Saturday afternoon, and Pakistani troops requested helicopter gunships to drive the militants back across the border, said Maj. Ghulam Rasool, a member of the paramilitary forces. Chitral is located across the border from the Afghan districts of Nuristan and Kunar, both of which house significant numbers of Afghan and Pakistani Taliban fighters. The U.S. largely pulled out of the area about a year ago but has recently added additional troops.

update -- At least 40 soldiers of Chitral Scouts were killed and many others wounded when militants from Afghanistan attacked border checkpoints in northern Chitral district Saturday, Geo News reported.

#2: Also Saturday, gunmen kidnapped and killed a retired army colonel in northwestern Pakistan, and a police officer died trying to rescue him, said police official Umer Hayat. The gunmen seized Col. Shakeel Ahmad as he was on his way home from morning prayers in the garrison city of Kohat, said Hayat. Police intercepted the gunmen's car at a checkpoint and engaged them in a firefight in which one police officer was killed and two others wounded. The gunmen escaped and later shot dead Ahmad and abandoned his body alongside a road.

#3: At least four people have been killed in a suicide car bombing in Afghanistan's southern Helmand Province. Officials say at least another 21 people were wounded. A deputy police chief for Helmand, Kamal-u-Din Sherzai, said the bomber detonated the vehicle at the New Kabul Bank in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, as soldiers and police officers were collecting their salaries.

#4: Two blasts in southern city of Kandahar wounded at least 20 civilians, including women and children, the provincial governor's spokesman, Zalmay Ayoubi, said. It was not immediately clear whether they were suicide or car bomb explosions, Ayoubi said


DoD: Sgt. Andrew R. Tobin

War News for Friday, August 26, 2011

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, August 25th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, August 25th.

NATO is reporting the deaths of two ISAF soldiers from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, August 25th.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: In Baghdad, a car bomb killing one passer-by and wounded 17 other people as an Iraqi army convoy drove by al-Mustansiriya University in a Shiite neighborhood. A Baghdad policeman said 11 soldiers were among the wounded. Cars parked along the street were also damaged in Thursday's explosion.


Jbela (?): Gunmen in a car opened fire on a car carrying Thamir Ubaid, the former head of Jbela municipal council, killing him, his son and his uncle, and wounding one other relative, a local police source said. The source said the incident occurred late on Thursday in Jbela, 65 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad


Basra:
#1: The office of Armed Forces General Commander Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki denied reports saying that Iraqi territories were used to launch attacks on Kuwaiti Mubarak Port, a source told Alsumaria. Security sources in Basra Province revealed on Thursday that unknown gunmen launched three missiles from inside Iraqi territories on the project’s site in Kuwaiti Boubyan Island. The missiles landed in Gulf waters, the sources reported. Kuwait on the other hand did not report any missile attack from Iraq.

#2: In the southern city of Basra, a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle near a Shiite mosque, said Ayad al-Emarah, press secretary for the Basra provincial governor. Four worshippers died and another 50 were injured, said hospital and morgue officials.


Mosul:
#1: Earlier in the day, a roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi army checkpoint in eastern Mosul, police said. One soldier died in the afternoon blast in the city that was once an al-Qaida hotbed.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Gunmen attacked a police station Thursday in the town of Karmah, about 50 miles west of Baghdad. After exchanging gunfire with the policemen, the gunmen withdrew and a car bomb exploded near the police station, killing five of the police officers, Iraqi police and hospital officials said.

#2: update - About 30 minutes later, a parked car bomb exploded near a police checkpoint in a village outside of Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad. Three policemen and one civilian were killed in the second attack, officials said.

#3: A car driven by a suicide attacker exploded at a police checkpoint, killing four policemen and wounding five others in southern Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, a local police source said.

#4: The Commander of Iraq’s 7th Army Division has escaped an assassination attempt, in an explosive charge blast against his motorcade in west Iraq’s Anbar Province, killing his driver and wounding two of his bodyguards, a security source reported. “An explosive charge blew off against the motorcade of the 7th Army Commander of the Iraqi Army, Maj-General Ismail al-Duleimy, on the main road between west Iraq’s Anbar Province, connecting its towns of Hit and Qaim, killing his driver and wounding two of his bodyguards,” the security source stressed.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Six Afghan civilians from the same family were killed by a coalition air strike in the insurgent-hit east of the country, local officials said Friday. A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said he could not confirm civilians were killed but that several insurgents were among the dead in the operation at around midnight Thursday in Logar province. Logar provincial police chief Ghulam Sakhi Rogh Lewani said the operation targeted a Taliban commander with a bounty on his head known as Qari Hijran and had also killed civilians. "Four Taliban militants were killed along with three Afghan army and six members of a family during the incident," he said.

#2: A women was killed and five other civilians were injured on Friday when a blast rocked Herat, the capital city of Herat province, 640 km west of Kabul, police said. "A quantity of explosive materials were placed in a hand cart which left by a suspect near the entrance gate of provincial police department and was detonated by a remote-control device at around 11:00 a.m. local time Friday," Ghulam Faruq Kohistani, head of criminal investigation department of Herat police told Xinhua.

#3: Earlier Friday, an army officer and three of his family members, all women, were injured when a roadside bomb targeted an army vehicle in country's northern Baghlan province.

#4: Five Pakistani nationals, including a woman, who were kidnapped in Afghanistan’s volatile eastern Paktia province on August 14, were found dead on Thursday. An Afghan journalist in Paktia, Ihsanulah Mahjoor, told The Express Tribune via phone that bodies of the five Pakistanis were found in Jani Khel district. They were kidnapped a week ago from Samankani, a district bordering Pakistan on their way to Parachinar. Family members of the victims earlier this week had said that the kidnappers had demanded a ransom of Rs6 million.

#5: At least two laborers have been killed and four others injured in an incident of firing took place in the provincial capital night. “Three armed men entered into a bakery located in Chaman Housing Scheme and opened fire at the laborers working in the bakery,” police sources told APP. As a result of firing, six laborers sustained serious wounds. Two of the laborers succumbed to their injuries on the way to hospital.

#6: Meanwhile at least three people have been killed and two others injured when an oil tanker carrying fuel for NATO forces stationed in Afghanistan fell on a car in Qila Abdullah Chaman district on Thursday. “The NATO fuel tanker fell on the car near Saranan area lying between Quetta and Chaman on national highway,” police said. The Levies Force rushed to the scene and rescued the injured. The dead include man and his wife and their one relative.

#7: A US surveillance drone crashed near Frontier Corps (FC) Cantonment in Chaman, a bordering town near Afghanistan on Thursday. Frontier Corps officials, while confirming the crash of US unmanned plane, said it was Unarmed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) measuring 4 meter wide and 3 meters long having two cameras and fell 300 meters east of Frontier Corps Balochistan fort. They say that the site of the crash was approximately 2 Kilometres inside Pakistani territory. The officials also confirmed that American UAV had been doing surveillance over Pak-Afghan border areas for about an hour, but crashed due to technical fault. However, they denied that Pakistani forces shot US pilot aircraft,

War News for Thursdayy, August 25, 2011

Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A bomb exploded in front of the house of Abdul Rahman Abu Raghif, a member of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Dawa party, wounding six people including two of his sons, in the Zaafaraniya district of southeastern Baghdad, police and hospital sources said. Abu Raghif was not hurt.

#2: A roadside bomb went off near a car carrying an off-duty policeman, wounding him in Baghdad's west-central Mansour district.


Mosul:
#1: Gunmen killed a man in northern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

#2: A roadside bomb wounded a mother and her daughter in western Mosul, police said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: A suicide bomber blew himself up at a police checkpoint, killing three policemen and wounding five others, in a village east of Ramadi, 100 km (60 miles) west of Baghdad, a police source said.

#2: An Iraqi soldier has been killed and two others were injured in an explosive charge blast in the city of Falluja in west Iraq’s Anbar Province on Thursday, a police source reported. “An explosive charge blew off against an Iraqi Army patrol north of Falluja city on Thursday, killing one soldier and wounding two others, and causing damage to a patrol car, the police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: At least three Afghan civilians were killed and ten others were wounded in militants' missile attack in eastern Paktia province on Wednesday, President's Office said in a statement. The incident happened on Wednesday afternoon in a bazaar in Zurmat city of Paktia province when a missile landed in the area, the Office said.

#2: A roadside mine wounded five policemen in Marjah district of southern Helmand province on Thursday, Marjah district governor Abdul Mutalib said.

#4: A roadside mine killed two policemen and wounded three more in Chamtal district of northern Balkh province on Wednesday, police spokesman Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai said.


DoD: 1st Lt. Timothy J. Steele

War News for Wednesday, August 24, 2011

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, August 24th.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Meanwhile, in Baghdad, three people were wounded Wednesday morning when a roadside bomb struck against an Iraqi army patrol in Allawi, in the west of the capital, an interior ministry official said.


Diyala Prv:
#1: In the worst attack, four people were killed and seven wounded when insurgents detonated bombs at the homes of three town criers whose job was to awaken people for the Ramazan pre-dawn meal, at around 3:00 am (0000 GMT) in the town of al-Hudaid, west of provincial capital Baquba, according to an Iraqi army colonel in Diyala’s security command centre. “Among the dead were a woman and a child, and two women and a child were among the wounded,” the colonel said, speaking on condition of anonymity. He added that rescue workers were still searching the rubble of the houses, and warned the toll could rise. Firas al-Dulaimi, a doctor at Baquba general hospital, also said four people had died and seven were injured.

#2: In the centre of Baquba, meanwhile, an anti-Qaeda militiaman was gunned down at around 8:00 am (0500 GMT) by insurgents equipped with silenced pistols, according to the colonel.

#3: Also in Baquba, a roadside bomb targeting police Lieutenant Colonel Hamid al-Karkhi left the officer and his driver wounded, the army colonel said.


Mosul:
#1: A cop was killed and his father injured in a sticky bomb blast south of Mosul, security sources said today. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that the cop, working in oil installations protection unit, was killed by the sticky bomb which was attached to his private car.




Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A local government official has been assassinated in southern Afghanistan — the third official killed in Helmand province in a week, officials said Wednesday. The governor's office in Helmand said two gunmen on a motorcycle fired at a member of the Nawa district council Tuesday evening in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital. The councilman was rushed to a hospital but died of his wounds.

#2: Afghan police backed by the army and NATO-led troops have eliminated over a dozen anti-government militants and captured nearly three dozen others, the Interior Ministry of Afghanistan said in a press release issued here on Wednesday. "Afghan National Police with the assistance of the Afghan army and Coalition forces have killed 14 armed insurgents and captured 35 others during 16 joint and independent operations across the country over the past 24 hours," the statement asserted. Three more insurgents sustained injuries, it said. However, it did not say if there were any casualties on the troops. These operations had been carried out in Parwan, Kandahar, Helmand, Maidan Wardak, Logar, Khost, Ghazni, Paktiya and Herat provinces during which a large number of light and heavy weapons had also been sized, according to the statement.

#3: Suspected militants killed an Afghan refugee in Pakistan's North Waziristan region in the northwest on suspicion of being a spy for the United States, local intelligence officials said. The bullet-riddled body of the man was found by the road in the in Datta Kheil area on Tuesday night. An ATM card from an Afghan bank and a hand-written note, stating that he was caught spying for the United States, were found beside the body.

War News for Tuesday, August 23, 2011

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, August 23rd.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Gunmen using silenced weapons shot dead Baghdad University professor Dr. Hussein Kadhim and wounded his son in front of the professor's house in the Adil district of western Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.


Diyala Prv:
#1: Gunmen entered a house and killed a man and his three-year-old daughter in a town near Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, police said.


Al Zab:
#1: Gunmen shot and wounded an employee of the Baiji oil refinery near his house in the town of al-Zab, near Kirkuk, police said.


Kurkuk:
#1: Gunmen shot and wounded a farmer in his house on the southwestern outskirts of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

#2: A gunman was killed and two policemen were wounded during clashes which erupted after a police force raided the home of the gunman in southern Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Mosul:
#1: Gunmen stormed a home on Monday in western Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, killing the homeowner and his son, a police source in Nineveh province said.

A tribal leader of the city of Mosul, the center of Ninewa, has been killed together with his son by unknown gunmen on Monday, a Mosul security source reported on Tuesday. “A group of unknown gunmen have broken through the house of Misha’al Mohammed Owayid, one of the Chieftains of al-Jugheifa Tribe west of Mosul, killing him and his son during their Iftar (Ramadan breakfast) on Monday evening,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Kurdistan:
#1: Ninety to 100 Kurdish rebel fighters have been killed during Turkey's incursion on northern Iraq, the Turkish military said Tuesday. The military carried out more than 130 airstrikes and nearly 350 artillery strikes between last Wednesday and Monday in an offensive against fighters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in neighboring Iraq. Around 80 people have been wounded in the push, the military said. On Sunday night, a PKK spokesman said no rebels had been killed.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: A roadside bomb exploded late on Monday, killing municipal council member Nofal al-Hity and his son and seriously wounding a third person, in the city of Hit, about 130 km (80 miles) west of Baghdad, a local police source said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Two Germans have gone missing in Afghanistan north of the capital Kabul, the Afghan interior ministry and a provincial police chief said Tuesday, AFP reported. "We are aware that two Germans have gone missing somewhere between Baghlan and Parwan provinces. We are investigating the incident," said interior ministry spokesman Siddiq Siddiqui. The information was corroborated by Parwan police chief Sher Ahmad Maladani. The German embassy in Kabul was not immediately contactable.

#2: Taliban Mujahideen have torched more than 125 NATO oil tankers, both in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the past 3 days. Last Friday 50 NATO tankers were set on fire in the Pak-Afghan border region. NATO tankers were set ablaze in Nangarhar, Wardak, Logar, Ghazni and Zabul provinces of Afghanistan on Sunday. Also on Sunday 25 NATO oil tankers were torched by Taliban in Balochestan province near Afghan border.

#3: A suspected U.S. missile strike killed four alleged insurgents Monday in a militant stronghold near the Afghan border, Pakistani intelligence officials said. The two officials said a pair of missiles hit a vehicle close to Mir Ali town in North Waziristan.


Au/DoD: Private Matthew Lambert

War News for Monday, August 22, 2011

The Australian DoD is reporting the death of an Australian ISAF soldier from an IED blast in the Khas Uruzgan area 85km north-east of Tarin Kot, Uruzgan province, Afghanistan on Monday, August 22nd. An additional soldier was wounded in the blast.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: In Baghdad, a soldier was killed and another injured early in the morning when gunmen using silenced weapons attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint in Baghdad northeastern district of al-Benoug, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

#2: Separately, two people were wounded when a roadside bomb ripped through Baghdad's western district of al-Adil, the source said.


Basra:
#1: An Iraqi Navy Captain has been abducted by unknown gunmen in southern Iraq’s city of Basra, Iraq’s state-owned General Ports Company reported on Monday. “A group of unknown gunmen have abducted the Navy Captain, Qais Jaber Abdul-Latif, at the center of Basra city and took him to an unknown destination on Sunday, a Company spokesman said, adding that the abducted Captain had been working with the Iraqi General Navigation Company.


Irbil:
#1: Seven Iraqis were killed in an airstrike by a Turkish warplane in Iraq's semi-autonomous northern Kurdish zone on Sunday, the first civilian casualties since the strikes began, a local mayor and eyewitnesses said. The strike hit a car in which the civilians were travelling, Hassan Abdulla, mayor of the town of Qalat Dizah, located northeast of the city of Sulaimaniya, told Reuters. "Today there was a rocket from a Turkish plane that hit a civilian vehicle, a pickup, carrying seven civilians. The seven were killed," Abdulla said. "The rocket has badly damaged the car. We could not recognise the bodies, their ages, their identities or even their sex."


Mosul:
#1: In northern Iraq, an Iraqi army officer and a soldier were killed late on Sunday when a booby-trapped car struck their patrol in al-Ghabat area in northern the city of Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, a local police source anonymously told Xinhua. Three passers-by were also wounded by the blast, the source said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Five Afghan civilians were killed Monday in an explosion in the southern province of Helmand, a local official said. 'Five innocent countrymen were martyred and four others were injured Monday morning when a hidden explosive device went off in a vegetable market in Grishq district of Helmand,' the provincial governor's office said.

Two civilians were killed and four more wounded when a mortar inside an old metal shop in a busy market of Grishk district of southern Helmand province detonated on Monday, Grishk police chief Saifullah Mangal said

#2: On Sunday, police killed a Taliban deputy commander on the outskirts of nearby Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, it said.

#3: On Sunday, gunmen killed community council member Jan Mohammad Khan in the town's market, the Helmand governor's office said in a statement.

Two gunmen on motorcycles killed a government prosecutor in the turbulent south of Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said. The attackers shot Mohammad Azam, the chief prosecutor for Helmand province's Gereshk district, in the morning as he headed out to work, said Helmand province attorney general Khushahal Shapa.

#4: In the east, meanwhile, a NATO drone crashed in the city of Jalalabad, said Capt. Pietro D'Angelo of the Italian army, a spokesman for NATO forces in Kabul. Initial reports indicated that the drone went down because of a mechanical failure, D'Angelo said. There were no injuries, but an Associated Press photographer at the site reported that two houses were damaged. The Taliban claimed to have shot down the aircraft.

#5: update Two Nepali security guards were among the nine killed Friday in a coordinated suicide attack in the Afghan capital, officials said. Six Taliban militants attacked the British Council

#6: At least 15 oil tankers were set fire when some unidentified miscreants opened fires on NATO suppliers near Dasht on Monday. Police said that miscreants attacked the tanker carrying oil for NATO troops stationed in Afghanistan near Dasht area of Mastang district of Baluchistan. The tanker caught fire as a result of gunshots.

About a dozen gunmen in Pakistan's southwestern district of Mastung attacked and set fire to some 18 trucks carrying fuel for NATO forces in Afghanistan, government and security officials said. There were no reported casualties. Five NATO trucks were set ablaze in the same region on Friday.


DoD: Pfc. Douglas L. Cordo

NZDF: Corporal Douglas Grant

News of the Day for Sunday, August 21, 2011

Reported Security Incidents

Diwaniya

Roadside bomb attack on a U.S. army patrol damages a vehicle. No report of casualties as of now.

Mosul

A joint U.S.-Iraqi force, with U.S. air support, arrests the director of the Ninevah Province Traffic Police, Lt-Brigadier, Nashwan al-Khazraji, at his office. This is a rather odd story which suggests they were afraid of major armed resistance. It would be very helpful to get more background, but that's the bare scrap of information I could find. -- C

Baghadad

Reuters reports several incidents:

* Body of a peshmerga guard, showing signs of torture, is found in Sadr City. (I'm not sure what this means. It suggests that the Peshmerga -- the Kurdistan army -- are continuing to provide security services in Baghdad in some circumstances.)
* Sticky bomb injures a security guard of the oil minister.
* Roadside bomb injures two Iraqi soldiers in Hurriya; a second bomb explodes when police arrive, injuring two police.
* Roadside bomb injures two people in Zaafaraniya.

Other News of the Day

With reduced civil conflict and the lifting of curfews, Iraqi men return to playing the game of Mheibes, which from what I can tell seems to be a macho version of button, button.

The Iranian prosecutor has confirmed the 8 year prison sentence for two American hikers who strayed into Iran from Iraqi Kurdistan. Unfortunately, this development has completely dominated all coverage of the region by western corporate media so there is little other news from Iraq today. To be fair, there is a great deal of other news coming out of the Middle East right now. The massive Turkish assault on the PKK over the past three days has gotten almost no attention as diplomats and journalists focus on developments in nearby Syria and in Libya.

By the way, it hasn't been much mentioned, perhaps because of fears it would jeopardize his chances at trial, but one of the hikers, Shane Bauer, is in fact an investigative reporter who has written about the Middle East for several prominent publications. The Iranians have a history of not distinguishing between journalists and foreign intelligence agents, viz. Roxana Saberi. Bauer is not just an American slacker on an unwise adventure after all, and perhaps the sentence is less of a surprise than it might seem.

Afghanistan Update

DPA reports on several assassinations. Prosecutor Mohammed Azeem is shot to death in Helmand province by two gunmen on a motorcycle. In Paktika province, the education director of Omany district is murdered along with two tribal leaders; while in Kandahar city, Mohammad Shah Kahn, an agricultural official, is killed.

The Afghan Election Commission votes to expel 9 members of parliament due to purported electoral fraud. It is not clear whether this will end the controversies over the Sept. 2010 election.

Reuters provides a roundup of numerous attacks, including three policemen killed by a roadside bomb in Bahgdis, and "A 10-year old Pakistani boy who wanted to commit a suicide attack was arrested by police in Kandahar city, the Ministry of Interior said in a statement. Three months ago, the boy was kidnapped from Quetta, Pakistan, and taken to an insurgent centre to be groomed to carry out the suicide attack, the statement said." Also, an ISAF drone crashes in Jalalabad. The Taliban claim to have shot it down but ISAF blames mechanical failure.

In other news, Juan Cole provides a breaking news review of the situation in Libya. According to his sources, an uprising is now occurring in Tripoli, and the loyalists forces are low on ammunition. He expects the regime to fall at any time and a government of national unity to emerge. We shall see.

War News for Saturday, August 20, 2011

The NZDF is reporting the death of a New Zealand ISAF soldier from a small arms fire/gunshot wounds in Kabul, Afghanistan on Friday, August 19th. Here's the ISAF release.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Friday, August 19th.


Reported security incidents

Kurdistan:
#1: Turkey's military says its warplanes have bombed 20 suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq in a third day of cross-border strikes. The military says on its website Saturday that 85 other rebel targets were also hit with artillery fire in Friday's assault. It said all planes returned to their base safely and that work is under way to assess the damage and losses caused.


Kirkuk:
#1: The Commander of Iraq’s Supporting Battalion in Zab township of northern Iraq’s Kirkuk city has escaped an assassination attempt on Friday, Kirkuk Police Director, Sarhad Qader reported. “The Commander of Zab’s Supporting Battalion, Hamad Ali Hussein, has escaped an assassination attempt by a sticking bomb explosion under his car in Zab township, 85 km to the southwest of Kirkuk, Lt-Brigader, Sarhad Qader told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. Qader said the explosion had injured two of Hussein’s protection force, one with a major rank, and caused damage to the vehicle.

#2: Gunmen opened fire on a police lieutenant colonel and seriously wounded him in northern Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, a local police source said.


Mosul:
#1: A civilian was shot by armed gunmen east of Mosul city, security sources said today. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that the deceased had worked as a cab driver.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: One person was killed and four others injured on Saturday when a roadside bomb went off in Jalalabad city, the provincial capital of Nangarhar province 120 km east of capital Kabul, spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai for provincial government said. "A bomb was placed along a road in fifth precinct of Jalalabad city and was detonated at around 06:30 a.m. local time. As a result one person was killed and four others injured," Abdulzai told Xinhua. Without giving more details, Abdulzai said the man who was killed and two injured people were security personnel and two more civilians were also injured in the attack. However, a witness who declined to be named told Xinhua near the site of the blast that some explosive was planted in a tricycle vehicle and was detonated when a car belonging to provincial intelligence agency was passing by.

#2: GUNMEN set ablaze at least five oil tankers in southwestern Pakistan which were carrying fuel for NATO forces stationed in neighbouring Afghanistan, officials said today. The men armed with automatic weapons fired at the tankers, causing them to catch fire on a main highway in the Dasht area, some 20km south of Quetta, the capital of restive Baluchistan province. "Unknown gunmen opened fire on five oil tankers parked at the roadside on the main Quetta-Jacobabad national highway in the Dasht area late Friday after which the vehicles caught fire," tribal police official Abdul Salam said. There were no casualties, he said. The tankers were waiting for a paramilitary and police escort for their onward journey to Afghanistan via the Chaman border.

#3: Two Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers were killed and eight others wounded when an explosives-rigged rickshaw was detonated in the 5th police district of western Herat City Saturday morning, an officials said. The explosion struck an ANA vehicle at around 6:20am on a road that has been opened as an alternative route to the road lined with minarets, which has been closed to preserve the structures. The vehicle was carrying Zafar Military Corps’ personnel, Col. Najibullah Najibi, a spokesman for the Zafar Military Corps, told Pajhwok Afghan News. Two ANA soldiers were killed and eight others hurt in the blast, said Najibi, who added that three of the injured were discharged from the Herat Regional Hospital after receiving first aid while five others, whose injuries were critical, were still hospitalized there.

#4: Three policemen were killed and four more wounded in combat with insurgents in the Shigi area of the eastern Kunar province, Kunar Provincial Governor Fazlullah Wahidi said.

#5: A roadside mine killed three civilians and wounded two more in the central Ghazni province on Saturday, Ghazni Police Chief Dlawar Zahed said.

#6: In a separate incident, three policemen were killed and four others injured when insurgents stormed a police check point in the country's eastern Kunar province in the wee hours on Saturday. A provincial security official in Kunar province told Xinhua that a group of armed insurgents attacked a police check point in the outskirts of provincial capital Asadabad at around 01:00 a.m. local time Saturday, killing three policeman and injuring four others.


DoD: Lance Cpl. Travis M. Nelson

War News for Friday, August 19, 2011

News is reporting the death of a Polish ISAF soldier from an IED attack in Ghazni province, Afghanistan on Thursday, August 18th. One additional soldier and two afghan police were wounded in the attack. Here's the ISAF release.


Attack on British Council in Kabul - in pictures


Reported security incidents

Taji:
#1: An Iraqi traffic policeman and a civilian have been injured in shooting by a group of unknown gunmen north of Baghdad on Thursday, a security source reported. “A group of armed men opened fire on a policeman in north Baghdad’s Taji district on Thursday, wounding him and a civilian, who was close to the venue of the shooting,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Kurdistan:
#1: Turkey's air force attacked 28 suspected Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, the military said Friday, in a second day of cross-border strikes in retaliation for stepped up attacks by the guerrillas. Nearly 100 rounds of artillery also were fired as the warplanes bombed sites on Thursday in the largely mountainous areas just across the border with Iraq as well as on Mount Qandil on the Iraqi-Iranian border, the military said.


Mosul:
#1: An Iraqi civilian has been killed by a group of unknown armed men in the city of Mosul, the center of north Iraq’s Ninewa Province, on Thursday, a Ninewa security source reported. “A civilian has been killed on Thursday afternoon, when a group of armed men opened fire on him, close to his house in Tal al-Rumman district, west of Mosul,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, adding that the victim was working as a carpenter in Arbil and he was a Mosul citizen.

#2: An off-duty soldier was killed and three others were wounded when gunmen opened fire on their car in western Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, a local police source said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A co-ordinated attack Friday on a British compound in Kabul involving two suicide bombers and a five-hour long firefight between Afghan security troops and attackers who penetrated the complex killed at least 10 people, Afghan officials said. The attack on the British Council occurred as Afghans on Friday celebrated Independence Day, marking the day the country achieved full independence from Britain in 1919. The dead included eight Afghan policemen, a security guard whose nationality was not immediately known and an Afghan municipal worker, according to Kabul police official Farooq Asas. Two of four people wounded in the blasts were not Afghans, he said. The attack started with one suicide bomber detonating an explosives-laden car outside the British Council in west Kabul while another suicide bomber struck inside the compound, according to Afghan police. Afghan security forces dispatched to the scene said that at least three insurgents fought from a secure bunker inside the compound with rifles and rocket propelled grenades. The stand-off was still going on five hours after the initial blasts. Asas, the police official, said he had counted five suicide bombers. One detonated the car outside the compound, one set of an explosion inside while at least three more got inside the compound on foot.

A New Zealand Nato soldier is believed to have been killed in a suicide attack on the British Council Offices in Kabul.

Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/Kiwi-soldier-killed-in-Kabul-firefight---reports/tabid/417/articleID/222809/Default.aspx#ixzz1VT8eYfTn

#2: A US drone strike in a restive Pakistani tribal area on Friday killed at least four suspected militants, local security officials said. The unmanned aircraft fired two missiles, hitting a house in the Shin Warsak area of South Waziristan, a tribal district, wounding two other people, security officials told AFP. “Two missiles were fired at the house of a tribal elder where local militants were present,” one security official told AFP on the condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to media. “Four dead bodies have been recovered and two are injured,” the official added.

#3: Four insurgents were killed after they attacked a convoy belonging to a private logistics firm in the southern Kandahar province, governor spokesman Zalmai Ayoubi said.

#4: Afghan security forces and ISAF troops killed several insurgents in the central Wardak province on Wednesday, the coalition said in a statement.


News: Lance Corporal Szymon Sitarczuk (Pol.)

War News for Thursday, August 18, 2011

Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Health and security officials say two Iraqi soldiers and four militants have been killed in clashes in western Baghdad. Two police officers said the clashes broke out early Thursday when Iraqi army and police raided a house in the Sunni Yarmouk neighborhood. The officers say three other soldiers were wounded in the shooting that lasted for about two hours. Two other militants were also wounded and were later arrested.

#2: A roadside bomb wounded two people in Baghdad's southwestern Bayaa district, an Interior Ministry source said.

#3: A U.S. convoy was targeted in the Mansour district, west-central Baghdad, on Wednesday night, but the attack was ineffective and there were no casualties or damage, the U.S. military said.

#4: A roadside bomb targeting a convoy of a police officer, killed one policeman and wounded another on Wednesday, in Baghdad's eastern al-Ghadir district, a police source said.

Three Iraqi policemen have been injured in armed attack on a police patrol east of Baghdad on Wednesday night, a security source reported on Thursday. “A group of unknown armed men have tossed a hand-grenade on a police patrol in east Baghdad’s Ghadir district on Wednesday night, wounding three of the patrol’s elements,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#5: Gunmen attacked a stationery shop, killing the owner and wounding three customers in Baghdad's southern Zaafaraniya district, an Interior Ministry source said.

#6: Five Iraqi civilians have been injured in an explosive charge blast west of Baghdad on Wednesday, a security source reported. “An explosive charge, planted on the roadside in Kindi Street of west Baghdad’s Harithiya disrtrict, has blown up on Wednesday, wounding 5 civilians,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Abu Ghraib:
#1: Gunmen stormed police officers' houses in Abu Ghraib on the western outskirts of Baghdad, killing one police officer and wounding two civilians, late on Wednesday, a police source said.


Tarmiya:
#1: A car bomb targeting the house of Brigadier Tawfiq Ahmed, the police chief of Tarmiya, 25 km (15 miles) north of Baghdad, killed two of his bodyguards and wounded seven people on Wednesday, an Interior Ministry source said.


Kurdistan:
#1: Turkey’s military completed a number of successful strikes against targets belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq late Wednesday, the General Staff said in an official report released Thursday morning. "An aerial assault against 60 pre-determined targets belonging to the separatist organization was completed successfully," the report said. The report revealed that 168 additional targets were struck by "intense" artillery fire from the Turkish side of the border prior to the air strike. "Such operations will be carried out within and outside of Turkey with determination until the separatist organization is neutralized," the report said.


Kirkuk:
#1: Two roadside bombs targeting a police patrol killed one passer-by and wounded five people, including two policemen, in southern Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police sources said.

#2: A bomb placed near a local office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) wounded two Kurdish security guards in southern Kirkuk, a police source said.


Mosul:
#1: Gunmen shot dead a man in a crowded market in eastern Mosul, a police source said.

#2: A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol escorting a judge's convoy killed one policeman and wounded another in eastern Mosul, a police source said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Three Iraqi civilians have been injured in a sticking bomb blast east of Ramadi, the center of west Iraq’s Anbar Province on Wednesday, an Anbar security source reported. “An explosive charge, stuck under a civilian car in an old market in northwestern Ramadi, has blown up on Wednesday, wounding 3 civilians that were inside the car,” the security source reported.

#2: Three policemen have been killed and three others were injured in a booby-trapped car explosion close to a checkpoint in west Iraq’s Anbar Province on Thursday, a security source reported. “A suicide bomber has blown up a booby-trapped car early on Thursday against an Iraqi police checkpoint. In al-Baghdadi township, 180 km to the west of Ramadi, killing 2 policemen and wounding 3 others,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A roadside bomb has killed at least 20 passengers travelling on a minibus in western Afghanistan, police said. The minibus ran over a roadside bomb in Herat province, setting off a blast that killed at least 20 of the 25 passengers.

#2: In the country’s east, a suicide car bomber attacked a coalition base, killing two Afghan security guards, officials said, and the Taliban claimed responsibility. The suicide car bombing came at a provincial reconstruction team base that Americans operate near Gardez, the capital of Paktia province. Police said the bomber hid the explosives in a truck loaded with wood. The bomber sped through an outer gate, then blew up the vehicle when he came under fire at a second gate.

#3: Three policemen were killed in a fight with Afghan army officers in the southern Kandahar province, district governor Neyaz Mohammad Sarhadi said. Fourteen more were wounded in the fight, including nine civilians. The reason for the fight was not yet known, officials said, adding that police were first to open fire.

#4: Afghan security forces and ISAF troops killed four insurgents in operations in the eastern Logar province and northern Faryab province, the coalition said in a statement.

#5: Afghan police and ISAF troops killed seven insurgents in the southwestern Wardak province late on Wednesday, the provincial governor said in a statement.

#6: Afghan security forces killed five insurgents in the eastern Nangarhar province overnight, said district governor Mohammad Hassan.


DoD: 1st Lt. Damon T. Leehan

DoD: Spc. Dennis G. Jensen

DoD: Spc. Joshua M. Seals

War News for Wednesday, August 17, 2011

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from a non-combat related injury in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, August 16th.

NATO is reporting the death of another ISAF soldier from a non-combat related injury in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, August 16th.


8 soldiers killed in rebel attack in Turkey

Civilian's base killing spurs probe by NATO

$360m lost to insurgents, criminals in Afghanistan


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: An Iraqi civilian has been killed and two others were injured in an explosive charge blast west of Baghdad on Tuesday night, a Baghdad security source reported. “An explosive charge blew off late Tuesday night in west Baghdad’s Yarmouk district, killing a civilian and wounding two others,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency on Wednesday.

#2: In another incident, the security source said that “a rare clash took place between Iraqi Army and Police elements in east Baghdad’s Beirut Square, that caused the blocking of the roads leading to the square, but causing no casualties,” giving no further details.

#3: Three Iraqi civilians have been injured in an explosive charge blast, close to a checkpoint in central Baghdad’s Aadamiya district on Wednesday, an Iraqi police source reported. “An explosive charge blew off this (Wednesday) morning, close to an Iraqi Army checkpoint in central Baghdad’s Aadamiya district,” the police source said, adding that the explosion had injured 3 civilians and caused damage to their car.


Diyala Prv:
#1: An armed group have killed an agricultural engineer in northeast Iraq’s Diala Province, by fastening an explosive charge around his body and blowing it on Tuesday, a Diala security source reported. “An armed group had blocked the road on an agricultural engineer, called Ahmed Mohammed, on the main street in Jalawlaa township of Khanaqin city, 45 km to the northeast of Baaquba, fastened an explosive charge on his body and blew it, killing him on the spot,” the Diala security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Mosul:
#1: “Two Iraqi soldiers were killed on Tuesday afternoon in an explosive charge blast against an Iraqi Army patrol in Qadisiya district, east of Mosul,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: He said that four civilians were injured on Tuesday afternoon by a hand-grenade, tossed by unknown gunmen in central Mosul’s Nujaify Street, before they escaped to an unknown destination. “The bomb blew up in a crowded book market, wounding the four civilians, including a 4-year-old child,” he added.

#3: A roadside bomb killed one policeman and wounded three others in a town near Mosul, local police said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Six policemen have been injured in two sticky bomb blasts that had been planted under police cars in the city of Rawa in west Iraq’s Anbar Province on Tuesday, according to an Anbar Police source. “Two sticky bombs blew up under police cars, carrying six policemen in Rawa city, west of Anbar Province, wounding the policemen,” the police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded in a vegetable market in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday evening, killing eight people at dusk as residents broke their daily fast for the holy month of Ramadan, authorities said. The motorcycle was parked at the market in the Dihrawud district of Uruzgan province, said provincial council director Amanullah Otaq. He said eight people were killed and dozens wounded. Uruzgan provincial spokesman Hamid Milad Mudasir confirmed the attack, but said he could not confirm how many people were killed because family members had taken many of the bodies away immediately after the attack.

#2: Separately, Afghan police said a rocket fired into the Afghan capital early Wednesday landed on the grounds of the presidential palace. It was unclear whether the rocket caused any casualties or damage. Ezatullah, an Afghan police officer at the scene, told The Associated Press that the rocket landed inside the presidential palace compound.

#3: Also Tuesday, NATO said that one of its cargo planes collided with a surveillance drone in eastern Afghanistan a day earlier. The C-130 plane made an emergency landing at a nearby base but was only lightly damaged and no one aboard was injured, said Italian army Capt. Pietro D'Angelo, a spokesman for NATO forces in Afghanistan. The drone, an RQ-7 Shadow, went down and has not been located yet, he said. Pietro said they were searching for the craft, which was not carrying weapons when it collided with the plane.

#4: Afghan security forces and troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) killed six insurgents and detained 23 in the past 24 hours across the country, the Ministry of Interior said in a statement.

#5: Afghan security forces and ISAF troops killed more than 10 insurgents in volatile southern Helmand province, the coalition said in a statement late on Tuesday.

#6: Four guards for a private security company were killed in a firefight with Taliban insurgents in central Ghazni province, said Dawlat Khan, the head of the Watan Risk Private Security Company, where they worked. Police in Ghazni confirmed the attack, but did not know who carried it out, said officer Mohammad Hashim.

#7: Unknown gunmen killed two civilians in central Ghazni province late on Tuesday, said provincial governor spokesman Marrof Ayoubi. Nobody had claimed responsibility.


DoD: Master Sgt. Charles L. Price III

DoD: Sgt. Matthew A. Harmon

DoD: Spc. Joseph A. VanDreumel

War News for Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: “An explosive charge blew up on the main road in al-I’ilam (Media) district in southern Iraq’s Daura district, killing a civilian and wounding 7 others on Monday,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: He said that the second explosion took place in al-Amirat Street in west Baghdad’s Mansour district, when a booby-trapped car blew up against a motorcade of Iraq’s Higher Education Ministry, wounding 5 civilians.

#3: He added that “an explosive charge blew up in southeastern Baghdad’s Zaafaranya district, killing one civilian and wounding five others,”

#4: whilst the 5th blast took place in northwestern Baghdad’s Ghazaliya district, close to a primary school, wounding 5 civilians.”


Iskandariya:
#1: Two civilians have been killed and two others were injured in a booby-trapped car explosion in Iskandariya township of west Iraq’s Babel Province on Monday, according to a security source. “A booby-trapped car, parked on the main roadside in Iskandariya township, 50 km to the north of Hilla, the center of west Iraq’s Babel Province, blew up on Monday, killing 2 civilians and wounding 2 others, including a policeman,” the security source reported.


Youssifiyah:
#1: Gunmen wearing military uniforms have pulled seven people from a Sunni mosque south of Baghdad and then shot and killed them, execution-style, according to reports. The killings happened late on Monday. The gunmen walked into the Sunni mosque in Youssifiyah during evening prayers, took the seven men outside and shot them, according to witnesses. The men were all members of an anti-al Qaida militia.


Mussayab:
#1: Four Iraqi policemen have been killed and four others injured in a mortar shell that fell on a police checkpoint in Mysayab township in southwestern Iraq’s Babel Province on Monday night, a Babel police source reported. “A mortar shell fell on Monday night on a police checkpoint in Musayab township, 40 km to the northeast of Hilla, the center of Babel Province, killing 4 policemen,” the police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He said that a Musayab Police patrol headed towards the venue of the attack, but one of its cars overturned, wounding 4 policemen.


Amarra:
#1: Five rockets fell on the Buteira military airport, north of the city of Amara, the center of southern Iraq’s Missan Province, on Monday night, causing no human or material damage, a Missan security source reported. “The Bueira Military Airport, 10 km to the northwest of Amara city, had been target for a five rockets attack, that caused no human or material losses,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency on Tuesday.


Taji:
#1: “The third explosion took place in Um al-Jadail village in northern Baghdad’s Taji district, by a booby-trapped car that blew up against an Iraqi Army patrol, killing one soldier and wounding 4 others, along with 5 civilians,” the security source said.


Suliamaniya:
#1: The bodies of 3 persons, belonging to one family, had been discovered in northern Iraq’s Kurdistan city of Sulaimaniya, with traces of bullets attack, according to a security source on Tuesday.


Kirkuk:
#1: An Iraqi policeman has been injured in an attack by unknown gunmen in southwest Kirkuk on Tuesday morning. “Unknown gunmen have opened fire on a checkpoint in southwest Kirkuk on Tuesday morning, injuring one of its policemen, whilst the gunners flew for an unknown destination,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.




Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A suspected US drone attack has killed four militants in north-western Pakistan, local intelligence officials said. The drone fired a missile, destroying a house in a market in Miranshah town in North Waziristan tribal district.

#2: An 18-year-old woman working for the Afghan government was killed in Kandahar on Tuesday. Rabia Sadat, who worked on rural development, was shot dead as she left home in the southern city of Kandahar to go to work at around 8:00 am (0330 GMT), provincial spokesman Zalmai Ayoubi said.

#3: Near the city (Kandahar), three suicide bombers struck at a fuel depot for foreign forces, killing four security guards late Monday. The facility belongs to logistics company Supreme and is near the sprawling Kandahar airfield where thousands of foreign troops are based and which acts as a hub for operations across south Afghanistan. The police commander for southern Afghanistan, General Salem Ihsas, said four Afghan guards working for a private security firm were killed in the assault at around 9:00 pm. He said eight other guards -- three from Nepal and five from Afghanistan -- were wounded when two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the compound gates. A third was shot dead in an ensuing gun battle.

#3: Afghan police, backed by army and NATO-led forces, have eliminated 12 insurgents and detained 28 others around the country over the past 24 hours, Interior Ministry said on Tuesday. "Afghan National Police (ANP), Afghan National Army (ANA) and Coalition Forces launched 10 joint operations over the past 24 hours in surrounding areas of the Kabul, Kunar, Kapisa, Helmand, Paktia, Zabul, Logar, Ghazni, Kandahar and Khost provinces," said a statement issued by Interior Ministry here. "As a result of these operations, 12 armed insurgents were killed and 28 other armed insurgents were arrested," the statement said.

#4-7: Nine NATO oil supply tankers and a freight truck were set ablaze in attacks in Pakistan on Monday.

#4: A bomb exploded as two NATO oil tankers were entering a terminal in Torkham, a Pakistani tribal town bordering Afghanistan. The flames also set three other tankers alight.

#5: A sixth vehicle, a truck loaded with supplies for NATO troops stationed in Afghanistan, was also burnt in the ensuing blaze, said Mutahar Zeb, an administrator in the lawless Khyber tribal district.

#6: Zeb said that separately two more NATO tankers were damaged and a driver and his helper were wounded when militants fired at them, but the vehicles did not catch fire.

#7: Elsewhere, gunmen fired at up to 10 NATO oil tankers parked outside a roadside restaurant in the central Pakistani town of Adda Mohammad Wala, 100 kilometres west of the city of Multan. "Four oil tankers were burning and we have requested the fire brigade from neighbouring districts, a police official said. "We do not know about the casualties yet."

#8: Lucky the explosives detection dog working in Afghanistan has been declared missing in action, and is probably dead. The golden Labrador broke away from his handlers in the Australian Special Forces and Afghan National Police force during a fight on July 4.

#9: A policeman and four Taliban insurgents were killed overnight when militants attacked government offices in central Afghanistan, the local police chief said on Monday. The attack in the Qarabagh district of Ghazni province lasted about an hour and started when the Taliban launched two rockets at the district’s administrative headquarters before opening fire on a police checkpoint nearby. Police shot back, triggering a gun fight, but insurgents did not get inside the compound, Ghazni police chief Dilawar Zahid said. “Four militants and a policeman have been killed in the clash,” Zahid said.


MoD: Lieutenant Daniel John Clack

DoD: 2nd Lt. Joe L. Cunningham

War News for Monday, August 15, 2011

The French MoD is reporting the death of a French ISAF soldier from a small arms attack/gunshot wounds in Kapisa Province, Afghanistan on Sunday, August 14th. Here's the ISAF release.

The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF soldier from an IED blast in the Shaparak area of the Nahr-e Saraj (South) district, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Friday, August 12th. Here's the ISAF release. (note: isaf release was posted on Sat. Au. 13th. post)

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from a non-combat related injury in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, August 13th.

NATO is reporting the deaths of two ISAF soldiers from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, August 14th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, August 14th.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: In Baghdad, a parked car bomb exploded near a convoy carrying officials from the Ministry of Higher Education, said police and health officials. Eight people were wounded, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The minister was not inside the convoy.

#2: Five booby-trapped cars have been dismantled in Iraq’s Diala, Salahal-Din and Najaf Provinces, have been dismantled on Monday, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

#3: The Chairman of Iraq’s Technical Education Commission, Mahmoud Shaker al-Mulla Khalaf, has escaped an assassination attempt by a booby-trapped car west of Baghdad on Monday, according to a Baghdad security source. “A booby-trapped car blew off on Monday morning against the motorcade of the Chairman of Iraq’s Technical Education Commission, Mahmoud Shaker al-Mulla Khalaf, while on his way for his work in west Baghdad’s al-Mansour district on Monday, causing damage to a number of the motorcade’s cars, but no human casualties,” the Official in-charge of the Commission’s Protection told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Diyala Prv:
#1: In Diyala province, seven bombs went off in the capital of Baquba and towns nearby, said Faris al-Azawi, the spokesman for the Diyala health directorate. Five soldiers were killed in Baquba while five people were killed in other attacks around the province.

#2: The official in charge of the Branch of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, in Saadiya township of northeast Iraq’s Diala Province, has been killed, together with his bodyguard on Sunday, Diala’s Security Committee Chief reported. “An armed group, belonging to al-Qaeda Organization, had blocked the road on PUK’s Saadiya Branch’s official, Abbas Hassan Rashid, in his township, 155 km to the northeast of Baaquba, the center of Diala Province, killing him and one of his bodyguards on the spot,” Dilair Hasan told Aswat al-Iraq news Agency.

#3: The Governor of northeast Iraq’s Baaquba city, the center of Diala Province, has escaped an assassination attempt on Monday, the third of its kind this year, a Diala security source reported. “An explosive charge blew off on Monday morning in the main street passing through Baaquba city, targeted against its Governor, Abdullah al-Hayali, but caused no human casualties,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Kut:
#1: The worst violence came in the southern city of Kut, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, where twin explosions went off as construction workers were gathered in a market selling generators and other appliances. Police spokesman Lt. Col. Dhurgam Mohammed Hassan said the first bomb went off in a freezer used to keep drinks cold. Then as rescuers and onlookers gathered, a parked car bomb exploded. The head of the provincial security committee in Wasit province, Shamil Mansour, said 35 people were killed; another official put the number of injured at 64.


Najaf:
#1: Just outside the holy city of Najaf, a suicide car bomber plowed his vehicle into a checkpoint outside a police building, said Luay al-Yassiri, head of the Najaf province security committee. Police opened fire on the vehicle when the driver refused to stop at the checkpoint, and then the vehicle exploded. Al-Yassiri said four people were killed and 32 injured; among the dead were two policemen and two civilians.


Karbala:
#1: Just outside Karbala, a parked car bomb targeting a police station killed three policemen and injured 14 others, according to two police officers. Neither wanted to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

#2: A booby-trapped car has blown up close to the Hindiya bridge in southwest Iraq’s holy city of Karbala on Monday, according to a security source. “A booby-trapped car blew off this morning (Monday) close to the Hindiya bridge in Karbala city,” the security source said, giving no further details.


Tikrit:
#1: In the northern city of Tikrit, two men wearing explosives belts drove into a heavily guarded government compound wearing military uniforms which helped them avoid notice by the guards, said Mohammed al-Asi, the provincial spokesman. The men parked their vehicle and then walked to a building housing the anti-terrorism police. When the men approached the building, the guards ordered them to stop and then opened fire. One bomber was immediately killed but the other managed to get inside the building before blowing himself up and killed three people, al-Asi said. Ten people were also injured in the attack.

Two suicide bombers attacked an Iraqi counter-terrorism unit in Tikrit city on Monday, killing at least two policemen and wounding six in a failed attempt to free al Qaeda prisoners, a police official said. One attacker detonated his suicide vest hoping to kill a high-ranking counter-terrorism officer and the other was shot dead during the attack, Capt. Jassim al-Jibouri, an officer with the Tikrit counter terrorism unit, said. "They were attempting to reach the prison that holds more than 100 al Qaeda inmates," Jibouri said. A hospital source said three policemen were killed and nine wounded in the attack.

“The first suicide gunman blew himself up at the entrance of the Directorate of Terrorism, killing a police colonel and a policeman,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Balad:
#1: Al-Asi said 16 people were also injured in the city of Balad when a roadside bomb went off near a fuel truck.

#2: Six Iraqi civilians have been injured in an explosive charge blast, close to the Municipal Council of Balad township, south of Salahal-Din Province on Monday, according to a security source. “An explosive charge blew up close to the building of the Municipal Council of Balad township in Salahal-Din Province on Monday morning, wounding 6 civilians,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, giving no further details.


Kirkuk:
#1: In the northern city of Kirkuk, a car bomb exploded next to a police patrol Monday morning, injuring four police officers.

#2: Then about thirty minutes later one person was killed when a motorcycle with a bomb planted inside it exploded.

#3: Late Sunday, four bombs also blew up near a Syrian Orthodox Church in Kirkuk. No one was injured in the attack but the walls of the church were damaged.


Mosul:
#1: “Two sticky bombs blew up on Monday morning in al-Fisaliya district, east of Mosul, killing a civilian and wounding 3 others,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, adding that both charges were laid on an electric pole and blew up at the same time.

#2: In another security incident, the same source stressed that “an explosive charge blew up on Monday, close to the Electric Stores in Mosul’s Taamim district, wounding a protection unit element in the Electricity Stores.”

#3: “An unknown person allegedly left behind a cartoon box close to the stores, loaded with an explosive charge that blew up when a security element tried to check the box. The explosion wounded the person, who was driven to a nearby hospital for treatment,” the security source said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Three Iraqi policemen have been killed and two others were injured in two explosive charges blasts in Ramadi, the center of west Iraq’s Anbar Province, on Sunday, an Anbar Police source reported. “Three policemen have been killed and two others injured in two explosions, targeted against a police patrol, while passing through a main Ramadi street on Sunday,” the police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: The Finnish Defence Forces made a statement on Saturday according to which a group of Finnish and Swedish troops came under fire on Saturday morning in the Balkh region in northern Afghanistan. The soldiers were on out on patrol with local Afghani officials when they came under attack by rocket-propelled grenades and small arms. A Swedish soldier and an Afghani police officer were wounded in the attack.

#2: Afghan and Coalition forces have killed and detained 38 insurgents from various parts of the country during the last 24hours. A statement issued to Wakht News Agency by the Ministry of Interior said Monday that 20 armed insurgents were killed while 18 others were detained during the operations which were conducted by Afghan and Coalition forces in Faryab, Balkh, Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul, Khost, Paktia and Paktika areas.

#3: Police say insurgents have attacked a district government center in eastern Afghanistan, sparking a gunbattle that lasted for hours and left a police officer and four militants dead. Ghazni provincial Police Chief Gen. Zirawer Zahid says Monday's firefight took place in Qarabagh district. He says the attack started early in the morning and lasted "several hours" before the militants retreated.

#4: Some unidentified miscreants set ablaze a Nato oil tanker by opening fire near Kamra on Monday. Police said that miscreants attacked the tanker carrying oil for Nato troops stationed in Afghanistan near Kamra. The tanker caught fire as a result of gunshots.

#5: Two Australian soldiers serving with Mentoring Task Force – 3 were wounded overnight (Australian Eastern Time) when the Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle they were travelling in struck an insurgent-laid Improvised Explosive Device. The blast left one Australian soldier with serious wounds and another suffering minor wounds. The incident occurred during a routine Mentoring Task Force activity in the Mirabad Valley region of Uruzgan province yesterday afternoon (local time). Both soldiers were travelling in the Bushmaster when the Improvised Explosive Device detonated and they suffered wounds consistent with the concussive force of an explosive blast.


Fr. MoD: caporal Kisan Bahadur Thapa

Fr. MoD: légionnaire de 1ère classe Gerhardus Jansen

DoD: Hospitalman Riley Gallinger-Long

DoD: Sgt. Edward J. Frank II

DoD: Spc. Jameel T. Freeman

DoD: Spc. Patrick L. Lay II

DoD: Spc. Jordan M. Morris

DoD: Pfc. Rueben J. Lopez