War News for Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The DoD is reporting a new death unreported by the military. Staff Sgt. James R. Leep Jr. died from unreported causes somewhere in Babil province Iraq on Wednesday, October 17th.


Turkey launches incursion into Iraq, kills 15 terrorists near border --(PKK) killed 26 security members

First 200 French soldiers to leave Afghanistan

U.S. Deploys Kamikaze Drones to Attack Afghan Taliban Targets


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A lieutenant colonel from the Interior Ministry's counter-terrorism unit escaped unharmed when gunmen using silenced weapons opened fire on his car in Baghdad's southern Doura district, an Interior Ministry source said. The source said the lieutenant colonel's driver was wounded in the incident.

#2: A sticky bomb attached to a car seriously wounded an Oil Ministry employee and another passenger when it went off in Baghdad's west-central Yarmouk district, an Interior Ministry source said.


Mosul:
#1: Gunmen using silenced weapons killed a judge and his driver as the judge was on his way to work in eastern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, a police source said.


Qandil region:
#1: Turkish planes on Wednesday bombed Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq in retaliation for attacks that killed at least 26 Turkish soldiers, security sources said. The air raids targeted Qandil region, the main rear base of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the mountains of Iraq, the sources said. About 2,000 PKK rebels are holed up in northern Iraq where they infiltrate Turkish soil to launch attacks, according to Ankara. A few hundred Turkish soldiers crossed into northern Iraq to hunt down PKK rebels who killed the soldiers, Kurdish news agency Firatnews reported.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: The spokesman for the governor of Herat province says five Afghan army troops were killed by a roadside mine. Mohyaddin Noori said the four soldiers and one officer were on their way back to their base in the western Afghanistan province's Pashtun Zarghun district at about 10 a.m. Wednesday, and the mine blew up as their army pickup truck was passing by.

#2: In an incident in neighbouring Badghis province, a suicide bombing killed three members of the same family. 'A suicide bomber who came on foot blew himself up next to a convoy of the Afghan army near a health clinic in Bala Murghab district of Badghis, killing three civilians and injuring two Afghan National Army soldiers,' said Dilbar Jaan Arman, the governor of Badghis province. 'All three were from the same family: a father who was the driver of the vehicle along with his two sons. All of them were civilians,' Arman added.

#3: Unidentified armed men on Tuesday, torched two NATO tankers in Dasht area of Mastung district, a local Levies official reported. The tankers were heading towards Afghanistan from Karachi carrying fuel for NATO forces, when the attackers opened fire and set them ablaze on RCD Highway. ‘The tankers were completely gutted’, an official said, adding, that a driver sustained bullet injuries in the attack and was shifted to Quetta for treatment.

#4: Police on Tuesday found the corpses of two women killed by unknown gunmen in the Gozara district of Herat, a spokesman for the provincial governor said. Motives for the killings were unknown.

#5: Eight Afghan security guards were killed when insurgents attacked their compound in the Gereshk district of southern Helmand overnight, the provincial governor's spokesman Dawood Ahmadi said.

#6: Three civilians were killed when several homemade bombs exploded under a bridge in western Herat city while police were attempting to defuse them, the Interior Ministry said. Five others, including a policeman, were wounded.

#7: A roadside bomb killed three civilians and wounded two in Andar district of Ghazni province, southwest of Kabul, the U.S. military said.

#8: A detainee being held by troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was found dead in his holding cell in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said in a statement. The man was captured during a military operation on Saturday and was found dead the following day in his cell in Kandahar province, it said. It did not give further details and said an investigation was under way.

#9: Tribesmen clashed with Taliban militants in northwestern Kurram on the Afghan border. Two militants died and their hideouts set ablaze, a government official in the region said. There was no independent confirmation of the event.

#10: A suicide car bomber attacked a checkpost in the northwestern Lakki Marwat after security forces opened fire on him, wounding three passers-by, police said. Lakki Marwat borders North Waziristan, a known sanctuary for al Qaeda and Taliban militants on the Afghan border.

#11: Six missiles fired by two U.S. drone aircraft hit a house and vehicle in North Waziristan region on the Afghan border, killing six militants, Pakistani intelligence officials in the region said.

#12: Militants shot dead a Pakistani tribesman and dumped his body on the side of a road in North Waziristan's main town of Miranshah with a note accusing him of spying for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, government officials said.

#13: Militants on motorcycles attacked and torched three tankers transporting fuel for U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan in the southwestern Baluchistan province, police said.

#14: Five insurgents were killed on Tuesday when troops with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) raided their position in Wardak province 35 km west of capital city of Kabul, an official said on Wednesday. "Five armed militants were busy in planting anti-vehicle mines in Luwri area of Sayyedabad district of Wardak province late on Tuesday but troops with ISAF targeted their position killing all on the spot," a spokesman for provincial government, Shahidullah Shahid told Xinhua.


DoD: Spc. Michael D. Elm

DoD: Staff Sgt. James R. Leep Jr.