War News for Saturday, January 14, 2011

U.S. troops quietly surge into Middle East

Iraq suicide attack kills 50 pilgrims

FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, January 14, Jan. 13th.

Baghdad Governor: Four armed Americans arrested in Iraq


Reported security incidents
#1: Two Fort Drum soldiers faced leg amputations after suffering major injuries in an improvised explosive device attack in Afghanistan early this week. The soldiers, Spc. Joseph A. Mille and Pfc. Rex Tharp, were injured Tuesday while on patrol in Kandahar Province. Pfc. Tharp, 20, North Manchester, Ind., was injured when he detonated an IED while kneeling next to a wall. His team’s leader, Spc. Mille, 20, Atlantic City, N.J., detonated another IED while running to Pfc. Tharp’s aid.

#2: A roadside bomb killed two women in southern Afghanistan, authorities said Saturday, the latest civilians killed by one of the Taliban's most effective but also indiscriminate weapons. The women were walking along a road in the southern province of Helmand when they stepped on the buried explosives Friday, the Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement.

#3: The Defence Department says two Australian soldiers have been wounded after their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in south-west Afghanistan. Defence says the soldiers were travelling in their Bushmaster vehicle when it struck an improvised explosive device (IED) yesterday a few kilometres south of the multi-national base at Tarin Kot.

#4: Police say gunmen and suicide bombers have attacked a police station in northwestern Pakistan, sparking a firefight that has left at least three officers injured. Police official in Dera Ismail Khan district Mohammad Nawaz says that the fighting at the police chief's office in the northwestern region was still continuing about two hours after it began midday on Saturday. He says that eight or 10 attackers wearing police uniforms besieged the station, and two suicide bombers detonated their explosives during the battle.

#5: At least 7 armed insurgents were killed and 6 others were detained following military operations by Afghan security forces during the past 24 hours. According to a press release by Afghan Interior Affairs Ministry, the operations were conducted by Afghan police forces in conjunction with the Afghan National Army and NATO-led coalition forces in Faryab, Helmand, Zabul, Wardak, Paktika and Logar provinces.

#6: In the meantime, officials in the ministry of defense of announced that at least 5 Afghan national army soldiers were killed and injured. Afghan defense ministry officials following a statement said, at least 1 Afghan Army soldier was killed and four others were injured after a vehicle of the Afghan National Army soldiers crashed in Tang-e-Gharo. Another Afghan Army soldier was also killed in Zherai district of southern Kandahar province, the officials said.


DoD: Pfc. Neil I. Turner