War News for Monday, February 20, 2012

The Italian MoD is reporting the deaths of three Italian ISAF soldiers in a Vehicle accident during a rescue operation about 20 KM. south-west of Shindand, Herat province, Afghanistan on Monday, February 20th. An additional soldier was injured in the incident. Here's the ISAF release.

The DoD is reporting a new death previously unreported by the military. Petty Officer First Class Paris S. Pough died from undisclosed causes in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Friday, February 17th. He was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.


The end of American intervention

Taliban Gaining More Resources From Kidnapping

FACTBOX-Security developments in Iraq, Feb 19. Feb 20.


Reported security incidents
#1: An Afghan official says a roadside bomb has killed four civilians in southern Kandahar province. The police chief of Kandahar’s Shah Wali Kot district, Mohammad Bacha Khan, said the four were killed on Sunday when their car drove over the bomb. The explosion occurred on a highway in the district.

#2: Also Monday, a suicide car bomber attacked a police station in southern Afghanistan's largest city, Kandahar, killing one police officer. The attacker drove a Toyota Corolla up to the checkpoint outside of the Kandahar police station and detonated his explosives, said the city's police chief, Abdul Raziq. Four people were wounded in the explosion — two police officers and two civilians, he added. Gunfire could be heard immediately following the blast, but Raziq said the shots came from the police.

#3: Mohammad Salim, a police commander in Shindand, said two men on a motorcycle drove up and fired shots at police officers who were shopping in the market. One officer and a boy who was standing nearby were killed.

#4: And a Turkish engineer who was working on construction projects in Shindand was kidnapped over the weekend, Salim said. He said kidnappers forced the man into a car as he was leaving the airport on Saturday. He did not provide further details.

#5: A bomb planted at a checkpoint manned by members of a Pakistani militia fighting a radical group similar to the Taliban exploded Sunday and killed eight militia members in northwest Pakistan, a government official said. The complex attack started when a bomb planted at the checkpoint was detonated by a timer, Khan said. Then as the militiamen were retrieving the bodies, the militants opened fired on them. The militiamen escaped unhurt, but two of the militants were killed in the retaliatory fire.

#6: Militants attacked a Pakistani military checkpost, killing a soldier and wounding three others, in the town of Wana in the South Waziristan tribal region, near the Afghanistan border, intelligence and security officials said.


DoD: Sgt. Jerry D. Reed II

DoD: Petty Officer First Class Paris S. Pough