The present-day U.S. military qualifies by any measure as highly professional, much more so than its Cold War predecessor. Yet the purpose of today’s professionals is not to preserve peace but to fight unending wars in distant places. Intoxicated by a post-Cold War belief in its own omnipotence, the United States allowed itself to be drawn into a long series of armed conflicts, almost all of them yielding unintended consequences and imposing greater than anticipated costs. Since the end of the Cold War, U.S. forces have destroyed many targets and killed many people. Only rarely, however, have they succeeded in accomplishing their assigned political purposes. . . . [F]rom our present vantage point, it becomes apparent that the “Revolution of ‘89” did not initiate a new era of history. At most, the events of that year fostered various unhelpful illusions that impeded our capacity to recognize and respond to the forces of change that actually matter.

Andrew Bacevich


Tuesday, September 25, 2007

War News for Tuesday, September 25, 2007


Photo: MNC-I SIGACTS Sept. 07. A chart of the monthly breakdown of civilian, police and military casualties as reported by the military. Taken from Mother Jones. Click on the image for a larger view.


MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Task Force Lightning soldier from hostile gunfire in Salah ad Din Province on Monday, September 24th.
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MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Task Force Lightning soldier from an explosion occurred near his vehicle in Diyala Province on Tuesday, September 25th.

The media, the Spanish Ministerio de Defensa, and NATO-ISAF have all announced the death of two Spanish soldiers, killed in Afghanistan on Monday, September 24th. The soldiers were killed when their vehicle hit a mine near Shewan in the western province of Farah. An Afghan interpreter was also killed and three other ISAF soldiers were wounded in the attack. The Spanish Ministerio de Defensa later named the two soldiers:

The DoD is announcing what would appear to be a new death, not previously reported by CENTCOM. Sgt. 1st Class Matthew D. Blaskowski, 27, of Levering, Michigan, died Sunday, September. 23 in Asadabad, Afghanistan, in a small arms fire attack. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Vicenza, Italy.
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Canadian National Defense has announced the death of one of its soldiers in southern Afghanistan on Monday, September 24th. Corporal Nathan Hornburg, 24, of Nanton, Alberta, a Reserve soldier from the King's Own Calgary Regiment, based out of Calgary, Alberta, was killed, and four others were wounded during Operation SADIQ SARBAAZ (Honest Soldier), a joint Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and ISAF operation. Hornburg, a mechanic, was fixing the track on a Leopard tank when he was killed in a mortar attack. The incident occurred approximately 47 km west of Kandahar City in the Panjwayi District. Both helicopters and road ambulances were used to evacuate the casualties to the Multinational Medical Unit at Kandahar Airfield. The wounded soldiers are in stable condition and have contacted their families. NATO-ISAF and the media have also announced the death.


Security incidents:


Baghdad:
#1: Two blasts in Baghdad's eastern Zaynounna neighbourhood left over seven Iraqis dead and 25 others wounded, an Iraqi police source said. Two car bombs went off consecutively outside a bank where pensioners queued to receive their monthly payments, the source added. Independent Voices of Iraq news agency reported that the first car bomb, which was parked in al-Rubaie Street, went off at 11:00 am (0700 GMT), followed five minutes later by a similar blast near a shop selling cell phones.

#2: A roadside bomb near a police station wounded seven people, including a policeman, in the Karrada district of central Baghdad, police said.

#3: A roadside bomb killed one person and wounded four in eastern Baghdad, police said.

#4: The Iraqi army killed four insurgents and arrested 31 during the last 24 hours in different parts of Iraq, the Defence Ministry said.

#5: a U.S. force detonated an explosive charge planted on the main road in al-Aaqari neighborhood, eastern Baghdad, after sealing off the area.

#7: Police found 8 unidentified bodies today. 6 bodies were found in Karkh, the western side of Baghdad in the following neighborhoods (2 bodies Amil, 1 body in Risala, 1 body in Hurriyah, 1 body in Al Jamia’a and 1 body in Saidiyah). 2 bodies were found in Rusafa, the eastern side of Baghdad in the following neighborhoods (1 body in Sadr city and 1 body in Palestine Street.)


Diyala Prv:
#1: A Task Force Lightning Soldier was killed in Diyala Province, Tuesday, when an explosion occurred near his vehicle.

Baquba:
#1: (update from 9 dead) At least 28 people were killed and 34 wounded in a devastating attack by a suicide bomber inside a mosque near Iraq’s restive city of Baquba, police and a medical official said on Tuesday. Seven policemen, including three high ranking officers, were killed when the suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest in the crowded mosque. His casualties figures were confirmed by the chief of the morgue in Baquba, Ahmed Fouad.


Hilla:
#1: Three people were killed, two wounded and eight others were arrested in a landing raid conducted on Tuesday by U.S. forces north of Hilla in search of an explosive vehicle, a source from Babel police said.


Dhi Qar:
#1: Australian soldiers in southern Iraq have survived an attack on their armoured vehicle hit by an anti-tank rocket which failed to go off. No Australian soldiers were hurt in the attack which occurred at the weekend.
Defence said two men armed with a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) launcher and a machine-gun fired on the Australian troops who were conducting a patrol in Dhi Qar Province.


Basra:
#1: In Basra a car bomb driven by a suicide bomber targeted Tuesday the al-Ashar police department in Basra city killing two policemen and wounding 27 others, an Iraqi security source said. No further details were immediately available.


Tikrit:
#1: U.S. forces killed three relatives of a tribal chief in eastern Tikrit, a source from the Joint Coordination Center in the city, said on Tuesday. "A U.S. patrol shot dead three individuals in a car while it was crossing a main street in al-Aith area in eastern Tikrit," the source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq


Tuz Khurmato:
#1: Gunmen kidnapped one of the Iraqi contractors who works with the US troops in Kirkuk province north of Baghdad. Khaleel Al Byati was kidnapped south of Tuz Khurmatu town south of Kirkuk city early morning today.

#2: 2 gunmen were killed south of Tuz Khurmatu town yesterday afternoon. The two gunmen were killed while they were trying to plant an IED.


Riyadh:
#1: A mortar shell hit the house of one of the civilians in Al Reyadh area west Kirkuk today early morning causing some damages to the house.


Hawija:
#1: Hussein Ali Saleh, head of Hawija City Council, was wounded when a suicide car bomber targeted his convoy on a road near the town of Hawija, 70 km (40 miles) southwest of the city of Kirkuk, police said. Two of his guards were wounded.


Kirkuk:
#1: A roadside bomb wounded two people in southern Kirkuk, police said.

#2: Police said they found a body, shot and burned, in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

#3: An explosive device planted under the main natural gas pipeline linking Kirkuk fields to al-Dibs power station in western Kirkuk went off on Tuesday morning," a source from Kirkuk police operations room told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq

#4: A civilian was burnt to death inside his car when gunmen burnt the car in Al Naser neighborhood inside Kirkuk city yesterday night.

#5: A gunman killed one of the military commanders of the PUK Party today afternoon. The police said that Colonel Ali Simeen, the commander of the emergency battalion of Beshmarga (Kurdish military troops) in Tuz Khurmatu town was killed in front of his house inside Kifri district south of Kirkuk city.


Mosul:
#1: A suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt blew himself up near a police colonel, wounding the officer and nine others in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Tal Afar:
#1: clashes broke out in the morning in the al-Wadi area, in the town of Tal Afar and resulted in the killing of six gunmen,' said Brigadier Najim Abdullah al-Jubouri, head of the town's security operations office.


Al Anbar Prv:
Fallujah:
#1: A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed one policeman and wounded another in Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.



Afghanistan:
#1: One Canadian soldier was killed and four others were wounded during Operation SADIQ SARBAAZ on September 24 at about 4:30 p.m. Kandahar time. The incident occurred approximately 47 km west of Kandahar City in the Panjwayi District. The identity of the Canadian soldier killed is Corporal Nathan Hornburg, a Reserve soldier from the King's Own Calgary Regiment, based out of Calgary, Alberta.

#2: A suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up next to the convoy of a border police commander Tuesday in southern Afghanistan, killing five police, said the commander who survived the attack. The attacker was wearing an explosive vest and struck the convoy in the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province, wounding three other policemen and a civilian, said border security commander Abdul Raziq Khan. Khan said he was not hurt.
#3: Four policemen, including a district police chief, were killed by a remote-controlled bomb detonated by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan's the northern province of Baghlan, officials said Tuesday. The police chief of Markazi Baghlan district in Baghlan province was on his way to the provincial capital from his office Monday night when .

#4: In a separate incident on Monday, a local guard from the US-owned security company USPI was killed after Taliban insurgents attacked a civilian convoy in the western province of Farah, police said. Twenty Taliban fighters were also killed in a lengthy gunbattle after the ambush, Farah police chief Abdul Rahman Sarjang said. The militant death toll could not be independently confirmed.

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