Iraq's oil exports fall in Aug to 1.789 mbpd-source
Thousands held in Iraq without trial, says Amnesty
In Iraq, Clearer Image of U.S. Support
British soldiers reveal great escape from Afghanistan canal
Taliban say Mulla Omar is in Afghanistan
Pakistan proposes Turkmenistan gas supplies through IP pipeline
Al-Qaida militants bomb gas pipeline in south Yemen
Reported security incidents
Baghdad:
#1: Three civilians were wounded in Al Shu’la region because of an explosion, police sources said.
#2: An intelligence officer was killed on Monday in a sticky bomb explosion in western Baghdad, according to a security source. “The bomb, stuck to the car of an intelligence colonel, went off on Monday (Sept. 13) in al-Ghazaliya region, western Baghdad, killing him instantly,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Latifiya:
#1: Monday late at night, in Al Aamiriah region west of Baghdad, gunmen opened fire on an Iraqi Police officer wounding him and his wife, a security source told Alsumaria News. Gunmen opened fire on the car of Awakening forces Leader in Latifiya Abdul Rahman Mohammad, in Latifiya town, causing him wounds, a security source said.
Jurf al sakhar:
#1: Gunmen hanged a woman after they stormed her house in Jurf al-Sakhar, about 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.
Mosul:
#1: Gunmen shot dead a civilian as he was getting off a taxi in western Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, a police source said.
#2: A civilian was shot dead inside his car by gunmen in southeastern Mosul, north of Baghdad, a police source said.
Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Gunmen booby trapped the home of a policeman in Ameriyat al Fallujah, 30 km to the south of Fallujah. The home-made explosives exploded at dawn, Monday, killing the policeman and seriously injuring two of his family members, including his mother.
Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: At least ten militants were killed in a US drone attack in the northwestern tribal belt of North Waziristan in Pakistan, near the Afghan border. According to The Dawn, missiles struck the northern part of Shawal village, which is dominated by the Haqqani and Hafiz Gul Bahadur networks of militants fighting US troops across the border in Afghanistan. “A US drone fired two missiles. The target was a house used by militants as a compound. Ten militants have died,” said a senior security official in Peshawar.
#2: Unidentified gunmen shot dead a journalist in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, local media reported. Misri Khan Orakzai was shot dead in Hangu, a main city in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, outside the press club building.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
War News for Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
War News for Monday, September 13, 2010
Iraq combat over but U.S. troops still in danger
Iraq to transfer oil & gas to EU through Syria
Afghan gov't disputes NATO finding on attack, says victims worked for election candidate
Security in Afghanistan Crumbles as Counterinsurgency Fails
Afghan Commander Issues Rules on Contractors
Bad Economy Drives Down American Arms Sales
Karzai rift prompts U.S. to reevaluate anti-corruption strategy in Afghanistan
Reported security incidents
Baghdad:
#1: Unknown gunmen on Monday used guns with silencers to assassinate a federal police officer in Baghdad. “The assassination occurred in the al-Jameaa neighborhood, western Baghdad,” a local security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He explained that the officer (lieutenant) was driving his car in the neighborhood when the gunmen opened fire on him.
#2: Four policemen were wounded on Monday when a roadside bomb hit their patrol in northern Baghdad. “The blast took place in Aden square, northern Baghdad,” a local security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
#3: Gunmen using weapons equipped with silencers killed a guard of the Baghdad governorate building on Sunday evening in western Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.
Diyala Prv:
#1: A civilian was killed and another wounded when unidentified gunmen opened fire on them at dawn in a village near the town of Buhruz, south of the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, the source from Diyala's operations command told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
#2: Three people, including an officer from a border guards force, were wounded when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle while travelling outside the city of Mandely, near the Iraqi-Iranian border, the source added.
#3: In a separate incident, a roadside bomb explosion in northern Baquba wounded two people, one of them was a member of a Sunni paramilitary group, known as Awakening Council or Sahwa in Arabic, he said.
#4: Also in the province, U.S helicopters at dawn opened fire on the rural area of al-Hadeed, west of Baquba. The area is believed to be a stronghold of insurgents, the source said without giving further details. Since Saturday, al-Hadeed area was the scene of clashes between insurgents and Iraqi security forces which resulted in the killing of two security members and an insurgent and the wounding of six policemen and soldiers. The U.S. military did not confirm the incident yet.
Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A civilian and a police officer were killed in a bombing and a NATO airstrike killed 14 suspected Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan, officials said Monday. NATO said airstrikes were conducted Sunday in Uruzgan province after insurgents attacked Afghan and foreign military forces. A NATO warplane killed 14 militants in three attacks with precision-guided ammunition, the statement said, adding that initial reports indicated that no civilians were hurt.
#2: A motorbike bomb exploded Sunday in the centre of Sangin, a district in Helmand province, as a police convoy was passing, said Daoud Ahmadi, spokesman for the provincial governor. Two police officers were injured in the blast, he said.
#3: Pakistan intelligence officials said two missiles targeted a home in Datta Khel in the North Waziristan tribal area where Bahadur’s associates were believed to be staying. They said five people were killed and three were believed to be wounded. Because they were not authorized to talk to the media, the officials spoke on the condition of anonymity.
MoD: Kingsman Darren Deady
Sunday, September 12, 2010
News of the Day for Sunday, September 12, 2010
Reported Security Incidents
al-Hdaid orchards, near Baquba
Varying casualty tolls reported in gunfight between insurgents and Iraqi security forces. Three or four police and soldiers reported killed, and three to five insurgents, after police pursue attackers on a police patrol and apparently surround them.
Also, in Baquba proper, in what appears to be a separate incident, one civilian is killed and another injured by a roadside bomb.
Other News of the Day
Iraq agrees to pay $400 million in compensation to Americans who claim they were abused by the Saddam Hussein regime. The U.S. Embassy gives no details on who the victims are or the basis of their claims; but this appears to be related to the taking of hostages prior to the 1991 Gulf War. As AP notes, "the deal is likely to anger Iraqis who consider themselves the victims’ of both Saddam and the 2003 US invasion, and wonder why they should pay money for wrongs committed by the ousted dictator. . . . Generally such agreements have to be approved by the Cabinet, but this settlement would likely be extremely unpopular among Iraqis who survived years under Saddam only to suffer vicious sectarian fighting after the American invasion. Approving such a settlement would likely be politically toxic for any Iraqi government, and the matter is further complicated by the fact that Iraq is in month six without a new government after the March 7 elections."
Glenn Greenwald, noting that victims of torture by the U.S. have been denied access to the courts on grounds of "national security secrets," is shrill. (Warning: Obnoxious pop-up.)
So, to recap: the U.S. creates a worldwide regime of torture, disappearances and lawless imprisonment. Then, the Bush administration, the Obama administration, and the American federal judiciary all collaborate to shield the guilty parties from all accountability (Look Forward, Not Backward!), and worse, to ensure that not a single victim can even access American courts to obtain a ruling as to the legality of what was done to them, let alone receive compensation for their suffering, even while recognizing that many of the victims were completely innocent and even though other countries have provided the victims with compensation for their much more minor role in what happened. Our courts even ensure that Blackwater guards are shielded from prosecution for the cold-blooded murder of Iraqi citizens.
But we invade, occupy and destroy Iraq -- while severely abusing, torturing and killing their citizens -- and then demand, as a condition for our allowing the end of crippling sanctions, that they fork over hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation to American torture victims, even though it all happened 20 years ago, under an Iraqi regime that no longer even exists. They hate us for our Freedoms.
The 4th Brigade Special Troops Battalion departs Ft. Hood for Iraq. Lest you think the war being over means U.S. troops only come home, sadly, no.
Gwynne Dyer is also shrill. Excerpt:
People often wind up believing their own cover story. Former British prime minister Tony Blair, for example, is trapped forever in the rationalizations he used in 2003 to explain why he was going along with George Bush's invasion of Iraq. He was at it again last week, telling the BBC that "radical Islam" is the greatest threat facing the world today. . . .
Blair has to say it is, because he was one of the people who launched a crusade against radical Islamists after 9/11. Or at least against those whom they accused of being supporters of radical Islam, although many of them (like Saddam Hussein) were nothing of the sort.
Blair has never publicly acknowledged that Saddam Hussein was actually an enemy of radical Islam: admitting it would drain the last dram of logic from his justification for invading Iraq. So he only talks in general terms about fighting "radical Islam," and hopes that the more ignorant part of the public will think that includes the Iraq war.
Afghanistan Update
Two protesters are shot and killed by police in the Baraki Barak district of Logar province, as demonstrations continue against the (now apparently canceled) plans to burn the Koran by some obscure idiot.
NATO says 5 Taliban, including a commander, are killed by infantry in Nangarhar province.
Kingsman Darren Deady, 22, from Bolton, Lancashire, from 2nd Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, part of Combined Force Nahr-e Saraj (South), died at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Birmingham, on Friday, of wounds suffered on August 23.
Russia's ambassador to Afghanistan says U.S. and NATO have royally screwed up. (I paraphrase.) Excerpt:
The New York Post quoted Ambassador Avetisyan, as saying that talk of a handover to the Afghans was currently unrealistic because the coalition had failed to build the nation's forces or economy.
He also said the West was responsible for the blight of rampant corruption in the administration because it had taken the decision to plough in huge sums into badly coordinated and opaque aid projects. .. .
Ambassador Avetisyan said the West had not learned from Soviet mistakes.They are repeating all of them and they are making new ones," he told The Sunday Telegraph. Ambassador Avetisyan said NATO had "wasted" nine years not building an Afghan army to replace them.
He said: "Only now have people started to realise 'Oh, we must have someone to secure the country when we leave'. "But it is not possible to do in several months, or years. If serious training of the Afghan army is started now, it will take in my opinion at least five years. If the international community had started this several years ago, then now it would be realistic to talk about transition timetables and withdrawal," he said.
Eugene Robinson seems to suspect the Afghan government of corruption. I can't imagine where he got that idea.
ust how corrupt is the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan? It should be clear by now that President Hamid Karzai doesn't want us to know. He'd prefer that we just keep sending our troops and our dollars, and not ask too many questions.
Karzai's government announced last week that American and allied advisers, dispatched to Kabul to help investigate massive and endemic graft, will no longer be allowed to do any actual investigating. Karzai's chief of staff told The Washington Post that the government is still determined to eliminate corruption, but intends to do so “within an Afghan framework.”
And what a framework it is. Karzai is evidently upset that foreign advisers helped build a case against one of his high-ranking aides, Mohammad Zia Salehi, who is charged with soliciting a bribe — $10,000 plus a new car — from a money-exchange firm. In return, according to the charges, Salehi was supposed to derail an investigation into allegations that the company, called New Ansari, had illegally shipped $3 billion in cash out of the country. Most of the funds ended up in Dubai, where many of the wealthy Afghan elite have settled.
Salehi was arrested, but Karzai intervened to have him released from jail just seven hours later. Karzai has said that the use of wiretaps to build the case against Salehi was a violation of “human rights principles.” I wonder what other standard investigative techniques don't fit within the “Afghan framework.”
Rod Nordland of the NYT reports aid groups say security is going backwards. Excerpt:
Even as more American troops flow into the country, Afghanistan is more dangerous than it has ever been during this war, with security deteriorating in recent months, according to international organizations and humanitarian groups. Large parts of the country that were once completely safe, like most of the northern provinces, now have a substantial Taliban presence — even in areas where there are few Pashtuns, who previously were the Taliban’s only supporters. As NATO forces poured in and shifted to the south to battle the Taliban in their stronghold, the Taliban responded with a surge of their own, greatly increasing their activities in the north and parts of the east. . . .
Unarmed government employees can no longer travel safely in 30 percent of the country’s 368 districts, according to published United Nations estimates, and there are districts deemed too dangerous to visit in all but one of the country’s 34 provinces.
The number of insurgent attacks has increased significantly; in August 2009, insurgents carried out 630 attacks. This August, they initiated at least 1,353, according to the Afghan N.G.O. Safety Office, an independent organization financed by Western governments and agencies to monitor safety for aid workers.
Quote of the Day
The goal of any organized terrorist attack is to goad a vastly more powerful enemy into an excessive response. And over the past nine years, the United States has blundered into the 9/11 snare with one overreaction after another. Bin Laden deserves to be the object of our hostility, national anguish and contempt, and he deserves to be taken seriously as a canny tactician. But much of what he has achieved we have done, and continue to do, to ourselves. Bin Laden does not deserve that we, even inadvertently, fulfill so many of his unimagined dreams.
Ted Koppel
Saturday, September 11, 2010
War News for Saturday, September 11, 2010
The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF soldier at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, U.K. on Friday, September 10th. He was wounded in a small arms fire attack/gunshot wounds in the Nahr-e Saraj District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan on Monday, August 23rd.
Grenades alter troops' attitude, mission
Contractor with Valley ties killed in Afghanistan
Reported security incidents
Samarra:
#1: Three policemen were wounded in attacks with two improvised explosive devices in eastern and central Samarra city on Saturday, a local police source in Salah al-Din province said. “An IED went off near a police patrol in the neighborhood of al-Shohadaa, central Samarram leaving two patrolmen wounded,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
#2: “In a separate incident, an IED went off near a police patrol in Malwiyet Samarra area, in the eastern part of the city, leaving one policeman wounded,” he added.
Tikrit:
#1: A sticky bomb attached to the car of a high ranking officer cut off part of his legs when it exploded in central Tikrit, 150 km (95 miles) north of Baghdad, police said
Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: At least 20 Islamist militants and one border guard were killed earlier this week in a firefight along the volatile border between Afghanistan and Tajikistan, Tajik officials said on Saturday. The clash was the latest unrest amid increasing violence in Tajikistan in recent weeks, following a prison break which freed 25 Al Qaeda-linked militants and a suicide car bombing which killed two police. Tajik officials said that the slain fighters, who included members of the Taliban, were trying to slip over the border from Afghanistan into Tajikistan when they were discovered by the Tajik border guards. "These Afghan anti-government fighters were hiding on an island in the river Pyandzh," which forms the border between the two states, border guard spokesman Colonel Khushnud Rakhmatullayev told AFP. "There was a clash with small arms fire which lasted nearly 24 hours. As a result, 20 militants, most of the militant group, were killed.... One border ensign was also killed," he added. He said that the clash started on Wednesday and lasted until the early hours of Thursday morning. The spokesman's statement was the first report to have emerged about the firefight.
#2: Shells fired by coalition forces in Afghanistan on Friday killed at least three people across the border in a northwestern tribal area of Pakistan, officials said. They said a gun battle had erupted between troops and the Taliban in Khost, and mortar shells hit houses in Saidgi village, in Pakistan’s North Waziristan. “Three people were killed and five others were wounded by mortar shells fired by coalition forces from the Afghanistan side during a gunfight with the Taliban,” a local security official told AFP.
DoD: 1st Lt. Todd W. Weaver
Friday, September 10, 2010
War News for Friday, September 10, 2010
IEA trims 2011 oil use growth estimate, sees risks
12 US soldiers accused of killing Afghan civilians
U.S. Concerned About TAPI Pipeline
U.S. Urges Iraqis to Try New Plan to Share Power
Three soldiers killed in south Yemen
Reported security incidents
Diyala Prv:
#1: Four men raided the home of a policeman in a village northwest of Baquba and beheaded his wife when they failed to find the officer, an interior ministry source said.
#2: Gunmen beheaded Sunni cleric Jabbar Saleh al-Jibouri at his house in a village near Muqdadiya, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, a police spokesman said.
Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: AN Australian soldier had been wounded in an insurgent bomb explosion in Afghanistan, the Defence Department says. The special operations soldier was injured when a Bushmaster vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED) in northern Kandahar Province on August 31. The driver of the vehicle was not hurt but the soldier, who was working nearby, sustained a minor wound and suffered concussion.
#2: An Afghan insurgent commander who was allegedly planning bombings in Kabul on the eve of the Sept. 18 parliamentary elections and two of his associates have been killed in an airstrike, NATO said Friday. The military alliance said in a statement that intelligence sources tracked Nur Mohammed and two armed militants to a field in the remote Musahi district of Kabul province. Coalition aircraft conducted the airstrike Thursday night after ensuring no civilians were present, it added.
DoD: Sgt. Jesse M. Balthaser
DoD: Sgt. Philip C. Jenkins
DoD: Pvt. James F. McClamrock
DoD: Cpl. John C. Bishop
Thursday, September 9, 2010
War News for Thursday, September 09, 2010
NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, September 9th.
Nato is losing the war in Afghanistan: Mullah Omar
Afghanistan options are running out
Kabul Bank's Dubai connection
4 Al-Qaida-Linked Prisoners On The Lam In Iraq
NATO Drive on Kandahar Begins, With Mixed Results
Suicide attack in Russia kills 15, wounds over 130
Reported security incidents
Baghdad:
#1: “A car bomb went off on Thursday (Sept. 9) in al-Mushahda region, northern Baghdad, killing three persons, including a soldier, and wounding 10, including four army soldiers,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
#2: “An explosive charge went off near al-coholic beverages store in Bab al-Muaatham region, central Baghdad, causing some material damage,” he said.
#3: A suicide car bomber targeting an Iraqi army convoy killed three people, including one soldier, and wounded ten others, including four soldiers, in Mashahidah on the northern outskirts of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.
Diyala Prv:
#1: A mosque’s imam was killed on Thursday in east of Baaquba by gunmen, according to a police source. “Unknown gunmen attacked the house of Sensel mosque’s Imam, Sheikh Abduljabbar Faleh al-Juburi, in al-Muqdadiya district, east of Baaquba,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, noting that they slaughtered him in one of the house’s rooms.
#2: “An explosive device exploded this morning targeting a police vehicle patrol in Khanaqin district, northeast of Baaquba, without causing casualties,” the same source added.
Abu Ghraib:
#1: “Unknown gunmen stormed the house of a policeman in Abu Gharieb region, western Baghdad, where they shot and killed him,” he added.
Kirkuk:
#1: the second blast took place at 9:15 am at the same place (al Zab), killing three policemen and a Sahwa fighter and wounding seven people.
Mosul:
#1: Two policemen and one civilian were wounded on Wednesday in a grenade attack in western Mosul city. “A gunman threw a grenade on an Iraqi police checkpoint in the al-Borsa area, western Mosul, wounding two cops and one civilian,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
#2: Three persons, from the same family, were wounded on Wednesday when a mortar shell hit their house in eastern Mosul, a security source said. “A mortar shell hit on Wednesday (Sept. 8) a house in al-Bekr neighborhood, eastern Mosul, near an army checkpoint, injuring a woman and her son and daughter, who were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
#3: Five civilians were wounded on Thursday by a hand grenade in central Mosul, according to a security source. “A hand grenade went off on Thursday morning (Sept. 9) targeting a police vehicle patrol in a market in al-Sergkhana region, central Mosul, wounding five civilians,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
#4: An Iraqi soldier and a gunman were killed Tuesday in a security raid in south of Mosul, according to a security source. “An Iraqi soldier and a gunman were killed on Thursday morning (Sept. 9) during a raid of a force from the 2nd division of the Iraqi army in al-Imam village in western al-Qayara district, south of Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The forces arrested four gunmen during the operation,” he added, without giving further details.
Al Anbar Prv:
#1: An Iraqi police officer has escaped an assassination attempt in Amiriyat al-Falluja city in western Iraq’s Anbar Province on Wednesday, when a cluster bomb blew up in his car on Wednesday, wounding two Iraqi soldiers, according to a security source in Falluja city. “The police officer had discovered a strange device in his car, jumped out of the car, and when an expert Iraqi Army unit tried to dismantle the explosive device, it blew up, wounding two soldiers and causing severe damage to the car and another civilian car,” the source said.
#2: A policeman and his son were killed and a civilian was wounded in a sticky bomb blast in eastern Falluja, a police source said on Wednesday. “The bomb, stuck to the cop’s car, went off in al-Karma district in eastern Falluja, killing him and his son and wounding a civilian,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A suspected American missile strike killed five alleged militants in northwestern Pakistan early Thursday, an intelligence official said, the fourth such attack on suspected insurgent targets there in 24 hours. The barrage was one of the most intense since the attacks were stepped up more than two years ago in a bid to keep pressure on al-Qaida and its allies. Most are believed to be fired from unmanned, remote-controlled planes that can hover for hours above the area. The latest attack took place before dawn on a house close to a disused match factory a little more than a mile (three kilometers) west of Miran Shah town, a hub for local and international militants in the North Waziristan region, an intelligence official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the policy of his agency. Five alleged militants were killed, he said.
#2: On Thursday, 10 people were killed close to the Afghan border in Kurram region when a roadside bomb hit the bus they were traveling in, said local government official Noor Ahmed. It was unclear why — or whether — the vehicle was targeted.
#3: Another explosion took place outside the house of a provincial minister in Quetta, the capital of the southwestern Baluchistan province, killing three people, said city police chief Abid Hussain Nothkani. He did not speculate on who might be responsible.
DoD: Cpl. Philip G. E. Charte
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
War News for Wednesday, September 08, 2010
NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, September 8th.
CNN News is reporting the deaths of two U.S. soldiers from an Iraqi soldier-friendly fire/small arms fire incident in Salaheddin province, Iraq on Tuesday, September 7th. Nine additional soldiers were wounded in the attack.
Iraqi Treasures Return, but Questions Remain
Political Ties Shielded Bank in Afghanistan
9 PKK rebels killed in clash in southeast Turkey
Al-Qaida claims killing over 50 soldiers in southern Yemen
Reported security incidents
Baghdad:
#1: In the first of the two attacks, three policemen and one civilian were killed when a parked car bomb exploded near a bus station in Baghdad's southern Bayaa neighborhood. A second bomb targeting police and rescue services arriving at the blast site detonated minutes later. There were no reports on casualties from the second blast.
#2: In eastern Baghdad, two bombs near a bus station went off simultaneously, killing two civilians and wounding 12 others. Health officials confirmed the death toll.
#3: Five civilians were wounded on Tuesday in a sticky bomb explosion in southern Baghdad, according to a security source. “A bomb, stuck to a civilian car, went off in 60 street in al-Doura region, southern Baghdad, injuring five civilians,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
#4: A roadside bomb exploded near a medical complex in the Bayaa district of southwestern Baghdad, killing a policeman and a civilian and wounding six other people, including two policemen, police said.
Diyala Prv:
#1: Meanwhile, a farmer was killed in the central Iraqi town of Mayndili when his truck was struck by a roadside bomb inside his farm, said Major Mohammed al-Karkhi, spokesman for police in Diyala province north of Baghdad.
Nassiriya:
#1: “Two people escaped from al-Hussein hospital after receiving treatment,” the hospital’s manager, Dr. Sadam al-Taweel, said. “The two person were wounded when they tried to attack a U.S. convoy in southern Nassiriya,” he added.
Basra:
#1: Preliminary information assert that five people were killed after attacking U.S. forces in Basra on Sunday (Sept. 5),” head of the security committee, Sajad al-Asadi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Tikrit:
#1: One civilian was killed and three others were wounded when a thermal bomb hit a U.S. army patrol in central Tikrit city. “The blast occurred yesterday when unknown gunmen threw a thermal bomb on a U.S. army patrol in central Tikrit,” an Iraqi police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency on Wednesday.
Kirkuk:
#1: Two policemen were killed on Wednesday and two civilians wounded when a roadside bomb went off in the southwest of Kirkuk city. “The blast occurred near the al-Zab police station, 85 km southwest of Kirkuk,” a local police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Mosul:
#1: A second television presenter was killed in Iraq in as many days Wednesday, police said. Sabah al-Khayat was shot dead in front of his house while departing for work at the Al-Mosuliyah satellite television station, where he presents a programme devoted to mosques and shrines in the main northern city of Mosul. "Armed men shot the journalist Sabah al-Khayat in front of his house in central Mosul while he was leaving for work," a police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
#2: Unknown gunmen killed a woman in central Mosul on Tuesday, according to a security source. “Unknown gunmen killed a woman on Tuesday afternoon (Sept. 7) in al-Akidat region, central Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1-2: Two suspected U.S. missile strikes hit militant targets in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, officials said. The strikes happened within hours of each other in North Waziristan, a lawless region home to militants battling foreign troops just across the border in Afghanistan, al-Qaida leaders plotting attacks in the West and insurgents behind bombings in Pakistan.
#1: The first attack was on a house in the village of Dande Darpa Khel near Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, two Pakistani intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The house was owned by Maulvi Azizullah, a member of the Haqqani network, a militant group based in North Waziristan that U.S. military officials have called the most dangerous threat to NATO troops in Afghanistan. Six militants were killed, they said.
#2: The second missile hit a car traveling a few miles (kilometers) from the border, killing four people associated with the Haqqani network, officials said. Zameedullah Wazir, a resident of Ambar Shaga, said he and others tried to get close to the vehicle, but were told to leave by Taliban fighters who arrived soon after in three vehicles.
#3: Finnish and Swedish peacekeeping forces have come under attack in Afghanistan. The incident occurred Tuesday evening in the Sar-e Pul province, in the city of Sayadi. No-one was injured. The international troops on a joint patrol went to help local police who had their police station was taking small-arms fire. The foreign crisis management forces then became targets, and the international troops returned the fire. After several hours the peacekeepers were able to return to their base. None of the Finns or Swedes were hurt in the fighting.
#4: A bomb blast killed two people and wounded six in southwestern Baluchistan where for decades nationalists have waged a low-level insurgency for greater autonomy and a bigger share in income from province's natural resources. Police said the bomb was planted in a grocery shop in a small market.
#5: A suicide bomber blew himself up Wednesday morning in Afghan northern Baghlan province, killing two policemen and leaving two others wounded, provincial police spokesman said. "A suicide bomber strapped explosives in his body and blew himself up in Band Shahabuddin areas outside provincial capital Pul-e-Khumri, killing two local policemen and injuring two others, " Ahmad Jawid Basharat told Xinhua. He said the initial report confirmed that three people including the bomber were killed but so far casualties on civilians had not been cleared.
#6: At least four police officers were injured when two police vehicles were attacked by handgrenades in the city of Hangu in Pakistan's northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa late Tuesday night, sources informed Xinhua.
DoD: Pfc. Diego M. Montoya
DoD: Capt. Jason T. McMahon
DoD: Lance Cpl. Ross S. Carver
