War News for Tuesday, June 07, 2011

The Australian DoD is reporting the death of an Australian ISAF soldier from small arms fire/gunshot wounds somewhere in northern Helmand province Afghanistan on Monday, June 6th. Here's the ISAF release.


U.S. Braces for Withdrawal Along Iraqi Road


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Gunmen firing silenced weapons from a car killed two policemen inside their vehicle in central Baghdad, police said.


Diyala Prv:
#1: A motorbike parked in central Baaquba’s Khurasan Street blew up on Tuesday, according to a Diala Security Source. “A motorbike, parked on the roadside close to a number of trade shops, has blown up on Tuesday. There is no information yet about any human or material damage,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

A bicycle’s explosion wounded four civilians, in northern Baaquba, near Al Kawthar intersection.


Hilla:
#1: Police said they found the body of an unidentified man with gunshot wounds to the head in central Hilla, 100 km (62 miles) south of Baghdad.


Sulaimaniya Prv:
#1: A bomb, planted under a car in northern Iraq’s Kurdistan city of Sulaimaniya, has blown up, wounding a woman who was in the car, a security source said on Tuesday. “A bomb blew up under a civilian car, parked in Azadi district in Sulaimaniya city on Tuesday, wounding a woman who was in the car when the incident took place,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Mosul:
#1: The Director in the Iraqi Education Ministry’s Inspector-General’s office escaped an assassination attempt in western Mosul on Monday night, according to a Ninewa security source on Tuesday. “The Director of the Education Ministry’s Inspector-General’s Office escaped an assassination attempt yesterday (Monday), when a group of unknown armed men opened fire on him in west-Mosul’s July 17 district, slightly wounding him,” he said.

Gunmen opened fire using muted weapons on the car of Nineveh education general inspector office Izzat Mustapha. Mustapha was seriously wounded.

#2: A roadside bomb exploded and killed two shepherds late on Monday in northern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Three civilians were killed and another wounded when a police officer's residence in the northeast of Ramadi city exploded, security sources said today. The source informed Aswat al-Iraq that an unknown group implanted bombs around a police officer's residence and blew it up, which resulted in the deaths of his wife, mother and brother, as well a fourth person being injured.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Police found the beheaded body of a politician in central Afghanistan on Tuesday, three days after he was abducted by suspected Taleban-linked militants, a police commander said. Jawad Zahaak was head of the provincial council in Bamiyan, seen as one of the country’s most peaceful areas and among the first wave of places to transition from Western to Afghan security control from around July. He was kidnapped while travelling in the neighbouring province of Parwan on Saturday and his beheaded body was founded dumped near a main road, Parwan police chief Sher Ahmad Maladani told AFP.

#2: A roadside bomb shocked Sabari district in eastern Khost province on Tuesday, with casualties feared, an official said. "The blast happened in a bazaar at around 10:00 a.m. local time injuring 10 people, including seven civilians," governor of Sabari district Daulat Khan Qayumi told Xinhua.

#3: Gunmen killed 11 people outside Pul-i-Alam, the capital of central Logar province, Logar police chief Rogh Lewani said. Among the dead were five Afghan soldiers and three government employees.


MoD: Lance Corporal Martin Joseph Gill

DoD: Cpl. Paul W. Zanowick II

AU. DoD: Sapper Rowan Jaie Robinson

War News for Monday, June 06, 2011

The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF soldier from small arms fire in the Nahr-e Saraj (South) district of Helmand province, Afghanistan on Sunday June 5th. Here's the ISAF release.

The British MoD is reporting the death of another British ISAF soldier from an IED attack in the Haji Kareen area of the Nahr-e Saraj (South) district, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Sunday June 5th.

CNN is reporting the deaths of five U.S. soldiers in an attack in an undisclosed location in central Iraq on Monday, June 6th. Reports say they died from an indirect weapons/rocket attack in a base in southeastern Baghdad. Five additional soldiers were wounded in the attack.

NATO is reporting the deaths of two ISAF soldiers when a helicopter crashed in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, June 5th. Nato reports that the chopper crashed in the Sabari District of Khost Province.


Steeper Pullout Is Raised as Option for Afghanistan


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1-2: Iraqi security officials said four people died after gunmen in speeding vehicles opened fire on two security checkpoints in Baghdad. The incidents happened early Monday morning in the mostly Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah, said a military and a medical official. At one checkpoint, an Iraqi army soldier was killed when gunmen using weapons affixed with silencers opened fire. At about the same time, gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint manned by members of an anti-al-Qaida militia. Three militia members were killed in that incident, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

#3: At least 8 persons, including 4 policemen, have been injured, in a booby-trapped car blast on the main road passing through northern Baghdad’s Kasra district on Monday, a Baghdad security source said. “A booby-trapped car, parked on the roadside in northern Baghdad’s Kasra district, had blown off early on Monday, wounding 8 persons, among them 4 policemen and causing damage to a number of police and civilian cars,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#4: At least 9 civilians have been injured in a booby-trapped car explosion on the roadside east of Baghdad on Monday, a security source reported. “A booby-trapped car, parked on the roadside in east Baghdad’s Palestine Street, has blown off, wounding 9 civilians,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, adding that the injured persons were driven to a nearby hospital for treatment.

#5: Rockets were fired at dawn against a joint Iraqi-U.S. military base in Baladiyat District, eastern Baghdad, an interior ministry source said. Two suspected militants were later found dead, apparently killed by the premature explosion of one of their own rockets, in the modified truck they were using as a launch platform, the source said.

#6: A roadside bomb exploded as a convoy guarded by private security contractors passed in central Baghdad, wounding four civilians, police said.


Nassiriya:
#1: The U.S.military airbase Taleel was the target for rocket attacks, the U.S.
Army announced today. The media spokesman of the U.S. forces, Lieutenant Harold Havel, told Aswat al-Iraq that three Katyusha rockets fell on Taleel airbase, 18 km south of Nassiriya, on Saturday night. No casualties were reported.


Tikrit:
#1: Up to 11 security members were killed and 19 people wounded Monday in a suicide car bomb attack in central the city of Tikrit, the capital of Salahudin province, a provincial police source said. "Our latest reports said that nine soldiers and two policemen were killed by the attack and 19 people wounded, most of them security members," the source from Salahudin's Operations Command told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The attack took place in the morning when a suicide bomber drove his explosive-laden car into the checkpoint at the entrance of the presidential compound of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussien, and blew it up, the source said. Colonel Nuri al-Mashhadani, Commander of the 1st Brigade of the Iraqi Army's 4th Division, stationed in Tikrit, was among the killed.


Mosul:
#1: An explosive charge, planted against the house of Ninewa's Criminal Court’s Judge, has been dismantled by a special team on Monday, a Ninewa security source reported.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: A local politician and three members of his family were killed when a bomb planted inside their house exploded in the northern outskirts of Ramadi, 100 km (60 miles) west of Baghdad, local police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: The United States fired missiles at three suspected militant targets near the Afghan border Monday, killing 16 people. The identities of the dead in the unusually intense volley of drone-fired strikes in the South Waziristan tribal region were not known.

#2: Insurgents attacked an Afghan checkpoint overnight, killing two police officers and abducting five others in the southwest of the country. The attack happened in Nimroz province late Sunday and appears to be linked to rogue police officers involved with the Taliban, officials said. "Armed insurgents attacked a police post in Khash Rod district at 11pm killing two policemen, wounding one, and kidnapping five others," said provincial police chief General Abdul Jabar Purdeli.

#3-4: Two tankers carrying supplies for the Nato forces stationed in Afghanistan were torched in two separate incidents in Bolan and Khuzdar districts of Balochistan on Sunday. According to reports reaching here, a Nato tanker carrying fuel was passing from Dhadar Qambari Bridge in Bolan district when unidentified people opened indiscriminate fire on it. As a result, the vehicle caught fire and thousands of liters of fuel was destroyed. In a similar incident, unidentified people attacked a Nato tanker at Wadh area of Khuzdar, 360km from Quetta.


MoD: Corporal Michael John Pike

DoD: Sgt. Jeffrey C. S. Sherer

News of the Day for Sunday, June 5, 2011

Reported Security Incidents

Zubair oil field, near Basra

Bomb attack on an oil storage depot sets one tank on fire. "An Iraqi police source said bombs targeted four tanks at the facility, but only one of the tanks hit contained crude and ignited. Another bomb hit an empty tank and bombs at two other tanks were made safe, the police source said." Attacks on the southern oil infrastructure have been rare, though there have been several attacks on pipelines in the north.

Baghdad

A civil defense colonel is assassinated by gunmen using silenced weapons. Says VoI (as usual, not great English) "Doubts are spreading about the relationship between the armed men with security forces, involved in such incidents . . ."

Tikrit

The death toll in the Friday twin bomb attack has now been raised to 34. Further details of the incident are also available.

Other News of the Day

Iraq signs a deal with Kuwaiti, Turkish and South Korean companies to develop two gas fields, one in Diyala and one in Basra province. The plan is to use the gas for domestic electricity generation.

NYT's Jack Healey and Omar al-Jawoshy report on revenge killings of family members of former militants in the wake of the sectarian civil war cum insurgency following the U.S. invasion.

The Scotsman publishes a large selection of Wikileaks cables concerning Iraq. You can start with this one, and others are listed in the right-hand sidebar. (Scroll down to get past links to other news.) I haven't had time to start digesting them.

Afghanistan Update

A NATO helicopter crashes in Khost, killing 2 on board, of undisclosed nationality. (Most NATO forces operating in the area are American.) As usual, NATO denies any evidence of hostile action. However, according to Reuters, a Taliban spokesman says the helicopter was shot down, and witnesses reported seeing it catch fire in the air and belch black smoke before it crashed.

A NATO soldier is killed in a separate attack in southern Afghanistan. No further details at this time.

Bomb attack on Kabul Bank branch in Maidan Wardak kills a security guard.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the U.S. troop drawdown, set to begin in July, "will be done responsibly and will not expose other coalition and Afghan forces to undue risks." He says he wants to "leave the shooters for last." (Well, so much for nation building.)

You may recall report a couple of days ago that al Qaeda leader Ilyas Kashmiri was killed by a U.S. drone strike in South Waziristan, but it turns out, in spite of media reports, that U.S. officials are skeptical. However, Pakistan's Interior Minister says he is 98% sure of it. (The border regions of Pakistan are, of course, essentially part of the same conflict as the NATO war in Afghanistan.)

Bomb kills 6 at a bus stop in Peshwar, Pakistan.

Pakistani forces claim to have killed 26 "militants" who crossed into Upper Dir (near the Swat valley) from Afghanistan.

Quote of the Day

At the entrance to the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul, which lost 70 percent its collection to looting and destruction during the wars, a placard reads “A nation stays alive when its culture stays alive.” But even a quick look at the 30 percent of the collection that is exhibited there gives an idea of what cultural genocide means and shows that no matter how painstaking they are, efforts to revive a cultural heritage that has lost so much are bound to be limited.

Ayse Karabat

War News for Saturday, June 04, 2011

The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF soldier from small arms fire/gunshot wounds in the Lashkar Gah District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan on Friday June 3rd. Here's the ISAF release.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Friday, May 3rd.

NATO is reporting the deaths of four ISAF soldiers from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, May 4th.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: The individual responsible for Balad pro-government Al-Sahwa (Awakening) commander escaped an assassination attempt by sticky bomb in the center of Baghdad, police sources said today. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that "he was injured along with his companion."


Numaniya:
#1: An Iraqi policeman has been injured in attack on his patrol by a U.S. Army patrol north of Kut, the center of southern Iraq’s Wassit Province on Saturday, a Wassit police source reported. “A U.S. Army force had attacked an Iraqi police patrol on Saturday in Nu’maniya township, 40 km to the north of Kut, wounding a policeman,” the police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Tikrit:
#1: The first bomb, hidden inside a fuel canister, detonated as worshippers were leaving the mosque in the tightly secured area of central Tikrit that is home to provincial government offices on the main Muslim day of prayer at around 0945 GMT. "The first attack killed 19 people and we treated 72 wounded," said a doctor at Tikrit hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity. A suicide bomb attack on the hospital, timed to coincide with an MP's visit with the victims, killed a further five and wounded three, he said, adding the lawmaker was unscathed but two of his bodyguards were among the dead.


Samarra:
#1: The suicide attack occurred about eight hours later in the evening, as lawmaker Mutasher al-Samarrai visited victims at the hospital. A suicide bomb attack on the hospital, timed to coincide with an MP's visit with the victims, killed a further five and wounded three, he said, adding the lawmaker was unscathed but two of his bodyguards were among the dead.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A foreigner has been shot dead by angry locals while visiting a province usually seen as one of Afghanistan's most peaceful after an altercation with a drug addict, a local senator told AFP Saturday. The man, who sources indicated was Italian, was visiting local emerald mines in Panjshir province, northeast of Kabul, with a woman on Friday when the confrontation with the drug addict occurred, said local senator Mohammad Faizi.

#2: Police say Pakistani security forces have killed 26 Islamist militants in a troubled tribal region near the Afghan border. Police official Bahadur Khan said the insurgents were targeted Saturday when they invaded from Afghanistan's Kunar province and opened fire on troops in the Nustrat Darra district. He said the troops suffered no casualties in the latest fighting.

#3: A US pilotless aircraft fired missiles into Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal region and killed at least seven people, officials said on Saturday. The missiles targeted a compound of suspected militants late Friday night in Ghwakhwa area, some 10 kilometers from Wana, the center of South Waziristan.

War News for Friday, June 03, 2011

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in northern Afghanistan on Thursday, May 2nd. This is being reported as a German soldier.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, May 2nd. This is being reported as a Polish soldier.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, May 2nd.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Two persons were injured today by a sticky bomb in a civilian car to the northeast of Baghdad, security forces announced. The source informed Aswat al-Iraq that the sticky bomb exploded in a pick-up wagon, which resulted in injuring the two people inside it.


Kirkuk:
#1: A U.S. military patrol was attacked today by a hand grenade, security sources said. The source added that there were no casualties or damages reported in the attack.


Mosul:
#1: A roadside bomb exploded near a hospital, wounding four security guards in the city of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, local police said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: The final toll from the four explosions that hit Ramadi city yesterday reached 7 dead and 18 wounded, Anbar security sources said today. The source said to Aswat al-Iraq that among the killed were four security forces. 11 of the wounded are military and police personnel. Four explosions hit the city yesterday, one in the main street no. 17, the second a car-bomb near a governmental complex. The last two explosions were near the Nationality Department and used two explosives. No other details were given.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A hand grenade attack on a paramilitary post in the northwestern tribal region of Khyber on the Afghan border wounded one soldier and a civilian, a government official said.

#2: Two insurgents were killed when Afghan and NATO-led forces launched a search operation Thursday night in country's Baghlan province 160 km north of capital city of Kabul, the NATO said Friday. "A combined Afghan and coalition security force killed two insurgents and detained several suspected insurgents during a nighttime security operation to search for a Taliban leader in Baghlan-e Jadid district, Baghlan province, yesterday,"said a statement issued by NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) here Friday.

War News for Thursday, June 02, 2011

Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: In downtown Baghdad, a roadside bomb went off near a police patrol in an intersection in Bab al-Mu'adham area, damaging a police vehicle and wounding two policemen aboard, the source said on condition of anonymity. Three civilians were also wounded by the blast, along with damaging several nearby civilian cars, the source said.

#2: In a separate incident, a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in al-Nidhal Street in Baghdad's central district of Karrada, wounding four passers-by, the source added.

#3: In western Baghdad, a roadside bomb ripped through Iskan neighborhood, wounding two civilians, he said.


Mussayab:
#1: Six people were killed and at least 11 wounded when a bomb exploded in a wedding party in al-Hamya village in Mussayab, 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.


Al Qurna:
#1: An unknown group attacked today a U.S. military convoy in Qurna with a grenade, U.S. forces source announced here today. No casualties were reported. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that the attack did not result in major damages. He added that the U.S. patrol did not return fire after the attack.


Basra:
#1: The Operations Command in southern Iraq’s Basra port-city has been attacked by three mortar shells on Wednesday, according to a security source in the Command, adding that the attack had caused no casualties. “Three mortar shells fell before noon today (Wednesday) on the building of Basra Operations Command in the center of the city, but caused no material or human losses,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Irbil:
#1: Kurdish security forces dismantled a sticky bomb in a civilian car, as stated by Kurdistan Security Department today. The statement, as received by Aswat al-Iraq , added that the bomb was dismantled on Tuesday night on the main gate of the city on Arbil-Kirkuk road.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Unknown gunmen assassinated the Sheikh of Mahamda tribe, in the center of Falluja city, security sources said today. The source added to Aswat al-Iraq that Sheikh Hameed Ahmed was assassinated today, but the culprit ran away.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Twenty-five Pakistani security forces have been killed in fighting in northwest Pakistan after about 200 militants crossed over from Afghanistan and attacked a security checkpost, a government official said on Thursday. Skirmishes had been going on for 24 hours in a village in Dir region, Ghulam Mohammad Khan, a top local government official, said by telephone.


Hundreds of heavily armed Taliban besieged a Pakistani checkpoint on the Afghan border for a second day Thursday, killing 28 police and six civilians in the deadliest fighting for months. A senior police official told AFP that 500 militants, including Afghan Taliban from across the border and Pakistani Taliban, took part in the attack which began before dawn on Wednesday and continued more than 24 hours later. The Pakistani military sent reinforcements to the police checkpost, deploying helicopter gunships in a bid to quell the attack in an area accessible on the ground only by foot. "We have regained control of most of the area but fighting is still going on in some parts near the (checkpoint), which was attacked by around 500 Pakistani and Afghan Taliban," regional police chief Qazi Jamil ur-Rehman told AFP. He said 34 people were killed in the attack, including 28 policemen and six civilians, among them two women and two children, who died when mortar rounds struck nearby houses. He had earlier put the death toll at 28. "Twelve houses were hit by mortar shelling. Militants are now on the run and we are confident to be in control of the entire area by this evening," he said. Rehman said more than 20 police were wounded, but he had no information on casualties among the Taliban. By early afternoon, residents and a local official said thuds of gunfire could be heard intermittently in the area.

#2: A landmine blast wounded six people traveling in a pick-up van in the southwestern Baluchistan province, police said.

#3: The German Army says six German soldiers have been wounded in a bomb attack in Afghanistan. A spokesman for the Bundeswehr Operations Command in Potsdam said the attack on the German ISAF soldiers took place Thursday morning in the province of Baghlan, around 35 kilometers south of the city of Kunduz.


DoD: Capt. Joseph W. Schultz

DoD: Staff Sgt. Martin R. Apolinar

DoD: Sgt. Aaron J. Blasjo

DoD: Spc. Richard C. Emmons III

War News for Wednesday, June 01, 2011

NATO is reporting the deaths of three U.S. ISAF soldiers from an IED attack in an undisclosed area in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, May 29th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed area in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, May 31st. This is being reported as a Czech soldier.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed area in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, June 1st.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A booby-trapped car parked near al-Sa'ah Restaurant in Baghdad' s western neighborhood of Mansour, went off at about 8:30 (0530 GMT) near the convoy of Abdul-Kareem Abdullah, Deputy Minister of Iraq Ministry of Human Rights, wounding two passers-by, the source said on condition of anonymity. Abdullah escaped unharmed the powerful blast which caused severe damages to nearby buildings and shops, the source said.

#2: In a separate incident, seven people were wounded when a roadside bomb went off in al-Nidhal Street in Baghdad's central district of Karrada, the source said.


Kut:
#1: A U.S. minesweeper has been damaged by an explosive charge that blew up against an American Army patrol in southern Iraq’s Nu’maniya township in Wassit Province on Wednesday, a Wassit police source said. “A U.S. Army’s minesweeper was set on fire and damaged, when an explosive charge blew up against an American Army patrol that was passing through Nu’maniya township, 40 km to the north of Kut on Wednesday,” the police source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. There have not yet been any reports on any casualties, the source noted. He said the U.S. forces had beaten a number of police officers, who were at the venue of the blast when it took place, giving no further details.


Tikrit:
#1: Three brothers have been killed by unknown soldiers in north-central Iraq’s Province of Salahal-Din on Tuesday, according to a province’s police source. “Four armed men, using a civilian car, have attacked three brothers, working in a wheat field at Albu-Suleiby village of Al-Dhiloiya township, 92 km to the south of Tikrit, the center of Salahal-Din Province, killing the on the spot,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. He said the three brothers have been members of the pro-government al-Sahwa (Awakening) Forces and had fought al-Qaeda organization over the past few years.=



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A hand grenade killed one civilian and wounded six others in Kabul's west, the city's police chief said in a statement. It was not clear who threw the grenade or what the target was, the statement said.

#2: At least eight people including seven security Personnel and one woman were killed in a checkpoint attack launched Wednesday morning by militants in the Upper Dir district. According to the media reports, the attack took place in Shaltalo town, when a group of militants from Afghanistan tried to enter Pakistan through the Upper Dir district which borders Afghanistan. Over 200 militants stormed in the Checkpoint, leaving 7 Security Personnel dead. A Passerby woman was also died due to firing of militants. In retaliation, the security forces fired back at the militants by gunship helicopters. The firing between the militants and the security forces lasted for many hours.

#3: Militants in northwest Pakistan have torched at least seven oil tankers carrying fuel for US-led foreign troops in Afghanistan, Pakistani authorities say. Pakistani authorities say that the trucks went up in flames after a bomb was detonated at a parking lot in Khyber Agency later on Tuesday, a Press TV correspondent reported.

#4: Earlier in the day, unknown militants destroyed three NATO oil tankers in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province.

#5: Explosion rocked the capital of south Afghan province Ghazni on Wednesday afternoon, a local official told Xinhua. A signal tower of Roshan company, a local mobile phone service supplier, was bombed. Xinhua reporter near the explosion site in Ghazni, the capital city, some 125 km south of Afghan capital Kabul, witnessed the explosion at around 2 p.m. Wednesday.


DoD: Lance Cpl. Peter J. Clore

DoD: Pfc. Anthony M. Nunn