War News for Friday, October 14, 2011

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, October 13th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, October 13th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, October 13th.


NATO wins in Afghanistan may be exaggerated: Report

Preparing for a Way Out of Afghanistan


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Bombs in Baghdad's mostly Shiite district of Sadr City killed 18 people. At least two roadside bombs detonated at around 8:30 pm (1730 GMT) on Thursday in the north Baghdad district's Al-Hay market, interior and defence ministry officials said. The two officials, who both spoke on condition of anonymity, said 18 people were killed in the explosions, and at least 43 wounded. Late Thursday, the officials said at least 12 people had died.

A roadside bomb exploded near a coffee shop followed by another bomb nearby, killing at least 16 people and wounding 40 others in Baghdad's northeastern Sadr City district late on Thursday, police and witnesses said.

#2: Two roadside bombs exploded in succession near a local market, killing two civilians and wounding seven others in Baghdad's Sadr City district late on Thursday, a local police source said.


Hilla:
#1: Guards for the head of Babil provincial council killed one gunman and wounded two others who were trying to rob a money exchange office in central Hilla, 100 km (62 miles) south of Baghdad on Thursday, a local police source said. The council head's convoy was passing nearby and engaged the attackers who were using silenced weapons.


Diyala Prv:
#1: Six were wounded in a bomb blast in the center of Baaquba city, security sources said today. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that the bomb exploded in a main street.


Shirqat:
#1: Police killed a suspected al-Qaeda leader after a shootout in northern Shirqat, 300 km (190 miles) north of Baghdad, a source of Salahuddin province operations command said.

#2: A roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol, killing one soldier in western Shirqat, a source of Salahuddin province operations command said.


Al Anbar Pev:
#1: A roadside bomb targeted the car of a police officer, killing two passers-by and wounding five others in central Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, police and hospital sources said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: NATO and Afghan forces killed 13 insurgents in an overnight operation targeting local Taliban leaders in northern Afghanistan, officials said Friday. The joint raid by coalition and Afghan troops in northern Faryab province began late Thursday, said Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai, a spokesman for Afghan police in the north. One police officer was killed in the operation, he said.

#2: In eastern Kunar province, meanwhile, at least five artillery shells fired from the Pakistani side of the border landed in Dangam district early Friday, said provincial Police Chief Ewaz Naziri. There were no casualties.

#3: Afghan and coalition forces killed four insurgents and arrested one other in a joint operation in Logar province, south of the capital Kabul, the Interior Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

War News for Thursday, October 13, 2011

The DoD is reporting a new death unreported by the military. Chief Warrant Officer 3 James B. Wilke died from an apparent non-combat related injury in Doha, Qatar on Monday, October 10th. He was supporting Operation New Dawn (OIF)


Every Nato kill-capture mission in Afghanistan detailed and visualised

PKK kills one civilian, one village guard in southeastern Turkey

US report: RPG downed Chinook in Afghanistan


Reported security incidents

Kut:
#1: The Iraqi Army in Wassit managed to dismantle a car bomb in the center of the province, while police sources announced strict security measures following the explosions in Baghdad.


Diwaniya:
#1: Gunmen shot dead an employee working at Diwaniya municipality office, near his house in central Diwaniya, 150 km (95 miles) south of Baghdad, local authorities said.


Amarra:
#1: A rocket attack on a United States military base in Iraq's southern Maysan province wounded three American soldiers on Wednesday, a US military spokesperson and an Iraqi security official said. “We have operational reports of five rockets landing on or near COS (Contingency Operating Station) Garry Owens that injured three service members,” the spokesperson said. “Reports indicate the attack took place this evening,” the spokesperson said, adding that COS Garry Owens is on Al-Batirah airfield, about 10km west of Amara, the capital of Maysan province.


Karbala:
#1: Gunmen in a speeding car shot dead Shiekh Muhanned al-Meaamar, a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and his driver late on Tuesday, in southern Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad, police said.


Kirkuk:
#1: Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Asi told Aswat al-Iraq that a U.S.
force, in cooperation with the Iraqi army, killed a civilian in front of his house after he was arrested along with two members of his family. No other details were given.

#2: In another security event, the joint coordination center in Kirkuk announced that a bomb exploded on the road connecting Kirkuk with Salah al-Din province. The bomb was directed against a military vehicle, which led to injuring two soldiers.


Mosul:
#1: Gunmen using silenced weapons opened fire at an Iraqi army check point and killed two soliders in western Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

#2: Gunmen stormed a real state office and shot dead two people who were inside in eastern Mosul, police said.

#3: A roadside bomb went off and wounded two people in eastern Mosul, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Suspected militants here on Thursday torched 3 oil tankers, carrying oil for U.S.-led NATO forces in neighbouring Afghanistan. According to the media reports, the gunmen, riding motorcycles, first opened firing on the NATO oil tankers here, and torched three tankers. The oil tankers were coming from the port city of Karachi and heading to Afghanistan when came under attack. No one was injured in the attack.

Gunmen opened fire on an Afghanistan-bound convoy of Nato fuel supply trucks in the Shikarpur area of southern Sindh province, and set fire to six of them, police officials said. The tankers were parked outside a restaurant when they were attacked.

#2: A US drone attack has killed at least three suspected militants in north-west Pakistan, intelligence officials say. They say the drone fired two missiles close to a compound in the town of Miranshah in the North Waziristan tribal region, near the Afghan border.

#3: Pakistani forces used artillery to pound militant hideouts in the northwestern region of Orakzai, killing six suspected Pakistani Taliban insurgents, security officials said.

#4: A suspected U.S. drone fired three missiles at a group of militants in the South Waziristan border tribal region, killing at least three of them, intelligence officials said. The militants were setting up a position to fire rockets at a NATO post across the border in Afghanistan

#5: A civilian cargo plane flying from Bagram air base to Kabul crashed on the outskirts of the Afghan capital on Tuesday evening, killing all seven people on board, a spokesman for the ministry of civil aviation said.

#6: A rocket-propelled grenade attack on a NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) helicopter killed an Afghan interpreter and wounded eight Afghan and international troops, shortly after it landed at an outpost in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, ISAF said. The incident happened inside a base close to the border with Pakistan, in restive Kunar province.

#7: An air strike in the northern province of Kunduz killed two insurgents in the Gor Tappa area, ISAF said. ISAF forces tracked insurgents to a remote area before calling in the air strike. ISAF is still gathering evidence to confirm the results of the strike, an ISAF statement said.

#8: Six Afghan civilians, including women and children, died when a rocket fired by insurgents hit a vehicle in the southeastern province of Paktika on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said.

#9: Two Afghan soldiers were killed in separate attacks, the ministry of defence said on Tuesday, without giving further details.

#10: Afghan and ISAF troops killed several insurgents in western Herat province in an operation on Tuesday targeting a Taliban leader from neighbouring Badghis province responsible for attacks and kidnapping, ISAF said in a statement. It was not yet clear if the targeted insurgent was among the dead, the statement said.

#11: Afghan and ISAF troops on Tuesday night killed Ansari Khan, a commander from the Haqqani Network who coordinated attacks in eastern Khost province, ISAF said in a statement. Two other insurgents were killed, and a woman wounded, in the attack on the compound where Khan was found, ISAF said.


DoD: Chief Warrant Officer James 3 B. Wilke

DoD: Sgt. Nathan L. Wyrick

War News for Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Over One Million Iraqis Killed since US Invasion

118 insurgents killed in 18 days in Afghan, NATO forces operations: official

National Guard (in Federal Status) and Reserve Activated as of September 27, 2011 - This brings the total National Guard and Reserve personnel who have been activated to 92,470, including both units and individual augmentees.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: In the mainly Shiite neighborhood of Hurriyah, a suicide car bomber targeted a police station and killed six people, said two Baghdad police officials. Ten people were also wounded in that blast.

In the northern Shiite neighborhood of Hurriyah, nine people died when a suicide bomber also targeted a police station.

#2: In the southern Karradah neighborhood, three people were killed and six wounded by another suicide car bomb attack on a police station, the officials said. Smoke could be seen rising from the blast site as ambulances rushed to the scene, their sirens wailing. Iraqi army helicopters circled over head.

#3: A roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol in western Baghdad, killing two policemen and wounding another five, said police officials.

#4: A parked car bomb exploded in western Baghdad targeting a police patrol but killed one civilian and injured five people. Three people were also injured by a roadside bomb hitting a police patrol in western Baghdad.

In a separate incident, a car bomb went off near the convoy of Brig. Gen. Sabah, commander of the Iraqi Army's 22th Brigade, in Baghdad's northwestern district of al-Hurriyah, killing a civilian and wounding 10 of Sabah's soldiers along with two bystanders, the source said.

#5: Two police officials say 13 people were killed in western Baghdad when a suicide bomber rammed a police station.

#6: And in western Baghdad, a parked car bomb targeting a police patrol exploded and killed one civilian.

#7: In other attacks, a magnetic "sticky bomb" wounded a police brigadier general in Al-Sulaykh in north Baghdad,

#8: while two police were wounded by shots from a silenced pistol in the Jihad neighbourhood in south Baghdad, said the interior ministry official.


Basra:
#1: Three bombs that had been planted beneath oil pipelines were dismantled yesterday night, the South Oil Police Commander announced today. General Musa Abdul Hussein told Aswat al-Iraq that there were no casualties.


Abu Ghraib:
#1: Six were wounded in an attempt to blow up their houses with explosives planted by unknown persons south of the Abu Ghraib area, security sources said today. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that unknown gunmen implanted the explosives which were remotely detonated.


Shirqat:
#1: A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol went off in western Shirqat, 300 km (190 miles) north of Baghdad, killing two policemen and seriously wounding four others, police said.


Mosul:
#1: A civilian was killed by weapons equipped with silencers. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that the victim was in front of his house when he was shot.

#2: The two children were wounded when a deserted house was exploded near them. The house belonged to a civilian.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Gunmen shot dead a leader of government-backed Sahwa militia in front of his house in Garma, 30 km (20 miles) northwest of Baghdad, a local police source said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Officials say a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan has killed six police officers and a local tribal elder. The governor's office says in a statement issued Wednesday that a police truck struck the bomb on Tuesday while driving in Kandahar province's Zhari district. Provincial government spokesman Zalmai Ayubi says the police were escorting tribal elder Abdul Wali Khan back to his home from nearby Kandahar city. Ayubi says the bomb appeared to be remotely detonated, and that the police assume Khan was the target. Khan was also on the Zhari district development council.

#2: Security forces, on Tuesday, in retaliation, gunned down another 11 militants and injured scores of others when Taliban militants armed with rocket launchers resorted to cross border attack from Afghanistan on checkpoints in areas close to the Pak-Afghan border in upper Dir district, sources said. The clash occurred in the border areas of Laghar and Sparko Dab in upper Dir district. The cross border armed attack is second during the last three days, in which 26 militants have so far been killed.

War News for Tuesday, October 11, 2011

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an unreported cause in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Monday, October 9th.


U.N. Finds ‘Systematic’ Torture in Afghanistan

U.N.: Detainees tortured in Afghanistan

Afghan opium poppy cultivation jumps

Many lost NATO tankers ‘have not reached checkpoint’


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A string of explosions targeting security officials — and people who rushed to the scene to help the injured — killed at least 10 people in western Baghdad Monday evening, officials said. The first explosion came from a roadside bomb in a Shiite neighbourhood, targeting an Iraqi army patrol, a police official said. Minutes later, a second bomb exploded nearby, targeting a passing police patrol. As firefighters arrived on the scene of the first blast, the third bomb went off, an official said. He said 19 people were wounded in the attacks. A hospital official confirmed the casualties.

#2: Four soldiers and a civilians were wounded by an explosion south east Baghdad, police sources said here today. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that the bomb was directed against a military patrol.


Mosul:
#1: Two soldiers were killed by weapons equipped with silencers east of Mosul, security sources said today. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that unknown gunmen fired against a military patrol and fled away.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Suspected militants fired two rockets at a rally led by the governor of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province on Tuesday, killing one person and wounding four, but the governor was unhurt, security officials said. Governor Masood Kasur was to address the tribesmen when the rally was attacked in Kalaya, a large town in the Pashtun tribal region of Orakzai, the officials said. “The governor was receiving a briefing before the start of the function when the rockets struck. He is safe,” senior government official Fazal Qadir told Reuters. “One rocket fell near the helipad while the other landed inside the ground where the rally was being held.”

#2: Six people were killed in a double bombing targeting Afghan road construction workers near the country's eastern border with Pakistan, officials said. Police initially said a bomb struck a truck at around 9:50 am (0520 GMT) in the Dangam district of Kunar province. But officials later clarified that a second bomb also detonated as the rescue effort from the first attack was underway. "Four people were killed in the first explosion," said Wasifullah Wasifi, a spokesman for the Kunar governor. "In the second attack, two people were killed, including an Afghan soldier and a civilian, and two other civilians were wounded," he added.

#3: A trailer truck and an armoured vehicle of the US troops stationed in Afghanistan were burnt in an explosion at Landikotal bypass road on Pak-Afghan Highway in Khyber Agency, Khassadar sources said on Monday. The trailer truck (PT-0244), carrying two US-made armoured vehicles, hit a roadside bomb planted on the bypass road. The vehicle caught fire, which also engulfed one of the armoured vehicles on it, the sources said. Soon after the blast, fire fighters rushed to the site and extinguished the fire. They could, however, save only one vehicle on the trailer.

A bomb exploded in a truck carrying supplies for NATO troops in Afghanistan on Monday, killing one person, local officials said. The incident occurred in the Landi Kotal area of the northwestern Khyber tribal region, about 6 km (3.7 miles) from the Afghan border.

#4: Four Afghans working for a French development organization in northern Afghanistan have been abducted, officials said Tuesday. The team was driving back from a training session in Faryab province Monday afternoon when they were ambushed by a man on a motorcycle and seized, said Abdul Satar Barez, the province’s deputy governor. Barez said the captors were Taliban militants.

#5: A remote-controlled bomb exploded next to a convoy of security forces on Tuesday, injuring three soldiers, security officials said. The bomb was planted on the main road in the town of Wana in the South Waziristan tribal region.

#6: An insurgent improvised explosive on Monday killed three Afghan civilians and seriously wounded a child in southern Zabul province, the NATO-led coalition said. It gave no further details of the incident.

#7: Afghan and NATO forces killed one insurgent and wounded another on Sunday in Zharay district in southern Afghanistan after their patrol came under fire. ISAF said initial reports showed two civilians may have been accidentally killed in the incident after coalition forces called in an air strike and mortar fire. The NATO-led force was investigating.

#8: One Afghan civilian was killed when the vehicle he was traveling in hit an IED in Khost province. ISAF said the victim was a construction worker engaged in a project at a NATO combat outpost

#9: Security forces during operations have killed four insurgents and detained 12 others in different parts of the Afghanistan over the past 24 hours, Afghan Interior Ministry said on Tuesday. "Afghan National Police (ANP), backed by army and NATO-led Coalition forces, launched four joint operations in surrounding areas of the Kandahar, Helmand, Logar and Paktika provinces over the past 24 hours, killing four armed insurgents and arresting 12 other suspected insurgents," the ministry said in a statement that provides daily operational updates.


DoD: Capt. Joshua S. Lawrence

DoD: Capt. Drew E. Russell

War News for Monday, October 10, 2011

News is reporting the death is a Czech ISAF soldier at the Olomouc hospital in the Czech Republic on Sunday, October 9th. The soldier, Adrian Werner, was originally wounded from small arms fire/gunshot wound at a base in Wardak province, Afghanistan on Wednesday, July 6th.

NATO is reporting the deaths of two ISAF soldiers from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, October 8th.


US Drone Computers Come Under Attack

British wont leave Afghanistan: Bucknall


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A roadside bomb went off near a police patrol and wounded three policemen and two civilians in Baghdad's central Nahdha area, an interior ministry source said. Another police source said the explosion killed one civilian and wounded six, including three policemen.

#2: A roadside bomb wounded three people in southeastern Baghdad, an interior ministry source said.

#3: The source told Aswat al-Iraq that unknown gunmen shot a civilian with weapons equipped with silencers and fled the scene.

#4: In another incident, a Cabinet official escaped death by an assassination attempt in southwest Baghdad, the source added.


Mahaweel:
#1: Gunmen shot at a police check point and wounded four policemen on Sunday night in the town of Mahaweel, 60 km (35 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.


Basra:
#1: Two Iraqi army engineers were killed by a landmine in a separate incident on Saturday when they tried to defuse it in a town near Basra, 420 km (260 miles) southeast of Baghdad.


Kirkuk:
#1: Police and Kurdish security forces found the body of an Iraqi contractor strangled inside a house late on Sunday in Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police and Kurdish security sources said. The contractor had been kidnapped a day earlier, the sources said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: A sticky bomb attached to a car killed an off duty police officer late on Sunday in the town of Khalidiya, 83 km (50 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: At least 15 Afghan militants and a Pakistani soldier have been killed during clashes in Pakistan's Dir tribal region near the border with Afghanistan, Press TV reports. Armed Afghan militants stormed a Pakistani security check post in northwestern Pakistan late Sunday and killed a security man and wounded two more. Security forces launched a massive counterattack against militants and managed to kill 15 militants.

#2: Unknown armed men torched two oil tankers in Bolan district of Balochistan province in Southwest Pakistan. Police said that the Afghanistan-bound tankers were coming from Karachi when armed men riding a motorbike intercepted them and set them ablaze.

#3: Ministry of Defense of Afghanistan following a statement on Monday said, at least five Taliban militants were killed during Afghan National Army operations across the country for the past 24 hours. The statement further added, at least five Taliban militants were injured and five other militant suspects were arrested by Afghan National Army soldiers during the operations. According to reports, at least 2 Afghan national Army soldiers were killed and 10 others were injured during the operations. The operations were conducted by Afghan national Army soldiers in various regions of Afghanistan including Paktia, Khost, Wardak Province, Paktika, Kandahar and western Herat provinces, to clear the militants from the areas.

#4: Two civilians were killed and another was injured as a rocket fired by insurgents hit a residential area in Kunar province with Assadabad its capital 185 km east of Afghan capital city Kabul on Monday, an official said. "A rocket fired by anti-government insurgents slammed into a residential area in Narai district this morning leaving two persons including a woman and a child dead," spokesman for provincial administration Wasihullah Wasifi told Xinhua. Another child was injured in the attack, he added.


News: Adrian Werner

DoD: Lance Cpl. Benjamin W. Schmidt

DoD: Spc. Ricardo Cerros Jr.

News of the Day for Sunday, October 9, 2011

Reported Security Incidents

Mosul

An explosion west of the city late Saturday injures six, including a police officer. In a separate incident, a woman is shot dead in front of her house. (No further information at this time.)

Diyala Province, near the Iranian border

Three Iraqi border police on a routine patrol are missing. A search mission is underway.

Other News of the Day

Iraq delays plans to hand over security in cities from the military to the police by the end of this year. AP's Qassim Abdul-Zahra reports:

[T]he spokesman for the Baghdad military operations command, Qassim al-Moussawi, said Saturday that the military is worried that the police will not be able to handle security in all areas of the country. "We started to hand over gradually in some areas. But other areas we can't hand over to the police because still the Interior Ministry needs the support of the Iraqi army. It is not capable now nor by the end of 2011."

The Iraqi army's presence can be felt all over Iraq's quasi-militarized cities, where soldiers in helmets and flak vests and carrying AK-47's man checkpoints and drive around in Humvees. The army has received the bulk of the training and support from the U.S. military and is generally seen as more competent than the police. The police, since they tend to work and live in the same areas, have had problems with infiltration by various militant factions and are perceived as less willing to go after lawbreakers.

WaPo's Dan Zak reports that since Iraq has refused to grant immunity from Iraqi law to any U.S. troops that remain in 2012, the U.S. is looking for other ways of providing training. Civilian contractors or forces under NATO command might gain other legal protection. (It's hard for me to see how civilian trainers could gain immunity more easily than U.S. military. Nor does it seem like a good idea from Iraq's point of view. -- C)

NYT's Tim Arango reports that fears of Iranian influence over Iraq may be overblown. According to Arango, Iran is not popular in the Shiite holy city of Najaf. He attributes this largely to the weak Iranian economy and poor quality of Iranian goods, making other trading partners and foreign investors such as Turkey, China and Kuwait more respected and important. "One aim of the American invasion here was to establish a moderate center of Shiite Islam, democratically inclined and oriented to the West, that would be a counterbalance to Iran’s system of clerical rule. However, something like the reverse seems to have happened. As Iran has used its political connections to hold great sway over Iraq’s leadership class, and has backed militias responsible for assassinations and attacks on American bases, it has been less successful wielding other mechanisms of power at a grass-roots level."(Well, it's a story anyway -- C)

NYT's Steven Lee Myers discusses the book “We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People” (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt & Company), by former U.S. diplomat Peter Van Buren. I've heard Van Buren interviewed on the radio and it definitely sounds worth while. Essentially the Iraqi rebuilding effort consisted of little more than a vast series of Potemkin villages and movie sets. -- C Excerpt:

“No matter what Iraq and nature wanted, the American Embassy spent whatever it took to have green grass in the desert,” he writes. “Later full-grown palm trees were trucked in and planted to line the grassy square. We made things in Iraq look the way we wanted them to look, water shortages through the rest of the country be damned. The grass was the perfect allegory for the whole war.” ... He describes clashing with his superiors for trying to cancel programs that were clearly failing, like one to give sheep to widows that instead went to a corrupt sheik. He derides the distribution of humanitarian assistance (H.A.) as little more than photo opportunities that allowed commanders to check a box on progress reports.

Afghanistan Update

NATO reports two service members killed in an attack in Southern Afghanistan on Saturday. No further details at this time.

Former MP Simeen Barakzai, one of nine removed from office for alleged voter fraud in a move widely seen as an illegitimate exercise of power by president Karzai, is on the eight day of a hunger strike.

Members of an Afghan commission investigating the assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani will visit Pakistan within a few days to seek assistance. (This should be interesting. -- C)

An Australian soldier says she was sexually assaulted on a military base in Afghanistan last month. (Of course, only a small fraction of these incidents are reported. My friends at the VA tell me sexual assault of male military personnel is common, but essentially never reported. It's just part of the culture. Hearsay, okay, but I thought I'd mention it. -- C)

Gun battle in Nimroz claims 8 insurgents and 1 police officer.

War News for Saturday, October 08, 2011

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from unreleased causes in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, October 6th.


Karzai admits US-led NATO mission failure

State Department readies Iraq operation, its biggest since Marshall Plan


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Gunmen in a speeding car using silenced weapons shot dead a traffic police lieutenant and wounded a policeman in Baghdad's western Ghazaliya district, police and hospital sources said.

#2: Gunmen in a speeding car using silenced weapons shot dead a police lieutenant in his car in Baghdad's southwestern Amil district, an Interior Ministry source said.

#3: Gunmen using silenced weapons shot dead a civilian at his house in Baghdad's western Amiriya district, an Interior Ministry source said.


Basra:
#1: Two blasts that hit a pipeline network near the southern part of Iraq's supergiant oil field, Rumaila, in Basra, late on Friday cut production from the field, but exports haven't been affected, Iraq Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaiby told Dow Jones Newswires Saturday. "We have to stop some of the production stations because of the fire but the incident hasn't affected levels of our exports," Luaiby said. The minister gave no details how much they had to cut output from Rumaila, which was producing around 1.2 million to 1.3 million barrels a day before the blasts.


Mosul:
#1: A woman was killed and civilian was wounded in bomb blast south of Mosul, security sources said today. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that the incident took place 30 km south of Mosul. The bomb exploded by itself, where no security patrols in the area.

#2: Another bomb targeting a police patrol ripped off in Mansur neighborhood of western Mosul, wounding three children, the source added.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: The Afghan police, backed by army and NATO-led Coalition forces, have killed nine insurgents and detained 11 others in eastern Afghanistan's Laghman province, Afghan Interior Ministry said on Saturday. "Afghan National Police (ANP) in collaboration with army and Coalition forces launched an operation in eastern Laghman province killing nine armed insurgents and detaining 11 other suspected insurgents over the past 24 hours," the ministry said in a statement provides daily operational updates.

#2: Militants have carried out coordinated attacks on four American military bases in Afghanistan's eastern province of Paktika, as the US-led invasion of the Asian country enters its eleventh year. On Friday morning, a bomber detonated his explosives-laden car near the gate of Margah base in Paktika Province, which borders Pakistan, after the facility was hit by 22 rockets, the Associated Press reported. Dozens of rockets also fell on the US's Tillman, Boris and Orgun-E bases in Afghanistan during the attacks that started shortly after 6 a.m. local time and continued for several hours. US forces returned fire by artillery and aircraft to repel the attacks. The American regional command said one soldier was injured in the assaults which it described as the largest such offensive in Paktika Province since 2009. US military sources claimed at least 25 militants were killed during the attack.

#2: Three missiles fired by a U.S. drone hit a house in Pakistan's North Waziristan region on the Afghan border, killing at least five militants, local intelligence officials said. There was no independent confirmation of the strike.