Oct. 16 airpower summary:
Thousands march in Baghdad against U.S. pact:
Furious protestors hold mass anti-US rally in Baghdad:
Sadr urges Iraqi lawmakers to reject security pact with US:
US Army to probe 5 slayings linked to brigade:
Marine, his wife found shot to death in Winchester:
Russian soldiers killed in Caucasus-agencies:
Reported Security incidents:
Baghdad:
#1: An Iraqi serviceman was killed and two others were wounded in an explosion that ripped through their checkpoint in western Baghdad, a police source said on Saturday. “Today, an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near an Iraqi army checkpoint in Baghdad’s eastern area of al-Aameriya, killing one soldier and injuring two others,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.
#2: A sticky bomb attached to a caravan used by guards in Ameriyah shelter, west Baghdad (currently used as a joint security station: JSS) exploded at 4.30 a.m. Saturday, killing one guard, injuring another.
Diyala Prv:
Baquba:
#1: A displaced Shiite returning to his home in al-Muallimeen neighbourhood, west Baquba was attacked by gunmen who opened fire and killed him instantly at 1 p.m., Saturday.
Jurf Al-Sakhr:
#1: Iraqi officials say the leader of a U.S.-allied Sunni group that turned against against al-Qaida has been killed in a drive-by shooting south of Baghdad. A police spokesman said al-Janabi was walking Saturday in the village of Jurf al-Sakhr when he was killed. Dr. Zuhair al Khafaji at al-Musayyib hospital in Hillah confirmed the death.
Mussayab:
#1: Gunmen shot dead the leader of the Sunni "Awakening" movement in the town of Mussayab, 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.
Dhuluiya:
#1: A female suicide bomber wounded five members of a local Awakening Council who were manning a checkpoint north of Baghdad on Saturday, a local police official said. The incident happened in Dhuluiya, a Sunni town about 56 miles (90 kilometers) north of Baghdad, according to an official with the town's police. Council members at the checkpoint opened fire on the woman after she failed to obey orders to stop, the official said, but the woman kept running and managed to pull the trigger of her explosives vest near the checkpoint.
Kirkuk:
#1: A roadside bomb targeted an Asayesh (Kurdish intelligence agency) member in Daquq district as he was on his way to work, Saturday morning, killing him straight away.
#2: A Kurdish security official was killed by a bomb attached to his car south of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said
Qindal Mountains:
#1: update Four Iranian Kurdish PJAK rebels died Friday when Turkish warplanes attacked their positions in Kurdistan region the "north of Iraq", the Kurdish news agency Firat News reported. The rebels were members of an Iranian PJAK group associated with the Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), it said, citing sources in the group. The Turkish army confirmed the raids, saying that all the aircraft had returned safely and that the operation had been carried out "with efficacy." The bombings began around midday in the mountainous region of Qandil, near the border between Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey, the news agency said. The villages of Dola Koke, Aliye Res and Kurtek were targeted, it said. According to the agency, the four dead were new recruits.
Al Anbar Prv:
Fallujah:
#1: Three policemen on Saturday were wounded in an explosive charge attack in northeastern Falluja city, a police source said. “Today, an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated near an Iraqi police patrol vehicle in al-Zaghareet area, northeastern Falluja, seriously wounding three patrolmen,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.
#2: A suicide bomber killed a Sunni imam on Friday night, police said.
Afghanistan:
#1: A suicide car bomber struck international troops near the western Afghan city of Herat Saturday, wounding five soldiers, officials said. Bomb attacks are relatively rare in or near Herat, one of the most peaceful and prosperous cities in Afghanistan and the main hub for booming trade with nearby Iran. The bomber struck as a convoy of foreign troops was driving from the airport on the outskirts of Herat, regional police chief Rahmataullah Safai said. A spokesman for NATO-led force in western Afghanistan said five soldiers were wounded, and one of their military vehicle was damaged in the attack. Most ISAF troops in Herat are Italian.
Slovenian soldiers escaped unhurt after a suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into a NATO convoy that included a Slovenian vehicle near Herat on Saturday. A number of coalition troops are reported to have been hurt in the blast.
#2: Afghan officials say gunmen targeted and killed a former bodyguard for President Hamid Karzai outside a mosque in southern Afghanistan. Zulmay Ayubi, the spokesman for Kandahar's governor, says Gul Emat Barakhzai and his father were killed outside the mosque early Saturday.
#3: Troops backed by helicopter gunships and artillery pounded militant positions in northwest Pakistan, killing 60 fighters and wounding many others, the military said Saturday. The assault happened Friday evening in the Swat valley shortly before a senior U.S. official arrived in Pakistan for talks with leaders of a country vital to Western security concerns. It was not immediately possible to independently confirm the casualties. Reporters cannot visit the area because of poor security and government restrictions. No Taliban spokesman was available for comment. The army didn't mention any losses among government forces.
#4: AFGHAN National Security Forces backed by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have killed 19 insurgents in an ongoing offensive against insurgents in northern Afghan province of Wardak, said an ISAF statement issued here today. The joint troops engaged insurgents by small-arms fire, heavy weapons and helicopters in Jalrez district where the fighting continued through last night, resulting in 19 militants killed, the statement said.
#5: Two Bulgarian military officials were slightly injured in a rocket attack against the airport in the Afghanistan's second largest city Kandahar late on Friday.Corporal Stoycho Demirev and Sergeant Delcho Mitev were hurt while keeping their duties as members of the Forth Security Company with the Bulgarian contingent in the country. Demirev suffered an injury of his right hand and Mitev had his leg broken.Both soldiers have been taken for treatment in a Canadian hospital. Their lives are out of danger.
Casualty Reports:
Corp. Bill Kerr on about 11:30 a. m. on Wednesday, during a routine morning foot patrol west of Kandahar city Kerr was "critically injured" when an improvised explosive device detonated. Two other soldiers with Kerr were also hurt, but are said to be in "fair condition." However he remains in critical condition in Kandahar, fighting for his life. When his condition stabilizes, the military plans to fly him to Germany. Members of his family will fly there to be with him.
Cpl. Christopher Gray was in an Abrams tank in Fallujah, Iraq, on Feb. 17, 2007, when insurgents fired two rocket-propelled grenades at the vehicle. One penetrated the top of the tank, causing the bulk of the ammunition inside to explode - directly behind Gray's head. The flames engulfed the inside of the tank, injuring everyone inside. But Gray and the tank commander got the worst of it. Gray sustained third-degree burns on 53 percent of his body. Since then, he has been through multiple skin grafts and other surgeries, including a cornea transplant. About 125 centimeters of his small intestine was removed. He now has difficulty performing tasks that once seemed virtually effortless - like squatting, or leaning down.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
War News for Saturday, October 18, 2008
Friday, October 17, 2008
War News for Friday, October 17, 2008
MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Coalition force Soldier in an indirect fire attack in Diyala Province on Thursday, October 16th. No other details were released.
Oct. 15 airpower summary:
Kurdish rebels kill three Iranian Guards members:
Spokesman: 35 PKK rebels killed in operations in Turkey:
Ba'ath seeks showdown with Baghdad:
Afghanistan Taliban becomes stronger in numbers:
Mahdi Army Bides its Time:
Iraq rejects U.S. claims of Iran trying to bribe Iraqis:
Time: How the Recession Could End the Iraq War:
Reported Security incidents:
Baghdad:
#1: Officials say a bomb planted near a mosque in north Baghdad killed three Shiite worshippers as they were leaving Friday prayers. Police and health officials say seven were wounded in the blast on the holy day of the Muslim week. The blast happened in the primarily Shiite neighborhood of Shaab. Police say some homes have also been damaged.
#2: A roadside bomb killed one civilian and wounded four others in the northeastern Baghdad neighbourhood of al-Shaab, police said.
#3: The U.S. military said it killed two suspected members of 'special groups,' its term for Shi'ite militants it believes are backed by Iran, on Thursday in eastern Baghdad.
Diyala Prv:
Baquba:
#1: “Policemen on Friday waged a security raid in al-Ameen region in central Baaquba, where they arrested Nedal Abdul Wahed al-azawi who was preparing to implement a suicide attack at the center of the city,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.
Muqdadiya:
#1: “Police forces also launched another operation in Abi Saida district in Muqdadiya, east of Baaquba, where they arrested Rabieea Kazem Mohamed, a suspected suicide bomber,” he noted.
Missan Prv:
#1: About three policemen and four civilians were killed in clashes between police and gunmen in Missan on Thursday, a security source said. “Three policemen including an officer and four civilians during clashes that erupted between a police patrol and gunmen in Kumeit district, 25 km north Amara,” a Missan police source told Aswat al-Iraq. “The clashes broke out when the police patrol raided a house in Kumeit district searching for wanted individuals,” the source noted.
Kut:
#1: Police forces on Friday found an unknown body of a pregnant woman near the city of Kut, a security source said. “Policemen found the unknown body in al-Ahrar district in western Kut,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq, noting that the body bore signs of gunshot wounds.
#2: Gunmen shot a tribal leader on Thursday afternoon in Kut, southeast of Baghdad, police said. The tribal leader was taken to the hospital.
Amarra:
#1: A wanted man was killed by unidentified gunmen north of al-Amara city on Friday, a media source within the Missan province police department said. “Unknown gunmen opened their machine-gun fire at a wanted man suspected of having killed three policemen in al-Jidiya village, Kemit district, (25 km) north of Amara, killing him instantly,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.
Sulaimaniya Prv:
#1: Iranian heavy artillery pounded cross-border areas in Sulaimaniya province, but no casualties were reported, a senior official said on Friday. “Heavy artillery shelling began last midnight and continued until this noon,” the director of Sulaimaniya’s Zarawa district, Ezad Wasso, told Aswat al-Iraq. The shelling targeted the areas of Razka, Mardo, Shanawa, and Arka, nearly 15 km from the Iraqi-Iranian borders, the director explained, noting that no casualties were reported.
#2: Three Turkish fighter planes bombed four border villages in Bashder district in northeast Sulaimaniyah other than the ones bombarded by the Iranian artillery. The attack started at around 1 p.m. and continued until 2 p.m. No casualties were reported.
Kirkuk:
#1: Qadir Aziz, a guard in a driver training establishment was killed by gunmen in Chamchamal district, to the northeast of Kirkuk city early Friday.
Mosul:
#1: An Iraqi soldier was killed and four others wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off in eastern Mosul city on Friday, a police source in Ninewa said. “The IED blast targeted an Iraqi army patrol in al-Karama neighborhood, eastern Mosul, leaving an Iraqi soldier killed and four others, including an officer in the rank of lieutenant, wounded,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq, not giving more information about the incident.
#2: Five people, including two policemen, were wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near a police patrol in northern Mosul on Friday, a security source said. “The IED ripped through al-Jamea neighborhood, northern Mosul, near a police patrol, wounding two security men and three civilians who happened to be near the explosion scene,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.
#3: A roadside bomb killed one civilian and wounded another in northern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
Al Anbar Prv:
Haditha:
#1: A policeman was killed and three others were wounded on Friday in an accident near the city of Haditha, a police source said. “A police vehicle patrol turned over on the highway near the city of Haditha, Anbar province,” a police source told Aswat al-Iraq. “four police men were wounded in the accident and were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment,” he explained, noting that one of them died of wounds.
Fallujah:
#1: Three policemen were wounded by a roadside bomb targeting their patrol in the village of Saqlawiya near Fallujah, west of Baghdad, police said.
Afghanistan:
#1: Afghan authorities are investigating the deaths of at least 17 civilians during a clash between NATO forces and militants in southern Afghanistan, an official said Friday. Villagers and a senior police official claimed Thursday that a NATO airstrike killed the civilians, including women and children, in Nad Ali district of the Helmand province. The NATO-led force in Afghanistan confirmed that it carried out an airstrike in the area on Thursday รข€” but not that it resulted in any civilian casualties.
#2: Pakistani security forces have found one of two kidnapped Chinese engineers held for seven weeks by suspected Taliban militants, the army said Friday. An army statement said only that troops had recovered the man alive and that it would provide more details later. The two telecommunications engineers disappeared in the Dir region of western Pakistan on Aug. 29. A spokesman for Taliban militants in the neighboring Swat region claimed that they were holding the pair.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
War News for Thursday, October 16, 2008
The British MoD is reporting the death of a British ISAF soldier in an explosion 23km north of Forward Operating Base Delhi in Helmand province, Afghanistan on Wednesday, October 15th. Here's the official NATO statement.
MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - Iraq soldier from non-battle related causes in Baghdad on Wednesday, October 15th. No other details were released.
Xinhua is reporting the death of a U.S. soldier in a friendly-fire small arms and hand grenade attack in Paktika province, Afghanistan on Thursday, October 16th. Several other soldiers were wounded in the attack. The soldiers returned fire and killed the ANP.
Oct. 14 airpower summary:
Five soldiers and five rebels killed in clashes in Turkey: Another soldier was killed when a military helicopter taking troops to the scene of the clash crashed due to technical failure, the military said. Fifteen soldiers were injured in the helicopter crash.
Sandstorm causes havoc in Baghdad:
Reported Security incidents:
Baghdad:
#1: Wednesday A roadside bomb in Baghdad's central Palestine Street area killed two members of the police and wounded two civilians, police said.
#2: Wednesday Two dead bodies were found in Baghdad, police said.
#3: A heavy sandstorm turned Iraq's capital into a pinkish haze Thursday, sending dozens of people to the hospital with respiratory problems and delaying a number of international flights. "We received 35 emergency cases since the early morning," said Dr. Nihad Jabar, who works in the emergency wing of Baghdad's Ibn al-Nafis Hospital. Most were treated and released but four people over 60 were admitted to intensive care because their cases were "very critical," Jabar said. Dr. Moayid Ala, at the same hospital, said the number of people suffering from respiratory problems is increasing each year. At the crosstown Kindi hospital, officials said they admitted 17 people, most with asthma-related difficulties.
#4: A roadside bomb targeted an army patrol in Waziriyah neighborhood (north Baghdad), around 11 am. Two Iraqi soldiers were injured.
#5: An adhesive bomb detonated under a civilian car that belongs to an employee who works for the ministry of interior. The three passengers of the car were wounded.
#6: Police found one dead body in Amil neighborhood in west Baghdad.
Diyala Prv:
Baquba:
#1: A suicide attacker disguised as a soldier has detonated a vest of explosives he was wearing in Iraq's Baquba city, US forces said in a statement on Thursday. The man detonated the vest with 9 kilograms of explosives in an army settlement in northern Baquba, some 60 kilometres north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. No casualties were reported in the explosion which is currently under investigation.
Buhriz:
#1: A roadside bomb detonated in Buhriz town (about 3 miles south of Baquba). A 6 year old child was killed and his brother, a 7 year old child, was injured while they were herding their sheep in the area.
Balad:
#1: A suicide car bomber detonated near Balad police station around 4 pm. Four policemen were wounded.
Mosul:
#1: Seven Iraqi soldiers were wounded by a hand grenade in eastern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
#2: Two people were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded west of Mosul, police said.
#3: Two children were wounded by an improvised explosive device in eastern Mosul, police said.
#4: Four civilians were wounded when Iraqi troops fired shots into the air in eastern Mosul, police said.
Afghanistan:
#1: Three Canadian soldiers have been wounded in an improvised explosive device blast during a foot patrol in a volatile district of Afghanistan west of Kandahar City. Military spokesman Maj. Jay Janzen says the soldiers have been airlifted to the hospital on the Kandahar Airfield base, where one remains in critical condition and the other two are in fair condition.
#2: An insurgent's rocket hit a key southern Afghan town Thursday, killing a civilian and wounding five other people, a local official said. The attack on Lashkar Gah, the capital of the southern Helmand province, follows two other insurgent assaults this week on the security force checkpoints that ring the city. More than 80 militants were killed and three police were wounded in those clashes. The rocket landed in a city street lined with shops, killing a civilian and wounding five others, including a woman, said Daud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the provincial governor.
#3: A suspected U.S. missile strike killed a purported foreign militant Thursday in a Pakistani tribal area considered a haven for the Taliban and al-Qaida. The missile strike hit a house in the South Waziristan region of Pakistan's wild border belt, considered a likely hiding place for al-Qaida leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri. Two Pakistani intelligence officials told The Associated Press that reports from informants and field agents suggested one foreign militant died in the attack and that another foreigner was injured.
#4: a suicide bombing left four security personnel dead, officials said. Thursday's blast wrecked a police station in Swat, a picturesque valley where fighting has raged for more than a year. Police said insurgents opened fire on their station in Mingora, Swat's main town, after midnight with guns and rockets before the bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle next to the police compound.District police chief Dilawar Bangash said one officer and three paramilitary troops died and another 26 people were injured, many of them seriously.
It seems like a slow start to the news day. Perhaps the sandstorms are hampering the press or it's just a slow less violent day, I don't know but I'll update this later.
whisker
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
War News for Wednesday, October 15, 2008
MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldier from small-arms fire in a western neighborhood of Baghdad on Thursday, October 14th. No other details were released.
Oct. 13 airpower summary:
Thai, Cambodian troops exchange border gunfire:
5 Afghan scholars missing from U.S. university:
US warns on ageing Iraqi oil pipelines:
Buckley leaves National Review after Obama endorsement:
140 Iraqi refugees in Syria head home:
Christian families fleeing Mosul number 1,390:
Reported Security incidents:
Baghdad:
#1: Al-Kindi hospital received on Wednesday morning a body and four wounded persons as a result of a bomb explosion in southeastern Baghdad, a medical source said. “An improvised explosive device went off this morning in Jisr Diala region in southeastern Baghdad, killing a person and wounding four, who were sent to the al-Kindi hospital for treatment,” he added. He did not give further details.
#2: Tuesday Around 8:00 p.m. an adhesive bomb stuck to a sedan detonated in Karrada neighborhood in downtown Baghdad. When the police patrols came to the area of the explosion, a roadside bomb detonated injuring three policemen.
#3: Tuesday Police found one unidentified body in Jamia’a neighborhood in west Baghdad.
#4: Five mortar rounds landed in an unoccupied area close to Baghdad International Airport, police said. A source in the airport said there no casualties were reported in the attack.
#5: Police said five mortar rounds landed in the fortified Green Zone which houses the U.S. embassy and some Iraqi ministries and officials. The U.S. military said no mortar attacks on the Green Zone had been reported.
#6: Two roadside bombs exploded in quick succession inside the base of the U.S.-backed neighbourhood groups, wounding two of them and four Iraqi soldiers visiting the base in Doura district of southern Baghdad, police said.
#7: Three policemen were wounded when a bomb exploded near their patrol on Tuesday in Karrada district of central Baghdad, police said.
#8: Three policemen were wounded on Wednesday in a bomb explosion in southern Baghdad, a police source said. “A roadside bomb, planted by unknown gunmen on the main road in al-Doura neighborhood in southern Baghdad, went off targeting a police vehicle patrol, injuring three policemen,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.
#9: A least four civilians were wounded when mortars fell near a mosque in Baghdad, a police source said. “A mortar landed in an rea near Abu Hanifa mosque in al-Adhamiya district, north Baghdad, leaving four civilians variably wounded, “a Baghdad police source told Aswat al-Iraq.
#10: The U.S military said it carried out a series of controlled detonations around Baghdad's airport and fortified Green Zone compound, denying earlier Iraqi police reports that mortars had struck the two areas. No injuries were reported.
Diyala Prv:
Balad ruz:
#1: A bomb went off on Wednesday morning in Baquba as a minibus was passing the Balad Roze neighbourhood. Two people were killed in the attack and four injured.
Kut:
#1: A civilian was killed on Wednesday by unknown gunmen in eastern Kut city, a police source said. “Unidentified gunmen opened fire at a civilian in Anwar region in eastern Kut, killing him instantly,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.
Karbala:
#1: Iraqi national guards found 22 unknown bodies in a mass grave in western Karbala, a well-known source said on Wednesday. “The 4th battalion of the Iraqi national guards found a mass grave containing 22 unidentified bodies in western Baghdad after receiving intelligence information,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq. “The bodies belongs to civilians seem to be killed by gunmen months ago,” he added. “The corpses were sent to the forensic medicine department,” he noted.In July 2007, gunmen, wearing police uniform, kidnapped 22 shepherds in al-Rafeea region in north of Karbala.
#2: Major-General Ali al-Hamdani, intelligence chief for three of Iraq's southern provinces, was injured in a roadside bomb blast on Wednesday along with his two children, police in Kerbala, 80 km (50 miles) southwest of Baghdad, said.
Mosul:
#1: “An explosive charge went off targeting an Iraqi army vehicle patrol in al-Intesar neighborhood in southeastern Mosul, injuring two Iraqi soldiers,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.
#2: “Nine civilians were injured in a roadside bomb blast targeting another Iraqi army vehicle patrol late Tuesday in al-Resala neighborhood in western Mosul,” he explained.
#3: Police killed one attacker when gunmen attacked their patrol in Mosul, police said.
#4: A police patrol mistakenly opened fire in central Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, killing a civilian man and wounding a woman, police said.
#5: U.S. forces said on Wednesday they had killed the second-in-command of al Qaeda in Iraq, the Sunni Islamist militants who ally themselves with Osama bin Laden's organisation. They said Abu Qaswarah, a Moroccan, had been identified this week after being killed in Mosul on Oct. 5.
#6: Two children were wounded in a bomb explosion in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
#7: One gunman was killed in clashes with police in southeastern Mosul, police said.
Afghanistan:
#1: In the morning of October 14, ISAF soldiers followed escalation of force procedures when a motorcycle approached a vehicle checkpoint near an ISAF base in Sangin district, Helmand.
When the rider failed to stop, an ISAF soldier fired a warning shot, which ricocheted off the ground and hit the man in the foot.
#2: Taliban militants attacked police checkpoints ringing a key provincial capital in southern Afghanistan for the second time in a week, sparking a battle in which 18 insurgents were killed, an official said Wednesday. Tuesday's battle killed 18 militants and wounded three police, said provincial police chief Assadullah Sherzad. Sherzad said authorities recovered only one militant body and that the others were carried away by fighters. Afghan officials say they rely on intelligence reports to form militant death tolls, but government officials have been known to exaggerate such tolls in past battles.
About 70 Taliban fighters were killed in an overnight air strike by foreign forces in the southern Afghan province of Helmand near the Pakistan border, the provincial governor's spokesman said on Wednesday. The attack took place late on Tuesday in Helmand's Baram Cha district. Provincial authorities said earlier on Wednesday that another 22 Taliban insurgents and six Afghan policemen were killed in overnight clashes in the south.
#3: In a separate incident, six policemen died after a shootout among officers inside a police checkpoint about 15 miles north of Lashkar Gah, said Daud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the provincial governor.
In another incident, gunmen killed six Afghan policemen at their checkpost in the same district, Ahmadi said.
#4: NATO-led Afghan troops also killed four Taliban fighters in the Andar district of Ghazni province on Tuesday, said senior provincial police officer General Naorooz.
Casualty Reports:
Corporal Chris Kotch, 21, was hit by an improvised explosive device in September 2003 while on routine patrol near Al'Fallujah in Iraq. His left vocal chord is now paralyzed, due to a procedure following his injury, and you’ll hear the effects of that damage in his voice.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
War News for Tuesday, October 14, 2008
CNN is reporting the death of a U.S. - led coalition soldier in an IED blast in an undisclosed province in southern Afghanistan on Monday, October 13th. Several other soldiers were wounded in the attack. We believe this to be an American soldier.
The Washington Post is reporting the deaths of three ISAF soldiers in a roadside bombing attack in an eastern province of Afghanistan on Tuesday, October 14th. No other details were released. We assume these to be American soldiers. Here's the official ISAF release
AMS issues fatwa prohibiting long-term pact:
Iraqi official calls U. S. troop accord unlikely: The U. N. mandate that authorizes the U. S. military presence in Iraq will expire Dec. 31, and without a so-called status of forces agreement, whether the U. S. will have a legitimate right to maintain its troops in Iraq would be questionable, Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi told McClatchy Newspapers.
Oct. 10 airpower summary:
Oct. 11 airpower summary:
Oct. 12 airpower summary:
Iraq's Kurds to meet Turkish delegation in Baghdad:
Five Turkish soldiers wounded in PKK attack in Turkey:
Moldova to pull out of Iraq by yearend:
Reported Security incidents:
Baghdad:
#1: The U.S. military said it killed two suspected militants and detained 13 others in operations in northern and central Iraq in Monday and Tuesday.
#2: Three civilians were injured by a roadside bomb in Talbiyah neighborhood in east Baghdad around 7:00 a.m.
#3: Police found one unidentified body in Jamia’a neighborhood in west Baghdad.
#4: Five persons were injured on Tuesday night in when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off in southern Baghdad, a police source said. “The bomb exploded in Kamb Sara region in southern Baghdad targeting a police vehicle patrol, injuring five persons, including three policemen,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq. He gave no further details.
Kut:
#1: Police forces found two bodies, one male one female, in the city of Kut, a security source said. “The two bodies bore signs of gun shot wounds,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq, noting that the two corpses were sent to the morgue in al-Zahraa hospital in Kut.
Balad:
#1: Iraqi police said eight mortar rounds landed in the U.S. base Anaconda in Salah al-Din. “Eight mortar rounds coming from an unknown location fell into U.S. base Anaconda established at a former Iraqi army airbase in Yathrib district of Balad town,” a Salah al-Din police source told Aswat al-Iraq. “Bellows of fire were seen spiralling from the base while U.S. copters were hovering around the base perimeters.”
Tuz Khurmato:
#1: Two separate roadside bombs wounded five civilians on Monday in Tuz Khurmato, 170 km (105 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
Five civilians were injured by a bomb in Tuz Khurmatu market place in downtown the city on Monday evening.
Kirkuk:
#1: An explosion struck a secondary pipeline transporting unrefined gas from Kirkuk's Bai Hasan oilfields early on Tuesday, police and officials from the North Oil Company said. Kirkuk is about 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad.
Mosul:
#1: A bomb went off on Tuesday in front of a church in central Mosul, a police source said.“A sound bomb went off in front of a Church of Chaldean in al-Mayassa region in central Mosul, causing material damage to the church’s exterior door,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq. “The church is located in a popular region in the right section of the city,” he added.
#2: One civilian was killed and another wounded in a drive by shooting in central Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
#3: Two policemen were wounded when a bomb hit their patrol in the western part of Mosul, some 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
Afghanistan:
#1: A bomb apparently planted to strike security forces blew up a small bus in Afghanistan Tuesday and killed nine civilians, including two children, police said. Another six people were wounded in the blast in the southern province of Uruzgan, provincial police chief Juma Gul Hemat said, blaming the strike on the "enemies of Afghanistan", a phrase that usually means the Taliban.
#2: Unidentified gunmen shot dead a government official and his bodyguard in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, a senior police official said. Dost Mohammad Arghestani, head of the social affairs department in Kandahar province, was killed on his way to work on Tuesday morning by two gunmen on a motorbike, Kandahar police chief Matiullah Qateh told Reuters. The gunmnen also killed Arghestani's bodyguard and wounded his driver, he said.
#3: Separately, U.S.-led soldiers killed five militants in an operation targeting a network for foreign fighters in Rashidan, Ghazni province on Monday, the U.S. military said. "The operation in Rashidan District targeted a Taliban subcommander who was believed to have coordinated direct attacks against Afghan and coalition forces," it said. The coalition force killed five militants, including the subcommander, after they tried to attack the soldiers, it said.
#4: In another incident, a Nepali working as a cook for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was kidnapped along with six Afghan colleagues in western Herat on Monday night, the district governor told Reuters. Four were later released, but Taliban commander Ghulam Yahya Siwoshani told Reuters the militant group were holding the rest and they were in good health. Siwoshani did not say why they were keeping the men and did not make any demands.
#5: More than 40 Islamist militants and two soldiers have been killed in the latest fighting in Pakistan's troubled northwest near the Afghan border, paramilitary force officials said on Tuesday. Pakistani security forces in recent months have been locked in battles with militants in the Bajaur ethnic Pashtun tribal region as well as the nearby Swat Valley, a mountain valley once popular with tourists. In the latest fighting in the Swat Valley, at least 25 militants were killed in a clash with security forces in the Khawazakhela area on Monday, an official with the paramilitary Frontier Corps said. Two soldiers were also killed and three wounded. In Bajaur, to the west of Swat and on the Afghan border, security forces backed by helicopter gunships killed 15 to 20 militants in attacks in the Charmang district on Monday, said another paramilitary force official.
Monday, October 13, 2008
War News for Monday, October 13, 2008
KTUU News is reporting the death of Marine Corporal Kevin Karella who died in an undisclosed incident in Afghanistan on Thursday, October 9th. No other details were released. We do not have a military release on this date so we assume this to be a new death previously unreleased death.
MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldier non-battle related causes in a neighborhood of Baghdad on Sunday, October 12th. No other details were released.
Iraq calmer but kidnappings spread: The total kidnappings, some based on classified information. - The 1,079 foreign kidnappings since 2001 for which the hostage takers are unknown. That smaller number is drawn from public sources and includes cases in which the details of the disappearance are unverified. - The 747 kidnappings of people traveling or working in foreign countries since 2001 for which the terrorist group responsible is known. Of those, also based on unclassified information, 73 are Americans and the fates of 11 remain unknown.
Video: Under attack at Afghanistan's Seray outpost:
Pakistani police say they have arrested a 20-year-old American man close to Afghan border:
Reported Security incidents:
Baghdad:
#1: At least five people, including two policemen, were wounded on Monday when an improvised explosive device blast targeted a security patrol in northeastern Baghdad, an Iraqi police source said.” An IED went off on Monday near an Iraqi police patrol in Ur neighborhood, northeastern Baghdad, leaving five people, including two police personnel, injured,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.
Around 9 am a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in Ur neighborhood (northeast Baghdad). Five people were injured including three policemen.
#2: Around 10:30 am mortars hit the International Zone (IZ) downtown Baghdad. No casualties reported.
Touz Khormato:
#1: An Iraqi soldier was wounded on Monday when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near his vehicle in central Touz Khormato district, Salah al-Din province, a security source said. “The IED exploded as an Iraqi army vehicle was passing on the Tikrit-Touz highway, leaving one soldier wounded and damaging his vehicle,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.
Mosul:
#1: Iraqi police say a Christian music store owner has been shot to death in the northern city of Mosul. Sunday's shooting is the latest in a series of killings of Christians that has caused thousands of members of the tiny religious community to flee the volatile city. A police official said Monday that gunmen stormed into the man's store, killing him and wounding his nephew.
#2: A car bomb killed two prison security guards on Sunday in western Mosul. Two other guards and a civilian were also wounded, polcie said.
#3: Gunmen stormed the house of a policeman and killed him on Sunday in Mosul, police said.
Afghanistan:
#1: The U.S. coalition says its troops have killed five Taliban militants in a raid in central Afghanistan. A coalition statement Monday says troops targeted a militant involved in the movement of foreign fighters in Andar district of Ghazni province. The statement says five militants, including the target of the raid, were killed.
#2: In the first incident occurred in Spairi district Sunday afternoon, seven employees of a local company Ganj-e-Hazor were killed and five others sustained injures as a mine planted by Taliban went off, Mohammad Azam, the district chief of Spairi, told Xinhua.
#3: The second incident took place in Khost city, capital of Khost province, where militants fired rockets hitting a residential house, killing two persons including a woman and wounding two children, police chief of the province Abdul Qayum Baqizai told Xinhua.
#4: Meantime, a press release of Afghan Defense Ministry issued here Monday said that three soldiers of Afghan national army were injured as a mine struck their vehicle in the troubled southern Helmand province on Sunday.
#5: Pakistani security forces backed by helicopter gunships killed more than two dozen al Qaeda-linked militants in a troubled tribal region on the Afghan border, officials said on Monday.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
News of the Day for Sunday, October 12, 2008
Reported Security Incidents
Amara, Maysan Province
A Multi-National Division – Center Soldier died Oct. 11 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle south of Amara in Maysan province. Note: This is a Shiite province. On April 18, 2007, the occupation formally handed over responsibility for security in Maysan from British to Iraqi forces. The death of a U.S. soldier on patrol in Maysan suggests that the situation there is not as it has been officially depicted. -- C
Baghdad
Nine killed, 13 injured in car bombing in marketplace in Bayaa, southwest Baghdad, a predominantly Shiite area. (Earlier reports gave lower casualty counts but this is the most current as of posting time.) Note: This AFP report, like all wire service reports on violence in Iraq, includes what has apparently become an obligatory disclaimer to the effect that "violence is down sharply in Iraq," which you will see if you follow nearly all of these links. There appears to be a law against reporting on incidents without this statement. In fact, as our readers are well aware, dozens of Iraqis die in terrorist attacks, assassinations, and gun battles every day. To whatever extent this may be happening at a lesser rate than at some time in the past, why do the corporate media feel compelled to continually spin it as good news? The situation is completely unacceptable and would inspire horror if it were happening in any other country in the world. -- C
Two Iraqi soldiers killed by sniper fire at a checkpoint in Mansour.
Xinhua also reports two Awakening Council fighters killed by gunfire in Doura.
Roadside bomb attack on Palestine St. injures 5 police and 2 bystanders.
Xinhua also reports roadside bomb attack in Waziriya, northern Baghdad injures 3 police and 1 civilian.
Mosul
Thousands of Christians flee the city as a campaign of violence against them escalates. More on this in the general news section, below.
Kurdistan, Turkish border region
Turkey announces air raids on 31 PKK targets inside Iraqi Kurdistan. Link is to text and video.
Near Marivan, Iran
Four PJAK militants said killed in clashes with Iranian forces. Although this incident occurred in the Kurdistan province of Iran, I note it here because, like the PKK which focuses on winning territory from Turkey, the PJAK has bases inside Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran has on occasion shelled PJAK targets within Iraq. The potential for escalating violence between Iran and the PJAK is just one of the worrisome situations in the region. -- C
Other News of the Day
AFP provides more extensive reporting on the sectarian cleansing campaign against Christians in Mosul. Excerpt:
Nearly 1 000 Christian families have fled their homes in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul following the worst wave of violence against them in five years, provincial Governor Duraid Kashmula said on Saturday. The Christians had taken shelter over the past 24 hours in schools and churches in the northern and eastern fringes of Nineveh province after attacks that have killed at least 11 Christians since September 28, Kashmula said.
At least three homes of Christians were blown up by unidentified attackers in the Sukkar district of Mosul, regarded by United States and Iraqi security forces of one of the last urban bastions of the al-Qaeda in Iraq. "The [violence] is the fiercest campaign against the Christians since 2003," Kashmula said. "Among those killed over the past 11 days were a doctor, an engineer and a handicapped person."
snip
It was now time for al-Maliki's Shi'ite Muslim-led government to deliver on repeated promises to do more to protect Iraq's minorities, [Chaldean Archbishop Louis] Sako said. "We have heard many words from Prime Minister al-Maliki, but unfortunately this has not translated into reality," he said. "We continue to be targeted. We want solutions, not promises."
McClatchy's Leila Fadel also reports on the situation, with additional background and commentary. She refers to the omission of minority protections from the provincial elections law, a very significant development which was largely ignored in the celebratory reporting in the U.S. -- C
Iraqi blogger Laith, a McClatchy employee, reports on the cost of the oppressive security in Baghdad. Excerpt:
My long trips of coming to the office and going back home which sometimes take more than three hours give me a great chance to see different scenes. one of the repeated scenes is the armored convoys and the misuse of power.
About 5:40 on Saturday afternoon; the Iraqi security forces blocked the main street of Jadiriyah neighborhood was blocked because one of the Iraqi officials was passing through. The drivers were waiting for the convoy to pass. While they were waiting, a US military convoy came from behind. The driver of the first humvee saw the real long of the stooped cars and I'm sure he knows for sure they stooped because the street was blocked. Yet; he didn't stop. He used the horn and he kept hitting a sedan Mercedes in front of his humvee. The driver of the Mercedes took his hand out of the car and waved to the humvee driver as if he was telling him to stop hitting the car because the man doesn't have any choices but the American soldier kept hitting the car. He kept doing that for more than three minutes. I was on the other side of the street trying to get a taxi to go home. I left the street while the American soldier was enjoying hitting and bothering the poor Iraqi man who could do nothing because he knows for sure that he might be killed if he thought about going out of his car and tried to ask the soldier to stop. No one would even blame the US soldier if he killed him and simply the poor man would be considered a TERRORIST who tried to kill the innocent poor American liberator. The principle of the US soldier is (Im the one who has the gun. SO; I'm above law.)
Outbreak of cutaneous anthrax in Kurdistan, apparently among herders and perhaps slaughterhouse workers or others involved in meat and hide processing. This is not a terribly unusual occurrence although it is rare nowadays in the livestock industries of developed countries.
Afghanistan Update
British forces claim to have preempted a planned Taliban assault on the capital of Helmand province, killing up to 100 Taliban fighters. Interviews with local residents by Tom Coghlan of the London Sunday Times suggest that they distrust the British forces and tend to blame them for the fighting.
President Karzai, under pressure from the U.S. to reform his government, names a former official of the secret police from the era of Soviet domination as Interior Minister. You can't make this stuff up. -- C
Efforts by British intelligence to hold peace talks with the Taliban infuriate U.S. officials. Yeah, this is a somewhat dodgy tabloid but it's been reported elsewhere. Excerpt:
MOVES by British spies to end the war in Afghanistan have caused a major rift with the United States. Real-life James Bonds have helped set up talks with Taliban-linked politicians in a bid to end the conflict which has claimed 120 Brit lives. But the Saudi meeting has infuriated US intelligence experts who say the UK is too keen to get into bed with the enemy. American spooks believe chatting to the Taliban will be a disaster.
They claim that is what happened when UK military leaders agreed a truce in Musa Qala in Helmand province, which allowed the Taliban to take control of the town. They are also critical of the British softly-softly approach in Basra, Iraq, which left the city controlled by hardline Shia militias. One US source declared: “We had to clean up their mess twice. At this point it would be better if they left Afghanistan.”
Quote of the Day
I don't know how else the creeping rot of the commissions and the politics that fostered and continued to surround them could be exposed to the curative powers of the sunlight. I care not for myself; our enemies deserve nothing less than what we would expect from them were the situations reversed. More than anything, I hope we can rediscover some of our American values.
Former Guantanamo prosecutor Lt. Col. Darrel J. Vandeveld, on his decision to speak out against the rigged military tribunals in which he was once a participant.
