War News for Tuesday, September 13, 2011

NATO-backed local police terrorising Afghans: HRW -- likely the same people who worked for the Taliban and now working for the Karzai government using the same age old tactics they have always used. – meet the new boss he’s the same as the old boss. – whisker

Turkey says may launch ground offensive into northern Iraq at any time

Pentagon to drastically cut spending on Afghan forces


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A sticky bomb attached to a car carrying a government-backed Sahwa militia member killed him when it went off in Baghdad's western Amiriya district, an Interior Ministry source said.


Hilla:
#1: Police found the body of a man who had been shot in the head in the city of Hilla, 100 km (62 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

#2: Police found the body of a man who had been shot in the head and chest in a town near Hilla, police said.


Taji:
#1: A suicide bomber blew himself up near a checkpoint manned by Iraqi army and government-backed Sahwa militia members, killing one civilian and one Sahwa member and wounding nine, including two soldiers, in the town of Taji, 20 km (12 miles) north of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.


Balad:
#1: At least 7 civilians have been seriously injured in an explosive charge blast under their car in Balad township of Salahal-Din Province on Monday night, a security source reported. “An explosive charge blew off under a civilian car on Monday night in al-Saoud area of Balad township, south of Salahal-Din Province, seriously wounding 7 persons,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency on Tuesday.


Mosul:
#1: Police found the body of a man who had been beheaded in a house in western Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

#2: A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol wounded one policeman when it went off in eastern Mosul, police said.

#3: A suicide car bomb went off near a police patrol, wounding five policemen and one civilian in western Mosul, police said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Gunmen killed 22 Shi'a Muslim pilgrims on their way to Syria as they were passing through a predominantly Sunni Iraqi province from the shrine city of Karbala, officials said on Tuesday. The group had all been passengers on a bus passing through Anbar province, long a stronghold of Sunni insurgents and al-Qaeda's front group in Iraq, when their vehicle was stopped by gunmen at 9.30pm (18.30 GMT) on Monday. “Gunmen dressed in military and police uniforms set up a fake checkpoint, made the passengers get off the bus, separated the men from the women and children before killing the men and fleeing,” a Karbala official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

#2: A roadside bomb went off near a police patrol, killing two people and wounding four others in a town near the city of Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Police say insurgents are firing rockets at the U.S. Embassy as gunbattles shake downtown Kabul and its diplomatic quarter. Police official Mohammed Zahir says a large group of gunmen are firing from positions in a tall office building that is under construction near the U.S. embassy. Heavy blasts and gunfire were heard Tuesday throughout the Wazir Akbar Khan area, which is home to the American and other embassies.

"Today at one o'clock at Kabul's Abdul Haq roundabout a massive suicide attack on local and foreign intelligence facilities is ongoing," said a spokesman for the insurgent group, Zabiullah Mujahid, in a text message to AFP. A Western military source said NATO's International Security Assistance Force headquarters was one of the targets. "ISAF HQ is under attack at the moment," the source said.

The insurgent group said the ongoing assault began with a suicide attack targeting local and foreign intelligence in the capital. AFP reporters heard a string of loud blasts while police confirmed one explosion and a gunfight close to the heavily-guarded embassy compound. "Today at one o'clock at Kabul's Abdul Haq roundabout a massive suicide attack on local and foreign intelligence facilities is ongoing," said a spokesman for the insurgent group, Zabiullah Mujahid, in a text message to AFP.

#2: Afghan and foreign troops killed 14 insurgents after a patrol came under fire in southern Uruzgan province on Sunday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement. Three insurgents were killed in an initial air strike, with another 11 killed in two subsequent strikes which also destroyed a heavy machine gun, ISAF said.


Casualty Reports:
One bullet from the machine gun fire went straight through the young soldier’s arm. The other became lodged in his pelvic area, miraculously missing bone, organs and major arteries. And so it was that U.S. Army Specialist Cody Chandler survived.


DoD: Pfc. Brett E. Wood

DoD: Staff Sgt. Daniel A. Quintana

DoD: Staff Sgt. Keith F. Rudd

War News for Monday, September 12, 2011

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, September 10th.


DNO says Tawke production back after pipeline down

Mass Grave in Iraqi Town Held Bodies of 40 Cabbies


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A roadside bomb wounded five people when it went off in central Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

Three Iraqi civilians have been injured in an explosive charge blast against an alcohol-shop in central Baghdad on Monday, a security source reported. “An explosive charge blew off against an alcohol-selling shop in central Baghdad’s al-Nidhal Street on Monday, wounding 3 civilians and causing damage to the shop,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: At least 9 persons, among them 5 policemen, have been injured in an explosive charge blast against a police patrol in eastern Baghdad on Monday, a security source reported. “An explosive charge blew off against a police patrol in eastern Baghdad’s Baladiyat District, wounding 5 policemen and 4 civilians,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: The office of Baghdad’s Lord-Mayor has announced on Monday that one of its employees has been killed and two others injured in an explosive charge blast in east Baghdad’s Baladiyat (Municipalities) district on Monday, demanding the security authorities to protect its employees and their safety. “An explosive charge blew up in Baladiyat district on Monday, causing the death of a cleaning employee and seriously wounding two others, who were carrying out their daily work to serve the citizens of Baghdad,” a statement of the Lord-Mayor’s office reported.

#4: In a separate incident, gunmen shot dead a woman in the morning at a village near the city of Maqdadiyha, some 40 km northeast of Baquba, the source added.

#5: In addition, a member of a local Awakening Council group and a civilian were wounded when a roadside bomb went off near their minibus in the town of Buhrez near Baquba, he said.


Diyala Prv:
#1: A roadside bomb wounded two people when it went off in the northeastern outskirts of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, police said.

Two policemen were wounded in a bomb explosion targeting a police checkpoint

#2: while a civilian was killed and another wounded in a bombing northeastern the city, a security source reported.


Mussayab:
#1: Gunmen shot dead a government employee when they raided his house late on Saturday in Mussayab, about 60 km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.


Iskandariya:
#1: A roadside bomb wounded two people when it went off in Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.


Thi Qar Prv:
#1: An American Army patrol has become target for 3 explosive charges blasts in southern Iraq’s Thi-Qar Province, a Thi-Qar security source reported on Sunday. “Three explosive charges blew off against a US Army patrol that passed on the main road, connecting southern Iraq’s Missan and Thi-Qar Provinces, close to Qalat-Sikar township, 100 km to the north of Nassirya, the center of Thi-Qar Province on Sunday,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Taji:
#1: A roadside bomb killed three people late on Saturday in Taji, 20 km (12 miles) north of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.


Kirkuk:
#1: Gunmen shot and wounded an off-duty guard at the Kirkuk Provincial Council building in southern Kirkuk, police said.

#2: Gunmen in a speeding car shot dead a civilian in the northwestern outskirts of Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A US drone attack has killed at least two suspected militants in north-west Pakistan, intelligence officials say. The men were travelling in a vehicle in the Esokhel area of North Waziristan when the drone fired two missiles. Officials say the dead included Hafeezullah, a commander of the Haqqani militant network in the area, and a foreigner. The vehicle was completely destroyed.

#2: Six persons were killed and nine more injured when a passenger vehicle struck an improvised explosive device in Karezgi area, Barmal district of Paktika province yesterday, a press release issued by the Paktika governor’s media office said.Six persons, including two women and four men, were killed and nine more, including a woman and eight men, injured in the incident, the press release said.

#3: the Kunduz police headquarters spokesman Syed Sarwar Hussaini told the AIP that four persons were killed when an IED went off on a vehicle of passengers in Gortipa area of Kunduz province late yesterday.However, a security official in the area told media that five persons, including three children, were killed in the incident.

#4: at least five civilians were killed when their car hit an improvised explosive device (IED) in northern Afghanistan’s Kunduz province, police said on Sunday. ”An ill-fated civlian car touched off an IED in Gur Tipa area on outskirt of Kunduz city at around 9 p.m. local time on Saturday.

#5: six civilians including two women were killed and seven others injured when their vehicle ran over a roadside bomb or IED in eastern Paktika province on Saturday.

#6: Insurgents in Nad-e Ali district of southern Helmand province killed the head of a school on Sunday, the Education Ministry said in a statement.

#7: Insurgents killed three policemen in Gulran district of eastern Herat province on Sunday, Nor Khan Nikzad a spokesman for Herat police chief, said.

#8: Unknown gunmen killed a member of the Ulema Council in Laskar Gah city of southern Helmand province on Sunday, said Dawood Ahmadi, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

#9: A suspected militant was killed when explosives he was trying to plant on a jeep went off in Rawalakot town in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, police said.

#10: A U.S. drone aircraft fired two missiles at a house in Pakistan's North Waziristan region on the Afghan border on Sunday, killing at least two militants, local intelligence officials said. The missiles struck the suspected militant hideout in Datta Khel village, 30 km (20 miles) west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, known as a hotbed of Taliban and al Qaeda militants.


Casualty Reports:
John Coker Jr., a 2001 Muskogee High School graduate and a sergeant in the National Guard, was wounded while on duty in Afghanistan over the weekend. Stacy Coker, Coker’s mother, said her son was shot in both legs and the pelvis. One of his legs was crushed, he was shot in the knee in the other leg and a femoral artery was nicked, she said, adding he was stable. Three members of her son’s unit were killed, and eight others were wounded, she said.


DoD: Spc. Koran P. Contreras

DoD: Pfc. Douglas J. Jeffries Jr.

DoD: Sgt. Bret D. Isenhower

DoD: Spc. Christopher D. Horton

DoD: Pfc. Tony J. Potter Jr.

DoD: Petty Officer Brian K. Lundy

News of the Day for Sunday, September 11, 2011

Reported Security Incidents

Baghdad

Four civilians injured by a bomb placed in the Alawi Garage, central Baghdad.

Gunmen attack an army checkpoint on Palestine St., killing 3 soldiers and injuring 2 civilians.

Qalat-Sikar township, on the road between Thi-Qar and Missan Provinces

Three explosions target a U.S. army patrol. No indications of casualties. This somewhat confusingly written report says someone (U.S. soldiers?) found rocket launching facilities, whether they were merely near the site or were the source of the attack is unclear.

Baaquba

One civilian is killed and 8 injured in an explosion in a cafe late Saturday. Other reports place the death toll at 2.

Other News of the Day

Muqtada al-Sadr calls for a suspension of attacks on U.S. forces until their scheduled withdrawal date at the end of the year. He warns, however, that attacks will resume if U.S. forces remain after that time. There is talk in the U.S. of retaining a small force of 3,000 to 4,000 troops as trainers and advisers. Some U.S. commanders want to keep a somewhat larger force as peacekeepers in the region disputed between Arabs and Kurds.

Iraqi journalist Yasir Ghazi recalls seeing the planes hit the World Trade Center on TV. Like most Iraqis he had never heard of al Qaeda. Iraqis realized very quickly that the U.S. was going to use the Sept. 11 incident as an excuse to attack Iraq.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad say the U.S. used the Sept. 11 attacks as an excuse to launch the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He doesn't leave it that however, continuing to imply that the story behind the Sept. 11 attacks is other than the official version.

The Freakonomics guys have missed the target more than a few times, but they get this one right. They don't linger much over the cost of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the examples they do spend time on are also instructive. The real costs of terrorism:

Terrorism is effective because it imposes costs on everyone, not just its direct victims. The most substantial of these indirect costs is fear of a future attack, even though such fear is grossly misplaced. The probability that an average American will die in a given year from a terrorist attack is roughly 1 in 5 million; he is 575 times more likely to commit suicide.

Consider the less obvious costs, too, like the loss of time and liberty. Think about the last time you went through an airport security line and were forced to remove your shoes, shuffle through the metal detector in stocking feet, and then hobble about while gathering up your belongings.

Filmmaker Michael Moore discusses what it was like to be the Most Hated Man in America. And thanks MM for the shout out to this blog -- C):

Wishes for my early demise seemed to be everywhere. They were certainly on the mind of CNN's Bill Hemmer one sunny July morning in 2004. Holding a microphone in front of my face on the floor of the 2004 Democratic National Convention, live on CNN, he asked me what I thought about how the American people were feeling about Michael Moore: "I've heard people say they wish Michael Moore were dead." Hemmer said it like he was simply stating the obvious, like, "of course they want to kill you!" He just assumed his audience already understood this truism, as surely as they accept that the sun rises in the east and corn comes on a cob. . . .

I remember the moment it all began.

It was the night of 23 March 2003. Four nights earlier, George Bush had invaded Iraq. This was an illegal, immoral, stupid invasion – but that was not how Americans saw it. More than 70% of the public backed the war. And on the fourth night of this very popular war, my film Bowling for Columbine was up for an Academy Award. I went to the ceremony but was not allowed, along with any of the nominees, to talk to the press while walking down the red carpet into Hollywood's Kodak Theatre. There was the fear that someone might say something – and in wartime we need everyone behind the war effort and on the same page.

. . . The envelope was opened, and . . . I had won the Oscar. The main floor, filled with the Oscar-nominated actors, directors and writers, leapt to its feet and gave me a very long standing ovation. I had asked the nominees from the other documentary films to join me on the stage in case I won, and they did. The ovation finally ended, and then I spoke: "I've invited my fellow documentary nominees on the stage with us. They are here in solidarity with me because we like non-fiction. We like non-fiction, yet we live in fictitious times. We live in a time where we have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Whether it's the fiction of duct tape or the fiction of orange alerts: we are against this war, Mr Bush. Shame on you, Mr Bush. Shame on you! And anytime you've got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up! Thank you very much."

About halfway through these remarks, all hell broke loose. There were boos, very loud boos, from the upper floors and from backstage. (A few – Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep – tried to cheer me on from their seats, but they were no match.) The producer of the show ordered the orchestra to start playing to drown me out. The microphone started to descend into the floor. A giant screen with huge red letters began flashing in front of me: "YOUR TIME IS UP!" It was pandemonium, to say the least, and I was whisked off the stage. . .

When we got back to our home in northern Michigan, the local beautification committee had dumped three truckloads of horse manure waist-high in our driveway so that we wouldn't be able to enter our property – a property which, by the way, was freshly decorated with a dozen or so signs nailed to our trees: GET OUT! MOVE TO CUBA! COMMIE SCUM! TRAITOR! LEAVE NOW OR ELSE! . . .

Afghanistan Update

Truck bomb attack on U.S. Combat Outpost Sayed Abad in Wardak province kills two Afghan civilians, injures 77 U.S. soldiers and about 25 Afghans. Impact on U.S. forces is attenuated by the blast wall, most damage is to Afghan property outside the base.

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker says U.S. is in Afghanistan for the "long haul":

Mr Croker [sic] told the ceremony on the Kabul embassy’s front lawn: “Some back home have asked why we are still here. It’s been a long fight and people are tired. The reason is simple. Al-Qaeda is not here in Afghanistan and that’s because we are. We are here so that there is never again a 9/11 coming from Afghan soil.” . . .

He said: “For me the last ten years have always been about 9/11. I keep in my office in a small frame the boarding pass I have from that flight. “I will never forget what happened on that day and I will never give up on my commitment to do everything I can to ensure 9/11 never happens again.”


Civilian casualties in Afghanistan remain at a record level and much of the country remains beyond the grip of a still weak Kabul regime. Mr Obama has struggled to reassure Americans they are not trapped in a military quagmire, while at the same time telling Afghans and the Taliban that the United States will not abandon the country.

This memory of Pat Tillman is pretty good, except for one thing. They never manage to point out that he opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq, had his doubts about the Afghanistan adventure, and was reading Noam Chomsky around the time he was killed by friendly fire. That would spoil the patriotic narrative. -- C

Quote of the Day

The decade kicked off by the September 11 attacks has been a nightmare for the United States, from which we strive and fail to awake. The attacks themselves were an exercise in mass terror, and among the more effective such operations in modern history. They were intended to have one of two consequences. One possibility was that they would draw the US into the Middle East, as the Soviets had been drawn into Afghanistan, which would allow al-Qaeda and its allies to mire its troops in a fruitless and enervating guerrilla war. . . .

Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush, however, saw the attacks as “an opportunity.” They were an opportunity to assert American dominance of the oil fields of the Middle East, and therefore, they reasoned, of the energy future of the entire world, ensuring the predominance of the American superpower throughout the twenty-first century. They thus followed a successful overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan with a disastrous military occupation of that country. They coddled the military dictatorship of Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan. They threw international law into the trash compactor and invaded and occupied Iraq, kicking off a massive insurgency and then a civil war, and leaving the country a political basket case. They left hundreds of thousands dead and some 4 million displaced. In northern Pakistan and then in Yemen and elsewhere, a covert program of drone strikes was carried out lawlessly and with no oversight; because it is done by the CIA and is classified, our elected officials cannot even confirm that it exists, much less conduct a public debate as to its legality, constitutional validity, or wisdom.

Juan Cole

War News for Saturday, September 10, 2011

NATO is reporting the deaths of three ISAF soldiers from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, September 9th.

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in somewhere in southern Afghanistan on Friday, September 9th.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Gunmen using silenced weapons shot dead the imam of a mosque near the mosque in Baghdad's southeastern Zaafaraniya district late on Friday, hospital and police sources said.

#2: A bomb attached to a vehicle wounded two civilians when it exploded in Baghdad's northwestern Shula district, an Interior Ministry source said.


Mosul:
#1: Gunmen opened fire on two brothers, killing one of them and wounding the other, in western Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, a local police source said.

#2: Gunmen opened fire on an Iraqi army checkpoint, killing one soldier in northern Mosul, a local police source said.

#3: The body of a man with bullet wounds to the head and chest was found a day after he had been kidnapped in western Mosul, a local police source said.

#4: A hand grenade thrown at an army checkpoint wounded two soldiers in northern Mosul, a local police source said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A roadside bomb in northern Afghanistan on Saturday killed a local militia commander who had been heavily involved in anti-Taliban activities, an official said, DPA reported. Commander Mohammad Akbar was on his way home when he stepped on a roadside bomb in the Khan Abad district of Kunduz province this morning, Sofi Habib, the district police chief said. Akbar was a commander of local militia forces recently established by the Afghan government and coalition forces to fight with the Taliban and provide security in their own areas.

#2: At least eight people have been killed and four others injured in a bomb attack on a police station in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand, Press TV reports. A bomber detonated his explosives-laden car at the entrance to the police compound in Sangin district of the Afghan province late on Thursday, when he was stopped at the building's gate, local officials told Press TV on Friday. Five people, including three policemen, lost their lives in the attack while four others sustained injuries.

#3: Gunmen on a motorbike shot dead the police chief of Aband district in Ghazni city, southwest of Kabul on Saturday, said Mohammad Hussain, a police officer.

#4: Afghan and ISAF troops killed several Taliban insurgents in Mohammad Agha district of Logar province, southwest of Kabul, ISAF said.

#5: Four Afghan soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle in Manogai district of eastern Kunar province on Friday, Shereen Agha, an army spokesman in the east, said.

#6: ISAF and Afghan forces killed eight insurgents during an operation in Marjah district of southern Helmand province, the provincial governor office said in a statement.

#7: Afghan and ISAF troops killed 14 insurgents during operations in different parts of Afghanistan in the last 24 hours, the Interior Ministry said.

#8: Afghan security forces killed four insurgents during an ambush in eastern Balkh province, the Interior Ministry said

#9: Taliban militants cut the throats of three villagers after accusing them of helping the Pakistani military and dumped their bodies on the road near the Afghan border, police said. Militants left a note with the bodies threatening that those who try to support the government or army will face same fate.

#10: Afghan police during operations have killed 14 insurgents in different parts of the country over the past 24 hours, Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement on Saturday. Separately, six other insurgents were killed when ANP laid out ambushes to capture insurgents in northern Balkh and neighboring Faryab province Friday night, according to the statement.

War News for Friday, September 09, 2011

The DoD is reporting a new death unreported by the military. Spc. Kevin R. Shumaker died from a non-combat related illness presumably in a hospital in New York state on Wednesday, August 31st. News reports that he contracted rabies somewhere overseas. He was supporting OAF.

The DoD is reporting another new death unreported by the military. Cmdr. James K. Crawford died from a non-combat related incident in Manama, Bahrain on Wednesday, September 7th. News reports he suffered a heart attack while working out and could not be revived. He was supporting OND (Iraq).

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Friday, September 9th.


Kuwait may host US Iraq backup force

Nato-led forces killed BBC reporter in Afghanistan


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Gunmen opened fire on an Iraqi police checkpoint, killing one policeman and wounding two others, in Baghdad's southwestern Amil district late on Thursday, police and hospital sources said.

#2: Armed men using silenced weapons broke into a foreign exchange shop late on Thursday and killed the owner before fleeing with money in Baghdad's eastern Ghadir district, police said.

#3: Gunmen using silenced weapons shot dead Hadi al-Mehdi, an Iraqi radio journalist, at his house in Baghdad's central Karrada district late on Thursday, police said.


Mosul:
#1: Gunmen killed a civilian while he was shopping in a commercial centre in western Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, a police source in Nineveh province said.

#2: A roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi army patrol, seriously wounding a soldier in western Mosul, a police source in Nineveh province said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: In Kabul, the Defence Ministry announced that a roadside bomb in eastern Khost province killed five Afghan soldiers on Wednesday. The ministry gave no other details.

#2: The police chief for Afghanistan’s western regions, Zia Uddin Mahmoodi, said the Turkish engineer died working on road construction projects in western Herat Province’s Adraskan district when his vehicle hit a bomb. Two of his bodyguards were wounded.

#3: Afghan security forces and foreign troops killed 12 insurgents and detained four in an operation in Sirkanai district of eastern Kunar province on Friday, Ewaz Mohammad Nazir, the police chief for Kunar, said.

#4: A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb inside the Sangin district governor's compound in southern Helmand province on Thursday killing seven people, the Helmand provincial governor said in a statement. Four of the victims were civilians.

#5: A U.S. drone aircraft fired two missiles into Pakistan's North Waziristan region on the Afghan border on Wednesday, killing seven militants, intelligence officials said. The missiles hit a compound near an Islamic seminary set up by a veteran Afghan mujahideen commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, whose son now leads one of the Taliban factions fighting U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.

#6: A U.S. drone targeted a car carrying militants about 40 km (25 miles) west of the region's main town of Miranshah, killing four militants, security officials said.

#7: A bomb blast killed two people and wounded six in southwestern Baluchistan where for decades nationalists have waged a low-level insurgency for greater autonomy and a bigger share in income from province's natural resources.

#8: A suspected U.S. drone aircraft fired two missiles into Pakistan's North Waziristan region on the Afghan border early on Thursday, killing at least four militants, local intelligence officials said. The attack raised the death toll to 19 in four such strikes in the region in less than 24 hours.


DoD: Spc. Kevin R. Shumaker

DoD: Cmdr. James K. Crawford

War News for Thursday, September 08, 2011

The French MoD is reporting the death of a French ISAF soldier in engagements with insurgents in Kapisa province, Afghanistan on Wednesday, September 7th. At least five additional soldiers were wounded in the attacks along with a journalist. Here's the ISAF release.

NATO is reporting the deaths of two ISAF soldiers from an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, September 8th.


Iraq- Anbar province demands exploiting Khasfa Gas and Oil field


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A bomb exploded in a shop selling watches, killing one person and wounding seven others, in Baghdad's northern Adhamiya district, hospital and police sources said.

#2: Two Katyusha rockets launched from the Shula district of northwestern Baghdad landed in the capital's heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the U.S. embassy and Iraqi government offices, an Interior Minister source said. No casualties were reported.


Diyala Prv:
#1: Security sources in Diala province announce a leading figure in the pro-government Al-Sahwa (Awakening) forces was killed and another wounded in bomb blast east of Baaquba city. The source told Aswat al-iraq that the bomb was directed against Sheikh Jassim al-Jubori which led to his killing and wounding one of his bodyguards.


Diwaniya:
#1: Gunmen using silenced weapons shot and wounded the local governor's financial adviser and a tribal chief who was with him late on Tuesday in central Diwaniya, 150 km (95 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. The adviser later died of his wounds.


Daquq:
#1: A roadside bomb exploded, wounding two civilians, in the town of Daquq, 200 km (125 miles) north of Baghdad, a Kirkuk police source said.


Shirqat:
#1: Gunmen with silenced weapons killed two local Awakening Council group members when attacking their checkpoint in the al-Sherqat area some 110 km north of Tikrit, the capital city of Salahudin province, a source from Salahudin police told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.


Kirkuk:
#1: Police found the body of a man in his 40s with stab wounds in southern Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, a Kirkuk police source said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Four soldiers with the Afghan National Army (ANA) were killed when their vehicle ran over a roadside bomb in Khost province 150 km southeast of capital city of Kabul, an official said on Thursday. "A unite of ANA personnel was on routine patrol in Nadir Shah Kot district but their vehicle touched off a roadside bomb terregering a blast killing four soldiers and injuring another on the board late on Wednesday," administrative chief of Nadir Shak Kot told Xinhua.

#2: A senior police officer was shot and killed by armed militants in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province with Jalalabad as its capital 120 km east of capital city of Kabul, an official said on Thursday. "Unknown armed men broke in the house of a high-ranking police officer named Sayed Hakim spreading bullets and killing him on the shot in Bati Kot district on Wednesday night," administrative chief of Bati Kot district Esrarullah Qari Zada told Xinhua on Thursday morning. He said the police official Hakim, who was serving as head of intelligence department of police in neighboring Pachir Wa Agam district, was visiting his family in Bati Kot district when the militants attacked his house and killed him.

#3: A total of six soldiers and officers with the Afghan National Army (ANA) have been killed and nine others injured in Taliban-led attacks and roadside bombings in the country over the past 24 hours, said a statement issued by Afghan Defense Ministry on Wednesday.”During routine patrols, six personnel of ANA had killed and nine others injured as a result of enemies’ fire and mine explosions in Kandahar, Badghis and Logar provinces over the past 24 hours,” the statement said.

#4: According to the statement, Afghan army, backed by NATO-led forces, during joint cleanup and military operations, have eliminated four insurgents and detained 31 more suspected terrorists in Wadak, Kandahar, Nangarhar, Kunduz, Faryab and Helmand provinces in the same timetable.

#5: An Australian soldier has been wounded by an insurgent improvised explosive device (IED) in Afghanistan. Defence said the incident occurred on Tuesday afternoon Afghanistan time as the soldier, a member of the Mentoring Task Force (MTF-3), was travelling in a Bushmaster armoured vehicle which struck the IED.

#6: Afghan insurgents last month launched a mortar attack just yards away from where U.S. Sen. Scott Brown was watching a street hockey game with his fellow soldiers at a base near Kandahar. “Everyone was just relaxing,” Brown told the Herald yesterday. “All of a sudden, ‘Boom.’ And then the sirens go off. And then, ‘Boom. Boom. Boom.’ It was mortars going off. Everyone just hit the deck and went into the bunkers.” Brown said he took cover along with the rest of the troops in the area. The mortars struck an airfield about “500 meters” from a boardwalk-type area where he was hanging out with other soldiers, he said.

#7: Militants fired 12 rockets and missiles on Manro Jangal village in Mamond tehsil from Kunar province in Afghanistan on Wednesday, tribal and official sources said. However, no casualty was reported in the attack. The security forces and tribal lashkar retaliated and targetted the suspected positions of the militants. However, the militants fled after the forces repulsed the attack and targetted their positions.

#8: An estimated 20 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft belonging to both NATO and Afghan forces have either crashed or been forced to make emergency landings in the last six months.


DoD: James W. Coker

War News for Wednesdayy, September 07, 2011

The DoD is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Landstuhl, Germany on Sunday, September 4th. Pfc. Christophe J. Marquis was originally wounded in an IED attack in Kandahar province, Afghanistan on Saturday, August 27th.


PJAK's Number 2 Man Killed

Plan Would Keep Small Force in Iraq Past Deadline: - Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is supporting a plan that would keep 3,000 to 4,000 American troops in Iraq after a deadline for their withdrawal at year’s end

Afghan Army Attracts Few Where Fear Reigns:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A sticky bomb attached to a civilian car blew up and wounded two people in the Mansour district of west-central Baghdad, police said.

#2: The Saqr Baghdad (Hawk of Baghdad) Division dismantled a bomb today in the Adhamiyah area, in the north of Baghdad, security sources said. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that bomb experts were able to dismantle a bomb planted on the side of the road in the aforementioned area.


Diwaniya:
#1: Gunmen raided the house of a tribal chief and shot and killed him in eastern Diwaniya, 150 km (95 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

#2: Gunmen shot at a policeman in front of his house and wounded him late on Tuesday in eastern Diwaniya, police said.

#3: Gunmen using silenced weapons shot at and seriously wounded the local governor's financial adviser and a tribal chief who was with him late on Tuesday while they were walking in their neighborhood in central Diwaniya, police said.


Dujail:
#1: Gunmen raided the house of a government-backed Sunni Sahwa militia leader and shot and killed him in front of his wife in the eastern outskirts of Dujail, 50 km (30 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Kirkuk:
#1: A roadside bomb went off while a bomb squad was trying to defuse it, wounding one civilian late on Tuesday in central Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: The father of an Iraqi policeman and his brother have been injured in a sticking bomb blast against their car in Falluja city of western Iraq’s Anbar Province on Tuesday, a security source reported. “A sticking bomb blew up on Tuesday inside a civilian car in east Falluja’s Garma village, wounding 2 civilians and causing damage to their car,” the security source said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A pair of suicide bombers attacked a top army officer in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta on Wednesday, missing him but killing his wife. At least 22 others died, including several guards, a senior officer and two children, officials said. Police said they were investigating whether the strike was in revenge for the recent arrests in Quetta of three top al-Qaida suspects, an operation that was assisted by the CIA. In Wednesday's blasts, the first attacker detonated his vehicle next to a group of Frontier Corps officers close to Shahzad's house. Hurling grenades, the second attacker than stormed the house and blew himself up inside it, police officer Naseer Ahmed Kurd said. Police officer Hamid Shakil said at least 23 people were killed and more than 60 were injured. Two of the dead were children traveling in a rickshaw. A colonel in the corps was also killed, he said.

#2: Four Afghan government workers were kidnapped by approximately 15 suspected insurgents while travelling in eastern Kunar province on Monday, ISAF said. It gave no further details.

#3: Insurgents killed an Afghan district governor for northern Baghlan province on Monday in an ambush that also killed his driver, Afghan officials said.

#4: NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops killed an unspecified number of insurgents during an air strike in an area of southern Kandahar on Monday, the U.S. military said.

#5: Insurgents killed three Afghan children and wounded five in an attack on an ISAF combat outpost in southeastern Paktika province on Monday, the U.S. military said.


DoD: Pfc. Christophe J. Marquis