War News for Friday, June 18, 2010

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a A U.S. Division – North Soldier soldier from a non-combat related incident in an undisclosed location in northern Iraq on Thursday, June 17th.


17 Afghan military officers go AWOL from Dallas Air Force base:

Waterbury-born CIA officer killed by December bomb: Darren J. LaBonte -- also killed are: Harold Brown Jr., Jeremy Wise; Dane Clark Paresi; Dairat al-Mukhabarat al-Ammah; Scott Michael Roberson; Elizabeth Hanson -- noto we are still missing 1 name.

UN chief announces 100,000 landmark in resettlement of Iraqi refugees:

Three PKK rebels killed in east Turkey:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Also Friday, two rockets slammed into a group of houses near the Baghdad International Airport, killing two people and wounding eight, police said.

Four civilians were killed and eight others were wounded on Friday in missiles attack in west of Baghdad, according to a security source. “Three missiles hit four houses in a village near the Baghdad international airport, killing four civilians and injuring eight,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: The Thawrat al-Ishreen (1920 Revolution) Brigades on Thursday claimed responsibility for the destruction of a U.S. mine clearing vehicle with an improvised explosive device (IED) in western Baghdad, while the U.S. army denied the incident. “The organization attacked a U.S. occupation forces’ patrol with an IED in western Baghdad, resulting in the destruction of a U.S. mine removing vehicle and killing and wounding its crew,” read a release by the organization as received by Aswat al-Iraq news agency. However, the U.S. army denied the reported attack. “Reports of the attack were incorrect as the army reports did not register any attacks that targeted U.S. forces in Baghdad on Thursday,” a U.S. army source told Aswat al-Iraq.


Diyala Prv:
#1: Meanwhile, the chief of the Awakening Councils tribal security force in Diyala province, Hossam al-Majmaai, survived an attack in which an explosive device went off targeting his vehicle.

#2: Explosives experts defused another bomb that was on the same road, south-west of Diyala's capital, Baquba, a media spokesman in the council said.

#3: Two policemen were killed and three others wounded in an attack with an improvised explosive device (IED) that targeted their headquarters in eastern Diala province on Thursday, according to a local official. “An IED went off near al-Quds police station in al-Mukhisa village, Abi Saida, al-Muqdadiya district, (45 km) east of Baaquba, leaving two policemen killed and three others injured,” Awwad al-Rubaie, a member of the Abi Saida municipal council, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#4: A car bomb went off on Friday near the house of a police officer in Diala, according to a security source. “A car crammed with explosives went off on Friday (June 18) targeting a house of Captain Mustapha al-Tamimi in al-Muaalameen neighborhood in Baaquba, leaving several casualties and destroying the house completely,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Abu Ghraib:
#1: Gunmen killed an employee of a local irrigation department and three of his family members Friday as part of an apparent tribal dispute over water distribution west of Baghdad, officials said. Faisal Hassan, the 40-year-old driver of a drilling truck, his wife and two young children were slain as they slept in a pre-dawn attack in the mainly Sunni district of Abu Ghraib, police said.


Taji:
#1: A roadside bomb targeted a U.S. military convoy in Taji district, a northern Baghdad suburb, at 10 a.m. Thursday. No casualties were reported by the U.S. military.


Samarra:
#1: An Iraqi interpreter for U.S. soldiers was shot dead by his son and nephew on the orders of a Sunni Islamist insurgent group that considered him a traitor, police said on Friday. Hameed al-Daraji was killed on Thursday at his home in the tense, mainly Sunni city of Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad. His son and nephew, working with the militant group Ansar al-Sunna, were let into the home in the early hours of the morning by another of Daraji's sons, who was arrested by police and confessed, a police investigator told Reuters.


Baiji:
#1: A bomb struck an oil pipeline near Beiji, 155 miles (250 kilometers) north of Baghdad, filling the sky with thick, black smoke as clean-up crews burned the oil that was leaking into the nearby Tigris River, officials said. Abdul-Aziz Muslih, an official at the Beiji refinery, said the pipeline links oil fields in Kirkuk with Beiji.


Irbil Prv:
#1: Iranian artillery bombardment resumed late Wednesday, targeting Choman district once again, but causing no human casualties because whole villages have been abandoned.


Mosul:
#1: A policeman was wounded from a hand-grenade blast in western Mosul city on Thursday, a local security source in Ninewa said. “A man threw a hand-grenade near a police checkpoint in 17 Tammuz neighborhood, western Mosul, leaving one policeman severely wounded,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Tal afar:
#1-2: Two explosive charges went off on Friday morning in northern Talafar near an Iraqi army force, injuring an officer and a soldier, an official police source said.

#1: “An explosive device, planted by unknown gunmen in al-Salam neighborhood in northern Talafar, went off early Friday, without causing damage or casualties,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: “Another bomb exploded as a force from the 10th brigade of the 3rd division of the Iraqi army were deploying in the area after the explosion, injuring a soldier and an officer, who were rushed to the Talafar public hospital for treatment,” he added.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Taliban militants have handed over the bodies of six Pakistani soldiers killed in an attack near the Afghan border but the hunt is still on for 34 who remain missing, officials say. The bodies were handed over to tribal elders late Thursday, taken to a military base in the Mohmand tribal district and sent to their homes after funeral prayers, a military official said on Friday.


DoD: Cpl. Jeffrey R. Standfest

DoD: Lance Cpl. Michael C. Bailey