War News for Monday, July 26, 2010

US documents leaked online give inside look at war

Pakistan Aids Insurgency in Afghanistan, Reports Assert

Inside the Fog of War: Reports From the Ground in Afghanistan

Al-Qaida kills 6 Yemeni soldiers

6 soldiers wounded in Turkey's mine blast

Body of U.S. soldier found in Afghan province


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: At least four people were killed and other ten were injured on Monday when a suicide bomber blew up a vehicle by the Baghdad offices of Al-Arabiya television. The bomber struck at around 9:00 am (0600 GMT) in front of the station's bureau in the city center, wounding 16 people according to an interior ministry official. The journalist added that of the people killed, two had been identified as a security guard and a female office assistant.

#2: Eight policemen and six civilians were wounded when two roadside bomb struck a police patrol in the Ghazaliya district of western Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

#3: One policeman was killed and three wounded when two roadside bombs targeting an on foot patrol went off in the Doura district of southern Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

#4: A sticky bomb attached to a car carrying an off-duty policeman killed him and wounded three people in Baghdad's southern Saidiya district, an Interior Ministry source said.


Mosul:
#1: A four-year-old child was killed by a stray bullet in northern Mosul, police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A suicide bomber struck Monday near the home of a Pakistani provincial minister whose only son was recently killed by suspected Islamist militants, officials said. Seven people were killed and 25 wounded. Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa province and an outspoken critic of the Taliban, was the apparent target. He was receiving condolences from visitors elsewhere in Pabbi town at the time of the blast and was safe. Some of his relatives were also receiving mourners at a mosque near the house, but none were hurt, police said. The suicide bomber Monday was on a motorcycle and was rushing toward the minister's home when intercepted by security officials, senior police official Liaquat Ali Khan said. The bomber, believed to be a young boy, then set off his explosives. Three police were among those killed by the blast. The victims also included two children. A local hospital official, identified on TV reports only as Dr. Akbar, said seven bodies had arrived. Another hospital official, Tariq Khan said of 25 people wounded, eight were in critical condition.

#2: Nineteen people died in three US drone strikes in north-west Pakistan on Sunday, a day after a similar raid killed 16 others, say local officials. They said 10 suspected militants died in a strike in the Shaktoi area of South Waziristan on Sunday morning. Later, two more raids killed five in Tabbi Tolkhel, North Waziristan, and four in Srarogha, South Waziristan. Last week, a BBC investigation found more than 700 people had died in such drone strikes since January 2009.

#3: A helicopter on Monday morning crashed in eastern part of Afghan capital Kabul, Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi said. "A helicopter crashed in Pul-e-Charkhi area east of capital city Kabul," Azimi told Xinhua. However, he added that the chopper belongs to NATO-led troops and there is no casualty. The incident occured during landing time, he further said. NATO-led troops has yet to make comment.

An ISAF aircraft made a hard landing along the perimeter of a coalition force camp in Kabul province this morning. Four aircraft passengers received minor injuries.

#4: The Taliban have captured a strategic district from the Afghan government after days of clashes in eastern Nuristan province, officials said on Sunday. In Nuristan’s Barg-e Matal, dozens of Taliban fighters and up to six Afghan police were killed during days of clashes before the district fell to the Taliban overnight. Barg-e Matal is important for the government and militants because of its location and has regularly changed hands. Afghan police forces withdrew from Barg-e Matal to avoid high casualties and in the face of sustained Taliban pressure after days of skirmishes, interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told reporters. “Right now the police forces in Nuristan are working to recapture it,” he said.

Afghan forces regained the control of Barg-e-Matal district in the eastern Nuristan province, day after it overrun by Taliban militants, Interior Ministry said in a statement on Monday. "Afghan national army and police backed by NATO-led forces recaptured Barg-e-Matal district late last night," the statement added.

#5: A large blast heard shortly before noon in the Afghan capital on Monday was a controlled explosion by authorities, police said on Monday.

#6: At least two policeman were killed and another 14 injured when some 200 militants launched a sudden attack at a checkpost near Peshawar in northwest Pakistan during the wee hours of Monday morning. According to the local media reports, the attack took place at a checkpost in the area of Achni, a small town near Peshawar, the largest city in northwest Pakistan, which is frequently attacked by the militants hiding in its neighboring tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. The casualties on the side of the militants are not known yet.

#7: At least 45 civilians, many women and children, were killed in a rocket attack by the NATO-led foreign force in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province last week, a spokesman for the Afghan government said on Monday. The incident happened in Helmand’s Sangin district on Friday when civilians crammed into a mud-built house to flee fighting between NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops and Taliban insurgents, Siyamak Herawi told Reuters.



DoD: Pfc. James J. Oquin