War News for Saturday, August 07, 2010

Hard-Line Islam Fills Void in Pakistan’s Flood Response

U.S. base in Kyrgyzstan remains on track despite tensions

US supplies 11 Abrams tanks to Iraqi army


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Gunmen killed four Iraqi policemen in an overnight shootout that lasted until dawn at a suspected bomb workshop in western Baghdad, security officials said Saturday. Tipped off by a carjacking, the police trailed the suspects to a house in the mostly Sunni neighbourhood of Saidiya, where they came under fire from an unknown number of gunmen. The shooting lasted for hours until dawn, when the gunmen slipped away through a rear entrance, according to two Baghdad police officers and an Interior Ministry official. Six policemen and five residents were also wounded in the shootout, the officials said. An emergency room worker at Yarmouk Hospital confirmed the casualties.

#2: In the north-west of the capital, a traffic cop was killed and two other people were injured when they came under gunfire from militants.

Also in the capital, a traffic policeman was killed and another wounded when gunmen attacked their patrol late Friday night in the northern neighbourhood of Hurriyah.

#3: Three civilians were wounded late Thursday in an improvised explosive device blast in northern Baghdad, according to a security source. “The bomb went off near al-Assaf mosque in al-Aadhamiya region, northern Baghdad, injuring three civilians,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Mosul:
#1: Iraqi army forces defused improvised explosive devices planted under power pylons south of Mosul city on Friday, according to a source in the Ninewa Operations Command (NOC). “The Iraqi army’s 2nd Division personnel stationed in Mosul removed five IEDs from under power pylons on the outside road south of Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. “The charges were defused without incident or damage to the facilities,” the source added.


Kirkuk:
#1: “Unidentified gunmen in a vehicle opened fire on a woman in 1 Hozayran area, southwestern Kirkuk, killing her instantly,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: “In another incident, policemen of al-Debis found the body of a 22-year-old young man resident of Azadi area, central Kirkuk,” the same source added.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: In a separate pre-dawn attack, security and hospital officials said a policeman was shot dead at a checkpoint and two others were wounded outside the city of Fallujah, 40 miles (65 kilometres) west of Baghdad.

#2: In the nearby restive town of Karma, militants planted bombs outside the homes of three policemen and a member of the government-allied Awakening Council. Some 15 people were wounded, but there were no fatalities, unlike in previous such attacks, officials said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Six Americans and two other foreigners on a medical mission were shot and killed by the Taliban who ambushed their vehicles in a remote part of northern Afghanistan, a charity said Saturday. Dirk Frans, director of the International Assistance Mission, said the eight-member medical team, which also included one German, one Briton and two Afghan interpreters, was driving to Kabul from an eye clinic in northeastern Nuristan province when they were killed in Badakhshan province to the north. The group had decided to head through Badakhshan to return to the capital because they thought that would be the safest route, Frans said. He said the two Afghan interpreters were from Bamiyan and Panjshir provinces. A third Afghan man, who had been traveling with the group, survived.

#2: In eastern Afghanistan, Najib Gulstani, a candidate in the next month’s parliamentary elections, was found dead along a road in Ghazni. The Taliban abducted the candidate 10 days ago in the Qarabagh district, said Kazim Allayar, the deputy governor of Ghazni. Afghan lawmaker Aziza Mysam said members of the local council in Qarabagh told the governor that the Taliban wanted two of their detainees released in exchange for the candidate, but he (governor) refused to entertain the exchange offer.

#3: In the south, Malak Janan, a tribal chief in Kandahar province’s Dand district, and his son were killed on late Thursday night when gunmen entered their home and shot them, according to Zelmai Ayubi, a spokesman for the provincial governor. The motive was unclear.

#4: Four policemen and a civilian were killed Saturday morning as explosive device planted inside a hand cart went off next to a police vehicle in Nahr-e-Saraj district of Taliban stronghold Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, Interior Ministry said in a statement. "The tragic incident occurred in the morning rush hour at 09:00 a.m. local time. As a result five persons including four policemen and one innocent civilian were martyred," the statement said. It also added that 12 civilians and a policeman were injured in the blast.

#5: A Greenwood, Miss., couple is mourning their 41-year-old son who was killed while working as a private contractor in Afghanistan. Wayne and Vicki Pittman tell The Greenwood Commonwealth that Robert Wayne Pittman Jr. of Clarksville, Tenn., retired as a U.S. Army master sergeant in April and had been working as a combat adviser in Afghanistan. He died July 29.


DoD: Master Sgt. Jared N. Van Aalst

PL/DM: deg W Dariusz Tylenda.