War News Today.blogspot.com – 2008-05-02 21:45:29
http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/2008/05/war-news-for-friday-may-02-2008.html
War News for Friday, May 02, 2008
Baghdad:
#1: Twelve people were wounded in overnight clashes in Sadr City, police and health officials said.
Seven people were killed and nine others were wounded in clashes overnight between U.S. forces and Mehdi army fighters in Sadr City, said Ali Bustan, head of the health directorate in eastern Baghdad.
#2: U.S. forces said they killed two gunmen in two separate air strikes in Sadr City in eastern Baghdad on Thursday.
#3: Clashes erupted overnight between U.S. forces and Mehdi army militants in al-Amil district in southwestern Baghdad. Four fighters were killed and 12 wounded, police said.
#4: The al-Yarmuk hospital received two corpses and five wounded people after U.S. warplanes pounded the al-Aamil neighborhood, southwestern Baghdad, a medic from the hospital said on Friday. “All the wounded are civilians and the conditions of some of them are serious,” the medic, who declined to have his name revealed, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.
#5: 3 unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad by Iraqi Police today. 1 in al-Ma’amil; 1 in Baghdad al-Jadida and 1 in Tobchi.
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#6: Armed clashes broke out between Iraqi Army and Mahdi Army in Shoala, north Baghdad around 7 pm Friday. No reports of casualties were available at time of publication.
#7: Four Shiite extremists were killed Friday in the western district of Hay al-Amil, a religiously mixed area in southwest Baghdad, police said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media.
Diyala Province:
#1: 7 people in a white Kia minibus were kidnapped at a fake checkpoint erected on the route between Baladruz and Mendili, 90 km to the east of Baquba at around 7.15 pm Friday.
Khanaqin:
#1: 1 civilian wounded as a result of an IED explosion in Darokinara, Khanaqin district. The IED was planted outside his doorstep. He lost his right arm below the elbow and sustained burns on his chest and face.
Muqdadiya:
#1: Gunmen attacked a Popular Committee headquarters in al-Mukhifah area, Abu Saada in Muqdadiya, 40 km to the northeast of Baquba at around 7.45 pm. They killed 2 of the Sahwa members, injured five. Then they rigged the building with explosives and blew it up.
Southern Iraq (?)
#1: An Air Force MQ-1 Predator crashed in southern Iraq at approximately 4 a.m. local time today. The aircraft was launched from Ali Base. The aircraft is a medium-altitude long-endurance, remotely piloted aircraft. The MQ-1’s primary mission is conducting armed reconnaissance. A board will be convened to investigate the accident. Mechanical failure is suspected.
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Hilla:
#1: Four Scorpion squad elements, including a lieutenant, were injured by U.S. army in north of Hilla, said a police source on Friday. “U.S. forces open fire intensively on a convoy of the Scorpion squad in al-Mashrooa region near a U.S. base in north of Hilla,” the source, who preferred anonymity told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq. “Four Scorpion elements were injured and six new vehicles were damaged in the attack,” he added.
Dhuluiya:
#1: U.S. and Iraqi forces battled al Qaeda militants in a village east of Dhuluiya in Salahuddin province on Thursday, police said. Four foreign fighters were killed and eight Iraqis arrrested.
Mosul:
#1: The U.S. military said it killed four gunmen and detained 10 suspects in operations targeting al Qaeda around the city of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, on Thursday and Friday.
#2: Three al-Qaida insurgents also fired on U.S. soldiers as they tried to stop a vehicle near the northern city of Mosul on Thursday, the military said. The soldiers returned fire, killing all three as well as the driver of the vehicle.
Al Anbar Province:
Al Qaim:
#1: Al-Qaida insurgents raked a police car Friday with automatic weapons, killing eight Iraqi policemen in the town of Qaim on the Syrian border, police said.
Northern Iraq:
#1: Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish rebel bases deep inside Iraq for three hours overnight, a rebel spokesman said Friday.
Warplanes bombed Iraq’s Qandil region as well as 10 other sites near the Iraq-Iran border in an operation that began Thursday night and stretched into early Friday, rebel spokesman Ahmed Danas said. Turkish state-run media and Firat, a pro-Kurdish news agency based in Europe, both reported the bombings but Turkey’s military neither confirmed or denied the operation Friday.
Turkish warplanes launched a series of air strikes overnight on Kurdish rebel bases near Iraq’s northern Qandil mountains, Turkish and rebel officials said. A rebel spokesman, Ahmed Danees, said there were no reports of any casualties.
Afghanistan:
#1: On Wednesday, several thousand US Marines captured the town of Garmsir in the southern Afghan province of Helmand in their first large operation since arriving to reinforce North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops last month.
The Taliban-controlled Garmsir had served as a main supply route for their insurgency in the area. The Taliban, however, claim the loss of one base is not critical, and anyway, for NATO to hold on to its gain it will have to commit thousands of troops to the outpost, which is located in the inhospitable desert, if it is to effectively guard the lawless and porous border through which the Taliban funnel men, arms and supplies.
The Taliban also claim that one of their underlying goals since the US-led invasion in 2001 has been to tie down as many foreign troops as possible, much as the mujahideen wore down Soviet troops in the 1980s. Various Taliban leaders have told the media they will not resist the forces in Garmsir, one of the biggest concentrations since the 2001 assault on the country.
Casualty Reports:
• Private 1st Class Joseph R. Miner from Guam will return home due to injuries sustained from being shot through the right arm and back in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Private 1st Class Joseph R. Miner of the Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 294th Infantry Regiment of the Guam Army National Guard was shot in Afghanistan during a security patrol in support of coalition forces, a Guam national Guard release stated. Miner was medically evacuated to a hospital in Germany before being transported to Tripler Army Hospital in Hawaii for subsequent treatment., the release said.
• U.S. Navy corpsman Devin Kelly “I took shrapnel to my face,” He was riding a Humvee in Iraq when a roadside bomb blew it to bits.
