War News Today – 2009-02-07 22:55:56
http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/index.html
IRAQ
(February 6, 2009) — Feb. 4 airpower summary:
Pentagon, media clash over control of information: Critics say the purpose of such violent material is not to inform the public about what the military is doing, but to promote it. Public affairs officers argue that they are in a battle with insurgents to shape the public perception of the wars they are fighting, and they will use every means available to push the military’s version of events.
Reported Security incidents:
Diyala Prv:
Mandili: #1: A civilian man was killed and two others injured when an improvised explosive device went off south of the district of Mandili, Diala province, on Thursday, a security source said. “An IED went off near a civilian vehicle in Ballour area, (10 km south of Mandili) killing a man and wounding two others,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Rashsd:_#1: Unidentified gunmen kidnapped a soldier southwest of Kirkuk city on Thursday, a senior security official said. “Unidentified gunmen on Thursday (Feb. 5) kidnapped an Iraqi soldier in the area between al-Riad and al-Rashad districts (35 km) southwest of Kirkuk,” Brig. Sarhad Qader, the Kirkuk Districts’ Police Department chief, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Hawija:_#1: One person was killed and six others were arrested on Friday during a security operation waged by joint Iraqi-US forces in southwest of Kirkuk, a security source said. “Iraqi police and army forces, backed by US troops, launched a security operation in Bakara and al-Tariqiya villages in al-Huwaiyja district, southwest of Kirkuk, during which one person was killed and six were detained,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
Mosul:_#1: A journalist was killed when a policeman opened fire at him in southern Mosul city on Thursday, a security source in Ninewa said. “The journalist, Sallam Arab al-Dawsaki, who works for al-Hadbaa newspaper, published in Mosul, was shot down by a policeman in front of his house in Wadi Hajar, southern Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
#2: Thursday “A policeman was killed by gunmen fire near his house in al-Jammasa, eastern Mosul. He was on a regular leave,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
#3: Thursday In another incident, the same source said an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near a police patrol in Zanjili, western Mosul, leaving a patrolman and a civilian wounded near the explosion scene.
#4: Iraqi army forces on Friday detonated an explosive charge in northern Mosul city, without causing any casualties or damage, a police source said. “Iraqi army forces managed Friday morning (Feb. 6) to detonate an improvised explosive device, planted by unknown gunmen in front of the house of Mohamed al-Nuaami, a candidate of al-Taakhi (brotherhood) list, in al-Arabi neighborhood in northern Mosul,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, noting that the explosion left no casualties or damage.
Kurdistan:_#1: Turkey’s military says its warplanes have struck Kurdish rebel targets inside northern Iraq. Brig. Gen. Metin Gurak, the military spokesman, says Air Force jets bombed the Hakurk area on Wednesday and Thursday. Gurak made the announcement during a weekly news conference on Friday.
Afghanistan: “The Forgotten War”_#1: International troops killed six Afghan men in an overnight raid on a village in southern Afghanistan. A provincial official said the men were civilians, but the US military said they were militants. Zabul Province’s deputy governor, Gulab Shah Alikheil, said six men were killed and three were arrested late Thursday night in a raid by foreign troops on a village in Shahresafa District. He said the dead were four brothers from one family, and two from another. The US military said in a statement that the men were killed in a raid on a compound connected to a bomb-making cell.
#2: In a separate raids overnight, coalition and Afghan forces killed one militant in an assault on a bomb-making network in Khost province, the US military said in a statement.
#3: Separately Friday, NATO forces said one of its joint patrols with the Afghan army shot dead an Afghan man on a motorcycle when he did not respond to multiple warning signals to stop._”Unfortunately the rider was killed and only later confirmed not to be a suicide bomber,” according to a statement by NATO forces. The incident occurred Tuesday in Helmand province.
#4: Two Canadian soldiers have been wounded — one seriously — after a roadside bomb attack, north of Kandahar. The pair were on patrol in an armoured vehicle in the Shah Wali Kot district on Thursday when the blast occurred.
#5: A suicide car bomber blew himself up and wounded seven people on Friday when police stopped him on the road through Pakistan’s Khyber Pass, a vital supply route for Western forces in Afghanistan. The suicide car bomber set off his explosives when police ordered him to stop at a checkpoint on a small bridge, said senior administration official, Fida Bangash. The blast damaged the bridge and a truck waiting to cross it but Bangash suspected the bomber was heading to a bigger bridge destroyed in a blast on Tuesday that soldiers are repairing.
#6: Taliban militants shot dead two men in Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt on the border with Afghanistan after accusing them of spying for the United States, a local official said Friday. The incident took place in Miranshah, the main town in the restive North Waziristan, which is a known stronghold of Al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents, tribal security official Said Ahmad Khan told AFP. The victims were identified as Aalm Pir and the second only by one name, Khan. Their bodies were found dumped at a bus stop in Miranshah early Friday with a note saying “they were killed because they were spying for Americans,” Khan said.
#7: Two persons were killed and five others injured in a bomb explosion on a bridge in Pakistan’s tribal region bordering Afghanistan on Friday. The explosion occurred in Jumrood area of Khyber Agency, destroying a container carrying supplies for North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces in Afghanistan.
Casualty Reports:
British Marine Joe Townsend, 20, who lost both his legs in an explosion in Afghanistan.
