Afghan Policeman Fires on U.S. Soldiers, Kills 1

Sept. 29, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan – An Afghan policeman opened fire on U.S. troops inside a police station in eastern Afghanistan, killing an American soldier and wounding several other people, officials said Monday. …

The Americans and Afghans were on a joint patrol when they were attacked by a roadside bomb Sunday. No one was injured.

Militants observing the attack then fired on the Americans and Afghans before fleeing. After military fighter aircraft tracked down the militants, the soldiers apprehended them and tested them for explosives residue, the NATO official said. The suspects tested positive.

Seven detainees were then taken to the Afghan police station in the Jaji district center of Paktia, where the Afghan policeman opened fire.

The police officer wounded three or four American soldiers, an Afghan interpreter for the military and one of the detainees, the NATO official said. …

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IRAQ NEWS

U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq

• A soldier was killed Monday by small arms fire in northern Baghdad.
• A soldier was killed Tuesday by small-arms fire in northern Baghdad.

Latest identifications

• Army Capt. Michael J. Medders, 25, Ohio; died Wednesday in Jisr Naft of wounds suffered in a suicide bombing; assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Hood, Texas.
• Army Staff Sgt. Ronald Phillips Jr., 33, Conway, S.C.; died Thursday in Bahbahani after his vehicle struck an explosive; assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.
• Army Pfc. Jamel A. Bryant, 22, Belleville, Ill.; died Saturday in Baghdad of injuries from a vehicle accident in Wahida; assigned to the 40th Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Baumholder, Germany.

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Related links

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Afghanistan Casualties

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Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq on Monday, Sept. 29, 2008 as reported by Reuters.

BAGHDAD – A U.S. soldier was killed by small-arms fire when his patrol was attacked in eastern Baghdad, the U.S. military said. 

KIRKUK – One policeman and one civilian were wounded by a roadside bomb in Kirkuk, police said. 

MOSUL – Gunmen killed two brothers working for the Iraqi security forces while they were off duty in western Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said. 

MOSUL – A car bomb wounded four people in Mosul, police said. 

MOSUL – A body was found bearing gunshot wounds in eastern Mosul, police said. 

MOSUL – A Sunni Arab tribal leader died on Monday of wounds inflicted by a bomb attached to his car that exploded on Sunday in Mosul, police said. 

SAMARRA – A roadside bomb wounded the mayor of Samarra, Mahmoud Khalif, and four of his guards in central Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, police said. 

ISKANDARIYA – A roadside bomb killed one person and wounded three others when it struck their car in Iskandariya, 25 miles south of Baghdad, police said.

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AFTERNOON UPDATE

Car Bomb in Baghdad Kills 3

Sept. 30, 2008

BAGHDAD – A parked car bomb targeted a restaurant in a mostly Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing three people and injuring at least six others.

A U.S. soldier also was killed Tuesday by small-arms fire in northern Baghdad, the military said. The death raises to at least 25 the number of American troop deaths reported this month, up slightly from 23 recorded in August. …

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Three U.S.-Led Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan

KABUL – Three soldiers from a U.S.-led coalition force in Afghanistan have been killed in a blast in the south of the country, the U.S. military said Tuesday.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan this year with about 3,000 people, at least 1,000 of them civilians, killed in the bloodiest year since U.S.-led and Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001.

This summer has also been the deadliest period for foreign troops in the country, with the militants launching more daring and deadly attacks.

“Three coalition service members were killed September 29 in southern Afghanistan when their vehicle struck an IED,” the U.S. military said in a statement, referring to an improvised explosive device, or roadside bomb. …

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Series of Explosions Kill At Least 32 in Baghdad

Blasts occur during Ramadan dawn-to-dusk fast

A police officer looks at a burnt vehicle in a parking lot after a bomb attack in Baghdad’s Karrada district on Sunday, Sept. 28, 2008. (Photo credit: Ceerwan Aziz / Reuters)

Sept. 28, 2008

BAGHDAD – Police said a series of explosions in Baghdad on Sunday have killed at least 32 people and wounded nearly 100. …

Officials said the deadliest blasts occurred in the Karrada neighborhood, where a parked car loaded with explosives blew up in a commercial area about 7 p.m. At least 19 people were killed and more than 70 wounded. …

The mother of Mohammed Esam, 19, cries over his body as it is washed before burial, at a cemetery morgue in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, Iraq, Monday, Sept. 29, 2008. Mohammed was one of 22 victims in Sunday's car bombing central Baghdad. (Photo: Alaa al-Marjani / AP)

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Spotlight on Foreign Policy, Iraq War at Saint John’s University

Demonstrators display anti-U.S. placards during a protest in Kufa, 75 miles south of Baghdad, Sept. 26, 2008. Placards read, “Iraq will not become a U.S. colony.” (Photo credit: Reuters / Ali Abu Shish)

“‘An Assured Peace’ or ‘A Victory Hoped For?’ Iraqi Realities and American Politics”

Juan R.I. Cole, Richard P. Mitchell Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Michigan, speaks on “‘An Assured Peace’ or ‘A Victory Hoped For?’ Iraqi Realities and American Politics” at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 29, in the Stephen B. Humphrey Theater, St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minn.

Cole has written extensively about Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and South Asia. He has given numerous media and press interviews on the War on Terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001, as well as concerning the Iraq War and the building conflict with Iran after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He has a regular column at Salon.com.

Cole continues to study and write about contemporary Islamic movements, whether mainstream or radical, Sunni, Salafi, or Shi`ite. He speaks Arabic, Persian, and Urdu and reads some Turkish, knows both Middle Eastern and South Asian Islam, and lived in a number of places in the Muslim world for extended periods of time.

For three decades, Cole has sought to put the relationship of the West and the Muslim world in historical context, and his most recent book is Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). He also writes on current events, and his articles on contemporary Sunni radicalism include “Muslim Religious Extremism in Egypt” in Middle East Historiographies (University of Washington Press, 2006) and “The Taliban, Women, and the Hegelian Private Sphere” in Social Research (Fall 2003).

The presentation, part of the Global Awareness Lecture Series at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University and co-sponsored by the Islamic Studies Task Force and the University Chair in Critical Thinking, is free and open to the public.

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Kurdish Politician Killed in Disputed Region

Sept. 27, 2008

BAGHDAD – Iraqi police fatally shot a Kurdish politician in one of Iraq’s most volatile provinces Saturday, a killing that underlines the growing tensions between Kurds and Arabs in parts of the north.

Even as Iraq has seen a sharp decline in Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence, hostility is deepening between Kurds and Arabs in Iraq’s north as Kurdish authorities begin to exert more authority beyond the boundaries of their autonomous region.

Riya Qahtan, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, was killed Saturday morning in Jalula, a small town 80 miles northeast of Baghdad in the ethnically mixed province of Diyala, said Jabar Yawer, a spokesman for the Kurdish military, or peshmerga. Jalula has a mostly Sunni Arab population with a substantial Kurdish minority.

The incident occurred after two Sunni Arab policemen stopped three members of the Kurdish secret service at a market and demanded they show identification. They refused, and within minutes police reinforcements arrived at the scene, arrested them and took them to police headquarters, Yawer said.

Qahtan then went to the police station and persuaded officers to release the detainees, who had been working as guards for his party. But as the group was leaving, two policemen opened fire and shot Qahtan, Yawer added. …

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Mayor Wounded by Bomb in Northern Iraq Town

BAGHDAD – The Kurdish mayor of a town in a volatile area of northern Iraq was wounded by a roadside bomb attack on his motorcade on Sunday, police said.

Three bodyguards and two civilians were also wounded by the bomb targeting Mayor Ahmed Zarkoush in the town of Sa’adiya, near Jalawla in the north of Iraq’s volatile Diyala province.

That part of the province, with an ethnically mixed population, is just outside Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region and has seen disputes in recent weeks between the central authorities and Kurdish security forces.

Kurdish troops, known as Peshmerga, withdrew from parts of Diyala in August under a deal with the government in Baghdad, but Kurds there say they fear the central authorities cannot protect them from attacks by al Qaeda Sunni Arab militants.

Kurdish security forces and Iraqi police clashed on Saturday in Jalawla, with one person on each side killed, after a dispute at a Kurdish party headquarters in the town.

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Twin Car Bombing in Western Baghdad Kills 13

Sept. 28, 2008

BAGHDAD – Two car bombs killed 13 people and wounded 37 doing evening shopping Sunday in mainly Shiite Muslim areas of western Baghdad, Iraqi officials said. …

[In other violence], a minibus exploded near a market in the Shurta Rabaa district Sunday, while a car bomb in the Amil neighborhood apparently targeted a parking lot used by shoppers at a nearby market protected by concrete blast walls, police said.

Both areas were formerly mixed neighborhoods that now have a Shiite majority after years of sectarian attacks. …

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Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq on Sunday, Sept. 28, 2008 as reported by Reuters.

BAGHDAD – An unidentified sniper shot dead two Iraqi soldiers and one civilian at a checkpoint in the Zayouna district, eastern Baghdad, police said.

SA’ADIYA – A roadside bomb wounded the Kurdish mayor of Sa’adiya town, 65 miles northeast of Baghdad, when it struck his motorcade there, police said.

MUSSAYAB – Gunmen killed one man and wounded another in a drive-by shooting Saturday in Mussayab, 40 miles south of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – Gunmen killed one man and wounded his brother in an attack on their shop in western Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – Gunmen killed an off-duty policeman in a drive-by shooting in western Mosul, police said.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb killed one person and wounded three others in the Mansour district, western Baghdad, police said.

NEAR TIKRIT – A roadside bomb struck the convoy of the governor of Salahuddin province, wounding three of his guards Saturday north of Tikrit, 95 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – Gunmen killed the coach of a table-tennis sport club on Saturday in northern Mosul, police said.

TUZ KHURMATO – One militant was killed and two others were wounded in clashes with police Saturday in Tuz Khurmato, 105 miles north of Baghdad, police said. Three policemen were also wounded.

KIRKUK – Gunmen targeting a police vehicle in a drive-by shooting wounded one policeman in southern Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

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PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN UPDATE

Afghan Woman Police Director Gunned Down

Sept. 28, 2008 

KABUL, Afghanistan – Two gunmen on a motorbike shot and killed a high-ranking woman police official as she went to work in Afghanistan’s largest southern city Sunday, officials said.

Malalai Kakar led the department of crimes against women in Kandahar city, said Zalmai Ayubi, spokesman for the provincial governor. Her son, 18, was wounded in the attack, he said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the death of the 41-year-old police official. …

Elsewhere in Kandahar province, a suicide bomber on a motorbike attacked a border police convoy in Spin Boldak district, killing three policemen and three civilians, said the regional border police chief, Abdul Razzaq. The blast wounded 17 others — all but of them civilians, Razzaq said.

In other violence, an Afghan police official said a U.S.-led coalition killed three civilians in an operation apparently targeting a suicide bomb cell in eastern Afghanistan. That claim was disputed by the coalition, which said its troops killed two al-Qaida militants.

Gen. Abdul Jalal Jalal, the provincial police chief in the eastern province of Kunar, said airstrikes hit a compound in the province’s Asmar district, killing three civilians. …

Civilian deaths are a highly sensitive topic in Afghanistan. Karzai has long pleaded with international troops to avoid civilian deaths in its operations.

The Afghan government and U.N. say that an Aug. 22 U.S. operation killed some 90 civilians in the western province of Herat, a strike that strained U.S.-Afghan relations.

An original U.S. investigation found that up to 35 militants and seven civilians were killed in that strike. However, a new investigation was opened — and is now under way — after video images emerged appearing to show many more dead than the U.S. had acknowledged. …

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Gunmen Abduct Polish Engineer in Pakistan

Sept. 28, 2008 

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Kurdish, Iraqi Forces Clash in Disputed Area

SULAIMANIYA, Iraq – Kurdish security forces and Iraqi police clashed in Iraq’s northeastern Diyala province on Saturday, killing one member of each group, officials on both sides said.

Towns on the border between Diyala and the largely autonomous northern Kurdistan region are disputed by Kurds and the central government and have emerged as a flashpoint in their tense relationship in recent months.

Jabbar Yawar, spokesman for the Kurdish Peshmerga security forces, said one Kurdish security forces member and one member of the national Iraqi police had died in clashes after a dispute at a Kurdish party’s headquarters in the town of Jalawla. …

Tensions have been rising between Iraqi security forces and Kurds in the area in recent weeks. In August, most of a brigade of 2,000 Kurdish troops, known as Peshmerga, who had patrolled ethnically mixed parts of Diyala withdrew to the edge of the Kurdish region under pressure from the central government. …

The Iraqi army had wanted to enter Khanaqin to stamp government authority on the area in August. But Peshmerga forces patrolling the town had refused to withdraw and thousands of Kurds staged protests as the army approached. …

Diyala, with large populations of ethnic Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen divided into Sunni and Shi’ite religious groups, has also remained a battleground for Sunni Islamist al Qaeda. …

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Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008 as reported by Reuters.

NEAR BALAD RUZ – A roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol killed two Iraqi soldiers and wounded 14, south of the town of Balad Ruz, 55 miles northeast of Baghdad in volatile Diyala province, police said.

MOSUL – Iraqi soldiers killed two militants near a checkpoint in eastern Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad on Friday, police said.

MOSUL – A car bomb killed a man in western Mosul, police said.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb wounded one policeman in the Mansour district in western Baghdad, police said.

JALAWLA – One Iraqi policeman and one Kurdish security forces member were killed when the two sides clashed after a dispute at the headquarters of a Kurdish party in Jalawla, an ethnically-mixed town in Diyala province north of Baghdad.

NEAR TAL AFAR – A Yemeni al Qaeda suicide bomber killed two other al Qaeda members on Thursday when the Iraqi Army conducted a raid near Tal Afar, 260 miles northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement. Four other militants were arrested.

BAGHDAD – U.S. forces arrested five militants accused of ties to Iran in the New Baghdad district of eastern Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

BAAJ – Gunmen wounded a member of Baaj local council and his wife when they attacked their car in a drive-by shooting in the town of Baaj, 230 miles northwest of Baghdad, police said.

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U.S., Pakistani Troops Exchange Fire

WASHINGTON – U.S. and Pakistani ground forces exchanged fire across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border on Thursday, the latest in a string of incidents that has ratcheted up diplomatic tension between the two allies.

No casualties or injuries were reported after Pakistani forces shot at two U.S. helicopters from a Pakistani border post. U.S. and Pakistani officials clashed over whether the American helicopters had entered Pakistan. …

“Just as we will not let Pakistan’s territory be used by terrorists for attacks against our people and our neighbors, we cannot allow our territory and our sovereignty to be violated by our friends,” Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said in New York on Thursday.

But in Washington, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman insisted the helicopters had not entered Pakistan. He described the incident as “troubling” and called on Islamabad for an explanation. …

According to Pakistan’s military, its soldiers fired warning shots at two U.S. helicopters after they intruded into Pakistani airspace. The U.S. military said the helicopters were protecting a patrol about one mile inside Afghanistan when Pakistani forces opened fire.

“The (helicopters) did not return fire but the ground forces fired suppressive fire at that outpost. The Pakistani forces then returned that fire. The whole exchange lasted about five minutes,” said an official with U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military operations in Afghanistan.

The U.S. forces were operating under NATO command. …

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Pakistan Leader Condemns Attacks from ‘Friends’ 

NEW YORK – Angered by U.S. raids into Pakistan in search of terrorists, Pakistan’s new president warned Thursday that his country cannot allow its territory to “be violated by our friends.”

After placing a picture of his assassinated wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, on the podium, President Asif Ali Zardari told world leaders that such attacks strengthen the extremists the United States and others are trying to destroy.

His speech at the U.N. General Assembly, which often emotionally described Pakistan’s battle against terrorists, comes at a tense moment in U.S.-Pakistan relations. …

“Unilateral actions of great powers should not inflame the passions of allies,” he said. …

Pakistani soldiers fired at U.S. reconnaissance helicopters along the Pakistan-Afghan border Thursday, officials said, sparking a ground battle between American and Pakistani soldiers. …

Nuclear-armed Pakistan is deemed crucial to U.S.-led efforts to battle extremists in South Asia. …

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IRAQ UPDATE

U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq

Latest identification

• Army 1st Lt. Thomas J. Brown, 26, Burke, Va.; died Tuesday in Salman Pak of wounds from small-arms fire; assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Baumholder, Germany.

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Security Developments in Iraq

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At U.N., Karzai Notes Afghan Tension with U.S.

‘Credibility’ of partnership is threatened by deaths of civilians, he warns

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, speaking at the United Nations General Assembly meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2008, said too many Afghan civilians are being killed by foreign bombing raids. (Photo credit: Mario Tama / Getty Images)

UNITED NATIONS – Afghanistan’s president on Wednesday decried civilian casualties in his country from foreign bombing raids, telling world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly that innocent deaths can seriously hurt legitimate efforts to fight terrorism.

U.S.-Afghan relations have suffered over the issue, and President Hamid Karzai said continuing casualties hurt “the credibility of the Afghan people’s partnership with the international community.”

The issue was propelled to the forefront of U.S.-Afghan relations when an Afghan commission found that an Aug. 22 U.S.-led operation in the western village of Azizabad killed 90 civilians, including 60 children. That finding was backed by a preliminary U.N. report, though the U.S. says it is still investigating. …

A violent year

Karzai’s comments come as Taliban attacks grow larger and more deadly. This has been the most violent year in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban’s hard-line Islamist government.

“Terrorist forces have significantly increased their attacks and brutality and enjoyed freedom in their sanctuaries,” Karzai said. …

At least 120 U.S. soldiers and 104 troops from other NATO nations have died already in 2008, both record numbers. Overall, more than 4,500 people — mostly militants — have died in attacks this year.

Karzai said Tuesday that he agreed with the senior U.S. general in Afghanistan, David McKiernan, who recently said there are not enough U.S. ground forces in the country. “The force is undermanned and understaffed,” Karzai said. …

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Pakistan Militants Threaten More Bombs

Pakistani schoolchildren are admitted to a hospital after they were injured in a suicide attack in Quetta, Pakistan on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2008. The suicide bomber killed an 11-year-old girl and wounded 11 troops, police said. (Photo credit: Arshad Butt / AP)

Sept. 24, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A militant group that claimed to be behind the deadly Marriott Hotel bombing in Pakistan’s capital threatened more attacks Wednesday, warning again that Pakistanis should stop cooperating with the United States.

In a cell phone message to reporters, the little known group calling itself “Fedayeen al-Islam” — “Islam commandos” — referred to the owner of the Marriott by name.

“All those who will facilitate Americans and NATO crusaders like (owner Sadruddin) Haswani, they will keep on receiving the blows,” said the message, which was in English. …

The group demanded that Pakistan break with Washington in an earlier message that claimed responsibility for Saturday’s truck bombing at the Marriott in Islamabad, a blast that killed 53 people and wounded more than 270. …

The U.S. has stepped up attacks on suspected militants in the frontier area, mostly by missiles fired from unmanned drones operating from Afghanistan. The incursions — especially a ground raid into South Waziristan by American commandos Sept. 3 — have angered many Pakistanis. …

Pakistani civilian leaders have condemned the cross-border operations by U.S. forces, while the army has vowed to defend Pakistan’s territory “at all cost.”

“We will not tolerate any act against our sovereignty and integrity in the name of the war against terrorism,” Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told journalists. “We are fighting extremism and terror not for any another country, but our own country. This is our own war.”

In the latest violence, a suicide bomber killed an 11-year-old girl and wounded 11 troops and some children in the frontier city of Quetta, officials said.

Security forces supported by helicopter gunships killed 20 militants in a second day of fighting near the town of Khar in another border area, Bajur, officials said. Just north of Khar, a roadside bomb killed two pro-government tribesmen and wounded several others.

Militant warlords have established virtual mini-states in the tribal belt, levying taxes and enforcing strict Taliban-style social codes and justice.

On Wednesday, a so-called “Peace Committee” executed four alleged murderers in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, a witness said. Din Muhammed said members of the committee used mosque loudspeakers to summon a crowd before the four were shot.

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IRAQ UPDATE

Death Toll from Northern Iraq Ambush Rises to 35

BAGHDAD — The death toll from an ambush of Iraqi security personnel northeast of Baghdad on Wednesday rose to 35 from 20, police said.

Gunmen killed policemen and members of U.S.-backed Sunni local patrol groups in the attack close to the city of Baquba in Diyala province, police said.

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Iraq’s Sunni Anti-Qaeda Patrols Fear for Future

SAMARRA, Iraq – At a checkpoint consisting of a wooden shack wrapped in steel sheets, five young Iraqis with AK-47 rifles have the task of stopping al Qaeda bombers striking the ancient city of Samarra. …

Such guards have been vital in helping cut violence across Iraq, but many say they now fear being abandoned as the Shi’ite-led government prepares to take control of them from the U.S. military in the coming months.

Called Awakening Councils or “Sahwas” in Arabic, the units led by local tribal sheikhs began turning against Sunni Islamist al Qaeda two years ago in western Anbar province. …

Baghdad has promised to take 20 percent of what the U.S. military estimates to be 100,000 guards across Iraq into the Iraqi security forces and give others civilian jobs or training.

But the guards, who get paid an average $300 a month by the U.S. military, are troubled about the future even though the government in Baghdad has publicly praised their contribution to improving security and said they would be looked after.

Some government officials eye the unofficial forces, which include many former Sunni Arab insurgents, with suspicion. Some guards fear they may be arrested because of their past. …

Some analysts fear that unless the Sahwas are looked after, they could again take up arms against the government.

The U.S. military will start handing control of the units to the government from October 1, when Baghdad will pay tens of thousands of guards in and around the capital. …

“If they disband us [said Abdul Jaleel Mehdi, 23], al Qaeda will come back, find us and kill us all. We won’t last long because they know our faces.” …

“We received an order from the government that all fighters will get jobs, but we don’t fully trust them 100 percent,” said Sunni tribal leader Suhail Latuf, commander of Samarra’s Awakening Council.

“We’ll have to see by their actions.”

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U.S.-Pakistan Relations Fray Over Alleged Attacks

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The Pakistani army said Wednesday it had found the wreckage of a suspected U.S. spy plane near the Afghan border, but denied claims that it had been shot down.

The incident comes amid strained ties between Washington and Islamabad over a series of missile strikes from American drones at suspected militants targets on the Pakistan side of the border.

Three Pakistani intelligence officials earlier said troops and tribesmen had shot down the aircraft late Tuesday near Jalal Khel, a village in Pakistan’s South Waziristan region. …

Confirmation of Pakistani forces firing on U.S. troops or aircraft could trigger a crisis in relations between Islamabad and Washington, who are close but uncomfortable allies in the American-led war on terrorism. …

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Attacks Kill 6 Police in Afghan Capital Kabul

Afghan police officers look for the belongings of their colleagues at the damaged police post after an explosion in the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2008. (Photo credit: Rafiq Maqbool / AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan – A police official says a bomb blast in the capital has wounded Kabul’s chief criminal investigator.

Zemerai Bashary says Wednesday’s bomb blast appears to have targeted Gen. Ali Shah Paktiawal, the head of criminal investigations for the Kabul police.

Bashary says Paktiawal was investigating the overnight killing of three officers at the checkpoint in Kabul’s western outskirts when a blast struck his team. Paktiawal was lightly wounded and three of his guards were killed. …

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IRAQ UPDATE

Medics tend to an Iraqi man injured after a roadside bomb detonated on Sept. 23, 2008 in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad. An improvised explosive device (IED) exploded on a street injuring eight people. (Photo credit: STR / AFP / Getty Images)

U.S. Troops Accidentally Kill Sunni Leader

BAGHDAD – American soldiers accidentally shot and killed the leader of a local U.S.-allied Sunni group Tuesday after coming under attack in a volatile area north of Baghdad, the military said.

The shooting comes a week before the Shiite-led Iraqi government begins to assume authority over the Sunni groups known as the Sons of Iraq, or Awakening Councils. The military has credited the Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq as a key factor in the sharp decline in violence over the past year.

The head of the group in Siniyah, Jassim al-Garrout, was killed after he rushed to the site of an ambush against U.S. forces in the area, which lies between the northern oil-hub of Beiji and Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, according to witnesses and police.

One of al-Garrout’s comrades said the group would demand an apology from the Americans.

“The Awakening Councils have become targets of al-Qaida, the government and sometimes even the U.S. forces. We do not know our fate and we are feeling lost,” Farooq Sami said.

“We are undertaking the task of combating terrorists, yet we are left sometimes unpaid and without money. We have participated in maintaining peace and security in our area, yet we sometimes do not get our salaries.”

Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, said Monday that the Iraqi government will begin next week paying the salaries of about 54,000 of the mostly Sunni fighters in the province surrounding Baghdad. …

Separately, an American soldier was shot to death Tuesday in an attack about 15 miles southeast of Baghdad, the military said.

At least 4,170 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

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U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq

Latest death:

The latest identification reported by the military:

• Army Staff Sgt. Matthew J. Taylor, 25, Charleston, S.C.; died Sunday in Baghdad of wounds suffered from small-arms fire; assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Polk, La.

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Security Developments in Iraq

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2 Bombs Hit Baghdad, Killing 1 and Wounding 7

Attacks targeted Iraqi police and army patrols

U.S. soldiers secure the site of a car bomb explosion on Sept. 22, 2008 in the Karrada district of Baghdad, Iraq. (Photo credit: Wathiq Khuzaie / AP — Getty Images)

 
Sept. 23, 2008

BAGHDAD – Two roadside bombs apparently targeting Iraqi security forces struck separate areas of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least one civilian and wounding seven others, Iraqi officials said.

The first explosion occurred about 9 a.m. in northern Baghdad as a police patrol passed through the area, but it missed its target and hit a civilian car instead, wounding four people, a police officer said.

Another roadside bomb struck near an Iraqi army patrol in central Baghdad, killing one civilian and wounding three others, according to police and hospital officials. …

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U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq

As of Monday, Sept. 22, 2008, at least 4,169 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. …

Latest deaths

• A soldier was killed Sunday by small-arms fire in Baghdad.

Latest identifications

Seven soldiers died Thursday when their helicopter went down in the vicinity of Tallil. Killed were:

• Chief Warrant Officer Corry A. Edwards, 38, Kennedale, Texas
• Sgt. Daniel M. Eshbaugh, 43, Norman, Okla.
• Staff Sgt. Anthony L. Mason, 37, Springtown, Texas
• 1st Sgt. Julio C. Ordonez, 54, San Antonio
• Chief Warrant Officer Brady J. Rudolf, 37, Oklahoma City
• Cpl. Michael E. Thompson, 23, Harrah, Okla.
• Capt. Robert Vallejo II, 28, Richland Hills, Texas.

Edwards, Mason, Ordonez and Vallejo were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 149th Aviation, 36th Combat Aviation Brigade, Texas Army National Guard, Grand Prairie, Texas. Eshbaugh, Rudolph and Thompson were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 149th Aviation, 36th Combat Aviation Brigade, Oklahoma National Guard, Lexington, Okla.

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Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq on Monday, Sept. 22, 2008, as reported by Reuters.

NEAR BAQUBA – Police found three mass graves containing tens of bodies in two areas south of Baquba, 40 miles northeast of Baghdad, the government said in a statement. Numerous mass graves have been found in Iraq in the past year, often containing victims of a wave of sectarian violence that swept the country during 2006-2007.

BALAD RUZ – Police arrested seven members of a suicide cell near Balad Ruz, 55 miles northeast of Baghdad, the government said in a statement.

MOSUL – A morgue in the city of Mosul received two bodies with gunshot wounds, police said.

BAGHDAD – The Iraqi army killed two gunmen and arrested 81 others in the last 24 hours in different parts of the country, the Defense Ministry said.

BAGHDAD – A car bomb killed at least two people and wounded five others in the Karrada district of central Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – A mortar bomb killed one person and wounded four others in western Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – A car bomb wounded two people when it exploded near an Iraqi army patrol in Jamiaa district in western Baghdad, police said.

MOSUL – Gunmen killed two brothers and wounded a third when they opened fire in a market in Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, on Sunday, police said.

SUWAYRA – Police recovered a body showing signs of torture from the Tigris River in Suwayra, 30 miles southeast of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – A U.S. soldier died after a small-arms fire attack on his patrol in Baghdad.

An Iraqi mother weeps over the body of her dead daughter outside the morgue in the city of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, on Sept. 22, 2008. According to witnesses the 3-year-old child was shot dead by accident when a roadside bomb detonated as an Iraqi army patrol drove past. The army opened fire and a civilian car carrying the child and her family was hit. (Photo credit: STR / AFP / Getty Images)

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AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN NEWS

2 Afghan Officials Killed in Bomb Blast

Sept. 23, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan – Police say a roadside bomb has killed a district chief and a police chief in southern Afghanistan. …

Militants regularly attack Afghan and foreign troops with roadside bombs. Southern Afghanistan is the center of the Taliban-led insurgency. More than 4,500 people — mostly militants — have died so far in the insurgency-related violence this year.

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60 Die in Pakistan Militant Crackdown

Sept. 23, 2008

KHAR, Pakistan – Security forces backed by helicopter gunships and artillery killed more than 60 insurgents in northwest Pakistan in offensives aimed at denying al-Qaida and Taliban militants safe havens, officials said Tuesday.

The attacks come amid intense U.S. pressure on Pakistan to crack down on militants blamed for attacks both at home and on coalition forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

A truck bombing over the weekend at a luxury hotel in the capital Islamabad that killed 53 people underscored the threat extremists pose to the nuclear-armed nation. …

Some officials believe the weekend bombing of the Marriott Hotel may have been a response to the Bajur operations, which the army says has left more than 700 suspected militants dead.

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Pakistani Troops Reportedly Fire on U.S. Helicopters

Sept. 22, 2008

The helicopters did not return fire and re-entered Afghan airspace without landing, the officials said. …

A spate of suspected U.S. missile strikes into Pakistan’s border region and a raid by U.S. commandos said to have killed 15 people have angered and embarrassed Pakistani leaders while signaling Washington’s impatience with Pakistani efforts to clear out militant havens.

Pakistani Shiite Muslims burn flags of Israel and the United States to condemn the alleged U.S. strikes in Pakistani tribal areas along Afghanistan border, Monday, Sept 22, 2008 in Karachi, Pakistan. (Photo credit: Shakil Adil / AP)

During a recent speech to Parliament, newly elected President Asif Ali Zardari, who is considered U.S.-friendly, warned that no country would be allowed to violate Pakistan’s sovereignty in the name of the war on terror. …

A week ago, U.S. helicopters reportedly landed near Angoor Ada, a border village in nearby South Waziristan, but returned toward Afghanistan after troops fired warning shots.

A Pakistani military spokesman said last week that troops had orders to open fire in case of another cross-border raid by foreign troops.

Update: U.S. denies helicopter incursion into Pakistan

Related story: Narrow miss for Pakistan’s leaders – A top Pakistani official said Monday that the country’s leaders were due to dine at the luxury hotel devastated in a weekend bombing, but changed the venue at the last minute. …

A Pakistani army soldier stands beside a crater caused by Saturday’s truck bombing at Marriott Hotel in Islamabad. (Photo credit: Anjum Naveed / AP)

Other Afghanistan/Pakistan News

Top Afghan diplomat abducted in Pakistan (Reuters, Sept. 22, 2008) — Gunmen kidnapped Afghanistan’s top diplomat to Pakistan on Monday after killing his driver, underscoring worsening security in the nuclear-armed country two days after a suicide bomber killed 53 people. …

Taliban kidnap over 140 Afghan laborers (Reuters, Sept. 22, 2008) – Taliban insurgents have abducted more than 140 laborers involved in the construction of a military base in Afghanistan’s western province of Farah, the provincial governor said on Monday. …

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IRAQ UPDATE

Blasts in Baghdad Kill at Least 3

 
Sept. 22, 2008

BAGHDAD – A car bomb struck a mainly Shiite area in central Baghdad on Monday, killing at least two Iraqis, officials said. …

Iraqi police and hospital officials said two men and a woman were killed and seven people were wounded in the attack, which heavily damaged nearby cars and shops. …

Earlier Monday, a mortar round apparently aimed at an Iraqi military base missed its target and slammed into a house in northwestern Baghdad, killing one man and wounding four others, police said.

An American soldier was killed Sunday when his patrol came under small-arms fire in Baghdad, the military said Monday. With that announcement, at least 4,169 members of the U.S. military have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. …

Late update: At least 8 killed in bombings (AP, Sept. 22, 2008) – A bomb hidden under a pile of trash struck children playing soccer near the northern city of Mosul on Monday, killing at least five of the youths, Iraqi officials said. …

Iraqi police stand at the scene of a car bombing in a mainly Shiite area in central Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Sept. 22, 2008. The car bomb that was parked near a residential building across the street from a government office killed at least three and wounded seven other people, police said. (Photo: Hadi Mizban / AP)

Security Developments in Iraq

KIRKUK – A suicide truck bomb killed three people and wounded 23 when it exploded at a police checkpoint in the city of Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad, a local police chief, Brigadier-General Sarhat Qader, said. 

NEAR JALAWLA – A roadside bomb struck a minibus, killing three occupants and wounding six others near Jalawla, 70 miles northeast of Baghdad, police said. 

BAGHDAD – Gunmen killed a senior Interior Ministry official, Brigadier-General Adel Abbas, and his driver in a drive-by shooting in the Adil district, western Baghdad, police said. 

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb wounded seven people, including three Iraqi soldiers, when it targeted their patrol in the Waziriya district, northern Baghdad, police said. 

BAGHDAD – Six people, including three policemen, were wounded when a roadside bomb detonated near a police patrol in the Zaafaraniya district, southeastern Baghdad, police said. 

BAGHDAD – Four civilians and one policeman were wounded by a roadside bomb in al-Maghreb street, northern Baghdad, police said. 

BAGHDAD – Police found four decomposed bodies in Baghdad, including three women and the decapitated body of a man in southern Baghdad’s Saidiya district, on Saturday, police said. They also found the body of a recently shot man in another part of the capital. 

MOSUL – Gunmen killed a woman on Saturday just outside her house in western Mosul, police said. 

KUT – Gunmen killed an off-duty policeman on Saturday in 95 miles southeast of Baghdad, police said. 

MOSUL – Gunmen killed a man who runs a local electricity generator on Saturday in northern Mosul, police said.

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Bomb a Warning to Pakistan: End U.S. Alliance

Aamir Qureshi / AFP – Getty Images

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The brazen truck-bombing of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad on Saturday is a warning from Islamic militants to Pakistan’s new civilian leadership that it should end already-strained cooperation with the United States to pursue al-Qaida and the Taliban, analysts said.

The massive bomb targeting an American hotel chain killed at least 50 people and wounded hundreds, setting a fire that blazed for hours and gutted most of the five-story luxury hotel.

“The attack on the hotel is a message to the Pakistani leadership: End all cooperation with the Americans or pay the price,” said Brian Glyn Williams, associate professor of Islamic history at the University of Massachusetts. “Both sides see Pakistan as a vital battlefield in their global struggle and clearly Pakistani civilians are paying the price for being in the middle of this struggle,” he told The Associated Press. …

Terrorism researcher Evan Kohlmann told The AP it is almost certainly either Al-Qaida or Pakistani Taliban.

“We are looking at either Al Qaida or Tehrik-e-Taliban (Pakistan),” Kohlmann said. “It seems that someone has a firm belief that hotels like the Marriott are serving as ‘barracks’ for western diplomats and intel personnel, and they are gunning pretty hard for them.” …

Cross-border raids anger Pakistanis

The U.S. has angered Pakistanis with increasing cross-border raids by its forces from Afghanistan to root out Islamic militants entrenched in the lawless and rugged tribal regions along the border.

Local newspapers are filled with outrage from columnists who accuse the United States of treating Pakistan as a surrogate, flaunting its sovereignty and killing innocents. Civilian casualties from the U.S. assaults have prompted tribesmen in the volatile frontier to threaten revolt. …

Osama bin Laden and his top deputies are believed to be hiding in the border region and the U.S. claims al-Qaida and the Taliban have found a safe haven to regroup there. …

Related story

Czech ambassador, two Americans among 53 dead as truck bomb hits hotel

Farooq Naeem / AFP – Getty Images

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IRAQ UPDATE

Gunmen Kill Iraq Interior Ministry Official

Sept. 21, 2008

BAGHDAD – Iraqi officials say an interior ministry brigadier has been killed in a drive-by shooting in western Baghdad.

A police officer and an interior ministry official say gunmen killed Brig. Adel Abbas and his driver as they drove to work Sunday morning. …

In another attack, police and hospital officials say a finance ministry director was seriously wounded when a bomb exploded in his car, also in western Baghdad.

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Two Bombs Kill Six in Northern Iraq

BAGHDAD – Two bomb blasts killed six people and wounded 29 others in northern Iraq on Sunday, police said.

In Baghdad, gunmen killed a senior Interior Ministry official, Brigadier-General Adel Abbas, along with his driver in a drive-by shooting.

A suicide truck bomb killed three people and wounded 23 when it exploded at a police checkpoint in the northern city of Kirkuk, Brigadier-General Sarhat Qader, a local police chief, told Reuters. Kirkuk is 155 miles north of Baghdad.

Further south, a roadside bomb struck a minibus, killing three occupants and wounding six others on a road near the town of Jalawla in volatile Diyala province, police said. …

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Security Developments in Iraq

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