Current Events and the Psychology of Politics
Loading

Featured Posts        



categories        



Links        



archives        



meta        




Feb 25th, 2009


Blast Kills 4 U.S. Troops, Afghan Civilian


Feb. 24, 2009

KABUL — Four U.S. soldiers and an Afghan civilian working for them were killed in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb, the U.S. military said. …

Some 38,000 U.S. troops are currently serving in Afghanistan alongside another 30,000 from 40 other mostly NATO nations. …

President Barack Obama last week ordered 17,000 more U.S. troops deployed in Afghanistan to reinforce mainly British, Canadian and Dutch forces in south of the country who are locked in a stalemate with the Taliban insurgents there.

Commanders predict violence will rise in Afghanistan this year as the new troops venture into new areas of the south and try to enforce security ahead of presidential polls on August 20.

——

U.S. Soldier, Interpreter Die in Iraq Police Attack


Feb. 24, 2009

BAGHDAD — Officials say an American soldier has died after an attack on U.S. troops in northern Iraq.

They say two policemen opened fire on U.S. soldiers visiting an Iraqi police station. An Iraqi interpreter was also killed. Three Americans were wounded.

It was the fourth such shooting in the Mosul area in just over a year purportedly involving Iraqi security forces, raising concerns about infiltration among the police ranks in an area considered the last urban stronghold of Sunni insurgents.

Attackers flee in car

A police spokesman says the attackers fled the area in a car. A manhunt is under way.

The U.S. military confirmed that one interpreter was killed while four U.S. soldiers and another interpreter were wounded by small-arms fire as they were holding a meeting at an Iraqi police station about 2 p.m. in Mosul. …

The latest attack comes just over two weeks after a suicide car bomber struck a U.S. patrol in Mosul, killing four American soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter in the deadliest single attack against U.S. forces in nine months.

With violence unrelenting in Mosul, U.S. and Iraqi forces launched a new military offensive dubbed Operation New Hope aimed at rooting out al-Qaida and other Sunni insurgents in the city and the surrounding Ninevah province.

Several previous operations have failed to quell the violence in the volatile area, where insurgents remain active and ethnic tensions between Kurds and mainly Sunni Arabs have been on the rise.

Other attacks on Americans by Iraqi security forces

On Nov. 25, two U.S. troops — a Marine and a soldier on a transition team working with the Iraqis — were killed when a gunman in an Iraqi army uniform opened fire while they were distributing aid southwest of Mosul.

An Iraqi soldier also ambushed U.S. soldiers in a courtyard of an Iraqi military base in a dangerous Sunni Arab neighborhood in Mosul on Nov. 12, killing two Americans and wounding six before he died in the subsequent gunbattle.

And in December 2007, an Iraqi soldier also allegedly shot and killed a U.S. captain and a sergeant during a joint operation in Mosul.

The most recent attack in Mosul comes a day after three U.S. soldiers and an interpreter were killed during fighting in Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad.

At least 4,250 members of the U.S. military who have died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.





2 Responses to “Americans Killed in Afghanistan”
  1. Immelman for Congress » Blog Archive » Iraq Set to Elect Pro-Iran Leader Says:

    […] Americans Killed in Afghanistan and Iraq […]

  2. Immelman for Congress » Blog Archive » Iraq-Afghanistan Casualties Says:

    […] Americans Killed in Afghanistan and Iraq […]

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.