Summary: Weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, compiled from U.S. Department of Defense news releases and iCasualties.org. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 31, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that Afghans took to the streets to protest civilian casualties, chanting “Death to Obama, Down with Karzai!” at the same time as attacks in Afghanistan killed eight American civilians including CIA officers, four Canadian soldiers, and a Canadian journalist. Meanwhile, coordinated explosions in Iraq killed 23 people and wounded an Iraqi provincial governor in the worst violence there in months.
Summary: In an intensifying wave of sectarian violence against Christians in Iraq, militants attacked at least four Christian homes with a combination of grenades and bombs, killing two people and sending fear into the already terrified Christian community. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 30, 2009, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Summary: Iraq Body Count, a British group monitoring Iraqi civilian deaths, said in its 2010 annual report that the number of fatalities has dropped slightly since 2009 but warned of lingering, low-intensity conflict in the years ahead. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 29, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that an Afghan soldier killed a U.S. service member and wounded two Italian soldiers in western Afghanistan, while Pakistani authorities appealed for calm after a bombing against a Shiite Muslim procession marking the holy day of Ashoura killed 43 in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi.
Summary: Fuad Mohamed “Shongole” Qalaf, leader of al-Shabab, Somalia’s al-Qaida-linked Islamist insurgency, is threatening to attack America. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 28, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that in the midst of two unfinished wars — Afghanistan and Iraq — the United States had quietly opened a third, largely covert, war front against Al Qaeda in Yemen.
Summary: The 101st Airborne Division is seeing its worst casualties in a decade as the U.S. surge in Afghanistan turns 2010 into the deadliest year of the war for the NATO coalition. Meanwhile, twin suicide bombings rocked a government compound in Iraq’s western city of Ramadi, killing 17 people and wounding more than 50. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 27, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that Pat Forte fought back courageously after suffering a setback around Easter 2009 with a relapse of thymic carcinoid, sustained by his strong Christian faith, the prayers and support of friends, and excellent medical care at the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center.
Summary: In a matter of weeks, with a new Republican-controlled House of Representatives, Congress will go from trying to put illegal aliens on a path to citizenship to debating whether children born to parents who are in the country illegally should continue to enjoy automatic U.S. citizenship. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 26, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that U.S. agencies were looking into whether al-Qaida extremists in Yemen directed Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and provided him with the explosives used in the failed bombing of Northwest Flight 253 over Detroit.
Summary: Pope Benedict XVI’s 2010 Christmas message … “Urbi et Orbi” … “To the City and to the World” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 25, 2009, Aubrey Immelman featured Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 Christmas message and posted the Immelman family’s 2009 Christmas greeting. In a rare second post for the date, Immelman reported separately that the terror alert level was raised when a Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, tried to light an explosive powder aboard a commercial jetliner before it landed in Detroit.
Summary: Official NORAD Santa Tracker … Tracking Santa Claus on his journey around the world on Christmas Eve. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 24, 2009, Aubrey Immelman featured NORAD’s Santa Tracker.
Summary: North Korea’s minister of armed forces, Kim Yong Chun, said its military was prepared to wage a “holy war” against South Korea using its “nuclear deterrent” in response to what he called Seoul’s “intentional drive to push the situation to the brink of war.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 23, 2009, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Summary: South Korea has mobilized troops, tanks, helicopters, and fighter jets for its largest-ever wintertime military drills in a show of force that comes a month after North Korea’s deadly shelling of Yeonpyeong Island. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 22, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported on the release of the 2010 election cycle’s first poll in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District race for U.S. Representative. The survey, conducted December 17-20, 2009, showed that 53% of U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s constituents approved of the job she was doing.