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Nov 13th, 2008


Iraqi Soldier Kills 2 U.S. Troops, Wounds 6

Elsewhere, suicide bombers strike Baghdad for third straight day

Men look at their destroyed vehicles at a parking ...
Men look at their destroyed vehicles at a parking lot after a bomb attack in Baghdad, Nov. 12, 2008. A parked car bomb killed four people and wounded many more on Sadoun street in central Baghdad, police said. (Photo credit: Mahmoud Raouf Mahmoud / Reuters)


Nov. 12, 2008

BAGHDAD — An Iraqi soldier Wednesday sprayed automatic weapons fire at U.S. soldiers at an Iraqi military base in Mosul, killing two and wounding six before he died in a hail of bullets, an American general said.

In Baghdad, bombers struck the capital for a third straight day, killing 23 people and wounding scores in a string of attacks in mostly Shiite areas. …

Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling, commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, told The Associated Press the “premeditated” attack occurred in a courtyard as the soldiers waited for their two lieutenants to finish a meeting with an Iraqi army company commander. …

Hertling said the attacker strolled into the courtyard carrying a Kalashnikov rifle and a drum of ammunition, walked to a corner, turned and opened fire. “One shot was aimed and the rest was literally a spray,” he said. …

Previous shooting in Mosul

It was the second such shooting in Mosul in a year, raising questions about the professionalism and preparedness of Iraqi security forces and their relations with their American partners.

Last December, an Iraqi soldier allegedly shot and killed a U.S. captain and a sergeant during a joint operation in Mosul, where al-Qaida and other Sunni insurgent groups still operate.

Tensions are running high in Mosul, where U.S. and Iraqi troops have been trying since last spring to rout insurgents from Iraq’s third largest city. The military campaign has also raised friction between the Arab population and Kurdish soldiers of the Iraqi army sent there to help restore order.

Also in Mosul, two Christian sisters were killed and their mother was wounded in an attack on their home Wednesday, police said. The attackers rigged the house with boobytraps and one Iraqi policeman was injured when he came to investigate the slayings, Hertling said.

Suicide bombings continue

As violence raged in Mosul, a string of bombings rocked Baghdad for the third consecutive day, killing 23 people and wounding about 90, police said. The Iraqi army acknowledged the rise in attacks and said it was taking measures to curb “the increasing number of terrorist attacks” in the city. …

Image: An Iraqi boy inspects a damaged car
Karim Kadim / AP

In the first nine days of November, there were at least 19 bombings in Baghdad, compared with 28 for all of October and 22 in September, according to an Associated Press tally. …

——

Bomb Rocks Afghan Government Office; 6 killed 42 wounded


Nov. 12, 2008

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber driving an oil tanker detonated his explosives outside an Afghan government office during a provincial council meeting Wednesday, killing at least six people and wounding 42, officials said.

The attack in this former Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan ripped through the council office, flattened five nearby homes and damaged the offices of the country’s intelligence service. The bomb dug a crater some 15 feet into the ground.

Six people died and 42 were wounded in the blast, said Rahmatullah Raufi, the governor of Kandahar province. Among the dead were two intelligence agents, a police officer and three civilians, Raufi said. …

——

Iran Test-Fires Precision, High-Speed Missile

Image: Iranian missile test
Iranian officials said the country test-fired this Sajjil ground-to-ground missile at an undisclosed location on Wednesday. In the past Iran has often boasted of developing new weapons systems only to be met with skepticism from Western defense analysts. (Photo credit: FARS NEWS via AFP — Getty Images)

AP and Reuters via MSNBC.com
Nov. 12, 2008

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran said it successfully test-fired a new generation of long range surface-to-surface missile on Wednesday — one that could easily strike as far away as southeastern Europe with greater precision than earlier models.

The Sajjil is a solid fuel high-speed missile with a range of about 1,200 miles, Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammed Najjar said on state television. At that range, it could easily strike Israel and go as far as southeastern Europe. …

Najjar said the missile was a defensive weapon and not a response to threats against Iran. He didn’t name any country, but Israel has recently threatened to take military action against Iran to stop Tehran from developing a nuclear bomb. Najjar said the missile was part of a “defensive, deterrent strategy … specifically with defensive objectives.” …

The name “Sajjil” means “baked clay,” a reference to a story in the Quran, Islam’s holy book, in which birds sent by God drive off an enemy army attacking the holy city of Mecca by pelting them with stones of baked clay. …

——

North Korea to Shut Border with South

Also won’t allow outside inspectors to take nuclear samples

South Korean labors work in front of the gate of S...
The South and North Korea Transit gate near the demilitarized zone at Goseong, east of Seoul, South Korea, is seen on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008. Pyongyang announced plans to “cut off all the overland passages” starting Dec. 1, 2008. (Photo credit: AP / Ahn Young-joon)


Nov. 12, 2008

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea’s military announced Wednesday it will shut the country’s border with the South on Dec. 1 — a marked escalation of threats against Seoul’s new conservative government at a time of heightened tension on the peninsula.

The military’s chief delegate to inter-Korean talks informed his South Korean counterpart that the North will “restrict and cut off” cross-border routes next month, state-run Korean Central News Agency said.

Analysts called it a political move designed to humiliate Seoul by hobbling a joint industrial park in the city of Kaesong, just across the border, that has served as a beacon of hope for reconciliation.

Relations between the two Koreas — separated by troops, tanks and one of the world’s most heavily armed borders since a three-year war that ended in a truce in 1953 — have been frosty since South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak took office in February.

Lee pledged to be tough with communist North Korea, an abrupt departure from his liberal predecessors’ decade-long policy of fostering reconciliation with aid and other concessions. …

The tension comes amid questions about the health of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Il. U.S. and South Korean officials say Kim, 66, suffered a stroke, but North Korea denies he was ever ill. …

Meanwhile, North Korea also said Wednesday that it won’t allow outside inspectors to take samples from its main nuclear complex to verify its accounting of past nuclear activities. …

Asia-Pacific video

North Korea halts border crossings (MSNBC, Nov. 12, 2008) — North Korea says it will “restrict and cut off all the overland passage” with South Korea beginning Dec. 1, 2008. MSNBC.com’s Dara Brown reports. (00:49)

——

Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq on Nov. 12, 2008, as reported by Reuters.

BAGHDAD – A car bomb and roadside bomb exploding in quick succession killed 12 people and wounded 60 in the Iraqi capital’s eastern New Baghdad district, police said.

BAGHDAD – A car bomb killed four people and wounded 13 others in the Shaab district of northern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD – A parked car bomb killed three people and wounded 12 others, including two policemen, in Sadoun street in central Baghdad. The U.S. military said no one had been killed.

MOSUL – An Iraqi soldier shot dead two U.S. troops at a joint U.S.-Iraqi security station in the Zenjili district of Mosul province, 240 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. military and Iraqi police said. The Iraqi soldier was killed in the incident, they said.

MOSUL – Gunmen killed two Christian sisters and wounded their mother in northern Mosul, police said.

BAGHDAD – The Iraqi army killed five militants and captured nine others hiding in an underground shelter on Wednesday during a regular operation against al Qaeda in the Himreen mountains area of Diyala province, the Defense Ministry said.

BAGHDAD – A bomb wounded seven people in the Shaab district of northern Baghdad, police said.

KIRKUK – Gunmen wearing army uniforms killed a civilian in a drive-by shooting in central Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

KIRKUK – A bomb attached to a car wounded Christian politician Ashur Yalda and his two bodyguards in Kirkuk on Tuesday, police said.

MOSUL – A roadside bomb wounded four people, including a policeman, in central Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad on Tuesday, police said.





10 Responses to “Iraqi Soldier Kills U.S. Troops”
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