Pakistani Troops Reportedly Fire on U.S. Helicopters

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

September 22, 2008

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan — Pakistani troops and tribesmen opened fire on two U.S. helicopters that crossed into the country from neighboring Afghanistan, intelligence officials said Monday. 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.

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.

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Other Afghanistan/Pakistan News

Narrow miss for Pakistan’s leaders — A Pakistani army soldier stands inside a crater caused by the Saturday, Sept. 20, 2008 truck bombing at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad. A top Pakistani official said the country’s leaders were due to dine at the luxury hotel devastated in the bombing, but changed the venue at the last minute.(Photo credit: Anjum Naveed / AP)

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. … Full story

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. … Full story

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IRAQ UPDATE

Blasts in Baghdad Kill at Least 3

September 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. …

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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. … Full story

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 credit: Hadi Mizban / AP)

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Security Developments in Iraq

Following are security developments in Iraq on Sunday, Sept. 21, 2008, as reported by Reuters.

MOSUL – A suicide truck bomb killed two policemen and wounded 40 others in Mosul, 240 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

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.