Military Resistance 8A5
[Thanks to Mark Shapiro, Military Resistance, who sent this in.]
IRAQ WAR REPORTS
Florida Soldier Killed By IED In Baghdad
January 07, 2010 U.S. Department of Defense News Release No. 009-10
Spc. David A. Croft Jr., 22, of Plant City, Fla., died Jan. 5 in Baghdad, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device and small arms fire. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
Resistance Hits Hit:
“A Series Of Bomb Attacks On Police”
7 January 2010 BBC & 06 Jan 2010 By HAMID AHMED, Associated Press Writer
Eight people have been killed in a series of bomb attacks on police in the Iraqi town of Hit, west of Baghdad, police say.
Four explosions appear to have been caused by bombs planted at the houses of prominent policemen.
It is the latest in a series of attacks on officials active in the drive to expel militant groups from Anbar province.
Six other people were said to have been injured in the attacks.
Bombers had put explosives around four houses in the middle of the night, and set them off shortly afterwards.
One of the main targets seems to have been Maj Walid Suleiman, a senior figure in the drive against insurgent groups in the area.
He was injured in the attack on his house, but at least four members of his immediate family were among those who died, according to local police.
A second explosion targeted the home of his father next door.
[Col. Fadhil] Nimrawi said a lawyer was killed by another bomb at his home and a fourth bomb exploded at the home of a police officer, injuring him as he slept.
More Iraqi Resistance Action
A police vehicle damaged in a roadside bomb attack in Kirkuk, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Jan. 4, 2010. (AP Photo/Emad Matti)
Jan 2 (Reuters) & TREND News Agency & Jan 4 By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press Writer & 06 Jan 2010 Reuters & By HAMID AHMED, Associated Press Writer
A roadside bomb wounded two policemen on patrol in western Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
In northeastern Iraq’s Diyala province, a bomb exploded near a police station, killing one policeman and injuring ten other people near the Iranian border, police and hospital officials said.
In the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, a pair of roadside bombs killed three people, including two of the city’s police chief’s guards. The first blast targeted a police convoy. Two guards of the city’s police chief were in the convoy and both were killed in the attack. The police chief was not in the convoy. Another roadside bomb targeting a police patrol went off minutes later, killing a policeman.
A sniper killed an officer at an Iraqi army checkpoint in Sadr City, northeast Baghdad, police said.
Two policemen were shot and killed Saturday by near the outskirts of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, security officials said, DPA reported.
Two car bombs exploded in the Bayaa district of southwest Baghdad, wounding two Iraqi soldiers, police said.
A roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi army checkpoint in eastern Mosul on Friday, seriously wounding one soldier, police said.
A bomb attached to a car killed an off-duty policeman and wounded two others in southern Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, on Friday, police said.
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U.S. Military Occupation APC Driving On Wrong Side Of Road Slaughters Iraq Family:
“The Americans Always Use The Wrong Side Of The Road. They Always Behave Like They’re The Only Ones On The Road, Without Respect For Other Vehicles”
“If Anyone Crosses Them, They Shoot And Don’t Care About The Consequences”
“What Does It Matter If One More Iraqi Dies In The Streets?”
January 6, 2010 By Hannah Allam, McClatchy Newspapers
HILLAH, Iraq — Dazed and blood-spattered, Badriya Hussein whispered prayers Wednesday over the blanket-covered bodies of her relatives on a highway south of Baghdad, where a U.S. military convoy that was traveling in the wrong lane had hit a passenger van.
She looked at the stricken American soldiers standing nearby.
“Why?” she asked. “Why?”
Minutes after the crash, the 18-ton armored personnel carrier — a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle — that struck the van was on its side, smoldering and with one side partially sheared off. The van was a mangled, bloody pile of wreckage with debris strewn for yards in every direction.
Iraqi forces and witnesses at the scene said the American convoy was on the wrong side of the road when the crash killed five members of Hussein’s family and injured seven more Iraqis and three American soldiers.
Iraqi Traffic Police Capt. Ahmed Mohamed Abdul Wahab, who oversees the area where the accident occurred, said he’d witnessed about 10 other fatal military-civilian collisions in the past three years involving U.S. forces driving on the wrong side of the road.
An hour later, down the same stretch of highway, a roadside bomb hit the same convoy, but it inflicted no casualties or major damage.
Americans rushed to fill the Iraqis’ requests for body bags.
Abdul Wahab, the Iraqi traffic captain, strode up to American Army Sgt. Jon Bricker, who was part of the U.S. convoy.
The men asked a McClatchy reporter to translate.
“Ask them, ask them! Why do they drive on the wrong side of the road?” Abdul Wahab demanded.
“Tell him, from me, that we are sorry,” Bricker said, pain evident on his face.
“What’s ‘sorry’? They keep doing it, so what good is ‘sorry’?” Abdul Wahab said.
“It’s a terrible tragedy,” Bricker said.
Abdul Wahab looked at the bodies and avoided eye contact with Bricker.
“There are no words,” Bricker said.
The Iraqi captain walked away.
“These were ordinary people, a family,” Abdul Wahab said over his shoulder, his face tight with grief.
Iraqi TV stations and international wire services immediately reported that Americans driving on the wrong side of the road had caused the fatal crash, with one channel inexplicably bumping the death toll to 19.
That rings true to Iraqis, all of whom seem to have stories about near misses with the hulking U.S. convoys that have ruled Iraq’s roads for nearly seven years.
“The Americans always use the wrong side of the road. They always behave like they’re the only ones on the road, without respect for other vehicles,” said Hameed Mohamed, a truck driver who transports construction materials up and down Iraq’s highways.
“Who can stop them at checkpoints? Who can make them accountable?
“They respect neither the Iraqi police nor the military.
“If anyone crosses them, they shoot and don’t care about the consequences, because what does it matter if one more Iraqi dies in the streets?”
AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS
Oklahoma Soldier Killed In Afghanistan
U.S. Army, Pvt. John P. Dion of Shattuck, Okla., 19, was killed in an attack by insurgents in Afghanistan on Sunday. (AP Photo/U.S. Army)
Illinois Airman Killed Near Kandahar
U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Bradley Smith, 24, of Troy, Illinois, was killed Jan. 3, 2010, by a bomb blast near Kandahar in Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 10th Air Support Operations Squadron out of Fort Riley, Kan. (AP Photo/Family photo provided by the Bethel Baptist Church)
Oregon Sgt. Killed In Afghanistan
Sgt. Joshua A. Lengstorf of Yoncalla, Ore., was killed in an attack by insurgents in Afghanistan on Jan 3., 2009. Lengstorf was assigned to Fort Carson’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, part of the 4th Infantry Division) (AP Photo/U.S. Army)
Indiana Soldier Killed In Afghanistan
Spc. Brian R. Bowman of Crawfordsville, Ind., was killed in an attack by insurgents in Afghanistan on Jan 3., 2009. Bowman was assigned to Fort Carson’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, part of the 4th Infantry Division) (AP Photo/U.S. Army)
2,102 Wounded In Afghan Fighting, “With More Than Half Of Those Unable To Return To Duty”
Jan 6, 2010 By Gina Cavallaro, Staff writer, Army Times
As of Dec. 20, there had been 305 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan in 2009, the large majority of those due to hostile action.
The number of wounded as of the same date for 2009 was 2,102, with more than half of those unable to return to duty.
A month-by-month breakdown using data compiled by Army Times shows that in 2009, the highest number of wounded and dead in Afghanistan occurred from June, with 210 wounded and killed through October, when 318 were listed as wounded or killed.
October was the deadliest month for U.S. troops, with 50 killed in hostile action; but September saw the most wounded with 457 taken out of the fight.
4 U.S. Troops Killed In Afghanistan
January 4, 2010 By Laura King, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan — Military officials today reported the year’s first U.S. combat casualties in Afghanistan -- four troops killed a day earlier in the country’s violent south.
The location of the latest deaths was not specified, but most Western troops in the south are based in the provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, where the Taliban movement is the strongest.
Waveland Native Killed By IED
January 4, 2010 6 News
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Ind. -- An Army medic who grew up in Indiana was killed while serving in Afghanistan Sunday.
Pfc. Brian Bowman, 24, a native of Waveland, was killed along with three other soldiers by an improvised explosive device, 6News’ Tanya Spencer reported.
Bowman, who was stationed in Ft. Carson, Colo., was married to Casie Carter, of Crawfordsville, and that his parents also live in Crawfordsville
The family will be flying to Dover Air Force Base to receive his remains Monday evening.
Soldier From 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment Killed In Nad E-Ali
4 Jan 10 Military Operations
It is with sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the death of a soldier from 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment.
The soldier was killed as a result of an explosion that happened whilst on a foot patrol in the Nad e-Ali area of Helmand province during the afternoon of 3 January 2010.
Nine Foreign Soldiers Wounded In Nangrahar, Probably American
2010-01-06 AP & VOA
KABUL: An explosion tore through a group of foreign soldiers visiting a U.S.-funded road project Wednesday, killing a policeman and wounding scores, including at least three American troops, officials said.
Afghan officials say some of their security officers also suffered injuries.
The Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement that the blast in Nangrahar province in Afghanistan’s east occurred when a passing police vehicle hit a mine.
Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, the spokesman for the provincial governor, told the AP earlier that the wounded included three U.S. soldiers.
NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said nine of its soldiers were wounded, but could not specify their nationalities.
Abdulzai said the soldiers were visiting a road construction project funded by the United States.
“Possible”?
Governor Of Khost Wounded By Bomb In His “Heavily-Guarded Office” Trash Container:
“A Possible Sign Of The Insurgents’ Increasing Ability To Penetrate Areas Seen As Secure”
Six More Officials Wounded By Exploding “Rubbish Bin”
And Head Of Security Company Killed in Gardez
Jan 7 AFP & BBC & Reuters & New York Times
A bomber detonated his explosive-filled jacket in front of a branch of the Kabul Bank in Gardez, capital of Paktia province, said Rohullah Samon, a spokesman for the Paktia governor.
The target appeared to be a private security convoy passing at the time.
“The head of a security company... was moving with his convoy when he was attacked by a bomber wearing a vest,” Samon said.
The dead included the security company manager, allied to foreign troops, and three of his guards. The wounded included two border police officials.
A purported Taliban spokesman, calling himself Zabuhulla Mujahid and speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location, told AFP the militants were responsible for both Gardez and Khost attacks.
The militant group claimed responsibility for the Gardez attack, and also an incident earlier Thursday when a bomb planted in a rubbish bin wounded the acting governor of the eastern province of Khost and six other officials.
The acting governor of Khost, Tahir Khan Sabri, and several provincial officials were wounded by a blast in Sabri’s heavily-guarded office, a possible sign of the insurgents’ increasing ability to penetrate areas seen as secure.
Shards of glass injured seven people including acting governor Tahir Khan Sabari, the interior ministry said.
“Behind that wall, which was close to the meeting hall, was garbage in which explosives were detonated,” news agency AFP quoted Mohammad Yaquob, acting Khost police chief, as saying.
“There was a big bang but the wall is still standing,” he added.
We detonated the bomb that hit the meeting hall of the governor’s house in Khost,” he said, later adding with reference to Gardez: “We killed four people and wounded three, including the head of the security company.”
Crowd Of Hundreds Yells “Death To Obama, Death To America”