War News for Thursday, March 18, 2010

Taliban Hit Back in Marja With a Campaign of Intimidation:

CIA director says secret attacks in Pakistan have hobbled al-Qaeda:


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: Six persons have been injured in an explosive charge blast in the capital Baghdad, a local security source said on Wednesday. “This evening, an improvised explosive device (IED) planted by unknown men in al-Waziriya neighborhood, northeastern Baghdad, hit a military convoy, wounding four civilians and two servicemen,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: Seven policemen were wounded late Wednesday by a bomb explosion in northern Baghdad, a police source said. “An improvised explosive device went off targeting a police vehicle patrol near Sahet Adan in al-Hourriya neighborhood, northern Baghdad,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#3: Unknown gunmen killed a woman on Thursday after storming her brother’s house in southern Baghdad, a police source said.

#4: A taxi driver was killed on Thursday by gunmen while driving his car in northeastern Baghdad, a police source said.

#5: Gunmen using silencers wounded an official working with the Iraq Human Rights ministry in the Ghazaliya district of western Baghdad, police said.


Karbala:
#1: Security forces defused an improvised explosive device on Thursday on the road that leads to a university in western Karbala, according to the media director of the Karbala police. “The 20kg-C4 bomb was placed on the highway leading to the Ahl al-Beit university in western Karbala,” Major Alaa al-GHanemi told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Shirqat:
#1: Two Iraq security officers were kidnapped and killed by an armed group in the district of Shirqat, 280 kilometers north of Baghdad, Iraqi police announced on Thursday. Iraqi police told the German Press Agency dpa "An armed group kidnapped the two men, one of whom was in the army and the other in the police, while they were driving in a private car near Shirqat, and killed them shortly after." "Both bodies were found decapitated near the village where the victims lived," police said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A suicide-bomber in southern Afghanistan blew himself up while putting on a vest of explosives, an official said. The explosion occurred in a house in Gereshk town in Helmand province Wednesday night. 'The blast also wounded a child,' a spokesperson for the local administration said.

#2: Several people were injured in blasts in southwest Pakistan's Balochistan on Thursday, local sources said. At least two persons were injured in a blast in Khuzdar, police said.

#3: Meanwhile, three people were injured in another blast near a school in Dera Bugti, a district located in the southwest of Balochistan province, police sources added. According to the police sources, unidentified men attached explosive device with a cycle and parked it at Achanak Chowk. Later, they detonated the explosive device with a remote control. As a result, three passerby suffered serious injuries. The injured were rushed to hospital.


MoD: Captain Martin Driver

DoD: Spc. Steven J. Bishop