[NYTr] Assorted Carnage Reports, Irag, Afghanistan

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Reuters - Sep 26, 2007
http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?rpc=401&type=topNews&storyID=2007-09-26T130754Z_01_L15544758_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-IRAQ-COL.XML&archived=False

Series of bombs kill 21 in north Iraq

By Dominic Evans and Aseel Kami

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Suspected al Qaeda militants are stepping up
attacks in Iraq, the U.S. military said on Wednesday, as a spate of
bombings in the north of the country killed 21 people and wounded
dozens.

"There has indeed been an increase in violence in the last few days,
largely in areas in which al Qaeda in Iraq operates and with al Qaeda
in Iraq signatures, as they have sought to ramp up attacks," spokesman
Major-General Kevin Bergner said.

Bombers struck across northern Iraq on Wednesday, including one suicide
bombing which targeted a tribal leader near the town of Sinjar. Ten
people were killed and nine were wounded including the tribal figure,
Sheikh Kanan al-Juhaimur.

At the start of Ramadan two weeks ago al Qaeda vowed to escalate
attacks throughout the Muslim holy month. It has specifically warned it
would target tribal leaders cooperating with security forces.

"This was an increase that was actually expected some weeks ago given
past upturns in violence during Ramadan," Bergner told a news
conference, adding the number of attacks was down from levels seen last
year and roughly in line with 2005.

In the city of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, residents
reported hearing four explosions in one hour.

Police said three people were killed and 47 were wounded when a suicide
bomber hit a government building under construction. Most of the
victims were builders.

Two car bombs at army checkpoints in the east of the city killed one
person and wounded two. Police said they killed another would-be
suicide bomber and defused his explosives.

In the town of Shirqat, south of Mosul, two car bombs targeting local
police killed seven people and wounded five, police said.

"We are continuing our efforts to suppress (the violence) and keep the
pressure on the extremist networks," Bergner said.

Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility this month for killing Sheikh
Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, leader of a Sunni Arab tribal alliance in
western Iraq which joined forces with the U.S. military to drive al
Qaeda out of much of that vast region.

In the most serious recent attack, a suicide bomber killed 26 people
including the police chief of the city of Baquba on Monday in a mosque
compound where local Shi'ite and Sunni Arab leaders were holding
reconciliation talks.

WEAPONS FIND

Bergner also displayed explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) which he
said were discovered by Iraqi and U.S. soldiers on Tuesday and which he
said were being stored by a militant group with links to Iran.

EFPs are a particularly deadly armor-piercing bomb which the United
States says Iran is supplying to Shi'ite militias in Iraq to attack
American troops -- a charge denied by Tehran.

"This weapons cache was supporting criminals in the Diwaniya area
associated with groups that have relied in the past on support from
Iranian sources," Bergner said.

Washington, already at odds with Tehran over Iran's nuclear program,
has repeatedly accused Iran of arming Shi'ite militias to attack U.S.
troops in Iraq.

Last week American soldiers arrested an Iranian man they accused of
smuggling roadside bombs into Iraq and training foreign fighters. The
U.S. military said he was a member of the Qods Force of Iran's
Revolutionary Guards. Iranian and Iraqi officials said the man was a
member of a trade delegation.

Tensions between Iran and the United States were already high over the
arrest by U.S. forces of five Iranians in the Kurdish city of Arbil
earlier this year.

Alongside the EFPs, Bergner showed what he said were 81 mm Iranian
mortar rounds, some made in 2001 and others in 2006. "The only country
that makes an 81 mm mortar is Iran," he said.

(Additional reporting by David Clarke, Mariam Karouny and Aws Qusay)

© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved

                                ***

Reuters - Sep 24, 2007
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KAM632592.htm


Security Reports - Iraq - Sep 36, 2007

Sept 26 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Iraq at 1700
GMT on Wednesday.

* denotes new or updated item.

* BAGHDAD - Two car bombs killed 32 people and wounded 28 shortly
before dusk in Bayaa, a mainly Shi'ite district in southwestern
Baghdad, police said.

* A roadside bomb outside a Sunni mosque in the town of Abi Khasib,
five miles (8 km) south of Basra, killed four people, police and a
Sunni political party said.

SHIRQAT - Two car bombs killed seven people and wounded five in the
town of Shirqat, 300 km (190 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. The
first one targeted a police patrol in a crowded market and the second
exploded near a police station.

MOSUL - A suicide truck bomber targeting a court under construction
killed three workers and wounded 47 others in Mosul, 390 kilometres
(240 miles) north of Baghdad, Nineveh police chief Major-General Wathiq
al-Hamadani said.

MOSUL - Two car bombs at army checkpoints in the east of Mosul killed
one person and wounded two. Police said they killed another would-be
suicide bomber and defused his explosives.

BAGHDAD - A U.S soldier was killed during a small-arms fire attack
while conducting combat operations in eastern Baghdad on Tuesday, the
U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi army killed seven insurgents and arrested 47 during
the last 24 hours in different parts of Iraq, the Defence Ministry said.

NEAR SINJAR - A suicide car bomber killed 10 people and wounded nine in
an attack targeting a tribal leader near the town of Sinjar in
northwest Iraq, local officials said.

NEAR BAQUBA - The body of a three-old boy was found strangled in an
irrigation channel in a village near Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of
Baghdad, police said.

MUSSAYAB - U.S. forces killed three insurgents and detained two other
suspects during operations targeting al Qaeda leaders in Mussayab, 60
km (40 miles) south of Baghdad, on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - The U.S. forces killed three insurgents and detained eight
suspected insurgents during operations targeting al Qaeda in Iraq
members in Baghdad, Kirkuk and Tikrit, the U.S military said.

HAWIJA - Three civilians were wounded when a grenade was thrown at an
Iraqi army patrol in the town of Hawija, 70 km (40 miles) southwest of
Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - U.S. forces captured an Iraqi member of the Iran-backed
Special Groups, wanted for suspected insurgent activity. They also
detained three others during operations in Baghdad, the U.S. military
said.

BAGHDAD - Eight bodies were found in different parts of Baghdad on
Tuesday, police said.

ISKANDARIYA - Gunmen shot dead two men in separate incidents on Tuesday
in the town of Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police
said.

LATIFIYA - Police said they found the body of a man shot in the head in
the town of Latifiya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad.

                              ***

Afghanistan: Occupation Claims 170 "Taliban" killed, ONE Occupation
Soldier 

AFP via Yahoo - Sep 26, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070926/ts_afp/afghanistanunrest

170 rebels, foreign soldier killed in Afghan clashes

by Sardar AhmadWed Sep 26, 7:53 AM ET

NATO and US-led troops backed up by warplanes said Wednesday they had
killed nearly 170 Taliban in two major battles in southern Afghanistan,
while a US-led coalition soldier also died.

The heaviest of the fighting with the Islamic insurgents erupted on
Tuesday in the volatile southern province of Helmand, a Taliban
stronghold, and continued into Wednesday, the coalition said.

"The initial estimate by the ground force commander assessed that more
than 104 insurgents were killed thus far in the engagement," it said in
a statement. The figures could not be verified independently.

A soldier with the 15,000-strong US-dominated coalition was also killed
and four wounded, it said. The nationalities of the foreign soldiers
were not announced.

The fighting erupted during an Afghan and coalition patrol aimed at
clearing an "extensive trench system" near the Taliban-controlled
district centre of Musa Qala in Helmand, Afghanistan's main
opium-growing province.

More than 65 rebels were killed late Tuesday in a similar battle in the
neighbouring province of Uruzgan, another hotbed for the Taliban
insurgents, said a separate NATO-led force which has around 40,000
troops.

NATO warplanes and artillery supported the Afghan and NATO forces on
the ground, it said.

"Precision-guided munitions were employed on positively identified
Taliban positions, killing more than 65 insurgents," the International
Security Assistance Force (ISAF) statement said.

There have been several major clashes in southern Afghanistan in the
past few weeks during which scores of rebels have been killed.

The latest death of a coalition soldier took to 173 the number of
international troops to have died in Afghanistan this year, most in
combat operations, according to an AFP count based on official figures.

About 4,000 rebels have also been killed and hundreds of civilians.

An American, Canadian, French and two Spanish soldiers have been killed
in action since Friday, while an Italian intelligence officer was
severely wounded in an operation Monday that freed him and a colleague
from Taliban kidnappers.

The Musa Qala district centre has become one of the Taliban's most
significant strongholds since the rebels overran the small town in
February.

"The end is near for the Taliban that believe Musa Qala is safe from
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan forces," coalition spokesman Major
Chris Belcher said in a statement about the latest fighting.

"This combined operation is just one more step to securing the Musa
Qala area of the Helmand province," he said.

The NATO force reported meanwhile that one of its helicopters
overturned in the western province of Badghis late Tuesday while trying
to land during a mission to rescue Afghan police wounded in a bombing.

No ISAF staff were hurt during the incident, which did not involve
hostile activity, it said in a statement. The Taliban reportedly
claimed the chopper was shot down.

The bomb blast killed three Afghan police and wounded four more, ISAF
said. A local police official also confirmed the incident.

A second helicopter was able recover the crew of the damaged helicopter
and two critically wounded Afghan police.

The Taliban were driven from government six years ago and are waging an
insurgency that has intensified this year with almost daily attacks in
southern and eastern Afghanistan.

In other incidents reported Wednesday, two rebels were killed when a
bomb they were planting on a road in southern Ghazni province went off
on Tuesday, the defence ministry said.

And more than 36 Taliban insurgents, 16 of them badly wounded, were
captured by Afghan forces after two separate battles in the eastern
province of Paktia and central Wardak on Tuesday, officials said.

Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse