Security Incidents for 03/23/07

PHOTO: A U.S. army soldier from B Company, 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment kicks down a roof door inside a house in west Baghdad's Ghazaliyah neighborhood, Iraq, Thursday, March 22, 2007. The U.S. army backed by Iraqi forces pushed further into a dangerous Sunni Arab area of Ghazaliyah, searching houses in the expanding security crackdown. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)

In Country:

United Nations agencies working in Iraq warned on Thursday a chronic shortage of safe drinking water risks causing more child deaths and an outbreak of waterborne disease such as cholera during the summer.

A soldier from Toledo has died from injuries he suffered in Iraq a week ago, his family said today. Nick Lightner, 29, died Wednesday at a hospital in Washington, D.C., said his father, Bill Lightner. Nick Lightner was injured March 15 after three fellow soldiers in his Army Rangers medic unit triggered land mines near Baghdad, Bill Lightner said. Two of the soldiers died instantly. The third died later in Germany.

The U.S. Army has lost 130 helicopters in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, about a third to shoot-downs, its aviation director said Friday. He complained that industry is not replacing them fast enough. He said it takes 24 months to get replacement aircraft built and delivered and that replacements for the early losses are just now arriving.

Baghdad:

A MND-B Soldier died when an improvised explosive device detonated while the unit conducted route clearance operations in a western section of the Iraqi capital.

Iraq's Sunni deputy prime minister was wounded Friday in a suicide bombing in Baghdad that killed at least two people, police said. The bomber blew himself up as Salam al-Zubaie, one of two deputies to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and other worshippers were leaving a mosque, police said, adding that at least two worshippers were killed and 10 others wounded.

The aide said Zobaie, a member of the main Sunni Arab political bloc, was hit by shrapnel in the abdomen and shoulder. It was not immediately clear how serious his injuries were. U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver said Zobaie was taken to the U.S. military hospital but could give no information on his condition.

One police source said four people were killed and 10 wounded in both attacks. Two of the dead were Zobaie's security guards and Zobaie's brother was among the wounded, he said. Another police source put the death toll at five, including an adviser of Zobaie named Mufid Abdel Zahraa, with 12 wounded by the two bombs.

Six of Zobaie's guards were killed in the second assassination attempt on a senior member of the U.S.-backed government in a month. One of Zobaie's aides said the suicide bomber appeared to have been one of his own guards.

One person was killed when gunmen sprayed bullets at a crowd outside a bus station in Baghdad's southeastern Jadida district. Three people were wounded.

Hours later, gunmen opened fire on a procession of Shiite Muslims in southern Baghdad's Dora district, killing one and wounding three others.

In western Baghdad, a car bomb explosion killed an Iraqi soldier and wounded another at an army checkpoint in the Yarmouk district.

Iraqi police found 25 bodies throughout Baghdad

At least seven people were killed and 13 others were wounded on Friday when a car bomb went off in al-Habibiya area in the Shiite Sadr city in eastern Baghdad, a police source said. The blast occurred in an area for selling used cars in al-Habibiya region in Sadr city, the source noted.

Diyala Prv:

Three civilians were killed and a mother severely wounded in crossfire between a U.S. patrol and a group of gunmen in the district of Habhab, Baaquba, Iraqi police said on Friday. "A U.S. patrol chasing gunmen in the heart of the city opened fire at a vehicle that emerged on the main road, killing the father of a family and his two sons and severely wounding the mother," the source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq

At least eight gunmen were killed and 30 others were arrested by a joint force of Iraqi and U.S. troops in Diala province, a police source said on Friday. "Iraqi troops, backed by U.S. forces, launched a large-scale security operation in al-Katon region near Baaquba, where they killed eight armed men and confiscated different kinds of weapons," the source, who asked not to be identified, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq

"The forces also arrested 30 gunmen in another security operation in Khan Bani Saad region in Diala province and destroyed a bomb-making factory in al-Rasoul town in Khan Bani Saad," he added, noting that the captives were taken to a police station for questioning.

Najaf:

A suicide car bomb exploded near a police checkpoint in Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, wounding three policemen, police said. The suicide bomber survived the blast and was captured by police as he tried to run away.

Diwaniya:

Armed attackers shot and killed an Iraqi army official as he stood outside his house in the Shiite city of Diwaniya, about 112 miles (180 kilometers) south of Baghdad.

Police said they found the bodies of two policemen on Thursday in Diwaniya, 180 km (110 miles) south of Baghdad. The men had been shot

Yusufiya:

A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed one policeman and wounded two in Yusufiya, 15 km south of Baghdad, police said.

Tal al-Lahm region:

A U.S. soldier was wounded on Friday when an explosive device was detonated near a U.S. vehicle patrol in Tal al-Lahm region, south of Nassiriyah, 420 km south of Baghdad, a source from Thi-Qar police department said. "An explosive charge which was planted by gunmen went off on Friday as a U.S. vehicle patrol passed by in Tal al-Lahm region, south of Nassiriyah," Colonel Qassem Shaker Ubaid told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). "The blast injured a U.S. soldier and caused light damage to a U.S. Hummer," he added.

Shatt-el-Arab waterway:

Iran captured fifteen British Royal Navy personnel during a "routine boarding operation" in Iraqi waters on Friday, Britain's Ministry of Defence said. The Foreign Office said Iran's ambassador in London had been summoned and Britain was demanding their immediate safe release.

An Iraqi fishermen told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI) "a force from the Iranian coast guards detained this morning a number of British soldiers and others from the Multi-National forces at the entry of the Shatt-el-Arab waterway in south of Basra." Another fisherman said "the incident occurred inside the Iraqi territorial waters." "Two boats from the Multi-National forces were searching commercial ships, including Iranian, at the entry of Shatt-el-Arab waterway when a force from the Iranian coast guards intervened and surrounded the two boats and then arrested their crewmen," a third fisherman said. He added "one boat was raising a British flag." A fourth eyewitness said "there were U.S. soldiers among the arrested." A spokeswoman for the Multi-National forces in southern Iraq told VOI on the phone "the Multi-National forces have been informed of the incident that occurred in Shatt-el-Arab waterway this morning." She added "we have been notified of the incident but we, so far, have no details about it."

The Royal Marines and ordinary naval officers were believed to have been apprehended by up to six ships from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy who claimed they had entered Iranian waters. A U.S. military official who monitors the region told CNN that the seizure was made after a dispute over whether the British patrol was in Iraqi, international, or Iranian territorial waters.

Tikrit:

Police found the bodies of a police lieutenant colonel and his driver in Al Door, near Tikrit, 175 km north of Baghdad. The two had been kidnapped on Thursday

Mosul:

North of Baghdad, gunmen killed a former Iraqi army officer as he drove his car in Mosul

Police said the bodies of four people, including two teenagers, were found on Thursday in Mosul, 390 km north of Baghdad. The victims had been tortured and handcuffed before being killed.

A group of armed men detonated an explosive device under al-Sukar bridge in al-Sukar neighborhood, northeast of Mosul, targeting a police patrol," Brigadier Karim al-Juburi told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). "The blast injured a policeman and damaged a number of police vehicles," he added.

"Four mortar shells landed on Mosul Airport, where U.S. forces are being stationed," he noted, with no word on casualties.

Kirkuk:

Two Iraqi army soldiers were killed and three others were wounded in an ambush by gunmen southwest of Kirkuk, 250 km northeast of Baghdad, a security police source said.

Al Anbar Prv:

A Marine assigned to Multi National Force-West died March 22 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar Province.

Two Iraqi policemen were killed on Friday when an explosive charge went off near their patrol vehicle in Falluja, 45 km west of Baghdad, a security source said. "An explosive charge detonated today afternoon at a police vehicle patrol in central Falluja, killing two policemen and destroying their vehicle," the source told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq

Thanks to whisker for the links above.