The present-day U.S. military qualifies by any measure as highly professional, much more so than its Cold War predecessor. Yet the purpose of today’s professionals is not to preserve peace but to fight unending wars in distant places. Intoxicated by a post-Cold War belief in its own omnipotence, the United States allowed itself to be drawn into a long series of armed conflicts, almost all of them yielding unintended consequences and imposing greater than anticipated costs. Since the end of the Cold War, U.S. forces have destroyed many targets and killed many people. Only rarely, however, have they succeeded in accomplishing their assigned political purposes. . . . [F]rom our present vantage point, it becomes apparent that the “Revolution of ‘89” did not initiate a new era of history. At most, the events of that year fostered various unhelpful illusions that impeded our capacity to recognize and respond to the forces of change that actually matter.

Andrew Bacevich


Saturday, July 14, 2007

Security Incidents for Saturday, July 14, 2007



A US tank secures the area where a US Humvee was attacked in Baghdad's Camp Sara neighborhood, 11 July 2007. The US surge strategy is making "definitive progress" in one of Iraq's most fiercely contested provinces, and US troops there could be reduced as early as January, a commander said Friday.(AFP/File/Ahmad Al-Rubaye)
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Baghdad:
#1: a suicide bomber hit cars lined up at a gas station in the southeastern district of Rashin Camp around 11:30 a.m., setting seven vehicles on fire and damaging nearby shops, a police official said. The blast killed seven civilians and wounded 15 others, the official said.

#2: a parked car bomb detonated in the western neighborhood of Amil, reducing one apartment building to rubble and heavily damaging a second, another police official said. The 7:30 a.m. blast killed at least one person and wounded five others, and authorities were searching the wreckage for more victims, the official said. After the blast, several nearby cars were left damaged, and a metal crutch lay in the street next to a pool of blood, according to AP Television news footage of the scene.

#3: A senior Iraqi civil servant was killed in a drive by shooting in the northern Baghdad district of Shaab, Iraqi police said

in northeast Baghdad gunmen shot dead a senior official working for an Iraqi cooking oil company, a security official said

#4: Two people were killed and four others wounded in a roadside bomb attack on the main road in southern Baghdad's Al-Nahrvan neighbourhood, security officials said.

#5: A US military patrol was also struck by a roadside bomb in central Baghdad, the military said but it had no immediate reports of casualties.

#5: a civilian was killed and five others wounded when a parked minibus exploded on a main street running through the southeast Al-Amin neighbourhood, medical and security officials said.

#6: Three hours later, a roadside bomb exploded at about 09:30 a.m.(0530 GMT) near a passing U.S. patrol on the Muhammad al-Qassim highway in eastern Baghdad, the source said. A U.S. Humvee was badly charred by the blast, the source said citing police report from the site of the attack, which said that a U.S. soldier aboard was killed by the blast. The U.S. military has not confirmed the information yet

#7: Gunmen shot dead an Iraqi who worked as a translator for Reuters in Baghdad this week, his family said on Saturday. Family members said they did not want the name of their son, who was 30, mentioned in this report. He was killed on Wednesday along with two of his brothers while they were in a car near the Diyala bridge in the capital, an area known to be rife with Shi'ite and Sunni militants.


Diyala Prv:
Muqdadiyah:
#1: In the town of al-Muqdadiyah, on the suburbs on the north-eastern Sunni-dominated Baquba province, 12 Iraqis belonging to one family were killed when a group of unidentified gunmen stormed into their houses and opened fire on them. The attackers fled immediately after the bloodbath, a police source said.

Baquba:
#1: At least six suspected insurgents killed by a U.S. air strike on Saturday in a raid near Baquba, about 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

#2: Three Iraqi soldiers were killed and five others wounded in an attack by gunmen on an Iraqi army checkpoint in northern Baaquba, Diala province, on Saturday, an official police source said. "Armed clashes occurred between the assailants and soldiers from the checkpoint on the main road linking Baaquba to al-Khalis district," the source, who did not want to have his name mentioned, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq

Khalis:
#1: Meanwhile, the same source said one gunman was killed and two others injured while planting an explosive device on the main road linking Habhab to Khalis. Security forces arrested the two wounded gunmen and moved them to a hospital for treatment


Hilla:
#1: a group of unknown militants attacked at dawn a house in al-Hilla, 100 kilometres south of Baghdad, shooting dead nine people and wounding three others. The victims included a number of women and children, according to police sources.


Madean:
#1: Former Deputy Iraqi Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi survived an assassination attempt in Madaen, 45 km (28 miles) south of Baghdad, a Chalabi aide said.


Kut:
#1: A policeman was killed in a drive by shooting in front of his home in the southern city of Kut, police said.


Wihda:
#1: Two bodies found in Wihda, 35 km (20 miles) south of the capital, police said. One had been decapitated


Suwayra:
#1: Six bodies recovered from the Tigris river near Suwayra, 45 km (28 miles) south of Baghdad, including one that had been decapitated, police said.


Diwaniya:
#1: Five suspected insurgents killed by a U.S. air strike after they were spotted burying a roadside bomb near the southern city of Diwaniya, the military said.




Afghanistan:
#1: A suicide car-bomber killed eight Pakistani paramilitary soldiers and wounded 20 on Saturday in an attack that might have been linked to an army assault on a radical mosque in the capital, a military spokesman said. The attacker rammed his car into a paramilitary convoy in the North Waziristan attack on the Afghan border, 20 km (12 miles) southeast of the region's main town of Miranshah.

#2: Two security officials were wounded in an earlier blast near the town of Bannu in North West Frontier Province.

#3: Taliban insurgents have beheaded seven Afghan civilians accused of spying for foreign and Afghan government forces in the past 10 days, a senior Afghan intelligence official said on Saturday. He said the killings had taken place across the country, but mostly around Kandahar, Ghazni and other areas of the south. "The Taliban are putting pressure on civilians to gain support," he told Reuters. "When these people are caught they are tortured first and then beheaded." A Taliban spokesman said those executed had been captured along with proof, such as laser equipment used for guiding air strikes, that showed they were working for foreign troops.

#4: Canadian troops drove Taliban insurgents into an Afghan army ambush on Saturday and then called in air strikes to hit the fleeing insurgents, killing at least 15, the Canadian army commander said

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