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


Monday, April 7, 2008

War News for Monday, April 07, 2008

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Coalition forces Soldier in a roadside bombing in Diyala Province on Sunday, April 6th. No other details were released.

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a second Multi-National Division – North Soldier in the roadside bombing in Diyala Province on Sunday, April 6th. Four other soldiers were wounded in the attack.

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldier in an indirect fire attack in an eastern neighborhood of Baghdad on Sunday, April 6th. No other details were released. The Washington Post is reporting fourteen soldiers were wounded in the attack according to a U.S. military official.

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division – Center Soldier from non-combat-related injuries in an undisclosed location in Iraq on Sunday, April 6th. No other details were released.

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldier in a roadside bombing in an eastern neighborhood of Baghdad on Sunday, April 6th. No other details were released.

The Washington Post is reporting the deaths of two U.S. soldiers in an indirect fire attack in the green zone in central Baghdad Sunday, April 6th. In addition seventeen soldiers were wounded in the attack according to a U.S. military official.


Security incidents:

Baghdad:
#1: Fighting between Shiite militiamen and US and Iraqi forces in Baghdad's sprawling Sadr City district raged through the night, killing three people and wounding 36, officials said.

"There were sporadic clashes over the last 12 hours and three people have been killed and 36 others wounded," a medic at a local hospital said.

Gunbattles also continued Monday in Baghdad's main Shiite district of Sadr City, a day after fierce clashes broke out when some 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops began an operation to push deeper into the Mahdi Army's largest stronghold.

#2: An Australian soldier has been wounded in an insurgent rocket attack in central Baghdad which killed two Americans and wounded more than a dozen. Defence spokesman Brigadier Andrew Nikolic said the soldier was treated for his injuries at a US combat hospital and then discharged. No other Australians were wounded."

#3: mortar attacks on the fortified Green Zone that killed two soldiers and two US government staffers Iraqi officials said.

#4: In Baghdad, a student was shot dead by a sniper while he was standing in the playground of a school on Palestine Street in east Baghdad, according to witnesses. No further details were immediately available.

#5: A mortar bomb wounded three people in the Hay Ur district, in northern Baghdad, police said.

#6: Two seperate roadside bombs wounded 10 people including five policemen in the Zayyouna district, in eastern Baghdad, police said.

#7: A roadside bomb blast near a police patrol wounded five people in the New Baghdad district, in eastern Baghdad, police said.

#8: One mortar bomb landed on a sport club in eastern Baghdad, wounding two people, police said.

#9: Iraqi Army killed five militants and arrested 58 others during last 24 hours in different areas across Iraq, the Defence Ministry said.

#10: Around 9 a.m. a mortar shell hit the Green Zone.

#11: Around 2 p.m. a roadside bomb targeted a police vehicle in Al Mashtal injuring 5 policemen.
#12: Two mortar shells hit the air force soccer club in Palestine Street, causing no casualties.

#13: Clashes between Mahdi army militiamen and the Iraqi army in Sadr city took place today; Iraqi police said and gave no figures for the casualties.

U.S. helicopters fired Hellfire missiles into Sadr City and the New Baghdad district, where a fixed-wing fighter also dropped a bomb on a mortar firing position, the U.S. military said.

#14: Around 3 p.m. three mortar shells targeted the Green Zone, one hit Karrada neighborhood injuring two civilians and two hit inside the Green Zone. -

#15: Around 4 p.m. two mortar shells hit the Green Zone.

#16: Around 5 p.m. a mortar shell hit the cars' parking area in the ministry of foreign affairs causing damages to three parking cars with no casualties.

#17: Around 5:30 p.m. three mortar shells hit Al Rustamiyah military camp. Minutes later the sources of fire were targeted in Al Ameen neighborhood east of Baghdad, killing 9 civilians and injuring 31, Iraqi police said. No military reepsonse was available by the time of publication of this report.

#19: A fire in Al Eatiman bank building in Saadon started yesterday night.

#20: Police found four dead bodies throughout Baghdad, one in Baladiyat, one in Jisr Diyala, one in Amil and one in Dora.

#21: A helicopter strike in the Sadr City slum killed four people and injured five, hospital sources said.


Diyala Prv:
Bahraz:
#1: An Iraqi army soldier was killed and five others were injured on Monday when an improvised explosive device went off targeting their vehicle patrol in south of Baaquba, a police source said. “A roadside bomb exploded in Bahraz district, south of Baaquba, targeting an Iraqi army vehicle patrol, killing a soldier and wounding five,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq


Basra:
#1: Iraqi security forces say a large explosion demolished a building in the southern city of Basra. At least three militants were killed and four were wounded. British military spokesman Maj. Tom Holloway says it's not clear what caused Monday's blast but insists no British, U.S. or Iraqi forces were involved. But an Iraqi police official and witnesses say the building was destroyed in an air strike. They say those killed were gunmen using the abandoned house as a base.

An explosion destroyed a house in Iraq’s southern city of Basra overnight and Iraqi police said on Monday eight people had died.

The Basra morgue received on Monday seven bodies showing signs of having been shot, a medic said, adding the corpses were brought by policemen from al-Asdiqaa neighborhood, 8 km north of Basra. "There were shrapnel that most probably caused the death of those seven people," the medic, who asked not to be named, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.

#2: The interior ministry's operations chief, Maj. General Abdul-Karim Khalaf, escaped an attempt on his life when his motorcade came under an attack that wounded two of his escorts north of Basra on Monday, police said. "An improvised explosive device (IED) went off near Khalaf's motorcade in the area of al-Nashwa, (50 km) north of Basra, while he was heading for al-Qarna city," a security source who was escorting the motorcade told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.

#3: Seven men were killed in Al Asdiqa neighborhood (5 miles north of Basra).


Samarra:
#1: Gunmen killed a city council member in a drive-by shooting on Sunday just outside his house in central Samarra, 100 km (62 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.


Hawija:
#1: U.S. soldiers killed a civilian man and his son east of Dalouiya district, Salah al-Din province, on Monday, an official police source said. "U.S. soldiers raided the area of al-Huweija al-Bahariya, (3 km) west of Dalouiya, and opened fire at Abboud Hussein Yassin, 65, and his son Falah, from a close range, killing them instantly," the source, who refused to have his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq. A relative of Yassin told VOI a U.S. force "raided the house during the early hours of Monday with the company of a masked man. After they brought together all people in the house, the U.S. soldiers, referring to the two victims, asked the masked man whether they were the wanted men. The masked man replied in the affirmative and then the U.S. forces opened fire at the two of them."


Mosul:
#1: Two policemen and a girl student were wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near a police patrol in eastern Mosul on Monday, a security source said. "The girl, a student in a preparatory school, was walking near the patrol when the IED went off," the source, who declined to be named, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.

#2: Two civilians were wounded on Monday when two mortar shells fell into a house in eastern Mosul, the official spokesman for the Ninewa operations command said. “Two civilian were wounded when two mortar rounds hit a house in Ninewa al-Sharqieya region in eastern Mosul,” Brigadier Khaled Abdul Sattar told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.



Afghanistan:
#1: An Afghan governor says 16 people have been killed during strikes by U.S. and Afghan forces in northeastern Afghanistan. The strikes came as the troops were hunting for a fugitive militant leader. Gov. Tamim Nuristani says police have reached the site of Sunday's battle in the Dohabi district of Nuristan province. Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces believed Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was meeting with another top militant there. Other provincial leaders say many civilians were killed in the hourslong clash. Nuristani said Monday it was too early to know if any of the 16 killed were civilians.

An Afghan governor said on Monday that more than 20 militants were killed in a US-led operation in eastern Afghanistan, however, a regional lawmaker said that the dead were all civilians, including women and children.

#2: TEN Taliban militants were killed after attacking an Afghan and NATO-led patrol in volatile southern Afghanistan, police said today. A firefight erupted after the Islamic militants attacked the combined forces in the southern province of Uruzgan on Sunday, provincial police chief Juma Gul Hemat said. "Our troops along with NATO forces were on a patrol when a group of enemies attacked us. We cornered the attackers and killed them,'' he said. One police officer was slightly injured in the fighting in Taliban-dominated Charchino district, he added.

#3: Seven police and five Taliban insurgents were killed in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province Monday as they came in contact, provincial police chief Syed Aqa Saqib said. "The police were busy in destroying poppy fields in Miwand district when Taliban insurgents opened fire and police reencountered. As a result, seven policemen and five rebels were killed in the fire exchange which lasted for three hours," Saqib told Xinhua. Two more policemen sustained injuries in the clash, he added.

#4: Two Polish soldiers were injured on Monday when their Humvee vehicle hit a roadside bomb in the Ghazni province of Afghanistan, Polish news agency PAP reported. The life of wounded soldiers is not in danger, and their condition has been described as stable, PAP quoted spokesman for the Polish Armed Forces operational command Dariusz Kacperczak as saying.

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