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 12, 2010

War News for Monday, April 12, 2010

The DoD is reporting the death of Sgt. Roberto E. Diaz Borio who died from undisclosed circumstances in Mombassa, Kenya on Thursday, April 8th. Note he was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

The DND/CF is reporting the death of a Canadian ISAF soldier in an IED attack in the Dand district, Kandahar province, Afghanistan on Sunday, April 11th. Here is the NATO release.

NATO is reporting the death of a second ISAF soldier killed in an IED attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, April 11th. We believe this to be an American.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A Katyusha rocket hit an area nearby the Green Zone (GZ) in Baghdad. “The missile hit the western coast of the Tigris River,” the Baghdad Operations Command (BOC) said in a release on Monday.It noted that the attack left no casualties or damage.

#2: Sunday A roadside bomb wounded one man in the western Amiriya district of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

#3: A roadside bomb in the Zaafaraniya district in southeastern Baghdad on Sunday wounded one civilian, police said.


Udhaim:
#1: Sunday A roadside bomb went off near a car on the main road near the town of Udhaim, 90 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, killing three off-duty members of the local government-backed militia and wounding another, police said.


Kirkuk:
#1: Three persons, including two Saudi citizens, were killed in security operations southwest of Kirkuk, a senior security official in the city said on Sunday. “A joint force from the Kirkuk Districts’ Police Department and the U.S. army shot dead three terrorists, including two Saudi nationals, in the area of Wadi al-Khanazeer, between the districts of al-Rashad and al-Riad, (45 km) southwest of Kirkuk,” KDPD Director Sarhad Qader told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.


Mosul:
#1: A car bomb targeting a police patrol on Monday in western Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, killed one police officer and one civilian, plus wounded 14 people including women and children, police said


Tal Afar:
#1: One civilian has been injured in an explosive charge blast in Talafar district, a local police source said on Monday. “Today, a roadside explosive device detonated in al-Nour neighborhood, northern Talafar (60 km northwest of Mosul City), wounding one civilian,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: International troops opened fire on a bus carrying Afghan civilians Monday, killing four people, an Afghan official said, setting off anti-American protests in a key southern city where coalition forces hope to rally the public for a coming offensive against the Taliban.

#2: Elsewhere in the city of Kandahar, a pair of suicide bombers attacked an Afghan intelligence services compound, but were killed after security forces opened fire on them, a local official said. Two intelligence agents and a teacher at a nearby school were injured in the attack, said the head of Kandahar's provincial council, Ahmed Wali Karzai. A local hospital director put the number of injured agents at four. Monday's shooting on the bus in Kandahar province's Zhari district left four dead and another 18 people wounded, provincial government spokesman Zelmai Ayubi said.

#3: More than 100 militants armed with rockets and automatic weapons attacked two security checkpoints in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, sparking intense fighting that left at least 41 insurgents and two soldiers dead, officials said.The clashes were the latest violence in the Orakzai tribal region. Security forces successfully repelled the attacks early Monday morning against checkpoints in the villages of Shireen Dara and Sangrana in Lower Orakzai, local administrator Samiullah Khan said. Two soldiers were killed and three wounded in the fighting, he said.

#4: Fighter jets destroyed three militant hide-outs in Sangram village in Orakzai on Sunday, killing 10 suspected insurgents, Khan said. A day earlier, similar strikes killed nearly 100 suspected militants in the Orakzai and Khyber tribal areas, according to officials.

#5: NATO says a rogue Afghan soldier shot and lightly wounded a Polish soldier. A spokesman said the Afghan soldier ran off after opening fire Sunday night and was being sought by Afghan and international forces. The spokesman spoke Sunday on condition of anonymity as is routine. The spokesman said the wounded Pole was moved to a medical facility for treatment. The shooting took place at a joint command center in the eastern province of Ghazni, the central base area for the 2,600 Polish troops in Afghanistan.

#6: Three Afghan soldiers were killed during a clash with Taliban insurgents in an area of northern Kunduz province overnight, the Defence Ministry said on Sunday.

#7: President Hamid Karzai cancelled a planned meeting with the German troops of the NATO-led force after rockets landed outside the troops' base in Kunduz on Sunday, an officer for the troops said.

#8: Afghan Taliban ambushed a convoy carrying provincial police officials of northeastern Badakhshan late on Saturday, wounding a district police chief and killing one of his body guards, an official said on Sunday.

#9: A gunship helicopter Sunday made a crash landing in northwestern Pakistan, according to local TV reports. However, no casualty has been reported in the incident near Jirma area of Kohat, a town in the North West Frontier Province ( NWFP) of Pakistan.


DoD: 1st Lt. Robert W. Collins

DoD: Pfc. William A. Blount

DoD: Sgt. Roberto E. Diaz Borio

DND/CF: Private Tyler William Todd

7 comments:

Dancewater said...

Now we are fighting in Kenya? Is there no end to this insane evil?

In Kandahar, the Afghans are burning tires in the streets and calling for the Karzai's head, thanks to the shooting up the bus.

Dancewater said...

pictures up on my Faces of Grief blog of the April 9th protest. Have to scroll down a bit.

http://facesofgrief.blogspot.com

Cervantes said...

Clarification on the incident yesterday: the bomb in Adaim, Diyala did kill elementary school age kids. They were the nephews of a Sahwa leader. There was apparently only one attack.

Dancewater said...

Glenn Greenwald on cause and effect in our "war on terror".... only to be read by those who want to be informed instead of believing nonsense:

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/12/afghanistan/index.html

Dancewater said...

Hundreds in Afghanistan are protesting the killing of the people on the bus today.

Dancewater said...

Karzai is speaking out:

The boy had lost his legs in a February airstrike by U.S. Special Operations forces' helicopters that killed more than 20 civilians. Karzai scooped him up from his mattress and walked out to the hospital courtyard, according to three witnesses. "Who injured you?" Karzai asked the boy as helicopters passed overhead. The boy, crying alongside his relatives, pointed at the sky.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/12/AR2010041200761.html?wprss=rss_world



+++++

I am guessing they did not like thewiz's FREEDOM BOMBS.

dinoibo said...

/clap/clap