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, May 16, 2011

War News for Monday, May 16, 2011

The British MoD is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an IED blast in a compound in the Loy Mandeh wadi area of the Nad 'Ali (North) district, Helmand province, Afghanistan on Sunday May 15th. Here's the ISAF release.


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: One Iraqi security guard was killed and two Norwegians were among four people wounded on Monday when a roadside bomb exploded near their convoy in Baghdad, security and medical officials said. The blast occurred at around 8:00 am (0500 GMT) in the eastern neighbourhood of Jadidah, or New Baghdad, an interior ministry official said on condition of anonymity. He said one Iraqi guard died, and the wounded included two Norwegians and two Iraqi private security guards, adding that they were part of a convoy from the water resources ministry. A doctor at Al-Kindi hospital in central Baghdad confirmed five people, including two foreigners, suffered wounds from a bomb blast.

#2: In a separate attack, a traffic policeman was killed by gunmen using silenced weapons in the northern Baghdad neighbourhood of Al-Utayfiyah, the interior ministry official said.

#3: Also on Monday, a roadside bomb targeting Baghdad provincial council member Kamil al-Zaidi blew up as the politician's convoy was on the edge of the Shiite neighbourhood of Sadr City, according to the official. Eight people were wounded in the attack, including three policemen, but Zaidi was unharmed. Another roadside bomb targeting a police patrol near Al-Wathiq square in central Baghdad wounded four people, including three policemen.

#4: A roadside bomb wounded two policemen and a civilian in central Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

#5: A bomb attached to a vehicle killed an Interior Ministry worker late on Sunday in Baghdad's southern Saidiya district, an Interior Ministry source said.

#6: Gunmen on a speeding motorcycle, using silenced weapons, wounded a civilian late on Sunday in the Hurriya district of northwestern Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.


Kut:
#1: A strong explosion that shook the city of Kut, the center of southern Iraq’s Wassit Province, on Sunday, was caused by an explosive charge blast targeted against a U.S. Army patrol, a Wassit police source said. “An explosive charge, targeted against an American Army patrol, close to Kut’s Central Garage on Sunday, had caused damage to the main street, fruit and vegetable shops and civilian cars in the area,” the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency. An eyewitness said that one of the U.S. patrol’s cars was damaged due to the explosion, adding that the U.S. and Iraqi police had imposed a cordon around the venue of the blast, preventing media and civilians to get close to it. The eyewitness told Aswat al-Iraq news agency that he saw ambulance cars driving a number of injured persons to al-Zahraa Hospital in Kut, whilst a medical source said that the blast did not cause any human casualties.


Tikrit:
#1: A tax official was killed today and three of his colleagues were injured by a sticky bomb north of Tikrit, security sources at the Joint Coordination Office in Salah al-Din province reported. "The bomb was stuck to a civil car and exploded upon his return to his home, which resulted in his death and the wounding of his colleagues," the sources added to Aswat al-Iraq.


Kirkuk:
#1: Police found the body of a man in his thirties, believed to be a Christian kidnapped several days ago, in northern Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, a police source said.


Mosul:
#1: An Interior Ministry bomb squad defused a sticky bomb attached to a car belonging to the judge who heads the criminal court of Nineveh province, in central Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

#2: Gunmen in a speeding car attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint in western Mosul on Sunday, killing a soldier and wounding a child, police said.

#3: Gunmen in two cars shot dead the son of a civilian contractor in a town northwest of Mosul on Sunday, police said.


Al Anbar Prv:
#1: The deputy chairman of Anbar's Provincial Council said today that, in cooperation with the security forces, an expanded investigation was opened into the dead bodies found yesterday in Amiriyah Quarter, south of Falluja. Sa'doun Al-Sha'lan clarified to Aswat al-Iraq that the investigation will determine the identity of the dead, those who are implicated in the murder, and the fate of all missing people from Anbar. "Initially, we found three bodies. We then found another 18 in an adjacent grave," he added.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: A base for South Korean construction workers has come under yet another attack in the Afghan town of Charikar in the northern province of Parwan. A rocket-propelled grenade exploded near the base late Sunday, but left no casualties, Xinhua quoted the South Korean Foreign Ministry as saying on Monday.

#2: Four Canadian soldiers were injured when a helicopter "rolled" Monday during a "hard landing" on a river bed in Afghanistan. The Canadian Ch-47 Chinook transport chopper accident occurred during night operations by the Quebec-based Royal 22nd Regiment in the Horn of Panjwaii.

#3: Eleven civilians were killed and wounded in insurgent attack in Kunar province, east of Afghanistan on Monday, according to a statement issued by Afghan Interior Ministry. It said that the enemies of peace and stability, a term usually referred to Afghan Taliban insurgents, fired four rounds of mortar on Wata Pour district, Kunar province Monday morning. Interior Ministry in the statement described it as a coward act of terrorism and condemned it.


DoD: Sgt. Amaru Aguilar

1 comments:

Cervantes said...

Take it with a grain of salt or not, but Major-General Hassan al-Baidhani tells this Reuters reporter that Shiite militants are behind the recent spate of assassinations of security officials. They are said to fear a return to power of the Baath Party. ""Most of the officers who were killed in the Ministry of Defence were Sunnis," said a Shi'ite Defence Ministry officer who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Ministry officials said hit lists have been issued by Shi'ite militias and published on websites, and some officers have received phone calls telling them they will be killed."

Not, in other words, al Qaeda. Not good either.