Death Toll 08/20 - 08/23/03

[DoYouEverWonder]

Top UN envoy killed in Baghdad blast

Wednesday, 20 August, 2003

Rescuers are still searching the devastated Iraq headquarters of the United Nations in Baghdad, where a bomb blast killed at least 17 people including top UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello. (Latest count is 23)

More than 100 people were injured in Tuesday's blast, which brought down three floors of the concrete building as a UN press conference on mine clearance was being held.

Many people are believed to be still trapped in the rubble.

The US military said the blast was caused by a bomb in a cement truck and was possibly a suicide attack. The truck was parked just outside de Mello's office when the device went off at about 1640 (1240GMT).



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Bus bomb carnage in Jerusalem


Wednesday, 20 August, 2003

A suicide bomber has wrecked a bus in Jerusalem, killing up to 20 people and injuring about 80 others.

The blast took place at about 2100 (1800GMT) in an ultra-Orthodox area - Shmuel Hanavi - near the old dividing line between east and west Jerusalem.

The militant Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad both said they carried out the attack.


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Israel stages operations, warns of need for militant crackdown


Thursday, August 21, 2003

Israel early Thursday was carrying out a string of operations apparently aimed at Palestinian militants across the West Bank and Gaza.

The strikes came after Israel Thursday warned the Palestinian Authority that the peace process cannot continue unless "substantial and meaningful" steps are taken against militants staging terror attacks like the Jerusalem bus bombing that killed 20.

CNN's Michael Holmes reported an apparent strike on a car in Gaza City. Three badly burned bodies were taken from a car, Holmes reported.

<snip>

The Palestinian was killed in an exchange of gunfire, the sources said. He was identified as 15-year-old Saeed Ghanen; his 14-year-old cousin was wounded, sources said.



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Danish soldier killed in Iraq

Sunday, August 17, 2003 Posted: 11:11 AM EDT

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) -- A Danish soldier and two Iraqis were killed in southern Iraq in a gun battle between troops and a group of looters stealing power cables, a British army spokesman said on Sunday.

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A Danish spokesman, quoting Danes from the patrol who had been questioned by a Danish investigator, said Lance Corporal Preben Pedersen, 34, might have been killed accidentally by one of his comrades.

<snip>

A British soldier was killed and two were wounded on Thursday when explosives concealed in a Basra lamppost were detonated as a military ambulance drove past.

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Military: 2 U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq


Fri Aug 22, 5:17 AM ET

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq, the U.S. military said Friday, bringing the number of American combat deaths to 179, 32 more than were killed during the first Gulf war.

One soldier was killed in action on Thursday near the Iraqi town of al Hilla, 34 miles south of Baghdad, said Spc. Margo Doers. The second, also on Thursday, was from the 1st Armored Division based in Baghdad. Doers could not provide any further details of the deaths.

Since President Bush declared an end to formal combat on May 1, 135 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq, including combat deaths.

In all, 273 U.S. soldiers have died of all causes since the beginning of military operations in Iraq.


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Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan


August 22, 2003

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. —A Virginia Beach-based Navy SEAL was killed by hostile fire Wednesday while moving with a convoy in the vicinity of Orgun, Afghanistan, the Navy said Thursday.

Navy Photographer’s Mate 1st Class (SEAL) David M. Tapper, 32, was fatally wounded when his convoy “made contact with enemy forces” near Orgun, in Paktika Province, according to a Naval Special Warfare Group Two press release. Group Two spokesman Lt. John Perkins said U.S. Central Command described Tapper’s death as being caused by “hostile fire.” Tapper was subsequently taken to the Bagram Air Base hospital, where he died of his wounds, according to the Group Two release.

Tapper was conducting operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, but no further details were available, Perkins said. Paktika Province is in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border.



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High toll for Niger Delta violence[br />

Friday, 22 August, 2003

The number of casualties from the recent violence in the Delta port of Warri is much higher than previously believed, says the Red Cross in Nigeria.

After three days of relative calm, the Nigerian Red Cross says it has been able to assess the situation more accurately and it believes that about 100 people were killed and 1,000 injured.

It says the fighting between militias of the local Ijaw and Itsekiri people also drove several thousand residents of the city from their homes.

Army troops and riot police were deployed in the city, where authorities said that they had secured a cease-fire on Thursday, between the warring groups.



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Killing of Hamas leader ends truce


Friday August 22, 2003

Five Israeli missiles incinerated Ismail Abu Shanab in Gaza City yesterday, killing one of the most powerful voices for peace in Hamas and destroying the ceasefire that Palestinian leaders believed would avert civil war.

Israeli helicopters struck the car carrying the third most senior Hamas leader in retaliation for Tuesday's suicide bombing of a Jerusalem bus on Tuesday, killing 20 mostly orthodox Jews, including six children.

The missiles also buried a seven-week ceasefire already strained by Israeli killings of Islamic militants and retaliatory suicide bombings, and threw the US-led road map to peace deeper into crisis.

Hamas declared an immediate end to the truce and vowed a bloody revenge for the death of Abu Shanab, who was married with 11 children.

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nfant among five killed in Valley


22 August 2003

SRINAGAR: A two-month-old baby was among five people killed in a fierce gunbattle in occupied Kashmir, while other shootouts claimed five more lives, a police spokesman said on Thursday.

Indian army soldiers ringed a residence in the village of Ali Brad Bahak, in Anantnag district, after a tipoff that militants were hiding there.

"When the troops were laying cordon around the house, the militants opened fire," the spokesman said. The Indian troops returned the fire.

Police said four family members - including a mother and her two-month old baby - trapped inside the besieged house and a pro-India militant accompanying the Indian troops were killed during the fighting.

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Israeli Troops Kill Wanted Man on Roof


August 22, 2003, 1:45 PM EDT

NABLUS, West Bank -- Israeli troops on Friday fired at three Palestinian fugitives hiding on the roof of a hospital, killing one and seriously wounding two, witnesses said.

Soldiers patrolling Nablus spotted the three men on the roof of Rafidiyeh Hospital, where they had sought refuge from an Israeli arrest raid, now in its third day.

Troops opened fire, killing 26-year-old Khaled Namrouti, a follower of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, an armed group linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, other militiamen said.

Two wanted men were wounded, one from the Islamic militant group Hamas and the other from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical PLO faction, Al Aqsa members said.



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7 Kurds, 2 Turkish Soldiers Die in Clash


August 22, 2003, 12:19 PM EDT

ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkish troops clashed with Kurdish rebels in the country's southeast on Friday. Seven Kurds and two Turkish soldiers were killed, the military said.

The battle in Batman province came two weeks after the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party rejected a government amnesty that would give reduced prison terms to rebels who have engaged in violence if they provide information about the group.

Two soldiers were killed and three were wounded, the military said in a statement. Earlier Friday, a military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said nine soldiers were wounded.

The outlawed PKK declared a unilateral cease-fire in 1999, but the government never accepted it and refuses any contact with the group. The rebels have threatened to end the cease-fire if the government does not adopt it by Sept. 1.



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Three troops killed in Basra attack

Saturday, 23 August, 2003

Three British troops have been killed and one seriously wounded in an ambush in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

The soldiers came under fire from a pick-up truck as they were driving along one of the city's main streets at around 0830 local time (0530 BST), a British Army spokesman said.

Other reports suggested there had been an exchange of fire, followed by an explosion, but this has not been confirmed.

The wounded soldier has been taken to hospital and an investigation has been launched into what happened.



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From left: Spc. Corey A. Hubbell; Lance Cpl. Jakub H. Kowalik; Pvt. Shawn D. Pahnke; Staff Sgt. Andrew R. Pokorny and Pfc. Brandon Ramsey, shown in handout photos, are among the eight soldiers from Illinois that have been killed since President Bush declared an end to major combat operations May 1. (AP Photo)




Cindy Miles weeps at the casket of her son, Army PFC Timmy Brown, Jr. of Conway, Penn. as she is comforted by Maj. Steven Chung, Deputy Provost Marshall for the 99th Regional Readiness Command, after Timmy's funeral services at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. Friday, Aug. 22, 2003. Timmy, assigned to D Company, 510th Military Intelligence Batallion at Fort Bragg, N.C., was killed by an explosive device August 12th in Taji, Iraq (news - web sites). (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)




A Palestinian hospital worker carries a body from the scene where two Palestinians were killed in shoot-out with Israeli soldiers, at a hospital in the West Bank city of Nablus, August 22, 2003. Israeli troops shot and killed two Palestinian militants inside a West Bank hospital on Friday, extending a new spiral of violence that has smashed a ceasefire vital to a U.S.-backed 'road map' peace plan. REUTERS/Ammar Awad




U.S. troops speak to employees at the United Nations headquarters shortly after a bomb exploded, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2003, in Baghdad, Iraq. A suicide attacker set off a truck bomb Tuesday outside the housing of the U.N. headquarters, U.S. officials said. At least 20 U.N. workers and Iraqis were killed, including the chief U.N. official Sergio Vieira de Mello. (AP Photo/Matt Ollerton)




Six-month-old Israeli girl Shoshana Nathanzon lies in hospital in Jerusalem, August 20, 2003, after being injured in the Palestinian suicide bus bombing last night. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon approved a series of military strikes against Palestinian militants in response to a suicide bombing that killed 18 people in Jerusalem, a senior security source said on Wednesday. (ISRAEL OUT) REUTERS/Haim Zach/Flash90

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. Afternoon kick

eom

[newyawker99]

2. kick

:kick: