U.S. Footprints in Central/South Asia ─ WAR

Re-reported, compiled, by Carolyn Bennett

From casualty reporting sites
February 5, 2010 casualty sites reporting (accurate totals unknown)

• Anti-war dot com March 19, 2003 ─ [Since the Obama inauguration January 20, 2009: 147] Wounded 31,639-100,000; U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000; Suicides 18 a day http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/
• Iraq Body Count figures: 95,309-103,982, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
• ICasualties IRAQ: 4,375 U.S., 4,693 Coalition; AFGHANISTAN: 984 U.S., 1,624 Coalition http://icasualties.org/oif/
• Just Foreign Policy: 1,366,350 http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq

U.S.-involved Bloodletting
News from Middle East/Central/South Asia
January 30
AFGHANISTAN
On Saturday, four army soldiers died and six were wounded when a foreign forces’  ["friendly fire"?] air strike hit their post. Also in the early morning on Saturday joint NATO-Afghan forces came under attack in the northwestern province of Badghis, prompting a gun battle and an air attack that killed eight fighters. The violence in Badghis followed the previous day’s Afghan troop/NATO helicopters clash with the Taliban in Helmand. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/01/2010130102632120814.html
February 3
PAKISTAN
At least eight people have died, including three U.S. military personnel and four schoolchildren (girls, ages 10-15), after a roadside bomb exploded near a school for girls in northwest Pakistan. Hospital reports said they had 65 wounded, most of them girls. At least 29 people died on Tuesday and many more suffered injuries in a suspected U.S. drone attack in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan. Officials said a series of missiles ─ as many as 19 missiles ─ rained down on Dattakhel village in the Degan area of North Waziristan, part of Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal region near the Afghan border. The missile attack has been called “one of the largest attacks carried out so far” and a backlash is expected because recently the military had clearly said they had not given any tacit approval for the Americans to conduct such a strike and there is tremendous opposition inside Pakistan.” The attacks have often resulted in civilian deaths, stirring anger among Pakistanis and even bolstering support for the Taliban and anti-U.S. sentiment.

Unconfirmed were area tribesmen’s claims that they had shot down at least two U.S. drones in the past. The U.S. never confirms drone attacks but its forces in neighboring Afghanistan and the Central Intelligence Agency are the only ones known to use the unmanned aircraft capable of firing missiles.

The U.S. has increased drone attacks inside Pakistan since a suicide bomber crossed over the Pakistani border and killed seven CIA employees in an attack in eastern Afghanistan on December 30. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/02/201023125741180461.html
February 5
BACKLASH PAKISTAN
Thousands of Pakistanis on Thursday staged protest rallies in several cities against the Wednesday conviction in a New York court of Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui. She was found guilty of trying to kill American service members in Afghanistan. Many believe Aafia Siddiqui is innocent. She had disappeared for five years before her arrest in Afghanistan in 2008.
February 5
KARACHI
Twenty-two people died after two bomb blasts hit the Pakistani city of Karachi, apparently targeting Shia Muslims marking a religious ceremony. A bomb-laden motorcycle first exploded on a main road in the city as a bus carrying Shia worshippers passed on Friday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 40 others. The second blast went off outside the hospital where the wounded were being taken, reportedly killing another 10 people.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/02/201025111132590730.html
February 5
KASHMIR
Political parties and religious groups across Pakistan are holding rallies in support of the separatist movement in Kashmir. On Friday, Indian troops sealed off neighborhoods in Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir and arrested dozens of activists to block planned protests over the death of a Muslim boy. The 14-year-old child died after being struck by a teargas shell fired by police on Sunday during a separatist demonstration.

Kashmir ─ predominantly Muslim and Indian-administered ─ is claimed by both India and Pakistan. Anti-India sentiments run deep in the Himalayan region, where more than a dozen groups have been fighting for Kashmir’s independence or its merger with neighboring Pakistan. Since 2008, Kashmiri separatists have been holding regular rallies, which often turn violent. In that period more than 60 protesters have died, most of the deaths resulting from police fire. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/02/2010258817644962.html
February 5
IRAQ
At least 27 people have died and more than 75 suffered injuries after two explosions in the Iraqi city of Karbala. Hundreds of thousands of Shia pilgrims observed at this major religious rite. Friday’s attack came on the final and most important day of the Arbaeen festival and was the third major strike this week against Iraq’s Shia Muslim pilgrims. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/02/20102595844693762.html