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A man from China decided to keep fit using two old mortars before a friend noticed the devices were still live. Former army officer Xie Long, 87, said: "A colleague told me they were defused and because they were heavy and in the right shape I took two home to use as dumbbells. "Even my two sons used to use them as well for training. I can't believe we trained with them for 30 years with nothing happening." The mortars were discovered by chance when a friend from the local police force who also specialised in explosives visited Long at...

An 8th Iraqi Army Division Soldier looks through the aiming circle to verify the positioning of a target on the final day of 120 mm mortar system training at the 8th IA Div. headquarters, March 24. Photo by Sgt. Rodney Foliente, 4th Infantry Division Public Affairs. CAMP ECHO — Soldiers from the 8th Iraqi Army (IA) Division completed a six-week mortar training course conducted at their headquarters here, March 24. “The overall training gives them a more immediate capability to hit targets with indirect fire and provide suppression and neutralization,� said Sgt. 1st Class Joel Kane, mortar platoon sergeant, 2nd...

2/21/2008 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Air Force Theater Hospital Airmen here helped save the lives of seven Iraqi children who were playing soccer when they were wounded in an attack by insurgents Feb. 19 in Al Jumia, Iraq. The seven wounded children were transported to the base and were treated for various injuries. Two were treated for minor injuries and released; five required additional surgery. The children were wounded when two 82-millimeter mortar rounds struck a soccer field in the village of Al Jumia. One 12-year-old child died in the attack. Lt. Col. (Dr.) Todd Rasmussen, a...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER, Iraq, Jan. 14, 2008 – An Iraqi policeman ran toward a group of soldiers as they approached the pump station outside Kassipa, near Salman Pak, Dec. 21. Bent over with his weapon clutched tightly, he appeared worried. Army Capt. Chris Pearson, mortar platoon leader, Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, and Army Sgt. 1st Class Robert Lucas, the platoon sergeant, meet with Sheik Hamed, a local leader in Kassipa, a village near Salman Pak, Iraq, at his home Dec. 21, 2007. Photo by Spc. Ben Hutto, USA   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available....

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13, 2007 – A mortar that killed a coalition servicemember and injured 12 when it detonated earlier this week at a coalition operating base likely was manufactured in Iran, a spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq said yesterday. (Video) “Our explosive ordnance experts assessed (that) it is consistent with the rockets of Iranian origin we have seen used in other attacks,” Army Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner told reporters during a briefing in Baghdad. The general said experts matched distinctive markings on mortar fragments collected Sept. 11 from the impact site to unfired Iranian-made 240 mm rockets recovered in...

Hello I was hoping to get some more help with a problem. Kurt Nimmo had written an article about how the 81mm the US said was from Iran was fake. And the article got spread around so I decided to check into it and found that they do make one. I sent him the information and he updated the article with his mistake. The problem is now he is saying the websites with the information are fake. So I was wondering if I could get some help proving the links etc. His site is Link. A link to what got...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11, 2006 – An 82mm mortar round fired by militia forces from a nearby residential area caused yesterday’s fire at a Baghdad ammunition holding area around 10:40 p.m., officials with Multinational Division Baghdad announced today. The fire ignited tank, artillery and small-arms ammunition at a forward operating base in the central Rasheed district of Baghdad. "Intelligence indicates that civilians aligned with a militia organization were responsible for last night's mortar attack," Army Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington, a spokesman for Multinational Division Baghdad, said. At the time of the attack, base personnel went to full alert. Attack aviation and...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12, 2006 – Coalition forces in Afghanistan quelled rocket attacks along the Afghan-Pakistan border yesterday after extremists hiding in nearby hills fired on them, U.S. military officials said. “It’s a pretty common occurrence,” said Army 1st Sgt. David Christopher, the senior enlisted soldier for Company B, 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. “It happens at least every other day. That’s about 200 rockets we’ve taken in the past seven months.” Foreign fighters, al Qaeda terrorists and common criminals often attempt to cut away at coalition and Afghan efforts to improve governance and...

Israel has been getting plastered for the last month by what amount to low-tech weapons, mainly katyusha rockets and mortar bombs. Those things are WWII vintage weaponry and it's not as if countermeasures did not exist. Granted we don't quite have the laser weapons we'd like to have to shoot those weapons down, we DO have radar which can triangulate the location of anything which obeys ballistic laws, including both mortar bombs and katyusha rockets, and put munitions down on top of the shooters before the incoming projectile even lands. Here's the question: Why is Israel not using this sort...

WASHINGTON, August 4, 2006 – Three Iraqi civilians were killed, and nine were injured yesterday when insurgents fired a mortar round at a residential area in Ubaydi, Iraq, U.S. military officials reported. The mortar round landed directly on a home. No coalition personnel were killed or injured in the attack. All nine injured Iraqi civilians were immediately medically evacuated to a nearby U.S. military medical facility. The wounded civilians’ exact condition is unknown, but four were listed as requiring “urgent surgical” medical care, officials said. Marine Corps officials said the attack was intended to strike a nearby coalition forces outpost....

Iraqi Troops’ Mortar Know-How to Improve Security Iraqi soldiers guarding a key checkpoint will be able to respond more effectively to nighttime insurgent attacks, as mortar fire will provide needed illumination on the desert floor. By U.S. Army Spc. Lee Elder 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment MUQDADIYAH, Iraq, June 6, 2006 — Iraqi army soldiers guarding a key checkpoint here will soon be able to fight fire with fire - mortar fire, that is. To ensure Iraqi soldiers with 3rd Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 5th Division know how to use these weapons, U.S. soldiers assigned to C Company, 1st Squadron,...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A mortar round slammed to earth near Muqtada al-Sadr's home Sunday in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, but the popular anti-American cleric was not hurt, an aide said. Also Sunday, the Iraqi army said it had dispatched troops to investigate a report that 30 beheaded corpses were found in a village north of Baghdad. Brig. Saman Talabani, commander of the Iraqi Army 2nd Battalion, said the bodies were reported by residents in Mullah Eid, a village near the town of Buhriz, a former Saddam Hussein stronghold about 35 miles north of Baghdad. A child and at...

WASHINGTON, March 16, 2006 – A Multinational Division Baghdad soldier was killed yesterday in a mortar attack southwest of Baghdad, military officials reported. The soldier's name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin. In other news from Iraq, members of Iraq's 3rd Public Order Brigade found a roadside bomb in front of a trade school southeast of Baghdad on March 14, military officials reported today. The bomb consisted of a 155 mm artillery round, two batteries and a block of explosives, officials said. (Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq news releases.)

U.S. Army Sgt. Steven Gonzales, a combat engineer assigned to E Company, 1-68 Combined Arms Battalion, unearths a 155mm round buried in a field in south Muqdadiyah, Iraq, during Operation Dirty Harry, Feb. 20, 2006. U.S Army photo by Staff Sgt. Mark Wojciechowski More Photos Operation Dirty Harry Joint Search of Farmland Yields Mortar Round By U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Mark Wojciechowski 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment MUQDADIYAH, Iraq, Feb. 27, 2006 — As part of continuous efforts to thwart anti-Iraqi forces and find hidden weapons caches, Operation “Dirty Harry” recently searched a neighborhood and farmlands in south Muqdadiya...

Baghdad mortar barrage kills 16 Doura district has often been attacked by insurgents A barrage of mortar attacks in southern Baghdad has killed at least 16 Iraqis and injured more than 40. A police source told the BBC that a total of eight mortars had been fired into the mainly Shia area of Doura. The attacks come after days of sectarian tensions that have left at least 165 dead since Wednesday. Political and militia leaders say they have made progress in talks to curb the violence that was sparked by the bombing of a major Shia shrine. However, an explosion...

Mortar Attack on Jerusalem Thwarted, Fears of 'Gazafication' 10:22 Feb 21, '06 / 23 Shevat 5766 By Ezra HaLevi Kassam rockets struck the Ashkelon power station as security forces announced the capture of a terror cell planning on firing mortar shells upon Jerusalem's Gilo neighborhood. Military censors have permitted the publication of the capture of a group of Fatah terrorists preparing to launch mortar shells at two densely populated Jewish neighborhoods in southern Jerusalem. The terrorists had acquired eight military-grade mortar shells and a launcher, as well as IDF uniforms and were prepared to fire the shells, which have a...

(IsraelNN.com) Gush Katif refugees, many of whom are still dwelling in hotels awaiting permanent housing, lit a unique menorah tonight, one made of mortar shells fired by Arab terrorists into the heart of N’vei Dekalim, the largest community of Gush Katif. That special menorah commemorates the miracle of Jewish survival throughout the ages, and reminds us of the symbolic role Gush Katif has played in the saga of Jewish history: a community standing victorious despite constant attempts by Arab terrorists to wipe it out. 5000 mortars rained down on Gush Katif, from the onset of the Oslo War in September...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Mortar rounds killed five and wounded 36 people attending an important Shi'ite religious ceremony in Baghdad on Wednesday, police sources said. Television pictures showed thousands of pilgrims marching to the Kadhimiya mosque in an old district of Baghdad to celebrate the martyrdom of Musa Al-Kadhim, a revered religious figure among Shi'ites. The police source said there were three separate mortar attacks on the crowds moving toward the mosque. They had no more immediate details.

KIRYAT SHMONA, Israel, Aug 25 (Reuters) - A mortar or rocket fired from Lebanon slammed into a northern Israeli community on Thursday, witnesses said. The Israeli army had no immediate comment.

Jerusalem, August 11: US President George W. Bush says a planned pullout of Jewish settlers from occupied Gaza 'will be good for Israel'. Bush's remarks, in an interview given to Israel's Channel One television and aired on Thursday, appeared to be an attempt to boost Prime Minister Ariel Sharon against Jewish rightists seeking to thwart the withdrawal due to start on Aug 17. "I believe the decision that Prime Minister Sharon has made and is going to follow through on will be good for Israel," Bush said, interviewed at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Asked why he thought Israel's 'disengagement'...

Some MORE good news from Iraq: QAYYARAH, Iraq - Sheik Horn floats around the room in white robe and headdress, exchanging pleasantries with dozens of village leaders. But he's the only sheik with blonde streaks in his mustache — and the only one who attended country music star Toby Keith's recent concert in Baghdad with fellow U.S. soldiers. Officially, he's Army Staff Sgt. Dale L. Horn, but to residents of the 37 villages and towns that he patrols he's known as the American sheik. Sheiks, or village elders, are known as the real power in rural Iraq. And the 5-foot-6-inch...

CHICAGO — In September 2004, Sgt. Shawna Morrison of the Illinois National Guard's 1544th Transportation Company was leaving a mess hall in Iraq's Green Zone for a meeting with her new commander when she was killed in a mortar attack (search). Morrison's parents, who reside in Paris, Ill., are urging the military to try and do anything to prevent deaths like that of their daughter's. "Do it. Do it. Do it for our people," said Morrison's mother, Cynthia. "We are just losing too many people and it is all by these types of bombs. If it is not a car...

Belmont Club History and history in the making Wednesday, December 22, 2004 The Lidless Eye Most everyone on the blogosphere has probably followed the Glenn Reynolds link to a Mosul chaplain's blog. More than 20 people, including US military and civilian personnel, were killed in a mortar attack on a base mess tent in Mosul. Chaplain Lewis was at the site. His narrative of the followup attack on the wounded and the medical personnel who responded stood out. Regardless of what some may say, these are not stupid people. Any attack with casualties will naturally mean that eventually a...

QAIM, Iraq - American troops stationed along Iraq (news - web sites)'s border with Syria are coming under increasing mortar attack from shells fired from Syrian territory, but it's unclear who's responsible, U.S. officers said Thursday. Reuters Photo Reuters Slideshow Slideshow: Iraq The 82 mm mortar rounds have been fired at U.S. and Iraqi positions in and around Husaybah in the far west of Iraq's Anbar province, said Lt. Col. Chris Woodbridge, commander of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment. "Who exactly is firing these mortars, we do not know. But what we do know is that the point of...

09-20-04 Today has been a very busy day. We're constantly being mortared now. As I was waiting outside of the phone center with about 20 Marines, we heard the whistling of a mortar round. We're used to it now, so we stood around and looked up at the sky wondering where it was going to impact. Wherever it hit, it was close because it was loud. A corpsman who was outside with us hit the deck when the mortar impacted. He was quite embarrassed when he looked up and saw we were standing there looking at him. All of us...

Police are seeking an 18-year-old Howell man believed to have been injured when a mortar exploded in a pickup truck as he and a friend allegedly blew up mailboxes early Monday morning in Howell Township. The friend, Matthew Robert Gow, 18, of Howell, who is believed to be the driver, was arraigned Monday afternoon before Livingston County District Judge A. John Pikkarainen on a charge of using an explosive device to destroy property. Gow remains in the Livingston County Jail in lieu of $10,000 cash or surety bond. (snip) Upon arrival, deputies located what they believed to be a detonated...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents fired at least 10 mortar rounds at a U.S. base on the outskirts of Baghdad International Airport on Wednesday, wounding 11 soldiers, two of them seriously, and starting a fire that burned for well over an hour.

New Zealand Army engineers working in southern Iraq have come under mortar attack, Radio New Zealand has reported. Quoting a Defence Department official it said three mortar rounds had hit their encampment in Basra. There were no reports of death or injury and no other details were immediately available. New Zealand has around 80 engineers in the region attached to the British Army.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - One U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded in a mortar attack on a military base in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul Saturday, a U.S. military statement said Sunday. The fatality brought to 559 the number of U.S. military personnel killed in action in Iraq since the invasion of the oil-rich country 14 months ago.

HANOI, May 8 (Reuters) - Two teenagers were killed and eight seriously injured when a war-time mortar bomb they were playing with exploded in a school yard in southern Vietnam, state media reported on Saturday. One teenager was killed instantly on Friday in the school yard in the central highland province of Gia Lai, the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reported. Another boy died later in hospital. A doctor at the emergency section of Gia Lai's General Hospital said the injured children were still being treated. In another accident, two scavengers died as a war-time bomb they were trying to saw...

By Terry Boyd, Stars and StripesEuropean edition, Friday, April 30, 2004 (Click on thumbnail image to view larger version of photo.) WARNING: Content of some photos is of a graphic nature. Terry Boyd / ©S&SFirst Lt. Nicholas Bradley checks on an Iraqi child killed in a mortar attack in Baghdad meant for U.S. troops. Terry Boyd / ©S&SWhile watching for another attack, soldiers race to assist the Iraqi boys hit directly by mortars. While they saved one, there was nothing to be done for the other two. Terry Boyd / ©S&SAn Iraqi man breaks down as he leads his son...

January 16, 2004: The U.S. Marine Corps has, as is their custom, taken an innovative approach to developing a new lightweight, self-propelled artillery system (the Expeditionary Fire Support System, or EFSS). They have combined an existing commercial vehicle, the Supacat HMT (High Mobility Transport) with an Israeli 120 mm mortar system. The HMT is a seven ton, four wheel cross country vehicle with a capacity for 3.2 tons. It has a 180 horsepower engine and a 4x4 drive optimized for cross country work. The cab is being modified to hold the five man gun crew. The Israeli mortar system weighs...

Four mortar shells hit a U.S. military compound Friday in the northern city of Mosul, killing a soldier from the 101st Airborne Division, the military said. MEANWHILE, AN EXPLOSION slightly damaged a highway overpass in western Baghdad Friday, and a U.S. soldier died on Thanksgiving from a gunshot wound of unknown origin in a base west of Baghdad, the military said. In Mosul, an Iraqi worker in the compound was slightly wounded in the attack at around 11 a.m. local time, Master Sgt. Kelly Tyler said.

The war of attrition continues in Gush Katif. At 11PM terrorists fired two mortars at the Jewish community of Neve Dekalim, near Khan Younis. Nobody was injured in the attack. The two rockets were the latest addition to six shells fired earlier in the evening - at an IDF guard tower and at other Jewish communities near Gaza. Mortar shells were also fired this morning and again in the afternoon. Four rockets were fired at an IDF jeep near Kissufim, in the southern Gaza strip. A Palestinian terrorist attempted to infiltrate the Jewish community of Netzarim this evening, but was...

The head of a Hamas cell responsible for mortar attacks on Israeli communities in Gush Katif was killed on Sunday night in yet another targeted killing carried out by Israel, after rockets fired from an IAF helicopter slammed into the donkey cart he drove in along a residential street in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. The strike came hours after a Kassam rocket landed in Ashkelon's southern industrial zone, marking the northernmost point a rocket has landed after it was launched from Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. The target of the IAF helicopter attack was identified...

Palestinians fired a mortar at the Gaza Strip settlement of Neveh Dekalim Wednesday, just minutes after several hundred Palestinian prisoners were released into the Palestinian Authority. No injuries were reported in the incident. Earlier Wednesday, IDF troops arrested 14 Palestinians in the West Bank city of Jericho on suspicion of involvement in terror activity. Also Wednesday, an elite Border Police unit apprehended wanted Tanzim member, Mohammed Alawuni, in a village south of the West Bank city of Jenin. The 14 are believed to be involved in planning terror attacks against Israel and the creation of weapons to be used in...

<p>PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) --  A mortar shell meant to be fired in celebration of a wedding in a Pakistani tribal area exploded prematurely Saturday, killing at least 25 people, including the bridegroom and many of his relatives, officials said.</p> <p>The blast occurred in the village of Korez, 180 miles southwest of the northeast Pakistan frontier city of Peshawar, in the tribal area of Orakzai.</p>