Terrorism Watch

source: chinaview 2009-12-08 ISLAMABAD, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Two explosions killed 12 persons and injured at least 60 others in eastern Pakistan's Lahore on Monday evening, local TV channel reported. Twin blasts took place outside Moon Market police station in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, the private TV Express News reported. Several shops and a bank caught fire due to the blasts. Witnesses said that large number of shoppers were present at the market at the time of blasts. Ambulances and rescue teams reached the blast site, and at least 60 people were shifted to Services hospital, Jinnah Hospital and other nearby hospitals where emergency have been declared. Police sources said that the killed and injured included children and women. The condition of several injured is said to be serious. Power supply to the area has been suspended after the blasts. The channel footage showed that fire fighters are making efforts to tackle the fierce blaze. Several vehicles parked in t

Source: somaliland press LAS ANOD , 4 December 2009 ( Somalilandpress ) — Somaliland anti-terrorist forces have arrested six men suspected of planning acts of terrorism in the southern town of Las Anod, the regional capital of Sool on Tuesday [1st December], QaranTv reported. Somaliland government issued a statement on their website stating the six men were arrested after bomb-making materials and small arms were discovered in their possession. In a separate press conference in Las Anod, Somaliland’s police chief of Sool region, Mr Farah Awale told local reporters that the weapons consisted of two anti-personnel landmines, mobile phones and bomb-making materials. It is not clear if the men have being charged yet but Mr Farah said there was an on-going investigation. The police did not give details of how they arrested the six suspects but said they had been under police surveillance for two weeks. The arrest comes a month after a roadside bomb killed Somaliland’s 12th infan

Source: novinite Society   |  December 5, 2009, Saturday Social Minister, Totyu Mladenov, is on his way Saturday evening to the Krumovgrad orphanage where three children died after a homemade bomb exploded. Photo by BGNES Three boys, ages 13, 15 and 16, died Saturday when a homemade bomb exploded in an orphanage in the southern Bulgarian town of Krumovgrad. The device went off around 2 pm. One of the boys died on the scene while the other has been taken to the Krumovgrad hospital where he later died. A third boy was listed in critical condition in the hospital in the regional center – the city of Kardzhali, and died during surgery. Police arrived shortly after the blast and found remains from a homemade explosive. It is still unclear if the children were trying to make the bomb or it came from outside and exploded while the boys were handling it. Forensic experts and members of the anti-terrorist task force are searching the location while psychologists are helping the other child

Source: Mysinchew Foreign 2009-12-05 14:54 ZAMBOANGA, Dec 5 (AFP) - One person was killed and six policemen wounded Saturday when a bomb exploded near a police station on a southern Philippine island known as a haunt for Muslim extremists, police said. The bomb blast, in Jolo town on the island of the same name, damaged the police station and a neighbouring building constructed with US assistance to promote peace, said local police head Chief Inspector Usman Pingay. One local government employee was killed and six policemen wounded, he said. Pingay said that the Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim extremist group, known for kidnapping and bomb attacks, may be behind the blast, although investigations had only just begun. The Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for a series of attacks on Jolo in recent months, including a roadside bomb blast that killed two US soldiers. Set up in the 1990s allegedly with money from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, it has been blamed for the Philippines' worst ter

Source: Time By SIMON SHUSTER / Moscow Thursday, Dec. 03, 2009 An undated photo of a man identified as Chechen separatist leader Doku Umarov kavkazcenter.com / AP When Illyas Musayev heard that the Neva Express train had been bombed on Nov. 27, killing 26 well-to-do Russians and injuring about 100 others, the Chechen separatist was incredulous. He didn't want to believe that his former comrade in arms Doku Umarov had kept the pledge he made in August to bring his holy war out of the isolated Caucasus Mountains and into central Russia. But that is the picture that has emerged. On Wednesday, Umarov's Islamist group, the radical wing of the Chechen resistance, claimed responsibility for the attack on the train en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Now Musayev and experts agree that Russia, having ignored Umarov's stated intention in August to broaden his targets, faces the prospect of a nationwide insurgency. "Yes, these attacks will most likely continue,"

Source: AP on Google By MUNIR AHMAD (AP) –  12 minutes ago ISLAMABAD — Police say a bomb has exploded near a KFC fast-food restaurant in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar. There was no immediate word on casualties in the blast Saturday. Police official Haroon Khan says several vehicles were damaged and the windows of nearby stores were shattered in the explosion. The KFC restaurant is well known in the city and has security guards stationed outside. It is the latest in a string of attacks to rock the country as the army battles the Taliban in the northwest. An attack Friday on a mosque frequented by army personnel killed 37 people in Rawalpindi city.

Source: AP on google By ASIF SHAHZAD (AP) –  3 hours ago RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — A Taliban suicide squad targeted Pakistani military officers and their families praying at a mosque Friday close to army headquarters in a gruesome display of the militants' ability to strike at the center of power in this U.S.-allied, nuclear-armed nation. The barrage of bombs and bullets left 37 people dead, including seven senior officers and 17 children. The deaths of so many top brass inside a heavily fortified area a few miles from the capital was a major coup for the Pakistani insurgents, who are under pressure as the army pushes an offensive against their stronghold of South Waziristan along the Afghan border. Friday's carnage also dramatized the risks Pakistan faces if it steps up its support for the United States in the war against Islamic extremists on its side of the border with Afghanistan. President Barack Obama believes Pakistan is a key partner in that war, but critics contend that

Source: BBC NEWS Officials believe government ministers were the targets of the blast There has been widespread condemnation of a suicide bomb attack in Somalia that killed at least 19 people, including four government ministers. The prime minister of Somalia's UN-backed government, Omar Sharmarke, described it as a "vicious and calculated outrage". The African Union condemned the bombing - at a graduation ceremony for medical students - as "inhumane and cowardly". No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, in the capital Mogadishu. However, presidential spokesman Hassan Haile told the BBC he believed it was the work of Islamist militants al-Shabab. Militant groups control most of Mogadishu and much of the country. I had to step over their bodies to get out - people were screaming: 'Is it a bomb? Is it a bomb?' Mohammed Olad Hassan BBC reporter Bomb attack: 'Light turned to dark' "The loss of our ministers is d

Source; IBN LIVE Guwahati: The detention of United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa has once again given Assam hope that peace will finally prevail in the state. ULFA has indulged in violence, terror and bomb blasts for nearly 30 years and with Rajkhowa's arrest by the Bangladeshi security agencies, it seems that the endgame has begun for the terror outfit. Is Rajkhowa finally giving in and has he run out of options? Reacting to Rajkhowa's arrest and his desire to engage in peace talks Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said that the picture was not yet very clear. "I am not in the dark, nor in the clear picture. I am in between," said Gogoi while addressing a press conference in Guwahati on Thursday. ULFA down; Assam CM offers talks ULFA chief ready for talks, to get safe passage Many in Assam are viewing the statements about Rajkhowa with scepticism even though there is little peoples' support for the ULFA. For many it is the outfit'

 Source: VOA Ras Kamboni faction of Hizbul Islam says its fighters are preparing to challenge al-Shabab in southern and central Somalia 2 December 2009 In Somalia, an Islamist faction says it considers its former ally, al-Shabab, to be the greatest threat to the country.  A spokesman for the leader of the Ras Kamboni faction of Hizbul Islam says Hizbul Islam fighters are preparing to challenge al-Shabab in all areas of southern and central Somalia. The spokesman for the leader of the Ras Kamboni Brigade tells VOA the fight against al-Shabab militants, which began in late September in the southern port city of Kismayo, is expected to continue until al-Shabab is ousted from Somalia.  Abdinasir Seraar is the spokesman for Ahmed Madobe, the military commander al-Shabab has repeatedly blamed for triggering the conflict in Kismayo. Seraar says the fight against al-Shabab will move from the Jubba region to regions of Gedo and Middle and Lower Shabelle, including the

Source: VOA After driving them out of Uganda and chasing them across the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ugandan government troops are now fighting the rebel Lord's Resistance Army in the CAR. 02 December 2009 Attacks by Ugandan rebels in the Central African Republic are leading to food shortages as local farmers are driven off their lands.  After driving them out of Uganda and chasing them across the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ugandan government troops are now fighting the rebel Lord's Resistance Army in the Central African Republic. Those rebels occasionally ambush vehicles on the road along the southern border with Congo. But they spend most of their time raiding villages for supplies and food. And that is displacing the local population. "People are no longer able to farm.  They are in the bush running away from this LRA, Lord's Resistance Army.  They do not know next when they will be able to go back to their farms," said Sitta Ka

Source: Christian Action The FBI believes that 10 percent of mosques in the U.S. are preaching extremism, reports Ronald Kessler of Newsmax.com . The anonymous counter-terrorism official interviewed by Kessler describes the number as a conservative estimate. Some researchers have estimated a much higher number. A group of experts launched the Mapping Sharia Project, which surveyed about 200 mosques and Islamic institutions. They found that 80% of the mosques visited had extremist literature. "Rarely do we have them [the Muslim community] coming to us and saying, 'There are three guys in the community that we're very concerned about," Kessler quotes one FBI agent as saying. "They want to fix it inside the community. They're a closed group, a very, very closed group. It's part of their culture that they want to settle the problem within their own communities. They've actually said that to us, which I then go crazy over." One FBI agent told

A suicide bomber targeted Pakistan's naval headquarters in Islamabad on Wednesday. The bomb killed a guard and critically wounded two navy soldiers. The guard was killed as he tried to keep the bomber from entering the naval headquarters. The blast happened after the attacker was stopped and asked to take off his coat and show identification. The attacker removed his coat to reveal a suicide vest, which then exploded. Militants have killed hundreds of people in bombings since a security offensive was launched in October in South Waziristan.

A suicide bomber has blown himself up at the entrance to the headquarters of Pakistan's navy in Islamabad, killing a security officer, officials have said. Chief police commissioner Fazeel Asghar said two other security officers had been critically wounded. Two civilians, one a six-year-old boy, were also hurt. One witness said this attack was carried out by a boy who could have been as young as 13. Orla Guerin reports.

Thursday, December 03, 2009By By Khalid Kheshgi PESHAWAR: With the killing of the Awami National Party’s MPA from Swat Shamsher Ali, the NWFP Assembly has lost its fourth lawmaker since September 2008. All of them belonged to the ruling alliance and met unnatural deaths. Fifty-nine-years-old Shamsher Ali advocate was killed in a suicide attack on Tuesday outside his residence at Dheray in Swat’s volatile Kabal tehsil. Amongst the critically injured were his two brothers. Elected to the NWFP Assembly from PF-83 (Swat) on the ANP ticket in the February 2008 general elections, Shamsher Ali was a lawyer by profession and had a long association with the nationalist party. His brother Shaukat, who sustained serious injures in the suicide attack, was kidnapped by the militants soon after the security forces launched operation Rah-e-Rast in Swat in May this year and was subsequently freed. Amongst the lawmakers in the NWFP Assembly, Alamzeb was the first victim of terrorism when he was

Source: chinaview 2009-12-01 KABUL, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- An Afghan civilian was killed and three others sustained injuries as a bomb blast rocked Uruzgan's provincial capital Trinkot on Tuesday, deputy to provincial police chief Mohammad Musa said. "The bomb planted on a hand-cart exploded in a bazaar this morning killing a passerby on the spot and wounding three others," Musa told Xinhua. He blamed the enemies of peace, a term used against Taliban militants, for the blast, adding the enemies carried out the attack to disrupt peace in the province. Conflicts and Taliban-linked insurgency have left over 1,500 civilians dead since early this year.　

By Alexander Osipovich (AFP) – 22 hours ago MOSCOW — A militant Islamist group claimed responsibility Wednesday for last weekend's deadly Russian train bombing, as investigators said the well-planned attack resembled tactics used by Chechen rebels. The so-called "Caucasus Emirate," an umbrella group uniting various Islamist factions, said in a statement posted on a Chechen rebel website that it was behind the attack that killed 26 people and injured around 100 others. "This operation was prepared and executed along with other acts of sabotage, planned from the start of this year and successfully carried out against a set of strategically important sites in Russia, on the orders of Caucasus Emir Dokku Umarov," the statement said. There was no immediate way of verifying the claim. The statement was posted on KavkazCenter.com , a website that has been used as a mouthpiece by Chechen rebels. Umarov is the self-proclaimed leader of the Caucasus Emirate, which

Source: SKY 10:15am UK, Wednesday December 02, 2009 Alex Crawford, Asia correspondent The Pakistan Taliban has admitted for the first time its forces are fighting in Afghanistan and insisted a US troop surge will not defeat them. Sky News obtained what is believed to be the first interview with the group's leadership since the Pakistan's military began its offensive in the tribal area of South Waziristan. In the video footage, Tehreik e Taliban's deputy leader Wali ur Rehman said his fighters were undeterred by America sending an extra 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. He said: "US defeat in Afghanistan is more visible day by day. Statements from their officials and army generals show that they are fed up and questioning how long they stay in Afghanistan. If I did not think that the security of the US... was at stake in Afghanistan, I would gladly order every single one of our troops home tomorrow. Read our report on t

Source: DNA Kozhikode: The arrest of T Nazir, alleged to have masterminded a series of subversive activities, including recruitment of youths from Kerala to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit, would provide a major breakthrough in the ongoing probe into series of terror related cases in the state, police said. The Kerala police was trying to get the custody of Nazir to resolve the series of terror-related cases, inspector general of police (north) Tomin J Thachankary said here today. Nazir, also allegedly involved in the 2005 IISc Bangalore attack, was arrested along with another LeT suspect along the Indo-Bangla border in Meghalaya. He had allegedly masterminded a major terror network from Kerala by recruiting youths from the state and sending them to PoK for training. Nazir had also plotted the twin bomb blasts at two major bus stations in the crowded Mavoor Road in Kozhikode in October 2003 in which two persons, including a police constable sustained injuries. His alleged involvement

Source: The Sun Almost died ... David Etale A HERO squaddie who plays as striker for a Scots footie team has told of his amazing escape from a bomb blast in Afghanistan. David Etale, 23 - up front for Edinburgh's East of Scotland league outfit Spartans - was nearly fatally wounded in a roadside bomb last Friday. The brave Kenyan, a member of the British Army's Edinburgh-based 3rd Batallion The Rifles, suffered a fractured spine. But help was quickly on hand and he was flown to Birmingham's Selly Oak hospital - where he faces surgery and a four-month stay. Last night Etale said: "I count myself lucky to be alive. Apparently the vehicle was totally destroyed." He thanked his team and the Scottish public for their support, and vowed: "I will play football again."

Source: SKY 5:40pm UK, Saturday November 28, 2009 Andy Jack, Sky News Online A second bomb has gone off at the site where an explosive earlier sent a luxury express train careering off the tracks in Russia killing dozens of people. The less powerful bomb is not thought to have injured anyone, the head of Russia's state railway operator said. The train was originally derailed by a bomb equivalent to 7kg (15lb) of TNT, the head of Russia's domestic intelligence service told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev . Several carriages of the Nevsky Express travelling from Moscow to St Petersburg were sent off the tracks near the town of Bologoye, 200 miles from Moscow. "Two wagons were completely overturned... several people were completely crushed under the metal. I heard screams, moaning," police officer Andrei Abramenko, who was travelling on the train, said. A unnamed source

Source: PTI Imphal, Nov 30 (PTI) Suspected militants lobbed a bomb at a CRPF convoy in Imphal west district of Manipur, leaving a youth injured, police said today. Militants standing by the roadside at Sagolband Bijoygovinda near here lobbed the bomb at a passing CRPF convoy going from Imphal to the headquarters at Langjing, about 20 km west of here, yesterday. A bystander received splinter injuries in the incident. The explosion occurred soon after the convoy passed through the area, police said, adding that had it exploded a few seconds earlier, there would have been several casualties. A senior CRPF personnel said they searched the area seconds after the explosion but the militants escaped.

  30 November 2009 David Etale  Source: Edinburgh news A FOOTBALL player and soldier was due to arrive back from Afghanistan today after being injured by a roadside bomb on Friday. David Etale, a striker for city-based Spartans, was one of three soldiers wounded in the attack. It is thought the other two casualties were also from 3 Rifles, which is based at Redford Barracks. Mr Etale was left unconscious after the blast, with his back suffering the brunt of the impact, but he was said to be "recovering well" from his injuries and was able to walk and call home last night to speak to family. His partner was expected to fly down to an army hospital in the south of England tomorrow to be by his bedside. His teammates were left anxiously waiting for news after hearing of the incident just before Saturday's Scottish Cup tie against Forfar, which they went on to lose 1-0. His parents and sisters, who live in Kenya, were also informed.