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Showing posts from May 24, 2009

Riz Khan - What now for Sri Lanka's Tamils? - 25 May 09 - Part 1

After a military victory for the government in a civil war that has torn the country apart for decades, Sri Lanka now begins a process of national reconciliation.

David Miliband calls for 'immediate' release of British hostages

The Foreign Secretary has called for the "immediate and unconditional" release of five British hostages held in Iraq for nearly two years. Follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

Pakistan: deadly blast rocks Lahore

IN THE FIELD: A car packed with explosives exploded in the centre of Lahore, the capital of Pakistan's eastern province of Punjab. Police say the blast killed at least 15 people and injured more than a hundred others.

Explosive Blows Out Windows at NYC Starbucks

An explosion early Monday morning on Manhattan's Upper East Side, possibly caused by a small bomb made from fireworks, destroyed a sidewalk bench and shattered windows in a Starbucks coffee shop. (May 25)

How Lashkar funded transnational terror campaign?

Praveen Swami Oman millionaire, Kerala computer engineer, Pakistani jihadists facilitated attacks from Muscat to Mumbai and Bangalore Nawaz’s jihadist engagement began when he was just 18 Landmarks in Oman were on the terror radar MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: Back in 2006, the lives of a millionaire Omani businessman and a struggling computer technician from Kerala intersected with the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s battle-hardened jihadists. Even now, six months after the arrest of Ernakulam-born Sarfaraz Nawaz and Muscat entrepreneur Ali Abdul Aziz al-Hooti, investigators in India and Oman are struggling to understand the complex networks that emerged: networks that they are discovering bound together Indian Mujahideen attacks in southern India with the Lashkar’s assault on Mumbai and a series of planned bomb

A peaceful solution to the 'Kurdish question' in Turkey: Lessons of the 'Northern Ireland question'

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Ahmed Turk By Zafer Yörük The Kurdish Globe Finally, the Kurdish question has been declared "the number one issue of Turkey" by the highest authority of the Turkish State, President Abdullah Gül, on 9 May 2009. Gül also stated that there were optimistic developments and that a historical opportunity for a realistic and rational solution had emerged. Gül's historical statement followed a statement by the top name of the PKK, Murat Karayılan, in an interview with the Turkish press that the PKK was ready to give up arms as part of a reasonable peace process. If these mutual statements indicate anything more than mere expressions of goodwill, then we have every reason to expect the commencement of a "peace process" in the near future. From South Africa to Nicaragua, Kosovo, Cyprus, East Timor, Angola and Palestine, we have been witnessing many "peace processes" around the world since the last decade of the twentieth century. A few of these have led

Europe’s Oldest Terrorist Organization: The Basque ETA Marks 50 Years of Operations

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Publication: Terrorism Monitor Volume: 7 Issue: 14 May 26, 2009 04:34 PM Age: 2 days Category: Terrorism Monitor, Terrorism, Global Terrorism Analysis, Europe, Home Page By: Jules Stewart Members of the Basque ETA group On a December morning in 1973, an ear-splitting blast ripped through the fashionable Salamanca district of Madrid, shaking the walls of this reporter’s home. The first frenzied reports on the Spanish state-controlled media spoke of a gas main explosion.  A journalist’s instinct said this was not so; political tensions were running high in the final years of the Franco dictatorship, the aged general was suffering from severe Parkinson’s disease and his frail voice was barely audible in broadcasts. Everyone impatiently awaited the end of four decades of a tyranny that still had two years to run, and everyone expected trouble.   When the dust cleared, it emerged that the Basque guerrilla organisation Euskadi ta Askatasuna (Basque Homeland and Liberty – ETA) had d

Myanmar Foreign Minister says Suu Kyi trial "not political"

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Thu May 28, 2009 7:29am GMT   Print | Single Page [ - ] Text [ + ] 1 of 1 Full Size By Martin Petty PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Myanmar's foreign minister defended the trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday, insisting the widely condemned case was not a political or human rights issue. In the first public defence of the trial by an official, Nyan Win accused the international community of meddling in the former Burma's affairs and said outrage over the case was overdone. "The case of Aung San Suu Kyi and John Yettaw was an internal legal issue," he told a meeting of Southeast Asian and European foreign ministers in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. "It's not political. It's not a human rights issue, so we don't accept the pressure and interference from abroad." The United Nations, the EU, the United States and the As

Sri Lanka avoids war crimes probe

By Amal Jayasinghe – 3 hours ago COLOMBO (AFP) — Sri Lanka celebrated a major diplomatic victory after managing to torpedo Western demands for a probe into alleged war crimes committed during the offensive against the Tamil Tigers. A little more than a week after government troops defeated the separatist rebels, the island's diplomats managed to lobby Asian support and commandeer a special session of the UN's Human Rights Council in Geneva. The Council session, called because of alarm over the high number of civilian casualties as well as the island's treatment of displaced Tamil civilians, ended Wednesday with a resolution praising the outcome of the war. "This is a strong endorsement of our president's efforts to rout terrorism, and the successful handling of the world's biggest hostage crisis," Sri Lanka's Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said. "This is a clear message that the international community is behind Sri Lanka.&quo

Iraqi civilians, US soldier killed in blast

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Wed, 27 May 2009 17:50:46 GMT A roadside car bomb blast west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad has led to the death of five people including an American soldier. Twelve civilians were also wounded after the roadside bomb targeting a US military patrol detonated in Abu Ghraib district on Wednesday. The attack comes while the US military is preparing to pull out of Iraq's urban areas within the next month. Under a US-Iraqi security pact, US combat forces are required to leave Iraq by 2010, while all American forces must leave by 2012. However, there are reports suggesting that Washington is planning to leave fighting forces in Iraq for another 10 years despite the agreement with Baghdad. "Global trends are pushing in the wrong direction… They fundamentally will change how the Army works," US Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey said on Tuesday at an invitation-only briefing for journalists and analysts. Casey said his planning envisioned 10 co

Six Turkish soldiers killed in bomb attack

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Istanbul - Six Turkish soldiers were killed in a landmine explosion in the south-east of the country, local television reports said Thursday. Several people were injured when the landmine that had been placed beside a road in the province of Hakkari exploded on Wednesday night, according to the reports. A month ago, nine soldiers were killed in a bomb attack carried out by members of the banned separatist Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) in the same region. Officially, the organization that has been waging an armed struggle for self-rule since the 1980s, has declared a ceasefire. The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States. Read more: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1479942.php/Six_Turkish_soldiers_killed_in_bomb_attack_#ixzz0Gn0jn7Tu&B

300 killed in suicide attacks in 2009

ISLAMABAD (SANA): At least 300 people were killed and 1100 others injured in 30 suicide attacks in the first five months of 2009. Suicide attackers targeted mosques, Imambargahs, and office of sensitive departments in various parts of the country including the tribal areas. They killed one ANP legislator and attacked on the house of PML-Q leader Engineer Amir Muqam in their 2009 terrorist activities. According to SANA report, the wave of suicide bombing in 2009 started on January 1 when 3 policemen were killed and 6 others injured in two suicides attack in Peshawar. 8 people including three policemen and two journalists were killed and 27 other injured in January four suicide attack, whereas, 4 people were killed in Dera Bugti bomb blast on 14 January. On January 30, four troops were killed and 8 others were injured in Malakand blast. In the month of February, five suicide attacks were carried out, killing 69, including MPA of ANP Alam Zaib Khan and injuring 235 others. Shadows

Terrorists change their modus operandi

Thursday, May 28, 2009 By By Salman Aslam LAHORE The City on Wednesday witnessed another terrorist attack on the law enforcing agencies on the Fatima Jinnah Road. This time the terrorists changed their mode of action as they first carried out a ground attack on the Rescue 15 building and later used a vehicle which had an explosive device fixed in it. It is suspected that the material used in the attack was a mix of the RDX and trinitrotoluene or TNT explosives. The RDX is used as a major component in many plastic-bonded explosives to increase their intensity while the TNT is usually used to shatter concrete structures and hillocks. At least 24 people have reportedly been killed while over 200 injured in the attack. The investigators say the similar mix of RDX and TNT explosives had been used in an attack on March 4, 2008, when a suicide bomber forced his entry to the Navy War College on The Mall, Lahore, by ramming his explosive-laden vehicle into the main gate, killing eight

Pakistan Taliban claims Lahore attack

By Alamgir Bitani PESHAWAR, Pakistan, May 28 (Reuters) - Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility on Thursday for a suicide gun and bomb attack in the city of Lahore the previous day that killed 24 people and wounded nearly 300. [ID:nISL356265] The government said the attack in a high-security area where a police headquarters, emergency services building and a military intelligence office are located, was revenge for an offensive against the Taliban in the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad. [ID:nISL483338] The army moved against the militants in the Swat region late last month after the Taliban had seized a district only 100 km (60 miles) from the capital and a peace pact collapsed. A militant commander loyal to Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud also said the Lahore attack was in response to the offensive in Swat. "We have achieved our target. We were looking for this target for a long time. It was a reaction to the Swat operation," the commander, Hakimull

TIMELINE-Militant attacks in Pakistan

May 27 (Reuters) - Gunmen attacked a police headquarters in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Wednesday, opening fire and setting off a car-bomb that killed 22 people and wounded nearly 300. There was no claim of responsibility but the blast comes as the army battles militants in the Swat region of the country's northwest in its most concerted action to push back a growing Taliban insurgency. [ID:nISL484735] Militant violence has surged in nuclear-armed Pakistan in recent years, with numerous attacks on security forces and government and Western targets. Following is a timeline of major attacks in 2009: May 16, 2008 - Car packed with mortar bombs blows up in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing 11 people, including four children passing in a school bus. May 11 - Ten people are killed and more than a dozen wounded in a suicide car bomb attack on a security checkpost near Peshawar. April 25 - Twelve children who mistake a bomb for a toy are killed when it explodes as

Taliban strike ISI headquarters in Lahore, 35 killed

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M Zulqernain in Lahore May 27, 2009 S uspected Taliban [ Images ] militants on Wednesday brazenly targeted the provincial headquarters of the Inter-Services Intelligence in Lahore [ Images ] , detonating an explosive-laden car, leaving at least 35 people dead and over 250 wounded. Though heavily armed militants, believed to be two to four in number, failed to reach the main premises housing the ISI office, they detonated the explosives, which damaged the building and totally flattened the nearby city police rescue office. The terrorist hit squad headed their vehicle towards the two buildings located just off the Mall Road, but as heavily armed guards stopped them, they came out and exchanged fire with the guards, before setting off a massive blast. District Coordination Officer Lahore Sajjad Ahmed Bhutta said a car loaded with explosives rammed into the barriers on the road leading to the buildings housing ISI and the Lahore police office. T

Uzbek unrest prompts border closure

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Human rights groups say several hundreds of civilians  were killed in clashes in Andijan in 2005 [EPA] The border between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan has been closed after an attack on a police station was reported in an Uzbek border region. A spokesman for the Kyrgyz interior ministry said there had been shooting on the Uzbek border post of Khanabad on Tuesday. "It is possible there are wounded," the spokesman told the news agency AFP. "From the Kyrgyz side of the border, trails of blood were seen in the area of the border crossing, located in the territory of the neighbouring state." The press service for the Ky
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Somalia facing 'foreign invasion' About 60,000 civilians have fled their homes amid a surge in violence this month [AFP] Somalia's president has condemned the presence of foreign fighters in his country and called for help to tackle armed opposition groups seeking to topple his government. "Somalia is being invaded by foreign fighters, whose main purpose is to turn the country into an Afghanistan or an Iraq," Sharif Ahmed said on Monday. His comments came a day after after the al-Shabab group claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide attack in the Somali capital. Authorities suspect the bombe

UN urges Sri Lanka war crime probe

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UN urges Sri Lanka war crime probe Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war has left thousands dead and forced many to flee their homes [AFP] The United Nations human rights chief has called for an independent investigation into whether war crimes were committed in the final stages of Sri Lanka's civil war. Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said there was reason to believe that the government and the Tamil Tigers had "grossly disregarded the fundamental principle of the inviolability of civilians". "Establishing the facts is crucial to set the record straight regarding the conduct of a
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Deaths in Afghanistan convoy blast Pro-Taliban forces have been resurgent against Afghan and foreign forces in recent months Three civilians and three soldiers serving with Nato-led forces in Afghanistan have been killed in a suicide car bomb attack on a military convoy, officials have said. The bomber drove an explosives-laden vehicle into a military convoy in the eastern Kapisa province on Tuesday, lieutenant commander Christopher Hall, a Nato spokesman, said. Three US troops serving with Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) were killed in the blast in the Sayat district, technical sergeant Chuck