Terrorism Watch

Source: IANS on Yahoo Sat, Dec 26 04:24 PM Washington, Dec 26 (IANS) A Nigerian, claiming links with Al Qaeda, set off a small explosion on board a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day, setting off a major security alert with the incident being described as an 'attempted terrorist attack'. The Nigerian was quickly subdued and Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam landed safely in Detroit, Michigan, around noon Friday, with several of the 278 passengers sustaining minor injuries in the incident. The suspect, identified by a member of Congress as Abdul Mudallad, could face charges later Saturday, Detroit's Free Press Journal quoted an official as saying. He was being treated at a local hospital for burns he suffered while igniting the device. The FBI is investigating the incident and President Barack Obama, celebrating Christmas in Hawaii, ordered that all appropriate measures be taken to increase security for air travel. Deputy W

Source: AFP on Google The death takes this year's international military casualties in Afghanistan to 505 (AFP) – 4 hours ago KABUL — An American soldier has been killed by a roadside bomb while serving with NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said Saturday. NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the soldier died on Friday, but gave no details of where the incident took place. The death of the American, who was not named, was the only known Christmas Day fatality among the 113,000 international troops deployed to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan. "An ISAF service member from the United States died following an IED strike in southern Afghanistan Friday," the ISAF statement said. The death takes this year's international military casualties in Afghanistan to 505, according to an AFP tally based on independent website icasualties.org which tracks military deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq. This year has been the deadliest sin

Source: AFP on Google (AFP) – 3 hours ago KHAR, Pakistan — Militants assassinated an anti-Taliban tribal elder and dumped his beheaded body by the roadside in Pakistan's northwest tribal belt, officials said Saturday. Gul Mohammad, 42, an elder of the Salarzai tribe, had been active in raising a village militia to battle Taliban militants in the Bajaur tribal district bordering Afghanistan, an official said. "The body of Gul Mohammad was found this morning in Mamund village," Faramosh Khan, a local administration official in Khar, the main town in Bajaur, told AFP. "A note found on the beheaded body said that anyone joining the militia against the Taliban would be killed in the same manner," Khan said. A local security official confirmed the incident, saying Taliban militants want to scare the local population away from supporting army operations. Pakistani security forces launched a huge operation against Islamist militants in Bajaur in August. In Febru

Source: Chicago tribune Afghans survey the damage Friday and check buildings destroyed in a suicide bombing Thursday in the Afghan city of Kandahar, south of Kabul. A man detonated a horse-drawn cart laden with explosives outside a guesthouse frequented by foreigners. Eight people were killed in the blast, police said, and four were injured. An Afghan police official said the man set off the explosives after being confronted by security at the guesthouse. "The target of the suicide attacker is unknown," said Fazel Ahmad Sharzad, deputy provincial police chief.

Source: VOA VOA News 24 December 2009 Photo: AP An Iraqi military helicopter flies over pilgrims gathered at the Imam Abbas shrine during the festival of Ashoura in Karbala, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Baghdad, 24 Dec 2009 Iraqi officials say at least 20 people were killed and 100 wounded in multiple attacks across Iraq Thursday, including Shi'ite pilgrims gathered for a religious ritual.  Officials say twin bombings near a bus station in the central town of Hillah killed 12 people and wounded more than 73 others.  The second of those two blasts occurred as emergency workers arrived at the scene of the initial explosion.  An Iraqi provincial council member was among the dead. An explosion at an outdoor funeral in Baghdad's predominantly Shi'ite neighborhood of Sadr City killed at least five people and wounded 22 others.  And in southern Baghdad, a bomb killed three Shi'ite pilgrims and wounded another 10.  They were on their way to the holy c

By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS Published: December 25, 2009 Nine people were killed and 30 wounded around Iraq on Friday. Much of the recent violence has been aimed at Shiites making their way to the holy city of Karbala for Ashura, which commemorates the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, in A.D. 680. A roadside bomb aimed at Shiite pilgrims in the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City on Friday killed three people and wounded 20 others, the Iraqi police said. In Mosul, in northern Iraq, three census workers were killed by gunmen, and a police officer died after a rocket landed near a patrol in the city, the authorities said. Near the town of Rabia, northeast of Mosul, a car bomb exploded, killing a Kurdish pesh merga soldier and injuring 10 others. The police also found a body west of the city, of a woman who had apparently been strangled.

Source: Guardian India's close ties with Afghanistan mean it is well placed to step in when the west has flown its last soldier out of Kabul In the 19th century, Indian armies twice crossed the Hindu Kush , hoping to stitch together the patchwork political authority of the territory in the service of their British masters. Over a century later, the sovereign republic of India once more has a renewed presence in what was once its mountainous buffer from the Tsarist, and then Soviet, giant to the north. A year ago, Indians completed the construction of Afghanistan's new parliament building and, to compound the symbolism, provided training to the legislators who would make the country's laws. Over a billion dollars in aid and investment, multiple consulates, and a little-reported thousand-strong troop presence all testify to the flourishing ties between the two democracies. India is Afghanistan's fifth-largest donor , pledging $1.2bn since 2001 and providing a

The Taliban released a video showing a U.S. soldier, believed to be Private First Class Bowe Berghahl, who was captured more than five months ago in eastern Afghanistan.

Source: Regional times By Saleem Chandio and Bachal Chandio KARACHI: Central Information Secretary of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Fauzia Wahab has said that it is priority of government to end terrorism and terrorists from the country, who are now targeting journalists’ community. This she said while addressing a condolence meeting organized by the Karachi Union of Journalists at t5he Karachi Press Club on Thursday, to remember the victims of Peshawar Press Club bomb blast. Agreeing to the demands made by the journalists, she said that a fund should immediately be established for the victimized journalists and their families, besides providing other facilities like life insurance and security to them. Federal Minister for Water and Power, Raja Pervez Ashraf said that there is a need to join hands to fight terrorism to make the country a peaceful place, where the people can live freely. He praised the performance of journalists’ community and said that they have always laid sa

Source: LATIMES By Associated Press December 25, 2009 | 9:32 p.m. Some recent threats and attacks on airplanes, airports, trains and subways around the world: — Dec. 25, 2009: A Nigerian man claiming to be an agent for al-Qaida tries to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane carrying 278 passengers as it prepares to land in Detroit. — Sept. 4, 2007: Officials arrest three men they say were plotting an attack against Frankfurt International Airport. — June 29, 2007: Two men ram a Jeep Cherokee loaded with gas cylinders into the entrance of Glasgow International Airport and set it on fire. — June 2007: A plot to detonate the fuel system at New York's JFK Airport is disrupted by authorities. — Aug. 10, 2006: British police say they disrupt an alleged bomb plot targeting multiple airplanes destined for the U.S. — July 7, 2005: A blast rips through London's subway system, killing 56 people, including four bombers, and injuring 700. — Aug. 31, 2004: At least nine die a

Source:  FOX NEWS NY POST Last Updated: 5:28 AM, December 26, 2009 Posted: 9:06 PM, December 25, 2009 The man who tried to blow up a US airliner as it prepared to land at Detroit on Christmas Day had an explosive powder strapped to his leg which he tried to ignite by injecting chemicals with a syringe, Fox News reports. The 23-year-old - named as al-Qaeda-linked Nigerian engineering student Abdul Mudallad (alters from earlier spelling of Mudallah) - failed in his bid to achieve a major blast, but succeeded in burning himself seriously and inflicting minor injuries on at least two other passengers seated nearby on Northwest Airlines Flight 253. He was immediately subdued. READ: AL-QAEDA LINK EYED IN FAILED PLANE ATTACK Passenger Syed Jafri, a US citizen who was seated three rows behind the Mudallad, told the Associated Press he saw a glow and noticed a smoke smell. Then, he said, "a young man behind me jumped on him (Mudallad). Next thing you know, there was a lot o

Source: SAMAA TV Upadated on: 26 Dec 09 04:59 PM KARACHI: Pakistan is at war, and this time the war is not at its borders with an enemy country. This war is with its own people and within its own territory. Some call it America’s war whereas the government and the army call it ‘Pakistan’s own war’. This war has plagued Pakistan's provinces of North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Balochistan, and Punjab with violence between militants and government security forces as well as terrorist activities against innocent civilians. Though, the nature of these violent incidents and terrorist attacks seem similar all over the country, the causes of the conflicts vary in different regions. In NWFP, the worst hit province in terms of terrorism, Operation Rah-e-Rast against pro-Taliban groups displaced hundreds of thousands of people in April and May 2009. The operation wrapped up on July 7, 2009 with 1,600 extremists killed and 158 soldiers martyred. During the operation, around 300,000 p

Source: NYT By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: December 24, 2009 Filed at 3:17 a.m. ET A look at major attacks in Pakistan since the start of October: -- Dec. 24: Suicide bomber kills four near government buildings in the main northwest city of Peshawar. -- Dec. 22: Suicide bomber kills three at the Peshawar Press Club. -- Dec. 15: Suicide car bomber kills 33 near a lawmaker's home in the Punjab province town of Dera Ghazi Khan. -- Dec. 7: Two bombs kill 34 at a market in eastern city of Lahore, while a suicide bomber kills 10 people outside a Peshawar court. -- Dec. 4: Gunmen and a suicide bomber attack a mosque in a military installation in Rawalpindi, killing 35. -- Dec. 2: Suicide bomber kills 2 outside Pakistani navy headquarters in Islamabad. -- Nov. 19: Suicide bomber kills 19 outside judicial complex in Peshawar. -- Nov. 16: Suicide truck bomber attacks a police station in northwest, killing six. -- Nov. 14: Suicide car bomber attacks a police checkpoint in northwest, k

Source:  manchestereveningnews Sharon Fitzgerald is overjoyed to have her soldier son, Scott, home from Afghanistan for Christmas. View gallery (total of 2 images) SOLDIER Scott Fitzgerald is home for Christmas after miraculously surviving a bomb blast in Afghanistan.  The 20-year-old, from the Holts estate in Oldham, escaped unharmed after an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded in front of him. He had spotted the bomb near his patrol base where hundreds of soldiers were stationed in Helmand province.  Christmas will be extra special for Scott and his family because of the seven men from his unit, the 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, who were killed.  He said: “It’s really good to be back in Oldham. You also get a lot of time to think about your friends and family back home. “It’s really tough out there. The terrain, the heat, the patrols, gun fights, IEDs, it’s intense.  “One minutes you’re being shot at, and you can hear the bullets whizzing over your hea

Source: NYT By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: December 24, 2009 PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) -- Two people are dead after two suicide bombers detonated their explosives outside a state-run Pakistani airline building in the country's main northwest city. Senior regional minister Bashir Bilour says six people also were wounded in the Thursday attack. The blast occurred along a major road in a commercial area. TV footage from the scene showed shattered glass and debris covering a wide area as security officials flooded the zone. A wave of attacks have occurred in Pakistan since October, as militants apparently retaliate for an army offensive against the  Taliban . The attacks have killed more than 500 people. Peshawar has been hit frequently. A blast outside the local press club killed three people two days ago. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) -- Police say a large explosion has been heard

Source: Punchng By Olalekan Adetayo, Published: Thursday, 24 Dec 2009 The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, Mr. Marvel Akpoyibo, has said that more incriminating items have been recovered from the residence of a suspect arrested in connection with Tuesday’s bomb explosion at the premises of Superscreen Television. He also said that the suspect, who was said to be in a critical state at the Intensive Care Unit of an undisclosed government hospital, has been identified as Olayiwola Ahmed. The 27-year-old suspect was injured when one of the parcels he took to the nine-storey building known as Logemo House at Onipanu Bus Stop on Ikorodu Road exploded shortly before delivering them to his targets. Speaking with newsmen on the incident at the state police command headquarters, Ikeja GRA on Wednesday, Akpoyibo refused to disclose the nature of the items recovered from the suspect’s home, citing security reasons. He said that the materials, which exploded on Tuesday, were suspec

Source: AFP on Google By Mujahid Mohammed (AFP) –  19 hours ago MOSUL, Iraq — A pre-Christmas attack on a church killed two people in the Iraqi city of Mosul Wednesday while a Sunni Arab candidate died in a bombing in Fallujah, the first such murder ahead of March polls. They were among 13 people killed in violence across the country, despite security forces ramping up their presence ahead of Christmas and the Shiite commemoration ceremonies of Ashura. In Mosul, two people were killed and five others wounded Wednesday morning when "a handcart used to carry flour, left across the street from the Syrian Orthodox church of St Thomas, exploded," witness Hamis Paulos said. A hospital official in the main northern city said the two people killed were Muslims, based on examination of their identity papers. "Christians are being targeted during Christmas time -- the security forces, police and army must provide security, the police and army are responsible for this," sa