13 posts tagged “terrorist”
Nigerian oil rebels hit more facilities
September 17, 2008
LAGOS (AFP) — Armed Nigerian militants who have declared an "oil war" in the restive south of the country claimed Wednesday to have blown up a major pipeline in their latest attack on oil installations in the region.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the most prominent of the groups operating in the creeks and swamps of the Niger Delta, said it blew up a pipeline it believes is operated by Royal Dutch Shell and Italy's Agip.
"A very major trunk crude oil pipeline we believe may belong to both Agip and Shell has been blown up today... at about 9:30 am (0830 GMT)... at Rumuekpe, in Rivers state," said MEND in a statement emailed to the media.
The latest attack, a rare daylight one, was not immediately confirmed by the military deployed in the region.
Hours earlier MEND reported having acted with a new ally to have which destroyed a Royal Dutch Shell oil flow station in the African nation's main producing region.
As with other attacks since they declared an "oil war" on Sunday, the rebels moved in with speed boats, dynamite and hand grenades in their attack on the Orubiri flow station, the army said.
The attack on Orubiri was the third on a Shell target in 48 hours. US Chevron has also seen attacks close to its installations this week...
Dazed Iraqi teen suicide bomber says she didn't want to die
By Leila Fadel | McClatchy Newspapers
Monday, August 25, 2008
BAQOUBA, Iraq — The 15-year-old girl had the chubby cheeks of a child who hadn't lost her baby fat when she was arrested Sunday by an alert policeman. Around her chest was a vest packed with explosives. The policeman chained her to the bars of a window, stripped off her dress, found the vest and deactivated the bomb. Had he not intervened, Rania would have been this year's 31st suicide bomber in Iraq.
A day later, Rania seemed in a daze as she spoke about the people who put her up to it: the relatives who forced her to don the vest and apparently drugged her, her husband, whom police accuse of being a member of the group al Qaida in Iraq, and her mother, who seemed to play a central role in turning Rania into a human bomb but whom she looked to as a rescuer...
Today in Iraq
Tuesday 26 August 2008
By Sahar Issa | McClatchy Newspapers
This is not a comprehensive list.
Baghdad
A roadside bomb targeted a Sahwa patrol, the U.S. backed militia, in al-Mowasalat neighbourhood, western Baghdad at 10 a.m. Tuesday injuring two Sahwa members.
A roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in Ghadeer neighbourhood at noon injuring two policemen and two civilians.
A suicide car bomb targeted a recruiting centre in the town of Jalowlaa, 70 km to the northeast of Baquba at 10.30 a.m. Tuesday killing 27 recruits, wounding 45.
Salahuddin
A car bomb parked near the entrance of the health department in Tikrit exploded at 7.30 a.m. killing two guards and two civilians, injuring thirteen civilians.
Nineveh
Gunmen open fire at a policeman near his home in Bab Legesh, central Mosul. The policeman was injured. A police force cordoned the neighbourhood, found the gunmen and engaged them, killing one gunman, injuring another.
Top US diplomat escapes gun attack in Pakistan
By MUNIR AHMAD – August 26, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Gunmen opened fire on a vehicle carrying the top U.S. diplomat in the main city in Pakistan's volatile northwest Tuesday morning, but no one was killed or wounded, officials said.
Meanwhile, a bomb exploded at a political rally in southwestern Pakistan, wounding at least 20 people, police said.
The attack in Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province, came a day after the government announced a ban on the Pakistani Taliban, the umbrella militant group said to be behind a recent string of suicide bombings and other assaults.
It also came hours after the ruling coalition collapsed, a fracture that could strengthen a party considered more in line with U.S. goals in the war on terror.
Lynne Tracy, the principal officer for the U.S. consulate in Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province, was "100 percent safe," police official Riaz Khan said.
Mohammad Nabi, another police official, said an unknown number of gunmen in a Land Cruiser fired from an open window before fleeing the scene. He said the driver managed to reverse the vehicle and reach the residence of the U.S. official.
The U.S. Embassy provided few details, saying only that there was a "security incident" involving three consulate employees. It would not name or describe the employees...
Full Story Here
This could get really 'ugly'
Musharraf 'running out of time'
Page last updated at 14:26 GMT, Saturday, 16 August 2008 15:26 UK
Pakistan's foreign minister has said President Pervez Musharraf must stand down in the next two days or face impeachment proceedings.
"Musharraf is running out of time", said Shah Mahmood Qureshi, of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) - a major partner in the governing coalition.
Draft charges against the president include violation of the constitution and gross misconduct, officials said.
Mr Musharraf's office has said he will not resign and will defend himself.
The impeachment campaign was launched last week by leaders of the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
A PML-N official said: "There is a long list of charges against him... we will file them, by the latest, by Tuesday."
If Mr Musharraf chooses not to quit, he would be the first president in Pakistan's history to be impeached...
Taliban flourishng, Pentagon reports
Attacks in Afghanistan grow in number, complexity, report says
By David Wood | Sun reporter
June 28, 2008
WASHINGTON - After nearly seven years of war in Afghanistan, the Taliban-led insurgency is flourishing, the Defense Department indicated in a gloomy new report yesterday, saying the insurgents are likely to accelerate their attacks and expand into new regions in northern and western regions of the country.
The Pentagon's assessment came as U.S. casualties in Afghanistan rose to 23 in June, the second-deadliest month for American forces since the U.S. invaded weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Attacks using improvised explosive devices, or roadside bombs, rose 35 percent last year, reaching 2,616 attacks, according to the report, which provided no other measures of violence or data from previous years.
The report echoed previous grim assessments by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and others, including retired four-star Marine Gen. James Jones, about the lack of progress in the U.S.-led war and Afghanistan's deep-rooted problems of violence, extremism, corruption and narcotics...
Full Story Here: Taliban flourishng, Pentagon reports
Car bomb kills more than 50 people in Baghdad
By Qassim Abdul-Zahra – 52 minutes ago
BAGHDAD (AP) — A car bomb tore through a market area in a mainly Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing more than 50 people and wounding dozens, officials said, the deadliest such attack in more than three months.
The attack occurred just before 6 p.m. as the market in the northwestern Hurriyah neighborhood was packed with shoppers preparing for their evening meals.
Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida in Iraq, which is known to use car bombs and suicide attacks...
...The casualty toll spiked to at least 51 people killed and 75 people wounded after rescue crews extinguished the blaze and found the bodies of dozens of victims who had been trapped inside or buried in the rubble, a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information...
...The blast shattered the relative calm in the capital amid stepped up security measures. American commanders have consistently said they have al-Qaida in Iraq on the run but warned that the insurgents retain the ability to stage high-profile attacks...
...Tuesday's attack was the deadliest car bombing since March 6, when a twin bombing killed 68 people in a crowded shopping district in the central Baghdad district of Karradah.
Things are getting worse in the forgotten war. Read this also: Afghanistan
Pakistani tribes reach for guns after U.S. attack
By Khalid Nisar
Fri Jun 13, 8:52 AM ET
GHALANAI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Fiercely independent tribesmen, angered by a U.S. air strike that killed 11 Pakistani soldiers this week, vowed to raise a militia to help Pakistan's army defend the border with Afghanistan.
Pakistan, a staunch ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, denounced Tuesday's attack on a border post in the Mohmand tribal region as "unprovoked and cowardly" and said it could undermine the cooperation in the battle against al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Elders from ethnic Pashtun tribes in Mohmand, one of seven semi-autonomous tribal regions, issued a statement late on Thursday condemning the attack as "naked aggression" and said they were ready to raise a "lashkar," or army.
"It's the duty of the government to protect and defend the frontiers and we are ready to raise a lashkar to help our army in their cause," the elders said.
"We are ready to fight for our homeland as we fought in Kashmir in 1948," they said, referring to the first war between Pakistan and India, a year after their partition.
Chanting slogans of "Down with America" and "Down with Bush," about 250 activists of an Islamic group paraded on the roads of Ghalanai, Mohmand's main town, to protest against the attack.
"We should wage jihad (Muslim holy war) to teach a lesson to America for this aggression," imam of the main mosque of Ghalanai, Abdul Khaliq, told the crowd...
Lest we forget.
"Last month for the first time more coalition forces were killed in Afghanistan than were killed in Iraq."
U.S. officials said 18 coalition troops, including 13 Americans, were killed in action last month in Afghanistan, compared with 16 killed in Iraq, of which 14 were Americans.
Today this news:
Taliban attack helps inmates escape Afghan prison
By Noor Khan and Amir Shah – 1 hour ago
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban militants staged a brazen bomb and rocket attack on the main prison in southern Afghanistan late Friday, blowing down the gate and helping hundreds of suspected insurgents flee, officials said. Many police officers were reported killed.
The complex attack included a truck bombing at the main gate, a suicide bomber who struck a back wall and rockets fired from outside, setting of a series of explosions that rattled Kandahar, the country's second biggest city.
A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said 30 insurgents on motorbikes and two suicide bombers attacked Sarposa Prison and freed about 400 Taliban members.
Abdul Qabir, chief of the Sarposa Prison, also said hundreds of prisoners escaped, but did not provide an exact figure. He said some inmates stayed at the jail, which also held criminals.
Wali Karzai, the brother of President Hamid Karzai who is president of Kandahar's provincial council, said the prison held about 350 suspected Taliban fighters...
