Continue reading »]]> A suicide bomber blew himself up Tuesday among hundreds of army recruits who had gathered near a military headquarters in an attack officials said killed 60 and wounded 125, one of the bloodiest bombings in weeks in the Iraqi capital.

The massive blast took place around 7:30 a.m. just outside the former Iraqi Ministry of Defense building that now houses the army’s 11th division headquarters. The site receives about 250 new recruits each week as Iraqi security forces try to bolster their ranks to prepare for the U.S. military’s looming withdrawal after seven years of war.

Blown-off hands and legs could be seen among pools of blood at the scene, which Iraqi soldiers closed off. U.S. helicopters hovered overhead as frantic Iraqis showed up to search for relatives.

At least two recruits who witnessed that attack raised the possibility that a car had also exploded at the scene, which could account for the high death toll. But a military spokesman blamed the deaths on a single suicide bomber.

"We were sitting there, and somebody began shouting about a parked car," said one of the recruits, Ali Ibrahim, 21, who suffered minor shrapnel wounds in the blast. Ibrahim said he had been waiting to get into the headquarters to secure a job since around 3 a.m.

"Then the explosion happened and I was thrown on my back," he said after his release from the hospital. "It was a tragic scene."

The recruits were gathered in an open area next to Maidan Square in central Baghdad as they waited to be let through the main gates in small groups, according to two Iraqi police officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. At least three soldiers were among the dead and eight among the wounded, the police officials said.

Officials at four Baghdad hospitals confirmed the casualties. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Iraqi Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, a military spokesman, told The Associated Press that the blast was caused by a single suicide bomber who detonated his vest among the packed crowd. He put the casualty count at 39 killed and 57 wounded. Varying casualty counts are common in the chaotic aftermath of massive attacks.

Al-Moussawi blamed al-Qaida for enlisting the bomber, whose upper body was found at the scene, he said.

As many as 1,000 army recruits were gathered at the division headquarters, he added, because Tuesday was to be the last day for soldiers to sign up at the unit.

"We couldn’t get another place for the recruits," al-Moussawi said. "It was difficult to control the area because it’s an open area and because of the large number of recruits."

Iraqi security forces have been trying to boost their numbers as the U.S. military begins to leave the country. All but 50,000 U.S. troops will go home by the end of August, with the rest to follow by the end of 2011 under a security agreement between Baghdad and Washington.

But insurgents determined to highlight the Iraqi government’s struggle to protect the nation have been stepping up attacks in recent weeks.

Iraqi army, police and other security forces have been targeted, but civilians also have been killed by the hundreds.

This summer has seen a spike in violence in Iraq. Data from the Iraqi defense, interior and ministry officials show that July marked the bloodiest month since May 2008, with more than 500 killed, although tallies compiled by The Associated Press and the U.S. military were lower.

August, which saw the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, has also been deadly. Two bombs that set off a power generator and ignited a fuel tank on Aug. 7. killed 43 people in a downtown market in Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city.

source

Continue reading »]]> Indonesian police Saturday were studying DNA evidence from the remains of two suicide bombers who carried out twin attacks on luxury Jakarta hotels, as security was tightened across the country.

Suspected Islamist suicide bombers detonated powerful devices at the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotels in an upmarket business district Friday, leaving nine dead and up to 50 injured including at least 18 foreigners.

A New Zealand businessman was confirmed dead and Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, who is due in Jakarta later Saturday, said he feared the worst for three missing Australians, including diplomat Craig Senger.

National police chief General Bambang Hendarso Danuri called on hotels and shopping malls across the vast, mainly Muslim archipelago of 234 million people to raise their security protocols amid warnings of follow-up attacks.

A military spokesman said 500 troops were on standby to deploy in Jakarta in support of police.

Police across the Philippines were also on heightened alert over fears homegrown Islamists could try to emulate the Jakarta bombings, and citizens were urged to report any suspicious behaviour or unattended baggage.

Hotels in New York were also increasing security although Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said there was no information that a Jakarta-style attack was imminent.

US President Barack Obama condemned the bombings and offered Indonesia help in the recovery effort.

“I strongly condemn the attacks that occurred this morning (Friday) in Jakarta and extend my deepest condolences to all of the victims and their loved ones,” he said.

Manchester United were due to stay at the Ritz-Carlton next week as part of an Asian tour but they cancelled the trip, denying a sell-out crowd of 100,000 the chance to see the English football giants play an Indonesia XI on Monday.

No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings, the worst in Indonesia since 2005, but suspicion inevitably fell on the Jemaah Islamiyah terror network responsible for the 2002 Bali attacks that killed 202 people.

Investigators said they found an unexploded bomb, as well as explosive chemicals and bomb-making materials in room 1808 of the Marriott, which they believe served as a control centre for the attackers.

The bombs were packed with nails, ballbearings, nuts and bolts to maximise the carnage, and appeared to be “identical” to ones previously used in JI attacks, police said.

They were also the same as bombs found in a recent raid on an Islamic boarding school in Central Java, carried out as part of the hunt for master-bombmaker Noordin Mohammed Top, leader of a JI splinter group.

Noordin is wanted for his role in the Bali attacks as well as a 2003 bombing at the Jakarta Marriott, which killed 12 people, and the 2005 truck-bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was re-elected in a landslide on July 8, said the attack was an act of terror that would have “wide effects on our economy, trade, tourism and image in the eyes of the world”.

Tourism operators on the Hindu-majority resort island of Bali said they feared for the lucrative tourism industry, which was just getting back to normal after the horrific attacks of 2002.

“I am afraid that the tourism sector which is now thriving in Indonesia would be affected significantly,” Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry representative for small businesses Sandiaga Uno told Anatara news agency.

“We hope that the bomb blasts would not deter foreign and domestic investors in making the investment in the country.”

Tourism is one of the biggest sources of foreign capital for Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, which has avoided recession in the global financial crisis, but needs more foreign investment to maintain its growth trajectory.

The country’s mainstream Muslim groups joined Yudhoyono and world leaders in condemning the attacks, saying they could never be justified in Islamic teachings.

Condemnation poured in from around the world including from UN chief Ban Ki-moon, and from Indonesia’s neighbours in Southeast Asia, where JI is accused of plotting to create a pan-Islamic state.

Indonesian police examine remains for clues

Continue reading »]]> At least 28 people were killed, including women and schoolgirls, and dozens wounded in a triple bombing in a Baghdad market on Monday, the deadliest attack to rock the Iraqi capital in months, security officials said.

The attackers detonated a car bomb in the Sunni district of Adhamiyah, then minutes later a suicide bomber ran into the resulting melee and blew up, according to defence and interior ministry officials.

A third explosion caused by a roadside bomb around 30 metres (yards) from the first two blasts tore through the market moments later, according to an Iraqi police officer who was on the street when the attack took place.

An interior ministry official said at least 68 people were wounded in the rush-hour Baghdad attack, which wreaked the heaviest toll in Baghdad since June 17 when 51 people were killed and 75 wounded in a car bombing.

Monday’s attack took place on Kassra street, a road lined with restaurants and tea shops popular for breakfast with Iraqi security forces, as a bus carrying young school girls drove past, according to witnesses.

“There was a huge explosion and before I went out to look another bomb went off,” said Fadel Hussein, a waiter at a teahouse near the scene.

“Heavy smoke was everywhere. There were so many bloody victims on the ground, we helped to evacuate those people to ambulances,” Hussein told AFP.

The US and Iraqi military cordoned off the area, which was littered with glass, mangled metal and scorched cars as sobbing parents desperately searched for their children.

One woman in her 40s and wearing a black abaya, the traditional black Arab dress, sat on the ground crying uncontrollably.

“I’m waiting for my husband who is inside the area looking for my son. I hope he is still alive,” she sobbed.

Witnesses told an AFP photographer that some schoolgirls in the bus had died in the blast.

Seats in the wrecked interior of the minibus were heavily stained with blood, while its exterior was riddled with fist-sized shrapnel holes. Girls’ shoes lay strewn on the blood-stained street.

Among those killed were three policemen, three women and five children, police said.

The Medical City hospital received 37 wounded people, including several women and children and two Iraqi soldiers, a medic said.

However, the US military put the toll at four killed and 34 wounded.

Meanwhile in Baquba, a restive city north of Baghdad, a female suicide bomber killed four Sunni guards belonging to Awakening councils and wounded at least 15 civilians at a checkpoint.

A doctor who examined the remains of the attacker said she was likely a 13-year-old girl.

The United Nations envoy to Iraq, Staffan de Mistura, condemned the attacks that “aimed at re-instilling fear, distrust and division among the public just as Iraq prepares itself to assume political normalcy with the upcoming provincial elections.”

On Sunday, Baghdad set January 31 as the date for long-awaited provincial elections seen by Washington as a key benchmark towards national reconciliation but also capable of stoking further conflict among Iraq’s divided communities.

The bombings also came as Sunni militias which have played a key role in driving Al-Qaeda fighters from Baghdad began receiving pay cheques from a Shiite-led government that has long eyed them with suspicion.

Up to 60 stations opened throughout the Iraqi capital to pay some 50,000 members of the US-allied Awakening Councils or Sahwas which used to receive their monthly salaries from the American military.

Despite the dramatic improvement in security in large swathes of Iraq, militants continue to launch near daily attacks , most of them targeting US and Iraqi security forces.

Baghdad has been hit by a string of bombings in the last week, most of them small roadside bombs that claimed only a handful of victims.

The US military says the capital has become much safer since the launch last year of a joint Iraqi-US security plan. Attacks average four a day, 83 percent less than in 2007.

war-news.net

Continue reading »]]> ZAGREB (AFP) — Croatia’s top security body was to meet on Friday after a senior journalist was murdered in a car bomb attack as Prime Minister Ivo Sanader vowed he would not allow the country to turn into “another Beirut”.

Ivo Pukanic, founder and owner of the Nacional independent weekly, was killed outside his paper’s offices in downtown Zagreb on Thursday night in the third mafia-style killing in the capital since the beginning of the month.

The blast also claimed the life of his marketing director Niko Franjic, while two other people were also injured in the explosion.

“The blast occurred when Pukanic and Franjic approached the car,” parked near Nacional’s premises, police spokesman Krunoslav Borovec told reporters on Friday.

He said that the explosive device was placed near the car.

“It was done by a professional, there is no doubt about it since certain skills and knowledge are needed for such an act,” he added.

Police already has some useful leads, Borovec added, without giving details.

Speaking late Thursday, Sanader said that his government would “fight even more decisively and more strongly against organised crime and terror which is entering Croatian streets.”

“We will not allow Croatia to become another Beirut,” he added in reference to the Lebanese capital which has been a byword for bloodshed and car bombings since the 1980s.

Earlier this month Sanader sacked his interior and justice ministers and the head of the national police after a daughter of a prominent lawyer was shot dead in the stairway.

Pukanic, 47, had been considered one of Croatia’s most controversial journalists. His murder came only months after he survived a gun attack in downtown Zagreb in April. The attacker was not found.

The Croatian Journalists’ Association said Pukanic was the first Croatian journalist to be killed locally since the country’s 1991-1995 independence war.

The Nacional owner hit the headlines in 2003 when he published an interview with former Croatian general Ante Gotovina, two years after he fled following a war crimes indictment by The Hague-based UN tribunal.

During the past few years, independent media were accusing Pukanic of being close to some criminal circles.

Meanwhile, Croatian media voiced outrage over the killing which figured on the front pages of the country’s main dailies.

“Terrorism” and “State of Emergency” read the headlines of the Jutarnji List and the Vecernji List which both carried large photos of the car’s burnt-out wreckage.

In a column entitled “Victory of Organised Crime Over the State,” the Jutarnji List labeled Pukanic’s murder as “one of the most serious blows to Croatia’s political system aimed also at destabilizing the whole state.”

“It showed that the Croatian State is not capable of preventing violence … including the attack against the publisher who was in personal conflict with a series of dangerous people.”

“A quick, energetic and merciless repression is the only way to stop a killing wave which culminated yesterday evening in the Vlaska street,” the paper concluded.

The largest circulation Vecernji List daily said that “criminals have sent the message: We rule in Croatia; life and death are in our hands.”

AFP: Croatia security chiefs to meet after deadly car-bomb

Continue reading »]]> BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — A car bomb exploded Friday in an outdoor market in southern Baghdad, killing at least 12 civilians and wounding 22, an Interior Ministry official said.

Women and children were among the casualties from the explosion in the Shiite enclave in the Dora neighborhood, the official said.

In a separate incident Friday, an improvised explosive device killed four Iraqis and wounded 18 during an attack against an Iraqi Police mounted patrol in Mosul, north of Baghdad, according to a written statement from the Multi-National Division-North. Two Iraqi policemen were wounded.

Explosions kill 16 Iraqi civilians – CNN.com

Continue reading »]]> PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – A suicide blast at an anti-Taliban tribal meeting in a restive Pakistani region bordering Afghanistan on Friday killed at least 15 people and wounded dozens, security officials said.

The explosion happened a day after a force of pro-government tribesmen destroyed two militant hideouts in the Orakzai district, one of Pakistan’s seven semi-autonomous tribal regions, they said.

“Initial reports from the area say that a bomber struck at a meeting of a tribal lashkar (force), killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens more,” a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

15 dead in suicide blast at Pakistan tribal meeting: officials – Yahoo! News

Continue reading »]]> Eleven people have been killed during a American raid in the Iraqi city of Mosul in which a suicide bomber blew himself up, the US military says.

Three women and three children were among the dead at the private home, the US military said, adding that five “terrorists” had also died.

However, an official at a local morgue told the BBC most of the dead showed signs of bullet wounds.

Elsewhere in Mosul, four people were killed when gunmen attacked a funeral.

Three other people were wounded in the drive-by attack in the Zanjili district, the BBC’s Hugh Sykes reports from Baghdad.

In September, three members of an Iraqi television crew and their driver were kidnapped and shot dead in the same neighbourhood.

‘Last stronghold’

In a statement on the deadly explosion, US officials said troops had exchanged fire with armed men as they entered the building for what they described as an operation to capture a wanted man.

The morgue official dealing with the aftermath of the suicide bombing said one body bag contained fragments of human remains, consistent with the report that there was a suicide bomber at the house, our correspondent says.

US authorities confirmed that some of those who died could have been killed by gunshot wounds.

Following the blast soldiers later found weapons and explosives in the building, the statement said.

“This is just another tragic example of how al-Qaeda in Iraq hides behind innocent Iraqis,” a spokesman said.

On Saturday US forces said they had killed a senior al-Qaeda bomb-maker and strategist in Baghdad.

Our correspondent says American forces have mounted many attacks this year against suspected al-Qaeda members in Mosul, which they describe as al-Qaeda’s last stronghold.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Suicide bomber strikes in Mosul

Continue reading »]]> TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — A car exploded Friday, killing seven soldiers outside Russia’s military headquarters in South Ossetia, and Russian authorities charged it was a terrorist bombing meant to wreck the tense cease-fire that ended their war with Georgia.

Georgia’s Interior Ministry blamed Russia, accusing it of arranging the blast to provide a pretext for delaying next week’s scheduled withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgian territory around South Ossetia and another Kremlin-backed separatist region, Abkhazia.

The explosion, which the Russian military said also wounded eight Russian soldiers, was the deadliest single incident reported in South Ossetia since Russia and Georgia fought a five-day war over the breakaway region in August.

Under the Western-backed truce, European Union monitors have begun replacing Russian troops in the buffer zone ringing South Ossetia and the withdrawal is supposed to be completed by Oct. 11.

The Kremlin declined to comment on whether the carnage might affect the pullout timetable under its truce with this former Soviet republic.

A spokeswoman for the Russian-allied South Ossetian government, Irina Gagloyeva, said the car blew up after it was found, with weapons inside, in an ethnic Georgian village and confiscated.

South Ossetia’s separatist president, Eduard Kokoity, called the explosion “a targeted terrorist act” and blamed it on the Georgian State Security Ministry, Russia’s ITAR-Tass news agency said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry characterized the blast as a “carefully planned terrorist act designed to undermine” the cease-fire.

The Russian commander in South Ossetia, Col. Gen. Marat Kulakhmetov, said two cars were confiscated by his troops in an ethnic Georgian village after a search found guns and grenades. The cars were moved to the military headquarters in Tskhinvali, South Ossetia’s capital, and one of them — with Georgian license plates — exploded during a further search, he said.

Kulakhmetov said the blast was caused by a bomb with a force equivalent to 44 pounds of TNT. Televised footage showed a cloud of black smoke rising into the air, and South Ossetia’s government said the blast shattered windows of nearby buildings.

There was no explanation of why a potentially dangerous vehicle would be taken to the headquarters or how a powerful explosive device could have been missed in the initial search.

South Ossetia’s acting interior minister, Mikhail Mindzayev, said officials believed Georgian security agents had booby-trapped the car with explosives designed to go off “at the necessary moment.”

The Georgian Interior Ministry put the blame on Russia. It charged that Russian intelligence services set off the blast to provide grounds for keeping Russian troops on Georgian territory.

There has been widespread looting and arson in ethnic Georgian villages in and around South Ossetia since the war. Residents and refugees from the area have reported the theft or confiscation of their cars by South Ossetian militias and marauders.

Despite high tension since the war, Russian troops at checkpoints on roads leading into South Ossetia from Georgian-controlled territory often carry out only cursory searches of cars, glancing in trunks and waving drivers through.

Under cease-fire agreements brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on behalf of the EU, Russian troops are supposed to withdraw from buffer zones around South Ossetia and Abkhazia within 10 days of the Oct. 1 arrival of the EU monitors.

But Russia plans to keep 3,800 soldiers in South Ossetia itself and the same number in Abkhazia — a presence that U.S., NATO and EU say violates its obligation under the cease-fire to withdraw to pre-conflict positions.

The war followed weeks of Russia and Georgia repeatedly accusing each other of plotting to spark an armed conflict over the separatist regions. It began when Georgia launched an offensive targeting Tskhinvali and Russia sent tanks, troops and warplanes that swiftly repelled the attack and drove deep into the ex-Soviet republic.

Russia’s recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states has badly damaged already severely strained relations between Moscow and the West.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday that the West considered Georgia’s territorial integrity “nonnegotiable,” but Russia has made clear it will not back down.

The Associated Press: Blast kills 7 Russian soldiers in South Ossetia

Continue reading »]]> BAGHDAD – Suicide bombers struck two Shiite mosques in Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 24 people and wounding dozens during celebrations marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

To the north, suspected Shiite militiamen gunned down six members of a Sunni family, including women and children, police reported.

Those attacks occurred four days after a series of explosions killed 32 people and wounded nearly 100 in Shiite areas of Baghdad, raising fears that al-Qaida in Iraq is trying to provoke Sunni-Shiite reprisal killings now that the last of the American “surge” troops have left the country.

In the deadliest attack, a suicide car bomber detonated his explosives about 20 yards from a mosque in Zafaraniyah in southeastern Baghdad. The blast killed 14 people, including three Iraqi soldiers, and wounded 28, police said.

The death toll would likelier have been higher, but Iraqi soldiers prevented the attacker from driving closer to the mosque, police said.

“Pools of blood and the smell of burned flesh were everywhere and I saw a man of about 70 bleeding and lying on the ground,” said Ammar Hashim, 25, whose brother was also wounded by broken glass in his shop.

In the other attack in the capital, a suicide bomber who appeared to be in his late teens detonated his explosive belt as worshippers were leaving the Rasoul mosque in the eastern New Baghdad district.

Ten people died and 24 were wounded, police and officials at al-Kindi and Ibn al-Nasif hospitals said. The dead included a guard who blocked the attacker from entering the mosque, police said.

The Iraqi army said 17 people were killed in the two blasts. But area hospitals said that figure did not include victims who died later from their wounds.

The attack on the Sunni family occurred in Diyala, a heavily mixed province north of the capital. Police said gunmen sprayed the family’s vehicle with automatic weapons fire as they traveled to the provincial capital of Baqouba to visit relatives.

The dead included two children, three women and a man, police said. Another woman and her small child were wounded.

Police said the area was controlled by mostly Shiite security forces and that they suspected Shiite militiamen were responsible for the attack.

The police officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

Victims of the Baghdad attacks were attending prayers marking Eid al-Fitr, the religious holiday that comes at the end of Ramadan. Sunnis and other Shiite groups celebrated Eid al-Fitr earlier in the week.

Iraqi police and soldiers have been on alert for sectarian attacks around Ramadan, when devout Muslims fast from dawn until dusk and religious fervor runs high.

Last Sunday, five bombs exploded in Shiite areas of Baghdad, killing 32 people and wounding about 100. U.S. officials believed al-Qaida was behind the blasts.

Shiite cleric and lawmaker Jalaluddin al-Saghir blamed the mosque attacks on “the beasts of al-Qaida” that consider Shiites as religious heretics and collaborators with the Americans.

“After being weakened and isolated, the terrorists want to make a comeback in the capital and show that they are still powerful,” al-Saghir told The Associated Press. “I think the al-Qaida efforts will fail because Iraqis now are more aware of the heavy price of any new round of sectarian violence.”

The main Sunni political group, the Iraqi Islamic Party, joined in condemning the mosque attacks and called on Iraqis to unite against “those who want to transfer political disputes into the language of violence.”

Bloody assaults on Shiite civilians helped trigger the massive wave of sectarian fighting that led to President Bush’s decision to dispatch nearly 30,000 reinforcements to Iraq in 2007.

The last of those “surge” troops left Iraq in July after violence in the capital dropped to its lowest level in four years.

U.S. commanders have acknowledged a small increase in attacks recently in the Baghdad area as Iraqi forces assume a greater role in security. Late Thursday, a rocket or mortar shell exploded in the Green Zone, causing no injuries, the U.S. military said. It was the first known attack against the U.S.-protected area in weeks.

In a statement Thursday, U.N. special representative Staffan de Mistura expressed concern over the “recent spike in violence,” urging Iraqis to maintain unity “in foiling the aims of those who want to push them back into the murderous cycle of sectarian violence.”

Also Thursday, a bomb wounded four American soldiers in western Baghdad, according to U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Steven Stover. He gave no other details, but Baghdad police said the attacker detonated an explosive-laden car alongside a U.S. convoy.

Two Iraqi civilians were also wounded, a police official said on condition of anonymity because he was also not authorized to speak to the press.

Suicide attackers strike Shiite mosques, kill 24 – Yahoo! News

Continue reading »]]> COLOMBO (AFP) – One civilian was injured in an explosion in the heart of Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo on Monday, police said.

Police said one woman had minor injuries, while six vehicles were badly damaged in the explosion that took place in Colombo’s commercial Fort area.

The cause of the blast was not immediately clear.

Eyewitnesses said the explosion came from a van parked along the busy lane crammed with pavement hawkers and shops.

The blast occurred in the vicinity of several government offices, the presidential palace and luxury five-star hotels.

Explosion in Sri Lankan capital injures one: police – Yahoo! News