tagged w/ Suicide Bombing
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"Afghan intelligence officials have blamed insurgents including the Taliban for launching a wave of child suicide bombers against targets in the country in the past few years.
Young boys are chosen because they are gullible and less likely to be frisked at checkpoints which would stop a grown man.
“Children are not searched. A policeman will never search a child,” explained one senior Afghan intelligence official.
Afghanistan blames hundreds of privately-funded madrassahs in Pakistan’s border regions for brainwashing boys with extremist propaganda against their government and its Western allies and then persuading them to wage jihad or become suicide bombers.
Poor pashtun families often send their sons to madrassahs to receive a free education and to escape the conflict in the Afghanistan. Wealthy donors allow the schools to offer free tuition, food and sometimes a stipend to study.""Afghan intelligence officials have blamed insurgents including the Taliban for... more
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Families of 7/7 bombing victims may have had their phones hacked by the News of the World, it has emerged.
A solicitor representing some of the relatives said one family had been contacted by police and told their phone may have been hacked in 2005.
New allegations have also emerged of payments to the police by the paper.
The tabloid's owners have passed to the police e-mails which appear to show that payments were authorised by the then editor, Andy Coulson.
Graham Foulkes, whose son David died in the Edgware Road blast, told the BBC he was contacted by officers on Tuesday after his details were found on a list as part of the police inquiry in hacking claims.
Mr Foulkes told the BBC he would like to meet News International's owner, Rupert Murdoch, to talk to him about "the power he has".
He added: "I certainly think that News International need to come clean, they need to accept their responsibility and their culpability, and they need to do the decent thing, but I suppose they won't."
In a statement, News International said: "It is correct to state that new information has recently been provided to the police.
"As News International and News Group Newspapers has reiterated many times, full and continuing co-operation has been provided to the police since the current investigation started in January 2011.
Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14040841Families of 7/7 bombing victims may have had their phones hacked by the News of the... more
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'Terrorist-State':-Salman-Rushdie. "This time the facts speak too loudly to be hushed up," he said in an essay published on the website 'The Daily Beast' after the world's most wanted terrorist and 9/11 mastermind was found down the road from Pakistan's top military academy in Abbottabad, about 120 km from Islamabad yesterday.
Rushdie said in the aftermath of the US raid on bin Laden's mansion all the "big" questions needed to be answered by Pakistan.'Terrorist-State':-Salman-Rushdie. "This time the facts speak too... more
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Twin bomb attacks on a paramilitary force academy in north-west Pakistan have killed 80 people, police say.
At least 120 people were wounded in the blasts at the training centre for the Frontier Constabulary in Shabqadar, Charsadda district.
After early suspicions that one of the bombs was planted, police said both blasts were suicide attacks.
The Pakistani Taliban said they carried out the attack to avenge the death of Osama Bin Laden earlier this month.
The al-Qaeda leader was killed during a US commando raid in the northern Pakistani town of Abbottabad on 2 May.
Friday's attack came hours before army chiefs appeared before parliament to explain their actions over Bin Laden's death.
At the closed-door briefing, ISI chief Lieut-Gen Ahmed Shujaa Pasha is reported to have told MPs that he had offered his resignation after the Navy Seals raid, but had been turned down by the army chief.
The attack on this paramilitary police academy comes days after the killing of Osama Bin Laden, and in the wake of Taliban threats to avenge him. But regular and tribal police forces have been a target of Taliban militants based in the nearby Mohmand tribal region since 2007.
Together with its northern neighbour, Bajaur, Mohmand has been home to local militants claiming allegiance to an anti-Pakistan Taliban group called TTP. At the same time, the area is home to militant groups close to al-Qaeda's thinking, such as the one led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
After 9/11, Bajaur served as the first sanctuary for foreign fighters linked to al-Qaeda. In May 2009, security forces in Mohmand captured five Arab fighters and had to fight a three-hour long gun battle with local Taliban to prevent them from freeing the Arabs.
But al-Qaeda does not have any military capability in the area and is dependent on support from local militants. Analysts expect these militants to use Bin Laden's killing as an excuse to launch similar attacks in coming days
'Deadliest attack'
The bombings happened as newly trained cadets from the Frontier Constabulary were getting into buses after completing their course.
The Frontier Constabulary is used to police the regions bordering Pakistan's tribal areas.
"Both attacks were suicide attacks," said the police chief of Charsadda district, Nisar Khan Marwat.
"The first suicide bomber came on a motorcycle and detonated his vest among the Frontier Constabulary men," AFP news agency quoted him as saying.
"When other [Frontier Constabulary] people came to the rescue to help their colleagues, the second bomber came on another motorcycle and blew himself up."
At least 66 of the dead were recruits, but there were also civilian casualties, officials say. A number of vehicles were destroyed in the blast.
"I was sitting in a van waiting for my colleagues. We were in plain clothes and we were happy we were going to see our families," Ahmad Ali, a wounded paramilitary policeman, told AFP.
"I heard someone shouting 'Allahu Akbar' [God is great] and then I heard a huge blast. I was hit by something in my back shoulder.
Map of Pakistan
"In the meantime, I heard another blast and I jumped out of the van. I felt that I was injured and bleeding."
Lady Reading hospital in Peshawar has been inundated with casualties and doctors said they were fighting to save the lives of 40 critically injured cadets.
"It's the first revenge for the martyrdom of... Bin Laden. There will be more," Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told the Reuters news agency by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Shabqadar lies on the border with Afghanistan, about 35km (22 miles) north-west of Peshawar, not far from the militant stronghold of Mohmand.
The BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad says the security forces have often been the target of such attacks as they fight the Pakistani Taliban across the north-west of the country, but Friday's bombing is the deadliest attack this year.
Eyewitness, Mohammed Zubair, said he was trying to help victims of the first bomb when a second blast hit
He adds that the Pakistani army - which has come under intense scrutiny and criticism over the Bin Laden affair - is likely to point out that this attack is an illustration of the sacrifices it has made in the "war on terror".
'Living dead'
After Friday's parliamentary briefing, Pakistan's information minister said Lieut-Gen Pasha had told MPs he was ready to take responsibility for any criminal failing.
"If any of our responsibility is determined and any gap identified, that our negligence was criminal negligence, and there was an intentional failure, then we are ready to face any consequences," said the minister, Firdous Ashiq Awan, citing the general.
Mr Awan told Express TV that killing Bin Laden had been a shared US-Pakistani goal but the Americans had breached Pakistan's sovereignty by going after him on their own.
Continue reading the main story
Man wounded in bomb attacks in Shabqadar, Charsadda district, north-west Pakistan, is rushed to hospital
The spy chief also told parliament Bin Laden had been isolated and "living like a dead man", the minister said.
"We had already killed all his allies and so we had killed him even before he was dead," Mr Awan cited Lieut-Gen Pasha as saying.
Our correspondent says many politicians and members of the public appear to be less concerned about Bin Laden's presence in Pakistan and more about the way the US was able to carry out its raid without official permission.
The US gives billions of dollars in military and humanitarian aid to Pakistan, but has questioned its reliability as an ally in combating the militants.
In recent years, Taliban militants have killed hundreds of people in bombings and other attacks across Pakistan.Twin bomb attacks on a paramilitary force academy in north-west Pakistan have killed... more
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A video of Pashtun children enacting suicide bombing have been circulating in Pakistan online and shows the psychological impact of Taliban violence on a generation. The kids are trying not to giggle but find it hard.
The clip has divided opinions, with some amused by the smiling child actors and fake explosions; others appalled by evidence that suicide bombers have become playground heroes of sorts.
"It's horrifying and alarming. These children have become fascinated by bombers rather than condemning them," said Salma Jafar of Save the Children UK in Pakistan.A video of Pashtun children enacting suicide bombing have been circulating in Pakistan... more
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Thank your lucky stars for those dumb text messages sent out by wireless companies, because one of them accidentally detonated a suicide bomber in Russia. With the country still reeling after the deadly attacks on the Domodedovo airport, a female suicide bomber was preparing to enter Red Square with explosives strapped to her body, but before she even made it out the door, her phone received a text message from her service provider wishing her a happy new year. Unfortunately for her, but fortunately for Moscovites, the phone had been wired up as the detonator for her bomb.
Using cellphones as detonators is a fairly widespread practice. Many IEDs in Afghanistan are detonated in this manner, but it affords the handlers of suicide bombers added insurance against “cold feet.” The Leader-Post also suggests that in addition to preventing the bomber from backing out, detonating remotely gives terrorists the added advantage of having a handler at a distance judge when the most amount of damage could be inflicted by a blast.
As viciously ironic, sad, and scary as this story is, one wonders if Russia may have stumbled upon a new deterrent against these insidious remote bombs.
http://www.geekosystem.com/text-message-bomb/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8284279/Black-Widow-attempted-New-Year-Moscow-attack-but-blew-herself-up-by-mistake.htmlThank your lucky stars for those dumb text messages sent out by wireless companies,... more
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A Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up among men washing in a bathhouse ahead of Friday prayers, killing 17, in an attack that showed militants can still largely strike at will in southern Afghanistan despite a NATO offensive...
http://www.indiareport.com/India-usa-uk-news/ap/International/78001A Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up among men washing in a bathhouse ahead of... more
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In the weeks before the New Years Day suicide bombing of an Egyptian church, al-Qaida-linked websites carried a how-to manual on 'destroying the cross,' complete with videos on how to build a bomb and the locations of churches to target - including the one that was attacked....
http://www.indiareport.com/India-usa-uk-news/ap/International/75916In the weeks before the New Years Day suicide bombing of an Egyptian church,... more
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Pakistan's first female suicide bomber has killed at least 40 people in an attack on a large crowd receiving aid in north-west Pakistan, officials say.The blast took place in the town of Khar in the Bajaur close to the Afghan border - a Taliban and al-Qaeda stronghold.People displaced by fighting had been getting food at a distribution centre when the blast happened. Reports say at least another 50 people have been injured and there are fears the death toll could rise.Today's Christmas Day bombing was the latest in a string of recent attacks in Pakistan's north-west.No group has claimed responsibility of the attack on the centre, used by the World Food Programme and other aid agencies."I myself have counted 40 bodies but the death toll could rise as several wounded people are in critical condition," Dosti Rehman, an official at the main government hospital in the region, told Reuters news agency.Dozens of injured people are being taken to hospital by helicopter.The bomber was a dressed in a full-length burka and reportedly threw a grenade after resisting a search. A number of police officials said the attacker was actually a woman, rather than someone wearing the burka as a disguise.Those in the crowd were displaced members of the Salarzai tribe, which has supported the army's operations against the Taliban, Reuters reported.
Pakistan's first female suicide bomber has killed at least 40 people in an... more
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/media/ALeqM5h3C2-j9qJwSof7A0zt_BR59iuEDw?docId=photo_1293254047163-2-0&size=l
KHAR, Pakistan — At least 45 people were killed in a suicide bombing Saturday in a northwestern Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials said.
The blast took place at a ration distribution point of the World Food Programme in Khar, the main town of lawless Bajaur tribal district.
"At least 41 people are dead and more than 60 wounded in suicide bombing," tribal administration official Sohail Khan said.
Doctor Mohammad Hafeez, head of the local state-run hospital, confirmed the death toll and said there were several women and children among the casualties.
Bajaur was once a stronghold of Taliban militants who have carried out several bombing and suicide attacks.
Pakistan's military first launched operations in Bajaur in August 2008 and have repeatedly claimed to have eliminated the Islamist militant threat.
The country's northwest tribal belt is a stronghold of homegrown Islamist militant groups and extremists who fled Afghanistan after the US-led invasion toppled the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001.
Around 4,000 people have died in suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistan since government forces raided an extremist mosque in Islamabad in 2007. The attacks have been blamed on networks linked to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
Bajaur is one of seven Pakistani tribal districts. The United States considers Pakistan's tribal belt the global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and the most dangerous place on Earth.
US officials are putting pressure on Pakistan to launch a major ground offensive in the tribal region of North Waziristan, considered a fortress for Taliban groups fighting US-led troops in Afghanistan.
Pakistan vehemently denies accusations that it is not doing enough to eradicate the Taliban in the northwest, saying 2,421 troops have been killed in fighting Islamist militants from 2002 until April this year.
Pakistan supported the Taliban regime in Afghanistan from 1996-2001, but became a US ally after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington by Al-Qaeda.http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/media/ALeqM5h3C2-j9qJwSof7A0zt_BR59iuEDw?docId=pho... more
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Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to Sri Lanka during the final days of the country's civil war to see how one of the world's most powerful insurgencies, the Tamil Tigers, was finally defeated.
In this clip, Mariana digs deeper into the Tigers' use of suicide bombers and their designation as a terrorist group by the United States.
"Vanguard," airing weekly on Current TV Wednesdays at 10/9c, is a no-limits documentary series whose award-winning correspondents put themselves in extraordinary situations to immerse viewers in global issues that have a large social significance. Unlike sound-bite driven reporting, the show's correspondents, Adam Yamaguchi, Kaj Larsen, Christof Putzel and Mariana van Zeller, serve as trusted guides who take viewers on in-depth real life adventures in pursuit of some of the world's most important stories.
For more, go to http://current.com/vanguard.Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to Sri Lanka during the final days... more
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Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to Sri Lanka during the final days of the country's civil war to see how one of the world's most powerful insurgencies, the Tamil Tigers, was finally defeated.
In this clip, Mariana struggles to report a story from which independent media had been banned. But at a market filled with pro-military merchandise, she's able to speak directly to locals about the widespread support for the Sri Lankan army.
"Vanguard," airing weekly on Current TV Wednesdays at 10/9c, is a no-limits documentary series whose award-winning correspondents put themselves in extraordinary situations to immerse viewers in global issues that have a large social significance. Unlike sound-bite driven reporting, the show's correspondents, Adam Yamaguchi, Kaj Larsen, Christof Putzel and Mariana van Zeller, serve as trusted guides who take viewers on in-depth real life adventures in pursuit of some of the world's most important stories.
For more, go to http://current.com/vanguard.Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to Sri Lanka during the final days... more
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Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to Sri Lanka during the final days of the country's civil war to see how one of the world's most powerful insurgencies, the Tamil Tigers, was finally defeated.
In this clip, Mariana meets former child soldiers conscripted into the Tamil Tigers.
"Vanguard," airing weekly on Current TV Wednesdays at 10/9c, is a no-limits documentary series whose award-winning correspondents put themselves in extraordinary situations to immerse viewers in global issues that have a large social significance. Unlike sound-bite driven reporting, the show's correspondents, Adam Yamaguchi, Kaj Larsen, Christof Putzel and Mariana van Zeller, serve as trusted guides who take viewers on in-depth real life adventures in pursuit of some of the world's most important stories.
For more, go to http://current.com/vanguard.Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to Sri Lanka during the final days... more
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Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to Sri Lanka during the final days of the country's civil war to see how one of the world's most powerful insurgencies, the Tamil Tigers, was finally defeated.
In this clip, Mariana examines their most enduring legacy -- the invention of the suicide bomber vest, which the Tamil Tigers used to execute more suicide attacks Hamas and Hezbollah combined.
"Vanguard," airing weekly on Current TV Wednesdays at 10/9c, is a no-limits documentary series whose award-winning correspondents put themselves in extraordinary situations to immerse viewers in global issues that have a large social significance. Unlike sound-bite driven reporting, the show's correspondents, Adam Yamaguchi, Kaj Larsen, Christof Putzel and Mariana van Zeller, serve as trusted guides who take viewers on in-depth real life adventures in pursuit of some of the world's most important stories.
For more, go to http://current.com/vanguard.Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to Sri Lanka during the final days... more
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Iran Leaders blame both US and Britain for a suicide mosque bombing
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Moments before twin bomb blasts tore through crowds of football fans. Photo: AFP/Getty Images
Darren Foster is a producer for Vanguard.
Just a few months ago, I sat down for a final dinner in Uganda with Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller and producer Alex Simmons. We were joined by a couple of other foreign reporters who we had become friendly with while covering the country’s controversial anti-gay legislation. One of them, a French photojournalist who is based in Uganda, suggested the place: Ethiopian Village, a leafy outdoor restaurant that’s as popular for its food as for its giant projection screen.
Expats—journalists, missionaries, NGO workers—along with Ugandans regularly gather at Ethiopian Village to watch big sporting events. And that was the scene last night when a large crowd gathered to watch the World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands. The match was entering the final minutes of regular time when a bomb ripped through the packed restaurant. A near simultaneous explosion tore through a rugby field where large screens showing the match had drawn hundreds of spectators. At last count, 74 people were killed, and many more injured.
While reporting in Uganda this kind of terrorism was the furthest thing from our mind. Kampala is a safe and peaceful city. But as early as last week, the leader of the Somali Islamist group, Al-Shabaab, threatened to launch an attack on Uganda, whose troops are part of the African Union peacekeeping force in Mogadishu. Also, lost in the bigger headline of New York Times reporter Jeffrey Gettleman’s recent story about child soldiers working for the US-backed government in Somalia was the fact that many of the government forces are trained in Uganda.
The Ugandan military dismissed the threat from Al-Shabaab. They may have thought that Uganda was too far outside the scope of international terror. And while many are reporting that this is Al-Shabaab’s first strike outside of Somalia, that’s not entirely accurate. Al Shabab is a franchise of a global network. A network that put itself on the map with another coordinated bombing in East Africa. In 1998, al Qaeda simultaneously bombed the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania killing hundreds of people.
Lawrence Wright reported in his excellent book on al Qaeda, The Looming Tower, that it was Osama bin Laden’s hope that the bombings would draw the US into Afghanistan, where he had recently moved al Qaeda. All bin Laden got were a few cruise missiles. But three years later, after the Sept. 11 attacks, he finally got his wish.
Since then, Afghanistan and Iraq have largely defined the war on terror. But as the bombings in Kampala show, with terrorism the battlefield isn’t always so clear or obvious.Moments before twin bomb blasts tore through crowds of football fans. Photo:... more
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