Negative Blogs

A suicide bomber drove an explosives—laden car into an Iraqi army check point in western Baghdad, killing six people and injuring 20 on Friday morning, officials said.

Although violence in Iraq has subsided significantly in the past years, members of the security forces are still frequently targeted by insurgents seeking to stoke sectarian tensions. There are also concerns such attacks could increase amid a political deadlock four months after an inconclusive election and just weeks before U.S. troops begin heading home.

Police and hospital officials said three Iraqi soldiers and three civilians were killed in the early morning attack that occurred when the bomber detonated a car bomb in the predominantly Sunni neighbourhood of Ghazaliyah.

Officials said 20 people were also wounded in the blast and taken to Baghdad’s Yarmouk hospital. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

Friday’s attack comes after almost 70 people were killed in suicide bombings and roadside bombs targeting hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims who converged on the Iraqi capital to commemorate the death of a revered Shiite holy man, buried in Baghdad Kazimiyah neighbourhood.

The bloodshed comes at a time when Iraq’s nascent democracy is particularly vulnerable as officials jostle for power while struggling to ensure security and stability.

Four months after the March 7 election produced no clear winner, Iraq’s two main political rivals, current Prime Minister Nouri al—Maliki and his main challenger Ayad Allawi, who narrowly won the parliamentary vote, are locked in a bitter power struggle.

With a July 14 constitutionally—mandated deadline to select a new government approaching without a solution in sight, the political uncertainty in Iraq is providing the militants with greater opportunity to strike.

On Thursday, three separate roadside bombings in eastern and northern Baghdad, left 14 people dead and at least 63 wounded, Iraqi hospital and police officials said. A car bomb in southern Baghdad killed another person.

The incidents followed a particularly gruesome night in which nearly 60 people were killed in a series of attacks late Wednesday that marked the worst violence since late April. The deadliest was a suicide bombing that killed 35 people and wounded more than 100, when the bomber struck pilgrims as they were about to cross a bridge from the mostly Sunni neighbourhood of Azamiyah into the predominantly Shiite area of Kazimiyah.

The deadlock between al—Maliki’s State of Law party and Allawi’s Iraqiya party prompted a visit last week by Vice-President Joe Biden, who tried to bring the parties together to form a government.

But Mr. al—Maliki is in a tight spot. Along with finding common ground between the two parties, he also must appease powerful Iranian—backed Shiite parties, like those headed by anti—American cleric Muqtada al—Sadr and the Iraqi National Alliance.

Both Mr. al—Maliki and Mr. Allawi must also win the support of the influential Kurds, who hold the presidency and seek greater autonomy in Iraq’s oil—rich north.

The attacks on pilgrims and security forces of the past days bear the hallmark of Sunni insurgents in Iraq.

And while they pale in comparison to attacks in previous years, the bloodshed has raised fears the sectarian violence that had Iraq teetering at the brink of civil war in 2005—2007 could be reignited as the U.S. brings down the number of troops in the country to 50,000 by the end of August.

By Thehindu

Iraqi Army soldiers examine the wreckage of a car bomb in Baghdad, on Friday. Photo: AP.

Taliban suicide bombers have killed at least five people, including three foreigners, in an attack on the compound of a USAID contractor in northern Afghanistan. 

Afghan officials in the city of Kunduz say one bomber blew up his vehicle at the entrance of the building to allow five other fighters to storm the offices of Development Alternatives Incorporated in the pre-dawn attack Friday. 

The victims included an Afghan police officer and an Afghan security guard. Three foreign workers from Germany, Britain and the Philippines were also killed.  At least 24 people were injured.

All of the attackers were killed in gun-battle with Afghan security forces that lasted more than five-hours. NATO condemned the attack and said its troops helped the injured.

The Taliban took responsibility for the assault, which comes as General David Petraeus arrives in Kabul Friday to take over command of around 140,000 U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The newly-appointed commander has warned violence will increase in Afghanistan in the months ahead.
Elsewhere, NATO said two of its service members died in separate insurgent attacks; a soldier was killed in the east on Friday and a British Royal marine was killed Thursday in the south.

By VOA News

U.S. soldiers carry a body at a USAID compound in Kunduz, north of Kabul, Afghanistan, 02 Jul 2010

Al-Qaida launches English-language propaganda magazine as it broadens reach in U.S., Europe.

Al-Qaida launched its first online propaganda magazine in English on Tuesday, a move that could help the terror group recruit inside the U.S. and Europe.

The magazine, called Inspire, is being run by al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen, which has been linked to the failed Christmas Day bombing attempt of a U.S.-bound airliner.

The launch suggests that, as al-Qaida’s core has been weakened by CIA drone airstrikes, the group hopes to broaden its reach inside the U.S., where officials have seen a spate of homegrown terrorists.

“This new magazine is clearly intended for the aspiring jihadist in the U.S. or U.K. who may be the next Fort Hood murderer or Times Square bomber,” Bruce Riedel, a Brookings Institution scholar and former CIA officer, said.

Tuesday’s launch did not go smoothly. The magazine was 67 pages long, but all but the first three pages were just garbled computer code, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist websites and obtained a copy of the magazine.

The table of contents included articles such as “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom,” which promised to be “a detailed yet short, easy-to-read manual on how to make a bomb using ingredients found in a kitchen.”

“We also call upon and encourage our readers to contribute by sending their articles, comments or suggestions to us,” the magazine’s introduction read.

At the heart of al-Qaida’s propaganda effort is Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical U.S.-born cleric now living in Yemen. Authorities say his online sermons, in English, have inspired several recent terrorist plots in the United States. The magazine promotes an article by al-Awlaki titled “May Our Souls be Sacrificed for You.” But like most of the magazine, the article did not appear in the version circulated Tuesday.

Until now, al-Qaida has relied on Arabic websites to carry its message. Now it appears to be capitalizing on its recent success recruiting inside the U.S.

By MATT APUZZO and ADAM GOLDMAN

Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden talks at a news conference in Afghanistan in this May 26, 1998 file photo. Al-Qaida launched its first online propaganda magazine in English on Tuesday, a move that could help the terror group recruit inside the U.S. and Europe.

A senior Taliban commander disguised as a woman was killed by Afghan and international forces today after he opened fire with a pistol and tried to throw a grenade south of the capital c.

Nato reported a US serviceman also died in a roadside bomb attack in southern Afghanistan, and a small explosion detonated in an area that houses foreign embassies and government offices in the capital, but caused no casualties.

The serviceman’s death brought to 85 the number of international forces killed so far in June - already the deadliest month of the nearly nine-year-old war. The figure includes at least 51 Americans.

Intelligence sources tracked the senior Taliban commander, Ghulam Sakhi, to a compound last night in Puli Alam district in Logar province, south of the capital, Nato said. Afghan forces used a loudspeaker to call for women and children to leave the building.

“As they were exiting, Sakhi came out with the group disguised in women’s attire and pulled out a pistol and a grenade and shot at the security force,” according to statement released by the coalition.

“When Afghan and coalition forces shot him, he dropped the grenade and it detonated, wounding a woman and two children.”

Nato said Sakhi, who is known by several aliases, was involved in roadside bombings and ambushes throughout the province, and he kidnapped and killed an Afghan government intelligence chief there.

Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada, head of the criminal investigation unit of the Kabul police, said the explosion in the capital was caused by a small bomb placed on the engine of a government vehicle.

The driver of the car, used by the Afghan National Army, was arrested. The front of the vehicle was damaged, but no one was wounded, he said.

The new violence came the day after four US troops were reported killed and the bodies of 11 Afghan men, some beheaded, were found in rising violence across the country.

By Irishtimes

An Afghan policeman passes by the twisted remains of a US army truck destroyed by a roadside bomb planted by suspected Taliban militants outside the military base of Gorgan. Photograph: Denis Sinyakov/Reuters

Iraqi officials say a bomb attack in the northern part of the country has killed eight people, including six police officers.

The attack came less than 24 hours after twin car bombs killed at least 26 people in the capital, Baghdad.

The latest bombings happened late Sundayin the town of Shirqat.  Reports indicate two bombs were involved and that the second went off as people gathered to inspect the site of the first.

There are conflicting reports as to whether the second bombing was a suicide attack or a roadside bomb.

Iraq has been hit by a wave of violence since the nation’s parliamentary elections in March failed to yield a clear winner.

Some officials fear insurgents may be taking advantage of the country’s political deadlock to try to derail recent security gains. 

The Baghdad bombs exploded within minutes of each other Sunday near the headquarters of the Trade Bank of Iraq.

Police officers and civilians were among the dead. More than 53 people were wounded.

Baghdad’s security chief (General Qassam Mohammed Atta) indicated the bank was the apparent target of the explosions

The bank was established in 2003 after the U.S.-led invasion, and is the conduit for much of the Iraqi government’s efforts to help finance reconstruction and international trade.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, but an al-Qaida front group (the Islamic State of Iraq) has said it carried out last week’s suicide attack on Iraq’s Central Bank that killed 18 people in Baghdad.

By VOA News

A woman cries out during the funeral for a relative killed in an attack on Iraq's central Bank as the body is taken for burial, 14 Jun 2010.

Those at event thought to have had ties to police or anti-Taliban militia

KABUL, Afghanistan - At least 40 people were killed and 77 injured by a suicide bomb attack on a packed wedding party in insurgency-plagued southern Afghanistan, officials said Thursday.

“A suicide bomber went inside the party where hundreds of people were sitting and blew himself up,” a police official said of the blast at around 9:30 p.m. (1 p.m. ET) on Wednesday in Arghandab district, north of Kandahar, where foreign troops are focusing on a push in coming months to whittle out the Taliban.

A Kandahar policeman said many of the guests had links to local police officials or a local militia, which was why it was likely targeted, although the Taliban denied responsibility.

“We condemn such a brutal act,” Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi told Reuters from an undisclosed location. “The Taliban wage Jihad (holy war) in order to free the people from the hands of occupiers. How can we kill them?”

The Taliban have previously claimed responsibility for insurgent attacks, but recanted once civilian casualties have become clear.

Ahmadi laid blame at the feet of the the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) for Afghanistan, which has killed hundreds of civilians in misdirected air strikes, but a U.S. military spokesman dismissed this as “misinformation.”

Earlier Wednesday, the four U.S. soldiers were killed when a helicopter they were riding in came under fire and crashed in Helmand, which is next to Kandahar. A total of 29 NATO troops have been killed this month, including 10 on Monday alone, seven of them Americans. It was the deadliest day for the military alliance in seven months.

‘End of the world’
Witnesses described scenes of chaos at the wedding, which had drawn around 400 celebrants including women and children from nearby villages.

“Some people were waiting for food, others were dancing inside a big tent, when I heard a deafening blast,” a wounded survivor named Aminullah said.

“The dust went up in the sky and I saw dead bodies everywhere. Women and children were screaming. I thought it was end of the world.”

Agha Mohammed, who survived the wedding blast, said the guests were all seated and having a meal when the explosion occurred, sending a huge fireball and smoke into the sky.

He told The Associated Press that the scale of the destruction caused by the blast was more than was common in a suicide attack. “We have experience with war and this does not look like a suicide bombing,” Mohammed said.

Rural wedding parties in Afghanistan can often be raucous affairs with large gatherings of people and frequently accompanied by celebratory gunfire. Several have mistakenly been attacked in the past by foreign forces. However Taliban attacks have claimed more civilian lives.

Citing hospital reports, Kandahar Governor Tooryalai Wisa said ball bearings had been used as shrapnel, a hallmark of suicide bombings. Children were among the dead, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

“The Taliban are doing two things at once,” Wisa said. “On one side they target people who are in favor of the government, then at the same time they don’t want people to know their real face.”

Cruel people

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whose plan to seek engagement with the Taliban won support at a tribal peace conference last week, deplored the wedding bombing as a “terrorist attack.”

“This attack … is the work of those cruel people who act against Islamic and divine values,” Karzai’s office said in a statement.

U.S. military spokesman Col. Wayne Shanks said the deaths were not the result of an airstrike, and said any suggestion otherwise was “Taliban misinformation.”

“This ruthless violence brought to the Afghan people at what should have been a time for celebration demonstrates the Taliban’s sickening and indiscriminate tactics to try to intimidate the citizens of Afghanistan,” Lt. Gen. Nick Parker, Deputy Commander, International Security Assistance Force said in a prepared statement.

“It only proves they have no regard for human life,” he added.

Ahmadi did claim responsibility on behalf of the insurgents for killing the U.S. troops, saying militants shot down the helicopter with two rockets.

Helmand provincial government spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said the attack occurred about midday in Sangin district.

Both U.S. and British troops are operating in Helmand, part of a band of provinces across southern Afghanistan that are the Taliban’s heartland.

Also Wednesday, another NATO service member died in a homemade bomb attack. The Ministry of Defense in London said he was British.

By msnbc

A Afghan policeman talks to an injured man at a hospital following the explosion at a wedding party in Kandahar on Thursday. A suicide attack ripped through a wedding party in full swing in the Taliban's heartland late Wednesday.

Seven Americans, two Australians and one French legionnaire killed on deadliest day for Nato forces in country since October.

Ten foreign soldiers, including seven US soldiers, were killed in attacks in Afghanistan yesterday in what was the biggest single-day death toll of military personnel this year.

Five of the Americans died in an explosion in eastern Afghanistan, a US military spokesman said.

The two others died in separate attacks in the south, one killed by a bombing and the other by small arms fire.

Nato said three more service members were killed in attacks in the east and south of the country.

The French government said one of the victims was a sergeant in the French foreign legion, who was killed by a rocket in Kapisa province. Australia’s defence force chief, Lieutenant General David Hurley, said two Australian soldiers were killed by an improvised explosive device in Uruzgan province, in southern Afghanistan.

Australia is not a Nato member, but its 1,500 troops in Afghanistan – the largest contingent outside the northern Atlantic alliance – are under Nato command as part of the International Security Assistance Force.

A US civilian contractor who trains Afghan police was killed, along with a Nepalese security guard, when a team of three suicide bombers attacked the main gates of the training centre in Kandahar.

Afghan officials said one bomber blew a hole in the outer wall, enabling the two others to run inside. They were killed in a gun battle, and three police officers were wounded.

It was the deadliest day for Nato since 26 October, when 11 US troops were killed, including seven who died in a helicopter crash. The crash was not believed to have been a result of hostile fire.

US commanders have warned of more casualties as the alliance prepares for a major operation to secure Kandahar, the former headquarters of the Taliban and the biggest city in the south.

By Guardian.co

Policemen inspect the scene of a suicide bomb attack at a training centre in Kandahar, in which two foreign contractors died. Photograph: Shoaib Safi/AFP/Getty Images

BAGHDAD — Ten people died in a series of attacks in Iraq on Monday, including three killed when a car bomb exploded in a Baghdad shopping area.

The late morning blast in the capital’s western Mansour neighborhood came a day after another car bombing killed five people outside a Baghdad police station.

Monday’s explosion wounded at least nine people and damaged several shops, according to security and hospital officials. Ball bearings, apparently packed inside the car to increase the number of casualties, littered the bomb site.

Although violence has fallen sharply in recent years, Iraqi security forces still struggle to stop deadly attacks from happening as U.S. troops prepare to withdraw.

The attacks threaten to further destabilize the country as political leaders jostle for control three months after indecisive parliamentary elections.

A third person was killed and eight were wounded when a bomb stuck to a minibus exploded in Baghdad’s overwhelmingly Shiite slum of Sadr City in the morning, police and hospital officials said.

Outside the capital, attackers shot and killed a father and two of his sons at home in the al-Zaidan village, near the town of Abu Ghraib, west of the Iraqi capital.

A police official said the dead man’s brother is a prominent member of anti-insurgent Sunni fighters known as Sons of Iraq, and that the gunmen likely believed he was staying in the house.

The area is at the doorstep of Iraq’s western Anbar province, which is dominated by Sunni Arabs and is the birthplace of the Sons of Iraq movement, also known as Sahwa, or the Awakening Councils. Members of the group once fought U.S. forces, but later switched sides to fight al-Qaida in Iraq.

Remnants of al-Qaida and its allies are blamed for many of the bombings and other attacks that continue to plague the country.

In another nearby village, al-Abid, gunmen forced the families of four policemen out of their houses at dawn and then bombed the buildings, police said. Officials said many in the area are Sahwa supporters, though others remain sympathetic to insurgents.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the were not authorized to speak to the media.

Elsewhere, gunmen dressed in military uniforms killed three brothers and wounded a fourth in Sunidij, a village between Baghdad and Hillah to the south, according to Maj. Muthana Khalid, the media spokesman of Babil police.

A local police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the brothers’ father is an outspoken critic of al-Qaida because other members of his tribe had been killed by insurgents.

By ADAM SCHRECK

Iraqi soldiers secure the site of a car bomb in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, June 7, 2010. Iraqi officials say a car bomb has exploded in a shopping area in western Baghdad, killing three people. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

KABUL, Afghanistan —As rockets landed nearby and suicide attackers detonated explosives, President Hamid Karzai opened a national consultative peace assembly on Wednesday morning with the goal of winning popular backing for his plan to persuade Taliban and insurgent foot soldiers to stop fighting.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks, and the authorities said at least three suicide bombers were involved.

In his speech, which was interrupted by a rocket that exploded close by and an exchange of gunfire, forcing Mr. Karzai to tell his audience not to worry. He spoke directly to the Taliban, calling on them to join the government.

Within minutes, a larger explosion from another rocket shook the large tent where the gathering, known as a jirga, was being held. The jirga took a scheduled 10-minute break, but did not resume until an hour and a half later, after the shooting had stopped.

At least one suicide bomber struck near the Takya Khana mosque, close to the jirga site, according to Ezatullah, a police officer in District 5, which includes that area. Like many Afghans, he uses only one name.

Mr. Ezatullah said police officials believed “a few suicide attackers” had entered the area.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, took credit for the attacks and said the insurgents had sent four suicide bombers to Kabul, although he was nt yet sure if any had attacked.

“Our main purpose is to disrupt the peace jirga,” Mr. Mujahid said, adding that the bombers were armed with automatic weapons, rocket launchers and grenades. He said they had installed themselves on the roof of a building near Kabul Polytechnical University and had been firing down on the jirga tent.

A security perimeter in the Takya Khana area had been set up around the mosque, the university and the jirga site, all of which had been blocked off to the public for the past week.

According to an Afghan police commander, who declined to give his name, the Taliban had established a safe house inside the area and launched their attacks from there. He said authorities had detained an elderly man named Mohammed Nabih, from Wardak Province, who told them he had been employed as a guard at the house 10 days ago. He was captured on Wednesday after he ran out of ammunition.

Officials recaptured the house on Wednesday afternoon, and found the bodies of two dead insurgents inside. Two Afghan policemen were wounded in the operation.

The Taliban infiltrated the area, according to some accounts, disguised in the head-to-toe burqas women traditionally wear in Afghanistan.

“It was a quick response by our security forces,” said a presidential spokesman, Waheed Omer. “All three suicide attackers were killed.” He maintained they did not get close enough to pose a threat to the jirga. It was unclear how many of the attackers set off their bombs before police killed them.

In Mr. Karzai’s speech to the jirga, he called the Taliban “brothers” and “dear Talibs,” and he described their flight to Pakistan and their fighting as a reaction to injustices done by local Afghans who had “disturbed them “ and by foreign troops.

“To those Taliban compelled to flee by the government’s and foreign troops’ mistakes, they are welcome and can come and join us,” Mr. Karzai said.

Not welcome, he noted, were those connected to Al Qaeda and those who have harmed innocent Afghans. He singled out those who killed teachers and scholars as particularly reprehensible.

“I can’t forgive,” Mr. Karzai said, “Al Qaeda or those who kill students, teachers, scholars, there is no room for them in the peace jirga.”

He made no reference to the main reasons people have given for joining the insurgency —frustration with a lack of government services and anger about governmental corruption and incompetence.

The jirga elected Burhanudin Rabbani as its chairman. Mr. Rabbani, head of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, is a member of the coalition of opposition presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah, who lost a contested election to President Karzai last year. Mr. Abdullah and many of his followers declined to participate in the jirga.

The consultative jirga, unlike a loya jirga, is nonbinding and the attendees were selected with heavy government input, raising questions about whether its conclusions will be taken seriously by Afghans.

Convening a jirga was one of Mr. Karzai’s central campaign promises before his re-election last year, made in recognition of the growing public unhappiness with the war.

The outcome is largely preordained, as the government has handpicked the delegates and broadly set the parameters of the discussion. But the event is not wholly without risk. It is already being criticized as being more symbolic than practical, and even as a show of national unity intended to wring money from international donors.

“If you were serious about a reconciliation process, a jirga like this would be the right thing to do, to consult the population, to discuss grievances, resolve issues,” said Martine van Biljert, co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, a policy research organization. “But it doesn’t look like it will seriously provide a platform for any of this.”

Many of Mr. Karzai’s fellow ethnic Pashtuns insist that only talks with the Taliban leadership, and with Pakistan, which has long backed the insurgents, will end the war. Their support is critical since most of the fighting is in Pashtun areas, and the Taliban are predominantly Pashtuns.

“I will tell you in two words how to bring peace,” said Hajji Muhammad Omar, a member of Parliament from Kunduz, who served as a governor during the Taliban’s rule. “First, talk to the Taliban leadership and second, convince Pakistan.”

The jirga could call for the formation of a commission of elders to initiate contacts with the Taliban leadership, Mr. Wardak said. But many Pashtuns are already saying the jirga is a waste of time without the presence of the Taliban. According to Afghan tribal custom, a jirga is supposed to bring the two warring parties together on neutral ground while selected elders negotiate and then guarantee a settlement that is binding on all parties.

Mr. Karzai’s early plans to invite representatives of the Taliban and of Hezb-e-Islami were abandoned in February, Mr. Wardak said. The Taliban leadership council had agreed to enter talks and send representatives to a peace jirga, according to two Afghan security officials, but contacts ended after the arrest of the Taliban’s No. 2 leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in January.

By ALISSA J. RUBIN and ROD NORDLAND

Afghan soldiers after a battle with Taliban suicide attackers that took place as President Hamid Karzai opened a peace assembly on Tuesday in Kabul.

Police in Pakistan say Taliban attackers carried out Friday’s bloody attack on two mosques in Lahore belonging to the Ahmadi religious minority.

Police said Saturday that the attackers were Pakistani Taliban fighters who trained in the North Waziristan tribal region.

Gunmen armed with grenades and suicide vests stormed the two mosques shortly after the start of Friday prayers in the northeastern city of Lahore.  At least 93 people were killed.

Police captured two of the attackers, while at least two others died at the scene.

The Pakistani Taliban has also been linked to an attempted car bombing earlier this month in New York City.  The United States says Faisal Shahzad, a U.S. citizen born in Pakistan who was arrested for the failed attack, trained with and was supported by Taliban militants.

Also, a major U.S. newspaper said Saturday that the U.S. military is reviewing the possibility of staging a unilateral strike in Pakistan if a successful attack on U.S. soil is ever traced to the South Asian country.

The Washington Post says the U.S. would only consider launching an attack in Pakistan in extreme circumstances.  The CIA has been using drones (unmanned aircraft) to bomb al-Qaida and Taliban hideouts in Pakistan.

The newspaper quoted top military officials as saying the United States has been considering new options for military action against militants in Pakistan since the bombing attempt in New York’s Times Square, which could have caused a large number of casualties.

According to the Post, U.S. military forces currently have been given the authority to launch unilateral strikes in Pakistan only if they involve three top targets: al-Qaida leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, or Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar.

Pakistani police official arrange hand grenades recovered from militants who stormed the Garhi Shahu mosque on Friday, in Lahore, Pakistan, 29 May 2010