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Smoke rises from the scene of a suicide car bomb attack on a street in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu February 21, 2011. A suicide car bomber killed at least 12 people near a police training camp in Mogadishu today in what police said was an attack by rebels who profess loyalty to al Qaeda.
A suicide car bomber killed at least 17 people near a police training camp in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu today in what police said was an attack by rebels who profess loyalty to al Qaeda.
Al Shabaab has waged a three-year insurgency to topple the UN-backed interim government they consider a stooge of the West, restricting it to just a few blocks of Mogadishu.
Police say civilian casualties were high in the early morning strike on a busy main road that was aimed at Seredi, the police training camp about 500 metres from Mogadishu port.
“We cannot get the exact number of dead now. We are busy collecting flesh, and people are shocked here,” Hassan Ali, a police officer, told Reuters.
There were likely to be more casualties since fragments of the bomb, shrapnel and wrecked car parts were flung across the road and into various buildings and houses, police said.
Two vehicles with passengers headed for the port burst into flames and several residents fled in panic, police said. A donkey and its rider both lay dead and nearby houses made of iron sheets were destroyed.
Four of those killed were suicide bombers, two were police officers, and the rest were civilians, police said.
Ali said police shot at a speeding vehicle hurtling towards the gates of their training camp, before the explosion shook the area, covering it in flames and smoke.
“We believe Al Shabaab is behind this attack,” Ali said
Russian investigators have said they now know the identity of the suicide bomber who claimed the lives of 35 people in an attack on Moscow's busiest airport last Monday.
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the assassination of the deputy governor of Afghanistan's Kandahar province. As Abdul Latif Ashna was leaving home to head to work, a suicide bomber riding a motorbike ...
A woman suicide bomber detonated her explosives-laden vest in a crowded aid distribution centre in northwest Pakistan today, killing at least 41 people and wounding dozens waiting for food stamps, officials said.
The attack appeared to be the first suicide bombing staged by a woman in Pakistan, and it underscored the resilience of militant groups in the country's tribal belt despite ongoing military operations against them.
The bomb hit the main city in Bajur, a region near the Afghan border where the military has twice declared victory over Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents.
It also came a day after some 150 militants killed 11 soldiers in a coordinated assault in a neighboring region where the army also has carried out operations.
The bomber, dressed in a traditional women's burqa, first lobbed two hand grenades into the crowd waiting at a checkpoint outside the food aid distribution center in the town of Khar, local police official Fazal-e-Rabbi Khan said. The attacker then detonated her explosives vest, he said.
Pakistani paramedic and relatives transport an injured victim of a suicide bombing today to Lady Reading hospital in Peshawar
A woman suicide bomber detonated her explosives-laden vest in a crowded aid distribution centre in north-west Pakistan
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Khan said the victims were from various parts of the Bajur tribal region who gather daily at the center to collect food tokens distributed by the World Food Program and other agencies to conflicted-affected people in the region.
The people were displaced by an army offensive against Taliban militants in the region in early 2009.
Islamist militants battling the state have attacked buildings handing out humanitarian aid in Pakistan before, presumably because they are symbols of the government and Western influence.
Local government official Tariq Khan said the blast also wounded 60 people, some of them critically, of about 300 who were at the scene.
Tariq Khan and another local official, Sohail Khan, said an examination of the human remains has confirmed the bomber was a woman.
Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based security and political analyst, said the suicide bombing appeared to be the first carried out by a woman in Pakistan.
'It is no surprise. They can use a woman, a child or whatever,' Rizvi said. 'Human life is not important to them, only the objective they are pursuing' of undermining state power, he added.
Male suicide bombers often don the burqa - an Islamic head-to-toe dress that also covers the woman's face - as a disguise.
In 2007, officials initially claimed Pakistan's first female suicide bomber had killed 14 people in the northwest town of Bannu but the attacker was later identified as a man.
Akbar Jan, 45, who sustained leg wounds in the bombing, said from his hospital bed that people were lining up for the ration coupons when something exploded with a big bang.
'We thought someone had fired a rocket,' he said. He said within seconds he saw the ground strewn with the wounded.
'I realized a little later that I myself have suffered wounds,' he said. 'Everybody was crying. It was blood and human flesh everywhere.'
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the bombing and said Pakistanis are 'united against them.'
Bajur is on the northern tip of Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal belt, bordering Afghanistan and the so-called 'settled' areas in Pakistan. It has served as a key transit point and hideout for al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Bajur and other parts of the tribal regions are of major concern to the U.S. because they have been safe havens for militants fighting Nato and American troops across the border in Afghanistan.
The U.S. has long pressured Pakistan to clear the tribal belt of the insurgents.
The military first declared victory in Bajur following a six-month operation launched in late 2008.
But the army was forced to launch a follow-up operation in late January this year and declared victory again about a month later. Still, violence has persisted in the region.
The army also has taken steps to clear Mohmand, a tribal region next to Bajur that also has witnessed militant activity.
On Friday, however, around 150 insurgents attacked five security checkpoints in that region, killing at least 11 soldiers and wounding a dozen more in a show of their ongoing strength.
Pakistani men weep as they stand beside their relative who was injured in the suicide bombing in Bajur tribal region
Pakistan army paramedics unload an injured victim of suicide bombing, from a van upon his arrival at Lady Reading hospital in Peshawar
Dramatic footage of what are thought to be the final moments of the Swedish suicide bomber has emerged, showing how he was moments from killing and injuring hundreds of Christmas shoppers.
The film, from a CCTV camera only yards from where British-educated Taimour Abdulwahab Al-Abdaly detonated his home-made device, shows a man wearing a backpack walking down one of Stockholm’s busiest shopping streets surrounded by dozens of members of the public.
The man appears to rummage inside his coat, possibly trying to detonate the bomb. He then quickly changes direction, walking back through the shoppers and down a quiet side street.
Hidden threat: The man walks amid shoppers
Suspicious: He turns towards a side street
Panic: Shoppers scatter from the blast on the left
Four minutes later a huge explosion erupts from the same side street, tearing across the left side of the screen and sending passers-by running amid billowing grey smoke.
Abdulwahab, 28, killed himself and injured two members of the public. Had he successfully detonated the device earlier, police believe he could have killed or injured hundreds of innocent shoppers.
Peter Jonsson, a security expert and former employee of the Swedish intelligence service Saepo, said: ‘The footage shows a very focused individual, walking on a very deliberate line who was not out for Christmas shopping.
It looks as if his equipment malfunctions in the crowd and he went back to the quiet side street to go and check on it. Obviously he would not do this on an open street where people would panic.
‘In the footage it looks like he is doing something with his left hand in front of the jacket.
‘With his right hand side, just before he cuts the corner, you can see an antenna and that could be the walkie-talkie that was pictured on the floor after the explosion – he was either talking to an accomplice, or this may have been rigged to ¬detonate the bombs.’
Mr Jonsson revealed security teams were attempting to estimate the height of the man in the video to compare it to Abdulwahab.
He said that although others had speculated that the bomber might have had second thoughts and tried to stop the device, the position of the body after the explosion suggested otherwise.
‘It was on its back, leading to the conclusion that he was facing a wall when the device exploded,’ he said.
‘It looks like he was trying to face away from the crowds and fix the equipment at this time.’
Investigators from Saepo have added to speculation that the bomb could have malfunctioned before it went off – forcing Abdulwahab to try to fix the device.
Saepo security chief Jan Garton said: ‘Our current picture of the final movements of the bomber was that he had trouble exploding the device and was therefore moving back and forth close to the street where he was found.’
Abdulwahab was born in Iraq but raised in Sweden from the age of ten until he took up a university course in Luton around 2001.
While in the UK, he became increasingly radicalised and was thrown out of an Islamic centre for his extremist views.
He returned to Sweden in the past few weeks and last Saturday carried out the attack, setting off a car bomb shortly before blowing himself up.
The CCTV footage was released as it was claimed Scotland Yard was investigating a link between Abdulwahab and radical preacher Abu Hamza, who used to operate from the notorious Finsbury Park mosque in north London.
Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported that the Met – whose officers raided Abdulwahab’s house in Luton last week – were looking into the link with Hamza, 52, who is serving a seven-year sentence for incitement to murder and racial hatred.
Swedish investigators refused to give any more details of the link and last night Scotland Yard declined to comment.
Meanwhile Abdulwahab’s father-in-law, Ali Thwany, yesterday released a statement saying he was glad his son-in-law was dead. And he denied rumours that his daughter Mona, 28, knew of the suicide plan.
Mr Thwany said Mona had been suspicious about her husband’s radical views and frequent foreign trips but had been too frightened to speak out. In an email to the Swedish media, Mr Thwany said: ‘We feel no sorrow. We are not sad over his death.
‘On the contrary. I view his departure as the door to freedom for my daughter. Now she can be free from the brainwash of terrorism. She has told me that she deeply regretted that she has been silent all the time.’
Suspicious: Suicide bomber Taimour Abdulwahab Al-Abdaly's wife, Mona, was concerned about his extremist views
At least 39 recruits and soldiers were killed and 57 wounded today when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside an army recruitment centre in the Iraqi capital, authorities said.
The Baghdad operations command said in a statement 39 people had been killed. One police source said the death toll could be as high as 48, with 123 wounded.
The suicide bombing is one of the bloodiest attacks in weeks as political tensions simmer following an inconclusive election more than five months ago and ahead of the end of US combat operations this month.
The attack occurred at the site of what used to be the Defence Ministry under Saddam Hussein, turned into an army recruitment centre and military base after the 2003 US-led invasion.
One army source who declined to be identified said there might have been two suicide bombers, a hallmark of Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and its local affiliates.
“They (the recruits) were gathering in large numbers. They let in 250 recruits at a time,” the source said.
The bloodshed was the latest in a steady drumbeat of attacks since a March 7 election produced no outright winner and as yet no new government.
While overall violence in Iraq has fallen sharply since the height in 2006-07 of the sectarian slaughter between majority Shi’ites and once dominant Sunnis, a stubborn insurgency remains capable of carrying out large scale attacks.
Iraqi and US officials say the insurgents are trying to exploit political tensions stirred up by unsuccessful coalition talks between the major Shi’ite political factions and a Sunni-backed cross-sectarian alliance which won a narrow victory in the March election.
They are also putting the Iraqi security forces to the test ahead of the formal end of US combat operations this month and the reduction in US troop levels to 50,000 by September 1, part of a plan leading to a full-scale withdrawal in 2011.
Afghan commandos run to the site of a suicide attack in Kabul today, August 10, 2010.
Two suicide bombers attacked a residential area of central Kabul today, killing at least three people, police and security sources said.
One police source said at least one of the bombers had blown himself up. Another said a guesthouse used by foreigners had been the target.
A government security source said the bodies of at least three Afghans could be seen close to the site of the attack. The source said the target appeared to be an American company but had no further details.
Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said it was not clear what the target was.
“There have been casualties but I do not know how many people, whether Afghan or foreigners,” he told Reuters.
“It was a suicide attack. The situation is under control,” Bashary said.
Another police source said it was not clear whether the second bomber had blown himself up, been captured or was still at large.
The attack came only hours after the United Nations mission in Afghanistan released a report that said civilian casualties had risen 31 per cent in the first six months of the year compared with the same period in 2009.
More than three-quarters of those casualties were blamed on the Taliban and other insurgents battling foreign forces and the Afghan government.
Violence across Afghanistan has reached its highest levels since the Taliban were ousted by US-backed Afghan forces in late 2001, with the death toll for foreign troops also hitting record levels.
Some 150,000 foreign troops are squared off against the insurgents.
A suicide bomber killed four Afghans in an attack apparently aimed at a convoy of foreign forces in Kabul on July 18, and insurgents embarrassed Afghan officials by firing rockets at a major peace conference in the capital in June.
In February, two suicide bombers killed 14 people and wounded 32 when they blew themselves up near Kabul’s biggest shopping centre and a hotel.
At least one person has been killed in a suicide bomb attack outside a Nato base in Khost province in south-eastern Afghanistan, police say.
The bomb targeted the same base where seven CIA agents were killed last year in one of the worst attacks against US intelligence officials.
Police said a car packed with explosives was detonated in front of the base, killing one civilian.
Meanwhile on Sunday, eight people died in a roadside blast in Paktia province.
Fourteen others were injured when a bomb hit a passenger van, Afghanistan's interior ministry said.
In Decmber 2009, a deadly attack by a suicide bomber who infiltrated the base in Khost killed seven CIA agents and a Jordanian officer.
Forward Operating Base Chapman, a former Soviet military base, is used not only by the CIA but also by provincial reconstruction teams, which include both soldiers and civilians.
Pakistani terrorist, Ajmal Amir Kasab, charged with the deaths of 166 Indians and foreigners, has been pronounced guilty of all charges by a special court in Mumbai. The two Indians, who were named as co-accused in the case-- Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Shaikh, have been acquitted.
The argument on quantum of sentence to Kasab will be held tomorrow.
Kasab has been convicted on all 86 charges against him. He was found guilty or murder and waging war against the nation, the court said while delivering the judgment.
"You have been found guilty of waging war against India, and killing people at CST (train station), killing government officials and abetting the other nine terrorists," Judge M.L. Tahaliyani said as he announced his verdict. They were the most serious charges laid against Kasab, a 22-year-old Pakistani who was arrested after the Mumbai siege.
The conspiracy was hatched in Pakistan, the judge said.
The two Indian co-accused were set free because the evidence against them was weak, the court ruled. Kasab had said that the duo supplied maps of Mumbai to LeT bosses. Thus, they gave logistical support to carry out the attack. But the judge, punching a hole in the prosecution’s argument, said better maps were available on Google than the crude drawings Kasab claimed had been supplied by Ansari and Sabauddin.
This verdict is the biggest terror trial the city has witnessed in recent times. Ten Pakistani terrorists sneaked into Mumbai on 26th November 2008 and unleashed 60 hours of mayhem that left 166 people dead and 244 injured. The terrorists had targeted several sites such as the World Heritage Building of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel, Hotel Oberoi-Trident, Cama Hospital and the Chabad House, a Jewish prayer centre and Leopold Cafe, a favourite among foreigners.
The witnesses included many survivors of the terror attacks, eyewitnesses, family members of the victims, police officials, several foreign nationals, Indian security officials and officials from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
There was extremely tight security around the court premises as the verdict was being delivered. Some reporters were allowed inside court, however, use of mobile phones or any other devices was strictly prohibited.
The prosecution had gathered a heap of evidence against Kasab and presented strong arguments that are capable of sending him to the gallows. Special prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam charged Kasab with not just the criminal acts of killing and injuring scores of innocent people, but termed him guilty of the entire conspiracy that went into planning and executing the dastardly attack.
Nikam argued that Kasab is a highly trained and motivated member of the Pakistani terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) who underwent months of training in weapons and intelligence so he could execute the well-planned attack on Mumbai. Nikam also relied on scores of witness testimonies in a bid to establish Kasab's role in the killing of innocents at CST and Cama Hospital, the gunning down of senior policemen in Badruddin Tyabji Lane and the final gunbattle at Marine Drive.
The prosecution's main argument had been that Kasab is a cold-blooded killer whose guilt has been established both through human accounts of the night of November 26, 2008, as well as forensic evidence in the form of DNA reports.
The case against Ansari and Shaikh revolved around Kasab's confession to magistrate R V Sawant Waghule in February 2009. Kasab had said that the duo supplied maps of Mumbai to LeT bosses. Thus, they gave logistical support to carry out the attack.
In his defence, Kasab had maintained that he was an innocent Pakistani who was picked up several days prior to the attack. He has insisted that the terrorist caught on CCTV is not him but a lookalike. He also rubbished all witness testimonies as tutored and given at the behest of police officials.
Both Ansari and Shaikh had denied all wrongdoing. Their main argument is why would the LeT rely upon crude maps allegedly supplied by them when far more sophisticated versions were easily available on the internet. After the arrest of American David Coleman Headley, they also argued that recce work for the attack was done by him and they had been framed needlessly in the case.
In September 2006, after 13 years of arguments, the Tada court had begun giving its verdicts in the 1993 serial blasts case. It was the last major trial in recent times.
CM Sheila Dikshit and Sports Minister M S Gill at a sports complex in New Delhi.Coming Commonwealth Games in India is said to face threats from terrorists attacks.
The US Embassy in India has warned of possible "imminent attacks" by militants in the capital, Delhi, and advised US citizens to be vigilant.
"There are increased indications that terrorists are planning imminent attacks in New Delhi," said a statement on the embassy's website.
It urged people to avoid several locations popular with Westerners.
Militants linked to Pakistan-based Islamist groups have been blamed for previous attacks in the city.
The advisory, which steps up a warning issued last month, said that popular shopping areas such as Chandni Chowk, Connaught Place, Greater Kailash, Karol Bagh, Mehrauli, and Sarojini Nagar, should be avoided.
It said US citizens travelling or living in India should maintain "a high level of vigilance", and be aware of their surroundings or any unattended packages.
THE Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has upgraded its travel advice to India, warning Australians to avoid travel there because of the "high risk of terrorist activity"around New Delhi marketplaces.
Australia joins the US and Canada in issuing specific warnings about attacks by militants against markets frequented by foreign visitors.
"Specific and credible information suggests that markets, including Chandni Chowk, Connaught Place, Greater Kailash, Karol Bagh, Mehrauli and Sarojini Nagar, could be targeted by terrorists in the coming days or weeks.
"Information received on 1 May suggests that attacks against markets in New Delhi may be imminent. Australians should avoid all markets in New Delhi," DFAT said.
Its warning follows advice issued last Thursday by the Indian government that terrorist attacks are likely in Kolkata (Calcutta), including Kolkata airport.
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Trade Minister Simon Crean will visit India for official talks despite the terrorist warning, his office confirmed yesterday.
Mr Crean is scheduled to arrive in New Delhi today for briefings on preparations for the October Commonwealth Games.
He will also travel to the financial centre of Mumbai and to Hyderabad in India's south during the six-day visit.
India is Australia's fourth-largest export market. Mr Crean said the visit came at a "crucial time", with booming trade in the resources sector and investment. There was also great potential to extend exports in services, agriculture, manufacturing and renewable energy.
Terrorists will try to destabilise the country and stop the holding of Commonwealth Games in Delhi, which has become an "attractive" target for them but there is no need to panic, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said today.
"Nobody's life will come to a standstill. And certainly no panic should be there. Of course the police, the Home Ministry and Lt Governor are doing their best and they are doing their work (on this matter)," she said.
Her comments come in the backdrop of US, UK and Australia warning about "imminent terror attacks" in tourist-hubs in the capital.
"Look I will tell you that Commonwealth Games would be an attractive target for them (terrorists). The aim of terrorists is to destabilise the country and show that the government cannot hold the Commonwealth games, Dikshit told NDTV.
Touchdown: The jet lands in Denver last night after a mid-air security scare
A Qatari diplomat trying to sneak a cigarette in an airplane bathroom prompted a bomb scare on a U.S. flight last night.
Fighter jets were scrambled as air marshals on the plane arrested the man.
Diplomat: The suspect is said to be a diplomat at the Qatar embassy in Washington DC
Similarities: The incident brought to mind shoe bomber Richard Reid (left) and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 'Christmas Day bomber'
Fears: Debbie Adams talks to reporters about text messages she was receiving from her husband Matt Erickson. Her husband was among passengers on the flight
When he was asked about the smell of smoke in the bathroom, he joked that he had been trying to light his shoes - an apparent reference to the 2001 so-called 'shoe bomber' Richard Reid.
No explosives were found on the diplomat - named as as Mohammed Al-Madadi - and officials do not believe he was trying to harm anyone. The incident comes three months after the attempted terror attack on Christmas Day when a Nigerian man tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner.
Since then, law enforcement, flight crews and passengers have been on high alert for suspicious activity on airplanes.
The scare exposed major holes in the country's national security and prompted immediate changes in terror-screening policies.
The Boeing 757 was carrying 157 passengers and six crew members, United Airlines spokesman Michael Trevino said. It left Reagan National Airport at 5.19pm and landed at Denver International Airport four hours later.
The flight crew radioed air traffic control to ask that the flight be met on the ground by law enforcement, Trevino said.
Passengers say they were kept on the plane for nearly an hour after it landed and then questioned at a fire station at the airport.Passenger Mei Turcotte, 26, of Kalispell, Montana, said she smelled smoke about an hour into the flight.
She said she later looked out the window and saw two jets flying alongside the plane.
'I'm in the sky a lot, and I was thinking that might not be so normal,' she said.
She was angry about being held against her will to be questioned over something so minor.
'He went quietly. There was not a scene,' Turcotte said.
'They made this into something that was ridiculous.'
Dave Klaversma, 55, of Parker, Colorado, said his wife, Laura, was sitting behind the man in the first-class section of the United flight. She said she saw the man go into the bathroom and that moments later he said something to the flight crew. After that, two U.S. marshals in the first-class section apprehended the man and sat next to him for the remainder of the flight.
Klaversma said his wife told him it all happened very quietly and that 'there was no hysteria, no struggle, nothing'. She said she noticed nothing unusual about the man before the incident.
Another passenger, 61-year-old Scott Smith of Laramie, Wyoming, said he was seated toward the middle of the plane and didn't notice any disturbance during the flight.
'The approach into Denver was unusual,' Smith, a computer programmer, told reporters by mobile phone.
'We came in rather fast, and we were flying low for a long period of time. I've never seen a jetliner do that. There were no announcements, nothing about your carryon bags or tray tables.'
Once on the ground, Smith said, the pilot eventually announced that 'we have a situation here on the plane'.
The Transportation Security Administration confirmed that federal air marshals responded to a passenger 'causing a disturbance onboard the aircraft'.
'Law enforcement and TSA responded to the scene and the passenger is currently being interviewed by law enforcement,' TSA said in a statement.
'All steps are being taken to ensure the safety of the traveling public.'
The airport remained open during the incident, and no flights were delayed or cancelled, airport spokesman Jeff Green said. Inside the terminal, passengers from other flights went through security and picked up their luggage at baggage carriers, apparently unaware of any emergency.
Erin Montroy, who was passing through the airport on her way from Kansas City to Las Vegas, said she hadn't heard anything about the incident and wasn't alarmed.
'I don't really ever feel as threatened as they think we should,' she said.
President Barack Obama was briefed about the incident aboard Air Force One by National Security Adviser General Jim Jones and National Security Chief of Staff Denis McDonough shortly before 9pm, said a White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
The president is traveling to Prague, where he'll sign a nuclear arms treaty with Russia Thursday.
A senior State Department official said the agency was aware of the tentative identification of the man as a Qatari diplomat and that there would be 'consequences, diplomatic and otherwise' if he had committed a crime.
The latest edition of department's Diplomatic List, a registry of foreign diplomats working in the United States, identifies a man named Mohammed Yaaqob Y.M. Al-Madadi as the third secretary for the Qatari Embassy in Washington.
Third secretary is a relatively low-ranking position at any diplomatic post and it was not immediately clear what his responsibilities would have been.
Foreign diplomats in the United States, like American diplomats posted abroad, have broad immunity from prosecution.
The official said if the man's identity as a Qatari diplomat was confirmed and if it was found that he may have committed a crime, U.S. authorities would have to decide whether to ask Qatar to waive his diplomatic immunity so he could be charged and tried.
Qatar could decline, the official said, and the man would likely be expelled from the United States.
An online biography on the business networking site LinkedIn shows that a Mohammed Al-Madadi has been in Washington since at least 2007, when he began studying at George Washington University's business school.
The job title listed on the site is database administrator at Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Qatar, about the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined, is an oil- and gas-rich monarchy and close U.S. ally of about 1.4 million people on the Arabian peninsula, surrounded by three sides by the Persian Gulf and to the south by Saudi Arabia.
The country hosts the forward headquarters of the U.S. Central Command, which runs the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and is major supporter of operations deemed critical to both campaigns.
It also played a prime role in the 1991 Gulf War, which drove Saddam Hussein's Iraq out of Kuwait.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev speaks during a meeting of local authorities at Russia's southern city of Makhachkala,
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited the North Caucasus on Thursday to reinforce efforts to crush the militants behind a spate of suicide bombings including an attack on the Moscow metro.
This week's bombings in Moscow and the North Caucasus region of Dagestan killed over 50 people between them, spreading fear of resurgent Islamist militancy throughout Russia's cities.
"We must deal sharp dagger blows to the terrorists, and destroy them and their lairs," Medvedev told a meeting of security chiefs and regional leaders in Dagestan's capital Makhachkala, in comments broadcast repeatedly on television.
"We have ripped the heads off the most infamous bandits but it appears that this was not enough. We will track them all down in due time and will punish them all, just as we did the previous ones."
He said the Interior Ministry and Federal Security Service (FSB) should be strengthened to deal with the challenge.
The comments -- a day after bombers killed 12 people in attacks on a Dagestan town -- marked a toughening of Medvedev's rhetoric on the attacks, though he gave few details.
There has been a surge in violence over the past year in the North Caucasus republics, where Russia has fought two wars against Chechen separatists since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
Last November a bomb claimed by Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov derailed the Moscow-St Petersburg Nevsky Express train, killing at least 26 people.
Umarov claimed responsibility on Wednesday for the metro bombings, saying they were revenge for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's policies in the mainly-Muslim North Caucasus. He threatened further attacks on Russian cities.
FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov said the latest attacks had been carried out by militant groups linked to the North Caucasus and that suspects had been detained, but gave no details.
KREMLIN CHALLENGE
Putin, who cemented his power in 1999 by launching a war to crush Chechen separatism, has said those behind the metro bombings must be scraped "from the bottom of the sewers."
Rights groups say Putin's policies in the North Caucasus have failed to deal with the root causes of a swiftly mutating Islamist insurgency.
"Contrary to the steely and self-righteous assurances of Russia's power structures, the country's strategy in the North Caucasus has been failing," said James Sherr, an analyst at Britain's Chatham House think tank, in a research note.
"Further attacks on symbols of state power could erode the prestige of those who rode to power in 1999 on the back of equally traumatic outrages and have staked everything on the restoration of Russia's integrity and strength."
Local leaders and residents say the insurgency is fueled by poverty, clan rivalries, rampant corruption and heavy-handed tactics by law enforcement agencies, as well as Islamism.
Medvedev's newly appointed envoy to the North Caucasus, Alexander Khloponin, said stability would be elusive "if we do not have the full support of our residents." As a deputy prime minister, Khloponin also reports to Putin.
Since he was sworn in as president in May 2008, Medvedev has singled out strife in the North Caucasus as Russia's most serious domestic problem and spoken about the need to fight poverty and corruption, though residents say little has changed on the ground.
Detectives and scenes of crime officers examine the aftermath of the blast at Park Kultury metro station
At the site of the other attack, the city's Lubyanka station officials examine the scene. The station lies beneath the headquarters of the Federal Security Service
Desolate: A wounded woman covered in dust with her left eye blackened outside Park Kultury metro station
A hospital helicopter lands at Zubovsky Boulevard to evacuate the victims from the Park Kultury metro station
Splattered with blood, a wounded man makes a phone call on his mobile outside the Park Kultury metro station shortly after a female suicide bomber blew herself up
In this image from Russia Today television an injured man is treated in an ambulance
Passengers try to make their way out of Prospekt Mira subway station. The attacks happened at the height of the morning rush hour
Desperate: Dead bodies are scattered in the walkway at one of the stations
Massacre: A bloodied passenger is treated on the side of the road
Firefighters carry a body from Lubyanka metro station in Moscow after a female suicide bomber blew herself up during rush hour this morning
A woman breaks down outside Lubyanka station after at least 37 people were killed in two separate suicide bombings in the city
MAP BLAST
* Two bombs, 40mins apart, detonated during morning rush hour * At least 37 people dead, 65 injured * No group claims responsibility so far. Rouble falls
Police in Moscow were tonight searching for female accomplices of two women suicide bombers who killed at least 37 people and injured 65 by targeting two packed tube trains during the busy rush hour.
Analysis of CCTV footage inside the Red Arrow underground trains of the two suicide bombers has revealed they were accompanied by two other women.
Their faces were not destroyed in the explosion, increasing the chance of successfully identifying them, and video from other cameras in Moscow Metro stations has also helped identify the faces of the two women who accompanied them and a man.
President Dmitry Medvedev declared Russia would act 'without compromise' to root out terrorists as he ordered airports to be put on alert and security to be stepped up throughout the country.
The two bombs are the worst attack on the Russian capital for six years and no group has yet claimed responsibility.
But suspicion has fallen on Muslim militants from the North Caucasus, where the Kremlin is fighting a growing Islamist insurgency spreading from Chechnya to neighbouring Dagestan and Ingushetia. Alexander Bortnikov, head of Russia's Federal Security Service, said the terrorists were likely to have been 'black widows', Muslim women radicalised by the situation in the North Caucasus.
'Body parts belonging to two female suicide bombers were found and, according to initial data, these persons are linked to the north Caucasus,' he said.Analysts said the involvement of women was similar to the 'black widows' in Checnya - women who had lost brothers or husbands to Russian forces in the Chechen conflict.
News reports have linked the women, also known as Shahidka, to embattled northern Caucuses and the Shahidka movement that first emerged in 2000.
The term is a feminine derivative of shahid, Arabic for 'witness' or 'martyr'.
They are generally young, often teenagers, and are dressed from head to toe in black mourning clothes.
Police are tonight expected to publish CCTV images of the suicide bombers, along with two women of 'Slav appearance' who accompanied them.
Witnesses spoke of panic at the two underground stations this morning after the blasts as people fell over each other in dense smoke and dust, trying to escape.
In scenes that will have been chillingly familiar to Londoners after the July 7 bombings in 2005, bloodied and injured passengers emerged onto the streets looking bewildered.
The first explosion tore through the second carriage of a metro train just before 8am as it stood at the Lubyanka station, close to the headquarters of Russia's main domestic security service FSB. It killed at least 23 people.
About 40 minutes later, another blast in the second carriage of a train waiting at the Park Kultury metro station, opposite Gorky Park, killed 12 to 14 more people.
Both bombers wore explosive belts packed with bolts and iron rods to maximise casualties.
'It was very scary. I saw a dead body,' said Valentin Popov, a 19-year-old student travelling on a train to the Park Kultury station.
'Everyone was screaming. There was a stampede at the doors. I saw one woman holding a child and pleading with people to let her through, but it was impossible.'
A commuter said: 'I was in the middle of the train when somewhere in the first or second carriage there was a loud blast. I felt the vibrations reverberate through my body.'
The female suicide bombers are believed to have boarded the train at Yugo-Zapadnaya station in southwest Moscow.
One passenger told the RIA news agency: 'I was in the middle of the train when somewhere in the first or second carriage there was a loud blast. I felt the vibrations reverberate through my body.
'People were yelling like hell. There was a lot of smoke and in about two minutes everything was covered in smoke.'
Another called Alexei added: 'I was moving up on the escalator when I heard a loud bang, a blast. A door near the passage way arched, was ripped out and a cloud of dust came down on the escalator.
'People started running, panicking, falling on each other,' he said.
Some of the injured were airlifted to emergency hospitals in helicopters. Dozens of commuters were helped from each station to waiting ambulances.
Surveillance camera footage posted on the internet showed several motionless bodies lying on the floor or slumped against the wall in Lubyanka station lobby and emergency workers crouched over victims, trying to treat them. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov told reporters that female suicide bombers had carried out the attacks.
Prosecutors said they had opened a 'terrorism investigation' after forensic experts found the remains of a female bomber. The Russian rouble fell to 34.25 from 34.13 against the central bank's euro-dollar basket, on concern the blasts could indicate the start of a bombing campaign against Russian cities.
Russian equity markets were little changed, with the rouble denominated MICEX index up 0.04 percent.
Medvedev ordered officials to fight terrorism 'without hesitation, to the end'.
In a nod to accusations of Russian troops acting with brutality against civilians in Chechnya, he said human rights must be respected during police operations.
The President will make a statement to the nation later today, according to a Kremlin source.
Russian President Vladimir Putin cut short a visit to Siberia and vowed that everything would be done to catch the killers.
He said: 'A crime that is terrible in its consequences and heinous in its manner has been committed.
'I am confident that law enforcement bodies will spare no effort to track down and punish the criminals. Terrorists will be destroyed.'
U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the bombings as did European Union leaders.
'The American people stand united with the people of Russia in opposition to violent extremism and heinous terrorist attacks that demonstrate such disregard for human life, and we condemn these outrageous acts,' Obama said.
Gordon Brown was 'appalled' by the attacks and has sent a message of 'condolence and support' to Medvedev, Downing Street said.
The current death toll makes it the worst attack on Moscow since February 2004, when a suicide bombing killed at least 39 people and wounded more than 100 on a metro train.
Chechen separatists were blamed for that attack and suspicions are likely to focus on the North Caucasus where rebel leader Doku Umarov, who is fighting for an Islamic emirate embracing the whole region, vowed on Feb 15 to take the war to Russian cities.
'Blood will no longer be limited to our (Caucasus) cities and towns. The war is coming to their cities,' the Chechen rebel leader said in an interview on the unofficial Islamist website. The Chechen rebellion began in the 1990s as a largely ethnic nationalist movement, fired by a sense of injustice over the transportation of Chechens to Central Asia, with enormous loss of life, by dictator Josef Stalin.
In recent years, Russian officials say Islamic militants from outside Russia have joined the campaign lending it a new intensity.
Russian leaders had declared victory in their battle with Chechen separatists who fought two wars with Moscow.
But while violence subsided in Chechnya, it has spread and intensified in neighbouring Dagestan and Ingushetia, where clan rivalries overlap with criminal gangs and Islamist militants.
Vladimir Putin cemented his power in 1999 in launching an ultimately successful war to overthrow a separatist government lodged in the Chechen capital Grozny.
Russian leaders fear the loss of this region endangering energy transit routes could destabilise other areas in a country spanning 11 time zones.
The Moscow subway system is one of the world's busiest, carrying around seven million passengers on an average workday, and is a key element in running the sprawling and traffic-choked city.
The blasts practically paralysed movement on the city centre's main roads, as emergency vehicles sped to the stations.
Helicopters hovered overhead the Park Kultury station area, which is next to the city's renowned Gorky Park.
Passengers, many of them in tears, streamed out of the station, one man exclaiming over and over: 'This is how we live!'
ALL EYES ON CHECHNYA
Although no group has so far claimed responsibility, suspicion will fall on Chechen rebels and other separatist groups in the North Caucasus.
The last confirmed terrorist attack in Moscow was in 2004, when a Chechen suicide bomber blew herself up outside a city subway station, killing 10 people.
Chechnya lies to the south of Russia close to the border withe Georgia. In February, the Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov warned on a website that 'the zone of military operations will be extended to the territory of Russia ... the war is coming to their cities'.
Russia has been involved in two bitter conflicts in the region in the past 20 years.
Prime Minister Putin has claimed the region is at risk from Islamic terrorism and that giving in to Chechen independence would cause further chaos on Russia's border in the region
New York police doubled patrols of the subway system and sent a battery of police cars to transit hubs as a precaution on Monday following the Moscow subway bombings.
In Washington, police sent bomb-sniffing dogs to random Metro stations and rail yards as part of heightened security associated with the Moscow attacks, in which two female suicide bombers killed at least 38 people on packed metro trains during rush hour on Monday.
Though the Moscow bombings appear related to the conflict in the North Caucasus and New York's greatest threat is seen as coming from al Qaeda, police enacted the same security detail that they roll out after any attack elsewhere in the world.
This time it closely follows one man's admission he was plotting a suicide bombing of New York subways with al Qaeda training.
"We don't have any information suggesting that it's related (to al Qaeda) but as a precaution we are increasing coverage," police spokesman and Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said.
The city's fleet of "critical response vehicles" that guard sensitive locations were sent to mass transit hubs such as Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station, Browne said.
Officers patrolling the subways overnight were kept on duty as the morning shift reported, practically doubling the number of officers.
The city may also send a detective to Moscow, as it often does following similar attacks around the world, Browne said.
The New York Police Department has detectives in 11 foreign cities working to prevent foreign extremists from hitting New York, which has been attacked twice -- on September 11, 2001, and in a 1993 truck bombing of the World Trade Center.
The New York subway system security came under intense scrutiny after the transit attacks on Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005.
On February 22, Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi pleaded guilty to plotting a suicide bomb attack on New York City subways with al Qaeda training for what would have been the worst attack on the United States since 2001.
"Whether they are related or not our standard operating procedure is to take precautions until more is known," Browne said.
Coincidentally on Monday, Washington's Metro was holding a planned drill simulating a bus explosion in the parking lot of a sports stadium. That coincided with the sweeps of train stations, the locations of which were not being announced in advance.
"When we opened the Metro system this morning, we did so with heightened security," Metro Transit Police Acting Chief Jeri Lee said in a statement. "We remain an open system and we do what we can to be as secure as possible."
Saudi Arabia said Wednesday it has foiled several planned attacks on oil installations with the arrests of 113 suspected al-Qaida militants in a months-long sweep.
Many of the suspects had come to Saudi Arabia on visas to visit holy sites or by sneaking across its borders, but wanted to join and organize attacks with al-Qaida, the Interior Ministry said.
Saudi Arabia has aggressively pursued militants since a series of attacks inside the country that began in May 2003. The country is the birthplace of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and home to 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers.
The arrests were the first to be announced since August, when Saudi authorities said they had rounded up 44 al-Qaida-linked militants in a yearlong sweep.
The ministry statement said the arrests were carried out over a period of five months. Those detained included 47 Saudis, 51 Yemenis, a Somali, an Eritrean and a Bangladeshi, the announcement said.
Separately, authorities arrested 12 people from two al-Qaida cells originating across the border in Yemen, where a local branch of the terrorist network has established a significant base of operations over the past year. Those two cells were also in the preliminary stages of planning attacks on oil facilities, the statement said.
In the last major attempt on such a facility, suicide bombers tried but failed to attack the Abqaiq oil complex in eastern Saudi Arabia in February 2006. The complex is the world's largest oil processing facility.
In a more recent setback, a suicide bomber lightly wounded the Saudi prince in charge of the country's anti-terrorism program in an August assassination attempt.
The United States, which counts Saudi Arabia as one of its closest Arab allies, praised its anti-terror campaign on Wednesday.
"They have been resolute in their pursuit of terrorists and we commend their law enforcement for its hard work to uproot destructive al-Qaida elements in the kingdom," said State Department spokesman Mark Toner.
Riyadh says it has dismantled three terrorist cells in south of the Kingdom that it said composed of al-Qaeda militants.
Saudi Arabia's interior ministry said in a broadcast statement on Wednesday that more than a 100 people had been arrested during the crackdown, AFP reported.
It added that the rings comprised of an overall of 58 Saudis who waged militancy alongside operatives of Yemeni, Somali, Bangladeshi and Eritrean nationals.
They were plotting violent attacks against Saudi-based targets, namely oil installations, claimed the statement.
The raid led to the seizure of weaponry, ammunition, computers, pre-paid telephone cards and unspecified documents.
The alleged swoops, recurrently reported in the Kingdom, contradict vociferous allegations against the despotic monarchy that it continues to fund and sponsor al-Qaeda and extremist terror cells abroad.
Lahore has been increasingly subjected to Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked attacks
An injured child weeps as he sits next to other victims at the site of suicide bombing in Saidu Sharif, a town of Pakistan's Swat Valley, Saturday, March 13, 2010. A suicide attacker struck a security checkpoint in northwest Pakistan, killing scores of people and injuring dozens.
Eight attacks have killed more than 170 people in Lahore over the past year
A Pakistan's army solider takes away an injured victim from the site of suicide bombing in Saidu Sharif, a town of Pakistan's Swat Valley, Saturday, March 13, 2010. A suicide attacker struck a security checkpoint in northwest Pakistan, killing scores of people and injuring dozens.
Pakistan's army troops remove a dead body from the site of suicide bombing in Saidu Sharif, a town of Pakistan's Swat Valley, Saturday, March 13, 2010. A suicide attacker struck a security checkpoint in northwest Pakistan, killing scores of people and injuring dozens.
A suicide attacker set off a bomb at a security checkpoint in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least 10 people and injuring 52, officials and a doctor said, underscoring the relentless security threat to this Islamic nation.
It was the second attack in Pakistan in less than 24 hours. Suicide bombers killed 55 people in near-simultaneous blasts Friday in the eastern city of Lahore.
In the Saturday violence, an attacker driving a three-wheeled motorized rickshaw detonated explosives at a roadblock manned by soldiers and police in the town of Saidu Sharif in the Swat Valley, police official Qazi Farooq said.
Swat was the scene of months of violence last year between Islamist militants and Pakistan's security forces.
Lal Noor, a doctor at a local hospital, said 10 people died in the attack — one soldier, one policeman and eight civilians — and another 52 were wounded.
The Pakistani military launched a major offensive in Swat early last year after the collapse of peace talks with local Taliban officials — who at the time controlled much of the valley.
The military took back the Swat Valley by mid-2009, but sporadic violence has continued.
No one claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack, but suspicion quickly fell on the Islamist militants, who have stepped up attacks against security forces in recent days.
The same loose network of insurgents were blamed for Friday's attack in Lahore. Police official Chaudhry Shafique said Saturday that the death toll from that attack had risen to 55 after 12 more people died overnight.
Friday's bombings also wounded about 100 people, raising fears of a new wave of attacks by Islamic militants.
The Lahore attack saw two suicide bombers, who were on foot, set off their explosives within seconds of each other near two trucks carrying soldiers on patrol in RA Bazaar, a residential and commercial neighborhood with numerous military buildings. About 10 of those killed were soldiers, said Police Chief Parvaiz Rathore.
The militants — a network of Pakistani Taliban, al-Qaida and affiliated smaller groups — have been fighting to destabilize the U.S.-allied Islamabad government for years. They launched a bloody wave of bombings last fall across Pakistan, leaving 600 people dead in near-daily attacks done in apparent retaliation for an army offensive against the insurgents' main stronghold, in the tribal region of South Waziristan along the Afghan border.
The government offensive was seen as fairly effective, forcing many Taliban leaders to flee and reducing the area where the insurgents could operate openly.
The insurgent attacks slowed early this year. In recent months, they have been smaller, farther apart and largely confined to remote regions near Afghanistan. Attacks, including in major cities, have picked up again over the past week.
The death toll from a twin suicide attack in Pakistan's cultural capital Lahore rose to 57 on Saturday, as 12 more critically wounded died overnight, police said.
On Friday, two suicide bombers walked up to army vehicles in the crowded R A Bazaar area of Lahore, blowing themselves up as people sat down to eat before the main Muslim weekly prayers, police said.
Later that evening, five small bombs exploded elsewhere in Lahore causing no casualties and only minor damage, police said.
"A total of 57 people have been killed and 134 were wounded in these suicide attacks," Chaudhry Mohammad Shafiq, a senior police official Saturday told AFP by telephone.
He added that 12 seriously injured had died overnight in different hospitals. Mazhar Ahmad, chief of Lahore civil defence department also confirmed the death toll.
A military statement said eight army personnel were among the dead.
Lahore, a city of eight million near Pakistan's border with India, has been increasingly subject to Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked attacks in a nationwide bombing campaign that has killed more than 3,000 people in three years.
The bombers targeted the cantonment, home to army officials and military installations, as well as hospitals and schools run by the military. There were civilian homes, shops and restaurants in the vicinity of the attack.
Eight attacks have killed more than 170 people in Lahore over the past year, a historical city, playground for the elite and home to many top brass in Pakistan's powerful military and intelligence establishment.
