A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of mostly young men outside a police station in Tikrit, Iraq as they were waiting to submit applications for jobs in the security forces 18 January. Raied al-Ani, director of the local hospital, was quoted by the Atlanta Journal Constitution as saying 150 people were wounded in the attack. Many of these were transferred to nearby hospitals because of the limited facilities in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Two Taliban suicide bombers blew themselves up killing at least 50 people gathered in a jirga, or peace council, in Pakistan’s tribal agency of Mohmand 6 December. Hundreds of people were gathered to collect stipends and to discuss anti-Taliban strategy in a meeting with the area’s top civilian representative, Amjad Ali Khan, who was not hurt.
A Taliban spokesman in the area, Abdul Wali, said, “We have clearly conveyed to the lashkar people to stop their activities, but they did not listen.” Villagers in the tribal agencies have organized themselves into “lashkar”, tribal militias, to defend themselves against the Taliban.
Links to other sites: New York Times, Washington Post
Terrorism raised its head across the globe over the weekend, and governments were pooling their expertise to connect the dots, with al-Qaeda figuring prominently among suspected organizations for at least some of the bombings and close calls. Here’s a roundup of incidents from Friday to early Monday 1 November:
- Two bombs called “viable” by governments, who say they were programmed to detonate on their own, were found Friday, one at Midlands Airport in the UK and the other in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Both are suspected of being the handiwork of a 28-year-old Saudi man believed to be living in Yemen, Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri. He has been on Saudi Arabia’s most wanted list for nearly two years. Saudi Arabia tipped off US and UK authorities, and the bombs, containing the plastics explosive PETN, which is difficult to detect, were found Friday. They were hidden in HP printers, part of cargo plane goods, sent via UPS from Yemen for delivery to synagogues in Chicago, Illinois in the US. The UAE package had earlier been flown on two passenger planes, airline officials have confirmed. A woman and her mother arrested in Yemen in connection with the bombs were released after the younger woman claimed she was a victim of identity theft. BBC, CNN
- A suicide bomber in Istanbul, Turkey blew himself up in the city’s main plaza, Taksim Square, Sunday, and 32 people were injured, 10 of them reportedly police officers and the rest passers-by. Kurdish separatists are under suspicion due to previous attacks on Turkish police, but the attack was not immediately claimed by any group. Jerusalem Post, Reuters
- Thirty-seven people died, most of them hostages, and nearly 60 were injured, when police in Baghdad stormed a Catholic church where scores of hostages were being held Sunday; al Qaeda links are suspected, according to US and Iraq authorities. The gunmen who stormed the church had attacked the Baghdad Stock Market, where a gun battle ensued, before fleeing to the church. The deaths, according to Iraq’s defense minister, were mainly from explosives set off by the kidnappers. Al Jazeera, CNN, Xinhua
- Two bombs were found by the public and defused by specialist police in Northern Ireland over the weekend: one was in a Toyota in a long-term car park and the other was hidden in a beer keg in Lurgan, Co Armagh. Dissident republican groups are suspected. Belfast Telegraph, Sydney Morning Herald (AFP)
A British Embassy vehicle was attacked in the Yemen capital, San’a, on Wednesday 6 October, injuring three bystanders.
The armored vehicle was hit by shrapnel from a rocket but no one inside it was hurt.
The attack comes two days after British officials had been warned that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula had plans to attack embassies in San’a.
This is the second attack targeting British officials. Earlier this year a suicide bomber struck near the ambassador’s vehicle convoy as it neared the compound.
Related stories, CNN: Yemen fights al-Qaeda, BBC
Islamist militants have attacked the airport in Mogadishu, Somalia, killing at least 15 people in a suicide attack. The rebel group Al Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the attack. Witnesses say two cars pulled up to the checkpoint at the airport’s main entrance 9 September and one of them exploded. Militants jumped out of the other and attacked guards. At least two Ugandan African Union soldiers are among the dead. All five attackers were killed.
Links to other sites: BBC, CNN, Hindustan Times
Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the bombing to a TV station in Baghdad earlier this week.
The suicide attack which claimed the lives of six people, took place on Monday 26 July at the headquarters of Al-Arabiya a pan-Arab broadcaster
Al-Arabiya is a popular TV channel in the Middle East but, according to news reports, is perceived by insurgents as being pro-Western.
Today, 29 July, a roadside bomb exploded in Fallujah, 65 kilometers west of Baghdad, wounding five Iraqi soldiers.
Additional details: Associated Press
Two suicide bombers hit Data Ganj Baksh, an important Sufi shrine in Lahore, Pakistan, killing at least 37 people and injuring 175 others. The bombers struck shortly before midnight, when an estimated 1,000 people were at the shrine. The bombs appear to have been detonated from inside the shrine, in the basement, causing massive damage. Sufi’s moderate approach to Islam has made it a target for fundamentalists in the country.
Links to other sites: Bloomberg, New York Times
A London-based Muslim cleric from Pakistan has launched a 600-page religious ruling, or fatwa, condemning the use of suicide bombers as un-Islamic. “Suicide bombers cannot pretend that the acts they commit are by martyrs,” says, head of an institute in London that promotes inter-faith understanding. The fatwa may be considered the most powerful “theological argument against terrorism written today”, according to Quilliam, a Muslim foundation in London that counters Muslim extremism.
Links to other sites: BBC, Le Monde, Minhaj-al-Quran site
Two bombs have killed 49 people, unofficial sources report, with the death toll rising as many of the scores of injured are in critical condition, in Lahore Pakistan. It is unclear if the blasts were two suicide bombs or one, followed by a remote-control device exploding in the heart of Lahore’s commercial centre. One bomb went off in a crowded market, where shops and motorcycles quickly caught fire, and the other near a bank, late Monday 7 December.
Hamid Karzai’s inauguration for a second term as president of Afghanistan has come with unusually high security in the capital Kabul, and renewed pleas to step up the fight against corruption, from former US President Bill Clinton and other world leaders. Regular flights in and out of the city have been cancelled, citizens urged to take a holiday and stay home, and heavier than usual patrols are out on the streets to ward off a possible Taliban attack.
Pakistan attack kills 15
Over the border in Peshawar, Pakistan, a suicide bomber killed 15 people and injured scores at a court building not far from the Pearl Continental Hotel where nine people died in June. Al Jazeera links the latest blast to a new military push: “The military launched its offensive nearly three weeks ago, pitting about 30,000 Pakistani troops against an estimated 10 to 12,000 Taliban fighters in South Waziristan.”
Links to other sites: Aljazeera,
The latest in a string of attacks in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province that have targeted military, police and intelligence services took place early Friday 13 November in Peshawar, where a gunfire was followed by a bomb blast at the Inter-Services Intelligence’s provincial headquarters. Ten people died, at least 60 are wounded and several are believed to be buried under the rubble of the building, according to government officials. In another attack in the province’s Bannu District a suicide bomber drove into a police station and killed six people, injured 23.
Update 05:05 More than 150 people are dead and 520 wounded as a result of two suicide bombs that went off in the Green Zone, also known as the International Zone, in the centre of Baghdad, Iran, Sunday 25 October mid-morning. The bombers drove trucks into an area where security has been eased in recent weeks, then parked them shortly before detonating the bombs. US President Barack Obama expressed outrage at the simple hatefulness behind the work, while Iraq authorities have blamed neighbouring countries, reports Reuters: “a reference to Iraqi complaints that Syria provides a safe haven for former Baathists while citizens of other Sunni Muslim states help fund the insurgency in Iraq. Iran, meanwhile, has been accused of funding and arming Shi’ite militia.”
Links to other sites: Al Jazeera, BBC, Bloomberg, CNN, Reuters
CNN video
Indonesian anti-terror units killed four people and arrested a woman in a raid on a house in Solo City, central Java in Indonesia early 17 September, after a nine-hour siege. Police indicated that they were “90 percent sure” that one of the dead was Noordin Mohammed Top, Indonesia’s most wanted terrorist, believed responsible for suicide attacks on two hotels in the capital Jakarta in July. Noordin leads a radical splinter group called al Qaeda in the Malay Archipelago, an offshoot of Islamist group Jemaah Islamiyah. He was earlier believed to have been killed in a shoot-out with police in August, but police later identified the dead person as a florist who was giving the group information. AFP, CNN
A children’s television show in Gaza provoked outrage as well as concerm among psychiatrists for its impact on children when it was aired two years ago: it showed the mother of young children preparing to kill herself in a suicide bomb attack, which succeeded. The show has been aired again, but this time with a studio audience of children, prompting new protests from observers. CNN
Inside and outside of Iraq, the question is being raised of the country’s ability to deal with the string of suicide bomb and other explosives attacks on citizens, following the killing of more than 50 people in a series of attacks Thursday 9 July and 16 Wednesday. Numbers for the dead and wounded vary, with Yahoo reporting 60 people killed Thursday, in an article that focuses on the return to Iraq by US military authorities of five Iranians who had been detained for suspected links to terrorist groups. Al Jazeera, The Age, Australia, Reuters
Three suicide bombers in 24 hours in Pakistan Sunday, with the last one killing 26 people at the entrance to a crowded mosque, is “a sign that the Pakistani Taliban are overwhelming the nation’s security forces,” reports the International Herald Tribune.
The US Embassy in Yemen was the target of an ambush by two suicide bomber cars Wednesday that left 16 dead. Responsibility was claimed by Islamic Jihad, which Reuters points out is not linked to a Palestinian group by that name. The group Tuesday threatened a series of attacks, including on other embassies.
