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October 12: A suicide bomber targets a paramilitary convoy as it passes through a security checkpost in a bazaar in Alpuri town in Shangla, a district neighbouring the north-western Swat valley and the target of a recent anti-Taliban military offensive. Some 41 people, mainly civilians, are killed and 45 injured. The umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement claims responsibility.

October 10/11: A team of nine militants stage an audacious attack on army headquarters in Rawalpindi, the garrison town adjoining Islamabad, with 22 people killed in the day-long siege that also saw 39 hostages freed by troops. The dead included 11 troops, three hostages and eight attackers. The TTP movement claims responsibility.

October 9: A suicide bomber rams his explosives-laden car into a bus in a crowded market in the northwest city of Peshawar, killing 52 civilians and injuring more than 100. It is the sixth attack in four months in the city, near to the tribal frontier zone with Afghanistan, where the army has recently launched an offensive against the Pakistani Taliban and their al-Qaeda allies.

October 5: Five UN World Food Programme workers are killed when a suicide bomber walks into their office in Islamabad and blows himself up. A man dressed in military uniform breached strict security measures and detonated explosives in the heavily fortified WFP office. Four Pakistani workers and one Iraqi are among the dead. The TTP claims responsibility for the attack.

An injured man was brought to a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Monday after a suicide bombing.

Militants on Monday launched their fourth assault in a week on strategic targets across Pakistan, this time with a suicide car bombing against a military vehicle in a crowded market in the northwest, killing 41 people and wounding dozens more.

The bombing took place in the Shangla District, an area within the Swat Valley but under separate administration. The Pakistani military had declared the valley cleared of militants after an offensive this summer and announced that the Taliban were a shattered force.

Since the Swat campaign and the death of the Pakistani Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, in an American drone strike in August, the militants have been relatively quiet. But the attack on Monday showed they could still shake the country with serious terrorist attacks in a short period over a wide geographic spread.

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Taliban Attacks in Pakistan on the Rise: -Video
The fourth attack in a week show how the militants could still shake the country with serious terror attacks in a short period over a wide geographic spread.Source: NY Times

It was the latest in a series clearly intended to prove the Taliban's resilience, to exact revenge for government and American strikes, and to discourage the Pakistani military from expanding its campaign into South Waziristan, the heartland of the Taliban in Pakistan.

The Pakistani Air Force has been pounding areas of South Waziristan in the last day, a prelude to a possible ground campaign, military officials said. Hundreds are reported to have fled in recent days in expectation of an attack.

On Saturday, in one of their boldest gambits, 10 militants dressed in army fatigues and armed with automatic weapons, mines, grenades and suicide jackets breached the perimeter of the army headquarters in Rawalpindi in a raid that left 23 people dead and set off a 20-hour siege.

Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.

Source: New York Times Car Bomb Kills at Least 41 in Restive Region of Pakistan

A man carries an injured woman after a suicide bombing in Peshawar, Pakistan Friday, Oct. 9, 2009

The attack, which wounded more than 100 people in Peshawar, was Pakistan's deadliest in six months and was a reminder of the ability of insurgents to strike in major cities despite operations against them and the death of their leader in a U.S. missile strike.

The blast left a charred skeleton of a bus flipped on its side in the middle of the road, with the twisted remains of a motorbike nearby. Passers-by rushed to cover the bodies of victims whose clothes were burned off, while a man carried an injured woman. One man staggered from the scene, his face covered with blood.

People rush to the site of a suicide bombing in Peshawar, Pakistan on Friday, Oct. 9, 2009

"I saw a blood-soaked leg landing close to me," said Noor Alam, who suffered wounds to his legs and face and was at a hospital overrun with casualties. "I understood for the first time in my life what doomsday would look like."

Peshawar Police Chief Liaqat Ali Khan said the attacker was in a car packed with a "huge" amount explosives and artillery rounds. There was no claim of responsibility for the bombing, the target of which was not immediately apparent. Militants typically attack government, military or Western targets, but blasts have taken place in public places before.

People help an injured person out of the bombing site in Peshawar, Pakistan, Friday, Oct. 9, 2009

Zafar Iqbal, a doctor at the main Peshawar hospital, said 49 people were killed and more than 100 wounded. Seven children were among the dead.
"Death has to come one day, but we will keep chasing these terrorists, and this attack cannot deter our resolve," Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said as he visited the scene.

The United States is pushing Pakistan to take action against insurgents using its soil to fuel the insurgency in neighboring Afghanistan. The army has carried out some offensives in the northwest this year, killing many militants and earning it measured praise in the West, but the insurgents have responded with scores of suicide attacks.

The army has confirmed it is prepared to launch a major offensive in South Waziristan, a region along the Afghan border consider the fountainhead of suicide attacks and other militant activity in Pakistan. It has not given a date for the launch.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the attack meant the country now "had no other option but to carry out an operation in South Waziristan."

People rush to the site of a suicide bombing in Peshawar, Pakistan on Friday, Oct. 9, 2009.

"We will have to proceed," he told a local television station. "All roads are leading to South Waziristan."

The bombing came just days after a Taliban suicide attacker evaded tight security to kill five people at the office of the U.N.'s World Food Program in the capital, Islamabad and two weeks after another explosion killed 11 in another part of Peshawar.
Malik said authorities had arrested a man alleged to have been the "handler" of the U.N. bomber. He gave no more details.

People help an injured person at a bombing site in Peshawar, Pakistan Friday, Oct. 9, 2009.

Also Friday, militants ambushed a tanker carrying fuel for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan at a gas station near Peshawar, torching it, said Fazal Rabi, a police official. No deaths or injuries were reported in the attack, which highlighted the vulnerability of the American-led mission in landlocked Afghanistan as Washington debates sending more troops.

Pakistani Taliban have often targeted U.S. and NATO supply convoys passing through northwest Pakistan for Afghanistan, though there have been less attacks reported recently. Most of the nonmilitary supplies for foreign troops in Afghanistan are unloaded at Karachi sea port and are then trucked in through the northwest.

Pakistan's army has launched three operations in South Wazirstan since 2001 but each time has been forced to abandon the push amid fierce resistance. U.S. missile strikes and Pakistani mortar and jet bombings have hit targets there over the last year, but no ground operations have been launched.
One such U.S. attack in the region in August killed Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. The group has since named a new leader, Hakimullah Mehsud. He has threatened suicide attacks and said his men were preparing to repel any push into South Waziristan.

Associated Press writers Munir Ahmad and Asif Shahzad contributed to this report from Islamabad.s

Suicide bomber detonates car carrying explosives near mission's outer wall

The Taliban later claimed responsibility for the attack. The Afghan foreign ministry hinted at Pakistan's involvement as well, but Islamabad denied the charge. The blast appeared similar in pattern to the one in July 2008, which American intelligence officials said Pakistan's spy agency -- the ISI -- had helped plan. India had also blamed the ISI for the 2008 attack, but refrained from pointing fingers on Thursday.

The latest bombing took place a day after India pledged to continue to "invest and endure" in Afghanistan. The casualty included 15 civilians and two Afghan policemen. Most of the wounded were also civilians, said the Afghan interior ministry, which is located across the road from the blast site. The bombing occurred near the outer perimeter of the heavily-fortified embassy at about 8.30 am local time (9.30 am IST). The suicide bomber drove up in a car but was stopped by two Afghan policemen. He appeared to be moving away, eyewitnesses said, but then the car blew up -- damaging a wall and destroying a watch tower and leaving a trail of death and destruction.

Jayant Prasad, India's ambassador in Kabul, said the blast caused "extensive damage to the chancery", blowing off some of its doors and windows. The explosion also damaged a line of shops between the embassy and the interior ministry, shattering glass and rattling buildings more than a mile away. A huge brown plume of smoke was visible as ambulances raced to the scene and carried away the wounded.

A 21-year-old Afghan man, who gave his name as Najibullah, said he had just opened his shop when the explosion took place, knocking him unconscious. When he awoke, he said, he couldn't see anything because of dust and debris. "Dust was everywhere. People were shouting," Najibullah said. "You couldn't see their faces because there was so much dust." Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao said in New Delhi the attack was directed against India. "The suicide bomber came up to the outside perimeter wall of the embassy in a car loaded with explosives, obviously with the aim of targeting the embassy," she said.

She said she had spoken to ambassador Prasad, who had assured her the embassy officers, staff and personnel were safe. "Three ITBP personnel who were guarding the perimeter wall of the embassy have been slightly injured because of shrapnel from the blast. But there has been no loss of life," she added. Two of the injured personnel were identified as hawaldar Ravinder Singh and constable Gunwant. Rao, who is expected to visit Kabul on Friday, did not say who she believed was responsible for the attack. But an Afghan foreign ministry statement said Thursday's attack "was planned and implemented from outside of Afghan borders" by the same groups responsible for the July 2008 bombing.

The ministry statement made no mention of Pakistan.However, the Afghan government had blamed the ISI for the 2008 embassy bombing as well as for involvement in a string of attacks in the country. US officials suspected the 2008 embassy bombing and other high profile attacks were carried out by followers of Jalaluddin Haqqani, a longtime Afghan militant leader whose forces are battling US forces in eastern Afghanistan from sanctuaries in the border area of Pakistan.

Source: Mail Today PAK STAMP ON KABUL STRIKE: 17 killed as Taliban target Indian embassy in Kabul

The explosion took place just after midday about 1.5 km from the US embassy on the busy airport road, destroying at least one vehicle of the NATO- led International Security Assistance Force ( ISAF).

" Six Italian soldiers were killed and another three wounded," the Italian defence ministry announced.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack -- one of the worst on the more than one lakh NATO and US- led troops serving in Afghanistan.

Armoured vehicles showing the Italian flag and marked with the ISAF logo were damaged, scattering twisted metal across the blood- stained road, where stunned civilians staggered through the wreckage hunting for relatives.

" I heard a huge blast and then saw thick black smoke," said shopkeeper Fawad. " I couldn't see anything. When the smoke lifted slightly, I saw a man on the tarmac without a head." Italian defence minister Ignazio La Russa said, 10 Italian paratroopers were travelling in two armoured vehicles when the suicide bomber struck, apparently in a white Toyota vehicle. " Sadly, I must confirm the loss of six lives from the parachute regiment," he said.

Source: Mail TodayTaliban suicide blast in Kabul leaves 16 dead

Here is a timeline of the deadliest bomb attacks since 2007:

Feb. 3, 2007 - A truck bomb kills 135 people and wounds 305 at a market in the Sadriya quarter of central Baghdad.

March 6 - Two suicide bombers strike in Hilla, south of Baghdad, killing 105 pilgrims. Insurgents launch a total of 12 attacks against Shi'ite pilgrims. In all, 137 pilgrims are killed and 310 are wounded.

March 27 - A truck bomb explodes in Tal Afar, close to the Syrian border and Mosul, killing 152 people.

April 18 - Multiple car bombings kill 191 people around Baghdad. One car bomb near a market in the central Sadriya neighbourhood kills 140 people and wounds 150.

April 28 - A suicide car bomber kills 60 people and wounds 170 at a checkpoint in Kerbala.

May 13 - A suicide truck bombing in northern town of Makhmour kills 50, with 70 people wounded.

June 19- A car bomb near the Khilani Shi'ite mosque in central Baghdad kills 87 people.

July 7 - A truck packed with explosives covered with hay blows up in a crowded market in the northern town of Tuz Khurmato, killing 150 people and wounding 250.

July 16 - Eighty-five people are killed by a suicide truck bomb in the city of Kirkuk. At least 180 are wounded.

Aug. 14 - At least three suicide bombers driving fuel tankers kill and wound at least 796 people in Yazidi residential compounds in the villages of Kahtaniya and al-Jazeera in northern Iraq near the Syrian border. Yazidis are members of a pre-Islamic Kurdish sect who live in northern Iraq and Syria.

Feb. 1, 2008 - Female bombers kill 99 people in attacks blamed on al Qaeda at two popular Baghdad pet markets, the city's worst attacks in six months.

Feb. 24 - A suicide bomber targeting pilgrims heading to one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest rites in southern Kerbala kills 63 people and wounds scores in Iskandariya.

March 6 - Two bombs explode in Baghdad's mainly Shi'ite Karrada district, killing 68 people. Another 120 were wounded.

April 15 - A car bomb kills 40 people and wounds 80 outside a provincial government headquarters in Baquba, local capital of Diyala province. Another car bomb, believed to be driven by a suicide attacker, explodes outside a popular restaurant in Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, killing 13.

June 17 - A truck bomb blasts the al-Hurriya neighbourhood of northwestern Baghdad, killing 63 people and wounding 75. The U.S. military said the attack was carried out by a "special groups cell".

Dec. 11 - A suicide bomber detonates explosives inside a Kurdish restaurant north of Kirkuk. At least 50 people are killed and 109 wounded in the blast.

June 20, 2009 - A suicide bomber detonates a truck filled with explosives as crowds of worshippers leave the Shi'ite al-Rasul mosque in Taza, near Kirkuk. At least 73 people were killed and more than 250 wounded.

June 24 - A bomb kills 72 people at a busy market in eastern Baghdad's Sadr City. At least 127 people are wounded.

Aug. 19 - At least six blasts strike near government ministries and other targets in Baghdad killing 95 people and wounding 536.

British soldiers survey the site of a suicide bomb blast on August 18, 2009 in Kabul, Afghanistan. Eight people were killed and over 50 wounded after a suicide car bomber attacked a convoy of foreign troops. The attack took place on a major artery leading out of Kabul, just two days ahead of the Presidential elections.

A suicide bomber outside Kabul has killed at least eight people, just two days before Afghanistan's presidential election.

The Taliban, which is warning voters to stay away from the polls, is claiming responsibility.

The suicide bomber targeted a NATO convoy near a British military base. Two NATO troops are reported among the dead along with two Afghans who were working for the United Nations.

The attack came hours after mortar rounds hit near the presidential palace in Kabul.

NATO is still saying it will hold off on offensive military operations Thursday, unless necessary to protect the population.

In eastern Afghanistan, two American soldiers were killed and three wounded when their vehicle struck a bomb. A total of 26 GIs have been killed in Afghanistan so far this month.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the latest rise in insurgent violence in Afghanistan reflects a deliberate campaign to intimidate voters ahead of Thursday's presidential election.

Clinton told reporters at the State Department on Tuesday that the Taliban hope their attacks will create an atmosphere of fear that will keep people away from the ballot boxes.

She also said the Obama administration wants to stress to Afghans that it is their right to select their own leaders and that this voting opportunity is made possible by the security efforts of U.S. troops and those of its allies.

Destroyed cars are seen at a police station in Nazran, Ingushetia, Russia, Monday, Aug. 17, 2009. A suicide bomber exploded a truck at a police station in Russia's restive North Caucasus Monday, killing at least 20 people and wounding 60 others, officials said.

A suicide bomber rammed a truck into a police station in the Russian region of Ingushetia on Monday, killing at least 20 police in the worst attack to ravage the poor North Caucasus republic in years.

The blast, which wounded more than 130 others, undermined Kremlin claims that its efforts to bring calm and prosperity to the impoverished patchwork of ethnic groups, clans and religions were succeeding. It also stoked fears that Ingushetia has replaced Chechnya as the next battleground in the southern Russian region. In Dagestan, another Caucasus republic where violence is on the rise, a roadside bomb in the capital Makhachkala killed one policeman and wounded three late Monday, said Col. Shamil Guseinov, a city police commander.

Emergency workers look through debris at a destroyed police station in Nazran, Ingushetia, Russia,

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack in Nazran, Ingushetia's main city, which left the two-story building smoldering and a crater in the compound's courtyard, where the attacker detonated the bomb.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev fired Ingushetia's top police official and, in unusually harsh comments, said police forces were as much to blame as the attackers themselves.

"This terrorist attack could have been prevented," he said.

Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev attended an emergency meeting early Tuesday of Ingushetia's anti-terrorist committee, the Itar-Tass news agency reported. He said authorities would "take additional measures to ensure stability and security in the republic" and "deliver a blow" to those responsible for the attack.

Here is some of the news coverage of the event from You Tube

Ingushetia — more than any other North Caucasus region — has been reeling from militant violence in recent months, including a suicide bombing that badly wounded the Kremlin-appointed leader, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov.

Yevkurov blamed militants who have battled security forces in the forests along the mountainous border with Chechnya.

"It was an attempt to destabilize the situation and sow panic," he said in a statement issued by his spokesman.

A view from a neighbouring building to a destroyed police station in Nazran, Ingushetia, Russia

Investigators said the attacker crashed his truck through the gates of city police headquarters in Nazran as officers were lining up for their morning inspection. Police fired shots at the truck, but failed to stop it.

Source: Associated Press Suicide bomb kills 20, injures over 130 in Russia

Security forces inspected the scene of the bombing in Ramadi.

The attack in Baghdad occurred shortly after sundown in Sadr City, a congested and predominantly Shiite district. An improvised explosive device exploded at the entrance of a funeral tent that had been set up on the street, witnesses at the scene said. Five people were killed and 26 wounded, according to the main hospital in Sadr City.

Men sobbed amid the remains of the burned tent and shredded funeral chairs. "Where is the government? Where are the security forces?" shouted Abbas Mohammed, 48, whose clothes were soaked in blood. "If they cannot control the situation, then let our sons take over."

Later on Wednesday, another homemade bomb planted on the side of Saadoun Street in central Baghdad was detonated, wounding 10 people.

The attack in Sadr City came hours after the authorities had announced a curfew on all motorcycles in the city, including the popular auto-rickshaws, beginning Thursday and lasting for four days, in preparation for an important Shiite religious holiday this weekend. Last month, a bomb placed in an auto-rickshaw at a busy market in Sadr City killed 76 people and wounded 156.

On Saturday, Iraq's majority Shiite population will commemorate the death of Imam Musa al-Kadhim, a revered religious figure buried in Kadhimiya in northern Baghdad. Pilgrims have already started trekking to his shrine from all over the country. The event usually attracts hundreds of thousands of people despite the potential danger.

Shiite religious events and places of worship have been the scenes of some of the bloodiest attacks in Iraq since the American military invaded in 2003. The most recent, in April, took place just outside the gate of the Kadhimiya shrine; two suicide bombers killed 60 people and wounded 125.

Duraid Adnan contributed reporting from Baghdad, and an employee of The New York Times from Ramadi, Iraq.

Source: www.nytimes.com Bombings in Iraq Kill 11 People

The Shrine Board has asked Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra, who is also the Board's chairman, that no pilgrim be registered without being photographed and fingerprinted.

The Board has sought permission to install biometric scanning systems at the registration counters. "This is to avoid fake registrations. Anyone can fake their identity at the moment, but once we have the fingerprints and photographs with us, that won't be possible," said Manoj Kumar Dwivedi, Additional Chief Executive Officer of the Board.

"The move is part of a broader plan to improve security at the shrine. We have already installed 18 closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras in the shrine complex, and we will put up another 22-25. Cameras will be set up at guest houses too. Besides upgrading security, they will improve our administrative functioning," Diwedi said. The upgrade comes in the wake of an alert to the Shrine Board saying the shrine was under increased terrorist threat.