Suicide Bombers

Pakistan is on the front line of the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism and al Qaeda-lined militants have launched a wave of attacks on the security forces over the past year, bombing military camps, patrols and transport.

The violence combined with political uncertainty has helped undermine investor confidence and send the country's financial markets on a downward spiral.

"Fifteen to 20 people have been killed in two blasts," said police officer Sardar Shahbaz at the scene outside the industrial complex in Wah, 30 km (20 miles) northwest of Islamabad.

"I can see several bodies," he said.

Wah is home to Pakistan's main defense industry complex where about 25,000 workers produce explosives, ordnance and weapons in about 15 factories.

One of the bombers blew himself up outside the complex's main gate while the second detonated his explosives at almost the same time near another gate, Shahbaz said.

A television station reported one the bombers blew himself up among workers coming out of the complex.

Soldiers cordoned off the area and kept reporters back as ambulances arrived to take away casualties, a witness said.

Since July last year, Pakistan has suffered a wave of militant violence, particularly in the northwest, in which hundreds of people have been killed including many security force members.

Violence subsided when a coalition government that came to power after a February election opened talks with militants.

But militants stepped up attacks after their top leader, Baitullah Mehsud, suspended the talks in June.

This week's resignation of President Pervez Musharraf, under threat of impeachment from the ruling coalition, has raised questions about the government's commitment to tackle militant violence.

Although Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism is deeply unpopular, the government has vowed to keep up efforts to fight the militants.

Nineteen people were also injured in the blast, when a bomber rammed a van full of explosives into a police station in the northern part of the country on Saturday night.

The blast occured at Zemmouri el-Bahri,
a popular beach resort

The attack happened at Zemmouri el-Bahri, a popular beach with holidaymakers, near Boumerdes, east of the capital Algiers.

An officer fired on the vehicle as it was approaching the police station causing the car to explode before it hit the building, the local radio said citing security officials.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack.

A bombing last week at a police station in another northern city injured more than 20 people.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an al-Qaeda-linked group, claimed responsibility for that attack, and said it had been a suicide car bombing.

The bomber targetted a police vehicle in a bazaar in Deh Rawud district, the provincial police chief told Reuters.

"Seventeen civilians and four policemen died in the attack. Thirty seven more civilians and five police have been wounded," Juma Khan Himat said by phone, adding the death toll could rise.

Himat said most of the civilian victims were children.

He blamed Taliban insurgents for being behind the attack, part of a rising tide of violence in Afghanistan, where the militants largely rely on such tactics as part of their campaign against the foreign troops and the Afghan government.

The Taliban could not be immediately reached for comment.

Over 800 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year, according to the United Nations and Afghan officials.

Growing insecurity has added to the rising frustration of many Afghans nearly seven years since U.S.-led troops overthrew Taliban's government after it refused to hand over al Qaeda leaders who had masterminded Sept. 11 attacks on America.

The violence comes despite the increasing presence of foreign forces currently numbering more than 70,000, and top Taliban as well as al Qaeda leaders are still at large.

It has prompted some Western politicians to warn recently that the country may slide back into anarchy.

Since 2006 when the Taliban regrouped, Afghan and foreign troops have been locked in almost daily clashes with the militants who have some sanctury in the lawless tribal regions of Pakistan.

In one of the latest such clashes, five Pakistani Taliban were killed and 13 more wounded after they infiltrated a remote district in northeastern Nuristan on Saturday, interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashari said.

The fighting was going on Sunday and locals were helping the police for defending the district, he said.

Just moments before the explosion, an Assocaited Press reporter passed by the scene and saw more than 20 security forces gathered in the vicinity. After the blast, a traffic intersection in the area was splattered with blood. Body parts were scattered as far as 50 yards from the scene. Shattered glass also covered the area, which police cordoned off. Rana Akbar Hayat, a senior government official, said more than 10 people were killed.

"All are police officials," Hayat told reporters near the scene. ``It was targeted to the forces by the suicider." The blast came as thousands of Islamists were gathered not far away to mark the one-year anniversary of a deadly military crackdown on the radical Red Mosque. It was not clear whether the events were linked.

The explosion also came following recent threats of revenge from militants in Pakistan angered by a paramilitary operation against insurgents in the tribal North West Frontier Province. In June, a suicide car bomber killed at least six people near the Danish embassy in Islamabad. A statement attributed to Al Qaeda took responsibility for that blast, which was believed to have targeted Denmark over the publication of cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad.

Violence levels have fallen in Pakistan since last year, but attacks still occur. The newly elected coalition government that came to power following the February elections has sought to end militancy in the country primarily through peace deals with extremists.

Public Health Ministry spokesman Abdullah Fahim says the casualties include civilians and security forces.

Afghan police secure the site of a suicide car bomb blast in Kabul. The car bomb struck the Indian Embassy in the Afghan capital of Kabul.

The bomb exploded during rush hour Monday near the Indian Embassy, which is across the street from Afghanistan's Interior Ministry on a tree-lined street in central Kabul. Dozens of Afghan men line up outside the embassy every morning to apply for visas to India.

While Afghanistan has seen increasing violence in recent months, Kabul has been largely spared from random bomb attacks that Taliban militants use in their fight against Afghan and international troops.

In September 2006, a suicide bomber near the gates of the Interior Ministry killed 12 people and wounded 42 others.

U.S. spokesmen said it was unclear if the suspect, who was not identified, was directly involved in planning the attack that happened Thursday in the town of Karmah in Anbar province about 30 miles west of Baghdad.

A suicide bomber reportedly dressed in a police uniform detonated an explosive belt during a meeting of tribal sheiks opposed to al-Qaida in Iraq. In addition to the Marines, two Iraqi interpreters, the local mayor and several key tribal figures were killed.

One of the Americans killed was Lt. Col. Max A. Galeai of Pago Pago, American Samoa, the commander of Marines in the Karmah area.

The attack occurred two days before U.S. officials planned to formally hand over security responsibility for Anbar to the Iraqis, marking a major milestone in the transformation of a province that had been the most violent in Iraq.

U.S. authorities announced Friday they were postponing the handover ceremony because of weather forecasts calling for high winds and sandstorms, which would ground aircraft and make it impossible for dignitaries to attend.

Lt. Col. Chris Hughes, spokesman for U.S. forces in Anbar, said the U.S. had been planning to delay the ceremony based on weather forecasts before Thursday's attack.

Anbar, which extends from the western outskirts of Baghdad to the borders of Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, will be the 10th of Iraq's 18 provinces to return to Iraqi security control. The other nine provinces are dominated by Shiites or Kurds.

Among those killed were three women police constables. Four civilians including a school-going girl were also injured in the blast.

Blast near Vavuniya SSP office complex (Source: Defense Ministry)

The blast occurred at about 7.30 in the morning in front of the police complex, which houses the offices of the deputy inspector general and senior superintendent of police of the Vavuniya district.

"The blast occurred near the entrance to the police compound. Several policemen were coming out of the complex at that time and were on their way to report for their daily duties. Many were getting in as well. While the complex is heavily guarded, it also opens on to the main road, which cuts through Vavuniya town making it a very busy street," military spokesperson Udaya Nanayakkara told HT. He added that the bomber was aiming at maximum casualties.

Once the suicide bomber reached the entrance, he braked and triggered the explosion literally in the middle of a crowd of police personnel; most did not have a chance to escape the impact.

The Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) said that the injured were taken to the general hospitals in Vavuniya and adjoining Anuradhapura. Nine police personnel died on the spot while three more died on way to the nearest hospital.

Vavuniya district and town are considered to be of strategic importance as they connect the north  where the LTTE and the country's armed forces are locked in battle  and the southern parts of Sri Lanka. The way to many of the main battle fronts, like Mannar, cuts through Vavuniya.

This is the second time in about 30 days that a suspected LTTE suicide bomber has targeted the police. In the middle of May, in a similar attack, a motorcycle-borne cadre had rammed himself into a parked bus packed with policemen, killing several personnel.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, but suicide operations are commonly associated with al-Qaida in Iraq _ the main target of U.S.-Iraqi military operations to clear the city 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Salim Shakir said he was walking toward his house in the area when he was hit with shrapnel in the stomach and legs.

"We are shocked because we thought that the violent days had ended," the 47-year-old taxi driver said from his hospital bed. "This explosion shows that the insurgents are still active, and much is needed to stop them."

The U.S. military has said the terror network is on the run but retains the ability to conduct its trademark high-profile car bombings and suicide attacks. American and Iraqi troops have faced relatively little resistance since launching the offensive on May 10, but commanders warn that many key insurgent leaders have fled to outlying areas and are planning future attacks.

Indian High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal was having lunch with his wife at their two-storey India House, located a little more than 200 feet from the Danish embassy, when the explosion shattered almost all window panes of the building.

No one from the Indian mission was hurt in the blast that took place at about 1 PM after a car drove up and stopped outside the embassy in the upmarket Sector F-6/2, where several foreign missions are located.

The explosion, which also left 24 people injured and damaged 30 vehicles, caused a four-foot deep crater in the road and was felt several kilometres away.

No outfit has taken responsibility for the blast that caused extensive damage to the front of the private building in which the Danish embassy was housed. But security officials said the attack could be linked to blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Mohammed published in Danish newspapers that had earned the ire of Muslim world.

Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah told reporters that such a link would be part of the probe into the attack.

"It was most likely a suicide blast," Islamabad SSP Ahmed Latif said. Other officials said evidence collected from the site included body parts and ball bearings. Over 30 kg of explosives were packed in the car, they said.

A foreigner, a security guard of the Danish embassy and two policemen were among the dead, the interior ministry said.

A building located opposite the embassy, which housed the office of an NGO, was damaged by the powerful explosion. Several trees outside the embassy were smouldering several hours after the blast. "Bomb that was my first reaction," said Shreedevi Nair-Pal, the wife of the High Commissioner showing a part of the car that had fallen in the premises of India House.

Top officials of the Indian High Commission immediately rushed to the scene to supervise repairs and beef up security at India House. The officials told PTI there were no plans to shift the High Commissioner from the residence in the wake of the attack Several Western embassies located in Sector F-6/2 were evacuated and security was tightened across Islamabad. Hours after the attack, Norway announced it was closing its embassy located close to the Danish mission.

The attack, the second in three months that has targeted foreigners in Islamabad, was condemned by President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, ruling Pakistan People's Party Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif.

A bomb blast at an Italian restaurant frequented by foreigners on March 15 had killed a Turkish woman and wounded 10 foreigners, including four US FBI staff.

Rehman Malik, the advisor to the Prime Minister on Interior Affairs, sought a report on the attack within 24 hours.

Reports suggested that the Danish embassy had been issued several warnings about security threats. Denmark recently downgraded the embassy and moved most foreign staff out of Pakistan.

A Suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber killed Sri Lanka's highways minister and at least 13 others on Sunday gathered for a marathon race near the capital, the government said.

"Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle is dead from the explosion," Laksman Hulugalla, director general of the media centre for national security, told Reuters.

A former top Sri Lankan marathon runner, K.A Karunarathne, was among those killed while 100 people, some of them participants in the race to mark the upcoming New Year, were wounded.

The attack comes amidst an offensive launched by the Sri Lankan military on the northern strongholds of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in which at least 100 rebel fighters were killed last week, the military said.

The rebels have in the past hit back with bombings in the capital, Colombo, and in the relatively peaceful south of the war-ravaged island when they have come under military pressure in the north and east.

Sunday's attack took place in the town of Weliveriya, 30 km from Colombo, where Fernandopulle had gone to flag off the marathon race. Television footage showed a ball of fire moving towards the minister as he signalled the start of the run. "Its a suicide attack, definitely by the LTTE," said a bomb squad official, speaking on condition of anonymity from the scene.