Suicide Bombers (page 2)

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.

Two suicide bombers carried out the attack on War College, interior ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said in Islamabad. Security was stepped up across the country, especially at vital military installations, following the attack.

One bomber blew himself up at the gate when the motorcycle was stopped by security personnel, while the other detonated his explosives within the parking lot, triggering several blasts in the CNG tanks of the vehicles parked in the area, city police chief Malik Iqbal said.

Witnesses said they first heard two blasts that occurred almost simultaneously a little after 1 pm. These were followed by two more blasts after a gap of a few minutes.

President Pervez Musharraf, caretaker Prime Minister Mohammedmian Soomro and Pakistan People's Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, whose party is set to form the next government, condemned the attack.

WO female suicide bombers blew themselves up on Friday in separate attacks on Baghdad pet bazaars, killing at least 73 people and wounding dozens, police said.

The attacks were the deadliest in the Iraqi capital since 30,000 more American troops flooded into the centre of the country last spring.
In the first attack, a woman detonated explosives hidden under her traditional black Islamic robe at about 10.20 am in the central al-Ghazl market.
The weekly bazaar has been bombed several times since the war started but has recently reemerged as a popular shopping venue as Baghdad secu rity improved and a Friday ban on driving was lifted.
Police said at least 46 people were killed and 82 wounded.

Firefighters scooped up debris scattered among pools of blood, clothing and pigeon carcasses.

About 20 minutes later, a second female suicide bomber struck a bird market in a predominantly Shiite area in southeastern Baghdad. That blast killed as many as 27 people and wounded 25, police said.

The attacks shortly before the weekly Islamic call to prayer resounded across the capital were the latest in a series of violent incidents that have been chipping away at Iraqi confidence in the permanence of recent security gains.

Police initially said the bomb was hidden in a box of birds but determined it was a suicide attack after finding the woman's head, an officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorised to release the information.

At least four other suicide bombings have been staged by women since November, all in the volatile Diyala province northeast of the capital.

Many teenage boys were among the casualties in the alGhazl bombing, according to police and hospital officials.

The blast in front of Lahore High Court was the latest in a wave of attacks targeting politicians and security forces ahead of Feb. 18 parliamentary elections. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion wil11ikely fall on militants linked to Taliban and al-Qaida.

It came as Scotland Yard investigators visited Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, where laboratories are testing forensic evidence in the assassination two weeks ago of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi, a garrison city to the north. "There were about 60 to 70 policemen on duty when a man rammed into our ranks and soon there was a huge explosion," said police officer Syed Imtiaz Hussain who suffered wounds to his legs and groin. "I saw the bodies of other policemen burning. It was like hell."

The explosion left wounded people lying in pools of blood crying for help. TV footage showed at least four mangled bodies on the ground close to a destroyed motorbike and a piece of smoking debris. Ambulance workers loaded victims onto stretchers as police sirens wailed in the background.

The blast fired shrapnel as far as 100 meters (yards) away It also shattered windows in the court house and set off volleys of tear gas shells carried by the police, preventing people getting close to the victims in the seconds after the attack, witnesses said.