Iraq suicide blasts 27 including children killed.

27 including children killed in Iraq suicide blasts.

An Iraqi soldier stands guard a road in Baghdad
 northern district of Kadhimiya as Shiite pilgrims
 walk toa shrine to commemorate the death of
 Imam Mohammed al-Jawad, the ninth
 Shiite imam.  Photo: AFP/GETTY

Reuters | 06 Oct 2013 :: Suicide car bombers attacked an elementary school and a police station in a small northern Iraqi village on Sunday while another on foot detonated his payload among Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad, killing at least 27 people including children, officials said.

The attacks are the latest in a relentless wave of killing that has made for Iraq's deadliest outburst of violence since 2008. The mounting death tolls are raising fears that the country is falling back into the spiral of violence that brought it to the edge of civil war in the years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Sunday's blasts began around 9:30 a.m. in the Shiite Turkomen village of Qabak, just outside the town of Tal Afar. The area around the stricken village has long been a hotbed for hard-to-rout Sunni insurgents and a corridor for extremist fighters arriving from nearby Syria.

One car bomb in the tiny village targeted an elementary school while children ages 6 to 12 were in class as another struck a nearby police station, Tal Afar mayor Abdul Aal al-Obeidi said.

The dead included 12 children, the school principal and two policemen. Another 90 people were wounded, he said.

The village is home to only about 200 residents, and part of the single-story school collapsed as a result of the blast, he said. Tal Afar is 420 kilometers (260 miles) northwest of Baghdad.

"We and Iraq are plagued by al-Qaida," al-Obeidi said. "It's a tragedy. These innocent children were here to study. What sins did these children commit?"

Another suicide bomber, this time on foot, blew himself up hours later as Shiite pilgrims walked through the largely Sunni neighborhood of Waziriyah in the north of the Iraqi capital.

At least 12 people were killed and 23 wounded in that attack, according to police and hospital officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to brief reporters.(Courtesy:The Indian Express)

Russian embassy in Libya attacked.

Russian embassy in Libya attacked.

Watch footage of the aftermath of the attack on the Russian embassy

04 Oct 2013 :: Gunmen have attacked the Russian embassy in Libya, according to the Russian foreign ministry.

The unidentified attackers shot at the Tripoli compound and tried to force entry, officials said.

A BBC journalist at the scene said the situation has now calmed down and security forces have arrived.

Officials said the attackers climbed the walls of the premises from three different directions.

The BBC understands the protesters were reacting to the recent alleged killing of a Libyan by a Russian woman.

"The group attacked the compound as an act of revenge," a security source told Reuters news agency.

Libya has been hit by many targeted killings of activists and security agents in recent months.

An attack last year on a US compound in the city of Benghazi killed four people, including the US ambassador.

In April, a car bomb outside the French embassy in Tripoli injured two French guards and a number of residents.

A car bomb was found outside the Italian embassy in June, while the UK withdrew some embassy staff in May over security concerns.(Courtesy:BBC News)

Bomb Kills Dozens at Market in Northwestern Pakistan.

Bomb Kills Dozens at Market in Northwestern Pakistan.

A man carried an injured a child from the site of a car bombing
 on Sunday in Peshawar, Pakistan.

PESHAWAR | Pakistan | 29 Sep 2013 :: A powerful car bomb ripped through a busy marketplace in Peshawar, the regional capital of northwestern Pakistan, early Sunday, killing at least 38 people in the third major attack in and around the city in the past week.The explosion occurred in the historic Qissa Khwani bazaar in the old quarter of the city, roughly two miles from the site of a double suicide bombing of a Christian church a week earlier that killed dozens of people.

Experts said the blast was caused by homemade explosives and artillery shells that had been hidden in a parked car. The dead included 14 members of one family who had come to Peshawar from a nearby village to distribute wedding invitations.

Rescue workers cut through the smoldering wreckage of burning vehicles and destroyed buildings in an effort to find survivors. Television stations carried graphic images of the carnage, which underscored to Pakistanis across the country the continuing threat from the Taliban and allied militant groups.

“The people behind this are not human,” said Ghulam Mohammad, who was looking for the body of a close relative at a hospital. “This is the work of animals.”

The Pakistani Taliban, however, denied that they were responsible for the latest attack. “We have nothing to do with today’s bomb blast,” said Shahidullah Shahid, a Taliban spokesman. “We have made it clear several times that it is not our policy to target the general public. We condemn it and ask the government to ascertain its perpetrators.”

The attack came after a particularly bad week across Pakistan. An earthquake killed at least 300 people in a remote part of Baluchistan, the country’s largest but least populous province, and three major militant attacks in Peshawar killed at least 140 people.

Last Sunday, the suicide attack on the nearby All Saints Church killed 85 people, and a bombing on a crowded bus on Friday killed 21 government employees as they traveled home for the weekend.

“Collecting the dead and digging graves — this is unspeakable,” said the deputy city commissioner, Zaheerul Islam. “I don’t know what to say anymore.”

The attack on Sunday took place in the Qissa Khawani, or storytellers’ bazaar, which takes its name from ancient times when merchants and travelers from Central Asia stopped there to rest and share their stories. Some of the tea stalls from that time still exist.

Police officials said at least 440 pounds of explosives was used to make the bomb, which left a crater that was three feet deep. The explosion blew up storefronts, some of which caught fire, destroyed at least three shops and damaged dozens more. Traders announced three days of mourning.

The violence also came at a time of intense political debate over whether the government should hold peace talks with Taliban insurgents in a bid to end the bloodshed.

The opposition leader Imran Khan, whose party runs the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government, advocates peace talks and putting a halt to military operations in the tribal regions.(Courtesy:The New York Times)

Afghan Taliban strikes near U.S. consulate.

Afghan Taliban strikes near U.S. consulate.

Official says a car bomb has gone off near the U.S. consulate in western Afghanistan.

Afghan security personnel investigate the site of a suicide car bombing and a gunfight near the U.S. consulate in Herat Province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan on Sept. 13, 2013.(Photo: Hoshang Hashimi, AP)

USA TODAY | 13 Sep 2013 :: Taliban militants staged a suicide car bombing outside the United States consulate in the western Afghan city of Herat early Friday, killing two Afghan police and a security guard.

U.S. and Afghan security forces then fought off an attack by insurgents. No Americans were injured in the attack and the U.S. consulate said its staff "performed superbly."

The Taliban subsequently claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to the Associated Press.

A statement posted on the ISAF: Nato forces in Afghanistan Facebook page from U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan James Cunningham said: "We are grateful for the quick response of the Afghan and ISAF security forces who secured the facility and kept our personnel safe."

State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told said in a statement that the assault began around 5:30 a.m., when "a truck carrying attackers drove to the front gate, and attackers — possibly firing rocket propelled grenades and assault rifles — started firing at Afghan forces and security guards on the exterior of the gates. Shortly after, the entire truck exploded, extensively damaging the front gate."

"Afghan civilians and Afghans on contract to the consulate were also killed or injured," Ambassador Cunningham said, without giving any figures.

Robert Hilton, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, said that "all consulate personnel are safe and accounted for."

Herat lies near Afghanistan's border with Iran and is considered one of the better developed and safer cities in the country, with a strong Iranian influence. Most of the violence in Afghanistan has been concentrated in the east and the south.(Courtesy:USA TODAY)

6 killed as bombs hit Egyptian security HQ in Rafah.

6 killed as bombs hit Egyptian security HQ in Rafah.e

17 wounded when suicide attacks destroy two-story military building near Gaza border

Egyptian army soldiers stand guard on the border with
 Egypt in Rafah. (photo credit: Hatem Moussa/APFile)

EL-ARISH | Egypt | AP | 11 Sep 2013 ::  A pair of suicide bombers rammed their explosives-laden cars into military targets in Egypt’s volatile Sinai on Wednesday, killing at least six soldiers and wounding 17 people, security officials and a military spokesman said.

One of the two bombings in the town of Rafah brought down a two-story building housing the local branch of military intelligence, while the other struck an army checkpoint.The near-simultaneous attacks nudged the violence in the strategic Sinai Peninsula closer to a full-blown insurgency, compounding Egypt’s woes at a time when the country is struggling to regain political stability and economic viability more than two years since longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak was toppled in a popular uprising.

The attacks also came less than a week after a suicide car bombing targeted the convoy of Egypt’s interior minister, who is in charge of the police, shortly after he left his home in an eastern Cairo district. Mohammed Ibrahim, the minister, escaped unharmed, but the blast caused extensive damage in the area. An al-Qaida-inspired group based in Sinai claimed responsibility for that bombing.

Wednesday’s attack on the intelligence building in Rafah collapsed the entire structure and buried an unspecified number of troops under the rubble, two security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The second attack targeted an armored personnel carrier deployed as part of an army checkpoint not far from the intelligence headquarters, the officials added. The officials said the remains of the two suicide bombers have been recovered.(Courtesy:Times of Israel)

Egyptian interior minister survives car bombing.

Egyptian interior minister survives car bombing.

Mohammed Ibrahim targeted in attack on convoy in Cairo’s Nasr City district, a stronghold of the Muslim Brotherhood; several injuries reported

Site of the targeted attack of the Egyptian interior
 minister September 5, 2013. (Photo credit: Twitter)

CAIRO | 05 Sep 2013 :: Egypt’s interior minister says his convoy was targeted by a “large” explosive device that was likely detonated by remote control on Thursday.

Speaking on state television after Thursday’s attack in an eastern Cairo district, a clearly shaken but unscathed Mohammed Ibrahim said the explosion targeted his own car. He says four other cars in the convoy were damaged.

Ibrahim said two police officers in the convoy were in serious condition and that a child who was near the explosion suffered a serious leg injury.

Security officials said six passers-by were injured in the attack, but that there were no fatalities. The blast damaged several cars parked on the street and shattered the windows of several nearby apartment buildings.

The Interior Minister is in charge of the country’s police force.

The Qatari news network Al-Jazeera tweeted the following picture it says is from the site of the attack . (Courtesy:The Times of Israel)Read More>>>

Lebanon braces for US strike.

Lebanon braces for US strike.

A Syrian boy looks out from his tent at a temporary refugee
 camp in the eastern Lebanese town of Marj near the border
 with Syria on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2013. The Lebanese are
 on the frontline of the latest west Asian crisis as the US laid
 the groundwork for a possible punitive strike.AP Photo

BEIRUT | 04 Sep 2013 :: Up in a small village on Mount Lebanon, an elderly man, Antoine, recounts the horrors of the Lebanese civil war (1975-90). “I had a machine gun. I had an M16 and a Kalashnikov,” he said calmly. “It was a dirty war. We don’t want that again” Not far, across a ridge, lies Syria. He reflects on what that war might bring to his small, coastal country. “We will not return to our civil war,” Antoine says. “We experienced it already. We saw that it is fruitless. We will not return to it.”

Scars of the Lebanese civil war dot the country, but monumentally so in Beirut. During the Battle of the Hotels in the early years of the war, the Christian Phalangists took control of the Holiday Inn in West Beirut to use as a base against the Lebanese National Movement. Today, the Holiday Inn stands as a sentinel of the destruction. At its base sit a force of armoured carriers of the Lebanese army. The floors above are rattled with bullet holes and missile craters. The Holiday Inn would be an artefact in the Museum of Futile Wars. A taxi driver from Idlib, Syria, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, weaves his old Renault past the Holiday Inn. He points frantically at the building and says, “Surya, Surya,” the Arabic for Syria. Previously he had described the devastation in his native city, from where he had fled two years ago. “We had to go,” he said. “Our building had become the frontline.”

The southern suburbs of Beirut, Dahieh, bristle with activity in preparation for more car bombs or even an aerial strike from Israel. Hezbollah, whose main Beirut base is in these neighbourhoods, is constantly on alert for some kind of attack. It is an organisation that is founded on the defence of this fragile country, whose sovereignty has been threatened since it came into existence as a modern state in 1943. Conversations in the area are often punctuated with fears about Israeli agents on the ground or Israeli drones flying overhead.(Courtesy:The Hindu)

Bombs, shootings kill at least 47 across Iraq, say police.

Bombs, shootings kill at least 47 across Iraq, say police.

Another police officer said a bomb exploded near
a car ferrying a judge in the northern town of Balad,
killing three nurses walking nearby. The judge, his
brother and the driver were wounded. — Photo by AP

BAGHDAD | REUTERS | 26 Aug 2013 ::  Car bombs, roadside bombs and shootings killed at least 47 people in Iraq on Sunday, police and medical sources said, as tensions intensify between Sunni and Shia Muslims across the Middle East.

Sunni Muslim insurgents and the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq have significantly increased their attacks this year.

More than 1,000 Iraqis were killed in July, the highest monthly death toll since 2008, according to the United Nations.

More than two years of civil war in neighbouring Syria have aggravated deep-rooted sectarian divisions and shaken Iraq's fragile coalition of Shia, Kurdish and Sunni factions.

The renewed violence, eighteen months after the last US troops withdrew from Iraq, has sparked fears of a return to the scale sectarian slaughter in 2006 and 2007.

Iraqis have suffered extreme violence for years, but since the start of 2013 the intensity of attacks on civilians has dramatically increased.

Bomb attacks have increasingly targeted cafes and other places where families gather, as well as the usual targets of military facilities and checkpoints.

The biggest of Sunday's attacks took place in central Baquba, 65 km northeast of Baghdad when a car bomb blew up near a housing complex, killing at least 11 people and wounding 34, police said.(Courtesy:Dawn)

Bombings targeting Shiites kill 19 in Iraq.

Bombings targeting Shiites kill 19 in Iraq.

Country facing deadliest outburst of violence since 2008, with more than 2,000 people killed in three months

BAGHDAD | AP | 06 Jul 2013 ::  — A suicide attacker and a car bombing killed at least 19 people and wounded 38 in separate attacks Friday targeting Shiites north of Baghdad.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, the latest in an increasing wave of violence across the country.Iraq has been facing its deadliest outburst of violence since 2008, with more than 2,000 people killed since the start of April. The bloodshed appears to be largely the work of resurgent Sunni militants such as al-Qaeda’s Iraq branch, feeding off Sunni discontent with the Shiite-led government.

The deadliest attack on Friday took place in Baghdad’s Kiraiyat neighborhood as worshippers gathered after the evening call to prayers at the Hussienieh Ali Basha mosque. A suicide bomber walked in during the service and detonated his explosives, killing 15 worshippers and wounding 32, a police officer and a medical official said.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Earlier Friday, an explosives-laden vehicle detonated near a Shiite protest camp in the city of Samarra, a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to release information to the media.

The head of the Salahuddin provincial health directorate, Raed Ibrahim, later confirmed the casualty figures in the attack in Samarra, 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad.

Since December, Iraq’s Sunni minority has been staging demonstrations over what it calls second-class treatment by the Shiite-led government. In some place clashes have erupted between security forces and protesters.

Violence increased sharply in April and May, with frequent bombings in civilian areas raising concerns that a widespread sectarian conflict could once again break out in Iraq. The bloodshed accelerated after a deadly April 23 crackdown by security forces on a Sunni anti-government protest in the northern town of Hawija in which 23 people were killed.

Hoping to stem the violence with a sign of solidarity, both Sunni and Shiite worshippers gathered Friday at Abdul-Qadir al-Gailani Mosque in downtown Baghdad to kneel and pray side by side. As they prayed, the mosque remained under tight security.(Courtesy:The Times of Israyal )