Al-Shabab attacks Kenyan border towns.

Al-Shabab attacks Kenyan border towns.

Three killed in attacks by Somali terrorist group responsible for attack on mall; vows to continue until Kenyan troops leave Somalia

Dawn breaks over the still-smoldering Westgate Mall in Nairobi,
 Kenya, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2013. (photo credit: AP/Ben Curtis)

NAIROBI | Kenya | AP | 26 Sep 2013 ::  The Islamic extremist group that killed scores of people at a Nairobi mall has now attacked two Kenyan towns near the Somali border, killing three people. The leader of the Somali group affiliated with al-Qada said the attacks will continue until Kenyan troops are withdrawn from Somalia.

The leader of al-Shabab said in a message that there is no way Kenya can “withstand a war of attrition inside your own country.”

“Make your choice today and withdraw all your forces,” said Ahmed Abdi Mohamed Godane, who goes by his nom de guerre Mukhtar Abu Zubayr, in a new statement posted on the Internet late Wednesday. “Otherwise be prepared for an abundance of blood that will be spilt in your country, economic downfall and displacement.”

Al-Shabab said the Nairobi mall attack was not only directed at Kenya, but was also “a retribution against the Western states that supported the Kenyan invasion and are spilling the blood of innocent Muslims in order to pave the way for their mineral companies,” according to the statement from Godane.

Al-Shabab attacked Nairobi’s upscale Westgate mall Saturday and held it for four days in a siege in which at least 67 people were killed. Forensic experts from around the world, including the US, Britain, Germany and Canada, continued their work Thursday reconstructing events in the crime scene including by carrying out fingerprint, DNA and ballistic analysis.

Early Thursday, Al-Shabab fighters attacked the border town of Mandera, killing two police officers, injuring three others and destroying 11 vehicles, said regional police chief Charlton Mureithi.(Courtesy:The Times of Israel)

UK judge rules Muslim can cover face during trial.

UK judge rules Muslim can cover face during trial.

Woman must remove veil when giving testimony, says court in controversial decision

A Muslim woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons
 arrives at a London court, where a judge has ruled that she
 will be allowed to stand trial while wearing a full-face veil
, but that she must remove it when giving evidence.
 (photo credit: AP/Stefan Rousseau)

LONDON | AP | 19 Sep 2013 ::  In Britain this week, a judge struck a blow for religious freedom. Or for secularism. It all depends on whom you ask.Judge Peter Murphy ruled that a female Muslim defendant may stand trial wearing a face-covering veil — but must remove it when giving evidence. The compromise ruling had some insisting it backs a woman’s religious right to wear the veil, and others saying it shows British justice remains independent and won’t bow to religious demands.

The case has reignited a debate about Muslim veils that has flared across Europe, sparking protests and exacerbating religious tensions in several countries. Those tensions exist in Britain, too, and attacks on Muslims and mosques rose after the May slaying of an off-duty British soldier by Islamist extremists.

But both the court ruling and the interpretations of it suggest that Britain is facing the issue with a streak of pragmatism, and there is little appetite from the center-right coalition government for a ban like that introduced in France.

This is a country where many politicians agree with the aide to former Prime Minister Tony Blair who famously said: “We don’t do religion.”

“I don’t think the government should tell women what they should be wearing,” Home Secretary Theresa May, the country’s interior minister, said Tuesday.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg agreed: “We shouldn’t end up like other countries issuing edicts or laws from Parliament telling people what they should or should not wear.”

The veil has become an emotive issue in European countries that are home to visible and growing Muslim populations.

Two years ago France became the first country to ban face-covering veils such as the niqab or burqa anywhere in public. The officially secular nation had already banned Muslim headscarves and other “ostentatious” religious symbols from classrooms.(Courtesy:Dawn)

US drones kill 12 in 3 airstrikes: Yemen official.

US drones kill 12 in 3 airstrikes: Yemen official.

File photo shows a Predator B unmanned aircraft taxis at the
 Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, Texas. Two U.S. drone strike
 killed a total of nine suspected al-Qaida militants on Thursday,
 Aug. 8, 2013, a Yemeni military official said, the sixth and seventh
such attacks in less than two weeks as the Arab nation
is on high alert against terrorism.

YEMEN | AP | 09 AUG 2013 ::  The U.S. has sharply escalated its drone war in Yemen, with military officials in the Arab country reporting 34 suspected al-Qaida militants killed in less than two weeks, including three strikes on Thursday alone in which a dozen died.

The action against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemen branch is known, comes amid a global terror alert issued by Washington. One Mideast official says the uptick is due to its leaders leaving themselves more vulnerable by moving from their normal hideouts toward areas where they could carry out attacks.

The U.S. and Britain evacuated diplomatic staff from the capital of Sanaa this week after learning of a threatened attack that prompted Washington to close temporarily 19 diplomatic posts in the Middle East and Africa.

On Thursday, the U.S. State Department warned Americans not to travel to Pakistan and ordered nonessential government personnel to leave the U.S. Consulate in Lahore because of a specific threat to that diplomatic mission.

Thursday’s first reported drone attack hit a car carrying suspected militants in the district of Wadi Ubaidah, about 175 kilometers (109 miles) east of Sanaa, and killed six, a security official said.

Badly burned bodies lay beside their vehicle, according to the official. Five of the dead were Yemenis, while the sixth was believed to be of another Arab nationality, he said.

The second drone attack killed three alleged militants in the al-Ayoon area of Hadramawt province in the south, the official said. The third, also in Hadramawt province, killed three more suspected militants in the al-Qutn area, he added.(Courtesy:The Hindu)