Pakistan Taliban kill 28 in attacks.

Afghan, Pakistan Taliban kill 28 in attacks on provincial police HQs.

Reuters | 17 Feb 2015 : : Four suicide attackers on Tuesday stormed a provincial police headquarters in eastern Afghanistan, killing 22 police, an official said. Taliban insurgents immediately claimed responsibility.

The attack in Logar province outside the capital, Kabul, was the latest to target Afghan security forces following the withdrawal of most foreign combat troops at the end of last year.

In neighbouring Pakistan, another Taliban suicide attack on a provincial police headquarters killed at least seven people in the eastern city of Lahore, in what militants called a revenge bid for the recent hangings of their colleagues.

The Afghan and Pakistani Taliban are separate groups that share the goal of establishing hard-line Islamic rule.

In the Afghan assault, the four attackers rushed the gates of the police compound in early afternoon, with one detonating his explosives-filled vest at the main gate and killing one policeman, Logar government spokesman Din Mohammad Darwish said.

The attack triggered a 25-minute battle with police, he said.

Another of the militants reached the station's dining hall, killing 21 police and wounding seven when he detonated his vest, said Abdul Wali Toofan, Logar's deputy police chief. The other two attackers were killed with no further casualties.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, claimed responsibility on his official Twitter feed.

Earlier on Tuesday, a bomb attached to a vehicle wounded one person in Kabul, police said, breaking a recent lull in attacks in the Afghan capital.

Kabul had been rocked by a string of bombings by insurgents late last year in the run-up to the withdrawal of most foreign combat troops from Afghanistan after 13 years of war.

A suspected magnetic bomb attached to a 4-wheel-drive vehicle exploded in the east of the city, Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said.

( Courtesy : Reuters )

Two killed in suicide attack in Russia's Caucasus.

Two killed in suicide attack in Russia's Caucasus.

Dagestan is one of the most unstable regions in the
 Northern Caucasus, with rebels staging attacks
 against local authorities almost every day.
 — Photo byReuters/File

MOSCOW | AFP | 23 Sep 2013 ::  Two officials were killed and six more people were wounded when a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb on Monday in the volatile Russian Caucasus region of Dagestan, police said.

A car was driven near a police station in the Dagestani village of Khuchni before dawn on Monday morning and was detonated as it came to a sudden halt, regional police said in a statement.

“A suicide bomber was in the car,” the statement said.

An employee of the federal migration service and a policeman died while another six people received injuries. One of the wounded was in a “grave state.”

Police did not provide further details, saying only it was searching for those behind the attack.

The majority-Muslim region of Dagestan experiences almost daily shootings and bombings that officials blame on local criminals and Islamists with links to Chechnya, where the Kremlin has fought two wars over the past 20 years.(Courtesy:Dawn)

Suicide attack on Pakistani church kills 75.

Suicide attack on Pakistani church kills 75.

A Pakistani man carries an injured Christian woman on her arrival
at the hospital after two suicide bomb attacks on a Church in
 Peshawar on September 22, 2013. Two suicide bombers killed at
 least 53 people and wounded more than 100 in an attack on a
 church service in the restive northwestern Pakistani city
of Peshawar, officials said.

PESHAWAR | Pakistan | 22 Sep 2013 :: A pair of suicide bombers detonated their explosives outside a historic church in northwestern Pakistan on Sunday, killing 75 people in the deadliest-ever attack on the country’s Christian minority, officials said.

A wing of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing in the city of Peshawar, saying it would continue to target non-Muslims until the United States stopped drone attacks in the country’s remote tribal region.

The latest drone strike came Sunday, when missiles hit a pair of compounds in the North Waziristan tribal area, killing six suspected militants, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

The attack on the All Saints Church, which also wounded 110 people, underlines the threat posed by the Pakistani Taliban at a time when the government is seeking a peace deal with the militants. It will likely intensify criticism from those who believe that negotiating peace with the Taliban is a mistake.

Taliban claim attack on American base in eastern Afghanistan.

Taliban claim attack on American base 

in eastern Afghanistan.

Al Arabiya | 02  Sep 2013 :: Afghan Taliban militants on Monday claimed responsibility for an attack on a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border, according to AFP news agency.

Officials confirmed the attack.

“A group of suicide bombers have attacked a U.S. base in Torkham near the border with Pakistan,” Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial governor, told AFP.

In a statement sent to the media, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack.

Abdulzai said fighting was ongoing between U.S. and Afghan forces against the militants.(copy from: Al Arabia)

Six die in Afghanistan suicide attack.

Six die in Afghanistan suicide attack.

KABUL | 31 Aug 2013 :: At least six people were killed and 20 wounded Saturday in a suicide bombing in Kandahar city in Afghanistan, an official said.

"One suicide bomber tried to enter the Kabul Bank branch at Shahidan square in the city. He was intercepted. The attacker blew up his suicide jacket. Five people, including one policeman, were killed and 20 injured as a result of the explosion," Xinhua quoted Jawid Faisal, the provincial government spokesman, as saying.

The target of the attack remained unclear. However, witnesses said members of Afghan security forces were waiting to withdraw their monthly salaries and several of them were among the injured.

The explosion also damaged several buildings and cars.(Courtesy:Indian Express)

Suicide bombing in park, attacks kill 32 in Iraq.

Suicide bombing in park, attacks kill 32 in Iraq.

BAGHDAD | AP | 24 Aug  2013  :: A suicide bomber attacked a park in northern Baghdad crowded by cafe- and restaurant-goers Friday night, the bloodiest attack in a day of violence that killed at least 32 people across the country, authorities said.

Attacks have been on the rise in Iraq since a deadly security crackdown in April on a Sunni protest camp. More than 3,000 people have been killed in violence during the past few months, raising fears Iraq could see a new round of widespread sectarian bloodshed similar to that which brought the country to the edge of civil war in 2006 and 2007.

The suicide bomber struck a park in the Qahira neighborhood of Baghdad late Friday night, an area popular with locals, police said. The bomber detonated his explosives in a crowd of people, killing at least 26 people and wounding 55.

Violence has stepped up in strikes on so-called soft targets in Iraq — like civilians at coffee shops or those shopping along busy commercial streets.

There was no claim of responsibility for Friday's suicide bombing. Sunni extremists such as al-Qaida's Iraq arm that seek to undermine the Shiite-led government are frequently blamed for attacks targeting civilians.

Elsewhere in the country, police said gunmen broke into a house of a Shiite merchant at dawn Friday in the northern town of Dujail, killing him, his wife and elderly mother. Authorities said the motive behind the killing wasn't immediately unclear.

Dujail, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad, is a Shiite Muslim town surrounded by Sunni areas.

Meanwhile, two police officers said bombs exploded near Sunni mosques in two neighborhoods in Baghdad as worshippers were leaving after Friday's sermon, killing three people and wounding 18.

Police officers and medical officials confirmed the casualty figures from the attacks Friday. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release the information to journalists.(Courtesy:USA TODAY)

India announces package for Jalalabad attack victims.

India announces package for Jalalabad attack victims.

In Jalalabad, India’s Ambassador to Afghanistan, Amar Sinha, announced compensation – described as ``token assistance’’ – of dollars 10,000 (about Rs. 6 lakhs) to the families of each of the victims.

In the midst of tragedy following the foiled attack on the Indian Consulate in Jalalabad, India warmed up to Afghanistan by announcing a generous package of compensation for Afghans who had fallen or were injured during the strike.

The bonding between New Delhi and Kabul contrasted sharply with the sudden dip in India’s ties with Pakistan, whose Deputy High Commissioner was summoned to South Block on Tuesday.

India sees Pakistani instigation behind the Jalalabad attack but the immediate provocation for summoning the Pakistani diplomat was the cross-border firing that killed five Indian troops patrolling the increasingly fragile Line of Control (LoC) between the two countries.

In Jalalabad, India’s Ambassador to Afghanistan, Amar Sinha, announced compensation – described as ``token assistance’’ – of dollars 10,000 (about Rs. 6 lakhs) to the families of each of the victims. He also announced a reward of $ 20,000 for the Afghan security detail that was on duty outside the Consulate when the attack took place. In addition, $ 2,000 were to be given to the Afghan soldier who gunned down one of the suicide bombers and stopped the attackers in their tracks.

During his visit to Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, Mr. Sinha met the Governor of Nangarhar Province as well as the families of the victims who died in the suicide attack.

While visiting the city hospital, the Ambassador announced that New Delhi would handover $20,000 to the local government for the treatment of those who were injured in the attack. Another $10,000 dollars would be given to the local government for the repair of the mosques, which were damaged by the bombings, which also killed a number of children who were returning after studying Koran.

The attack in Jalalabad illustrated the sharp upturn in civilian casualties in 2013. According to a report by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), there has been a 23 per cent increase in civilian casualties in Afghanistan during the first half of 2013 when compared to a similar period last year. Jalalabad, a bustling commercial city, continues to remain restive with one more person dying on Tuesday following the detonation of a magnetic mine that had been attached to a police vehicle.(Courtesy:The Hindu)