’Beware Osama! He’ll hit US where it hurts’
Washington – Abu Jandal, a former bodyguard of the al-Qaeda chief who worked with him from 1996 to 2000 in Afghanistan, told on Thursday that the threat of another terror strike issued by bin Laden in January should be taken seriously. In January audiotape released by the Al Jazeera Arabic television network, bin Laden warned that assaults on the US ‘heartland’ were being prepared. Jandal said his old boss had given strict instructions on what should happen if he was cornered. He believed bin Laden was hiding out in Afghanistan rather than in Pakistan.
Agencies
The Times of India – April 1, 2006.
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‘Iran will unleash global terror if attacked’
Washington – US intelligence experts believe Iran would respond to US military strikes on its nuclear sites by deploying its intelligence operatives and Hezbollah teams to carry out terrorist attacks world-wide. Citing unnamed experts, the newspaper said Iran would first mount attacks against US targets inside Iraq and then target civilians in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. The Iranian government views Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah’s military wing, “as an extension of their state.” The paper quotes Ambassador Henry Crumpton, the State Department’s coordinator for country terrorism, as saying, “Operational teams could be deployed without long preparation.”
AFP
The Times of India – April 3, 2006.
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5 killed in Baluchistan flare-up
Quetta – A series of bomb and landmine blasts on Sunday killed at least five people and wounded several more in tribal rebel areas of Pakistan’s southwestern province of Baluchistan, government officials said. The blasts took place in a government dairy farm in Kohlu, and a field camp of the Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL). A firefight which erupted between militants and security forces after the explosion at the PPL camp killed two soldiers and wounded eight. Two people were killed and 10 wounded in the blast at the government farm.
Reuters.
The Times of India – April 3, 2006.
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Maoist ambush kills 6 Nepal troops
Kathmandu – Rebels killed six security troops in an ambush in Nepal’s southeast, officials and activists said. Suspected rebels opened fire at security forces during an ambush in Durgapur village, 500 km southeast of Kathmandu, killed five soldiers and a policeman, and four others were hurt. Police detained 50 pro-democracy activists who defied a ban on rallies in the capital to gather and express their support for the planned four-day strike.
AP
The Times of India – April 6, 2006
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J&K CRPF camp attacked, 4 injured
Srinagar – Four persons, including two security personnel, were injured on Wednesday when militants lobbed a grenade on a CRPF picket in Anantnag district, official sources said. The grenade, hurled by militants on the picket at Koymoh in Anantnag, 45 km from here, fell short of the target and exploded on the road injuring two CRPF personnel and an equal number of civilians, sources said.
PTI
The Times of India – April 6, 2006.
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Car bomb attack kills 13 in Najaf
Najaf – April 6, 2006 – A car bomb exploded in the Shia Muslim city of Najaf on Thursday killing at least 13 people. Police said the blast occurred in a crowded area between a cemetery and the Imam Kali Shrine, one of the most sacred to Shias. The mosque was not damaged. Hospital officials said the bomb killed 13 people and wounded about 40 others, but police put the death toll at 15.
Reuters
Hindustan Times – April 7, 2006.
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Suicide bombers kill 69 in Iraq
Baghdad – April 7, 2006 – Three suicide bombers dressed as women killed at least 69 people and wounded 138 others at a Shia mosque on Friday in Baghdad, putting more pressure on Iraq’s divided leaders to form a government and face up to sectarian violence.
Reuters
Hindustan Times – April 8, 2006.
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Interpol sends special notice against don
New Delhi – India’s best known under-world figure and Mumbai blasts master-mind Dawood Ibrahim has been placed in the same category as top Al-Qaeda operatives with Interpol issuing a ‘special notice’ against him, which also discloses his various addresses, including one in a posh colony in Karachi. The special notice has details of Dawood’s 11 passports and 16 aliases. With the notice confirming Pakistan as the base of Dawood’s operations, it will make it more difficult for Islamabad, and the terrorist’s ISI mentors, to host him.
Vishwa Mohan/Times News Network
Sunday Times of India – April 9, 2006.
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Car bomb kills six Shi’ite pilgrims in Iraq
Musayib – April 8, 2006 – A car bomb killed at least six Shi’ite pilgrims south of Baghdad on Saturday. The blast also wounded 16 people, said police Captain. Just two hours earlier, powerful Shi’ite leader Abdul Azizal-Hakim had urged his followers to stand firm against what he called an al-Qaeda campaign to ignite sectarian civil war with bombings like the one on Friday that killed at least 70 people.
Habib Al-Zubaidi/Reuters
The Sunday Express – April 9, 2006.
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1 killed, 16 injured in Afghanistan blasts
Kabul: Three bombings including a suicide blast killed a soldier and wounded 16 other Afghans on Sunday, officials said. The suicide attacker struck an Afghan army checkpoint in the eastern checkpoint in the eastern province of Paktika near the border with Pakistan, provincial government spokesman Salam Mangal said.
AFP
The Times of India – April 10, 2006.
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Six blasts, five deaths mark Iraq ‘Freedom Day’
Baghdad – Six bombs exploded in Baghdad and central Iraq on Sunday. The roadside bombings and a blast on a minibus left lat least five people dead, and American troops killed eight suspected insurgents in a predawn raid north of the capital.
Agencies
The Times of India – April 10, 2006.
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Terrorist Recruiters Target 'White Muslims' in Bosnia
Houston Chronicle (04/18/06) ; Kole, William J.
The Associated Press has a classified document created by U.S. and Croatian intelligence and showing that Arab terrorists are recruiting non-Arab "white Muslims" as terrorist operatives because white operatives are better able to blend into European cities and conduct terrorist attacks. Bosnian police have arrested a terrorist operative known as "Maximus" who turned out to be a 19-year-old Swedish citizen of Serbian ethnicity. Maximus had links to a top Al Qaeda operative and was plotting to blow up a European embassy, according to Bosnian authorities, who seized a suicide bomber belt, explosives, and video evidence of the plot from the man's apartment.
Security Management Daily - April 18, 2006.
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Rocket blast kills 6 kids in Afghanistan
Kabul – A rocket exploded in the middle of a packed school in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing six children, the police said. At least 14 people were wounded. He blamed the Taliban for the attack and targeting the school as part of the rebels’ campaign against government-sponsored education.
Agencies
The Times of India – April 12, 2006.
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Bomb blast kills 40 in Pakistan
Karachi – April 11, 2006 – A powerful bomb exploded during a prayer service in a park in this southern Pakistan city on Tuesday, killing at least 40 people and wounding dozens, the interior minister said. The bomb was planted under a stage erected by a Sunni Muslim group at Nishar Park in Karachi for a prayer gathering to celebrate the birth-day of Islam’s Prophet Muhammed, said area police chief. An angry mob burnt cars and pelted police with stones after the blast, said witnesses.
AP
Hindustan Times – April 12, 2006.
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Hamas to stop using suicide bombers
Hamas is to abandon its use of suicide bombers, who have killed almost 300 Israelis, in any future confrontations with Israel. The Islamic group which leads the Palestinian Authority, says, however, that it may resort to other forms of violence if there is no progress towards Palestinian statehood. Hamas is keen to gain acceptance from the international community. On Friday the European Union announced it was stopping direct funding of the PA, while the United States has halted aid projects. Hamas needs outside funding of $150 million each month to pay wages.
Guardian News Service
Hindustan Times – April 12, 2006.
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Mine blast kills 12 Lankan navy men
Colombo – April 11, 2006 – At least 12 Sri Lankan navy personnel were killed and eight wounded when the bus in which they were travelling was blasted by a claymore mine in Tambalagamam on the Trincomalee-Habarana road in Easter Sri Lanka on Tuesday. On Monday, five army soldiers and two civilians were killed in a similar blast in Mirusuvil in Jafna. Political observers say that the blasts were the LTTE’s answer to the killing of Vigneswaran, a leading pro-LTTE politician of Trincomalee last weekend.
P.K. Balachandran & AP
Hindustan Times – April 12, 2006.
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13 killed in blasts, arson in Sri Lanka
Colombo – At least 13 persons were killed and 40 others injured in a string of bombings and arson in Sri Lanka’s eastern Trincomalee district on Wednesday. Later on in the afternoon, a powerful improvised explosive device (IED) set off by the LTTE outside a vegetable market killed at least five others, the army said. India and the US have condemned the recent escalation in violence. At a media briefing on Wednesday, a senior Cabinet Minister said the recent incidents were a “manifestation of the thinking of the LTTE and a clear indication that they reject” the call by the international community to abandon violence.
V.S. Sambandan
The Hindu – April 13, 2006.
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New anti-terrorism laws introduced in UK
London – April 13, 2006 – New laws making it illegal to glorify terrorism came into force across Britain on Thursday following months of bitter political debate. The Terrorism Act 2006 allows groups or organizations to be banned for glorifying terrorism and distributing publications promoting terrorist acts. The most controversial element of the act, allowing terror suspects to be detained for up to 28 days instead of 14, will come into force later this year. The law was drafted after suicide bombers killed 52 commuters on the London transport system last July.
Reuters
The Indian Express – April 14, 2006.
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5 killed in J&K strike
Srinagar – April 14, 2006 – In a series of grenade attacks, five people were killed and more than 30 injured. Militants first struck on the Exchange road at 11.50 a.m. A hand grenade was tossed on a BSF vehicle, injuring two jawans and three civilians. 15 minutes later, the second attack was made at a security forces’ bunker at Magarmal Bagh. The next attack was made on a CRPF post at Hari Singh High Street. The explosive fell short of the target, killing two civilians and injuring at least 10. At 1.15 p.m., the fourth attack was directed at a CRPF vehicle in Badyari near the Dal Gate. Three people were killed and six injured. Militants lobbed another grenade at a police vehicle in Batamaloo injuring the driver and a lady constable. In the evening, at least 15 people were injured when militants hurled a grenade at security forces in Sakkidafar Chowk.
Rashid Ahmad
Hindustan Times – April 15, 2006.
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Friday fright at Jama Masjid – Two crude bombs, 12 injured, structure safe
New Delhi – Two bombs went off in quick succession in the main courtyard of the Jama Masjid, near the “hauz”, where worshippers do “wazu” (the ritual of cleaning the body). At least 12 people were injured, and the condition of one was stated to be critical. The first blast took place around 5.25 pm. And the second one followed barely two feet away within ten minutes. Police said the damage would have been worse had the bombs gone off during or immediately after the “jumme ki namaaz (in the afternoon)”, when the courtyard was packed to capacity. Police said the bombs were low-intensity crude devices, possibly made up of ammonium chloride, and packed with shrapnel like iron nails and nut and bolt.
Hindustan Times – April 15, 2006.
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Another blast in Valley
Four people were injured when militants exploded a grenade in downtown Rainawari locality of Srinagar on Sunday. Militants lobbed a grenade on a picket manned by CRPF personnel at Rainawari Chowk around 11.15 a.m., officials said. The device missed the target and exploded on the road, injuring four civilians. Police on Saturday arrested nine Jaish-e-Mohammad militants in connection with the attacks.
PTI
Hindustan Times – April 17, 2006.
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Fresh Afghan fighting kills 21
Kandahar – April 16, 2006 –Taliban fighters attacked three police posts in Afghanistan overnight, leaving 14 rebels dead or wound, while soldiers killed four more in separate battles, officials said on Sunday. Seven civilians were also killed and three wounded in fighting between US-led coalition forces and militants in eastern Afghanistan. The posts on the country’s main highway between Kandahar and the capital were attacked on Sunday, police said. Police said meanwhile they had arrested 15 suspected Taliban in a sweep on Saturday.
Agencies
Hindustan Times – April 17, 2006.
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Iran suicide bombers ready to hit the West
Iran has formed battalions of suicide bombers to strike at British and US targets if the nation’s nuclear sites are attacked. According to Iranian officials, 40,000 trained suicide bombers are ready for action. Hassan Abbasi, head of the Center for Doctrinal Strategic Studies in the Revolutionary Guards, said in a speech that 29 western targets had been identified: “We are ready to attack American and British sensitive points if they attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.” According to western intelligence documents leaked to The Sunday Times, the Revolutionary Guards are incharge of a secret nuclear weapons programme designed to evade the scrutiny of the IAEA.
Sunday Times, London
The Times of India – April 17, 2006.
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Palestinian ‘bomb’ strikes Tel Aviv
Tel Avid – Nine people were killed and dozens wounded in Israel’s commercial capital Tel Aviv on Monday when a Palestinian bomber blew himself up in the deadliest suicide attack of the last 20 months. The bomb went off next to a fast food stand at lunchtime in the southern Neveh Sha’aan district, close to the old bus station. The blast was claimed by the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, which has been behind all of the most recent bomb attacks in Israel.
AFP
The Times of India – April 18, 2006.
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Bomb under couch at Baghdad café kills 7
A bomb exploded on Tuesday at a Baghdad café frequented by policemen, killing at least seven people and wounding more than 20. In the southern city of Basra, a policeman was gunned down in a drive-by shooting.
The Times of India – April 19, 2006.
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Terror groups turn to West Coast
New Delhi – April 18, 2006 – Feeling the heat along the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border in Jammu and Kashmir, the ISI and Pakistan-based militant groups are now using underworld don Dawood Ibrahim to smuggle arms and ammunition through the sea route along the West Coast. In the wake of the three-layered security along the border and parts of LoC in J&K, there has been a considerable drop in infiltration and smuggling of arms and ammunition. Home Ministry sources said though militants were using the Bangladesh route to smuggle in arms, it was proving inadequate.
Rajnish Sharma
Hindustan Times – April 19, 2006.
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4 Fijians killed in Iraq
Four Fijian security contractors working in Iraq have been killed in an ambush near Kirkuk, in the north of the country, a Fijii news website reported on Thursday. A representative of Controlled Risk, which recruited the men, told the Fiji village website that the men died in an attack on a convoy guarded by US soldiers on Tuesday. He added the men were transporting supplies to the US air base in Kirkuk when their convoy was ambushed by unidentified gunmen. More than 1000 Fijians are employed as private bodyguards by Iraq security companies.
AP, Wellington
Hindustan Times – April 21, 2006.
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West waging war on Islam: Osama
Dubai – April 23, 2006 – Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden said the West’s shunning of the Hamas-led Palestinian government showed it was waging a “Crusader-Zionist war” on Muslims, according to an audio-tape attributed to him and aired on Sunday. People in the West share responsibility for their countries’ “war against Islam”, said the speaker, who sounded like bin Laden, on the tape broadcast on Al Jazeera television.
Reuters
Hindustan Times – April 24, 2006.
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3 US soldiers killed
Violence across Iraq killed 14 people on Sunday, including seven people in a rocket attack on the country’s defence ministry and three US soldiers in a roadside bombing. Large fires burned at a state oil and gas complex in northern Iraq on Sunday, but it was not known whether they were set by an accident or sabotage.
Agencies
Hindustan Times – April 24, 2006.
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1 killed, 34 injured in J&K grenade attacks
Srinagar / Baramulla – April 24, 2006 - At least one person was killed and 34 people, including 10 security force personnel and a polling official, were injured in a series of grenade explosions across Kashmir Valley on Monday. A kerosene depot owner, Abdul Azis Butt, was killed at Khanyar in central Srinagar when militants tossed a hand grenade at a stationery ambulance of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). Six CRPF personnel were injured. Hours after the blast the militants targeted a police station at neighbouring Rainawari, but there was no casualty. The Jaish-e-Mohammed has taken responsibility for these attacks.
Special Correspondent
The Asian Age – April 25, 2006.
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Sri Lankan Army Chief injured in attack
Colombo – The commander of the Sri Lanka Army survived an assassination attempt by a suspected woman suicide bomber of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) inside the Army Headquarters on Tuesday afternoon. At least 10 persons, including civilians, were killed and 26 others injured when the suicide bomber, disguised as a pregnant woman, blew herself up.
V.S. Sambandan
The Hindu – April 26, 2006.
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At least 22 dead, 150 injured in Egypt’s Sinai resort blasts
Cairo – April 24, 2006 – Three bombs rocked the Egyptian resort city of Dahab on Monday night, killing at least 22 people and wounding 150 more at just one hotel. The attackers struck a day after al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden issued a taped warning that ordinary Western citizen were legitimate targets because they supported governments conducting a crusade against Islam. The Egyptian government has said the militants who carried out the bombings were locals without international connections, but other security agencies have said they suspect al-Qaeda.
Steven R Hurst / AP
The Indian Express – April 25, 2006.
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Bombs, corpses: Iraq chaos continues
Baghdad – April 24, 2006 – A series of car bombs rocked Baghdad on Monday, killing 10 people and injuring 80, in an apparent campaign to discredit Iraq’s new leadership. At least 15 other people were killed in bombings and shootings. Police also discovered the bodies of 34 people in the capital and the northern city of Mosul – apparently victims of sectarian killings. Seven car bombs exploded over a five-hour period in six widely separated neighbourhoods across the sprawling capital. The first blast occurred near the Health Ministry and killed five people. Two hours later, bombs hidden in two cars exploded near Mustansiriya University, killing five others.
Robert H. Reid / AP
The Indian Express – April 25, 2006.
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Militants burn newspapers
Islamabad – Suspected Taliban militants in Pakistan on Monday burnt copies of newspapers and warned media not to refer to them as “miscreants” and “terrorists”, the terminology used by officials . The self-styled Pakistan Taliban militia members stopped a vehicle carrying newspaper bundles from Peshawar at the town of Mir Ali in the North Waziristan tribal region and set them afire.
PTI, Islamabad
Hindustan Times – April 25, 2006.
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32 people injured in Kashmir blasts
Thirty two people were injured in two separate blasts in J&K on Tuesday. In the first incident, eight school children and an equal number of pedestrians were also injured when militants threw a hand grenade at a bus stand at Trai in Pulwama district. In another incident, 16 passengers of a mini-bus were injured when a landmine exploded at Lolab in Kupwara district.
TNN
The Times of India – April 26, 2006.
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Suicide bombers strike again in Egypt
Cairo – April 26, 2006 – Two suicide bombers struck near a multinational peacekeeping forces base in the Sinal near the Gaza border on Wednesday. There was a separate report of an explosion at a police check-point in the Nile Delta in the north of the country, but the interior ministry and the provincial governor said the report was false. Maj. Nathan Bond, a spokesman for MFO, confirmed there had been two separate suicide attacks, one targeting an MFO vehicle and a second one targeting an Egyptian security vehicle.
(AP, AFP) / Willa Thayer
The Asian Age – April 26, 2006.
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Lanka strikes continue; 18 dead
Colombo – April 26, 2006 – Escalating violence between Sri Lankan forces and Tamil rebels left at least 18 civilians dead and 15,000 Tamil villagers fleeing for their lives, reports from both sides said on Wednesday. Three people died and 13 were wounded when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fired mortar bombs against a naval detachment in the Muttur area of Trincomalee district, defence ministry spokesman said. The pro-rebel Tamilnet website reported 12 other civilian died when government warplanes struck the rebel-held Sampur area late on Tuesday in retaliation for a suicide bombing that had killed 10 and wounded 30, including the army chief.
Hindustan Times – April 27, 2006.
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15 tourists among 22 hurt in Pahalgam blast
Mine attacks killed five security personnel in Colombo on Thursday. Two navy sailors were killed and two commandos were injured. Meanwhile, the police found five headless corpses near the capital, Colombo, and said they were investigating whether the deaths were linked to the recent upsurge in fighting with Tamil rebels.
AP
The Times of India – April 28, 2006.
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Taliban kidnaps Indian
Kandahar – Tlaiban militants kidnapped an Indian mobile phone contractor in southern Afghanistan on Friday, according to a provincial official and the Taliban’s purported spokesman.
AP
The Hindu – April 29, 2006.
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Two Lashkar fronts banned
New Delhi – The US Department of State on Friday banned two aliases of the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JUD) and Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq (IKK), by including them in the Specially Designated Global Terrorist Designation (SDGT). The US would block all assets of the JUD and the IKK in the US.
HTC
Hindustan Times April 29, 2006.
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Food for Thought
A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university Professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the Prof went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, some plain-looking and some expensive and exquisite, telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the lecturer said "If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups."
"Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change. "Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."
So friends, don't let the cups drive you...enjoy the coffee instead.
- Email dated 5.4.2006 from Mr. R.K. Khandelwal.
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