Links between violent sectarian groups and the Pakistani Taliban are growing
Monday, December 3, 2012
Escalation
India hangs sole surviving Mumbai attacks gunman
The sole surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, which claimed the lives of 166 people, was executed at a jail in India on Wednesday. Pakistan-born Mohammed Kasab was hanged after his pleas for mercy were rejected last month.
Garment factory fire kills scores in Bangladesh
At least 112 workers of a garment factory near the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka died on Sunday when a blaze spread through their building. A separate fire broke out in a garment manufacturer outside Dhaka on Monday.
Pakistani Taliban promise more blasts
Just hours after a roadside bomb killed at least seven people near a Shia procession in Pakistan, the Taliban have claimed responsibility and vowed that more attacks will come.
Security forces were on high alert over fears of large-scale attacks on the minority sect across the country after an attack occurred on Saturday in the city of Dera Ismail Khan in Pakistan's northwest.
The Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks in a telephone call to AFP news agency.
"We carried out the attack against the Shia community," spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location after the explosion.
He said the group had dispatched more than 20 suicide bombers across the country for attacks against the minority community.
"We have 20-25 fidayeen [suicide bombers] in the country to launch bomb blasts and suicide attacks," Ehsan said.
"The government can make whatever security arrangements it wants but it cannot stop our attacks."
The area is a stronghold of al-Qaeda-linked extreme Sunni groups who regard Shias as non-Muslims and have stepped up sectarian attacks in a bid to destabilise Pakistan.
The bomb on Saturday morning was planted in a dustbin, the blast was powerful and heard several kilometres away," said police official Siddiq Khan said.
City police chief Khalid Suhail said the dead were all children aged between six and 11 years.
"They were young boys."
At least 18 people were wounded, including two police officials, he said adding that five of them were in serious condition.
The 10kg remote controlled device carrying ball bearings was planted on the route of a religious procession of the minority Shia community, police officer Ghulam Ahmed told the AFP news agency.
Security forces were on high alert over fears of large-scale attacks on the minority sect across the country after an attack occurred on Saturday in the city of Dera Ismail Khan in Pakistan's northwest.
The Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks in a telephone call to AFP news agency.
| "The government can make whatever security arrangements it wants but it cannot stop our attacks" - Ehsanullah Ehsan, Pakistan Taliban spokesman |
"We carried out the attack against the Shia community," spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location after the explosion.
He said the group had dispatched more than 20 suicide bombers across the country for attacks against the minority community.
"We have 20-25 fidayeen [suicide bombers] in the country to launch bomb blasts and suicide attacks," Ehsan said.
"The government can make whatever security arrangements it wants but it cannot stop our attacks."
The area is a stronghold of al-Qaeda-linked extreme Sunni groups who regard Shias as non-Muslims and have stepped up sectarian attacks in a bid to destabilise Pakistan.
The bomb on Saturday morning was planted in a dustbin, the blast was powerful and heard several kilometres away," said police official Siddiq Khan said.
City police chief Khalid Suhail said the dead were all children aged between six and 11 years.
"They were young boys."
At least 18 people were wounded, including two police officials, he said adding that five of them were in serious condition.
The 10kg remote controlled device carrying ball bearings was planted on the route of a religious procession of the minority Shia community, police officer Ghulam Ahmed told the AFP news agency.
Taliban attack NATO base in Afghanistan
The Taliban have launched a major suicide attack against a NATO base at an Afghan city airport, killing six people, including three Afghan soldiers, and wounding four civilians, officials said.
The nine Taliban suicide bombers who entered the airport in Jalalabad, near the eastern border with Pakistan early on Sunday, were killed in a gunbattle that lasted for at least two hours.
Along with the attackers, three members of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and three civilians were killed in the Nangarhar province attack.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed to Al Jazeera's Bernard Smith in Kabul that "multiple explosions" had occurred outside the Jalalabad airbase, and that "at least three large explosions were heard".
"Two of the attackers drove explosive-laden vehicles at a gate, detonating those vehicles, trying to make a hole for the remaining seven Taliban fighters all wearing suicide vests, to try to penetrate further into the air base," Smith said.
A spokesperson for ISAF told Al Jazeera that "none of the attackers succeeded breaching the perimetre".
The attackers reportedly used suicide car bombs, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and small arms fire in their assault.
"There were 14 Afghan security forces injured in this assault, and an undisclosed number of NATO forces injured," according to our correspondent. Another four Afghan civilians were also wounded in the attack.
'Invading forces'
The airport complex has multiple layers of security, with the NATO base set well back from the first entrance, which an Afghan official said had been breached.
An Afghan security official told the AFP he had seen five dead men in Afghan army uniform, but it was unclear whether they were soldiers or Taliban attackers.
The Taliban said their suicide bombers had entered the airport, and an Afghan government official confirmed that clashes had taken place within the airport complex.
"First a fedayee [suicide bomber] mujahid... detonated a car bomb causing the enemy heavy casualties and losses and removed all the barriers," the Taliban said on their website.
"After the attack other fedayee mujahids entered the base... and started attacking the invading forces in the base."
The Taliban have waged an 11-year uprising against the Afghan government, which is backed by 100,000 NATO troops, since being overthrown in a US-led invasion for harbouring al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
The airport has come under attack on two previous occasions this year.
On February 27, six civilians, an Afghan soldier and two local guards were killed in a suicide car bomb attack on the military base, but NATO troops escaped unhurt.
The airport also came under attack on April 15, when the Taliban launched their spring offensive with a series of commando-style assaults across Afghanistan.
| "After the attack other [suicide bombers] entered the base... and started attacking the invading forces in the base" - Taliban |
The nine Taliban suicide bombers who entered the airport in Jalalabad, near the eastern border with Pakistan early on Sunday, were killed in a gunbattle that lasted for at least two hours.
Along with the attackers, three members of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and three civilians were killed in the Nangarhar province attack.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed to Al Jazeera's Bernard Smith in Kabul that "multiple explosions" had occurred outside the Jalalabad airbase, and that "at least three large explosions were heard".
"Two of the attackers drove explosive-laden vehicles at a gate, detonating those vehicles, trying to make a hole for the remaining seven Taliban fighters all wearing suicide vests, to try to penetrate further into the air base," Smith said.
A spokesperson for ISAF told Al Jazeera that "none of the attackers succeeded breaching the perimetre".
The attackers reportedly used suicide car bombs, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and small arms fire in their assault.
"There were 14 Afghan security forces injured in this assault, and an undisclosed number of NATO forces injured," according to our correspondent. Another four Afghan civilians were also wounded in the attack.
'Invading forces'
The airport complex has multiple layers of security, with the NATO base set well back from the first entrance, which an Afghan official said had been breached.
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| From the perspective of one neighbourhood in Herat |
An Afghan security official told the AFP he had seen five dead men in Afghan army uniform, but it was unclear whether they were soldiers or Taliban attackers.
The Taliban said their suicide bombers had entered the airport, and an Afghan government official confirmed that clashes had taken place within the airport complex.
"First a fedayee [suicide bomber] mujahid... detonated a car bomb causing the enemy heavy casualties and losses and removed all the barriers," the Taliban said on their website.
"After the attack other fedayee mujahids entered the base... and started attacking the invading forces in the base."
The Taliban have waged an 11-year uprising against the Afghan government, which is backed by 100,000 NATO troops, since being overthrown in a US-led invasion for harbouring al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
The airport has come under attack on two previous occasions this year.
On February 27, six civilians, an Afghan soldier and two local guards were killed in a suicide car bomb attack on the military base, but NATO troops escaped unhurt.
The airport also came under attack on April 15, when the Taliban launched their spring offensive with a series of commando-style assaults across Afghanistan.
Deaths in blast as Pakistan Shia mark Ashoura
A bomb attack on a Shia Muslim procession has killed five people and wounded scores more in northwest Pakistan as the group marked Ashoura, a day of religious significance for Shia and some Sunni Muslims.
The bomb exploded on Sunday in the city of Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where another blast on Saturday killed eight people near a Shia Muslim procession.
"Five people were killed and 83 injured in the bomb blast," Shafeerulla Khan, a senior government official in regional capital Peshawar told AFP news agency.
Khan said preliminary investigations indicated the device was planted inside a shop but police were probing whether a suicide bomber was involved.
A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban said the armed group claimed responsibility for the bombing and threatened more attacks.
"It was a suicide attack and we claim responsibility for it," Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.
He repeated his threat made on Saturday that the Taliban had dispatched more suicide bombers across the country for attacks against the minority community.
The group claimed Saturday's bombing, and a suicide attack that killed 23 people on Thursday at a Shia procession in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
Anwar Khan Akbar, a police official confirmed the death toll and said the target of the attack was the Ashoura procession.
Khalid Aziz, a doctor in the city's main hospital, told Pakistan's private ARY TV channel some of the injured were in critical condition.
| Foiled attack In a separate development, police in Pakistan's largest city Karachi said they foiled a major terrorist attack. They said they killed a Taliban member in a gun battle and recovered a 100kg bomb planted in a car. Police arrested another suspected Taliban member and also found two suicide vests, two AK-47 assault rifles and two pistols in the car. "Police intercepted the car and killed a militant in an exchange of gunfire," Aslam Khan, a senior police official, told AFP, saying that the suspects planned to use the car to target an Ashoura procession. In December 2009, a suicide bomber killed 43 people in Karachi at a Shia procession to mark Ashoura. Pakistan has deployed tens of thousands of police and paramilitary forces to try to avert sectarian clashes or attacks on Ashoura marches. While both Shia and some Sunni Muslims mark the day of Ashoura, it is a day of commemoration for Shia Muslims who mourn the killing of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed's grandson Imam Hussein. Authorities have ordered heightened security, with services for mobile phones, which are often used to trigger bombs, suspended in major cities. More than 300 Shia Pakistani's have been killed this year alone in sectarian related conflict, according to local Pakistani media. |
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