KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Militants managed to penetrate one of the safest nooks of Kabul to detonate a massive car bomb Saturday, shaking the confidence of voters just five days before presidential elections.
The powerful blast, for which the Taliban claimed responsibility, killed seven Afghan civilians and wounded 91 more. The bomb went off outside NATO headquarters just after 8:30 Saturday morning, the beginning of the Afghan workweek. It sent a plume of smoke visible around Kabul and knocked out glass windows more than 500 feet away.
Turkish authorities arrested a man who allegedly plotted to pose as an Arab news network journalist to kill U.S. President Obama, a Saudi newspaper said Monday.
The man, said to be of Syrian descent, was arrested Friday and allegedly confessed he intended to stab Obama with a knife during the president’s visit to Turkey, the Saudi daily Al Watan reported. The man, who was carrying a press card identifying him as an employee of al-Jazeera, allegedly said he had three accomplices.
The Jerusalem Post, which reported about the al Watan article, said Turkish authorities didn’t know whether the identification card was a fake.
At least 48 people were killed and 150 injured when a suicide bomber detonated explosives during Friday prayers at a mosque in the Khyber region of northwest Pakistan, according to news reports from the area and residents.
Tariq Hayat , the chief administrator of the region close to the Afghanistan border, told Geo TV that “so far we have counted 48 bodies.”
Residents said that about 250 to 300 worshipers were in the mosque at the time of the attack and that the death toll could rise sharply.
Witnesses in southwestern Somalia say fighting between government troops and Islamist militants has killed at least 14 people.
The clash broke out Wednesday in the Bakool region, after government troops attacked a base belonging to the al-Shabab militant group in the Rabdhure district.
Heavy gunfire was exchanged and at least one vehicle was burned. Another vehicle was reported to have been captured by the militants.
Two rockets fired from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip slammed into open fields in southern Israel overnight, without causing any casualties or damage, the Israeli military said on Saturday.
“The two Qassam-type devices were fired from the northern Gaza Strip and landed in the western Negev,” a military spokeswoman said, referring to the crude, homemade rockets used by Palestinian armed groups.
Gaza militants have fired more than 160 rockets and mortar rounds on Israel since the end of a massive Israeli offensive at the turn of the year aimed at halting the projectiles, shaking the ceasefires that ended the fighting.
Eight Pakistanis, mostly policemen, were killed when commando-style gunmen attacked the convoy with rocket-propelled grenades and AK47 machine guns.
The poor security for the visitors and the ease with which the terrorists were able to target the team, has further isolated both Pakistan as a global hub of terrorism and a venue for international cricket.
President Asif Zardari was forced to apologise to his Sri Lankan counterpart yesterday for the lack of protection, while the International Cricket Council officials said it was unlikely that international cricket matches could be played in Pakistan again until the security situation has dramatically improved.
Pakistan offered a reward of $125,000 this morning for information about the 12 masked gunmen who ambushed Sri Lanka’s cricket team, as conspiracy theories multiplied about who was behind the Mumbai-style attack.
While police continued to scour the eastern city of Lahore for the gunmen, all of whom escaped, the government of the eastern province of Punjab appealed for help from the public in most national newspapers.
Officers announced today that they had arrested “some suspects” behind the attack, but the gunmen were still at large.
“The dignity of the country has been hurt,” the Punjab government said, alongside blurred images of the gunmen grabbed from CCTV footage.
