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.

The attackers managed to get past at least one police checkpoint to enter a zone that includes the NATO compound and the US Embassy. Insurgents appear to be targeting the capital to create high-profile shocks seen around the country, the aim being to sow doubt about the safety of turning out to vote Thursday.

“No one can guarantee our lives if we take part in the elections,” says Sher Mohammad Faqiri, a driver who works near the scene. His colleague, Noor Sherzai, helped carry three wounded people off the street. “This is the safest area in Kabul. I don’t know if I will attend elections.”

The nation’s security forces have developed a three-tiered strategy for securing approximately 7,000 voting centers on Thursday. The plan is that police will check voters as they enter, while Afghan National Army forces stand as backup. The final backstop will be NATO forces, which will be based some distance away, but close enough to respond rapidly. But it is unclear if each polling station will actually have that level of protection.

While these three forces are supposed to be in close coordination, an incident at Saturday’s blast calls that into question. About an hour after the blast, the police chief charged with securing the elections in Kabul arrived on scene. Gen. Sayed Abdul Ghafar Sayed Zada, whose regular job is as chief of the criminal investigation department with the Kabul police, stepped under a security cordon tape stretched across the scene. An investigator at heart, he first bent down to pick up a small scrap of paper he saw lying on the street and looked it over.

When he rose, he was intercepted by representatives of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). He explained who he was, but got the response: “We don’t care who you are; now it’s under control of ISAF.”

“That’s just atrocious COIN [counterinsurgency],” says Tim Lynch, an Afghanistan-based security expert referring to counterinsurgency. “You’ve got a new general here talking COIN. And in the manual they have written themselves, it would absolute mandate close coordination with that guy.”

Mr. Lynch adds that the execution of this car bomb was superior to previous insurgent efforts in Afghanistan.

Across the country, there’s doubt that every voting center will be able to open, given the insecurity. The Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan estimates that 14 of the country’s 368 districts will be too insecure to send independent election monitors. An additional 130 fall into a questionable category.

Most of these troubled districts lie in the Pashtun-dominated south and east of the country. While Kabul has enjoyed relative security, the city police understand that the Taliban will be targeting it in an effort to undermine the image of the election in the eyes of the world.

Bomb in Kabul targets NATO headquarters, near US Embassy

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.

Yussef al-Sharif, al-Jazeera’s Ankara bureau chief, told the Saudi newspaper the ID card was "most certainly" forged. He said the alleged assassination plot came as a surprise to the Qatari network’s staff, who said they didn’t know the suspect.

The Italian news agency Adnkronos International, which also quoted the Saudi newspaper, said the Syrian man was arrested in Istanbul. It said he had been permanently living in Istanbul for a number of years.

Obama arrived in Ankara Sunday for meetings with Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other officials.

Arrest made in alleged Obama plot

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.

“It was a suicide bombing,” Mr. Hayat said. The bombing came as President Obama prepared to announce his new strategy to bolster American forces in Afghanistan and for the first time set benchmarks for progress in fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Quoting witnesses, Mr. Hayat said the bomber had mingled with the congregation and blown himself up as prayers were about to begin.

Mosques across the Islamic world are especially crowded on Fridays and the scale of the attack dwarfed other recent attacks in the region.

One survivor, who uses only the name Arman, said that just as a cleric began to intone the words “God is great,” we heard a powerful explosion. There were blood and limbs all around. I had never seen such a horrendous scene in my whole life.”

The blast brought the roof of the two-story building tumbling onto the first floor ceiling, which collapsed, residents said.

Mr. Hayat blamed the militant group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan for the explosion.

“Their aim is to spread terror and any place where they cause maximum casualties is a legitimate target for them,” Mr. Hayat said in a telephone interview. Tehrik-i-Taliban is a militant group headed by Baitullah Mehsud, whose forces are battling the Pakistani Army in increasingly large swaths of the country. Its training camps have recently been attacked by American drones.

The mosque was about 12 miles from Peshawar on the main highway between Afghanistan and Pakistan which is used as a principal supply route for NATO and American forces in Afghanistan.

The mosque was often used by worshippers passing by on the main highway.

After the attack, dozens of bodies were taken to a hospital in the neighboring town of Jamrud, while relatives removed others for burial, residents said.

Among the dead were 10 police officers and four paramilitary soldiers from a nearby checkpoint but Mr. Hayat denied they could have been the target.

Many of the dead were civilians, including children, with a handful of local security forces among them, residents reported.

Television news footage from the attack showed men in long robes and white skullcaps standing atop a wall overlooking the wreckage of the mosque and carrying corpses from the debris. A minaret with a loudspeaker jutted from the rubble and other people clawed through rubble seeking bodies or survivors.

Initial reports did not indicate any claim of responsibility for the attack, which came as news emerged that Taliban leaders in Pakistan had agreed to close ranks with their Afghan counterparts to confront a planned increase of 17,000 in the number of American troops in Afghanistan.

The United States also plans to send an extra 4,000 soldiers to train Afghan security forces. The increases will bring the overall American deployment in Afghanistan to about 60,000. The Times of London reported on Friday that Britain was considering sending 2,000 soldiers to support the American reinforcement, in addition to the 8,300 troops it already has in Afghanistan.

The Khyber area is known for bitter feuds between rival tribes and groups of militants.

Most of the 158 wounded were brought to the main hospitals in Peshawar. A doctor at one of the hospitals said that they had declared an emergency to deal with the high number of casualties.

Suicide Bomber Kills 48 in Pakistan

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.

Al-Shabab controls much of southern and central Somalia after a two-year insurgency, and has moved to impose its own strict form of Islamic law in areas under its control.

Last week, Somalia’s cabinet voted to make Sharia the basis of Somalia’s legal system, in an effort to appease the insurgents.

At Least 14 Killed in Somalia Clash

“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.

Israel has in turn launched several air strikes at suspected militants, weapons caches, and smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border.

On Thursday Hamas said the “resistance movements” had nothing to do with the recent rocket fire and vowed to combat such activities, saying they came at a “bad time.”

Egypt has been struggling since the war ended in January to mediate a more lasting ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and a prisoner exchange to return an Israeli soldier seized by Gaza militants in June 2006.

The Islamist movement has ruled Gaza since June 2007, when it violently drove out forces loyal to the Western-backed president Mahmud Abbas.

Two Gaza rockets hit Israel: military

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.

The revelation that security warnings for such a sensitive match will fuel further criticism. Sri Lanka had stepped in to play Pakistan after India withdraw following last november’s attack on Mumbai by Pakistani terrorists. The Sri Lankans came under intense pressure to pull out from India amid concerns about the country’s poor security situation.

A leaked report from Punjab’s Crime Investigation Department (CID), passed to Pakistani papers reveals that authorities were warned almost six weeks ago, of a plot and urged the all security agencies in the state and federal governments to take special precautions to protect the visitors.

The report identifies the Indian intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), as the force behind the plot – an accusation regularly traded between India and Pakistan – but specifically identified the drive between their hotel and the stadium as the scene of the attack.

Pakistani newspapers quoted the report, dated January 22nd 2009, warning:”It has reliably been learnt that RAW (Indian intelligence agency) has assigned its agents the task to target Sri Lankan cricket team during its current visit to Lahore, especially while travelling between the hotel and stadium or at hotel during their stay.

“It is evident that RAW intends to show Pakistan a security risk state for sports events, particularly when the European and the Indian teams have already postponed their proposed visits considering it a high security risk to visit Pakistan .Extreme vigilance and heightened security arrangements indicated.” A further letter from Punjab’s then chief minister Shahbaz Sharif’s office to Lahore’s Inspector-General of Police and security ministers, requested extra security protection for the tourists. “The chief minister has seen the enclosed source report and has desired that every effort may be made for the security of the Sri Lankan cricket team during its current visit to Lahore. He has further desired that extreme vigilance and heightened security arrangement may be made to avert any untoward incident,” his officials wrote.

The correspondence and the ‘secret report’ have been leaked in a new political row over who is to blame. Sharif was forced to stand down as chief minister shortly before the attack after a Supreme Court ruling that he had been ineligible to stand for the post. His government was dismissed and President Asif Ali Zadari imposed the state’s governor Salman Taseer as acting chief executive.

Sri Lankan cricketers: Pakistan ‘ignored’ warnings about attack on team bus

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.

“Assist us in identifying the terrorists who fired at the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore.”

As the hunt for the gunmen continued, Haji Habibur Rehman, Lahore police chief, said that none of those detained in the city had directly carried out the attack. He did not say how many had been arrested.

“So far we have not made any headway toward the perpetrators,” he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

Pakistani officials say yesterday’s attack outside Lahore’s Gaddafi stadium bore all the hallmarks of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani militant group blamed for a similar commando-style attack on Mumbai in November.

However, several have hinted at a “foreign hand” in the attack, fuelling speculation among ordinary Pakistanis – despite a complete lack of evidence – that India carried out the attack as revenge for the Mumbai attacks.

One newspaper printed what appeared to be a fake report from the Punjab police’s Crime Investigation Department (CID) warning in January that India’s intelligence agency might try to attack the Indian cricket team.

The report, dated January 22, 2009, says that India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) “has assigned its agents the task to target Sri Lankan cricket team during its current visit to Sri Lanka, especially while travelling between the hotel and stadium.”

It appears to be signed by Malik Muhammad Iqbal, the additional Inspector General of Police, CID Punjab.

When contacted by The Times, Mr Iqbal declined to confirm or deny the authenticity of the report.

“That is something which has been leaked,” he said. “I cannot comment on intelligence matters.”

Other Punjab police officials declined to comment.

Several security experts and political analysts said the report was clearly a fake, designed to deflect attention from LeT and to shift blame onto the federal government that took charge of Punjab last week.

It nonetheless illustrates how Pakistan’s charged political climate contributes to the popular sense of denial about the threat posed by the al Qaeda and Taleban militants sheltering near its border with Afghanistan.

Asif Ali Zardari, the President, vowed today to continue the fight against the militants who are also blamed for the assassination of his wife, the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, in December 2007.

“This is an existential battle,” he said in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal. “If we lose, so too will the world. Failure is not an option.”

However, Western diplomats fear that he is being undermined by members of Pakistan’s powerful army and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency who have links to LeT and other militant groups.

One former ISI chief with clear Islamist sympathies has even speculated publicly that yesterday’s attack could have been carried out by Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels, backed by Indian intelligence, as a payback for Mumbai.

“It’s all too obvious that it is the handiwork of the Indian intelligence,” said retired general Hamid Gul.

Despite the lack of supporting evidence, such theories easily gain credence among ordinary Pakistanis stunned at the attack on their most cosmopolitan city – and a sport that is a national obsession.

“Pakistanis could not do this,” was a typical response from Shazia Sardar, a 28-year-old immigration officer. “The people who did this were not Muslims.”

However, most serious Pakistani commentators dismissed talk of an Indian conspiracy and urged the government to confront the homegrown militants who have ruined Pakistan’s reputation as a sporting venue.

“The worst thing that can happen to a state is to go into denial. How long will we deny that we have groups that have run amok and whose obvious agenda involves destroying Pakistan as a nation state?” wrote Ejaz Haider in the Daily Times.

“To point to India… without bothering to look at other evidence for which we now have a long trajectory, is not simply ignorance; it is deliberate perfidy.”

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s cricketers were being welcomed home by tearful relatives and the country’s sports minister, Gamini Lokuge, amid tight security at the international airport in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital.

“I never thought I will be able to come home alive,” said Mahela Jayawardene, the team captain, as he was greeted by his relieved wife Christina.

Batsmen Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavitana, who were both hit by bullets, were among the first of the 25-member touring party to leave the airport to be taken to a private hospital in Colombo.

“Both of them may need further treatment and surgery,” said Geethanjana Mendis, a sports medicine specialist who assessed their injuires before they flew home.

He said the entire team needed medical evaluation, but none of the injuries were life threatening.

Six players and a British assistant coach were hurt in yesterday’s attack, which also left six Pakistani policemen and two civilians dead, including one of the team convoy’s drivers.

In Washington last night, Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, offered his sympathy to the victims of the attack but said Pakistan must be seen to be dealing with the ‘terrorist problem in its midst.’

“My first thoughts are with those who died and those who have been casualties as a result of this terrorist attack,” he said.

“Obviously, when people are competing in sport and suddenly there’s a terrorist attack, it is all the more tragic.

“What we have to do is to make sure that action against terrorism in Pakistan is effective. We know that the vast majority of al Qaida fighters are in Pakistan, not in Afghanistan.

“We know that there are groups in Pakistan that are terrorist groups that need to be brought under control, arrested and brought to trial.

“I have been pressing for some time the Pakistan government to make sure that arrests happen, terrorists are brought under control and Pakistan is seen to be fulfilling its role in the world community in dealing with the terrorist problem in its midst.”

Pakistan offers $125,000 bounty for terrorists who attacked cricketers

It said the coalition troops were on a patrol with Afghan security forces, but did not give any further details.

Some 38,000 U.S. troops are currently serving in Afghanistan alongside another 30,000 from 40 other mostly NATO nations.

Around half the U.S. troops serve under a NATO-led force, while the rest operate under a U.S.-led coalition. Almost all troops in the coalition are American.

Many coalition troops are involved in training and mentoring Afghan security forces, especially in the south and east of the country where the Taliban insurgency is strongest.

President Barack Obama last week ordered 17,000 more U.S. troops deployed in Afghanistan to reinforce mainly British, Canadian and Dutch forces in south of the country who are locked in a stalemate with the Taliban insurgents there.

Commanders predict violence will rise in Afghanistan this year as the new troops venture into new areas of the south and try to enforce security ahead of presidential polls on Aug. 20.

Blast Kills 4 U.S. Troops, Afghan Civilian

It said the coalition troops were on a patrol with Afghan security forces, but did not give any further details.

Some 38,000 U.S. troops are currently serving in Afghanistan alongside another 30,000 from 40 other mostly NATO nations.

Around half the U.S. troops serve under a NATO-led force, while the rest operate under a U.S.-led coalition. Almost all troops in the coalition are American.

Many coalition troops are involved in training and mentoring Afghan security forces, especially in the south and east of the country where the Taliban insurgency is strongest.

President Barack Obama last week ordered 17,000 more U.S. troops deployed in Afghanistan to reinforce mainly British, Canadian and Dutch forces in south of the country who are locked in a stalemate with the Taliban insurgents there.

Commanders predict violence will rise in Afghanistan this year as the new troops venture into new areas of the south and try to enforce security ahead of presidential polls on Aug. 20.

Blast Kills 4 U.S. Troops, Afghan Civilian

The probe follows the latest Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) air assault against the capital using two of their Czech-made aircraft.

The military shot down one aircraft just before it reached the intended target at the main airbase, while the second plane crashed into a tax building here on Friday night and exploded in a ball of fire.

“At this stage we do not know the exact origin of the planes except that they had been manufactured in the Czech Republic,” Sri Lankan Air Force spokesman Janaka Nanayakkara said.

“Forensic tests are under way and we have asked the manufacturer about who owned these planes.”

According to a local press report, the Zlin-143 planes may have come from a flying club in South Africa and been stripped down, smuggled in by sea and reassembled by the Tigers.

The Island newspaper also reported that rebel pilots may have been trained in South Africa, where the Tigers have a considerable support base among the expatriate Tamil community.

The military has said both planes involved in Friday night’s attack were on a suicide mission, but intense ground fire had prevented a bigger disaster. Two people on the ground were killed and 58 wounded.

According to the island’s defence ministry, the raid was the last air attack likely to be carried out by the Tamil Tigers — who have lost nearly all of their northern fiefdom in a major government offensive.

“The security forces have put in the last nails on the LTTE’s rudimentary air capability,” the ministry said on Sunday, adding the Tigers deployed the aircraft because they would have lost them anyway to advancing ground troops.

Two weeks ago, the army said it had captured the last of seven air fields used by the Tigers. But the rebels may have used a patch of paved road in an area still under their control to take off, the ministry said.

Sri Lanka probes origin of Tiger aircraft – War News