iris89
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 Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2012 3:34 pm Post subject: VIOLENCE FOLLOWS MUSLIMS: |
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VIOLENCE FOLLOWS MUSLIMS:
A collection of examples from various times:
Car bombs in Iraq kill at least 25, wound 64
By CHELSEA J. CARTER, Associated Press Writer Chelsea J. Carter, Associated Press Writer - Sat Dec 27, 2:15 pm ET, retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081227/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq on 12/27/2008]
BAGHDAD - A pair of car bombs killed more than two dozen people on Saturday, shattering a recent period of calm and serving as a grim reminder that recent gains remains fragile as Iraq prepares to take over security responsibilities for much of the country.
The attacks included one in the Iraqi capital - the first major attack in more than a week - that killed at least 22 people and injured 54.
In other violence, a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq fugitive was killed in a gunbattle with police in the western city of Ramadi, police said. He was one of four suspected insurgents who escaped during a jailbreak and ensuing riot at a Ramadi police station on Friday that left six policemen and seven insurgents dead.
Although violence has dropped by more than 80 percent around Iraq and particularly Baghdad, the U.S. military has repeatedly said the improved security conditions remain fragile.
Iraq assumes control over much of the country on Jan. 1 under a security pact that replaces an expiring U.N. mandate. The new agreement gives Iraqi authorities a role in approving and overseeing U.S. military operations, and requires that U.S. troops withdraw from Baghdad and other cities by the end of June. They must leave the country entirely by Jan. 1, 2012.
The U.S. military has said attacks are down from 180 a day last year to about 10 a day this year.
The latest attack came in Baghdad's al-Zahra square, in the northern Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah. Associated Press Television News footage of the scene showed scorched cars and minibuses. A charred engine block and melted, twisted metal was all that remained of the car bomb.
The office of Iraqi army spokesman Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said the blast killed at least 22 people, while a U.S. military spokesman, Capt. Charles Calio, said 20 were killed and 25 wounded. Conflicting casualty tolls are common in the chaotic aftermath of bombings in Iraq.
South of Baghdad, an Iraqi soldier and two other people were killed when a car bomb exploded as they were trying to defuse it in Musayyib, about 60 miles (40 kilometers) south of Baghdad, an Iraqi police officer said.
Two of the victims were said to be members of the local Awakening Council, also known as Sons of Iraq, the Sunni insurgents and tribesmen who turned against al-Qaida in Iraq and joined the U.S. military in the fight against the terror group, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
He said 10 other people were wounded in the blast. Initial reports by the U.S. military showed three were killed and two injured. All were believed to be Iraqi soldiers, Calio said.
Prior to Saturday's explosion in Baghdad, the last major attack in Iraq was a Dec. 17 double-bombing in Baghdad that killed 18 and wounded 52 others.
In western Iraq, Iraqi police said they killed escaped prisoner, Emad Farhan, in a gunbattle inside the home of a family he had taken hostage. Three police were wounded but the family was not harmed, said the officer who could not be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Another man who escaped was arrested Friday, and police were still searching for two others.
Police in the northern city of Kirkuk also arrested six suspected insurgents, including the former driver of Hassan al-Majid - Saddam Hussein's cousin who is also known as "Chemical Ali," for ordering poison gas attacks against Iraq's Kurdish minority in the 1980s. Police Col. Bastoun Qafari said they were arrested in a pre-dawn raid.
Earlier this month al-Majid received his second death sentence from an Iraqi court for his role in crushing a Shiite uprising in the wake of Iraq's defeat in the 1991 Gulf War.
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Associated Press writers Jim Heintz and Sinan Salaheddin contributed to this report.
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Pakistan: Marriott reopens as bomber kills 34
By SEBASTIAN ABBOT, Associated Press Writer Sebastian Abbot, Associated Press Writer - 56 mins ago [12/28/2008 and retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081228/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan_india ]
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A suicide bomber pretending to need help with his car killed 34 people in northwest Pakistan on Sunday while the target of another recent attack, the Marriott in Islamabad, partially reopened three months after a brazen truck bombing at the luxury hotel left 54 dead.
The Marriott building was badly damaged by the September blast - blamed on a Pakistani militant group accused of killing U.S journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 - but renovations, a security overhaul and the addition of a giant bombproof wall meant the hotel was ready to welcome guests again, the owner said.
"We have expressed our resolve that we will not bow before the enemies of Pakistan," said owner Saddaruddin Hashwani.
The suicide attack on Sunday, at a polling station close to the Swat Valley, comes amid concern that extremist violence is set to spike now that Pakistan is shifting troops away from the region toward India.
The military has not confirmed the troop movements, but it has restricted military leave and reports said thousands were being redeployed away from the northwest - where many al-Qaida and Taliban militants are based - toward the eastern border with India amid tensions over last month's attacks in Mumbai.
India blames Pakistani militants for the slaughter of 164 people in its commercial capital, and it has not ruled out force. But leaders of both nuclear-armed countries insist they want to avoid what would be their fourth war.
Leading Pakistani newspapers warned in editorials Sunday that Pakistan can't afford to reduce its troop presence along the Afghan border.
"Isn't that the area where the world's best intelligence says the extremist militants are holed up in significant numbers and planning to strike targets everywhere?" wrote Dawn, a leading English-language paper. "They cannot be allowed a breather at a time when military operations are ongoing to clear the area of their roguish presence."
Witnesses have reported large convoys moving troops away from the Afghan border in recent days. Two Pakistani intelligence officials said Friday that thousands of troops from the army's 14th Infantry Division were being redeployed from the militant hotspot of Waziristan to towns close to the Indian border. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.
The targeted polling station was located in a school in Buner, a district bordering the Swat Valley, where the Pakistani army has waged an intermittent offensive against militants for more than a year. The explosion wounded 14 people, five of them critically, said police official Beharmand Khan.
"The suicide attacker pulled his car outside the polling station and asked people to push the vehicle, saying that it had broken down," said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the information minister for the region containing the Swat Valley. "The moment people started pushing the car, he blew it up."
Pakistani Defense Minister Ahmad Mukhtar condemned the attack, saying "cowardice and inhuman acts could not weaken the government's resolve to eliminate the scourge of terrorism and violent extremism."
In Islamabad, the Marriott's restaurants reopened and 70 rooms were to be available Jan. 1, said Sufia Shahid, a senior communications official for the group that owns the hotel. The rest of the hotel's nearly 300 rooms are expected to be ready by March, she added.
The attack prompted foreign embassies, non-governmental organizations and other groups to tighten security and even send some people home.
Pakistan has arrested three people allegedly connected to the truck bombing, but no one has been formally charged.
The Pakistani government recently claimed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a militant group believed to be based in the Pakistani province of Punjab, was involved in the bombing. The Sunni Muslim extremist group has been accused of attacks against Westerners in Karachi and the 2002 slaying of Pearl.
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Associated Press writers Nahal Toosi and Asif Shahzad in Islamabad, Riaz Khan in Peshawar and Bashirullah Khan in Miran Shah contributed to this report.
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Female bomber at Shiite shrine in Baghdad kills 38
By PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press Writer Patrick Quinn, Associated Press Writer - 2 hrs 47 mins ago
Retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090104/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq on 01/05/2009 ]
BAGHDAD - A woman hiding among Iranian pilgrims with a bomb strapped under her black robe killed more than three dozen people on Sunday outside a Baghdad mosque during ceremonies commemorating the death of one of Shiite Islam's most revered saints.
The suicide attack, the most recent in a series that has killed more than 60 people in less that a week, was the latest to mar the transfer of many security responsibilities from the U.S. military to Iraqi forces.
Iraqi security forces have deployed thousands of troops in Baghdad and in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, just south of the capital, to safeguard against attacks during the ceremonies. Attacks by al-Qaida in Iraq, Sunni insurgents and even a Shiite cult have killed hundreds of people in recent years.
The attack in Baghdad's northern Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah, which also and wounded at least 72 people, comes two days after a suicide bomber slipped into a luncheon at a tribal leader's home south of Baghdad and killed at least 23 people. More than a dozen other people have died in other attacks since New Year's Day.
The Iraqi military held parades to mark the anniversary of its founding 88 years ago and to celebrate a security agreement with the United States that went into effect on Jan. 1. The agreement replaced a U.N. mandate that allowed the U.S. and other foreign troops to operate in Iraq.
Under the new agreement, U.S. troops in Iraq will no longer conduct unilateral operations and will act only in concert with Iraqi forces. The must also leave major Iraqi cities by June and withdraw all troops by the end of 2011.
In another sign of the transition in authority, the U.S. military on Sunday handed over control in Diyala Province of about 9,000 Sons of Iraq, a predominantly Sunni group of former insurgents and tribesmen whose revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq gave a significant boost to security in the turbulent province and helped turned the tide in the war against the terror group.
The United States paid the group's estimated 90,000 members countrywide about $300 a month. Eventually, the members are to be either integrated into the Iraqi military and police, or provided civilian jobs and vocational training.
Under the phased handover, which began last year in Baghdad, Iraqi authorities will continue that pay and education strategy.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabanbi told Iraqi army troops during a parade marking Army Day that "the Iraqi army has gained the trust of government and Iraqi people as the army of all Iraqis."
At a military parade that included recently purchased U.S. military equipment and armored vehicles, he told the troops that "the signing of the withdrawal of foreign troop's agreement and the end of the U.N. mandate on Iraq" on Dec. 31 that gave U.S. and other forces the legal standing to occupy Iraq.
Just as the parade took place around noon, hundreds of worshippers had gathered in Kazimiyah just a few miles to the north, home to the shrine of Imam Mousa al-Kazim, one of the holiest men in Shiite Islam.
The woman was among a group of Iranian pilgrims and she blew herself up just outside the gates of the mosque, a large building graced by four minarets. The office of Iraqi army spokesman Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi confirmed a woman wearing an explosives vest was responsible.
Iraqi army and police put the deaths at 38, although the Prime Minister's National Operations Center said it was 36. Conflicting reports on the number of dead and wounded are common in Iraq in the chaotic aftermath of attacks.
At least one report from the Health Ministry said the dead included 17 Iranian pilgrims, seven of which were women. There were also seven Iraqi women killed by the blast, which sent shrapnel hurtling across the crowded square.
"I saw many dead pilgrims on the ground after the explosion all covered in blood, some of them Iranians," one unidentified witness told Associated Press Television News.
Thousands of pilgrims from predominantly Shiite Iran visit during Ashura, celebrated on Jan. 7 this year. The evening before the explosion, thousands of men marched through the streets of Kazimiyah rhythmically beating their chests with bare hands and slashing their shoulders with iron chains, part of ceremonies leading up to the anniversary of 7th-century death of Prophet Muhammad's grandson Hussein.
He was killed in a battle on the plains of Karbala near the Euphrates River. The battle, which was part of the dispute over the religion's leadership that began after Muhammad's death, was a key event in Islam's split into the majority Sunni and minority Shiite branches.
The Iraqi police and army have deployed thousands of forces to safeguard worshippers, mostly those heading to Karbala south of Baghdad. The city is home to the golden-domed mosques of Imam Hussein and his half-brother Imam Abbas. Hundreds of thousands are expected to pour into the city Tuesday and Wednesday night for the pinnacle of the pilgrimage.
Maj. Gen. Othman Ali Farhood al-Ghanimy, the Iraqi army commander in Karbala, said last week that thousands of foreign pilgrims had arrived.
Sunday's suicide attack bore all the hallmarks of the Sunni terror group al-Qaida in Iraq, which has killed hundreds of people in bombings against Ashura pilgrims in recent years. U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. general in Iraq, blamed the group for the attack as well as a Friday suicide bombing that killed at least 23.
"These horrific attacks, along with the December 11 suicide bombing in Kirkuk, demonstrate that despite the great progress we have made, al-Qaida in Iraq remains a lethal and dangerous threat to innocent men, women and children of all faiths and groups," Odierno and Crocker said in a joint statement. The bombing in the northern city of Kirkuk killed 55.
Other Islamic extremist groups also have used Ashura to stage bloody attacks against Shiites.
Among the bloodiest attacks during Ashura were a series of mortar attacks and bombings in Baghdad and Karbala that year 2004 which killed nearly 200 pilgrims and wounded more than 500 others.
Last week, police in the southern city of Basra arrested a leading figure in a messianic Shiite cult, known as the "Soldiers of Heaven," that has battled with Iraqi and U.S. forces during the holiday.
At least 72 people died - mostly cult members - in ferocious battles with police in 2008.
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Police: Suicide attack kills 7 in Pakistan
By ISHTIAQ MAHSUD, Associated Press Writer Ishtiaq Mahsud, Associated Press Writer - Sun Jan 4, 10:51 am ET, retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090104/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan on 01/05/2009 ]
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - A suicide bomber attacked police Sunday in northwest Pakistan as they rushed to treat civilians injured by an earlier explosion, killing seven people and wounding at least 25 others, said a police official.
The bomber attacked police investigating a minor blast in the town of Dera Ismail Khan near the Afghan border, said Sanaullah Khan.
Five police officials and two civilians were killed by the second blast and 16 police were among the wounded, Khan said.
Amanullah Khan, a wounded police official, said he and his colleagues were attending to four civilians injured by the first explosion when the bomber attacked.
"When I stood up, there was blood everywhere," said Khan. "My colleagues were crying with pain."
During a raid elsewhere in northwest Pakistan on Sunday, the army discovered a van packed with 880 pounds (400 kilograms) of explosives. The van was intended to be used in a suicide bombing, the army said.
Six suspected militants were arrested in the raid on a house in the Khyber tribal region, the army media center said. The army also found suicide jackets, rockets, assault rifles and improvised bombs in the house.
The army has been in Khyber trying to secure the main supply route for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Information from militants arrested during the operation led to Sunday's raid, said the army.
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Two Pakistani soldiers, 14 Taliban, killed in clash, PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters), retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090118/wl_nm/us_pakistan_violence on 1/18/2009]
- Pakistani security forces, backed by artillery and tanks, have killed 14 Taliban insurgents in heavy fighting in the Mohmand region on the Afghan border, a government official said on Sunday.
Pakistan is struggling to stem Islamist militant influence and violence in the northwest as it keeps a wary eye on its eastern border with India after militant attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai led to a spike in tension between the neighbors.
The latest fighting in the northwest broke out Saturday evening when militants attacked troops conducting searches.
"They launched the attack from a hideout. Our troops responded quickly and destroyed it and killed 14 miscreants," Miraj Khan, a government official in the region, told Reuters.
Two paramilitary soldiers were killed in the clash that went on for several hours, he said.
Pakistani security have recently stepped up their operations in Mohmand, which is to the north of the city of Peshawar, to fight al Qaeda and Taliban militants fleeing a military offensive in the neighboring Bajaur region, to the north.
Last week, more than 600 militants, many from Afghanistan, attacked a military camp and two nearby checkposts in the region and six soldiers and 40 militants were killed, the military said.
The United States and Afghanistan have for years urged Pakistan to eliminate militant bases in lawless ethnic Pashtun tribal regions on the border from where Taliban infiltrate into Afghanistan to fight U.S.-led forces.
Intensified Pakistani efforts against the militants has led to what some officials call reverse infiltration, with some Taliban coming back into Pakistan to protect their rear bases from the Pakistani military.
(Reporting by Izaz Mohmand; Writing by Kamran Haider; Editing by Robert Birsel and Valerie Lee)
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9/11 defendants: 'We are terrorists to the bone',
By BEN FOX, Associated Press Writer Ben Fox, Associated Press Writer - 36 mins ago, retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090310/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_guantanamo_sept11_trial on 3/10/2009]
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Five men charged in the Sept. 11 attacks mock U.S. authorities and proclaim themselves "terrorists to the bone" in a war crimes court filing released Tuesday.
The five Guantanamo prisoners use the six-page document to try to justify the killing of nearly 3,000 people, portraying the attack as a response to U.S. actions in Israel, Iraq and elsewhere that is supported by their Muslim faith.
"We fight you over defending Muslims, their land, their holy sites, and their religion as a whole," they write in the document, which was submitted to the Guantanamo war crimes court and released by the Pentagon, in English, over the objections of attorneys for two of the men.
The five had previously said they wanted to plead guilty to the charges against them, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind, had expressed pride in the attacks. But this is their most detailed response yet.
All five were charged with murder and other crimes at the Guantanamo war crimes court, which was suspended by President Barack Obama in January while his administration considers new strategies for prosecuting terrorists.
The charges, which carry a potential death sentence, "are badges of honor, which we carry with pride," they write.
The charge of conspiracy is "laughable," they write, because the planning was intended to be secret.
"Your intelligence apparatus, with all its abilities ... failed to discover our military attack plans before the blessed 11 September operation ... Why then should you blame us, holding us accountable and putting us on trial?"
They criticize the U.S. for fighting "from behind roadblocks, trenches and warplanes" rather than face-to-face and describe Islam as "a religion of fear" for Jews, Christians and pagans.
"We are terrorists to the bone. So, many thanks to God," they write.
Obama has ordered the closure of Guantanamo, so if and when the trials resume, they will be held somewhere else and most likely under a different legal system than the widely criticized military commissions created by Congress and President George W. Bush.
Three of the men are acting as their own lawyers but two of the men, Ramzi Binalshibh and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, still have Pentagon-appointed military attorneys pending a court ruling on whether they are mentally competent to represent themselves.
Their lawyers, Army Maj. Jon Jackson and Navy Cmdr. Suzanne Lachelier, said they had not met with their clients to discuss the document and cannot say what may have motivated the men to sign it - or even vouch for its authenticity.
"Based on our review of the unsigned, English and typed document there is no evidence that either Mr. Binalshibh or Mr. al-Hawsawi knew about, read, or signed this document," they said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press.
Pentagon spokesman Jeffrey Gordon called the filing "merely another attempt by these detainees to garner publicity."
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Bomb destroys Pakistan mosque, at least 48 killed, By Mohammad Sajjad, AP, retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-03-27-pakistan-violence_N.htm?csp=24&RM_Exclude=JunoOn 3/27/2009]
A suicide bomber killed at least 48 people when he blew himself up in a crowded Pakistani mosque near the Afghan border.
A suicide bomber demolished a mosque packed with hundreds of worshippers attending Friday prayers near the Afghan border, killing at least 48 people and injuring scores more, in the bloodiest attack in Pakistan this year.The attack in the Khyber region came hours before President Barack Obama was due to unveil a revised strategy expected to emphasize the need to eradicate militant havens in Pakistan's northwest.
A government official accused Islamist militants of carrying out the bombing in revenge for a recent offensive aimed in part at protecting the major supply route for NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan that passes in front of the mosque."Residents of this area had cooperated and helped us a lot.
These infidels had warned that they will take revenge," said Tariq Hayat, the top administrator of the Khyber tribal region. "They are the enemy of Pakistan. They are the enemy of Islam."Rising violence in Pakistan is fueling doubts about the pro-Western government's ability to counter Taliban and al-Qaeda militants also blamed for attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan.
The mosque, a popular stop for travelers motoring between Pakistan and Afghanistan, when about 250 people were attending Friday prayers, said Hayat.Television footage showed scores of residents and police officers digging frantically with their hands through the ruins of the white-walled mosque, whose roof collapsed in the explosion.
Rescuers hauled bodies covered in dust and blood on blankets and scarves toward ambulances and private cars waiting to take them to hospital. Crowds of anguished women waited in the background, hoping for news of loved-ones.Hayat said rescuers had pulled 48 bodies from the rubble and predicted the toll would likely rise further.
Another 80 people were injured, he said.The mosque in a rocky valley near the town of Jamrud lies on the main road along which trucks carry vital supplies to the expanding U.S.-led force in Afghanistan.
Suspected Taliban militants have carried out a string of attacks on both trucks and transport depots along the route in recent months, destroying scores of military vehicles, including Humvees, raising doubts about the reliability of the supply line.The area has also been beset by feuds between rival tribal and militant groups, some of them loosely allied with the government, which have included suicide bombings and attacks on mosques.
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BAGHDAD (AP) - A suicide bomber blew himself up among a group of Iraqis collecting humanitarian aid Thursday in a mainly Shiite area in Baghdad, killing at least 22 people, the Iraqi military said.
The attack was the latest in a series of high-profile bombings that have raised concern of an uptick in violence as the U.S. military scales back its forces ahead of a planned withdrawal by the end of 2011.
American soldiers who specialize in clearing bombs from roads boarded a plane Thursday from Iraq to the Taliban heartland in southern Afghanistan, part of the largest movement of personnel and equipment between the two war fronts.
Thursday's bombing occurred just after noon as Iraqi police were distributing aid parcels in the central neighborhood of Karradah, according to the office of the main Baghdad military spokesman.
Some police were among the 22 people killed and 35 other people were wounded, according the military.
Police and hospital officials gave a slight higher death toll of 26 and said women and children were among the dead. The differing numbers could not immediately be reconciled.
Violence is down sharply in Iraq but there have been several deadly bombings in the past several weeks.
The Pentagon's top Middle East adviser, Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Colin Kahl, said Wednesday that insurgent attacks in Iraq will probably increase as U.S. forces start to leave, but there is no plan to delay troop departures.
President Barack Obama is deploying 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan to beef up U.S. operations there.
The 4th Engineer Battalion began sending troops and equipment - everything from giant tow trucks and bulldozers to desks and chairs - last week.
"Our commanders have decided we're more needed in Afghanistan than we are here," said 1st Lt. Chris Selleck, one of nearly 500 soldiers with the battalion who found out weeks after arriving in Iraq that they would be redirected to Afghanistan.
"Since we are kind of at the beginning of our deployment, they decided to go ahead and ship us over there," said Selleck.
On Thursday, the transfer moved into its final stages, as soldiers loaded some of the last remaining equipment. Among the items were MRAPs - mine-resistance patrol vehicles - and cargo containers.
The battalion will not be replaced in Iraq, another sign of America's drawdown in Iraq.
In late March, the Fort Sill, Oklahoma-based 100th Brigade Support Battalion was moved from the giant U.S. base in Balad, 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Baghdad, to southern Afghanistan.
U.S. military commanders have said the sharp decline in violence in Iraq and the increasing capabilities of Iraq's security forces made it possible to transition the soldiers.
The decline in violence also has given Iraqi leaders opportunities to focus on building sources of revenue.
A senior official overseeing oil and gas licenses in Iraq said Thursday the country will keep its late June deadline for bids to develop eight oil and gas fields.
Abdul-Mahdi al-Ameedi said the final contract details will be published later this week.
The companies have until late June to submit their offers for the 20-year service contracts, al-Ameedi said. He said the winning bids will be announced before July 1.
The service contracts mean companies are paid a flat fee instead of sharing in production revenue.
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[source - Associated Press Writer Sinan Salaheddin, retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090423/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq on 4/23/2009]
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Suicide bombers kill 60 at Baghdad shrine, By Aws Qusay Aws Qusay, for Reuters, - 1 hr 3 mins ago, retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090424/ts_nm/us_iraq on 4/24/2009]
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - In a second day of major bloodshed, two suicide bombers wearing explosive vests blew themselves up at the gates of a Shi'ite Muslim shrine in Baghdad on Friday, killing 60 people, Iraqi police said.
At least 125 people were wounded in the attack at the Imam Moussa al-Kadhim shrine in the Shi'ite neighborhood of Kadhimiya, a frequent target of insurgent groups, police said.
Police said the attackers approached two different gates of the shrine among crowds of Shi'ite pilgrims. One of the bombers detonated the explosives just inside a courtyard of the shrine, which contains the tombs of two important holy men, or imams.
The blasts on the Muslim holy day followed two suicide attacks on Thursday, one in Baghdad and the other in the northeastern province of Diyala, in which at least 89 people died. It appeared to be the highest daily toll in over a year.
The attacks coincide with growing fears of a resurgence in violence as U.S. troops prepare to pull out of Iraqi cities in June, ahead of a full U.S. withdrawal by the end of 2011, and doubts over the effectiveness of Iraqi police and soldiers.
A national election at the end of the year has also heightened expectations of violence as political parties and armed groups jostle for dominance of the oil-producing nation.
While the violence unleashed in Iraq by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion has fallen dramatically over the past year, insurgent groups such as al Qaeda continue to carry out frequent attacks. Suicide bombings are a hallmark of Sunni Islamist al Qaeda.
Analysts say the sectarian divide remains between Shi'ites and Sunnis that led to tens of thousands being slaughtered, while Kurd-Arab tensions over disputed lands in the north could also provoke renewed conflict.
Amid the bombings on Thursday in Baghdad, in which 32 people died, and in Diyala, in which 57 were killed, most of them Iranian Shi'ite pilgrims, Iraqi authorities announced the arrest of a suspected leader of an al Qaeda-affiliated insurgent group.
But neither they nor the U.S. military were able to confirm on Friday that the person arrested was Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the purported head of a group called the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI).
Some experts say they remain unconvinced that Abu Omar al-Baghdadi actually exists, speculating that he is a fictional character invented by al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).
"Abu Omar al-Baghdadi is, I believe, not a real person, but a title given to an Iraqi who acts as an Iraqi figurehead of ISI/AQI so that they can claim that it is led by Iraqis when, almost certainly, it is led by foreign jihadists," said Terry Kelly, a senior researcher at the Rand Corporation think-tank.
"This is not the first time there have been claims that he has been caught or killed. The previous claims may be true," said Kelly, who served as a policy adviser to the former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad.
(Writing by Michael Christie; Editing by Louise Ireland)
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THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. [source - retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090521/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq on 5/21/2009]
BAGHDAD (AP) - Suicide bombers struck Thursday in Baghdad and a northern city, killing at least 19 people and wounding dozens more in a burst of violence only weeks before U.S. combat troops are due to leave Iraqi cities.
The attacks come a day after a car bomb exploded near a group of restaurants in a Shiite neighborhood of northwest Baghdad, killing 41 people and injuring more than 70. Attacks in civilian areas appear to be carried out by extremists seeking to rekindle sectarian warfare.
The deadliest blast Thursday occurred in Baghdad's southern district of Dora when a suicide bomber attacked an American foot patrol in an outdoor market. Police and hospital officials said 12 civilians were killed.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to release the information. U.S. military officials said they had an initial report of an attack in Dora but no word on U.S. casualties.
Earlier Thursday, another suicide bomber killed seven U.S.-backed Sunni paramilitaries as they waited in a line to receive salaries at an Iraqi military base in the northern city of Kirkuk.
Police Maj. Salam Zankana said the victims in the Kirkuk attack were members of the local paramilitary Awakening Council - Sunnis who turned against the insurgents and help provide security. Eight others were wounded, he said.
Awakening Council members, also known as Sons of Iraq, have been frequently targeted by al-Qaida and other Sunni groups still fighting U.S. troops and the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.
Sami Ghayashi, 37, who was among the injured, said the local council members had been waiting three months to receive their salaries.
"While we were waiting at gate talking to one another a big explosion took place," he said from his hospital bed. "I saw several colleagues dead, among them my cousin. I have no idea how this suicide bomber got among us."
Also Thursday, a bomb exploded inside a police station in western Baghdad, killing three policemen and wounding 19 others, an Iraqi police official said. The bomb was hidden inside a trash can and carried into the station, he added.
The official also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
Despite a dramatic drop in violence in Iraq, attacks still occur, although with less frequency. Bursts of attacks tend to be followed by periods of calm, only to have the violence spring up again.
The Wednesday attack in the Baghdad neighborhood of Shula was the first major car-bombing in the capital since May 6, when 15 people were killed at a produce market in south Baghdad.
The Shula blast was the deadliest in the city since twin car blasts killed 51 people in another Shiite neighborhood, Sadr City, on April 29.
The failure to stop the bombings adds pressure on the Iraqi government to demonstrate that it can meet security ahead of a June 30 deadline for the U.S. to remove all combat forces from Baghdad and other Iraqi cities.
A day after the Shula bombing, dozens were still being treated at an area hospital for shrapnel wounds and burns. The blast blew out the front of a building housing shops and restaurants.
Coffins draped with flags were carried through the streets near the bombing as funerals began for the dead.
U.S. troops are due to leave Iraqi cities under terms of the U.S.-Iraq security agreement which took effect Jan. 1. President Barack Obama plans to remove combat troops from the country by September 2010 with all U.S. forces out of Iraq by the end of 2011.
Under the agreement, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki could ask the U.S. to delay the cities pullout. However, the issue is politically sensitive in a country worn out by six years of war, and the government has insisted there will be no delay in the withdrawal schedule.
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Associated Press Writer Yahya Barzanji in Sulaimaniyah contributed to this report.
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NYC police: Terror suspects wanted to commit jihad, Associated Press, [source - retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090521/ap_on_re_us/us_temple_plot on 5/21/2009]
NEW YORK - The New York City police commissioner says four men wanted to commit jihad when they plotted to bomb a Jewish temple and shoot down military planes in upstate New York.
At a news conference outside the Bronx temple Thursday, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly quoted one of the men as saying, "If Jews were killed in this attack ... that would be all right."
However, Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned against stereotypes. He stressed that the Riverdale Temple is open to people of all faiths, including a Muslim girl who sometimes prays there.
The city leaders met privately with congregants Thursday morning. Kelly said the neighborhood security was heightened to improve residents' comfort level.
The defendants are due in federal court Thursday in White Plains.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
NEW YORK (AP) - Four men due in court Thursday to face charges of plotting to bomb Jewish sites and shoot down military planes were arrested after planting what they thought were explosive devices near a synagogue and community center, authorities say.
Officials told The Associated Press the arrests came after a nearly yearlong undercover operation that began in Newburgh, N.Y., about 70 miles north of New York City.
James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen, all of Newburgh, were charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction within the United States and conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles, the U.S. attorney's office said.
Three of the defendants are U.S. citizens and one is of Haitian descent, officials said.
The men had planned to detonate a car with plastic explosives outside a temple in the Bronx neighborhood of Riverdale and to shoot military planes at the New York Air National Guard base at Stewart Airport in Newburgh with Stinger surface-to-air guided missiles, authorities said.
The defendants planned to "destroy a synagogue and a Jewish community center with C-4 plastic explosives," Acting U.S. Attorney Lev L. Dassin said.
The religious targets were the Riverdale Temple, founded in 1947, and the Riverdale Jewish Center, authorities said.
"This latest attempt to attack our freedoms shows that the homeland security threats against New York City are sadly all too real and underscores why we must remain vigilant in our efforts to prevent terrorism," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement. The mayor is expected to appear at Riverdale Jewish Center morning services with Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
The defendants, in their efforts to acquire weapons, dealt with an informant acting under law enforcement supervision, authorities said. The FBI and other agencies monitored the men and provided an inactive missile and inert C-4 to the informant for the defendants, a federal complaint said.
In June 2008, the informant met Cromitie in Newburgh and Cromitie complained that his parents had lived in Afghanistan and he was upset about the war there and that many Muslim people were being killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by U.S. military forces, officials said.
Cromitie also expressed an interest in doing "something to America," they said in the complaint.
In October 2008, the informant began meeting with the defendants at a Newburgh house equipped with concealed video and audio equipment, the complaint said.
Beginning in April 2009, the four men selected the synagogue and the community center they intended to hit, it said. They also conducted surveillance of military planes at the Air National Guard Base, it said.
The suspects were arrested Wednesday night, shortly after planting a mock explosive device in the trunk of a car outside the Riverdale Temple and two mock bombs in the backseat of a car outside the Jewish Center, authorities said.
Rep. Peter King, the senior Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, was briefed on the case following the arrests.
"This was a long, well-planned investigation, and it shows how real the threat is from homegrown terrorists," said King, of New York.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said if there can be any good news out of this case it's that "the group was relatively unsophisticated, penetrated early and not connected to any outside group."
"The shocking plan to blow up a Jewish house of prayer with what the jihadist terrorists thought were C-4 explosives is dramatic proof that the dangers from such fanaticism have not passed and that American Jews must maintain their vigilance," said a statement released by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights group.
The defendants were jailed Wednesday night and couldn't be contacted for comment. The FBI didn't immediately return a telephone message seeking information on whether the men had lawyers.
___
Associated Press writer Devlin Barrett contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.
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Pakistan Taliban claim responsibility for Lahore attack, Reuters, By Alamgir Bitani Alamgir Bitani - 2 hrs 46 mins ago, retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090528/ts_nm/us_pakistan_violence on 5/28/2009]
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility on Thursday for a suicide gun and bomb attack in the city of Lahore the previous day that killed 24 people and wounded nearly 300.
The government said the attack in a high-security area where a police headquarters, emergency services building and a military intelligence office are located, was revenge for an offensive against the Taliban in the Swat valley, northwest of Islamabad.
The army moved against the militants in the Swat region late last month after the Taliban had seized a district only 100 km (60 miles) from the capital and a peace pact collapsed.
A militant commander loyal to Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud said the Lahore attack was to avenge the offensive in Swat.
"We have achieved our target. We were looking for this target for a long time. It was a reaction to the Swat operation," the commander, Hakimullah Mehsud, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Militant violence in nuclear-armed Pakistan has surged since mid-2007, with numerous attacks on the security forces, as well as on government and Western targets.
The violence and a perception the government was being distracted by political squabbling and failing to act to stop the Taliban had alarmed the United States and other Western allies.
Pakistan is vital for U.S. plans to defeat al Qaeda and cut support for the Afghan Taliban and the United States has been heartened by the Swat offensive and by public support for it.
"The response by the military so far has the support of the Pakistani people," White House National Security Adviser General James Jones said in Washington on Wednesday.
"The government's popularity has shot up a little bit in the polls and that is going to have an effect in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan," he said.
"MAJOR ATTACKS"
But militant attacks in cities could undermine support for the offensive and Hakimullah Mehsud warned of more violence.
"We want the people of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Multan to leave those cities as we plan major attacks against government facilities in coming days and weeks," he said.
The military released late on Wednesday what it said was a tape of an intercepted telephone call between the Taliban spokesman in Swat, Muslim Khan, and an unidentified militant in which Khan urges revenge attacks.
"There's a need for them to strike soldiers in Punjab so that they can understand and feel pain," Khan says on the tape, broadcast on Pakistani television.
"Strikes should be carried out on their homes so their kids get killed and then they'll realize," he said.
The unidentified man said militants had been ordered to strike wherever they could.
The government has vowed to defeat the Taliban and on Thursday it published an offer of a reward of 5 million rupees ($60,000) for the capture, dead or alive, of the Taliban leader in Swat, Fazlullah, and smaller bounties for 20 of his comrades.
Authorities have warned that militants might launch attacks in retaliation for the offensive in Swat, where the military says about 1,100 militants and about 60 soldiers have been killed. There has been no independent confirmation of those estimates.
Soldiers had made progress in securing Swat's main town of Mingora, with a commander saying 70 percent of it had been cleared and the remainder would be secured in two or three days.
The offensive has sparked an exodus of 2.3 million people, according to provincial government figures, and the country faces a long-term humanitarian crisis which could also undermine public support for the fight against the Taliban.
But the securing of Mingora would raise the possibility of many of the displaced beginning to go home.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said after the Lahore attack that the militants were on their last legs and getting desperate.
The car bomb brought down a government ambulance service building and damaged a nearby office of the military's main Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.
Two ISI officers and six other agency officials were among the dead and security officials said their office might have been the target.
Lahore is capital of Punjab, Pakistan's most populous and prosperous province. The country's second-biggest city is also traditionally home to top bureaucrats and senior military brass.
The city has seen several bomb attacks over the past couple of years, but it felt much safer than other parts of the country until March, when militants launched two brazen assaults.
(Additional reporting by Kamran Haider and Augustine Anthony; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
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Feds: US man gave al-Qaida NYC subway information, Associated Press, retrieved from
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090722/ap_on_re_us/us_american_al_qaida on 7/22/2009]
By TOM HAYS and DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer Tom Hays And Devlin Barrett, Associated Press Writer - 48 mins ago
NEW YORK - Authorities revealed Wednesday that an American - charged with providing information to al-Qaida on the New York transit system and attacking a U.S. military base in Afghanistan - has been a secret witness in the fight against terror both here and overseas.
Court papers unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn identified the defendant as Bryant Neal Vinas, also known as "Ibrahim."
His identity had been kept secret since his indictment late last year, and federal prosecutors refused to discuss his background Wednesday.
But a law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the case, said Vinas provided critical information that led to a security alert about the New York City subway system last year.
Federal authorities issued an alert around Thanksgiving last year saying the FBI had received a "plausible but unsubstantiated" report that al-Qaida terrorists in late September may have discussed attacking the subway system around the holidays. The origin of that report, the source said, was Vinas.
Prosecutors charged Vinas in a rocket attack on U.S. forces in Afghanistan in September 2008. Court papers allege he also gave "expert advice and assistance ... on the New York transit system and Long Island Railroad."
For five months last year, Vinas received "military-style training" from al-Qaida, according to court papers.
Also, a defense attorney in a terrorism case in Belgium said prosecutors there traveled to New York earlier this year to interview Vinas. The lawyer said Vinas had provided a statement against the French and Belgium defendants charged with traveling to Pakistan to volunteer to fight with al-Qaida.
Vinas' defense attorney didn't immediately return a telephone message Wednesday.
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7 NC men charged as international "jihad" group, Associated Press, retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090728/ap_on_re_us/us_nc_terror_arrests;_ylt=Aj7T.QD.iRFaGRWHzmpPJ369IxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTJuMmNvc21qBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwNzI4L3VzX25jX3RlcnJvcl9hcnJlc3RzBGNwb3MDNgRwb3MDNgRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrAzduY21lbmNoYXJnZQ-- on 7/28/2009 ]
By MIKE BAKER, Associated Press Writer Mike Baker, Associated Press Writer - 37 mins ago
RALEIGH, N.C. - A North Carolina father who led an unobtrusive rural life as a drywall contractor had militant roots dating back to 1980s Afghanistan and Pakistan and secretly led a U.S. group plotting international terrorism, federal prosecutors said.
Daniel Patrick Boyd, 39, was arrested Monday with his two sons and four other North Carolina men. Prosecutors accused them of military-style training at home and plotting "violent jihad" through a series of terror attacks abroad.
Authorities believe Boyd's roots in terrorism run deep. They said when he was in Pakistan and Afghanistan from 1989 through 1992, he had military-style training in terrorist camps and fought the Soviets, who were ending their occupation of Afghanistan.
Prosecutors say Boyd's time in Pakistan also included terrorist training that he brought back to North Carolina, where over the past three years he recruited followers willing to die as martyrs waging jihad - the Arabic word for holy war.
Prosecutors would not detail what the group was targeting overseas. An indictment said they provided money, training, transportation and men to help terrorists. Boyd and some of the others traveled to Israel in June 2007 intending to wage "violent jihad," but returned home without success, the document said.
Sons Zakariya Boyd, 20, and Dylan Boyd, 22, were named in the indictment. Another son, Luqman, died two years ago in a car accident.
The others charged are Anes Subasic, 33; Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan, 22; and Ziyad Yaghi, 21. Hysen Sherifi, 24, a native of Kosovo and a U.S. legal permanent resident was also charged in the case. He was the only person arrested who was not a U.S. citizen.
The seven men made their first court appearances in Raleigh on Monday, charged with providing material support to terrorism and "conspiracy to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons abroad." If convicted, they could face life in prison.
No attorneys for the men were listed in court records.
Boyd lived at an unassuming lakeside home in a rural area south of Raleigh, where he and his family operated a drywall business.
Jim Stephenson, a neighbor in Willow Spring, said he often saw the Boyd family walking their dog. The indictment shocked neighbors.
"We never saw anything to give any clues that something like that could be going on in their family," Stephenson said.
In 1991, Boyd and his brother were convicted of bank robbery in Pakistan. They were also accused of carrying identification showing they belonged to the radical Afghan guerrilla group, Hezb-e-Islami, or Party of Islam. Each was sentenced to have a foot and a hand cut off for the robbery, but the decision was later overturned.
Their wives told The Associated Press in an interview at the time that the couples had U.S. roots but the United States was a country of "kafirs" - Arabic for heathens.
It is unclear when Boyd and his family returned to the U.S., but in March 2006, Boyd traveled to Gaza and attempted to introduce his son to individuals who also believed that violent jihad was a personal religious obligation, the indictment said. The document did not say which son Boyd took to Gaza.
Reached at her home in Silver Spring, Md., Daniel Boyd's mother said she knew nothing about the current case.
"It certainly sounds weird to me," Pat Saddler said.
Hassan's father declined to comment, and other families did not have listed numbers or did not return calls.
In 1991 in Pakistan, Daniel Boyd and his older brother denied they were guilty of stealing $3,200 from the bank. When the sentence was imposed, Boyd shouted: "This isn't an Islamic court. It's a court of infidels!"
When the brothers were arrested, they were accused of carrying identification showing they belonged to the radical Afghan guerrilla group, Hezb-e-Islami, or Party of Islam. They had become the first foreigners to be convicted and sentenced by special Islamic courts set up by the conservative federal government to impose speedy trials for so-called "heinous" crimes.
The men's wives, also Americans, said in an interview at the time that the couples had come to Pakistan in 1989. The wives refused to answer questions about their husbands' links to the Afghan mujahedeen, or Islamic holy warriors, though they did say their husbands embraced Islam nine years earlier.
Boyd's wife, Sabrina, had three sons with her in Pakistan at the time of the sentencing: 3-year-old Zakariya, 1-year-old Luqman and 5-year-old Mohammed. The indictment filed in North Carolina says Dylan Boyd is also known as Mohammed.
It's unclear how U.S. authorities learned of the allegations of the past three years, although court documents indicate that prosecutors will introduce evidence gathered under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Several of the defendants, including Boyd and his sons, also face firearms charges. The indictment says they had obtained a variety of weapons from handguns to rifles.
In July 2008, Sherifi left for Kosovo to engage in violent jihad, but it's unclear if he did any actual fighting. He returned to North Carolina in April 2009 to solicit funds and warriors to support the mujahedeen, but again the indictment did not give details. In October 2006, Yaghi went to Jordan to engage in violent jihad, according to the indictment.
Boyd's beliefs about Islam did not concur with his Raleigh-area moderate mosque, which he stopped attending this year and instead began meeting for Friday prayers in his home, U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding said in an interview. He did not say whether any or all the defendants met with him.
"This is not an indictment of the entire Muslim community," Holding said. "These people had broken away because their local mosque did not follow their vision of being a good Muslim."
___
Associated Press Writers Devlin Barrett contributed to this report from Washington; Meg Kinnard contributed from Columbia, S.C.; Alysia Patterson and Tom Foreman Jr. contributed from Raleigh.
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Iraqi police: 24 killed in Baghdad bombings, Associated Press, retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090731/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq on 7/31/2009 ]
By CHELSEA J. CARTER, Associated Press Writer Chelsea J. Carter, Associated Press Writer - 1 hr 4 mins ago
BAGHDAD - Multiple bombs have exploded near three Shiite mosques in Baghdad as worshippers were leaving Friday prayers, killing at least 24 and wounding dozens more, Iraqi police officials said.
The bombings shattered a period of relative calm in the Iraqi capital, raising to at least 303 Iraqis killed in what has been one of the least deadly months in Iraq for both Iraqi civilians and U.S. troops since the war began. Only seven American troops have been killed.
The deadliest attack Friday came when a car bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Shaab, killing at least 20 people and wounding 17 others, said two Iraqi police officials. The casualties were confirmed by a medical official.
At about the same time, near simultaneous explosions struck a Shiite mosque near the Diyala bridge, in southern Baghdad, killing four worshippers and wounding 17 others, the two officials said.
An unexploded roadside bomb was also found nearby, they said.
A roadside bomb exploded near a third mosque in the eastern Baghdad, wounding six worshippers.
The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
___
Associated Press Writer Bushra Juhi contributed to this report.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraqi police say multiple car bombs have exploded near three Shiite mosques in Baghdad, killing 19 people.
Two Iraqi police officials say the first bomb killed ten people in the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Shaab. The officials say the bomb struck just as Shiite worshippers were leaving Friday prayers.
The officials say more explosions struck near two other Shiite mosques in northern Baghdad, killing another nine people.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
The bombings come during one what has been one of the least deadly periods in Iraq since the war began in 2003.
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How Muslims Treat Christians and It Is Not Peaceful
Many in Islam claim Islam is a religion of peace, but reality clearly shows this is a lie. Read the following and see the proof:
<<"A mob in the city of Gojra, angered by rumors that the Koran had been desecrated, set fire to Christian homes. Seven Christians died, and Pakistani officials are pledging protection., Los Angeles Times, By Alex Rodriguez, August 6, 2009, retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fg-pakistan-christians6-2009aug06,0,2749198.story on 8/6/2009]
Reporting from Gojra, Pakistan -- Ethel Khurshid Gil gingerly held out the charred Bible she pulled from the rubble of her home, using a swatch of cellophane to keep the scorched pages from scattering in the hot wind. "Look how they've destroyed our Bibles!" the 47-year-old Christian Pakistani cried out.
Not far away, charred wood and broken dishes crunched underfoot as Umair Akhlas stepped through his house to point out the blackened bedroom where he and his relatives hid from the mob that firebombed the building, shouting "Burn them alive!"
Akhlas and several relatives escaped. But six, including two children, couldn't breach the flames and died in that room.
"They were screaming Christians are dogs, that we're American agents," Akhlas said. "They look for any reason to do something against Christians."
Pakistan has had its hands full waging war against a Taliban insurgency. Now another troubling crisis simmers. Last week, riots broke out in Gojra, a city of 150,000 in the eastern province of Punjab, after accusations surfaced that Christians at a wedding ceremony had desecrated a copy of the holy Koran.
Police say the accusations were unfounded. Nevertheless, Muslims attacked Christian enclaves in Gojra on July 30 and again Saturday. The second outbreak turned out to be far worse: A mob of more than 1,000 people set fire to more than 40 Christian homes in a warren called Christian Town. All six who died in the flames belonged to Akhlas' family. A seventh family member, Akhlas' grandfather, was killed by gunmen in the mob.
Investigators say several factors stoked the violence. Members of a militant group seized on the accusations to incite Muslims to attack Christian neighborhoods, government officials say. After attackers set fire to Christian homes in the initial violence last week, police had ample time to assert control, but instead allowed street rallies to mushroom into riots.
And there are differing accounts of who initiated gunfire that fueled the violence Saturday. Christians say Muslims fired first; Muslims blame the Christians.
Perhaps the bigger problem for Pakistan is the harsh light the riots have shone on the country's dismal record for protecting the rights of ethnic and religious minorities.
Minority Rights Group International, a London-based watchdog organization, ranks Pakistan as the world's sixth- most dangerous country for minorities. Along with Christians, groups under threat include a variety of ethnicities, such as Pashtun in the northwest and Balochis and Sindhis in the south, the group says. Minority Shiite Muslims have also been victimized by Sunni Muslim radical groups.
Recognizing that violence could escalate, government officials denounced the attacks. Punjab province's chief minister, Shahbaz Sharif, told a gathering of Christians in Gojra on Tuesday that Pakistani leaders "do not have the right to rule if we cannot protect and provide justice to minorities."
On the same day, Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer met with victimized families and said later of them and the violence that "this will not happen again. These people are as much Pakistanis as we are."
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan called the riots "a comprehensive failure by the government to protect minorities." Pope Benedict XVI said he was "deeply grieved" by the "senseless attack."
However, Christians do not hold out much hope that attitudes will change any time soon. Representing less than 2% of the nation's 175 million people, Christians historically have occupied the lower rungs of society, largely relegated to menial jobs. A law against making derogatory remarks about Islam or desecrating the Koran is often used to settle scores against Christians.
"We are marginalized, that's a fact," said Cecil Chaudhry, a Christian human rights activist. "And a big cause for this marginalization is the use of discriminatory laws like the blasphemy law."
In Gojra, the atmosphere between Muslims and Christians remains tense. Additional police have been posted throughout the city. Many Christians say they would leave, if they could.
"We have to live here," said a pastor of a small church in Christian Town who identified himself only as Sarfraz. "We have no money to go anywhere else."
Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan's minister for minority affairs, said trouble in Gojra began July 26, when allegations surfaced that Christians at a marriage ceremony had put henna on pages of the Koran. Henna dye is often used to decorate a woman's palms for weddings. In reality, the henna was put on newspaper pages, not on the Koran, Bhatti said.
Four days later, announcements rang out on mosque loudspeakers that Christians had desecrated the Koran. A throng marched to a Christian enclave in Gojra and burned several houses there. More calls to attack Christians came from mosques Friday.
On Saturday, more than a thousand Muslims, some masking their faces and wielding Kalashnikov assault rifles, converged on Christian Town. Young Christian men armed themselves, took to rooftops and fended off the rioters for several hours. But by midafternoon, Christians had run out of ammunition. Outnumbered police also ran out of ammunition and tear gas canisters.
At Akhlas' home, the family locked themselves in a bedroom. When assailants failed to break down the bedroom door, one of them shouted to the family, "If you stay, you'll burn alive. If you leave, we'll shoot you."
Akhlas, 18, and several relatives escaped up to the rooftop. The men put cooking pots on the heads of two children to shield them from stones thrown by the mob below. Akhlas and the others got away, but three women, one of Akhlas' brothers and two girls, ages 2 and 9, died in the burning bedroom.
"I'm not sure why we continue living in this country," Akhlas said. "We don't get a proper education, we don't get any opportunities, we only get jobs cleaning and sweeping streets.
"Here, we are second-class citizens."
alex.rodriguez@latimes.com">>
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Zamboanga City is on the front lines of the Philippines' fight against terrorists, located in the troubled south where Muslim militants have been battling troops and hitting civilian targets., By John M. Glionna, August 9, 2009, retrived from http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-zamboanga9-2009aug09,0,2718217.story?page=2 on 8/9/2009 ]
Reporting from Zamboanga City, Philippines -- Restaurant owner Lyra Quitay is blind in one eye. Her arms, chest and legs bear painful black scars and her right hand is so gnarled that it resembles a claw when she signs her name.
In October 2001, a terrorist's bomb ripped through the claustrophobic downtown market where Quitay runs a t |
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