Suicide Bomber Strikes Near Nuclear Facility in Pakistan

A Taliban suicide bomber has killed seven people near a nuclear weapons complex in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Bill Roggio at The Long War Journal has the details .

The suicide bomber detonated outside a security checkpoint near the Kamra Air Weapon Complex in the district of Attock, Geo News reported. Three security personnel and four civilians were killed in the blast, and 12 more were wounded.

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The Kamra Air Weapon Complex is one of three military industrial production facilities in the Wah Cantt, according to Global Security. The Pakistani Ordnance Factories, a collection of 14 factories that produce arms and ammunition for the Pakistani armed forces, and Heavy Industries Taxila are also contained within the Wah Cantt. More than 40,000 Pakistanis are employed at the factories.

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UPDATE: A Taliban suicide bomber killed seven people outside a key Pakistani air force facility yesterday, with officials quick to deny suggestions the target was linked to the country’s nuclear program. Source

Terror Threats Closes Pakistan Schools

In the southern Sindh province, which is home to Pakistan’s financial capital Karachi, 50 000 schools and colleges have shut down until Sunday according to several news reports.

Pakistani schools and colleges have closed because of fears about militant attacks after twin suicide bombings at a university campus on Tuesday, officials said.
The federal government and armed forces already announced that they were closing their schools as a precaution against terrorism.

Two suicide bombers attacked the International Islamic University in Islamabad on Tuesday, killing four students and wounding at least 18 others. The bombers struck at mid-afternoon inside a women’s cafeteria and a faculty office in the Islamic law department at the school, which is popular with foreign students.
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“This is an internal security lapse. We have already advised the educational institutions to tighten their security,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters after the Islamabad university blasts on Tuesday.

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Militants Pose A Serious Threat To Pakistans Future

An analysis in Sunday’s UK telegraph describes Pakistan’s government and army as being in a state of denial about the extent of the Taliban’s threat, despite nearly a dozen suicide attacks in as many days.

Pakistan’s militants are intent on nothing less than toppling the government, assassinating the ruling establishment, imposing an Islamic state and getting hold of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.

The attacks in advance of the army’s ground offensive in South Waziristan were widespread, taking place in three of the country’s four provinces and involving not just Taliban tribesmen from the Pashtun ethnic group, but extremist Punjabi factions who were until recently trained by the Interservices Intelligence (ISI) to fight India in Kashmir.

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American Al-Qaeda Adam Gadahn Appears In New Video

An American Al-Qaeda member has urged followers to step up assistance to suicide bombers and other radical fighters, arguing that the West “has begun to stagger,” a group monitoring Al-Qaeda said.

Adam Gadahn, an American member of Al-Qaeda, made the appeal in a new video titled “How to Prevent a Repeat of the Gaza Holocaust,” which was released on jihadist forums on Sunday, after speculation that it would be released last week, according to SITE Intelligence Group.

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In a reference to the economic crisis, Gadahn said that “the enemy, under the leadership of the unbelieving West, has begun to stagger and falter, and the results of his unabated bleeding have begun to show on his economies, which are on the brink of failure.”

He attributes the crisis to “the grace of Allah, and then, the huge sacrifices of your sons, the mujahideen, who are eager for you to stand by their side and reinforce them with money and men.”

Gadahn dismisses efforts by the administration of US President Barack Obama to mend fences with the Muslim world, arguing that nothing in the US approach has changed since the presidency of George W. Bush.

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Al-Qaeda Claims S Korean Convoy Attack

An al-Qaeda-linked group claims responsibility for a suicide attack on a convoy carrying the South Korean ambassador in Yemen last month.

In a statement posted on a website on Friday, ‘al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’ claimed responsibility for the attack, boasting that it was a ‘well-planned’ operation which demonstrates the ‘incapacity’ of the Yemeni security forces.

It also accused the Yemeni Foreign Ministry of trying to ‘hide the number of losses in the operation’.

The authenticity of the statement could not be confirmed, a US-based monitoring group said.

Korean forces, who were investigating an earlier bombing that killed four of their compatriots in Yemen, were attacked on their way to Sanaa international airport on March 18.

The bomber apparently missed his target by triggering his explosive belt seconds after the convoy passed by, leaving no casualties behind.

Yemen is considered an al-Qaeda stronghold and has witnessed a number of attacks on tourist sites, foreign missions and oil installations in the past few years.

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Suicide Bomber Type Vest Found In Mt. Washington – Pittsburgh

Workers cleaning out a house in Mt. Washington called police when they found a device with what looked like pipe bombs with wires and nails attached.

“It looked exactly like somebody would wear in a suicide bomber-type of scene or suicide bomber- type of incident,” said Sheldon Williams, of the Pittsburgh police bomb squad.

The device was found outside 559 Southern Avenue late Thursday morning while workers from Pittsburgh Iron and Scrap Metal were picking up scrap metal. While loading materials into their truck, they noticed a device and called authorities.

The bomb squad arrived and, using the squad’s robot, police were able to get a closer look at the device.

“It had a vest,” he said. “The pipe bombs were in a series, meaning they were all linked together.”

“There was a wire coming out of it with a plunger on the end of it,” Williams said.

The bomb squad detonated one of the pipe bombs at the scene. The other three pipe bombs in the vest could not be opened and were taken to a private destination for further testing and detonation.

“It could totally be a hoax device,” said Williams. “But we would not make that determination upon arrival.”

Part of the investigation will include locating the previous tenants that neighbors said kept to themselves.

via ‘Source

London Police Launch Counter-terrorism PR Campaign

London police launched a new counter-terrorism publicity campaign on Monday, calling on residents of the capital to keep their ears and eyes open for anything suspicious and to report it.

The campaign is not linked to any specific threat, police said, but rather a reminder that attacks have happened in the past and could easily happen again. The slogan is: “Don’t rely on others. If you suspect it, report it.”

“Terrorists can be stopped in their tracks if suspicious activity is passed to the police,” Deputy Assistant Commissioner John McDowall, the head of the Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism command, said in a statement.

“They will not succeed if people report something unusual they have seen while going about their daily lives.

“We want people to look out for the unusual — some activity or behaviour which strikes them as not quite right and out of place in their normal day-to-day lives — and to take responsibility for reporting it.”

London has seen several failed and successful attacks in recent years, most notably the July 7, 2005, suicide bombings on the Underground and the bus network which killed 52 people.

The Metropolitan Police have overall responsibility for counter-terrorism policing and have been at the forefront of gathering evidence in a series of cases against suspected terrorism plotters in recent years.

The campaign calls on London’s 8 million residents to pay particular attention to anyone suspicious who is buying chemicals, logging on to militant websites or carrying out surveillance of prominent buildings.

via London police launch counter-terrorism PR campaign | Top News | Reuters.

FBI Watching Somali Muslims In Minneapolis

On election night last November, the outcome was wildly celebrated by Somalis living in Minneapolis, 70,000-strong, mostly refugees from their war-torn country. It is the largest Somali community in the United States.

But the evening was noteworthy for something else, too. That night, the latest in a line of young Somalis who grew up here, departed unannounced for Somalia itself, joining a civil war in a country few had ever seen and causing concern in the United States.

Hussein Samatar’s 17-year old nephew left without a word to his family.

“He was an A student,” says Samatar. “He has everything to hope for to attend any Ivy League school that he wanted to. Why he would do it is a mystery to us.”

Some 20 vanished last year – all American citizens – an exodus the FBI has noticed for a troubling reason.

“A man from Minneapolis became what we believe to be the first U.S. citizen to carry out a terrorist suicide bombing,” said agency director Robert Mueller.

The October attack by 27-year-old Shirwa Ahmed killed 30 near Mogadishu, and there is alarm that the skills acquired abroad could be brought back to America.

“He could have done it here,” says Omar Jamal, a Somali advocate in Minnesota. “We don’t see anything that would have prevented him from doing this right here in the heart of Minneapolis.”

This much seems clear:

“It appears that this individual was radicalized in his hometown in Minnesota,” Mueller said.

The missing men all came from one local mosque, according to the FBI. But officials at the mosque deny that they play any role in turning young people into radicals, Reynolds reports.

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Mumbai Style Terror Attack in Kabul – 26 Dead Scores Injured

Three closely coordinated attacks left 20 people dead and at least 54 wounded in the Afghan capital yesterday morning, after separate teams of gunmen and bombers targeted two downtown government ministries and a suburban corrections facility. The attacks created panic in the crowded city center until security forces were able to restore control after a four-hour battle.

All eight attackers were also killed.

A spokesman for the Islamic Taliban insurgency claimed responsibility for the attacks, telling the Associated Press they were in response to the poor treatment of prisoners in Afghan custody. But analysts said the audacious assaults seemed timed to test the resolve of Afghan and US officials as the Obama administration is debating a new strategy for Afghanistan, and just days before the arrival of the new US special envoy, Richard C. Holbrooke.

The most dramatic scenes unfolded at the Ministry of Justice. Employees cowered in their locked offices as gunfire erupted, and crowds fled in the surrounding, traffic-clogged streets.

Officials said five men armed with guns and suicide vests killed one guard at the entrance, then entered and began firing on guards and employees throughout the four-story building. Witnesses said some people jumped from the second and even third floors to escape.

Although the death toll was much lower, many people here immediately compared the attack to the terrorist siege in the Indian city of Mumbai in November, when a highly trained squad entered the port city by boat and wreaked havoc for three days, attacking luxury hotels and other buildings and killing more than 170 people.

Yesterday’s attack was the worst in Kabul since July, when a suicide bomber destroyed the Indian Embassy, killing more than 60 people.

The Afghan capital has been increasingly targeted by Islamic insurgents, who have been waging war against the government in the Afghan countryside since 2006.

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Belgian Police Break Up Terror Plot Linked to al-Qaeda

A planned terror strike in Europe that Belgian police claim to have foiled on Thursday was linked with al-Qaeda, authorities say. Some of the 14 suspects arrested had recently traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan, officials said, and had planned to launch a suicide strike — although its target remains unknown. “When you have people returning from Afghanistan as most of these people had, they’re sufficiently hard-core that the question isn’t whether they’ll be undertaking plotting activity, but when, and in what form,” said a European counter-terrorism official with knowledge of the case. “What’s important for us to learn is, if the Taliban or their al-Qaeda allies decide to strike us today, who are they going to do it with: their old European networks, [or] via Pakistani groups, jihadist organizations in north Africa, or maybe other operatives? The situation evolves constantly, and we’ve got to keep up with it.” Read more

Feds Warn Of Possible al Qaeda Terror Threat To New York Subway Trains

Feds Warn Of Possible NYC Terror Plot, FBI: “Plausible But Unsubstantiated” Report Of Al Qaeda Plans To Attack Subway System

The FBI has warned New York area law enforcement of a “plausible but unsubstantiated” al Qaeda suicide bomb attack against the area’s commuter rail systems over the holiday.

An internal memo obtained by The Associated Press says the FBI has received a “plausible but unsubstantiated” report that al Qaeda terrorists in late September may have discussed attacking the subway system.

Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said the warning was issued as a routine matter, but added that there may be an increased police presence in New York and other large metropolitan areas.

A US official said the FBI report had been issued “out of an abundance of caution” and that “there is nothing concrete to suggest the plot went beyond the talking stage.”

The report indicates that al Qaeda terrorists “in late September may have discussed targeting transit systems in and around New York City. These discussions reportedly involved the use of suicide bombers or explosives placed on subway/passenger rail systems,” according to the document.

“We have no specific details to confirm that this plot has developed beyond aspirational planning, but we are issuing this warning out of concern that such an attack could possibly be conducted during the forthcoming holiday season,” states the warning, which is dated Tuesday.

While federal agencies regularly issue all sorts of advisory warnings, the language of this one is particularly blunt.

Intelligence and homeland security officials are working with local authorities to try to corroborate the information “and will continue to investigate every possible lead,” the memo says.

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