Gas supply to several parts of Pakistan's restive Balochistan province was disrupted today after suspected Baloch militants blew up a major pipeline in the mineral rich region. A spokesman for the Sui Southern Gas company said the pipeline was located some 350 km south of the provincial capital Quetta.
Pipelines are targeted regularly in this gas-rich province where tribal groups are pushing for greater autonomy. The blast also damaged electricity transformer, electric poles and several houses. The pipeline caught fire after the blast.
Najmuddin Tarin, a police officer in Sui, said explosives were used to blow up the 16-inch diametre pipeline. One Sarbaz Baluch, who introduced himself as spokesman for Baloch Republican Army, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Excerpted
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/003200708301758.htm
Soldiers kidnapped by Islamic militants
August 30, 2007
Islamic militants ambushed a large convoy of military vehicles in troubled northwestern Pakistan today, kidnapping more than 100 soldiers after snatching their weapons, officials said.
The soldiers were travelling in 16 trucks and providing security for vehicles carrying food between Wana, the main town in South Waziristan and Ladha, another town in the region, according to two intelligence officials speaking on condition of anonymity. One of the officials said preliminary reports showed that 25 soldiers were kidnapped, but updated his figure to nearly 100, while the other said there were between 100 and 120 soldiers taken. There was no indication if there was a battle or if anyone had been wounded in the incident, they said.
Excerpted
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2358041.ece
KABUL - A wanted Taliban insurgent leader in Afghanistan, Mullah Brother, was killed on Thursday in a U.S.-led raid in the southern province of Helmand, the Afghan Defence Ministry said, citing ground commanders.
Brother served as a top military commander for the Taliban government until its removal from power in 2001 and was a member of the movement's leadership council led by its fugitive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar. Mullah is a title for a Muslim cleric that many senior Taliban use. It was not clear if the name Brother, which other Taliban leaders have used to refer to him, was a nom de guerre.
Excerpted
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070830/ts_nm/afghan_taliban_dc_5;_ylt=Amm5iwH3LV33M_x5eBYcxbEE1vAI
French authorities arrest Tunisian national on suspected links to terror group
August 30, 2007
PARIS: French authorities arrested a Tunisian man early Thursday on his arrival at Paris' main airport after being expelled from Ethiopia on alleged terrorist links, police and judicial officials said.
The man, aged in his 20s but not further identified, is suspected of having trained with a militant Islamic network in Ethiopia, judicial officials said on condition on anonymity because the case was ongoing. "A person of Tunisian nationality was arrested this morning at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport," national police spokesman Christophe Gay told The Associated Press.
Gay declined to comment further, other than to say an investigation was under way. Ethiopian authorities had already arrested the man, the judicial officials said. He was expelled to France, where he had been living on a visa until leaving late last year.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/30/europe/EU-GEN-France-Terrorism.php