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A German man wearing a burka and carrying a pistol was arrested in northwest Pakistan Monday after travelling from an area known as a hub for Al-Qaeda-linked militants, police said. "A German man, wearing a burka, was intercepted at a checkpoint in Bannu while coming from Miranshah with a six-year-old girl," local police station chief Farid Khan told AFP. Two tribesmen travelling with him in the vehicle were also detained, he said. Miranshah is the main town of lawless North Waziristan tribal district, a known hotbed of Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants. Most women in the area wear a burka,...

Video description - quote: Al-Qaeda Linked "Al Shabaab" Suicide Bomber Kills At Least 19 In Mogadishu **GRAPHIC** December 3, 2009 -Mogadishu - A suicide bomber disguised as a veiled woman killed at least 19 people, including three Somali government ministers, on Thursday at a medical graduation ceremony in a Mogadishu hotel, witnesses and officials said. It was the worst attack in the lawless Horn of Africa nation since June, when hardline al Shabaab insurgents killed the security minister and at least 30 other people in a suicide bombing at a hotel in the town of Baladwayne. he United Nations-backed government...

BAGHDAD -- Insurgents, who have increasingly turned to women to stage suicide bombings, on Tuesday used a man dressed as a woman in a failed assassination attempt on a provincial governor. The target, Gov. Raad Tamimi of Diyala province, escaped unharmed. But at least one other person was killed and several were wounded when the bomber's vest exploded near the governor's convoy. The use of the man in disguise appeared designed to give the attacker easier access to his target. It was the second suicide bomb attack in two days in Baqubah, the capital of Diyala. On Monday, a 15-year-old...

Afghan soldiers have captured a Taliban leader who tried to flee a security operation in the south dressed in a burqa, NATO said on Wednesday. Tuesday's capture in Kandahar province came as NATO launched a major offensive in neighbouring Helmand to secure a key hydroelectric dam and combat the opium trade. The man was named as Mullah Mahmood and described as an expert bomb-maker. U.S.-led coalition forces also detained five more suspected militants in eastern Khost this week. Fighting is expected to be heavy in 2007 after the bloodiest year since the Taliban's ouster in 2001. The Taliban warn they...