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A suicide bomber Monday struck a crowd rushing to help schoolgirls trapped in a bus by an earlier bombing. The Interior Ministry said at least 31 people were killed — the deadliest in a string of blasts that raise doubts about Iraqi security forces as the U.S. prepares to reduce troops. The ministry said another 71 people were wounded in the twin blasts, the deadliest attack in Baghdad in six weeks. A third bomb exploded about 130 yards from the scene in the mostly Shiite Kasrah section of north Baghdad but caused no casualties, police said. No group claimed responsibility...

BAGHDAD — A woman wearing a suicide vest blew herself up Monday at a coming-home party for an Iraqi police sergeant detained by U.S. forces for almost a year, killing 22 people and wounding 33, a high-ranking official said. The party was thrown for Adnan Shukri al Timimi at his house, not far from the police station in Balad Ruz, a city 30 miles southeast of Baquba, the capital of Diyala province. Timimi was killed along with his parents and 11 high-ranking police officials, including the chief of the local station, said the official in the Iraqi-led Diyala Operations Center,...

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...

KABUL: A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-filled car into the gates of the Indian embassy in Kabul, leaving at least 40 people dead, officials and a witness said. ( Watch video ) "The number of deaths at this time is 28, while 141 people were wounded, half of them hospitalised," health ministry spokesman Abdullah Fahim said, adding that the figure was based on information from several hospitals. The blast destroyed about four cars outside the embassy in the heart of the city, and flesh and broken limbs were scattered at the scene, an Afghan witness said. The bomber hit the...

The Hunt for American al Qaeda The United States is turning up the heat in the hunt for the California boy turned al Qaeda operative, Adam Gadahn, who has been charged with treason and is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. If caught and convicted, Gadahn could face the death penalty. The State Department along with the Department of Diplomatic Security announced the beginning of a publicity campaign in Afghanistan urging locals to provide any information on Gadahn's whereabouts, with a reward if the information leads to his capture. Radio advertisements with information concerning the $1 million reward have...

<p>"What does this prove? Nothing really, but I'm sure partisans in the debate over Guantanamo and the treatment and detention of alleged [sic] enemy combatants will see this as evidence that confirms their respective points of view. On the one hand, Abdullah Saleh al-Ajmi may have been a dangerous enemy combatant all along, and should never have been released. On the other hand, he may have been wrongfully detained in the first place, only to become radicalized by his (mis)treatment by the U.S. military. In other words, we either had a terrorist and let him go, or we created one. If Adler is right, though, he has focused on a trivial difference between the two sides of the debate while ignoring both an important point of agreement and the truly crucial area of contention.</p>

BEIRUT — Lebanese troops shot and killed a suicide bomber near Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp Saturday, a senior military official said. The official said the Palestinian man wearing an explosive belt approached an army checkpoint just outside the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp on the outskirts of the southern city of Sidon. Soldiers manning the army checkpoint saw the young man climb out of a car and throw a hand grenade which failed to explode, the official said. The soldiers warned the man not to move, but he ignored the orders and moved quickly toward them with his hands on...

KANDAHAR CITY -- A teenage boy was killed and four Canadian soldiers were wounded in a suicide bomb attack against a military convoy Sunday morning in Kandahar City. The injured soldiers were evacuated by ground transport to nearby Camp Nathan Smith and then flown by helicopter to the multinational medical facility at Kandahar Airfield. Canadian Forces spokesman Lt. Al Blondin said later that all four are reported in good condition. Witnesses to the incident, which occurred at about 11:30 a.m. local time, said an Afghan boy was killed and two other local children injured in the blast, which occurred in...

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - A suicide bomber attacked the opening ceremony of a marathon outside Sri Lanka's capital Sunday, killing a government minister and 11 other people, authorities said. Dozens were wounded. Officials blamed the bombing, the second this year resulting in the death of a senior government official, on Tamil Tiger rebels. Minister of Highways and Road Development Jeyaraj Fernandopulle was opening the race at Weliweriya town, 12 miles outside Colombo. He died in a hospital of injuries sustained in the blast, said government spokesman Lakshman Hulugalla, blaming Tamil rebels. Eleven others were killed—including former Olympic marathoner K.A....

Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and...

Petraeus: Al Qaida Trying to 'Come Back In' U.S. military officials said there will be no significant reduction in coalition troops in the Baghdad area as part of an effort to stop the Al Qaida offensive in northern Iraq. They said Al Qaida was trying to reenter Baghdad and reverse its losses in 2007. "Al Qaida is trying to come back in," U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said. "We can feel it and see it, and what we're trying to do is rip out any roots before they can get deeply into the ground." Read More Militants Assert...

There's a famously funny scene in the 1976 movie The Pink Panther Strikes Again in which Peter Sellers' bumbling Inspector Clouseau eyes a dog sitting near a hotel clerk. Clouseau: Does your dog bite? Hotel Clerk: No. Clouseau: (bowing to pet the dog) Nice doggie. (Dog barks and bites Clouseau in the hand) Clouseau: I thought you said your dog did not bite! Hotel Clerk: That is not my dog. A RECENT article by Ohio blogger Patrick Poole reminded us of how Muslim American Society (MAS) Freedom Foundation director Mahdi Bray similarly told a lie while telling the truth. In...

Yet another study of suicide bombers was published recently, this time by researchers at the University of Toronto. Like almost all its predecessors, the study refuted the theory that such bombers are motivated by poverty and despair; most, it found, were not economically deprived. It also echoed previous studies in concluding that suicide bombers are not psychologically unstable. More than 200 Iranian men and women volunteer to carry out suicide bomb attacks against Americans in Iraq and Israelis in 2005. Photo: Associated Press , AP But, again like many of its predecessors, it stopped short of the obvious conclusion: that...

FURY erupted last night after it emerged that a boy of 12 who trained to be a suicide bomber is being allowed to attend school in Britain. Parents of his classmates are unaware of the Afghan child’s terrifying past. MP Philip Davies said the youngster should be removed from school immediately so a proper investigation can take place into any potential danger he poses. The Tory MP for Shipley, West Yorks, said: “This boy has had a tragic upbringing through no fault of his own. But there should be a detailed and thorough look at his past and the threat...

Suicide attack in Pakistan's northwest kills 25 By Bill RoggioFebruary 9, 2008 1:17 PM Red agencies/ districts controlled by the Taliban; purple is defacto control; yellow is under threat A suicide bomber has struck again in the settled district of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province. The latest attack occurred in the settled district of Charsadda at an election rally held by the Awami National Party, a Pahstun political party. Twenty-five Pakistani civilians have been reported killed and more than 35 have been wounded in the attack. The suicide attack comes just days after the military halted operations in South Waziristan and...

TWO DEAD IN SUSPECTED SUICIDE BOMBING IN SOUTHERN ISRAELI TOWN OF DIMONA - ZAKA EMERGENCY SERVICE

JENIN — Rafat Moussa Turkouman has a face you don’t want to forget. He looks like your average 20-year-old, but this young Palestinian from Jenin (search) was a member of the Islamic Jihad with dreams of becoming a homicide bomber and plans to blow up a bus in Tel Aviv. Turkouman plotted to disguise himself as an Israeli teenager, slip into a crowd and do what so many Palestinian homicide bombers — more than 129 to date — have done in the past four-and-a-half years. When asked in an exclusive FOX News interview whether the stories about him were true,...

Imre Kertész was twice a survivor, once from the death camps and then again from Communism; saved by literature, he was Hungary’s first Nobel Prize winner. He writes: “Some day we should analyze the mass of resentments that bring the contemporary mind to scorn reason; we should undertake an intellectual history of the hatred of the intellect.” The various forms of racism, chauvinism, fanaticism, and the apparent rebirth of an aggression that was thought to be a thing of the past surprise us. Should we not be surprised at our surprise? The understandable but wrongheaded choice to sleep peacefully, whatever...

Suicide bomber falls down stairs ... From correspondents in Khost, Afghanistan January 24, 2008 12:39pm Article from: Agence France-Presse A WOULD-be suicide bomber fell down a flight of stairs and blew himself up as he headed out for an attack in Afghanistan, police say. It was the second such incident in two days, with another man killing himself and three others on Tuesday when his bomb-filled waistcoat exploded as he was putting it on in the southern town of Lashkar Gah. Yesterday's blast was in a busy market area of the eastern town of Khost, a deputy provincial police chief...