Suicide attack on US Embassy convoy in Kabul
munaeem | 19 March, 2007 12:56
via Times of India
A suicide attacker drove an explosives-filled car into a US Embassy convoy in the Afghan capital on Monday, wounding some embassy staff and at least one child, officials said.
The attack on the road to the eastern city of Jalalabad was the first suicide bombing inside Kabul this year, after several deadly blasts last year blamed on Taliban insurgents.
“There was a vehicle-borne IED (improvised explosive device) that struck a US embassy convoy on Jalalabad Road,” embassy spokesman Joe Mellot said.
“There were some injuries, including one seriously injured who has been evacuated for treatment.”
Ambassador Ronald Neumann was not in the convoy.
Blaming the West for Sunni Unrest
munaeem | 06 March, 2007 09:08
Via IPS : Blaming the West for Sunni Unrest
As a Shia majority country with several large ethnic groups like the Kurds, Arabs and Baluchis that follow the Sunni faith, Iran has for years been vulnerable to unrest, riots and terrorist attacks that officials routinely attribute to foreign powers.
'Iranian intelligence services have acquired information that show the United States, Britain and Israel have been behind the unrest in various parts of Iran, including Khuzistan, Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan in the past few years," Mostafa Pour Mohammadi, Iran's intelligence minister was quoted as saying by the Aftab News Agency.
You reap what you sow.
Vali Nasr, a Council for Foreign Relations fellow explains :“The first decade of Khomeini trying to mobilize Saudi Shiites, Lebanese Shiites and trying to stage a coup in Bahrain and cause trouble in Kuwait all hardened views.
”Khomeini threatened the countries around him. He threatened Iraq and he threatened Saudi Arabia and each responded in a wrong way. Iraq ended up attacking Iran.
Afghanistan insurgency still strong, U.N. rep says
munaeem | 06 March, 2007 08:13
U.N. Deputy Special Representative, Christopher Alexander, says , 'insurgency and insecurity continue to plague Afghanistan.'
He expressed this view in a lecture titled "Afghanistan: The Current Situation."
Alexander said that the international community must first understand the roots of the insurgency before it can effectively stabilize the nation.
Alexander said. "Key factors driving this insurgency have not been addressed."
Alexander added that the main challenge for the United Nations is to continue supporting institutions that are "credible," which he defined as agencies with strong leadership providing positive services to the population.
US and Pakistani agents interrogate Taliban leader
munaeem | 04 March, 2007 06:31
Security officials said Taliban’s former defence minister is being interrogated by US and Pakistanis agents. They hope to extract valuable information from him.
“He is being interrogated by a joint team of Pakistani and US officials in Islamabad,” a senior security official said on condition of anonymity. He did not specify which US agency the officials were from.
He was was flown to the capital Islamabad by helicopter after his capture.
Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, who had a one-million-dollar bounty on his head posted by the US Central Intelligence Agency, was arrested with four other suspects on Wednesday in Quetta.
Akhund was arrested at a Quetta hotel on the basis of “very solid” intelligence, officials said. Plain-clothes agents picked him up when he arrived at the hotel where the other four suspects were already staying.
