Afghanistan – Two suicide attackers have targeted military buses in the Afghan capital Kabul killing at least seven people, just a day after the new government signed a security pact with the United States. Reports stated that seven Afghan National Army officers were killed in one of the attacks near the University of Kabul early on the 01 Oct 14. At least 15 people were wounded in that attack. In an attack on another army bus, six people were reportedly injured near a police station in the north of the capital. The Taliban claimed responsibility via Twitter. Afghan security officials have faced a resurgent Taliban in recent months, with an average of 18 Afghans killed every day this year, according to authorities.
A suicide bomber targeting a NATO convoy in the Afghan capital has killed one civilian and wounded three others on the 13 Oct 14. The attack took place around dawn on the road to the city of Jalalabad, Afghan authorities said. "A suicide bomber blew up his vehicle loaded with explosives in Qabil Bai," Deputy Interior Minister General Mohammad Ayub Salangi said in a tweet, adding that "one person was killed and three injured in this attack". General Farid Afzali, head of the criminal police in Kabul stated: "One Afghan civilian was martyred in today's attack in Kabul, and three others were wounded who were working for a foreign company in the area, according to eye witnesses." NATO confirmed that one of its vehicles was attacked. A spokesman said there were no casualties among members of the military coalition ISAF. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. In a separate incident, two Afghan civilians were killed and six others were wounded when a suicide bomber targeted an Afghan army patrol in the Nangarhar province, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. 361 COMMENT: The Jalalabad Road has numerous NATO locations along the road and would be a target rich environment for any the Taliban whose objective it is to attack a NATO vehicle travelling along it. The road is also a route to the main airport in Kabul. COMMENT ENDS
Pakistan – On the 1 Oct 14 The al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) claimed that its primary motive in the Sep 14 Karachi dockyard attack, which failed after gunfights with the Pakistan Naval forces, was destroying Indian warships with a Pakistani frigate. The frigate was equipped with advanced weapon systems, including anti-submarine torpedoes, four guided missiles with a range of up to 120 km, surface-to-air missiles and 72 mm anti-aircraft guns. “This was not an attack on the naval dockyard... It was a takeover of ships of the Pakistani naval fleet. And the targets were the American and the Indian Navies,” said a release by Al-Qaeda in the Subcontinent, purportedly the AQIS’ media wing.
Amid a wave of bombing attempts in a north-western Pakistani city on the 2 Oct 14 a bomb rigged to a timer exploded inside a passenger van, killing seven and wounding six, the police said. Although the attack was the only one of eight attempted bombings to succeed the police said, the mass of attempts pointed to a concerted effort by militants to intensify their attacks on government targets. “The bombs were intended to destroy an electrical tower, and to target police and a convoy of the law enforcement agencies,” said Shafqat Malik, the head of the Peshawar bomb disposal unit, noting that the bombs all had “a level of sophistication.” The bomb that went off was to target civilians. The van that was bombed was set to carry passengers to Parachinar, the main town in the Kurram tribal region. In an interview, a policeman investigating the case, Ejaz Khan, said that a man had left two bags in the van, then asked the driver to wait for him while he went to bring more passengers. The bomb, with roughly 10 pounds of explosives, went off after he left. Although Kurram has in the past been a centre of sectarian violence between Sunnis and minority Shiites, police officials said it was more likely that the bombing was a randomly chosen terrorist act rather than a targeted killing. A senior police superintendent, Najib Bhagvi, suspected that Pakistani Taliban militants were behind the attacks. That organization, along with some of its allies and splinter groups, has come under increasing pressure since the start of a military offensive against militant bases in North Waziristan in June. “Peshawar is heating up, and this is the blow back of the operation in Waziristan,” It is believed that all the terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda, have joined forces and are hitting back.” The police believe that there will be more terrorist attacks of this nature in the future.
The Pakistani Taliban has expressed their support for Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria and Iraq. In a statement marking the Muslim festival of Eid, the group appealed to Islamists there to unite against the "enemy" - the US-led alliance it was reported on the 4 Oct 14. Saturday's statement was issued by the leader of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Maulana Fazlullah, sent by his spokesman. Addressing IS in Syria and Iraq, he said: "We are proud of your conquests against the enemies. We are with you in good and bad times." "In these troubled days, we call on you to be patient and stay united as your enemies are now united against you. Forget rivalries." The statement said the global Muslim community would "stand by you in these tough times and help with what we can". Recently supporters of IS have been spotted in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar distributing pamphlets praising the group.
U.S. drone strikes killed eight suspected militants in Pakistan on the 11 Oct 14 including Sheikh Imran Ali Siddiqi, a senior figure of the newly created Indian branch of Al-Qaeda, Pakistan’s The Express Tribune reported. The daily quoted tribal sources as saying one drone had struck a compound in Chancharano Kandaw of Tirah Valley, in the north-eastern Khyber Agency Saturday afternoon. Siddiqi, who last month was announced as a senior member of Al-Qaeda’s newly formed branch in the Indian subcontinent, was reportedly among the dead, the newspaper said. The branch’s purported spokesperson, Osama Mehmood, also confirmed the death. A second U.S. drone strike in the North Waziristan killed four suspected militants, including an important Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP; Pakistani Taliban) commander, the daily said. It quoted an official as saying the U.S. drones had fired two missiles at a vehicle in the Margha area of Shawal which burst into flames. Four suspected militants in the car were killed while another was wounded, the official said. The official named Muhammad Mustafa, a TTP commander, as among the dead. The others were foreigners, the official said.
Philippines – One of two Germans held captive by an Islamist militant group in the Philippines said on the 15 Oct 14 that he was being held in a hole in the ground which he had been told would be his grave if ransom demands were not met. A German man, who is a doctor, and a German woman were seized by the Abu Sayyaf group in Apr 14 when their yacht broke down near the southern island of Palawan en route to Sabah in eastern Malaysia. Abu Rami, a spokesman for the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf, said his group would execute the doctor at 1500 hrs on the 17 Oct 14 as a 250 million pesos ($5.6 million) (3.52 million pound) ransom had not been paid by last Friday's deadline (10 Oct 14). The demand includes Germany halting its support for U.S.-led air strikes in Syria. "They told me on the 10 Oct 14 they will kill me," the doctor said in a radio interview monitored in Zamboanga City. "I'm here in a hole. It's a big hole three metres (by) five metres (10 by 16 feet). They told me this is my grave. They push me inside the hole. The Abu Sayyaf also sent a video to a radio station late on the 14 Oct 14 showing a group of men manhandling a handcuffed foreigner who was apparently the captured German man. The man in the video was moaning and complaining that his handcuffs were tight as armed men made him sit in front of black flag, which appeared to be the flag used by Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.
Russia – Four police officers have been killed and four other people hurt in a suicide attack in the Chechen capital, Grozny, Russia's interior ministry said on the 5 Oct 14. The attack took place outside a hall where a concert marking Grozny's City Day was about to take place. A statement from the ministry said police were searching a suspicious young man when he detonated a device.
A suicide bomber targeting a NATO convoy in the Afghan capital has killed one civilian and wounded three others on the 13 Oct 14. The attack took place around dawn on the road to the city of Jalalabad, Afghan authorities said. "A suicide bomber blew up his vehicle loaded with explosives in Qabil Bai," Deputy Interior Minister General Mohammad Ayub Salangi said in a tweet, adding that "one person was killed and three injured in this attack". General Farid Afzali, head of the criminal police in Kabul stated: "One Afghan civilian was martyred in today's attack in Kabul, and three others were wounded who were working for a foreign company in the area, according to eye witnesses." NATO confirmed that one of its vehicles was attacked. A spokesman said there were no casualties among members of the military coalition ISAF. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. In a separate incident, two Afghan civilians were killed and six others were wounded when a suicide bomber targeted an Afghan army patrol in the Nangarhar province, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. 361 COMMENT: The Jalalabad Road has numerous NATO locations along the road and would be a target rich environment for any the Taliban whose objective it is to attack a NATO vehicle travelling along it. The road is also a route to the main airport in Kabul. COMMENT ENDS
Pakistan – On the 1 Oct 14 The al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) claimed that its primary motive in the Sep 14 Karachi dockyard attack, which failed after gunfights with the Pakistan Naval forces, was destroying Indian warships with a Pakistani frigate. The frigate was equipped with advanced weapon systems, including anti-submarine torpedoes, four guided missiles with a range of up to 120 km, surface-to-air missiles and 72 mm anti-aircraft guns. “This was not an attack on the naval dockyard... It was a takeover of ships of the Pakistani naval fleet. And the targets were the American and the Indian Navies,” said a release by Al-Qaeda in the Subcontinent, purportedly the AQIS’ media wing.
Amid a wave of bombing attempts in a north-western Pakistani city on the 2 Oct 14 a bomb rigged to a timer exploded inside a passenger van, killing seven and wounding six, the police said. Although the attack was the only one of eight attempted bombings to succeed the police said, the mass of attempts pointed to a concerted effort by militants to intensify their attacks on government targets. “The bombs were intended to destroy an electrical tower, and to target police and a convoy of the law enforcement agencies,” said Shafqat Malik, the head of the Peshawar bomb disposal unit, noting that the bombs all had “a level of sophistication.” The bomb that went off was to target civilians. The van that was bombed was set to carry passengers to Parachinar, the main town in the Kurram tribal region. In an interview, a policeman investigating the case, Ejaz Khan, said that a man had left two bags in the van, then asked the driver to wait for him while he went to bring more passengers. The bomb, with roughly 10 pounds of explosives, went off after he left. Although Kurram has in the past been a centre of sectarian violence between Sunnis and minority Shiites, police officials said it was more likely that the bombing was a randomly chosen terrorist act rather than a targeted killing. A senior police superintendent, Najib Bhagvi, suspected that Pakistani Taliban militants were behind the attacks. That organization, along with some of its allies and splinter groups, has come under increasing pressure since the start of a military offensive against militant bases in North Waziristan in June. “Peshawar is heating up, and this is the blow back of the operation in Waziristan,” It is believed that all the terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda, have joined forces and are hitting back.” The police believe that there will be more terrorist attacks of this nature in the future.
The Pakistani Taliban has expressed their support for Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria and Iraq. In a statement marking the Muslim festival of Eid, the group appealed to Islamists there to unite against the "enemy" - the US-led alliance it was reported on the 4 Oct 14. Saturday's statement was issued by the leader of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Maulana Fazlullah, sent by his spokesman. Addressing IS in Syria and Iraq, he said: "We are proud of your conquests against the enemies. We are with you in good and bad times." "In these troubled days, we call on you to be patient and stay united as your enemies are now united against you. Forget rivalries." The statement said the global Muslim community would "stand by you in these tough times and help with what we can". Recently supporters of IS have been spotted in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar distributing pamphlets praising the group.
U.S. drone strikes killed eight suspected militants in Pakistan on the 11 Oct 14 including Sheikh Imran Ali Siddiqi, a senior figure of the newly created Indian branch of Al-Qaeda, Pakistan’s The Express Tribune reported. The daily quoted tribal sources as saying one drone had struck a compound in Chancharano Kandaw of Tirah Valley, in the north-eastern Khyber Agency Saturday afternoon. Siddiqi, who last month was announced as a senior member of Al-Qaeda’s newly formed branch in the Indian subcontinent, was reportedly among the dead, the newspaper said. The branch’s purported spokesperson, Osama Mehmood, also confirmed the death. A second U.S. drone strike in the North Waziristan killed four suspected militants, including an important Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP; Pakistani Taliban) commander, the daily said. It quoted an official as saying the U.S. drones had fired two missiles at a vehicle in the Margha area of Shawal which burst into flames. Four suspected militants in the car were killed while another was wounded, the official said. The official named Muhammad Mustafa, a TTP commander, as among the dead. The others were foreigners, the official said.
Philippines – One of two Germans held captive by an Islamist militant group in the Philippines said on the 15 Oct 14 that he was being held in a hole in the ground which he had been told would be his grave if ransom demands were not met. A German man, who is a doctor, and a German woman were seized by the Abu Sayyaf group in Apr 14 when their yacht broke down near the southern island of Palawan en route to Sabah in eastern Malaysia. Abu Rami, a spokesman for the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf, said his group would execute the doctor at 1500 hrs on the 17 Oct 14 as a 250 million pesos ($5.6 million) (3.52 million pound) ransom had not been paid by last Friday's deadline (10 Oct 14). The demand includes Germany halting its support for U.S.-led air strikes in Syria. "They told me on the 10 Oct 14 they will kill me," the doctor said in a radio interview monitored in Zamboanga City. "I'm here in a hole. It's a big hole three metres (by) five metres (10 by 16 feet). They told me this is my grave. They push me inside the hole. The Abu Sayyaf also sent a video to a radio station late on the 14 Oct 14 showing a group of men manhandling a handcuffed foreigner who was apparently the captured German man. The man in the video was moaning and complaining that his handcuffs were tight as armed men made him sit in front of black flag, which appeared to be the flag used by Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.
Russia – Four police officers have been killed and four other people hurt in a suicide attack in the Chechen capital, Grozny, Russia's interior ministry said on the 5 Oct 14. The attack took place outside a hall where a concert marking Grozny's City Day was about to take place. A statement from the ministry said police were searching a suspicious young man when he detonated a device.
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