Nineteen killed in Baghdad car bomb attacks

A wave of car bombings in mainly Shia areas of Baghdad killed 19 people on Tuesday, officials said.

The attacks came as Iraqi Shias were celebrating the birthday of Imam Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad and Shia Islam’s most sacred martyr.

Police officials said a car bomb went off in the Baghdad neighbourhood of Sadr city, killing four people and wounding six in the morning hours. Another car bomb elsewhere in Sadr city went off near a cluster of homes, killing two people and wounding seven.

Air raids kill 11 Syrian kids

BEIRUT: Seven children in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo and another four in Homs in the center were among 17 civilians killed in air raids on Tuesday, a watchdog said.

The deaths in Homs come as troops pressed an offensive against remaining rebel areas there, while in Aleppo province, the raid comes exactly a year into the rebel takeover of the targeted town of Anadan.

Deadly wave of bombings and shootings claim 50 lives in Iraq

At least 50 people have been killed in bombings and shootings across Iraq. In the deadliest attack, a bomb in a parked car exploded in a busy market killing 14 people in central Muqdadiya, 80km (50 miles) northeast of the capital Baghdad ."I was sitting in my neighbour's shop when suddenly we heard a big explosion," said eyewitness Salim Aziz.

"I had no time to see anything, and when I opened my eyes, I found myself at the hospital and I was injured in my right hand and left leg, surrounded by dozens of wounded people," he added.A car bomb targeted a market in the centre of southern city of Basra killing at least three people, security sources told Al Jazeera.

Dozens hurt as car bomb hits Hezbollah Beirut stronghold

A car bomb exploded on Tuesday in a Beirut stronghold district of the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group that has been fighting in Syria’s civil war, wounding at least 38 people, a hospital official told Reuters.

Reports that one employee had been killed in the parking lot where the explosion occurred in Beirut’s southern suburbs could not be confirmed by hospital officials. Sectarian tensions in Lebanon have been high following the intervention of the Shiite Hezbollah in support of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces fighting a two-year revolt.

Deadly attack on NATO compound in Kabul

KABUL: Seven people were killed on Tuesday in a suicide car bomb attack in Kabul targeting a foreign logistics company supplying Nato forces, police said.

A plume of smoke rose above the scene of the attack in the north of the Afghan capital, which has been hit by a series of recent suicide strikes including on the Supreme Court, the airport and close to the presidential palace.

Seven killed, 12 injured in Karachi blast

KARACHI: Seven people were killed and 12 others sustained injuries in a bomb explosion at Burns Road, Karachi, Express News reported on Wednesday.

Police said Sindh High Court Justice Baqar Maqbool’s convoy was the target of the attackers. They added that explosive material was planted on a motorbike.

Police and rescue personnel have reached the area and injured – including Justice Maqbool – have been shifted to nearby hospitals. The affected area has been sealed for initial investigation.

Militants kill 6 soldiers in Pakistan

Six soldiers were killed and two more injured when militants ambushed an army patrol on the outskirts of Peshawar in North-west Pakistan, security sources said on Thursday.

The patrol was passing through the Mattani area on the outskirts of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa capital when it was attacked by a group of militants at 10 pm on Wednesday.

Somali Islamist rebels attack UN base, 22 dead

MOGADISHU: Islamist militants carried out a deadly assault on the main UN compound in the Somali capital on Wednesday, dealing a blow to fragile security gains that have allowed a slow return of foreign aid workers and diplomats.

The assault, claimed by Islamist group al Shabaab, began before midday when a car bomb exploded outside the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) base. Rebel gunmen forced their way into the compound and fought with security guards.

String of bombings kill 12 in Iraq market: officials

BAQUBA: Three near-simultaneous bombings -- two car bombs and a suicide attack -- killed at least a dozen people in a fruit and vegetable wholesale market north of Baghdad on Monday, officials said.

The blasts went off in the town of Judaida al-Shat, which lies just west of the restive city of Baquba and remains one of Iraq's most dangerous.

The bombings left another 48 people wounded, a police officer and a medic said.

More than 70 killed in wave of Baghdad bombings

More than 70 people were killed in a wave of bombings in markets in Shi'ite neighborhoods across Baghdad on Monday in worsening sectarian violence in Iraq.

No group claimed responsibility for the blasts. But Sunni Muslim Islamist insurgents and al-Qaeda' s Iraqi wing have increased attacks since the beginning of the year and often target Shi'ite districts.

Bomb blast in Swat kills peace committeea leader’s son

SWAT: A bomb blast took place in Swat’s  Mingor area killing Burgat Ali, son of a PML-N leader and peace committee member Sher Ali, on Tuesday.

Moreover, police said 10 people were injured in the explosion and the bomb was detonated through a remote controlled Improvised Explosive Device (IED).

Car bombs, shooting in Iraq kill four people

BAGHDAD: Iraqi officials say a shooting and two car bombs have killed four people and wounded 26 in the western and northern parts of the country.

Police officials say the deadliest attack took place on Wednesday morning when gunmen sprayed a police checkpoint with bullets in the western city of Fallujah, killing three policemen.

In the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, police say a car bomb exploded near the offices of a Kurdish party, wounding 20 people.

Three killed in suicide car bomb attack on Bannu police station

PESHAWAR: At least three people, including two women and a policeman, were killed while 27 others, among them 10 women and children, nine policemen and eight civilians were injured as militants targeted Bannu’s Domail Police station with a car bomb.

Officials said the suicide bomber struck an explosive laden vehicle on the backside of the police station on the outskirts of Bannu.

The attack completely destroyed the police station and at least two houses. Moreover, 10 houses surrounding the station were damaged and those inside were injured as well.

Bangladesh opposition calls strike over mass killing

DHAKA: Bangladeshi opposition parties have called a two-day nationwide shutdown from Wednesday to protest what they describe as the “mass killing” of Islamists in a crackdown by security forces.

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its Islamist allies called the strike after saying that hundreds of people were killed on Sunday and early Monday, when police broke up a mass rally in central Dhaka.

According to an AFP tally compiled after talking to police and medical sources, 38 people are known to have been killed since Sunday afternoon when police first confronted Islamist activists who had blockaded the capital.

Four Saudis held over Tanzania bombing

DAR ES SALAAM: Tanzania has arrested four men from Saudi Arabia and four Tanzanians in connection with the bombing of church yesterday that killed two people, an attack that has heightened sectarian tensions in the east African nation. Investigators said they were still determining the type of device used in the attack on the Catholic church in Arusha, a town in the north of the nation of about 45 million people that is roughly evenly split between Muslims and Christians.

Bomb hits JUI-F meeting in Hangu; 10 dead

HANGU: At least 10 people were killed and several others wounded when a bomb went off near a JUI-F’s election gathering here on Tuesday.According to police, the blast took place at the main market in Doaba area of Hangu district. JUI-F candidate in PK-43 Mufti Saeed Janan is also among the injured.Rescue and police teams reached the scene and started the injured to hospitals.According to district administration, curfew was clamped in Hangu immediately after the terrorist attack.

Devinderpal Singh Bhullar's wife seeks stay on his execution

Punjab militant Devinderpal Singh Bhullar's wife has approached the Supreme Court seeking a stay on his execution till the court decides on his review petition.

Bhullar was given the death sentence for killing nine people with a car bomb in Delhi in 1993.  On April 12 this year, the Supreme Court had dismissed his plea that asked for his death sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment.

Balochistan: Attack on two polling stations

QUETTA: Bombers on Thursday blew up two schools designated as polling stations for general election next week, police said.

A boys’ primary school and a middle school were bombed at the village of Chattar in Naseerabad district in Balochistan.

“The school buildings were designated as polling stations for the May 11 general election and we think that they were targeted for this reason,” district police chief Tahir Allauddin told AFP.

Three British soldiers killed in Afghanistan

KABUL: Three Nato troops killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan were British, officials said on Wednesday.

The three soldiers from the Royal Highland Fusiliers died on Tuesday when their vehicle was hit on a routine patrol in the district of Nahr-e Saraj, part of the southern province Helmand.

“Their deaths come as a great loss to all those serving in Task Force Helmand,” army spokesman Major Richard Morgan said in a statement from London.

Parties on ‘hit list’ resolve to defy terrorists

KARACHI: A day after the PPP, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the Awami National Party declared that they would not leave the electoral ground to militants and their political wings, the three parties alleged on Tuesday night that they were being compelled to boycott the May 11 elections.

Senator Shahi Syed of the ANP, Rehman Malik of the PPP and Dr Farooq Sattar of the MQM addressed a joint press conference at the MQM’s ‘Nine Zero’ headquarters.

While Dr Sattar said that conspiracies were being hatched to hijack the elections and democracy, Mr Malik told the press conference these conspiracies were actually aimed at disintegrating Pakistan.