Reuters – Explosives planted on a bicycle killed nine people in the relatively peaceful Faryab province of northern Afghanistan on Monday, including a provincial council member, police said, amid an increase in violence across the country. The attack came a day after gunmen shot dead a top Afghan peace negotiator in the capital Kabul, dealing another blow to the country’s attempts to negotiate a deal with the Taliban as a means to ending the war. The Taliban denied involvement. Police said the remote-controlled bomb killed eight civilians and council member Amanullah Shahabzai as they sat in front of a pharmacy in the Ghormach district of Faryab. Read Article
Reuters – One policeman dies and four are wounded after a man wearing an explosives belt attacks a police checkpoint in the Iraqi capital. Sunita Rappai reports.
BBC – A senior Afghan peace negotiator has been shot dead in Kabul, officials say. Arsala Rahmani was a key member of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, which leads Afghan efforts to make peace with the Taliban. Correspondents say his death is a major blow to President Hamid Karzai as Mr Rahmani was key in reaching out to Taliban commanders. Read Article
Mail Online – Two British servicemen have been murdered by rogue Afghan policemen as they guarded a public meeting. It is thought the two gunmen went berserk during the meeting, or ‘shura’, in Helmand province and opened fire with semi-automatic rifles. One of the attackers was shot dead by a British-trained Afghan policeman, while the second was wounded and fled. Read Article
AP – A gunman shot dead a top member of the Afghan peace council Sunday in Kabul, police said. The assassination strikes another blow to efforts to negotiate a political resolution to the decade-long war. Arsala Rahmani, a former Taliban official turned Afghan peace negotiator, was in his vehicle when he was killed by an unknown attacker in another vehicle at an intersection in the west part of the city, according to Mohammad Zahir, head of the Kabul police department’s criminal investigation division. Read Article
BBC – A video posted online in the name of an Islamist group, al-Nusra Front, says it carried out two bomb attacks in the Syrian capital Damascus on Thursday. The attacks took place near a military intelligence building during the morning rush hour, killing 55 people. Opposition activists have accused the regime of orchestrating the explosions. The al-Nusra Front emerged in January and has said it was behind previous attacks, including one in March on a police HQ and airforce Intelligence. The video says the bombings were in response to attacks on civilian areas by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. Read Article
Reuters – An explosion hit Syria’s northern city of Aleppo on Friday, close to the ruling party headquarters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The activist group said no one was killed by the blast itself but one guard at the headquarters died, apparently in a round of gunfire that followed the explosion. “Initial details indicate that the Aleppo blast was targeting the local branch of the ruling Baath party and there is no information until now on the number of victims that fell in the explosion,” the British-based group said in an email. Read Article
NY Times – Twin suicide car bombs that targeted a notorious military intelligence compound shook the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Thursday, killing and wounding hundreds of people and raising the likelihood of extremist elements propelling the conflict to a more treacherous phase. It was the largest such terrorist attack since the uprising began 14 months ago, with the Health Ministry putting the toll at 55 dead and nearly 400 wounded — civilians and soldiers. The dual explosions forged a hellish landscape of incinerated corpses, burning vehicles and a billowing plume of smoke visible throughout Damascus. Read Article
BBC – South Sudan has accused Sudan of bombing within its territory, in violation of a UN Security Council resolution to end hostilities. Juba’s information minister told the BBC several areas had been targeted in air raids in the last 48 hours. But Khartoum said it had the right to respond to acts of aggression. Disputes over oil stemming from South Sudan’s secession in July led to clashes last month and fears of a return to all-out war. The UN has threatened sanctions if both sides fail to negotiate. Following the UN Security Council’s resolution a week ago, the neighbours agreed to follow a African Union roadmap under which they must restart negotiations and reach an agreement on outstanding disagreements within three months. Read Article
Reuters – Syrian rebels killed at least seven pro-government militiamen in a Damascus suburb on Wednesday, activists said, and an explosion wounded eight soldiers escorting U.N. ceasefire observers in the southern province of Deraa. The Damascus attack with rocket-propelled grenades on a bus carrying the fighters through the suburb of Irbin prompted the army to seal off the area and respond with shelling, activist Mohammad Saeed said. Read Article
BBC – Former Libyan rebels have launched an attack on the prime minister’s office in the capital Tripoli, leaving at least one guard dead, officials say. They said about 200 armed men, some carrying mortars, tried to storm the building but were repelled by security. Four others were wounded in the clashes, which lasted several hours. The attackers – ex-rebels who fought to topple Col Gaddafi last year – were demanding pay-outs promised under a reward scheme suspended last year. Prime Minister Abdurrahim al-Keib is safe, one of his advisers, Ashur Shamis, told the BBC. Sources said he had been in the building at the time. Read Article
RTT – hree US soldiers were killed in an improvised explosive device attack in eastern Afghanistan on Monday. An International Security Assistance Force statement did not disclose their nationality, deferring casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities, but reports quoting western officials said three American marines were the victims of an explosion that hit the vehicle they were traveling in south of a military base in Ghazni province. With this, the total number of foreign troop casualties in Afghanistan this year rose to 148. Read Article
Independent – Islamist rebels armed with mortars and machine guns attacked African Union forces in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu overnight, sparking a battle that killed at least nine people, officials and residents said today. The al Shabaab militants, who are allied to al-Qa’ida, were forced out of most of the city last year but have kept up sporadic bomb and suicide attacks. “It was heavy fighting last night … Two al Shabaab dead bodies are lying here,” said Captain Ndayiragije Come, a spokesman from the Burundi contingent of the AU’s AMISOM peacekeeping mission in Somalia. “From our side two were injured. They were also shelling our position – they missed their target,” he added. Witnesses said shelling from the fighting hit two houses, killing at least seven civilians, four of them from one family. Read Article
Independent – Militants have ambushed a Pakistan army security checkpoint in a region close to the border with Afghanistan, killing nine soldiers. The army said the attack took place in Mir Ali town in North Waziristan, a militant sanctuary frequently targeted by American drones. Unlike other tribal regions, the military has yet to launch an offensive in North Waziristan. Read Article
Reuters – Fighting between rebels and President Bashar al-Assad’s forces erupted in an oil producing province in eastern Syria, residents and activists said on Sunday, the eve of a parliamentary election the authorities say shows reforms are under way. Rebels armed with rocket-propelled grenades attacked tank positions in the east of the provincial capital Deir al-Zor, in response to an army offensive against towns and villages in the tribal area bordering Iraq that has killed tens of people and stopped others reaching supplies and medical care, they said. Read Article
BBC – A suspected suicide blast in Pakistan’s north-western Bajaur district has left at least 20 people dead, officials say. The blast is reported to have targeted security forces close to a market place in Khar, the tribal area’s main town. Most of those killed were bystanders. The Pakistani Taliban say it was a suicide bombing – officials have yet to confirm the cause of the blast. Bajaur, close to the Afghan border, has seen heavy fighting between Pakistani troops and Taliban militants. Read Article
Reuters – Two bombs detonated on a central Damascus highway on Saturday, destroying nine cars, residents said, in a further sign that rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad are shifting tactics towards homemade explosives. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the blasts from bombs planted under cars on al-Thawra Street, the latest blow to last month’s crumbling U.N.-backed truce. Read Article
BNO – Two car bomb attacks hit a police post in the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on late Thursday evening, killing at least twelve people and injuring more than 25 others, local media reported. The first attack happened at around 10:10 p.m. local time when a suspected suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden vehicle at a police field post on the outskirts of Makhachkala, the capital of Russia’s Dagestan. As emergency teams arrived at the scene to attend to the victims, about ten minutes after the initial attack, a second blast followed. Police said the second blast was likely caused by an explosive device planted in a van near the police post, according to the Itar-Tass news agency. Read Article
The Guardian – The self-proclaimed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and four other accused terrorists were ordered to stand trial at a hearing before a Guantánamo military tribunal that descended into chaos on Saturday as the defendants refused to acknowledge the judge and their lawyers repeatedly challenged the legitimacy of the court. The accused men, one of whom was brought to the arraignment hearing strapped to a restraining chair after refusing to attend, dropped their previous insistence on pleading guilty and demanding to be executed in favour of largely sitting in silence as defence lawyers attempted to raise the issue of torture and question the independence of the judge. None of the defendants chose to enter a plea at the hearing and reserved it for a later appearance. The judge set a tentative trial date of May 2013 although he acknowledged that there are likely to be further delays. Read Article
Digital Journal – Pentagon officials recently disclosed to the Associated Press (AP) that they could not find any photo or video evidence to confirm that Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was killed in the Navy Seal raid in Pakistan a year ago. Read Article
RT – Federal agents announced on Tuesday that they successfully thwarted plans to blow up a bridge in Cleveland, Ohio. What was left out of most reports, however, was that the FBI was instrumental in plotting the potential attack. As is the case with most terrorist attacks revealed by the FBI, from the very beginning of the alleged crime until this week’s arrests, the charges introduced by federal agents were orchestrated by undercover agent provocateurs. Five men were arrested in the Cleveland area on Monday for charges of conspiracy and the use of explosive materials. According to the criminal complaint released this week by the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, prosecutors link Brandon Baxter, 20; Anthony Hayne, 35; and Douglas Wright, 26, to an anti-government plot that involved bringing a large bridge in the region crashing down with the aid of at least two accomplices. Read Article
ABC – One of al Qaeda’s most prominent radical clerics may have been killed in a drone strike last year, but his words appear to have lived on in a new issue of al Qaeda’s English-language magazine in which he calls for biological attacks against the U.S. “The use of chemical and biological weapons against population centers is allowed and is strongly recommended,” U.S.-born Anwar al-Awlaki is quoted as saying in one of two new issues of the Inspire magazine. Read Article
Comment – As our Editorial of 2nd October 2011 pointed out Mr al-Awaki certainly had an interesting life/lives. Not only has he been killed numerous times by the USA, but he also was entertained at the Pentagon back in February 2002, just 5 months after the 9/11 attacks. What a guy.
ABC – With the anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death looming, American and European authorities told ABC News today that they fear al Qaeda may soon try to explode U.S.-bound aircraft with explosives hidden inside the bodies of terrorists. As a result, security at several airports in the U.K. and elsewhere in Europe and the Middle East has been substantially stepped up, with a focus on U.S. carriers. Read Article
NY Times – Less than two hours after President Obama left Afghanistan, powerful explosions shook Kabul on Wednesday when a team of suicide attackers struck a private residential compound used by hundreds of foreigners in the east of the city, breaching the outer perimeter and leaving at least eight dead — seven Afghans and a guard — and about 17 wounded, officials said. Read Article
What is Open Your Eyes News?
It is the Big Picture - We aim to bring you the most comprehensive news on what is happening in your world, updated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Open Your Eyes News is compiled from the news feeds of over a hundred mainstream media outlets worldwide.
