Man accused of metro bomb plot trained for Afghanistan

A Pakistani-American man arrested on charges of plotting to bomb the Washington metro was in training to go to Afghanistan and had experience with the firearms, the FBI alleged in a court document released Thursday.

An FBI agent seeking a search warrant told a judge that Farooque Ahmed, 34, "is using his firearms to train for his ultimate goal of traveling to Afghanistan to fight and kill Americans," according to the document.

The agent said that conclusion was based on secretly recorded conversations between Ahmed and people he thought were members of Al-Qaeda, but who in reality were undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation agents.

"Ahmed wishes to fight Jihad himself, and (said) that he has trained to do so using various firearms," the document said.

It added that the suspect had previously discussed buying and using weapons, including rifles and a shotgun, and that he had either purchased or attempted to purchase firearms in May 2008 and February 2009.

"Ahmed also noted that he studied martial arts for four years, learned knife and gun techniques and learned disarming techniques," the document said.

It alleged that Ahmed said he could teach others the skills he had learned and offered to give 10,000 dollars to Al-Qaeda "to support their brothers overseas."

An American citizen since 1993, Ahmed lived in suburban Ashburn, Virginia. He was arrested Wednesday after several months under surveillance as authorities mounted a sting operation.

He had cased out and videotaped several metro stations, including those for Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon, for an alleged plot to simultaneously detonate bombs in them.

Authorities said the public was never in danger. Ahmed faces up to 50 years in prison if convicted.

'Bin Laden' warns France over veil ban, Afghan war

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden warned France on Wednesday that its planned ban on the veil in the public places and its involvement in the war in Afghanistan justified violence against its nationals.

In an audio recording aired by the Al-Jazeera television, Bin Laden said last month's kidnapping of seven foreigners, five of them French, in the Sahara desert in northern Niger was a warning.

Bin Laden, in the message directed to the French people, said he wanted to set out "the reasons for threatening your security and taking your people as prisoners."

"How could you take part in occupying our countries and support the Americans in killing our children and women, and then expect to live in peace and security?" he asked.

"It is very simple -- as you kill, you will be killed, as you take hostages, you will be taken hostages, and as you compromise our security, we will compromise your security," he said in the message, the authenticity of which could not immediately be verified.

The Al-Qaeda leader warned the French government to pull its troops out of Afghanistan.

"The way to protect your security is to bring your tyranny against our nation to an end, most importantly to withdraw from the damned war of (former US president George W.) Bush in Afghanistan," he said in the message, which lasted 1 minute 55 seconds.

The seven hostages -- five French nationals, a Togolese and a Madagascan -- were seized in a Niger uranium-mining town on the night of September 15 to September 16.

They are believed by intelligence agents in countries concerned to be held in an area of the Sahara desert in neighbouring Mali.

Afghanistan Building Collapse Kills At Least 60

Officials say at least 60 people, mainly women and children, were killed Wednesday when a part of a house collapsed during a wedding party in the northern Afghanistan.

More than 40 others were injured in the accident, which occurred in the Jellaba district of the Baghlan province.

Officials say one floor of the multi-story home collapsed during the wedding celebration.

Authorities said they were having a tough time getting the information and access because the village is located in a remote area.

Houses in rural Afghanistan are traditionally built with the mud bricks and wood and often do not have adequate support.

Khadr statement says he was happy U.S. soldier died in attack

Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr tossed a grenade "with the specific intent of killing or injuring as many Americans as he could" at the end of a July 2002 firefight in Afghanistan, according to a stipulation of the facts document Khadr signed as part of his guilty plea.

The document says that when Khadr was interviewed three months later he said, "He felt happy when he heard that he had killed an American," a reference to Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer, a member of a U.S. Army Special Forces unit, who died as the result of his wounds from a grenade.

The statement of facts Khadr signed also says he would think back on his actions and the death of the American soldier when he was aggravated by his guards in Bagram, Afghanistan, and "it would make him feel good."

Khadr, a 24-year-old Canadian citizen and the youngest detainee held at Guantanamo, pleaded guilty to murder, material support for terrorism and other charges Monday, which means an early end to the first military commission trial conducted during the Obama administration.

The sentencing phase of Khadr's case is now under way and is expected to conclude by the end of the week. The charges carry a maximum of life in prison.

Afghan police chief and three officers were been killed in roadside bomb

At least four Afghan police officers were killed and three others were wounded after a roadside bomb blasted their vehicle in the western region of the Afghanistan, local media reported on Tuesday.

Provincial spokesman Naqib Arwen confirmed the death of the policemen, including that of Obe district police chief Seyyed Serjaeddin, who were all conducting their routine patrolling on Herat-Obe road in the Heart province.

The wife and son of the police chief were also in the vehicle during the attack. They were wounded during the shootout that occurred following the explosion.

"We are investigating, but our initial reports show that it was a remote-controlled bomb," Serjaeddin said.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the bombing, but local officials are initially blaming the Taliban for conducting the attack.

Taliban to shift base to Afghanistan if Pak Army launches N.Waziristan operation

Amid increasing US pressure on the Pakistan to act swiftly against terrorist sanctuaries in its tribal areas along the Afghan border, the local Taliban council has declared that the militants will move into Afghanistan if the army launches an operation in North Waziristan.

"If the army starts another operation we will migrate to Afghanistan," The Dawn quoted a pamphlet purportedly distributed by the Mujahideen Shura of North Waziristan in Miramshah bazaar, as saying.

"But this will lead to an unending war in the region and jihad will continue," it added.

The Taliban would ask Afghan President Hamid Karzai to provide shelter to their men if the army launched an operation in North Waziristan, said the pamphlet.

The Shura said that despite a few incidents, which would be investigated, the Taliban would not violate the peace agreement signed with the government in 2007.

However, it added, there was a possibility that the government would launch an operation against them because of the two-billon-dollar military aid recently promised by the United States.While it urged the people to remain prepared to cope with such a situation, it also warned the government against setting up committees against the Taliban.

"If the government launches an operation for the sake of money, the people of Waziristan will collect $2 billion," the pamphlet said.

Our hired guns in Iraq and Afghanistan

I assume you've seen the latest news about our wars in the Iraq and Afghanistan: increasingly, we're outsourcing conduct in those wars to independent contractors, for "combat and other duties once performed by soldiers," says the New York Times. The contractors have been involved in the indiscriminate killings, of civilians, even of American troops.

The reports come from the latest WikiLeaks releases, via the Times on Saturday and Sunday. (WikiLeaks also sent the information to the Guardian in London, Der Spiegel in Germany, and Le Monde in France.)

The US had to use the contractors at the beginning of our invasion of Iraq, the Times reports, "because there simply were not enough soldiers." But our reliance on them has continued, and escalated, despite some of our troops believing that the contractors have been "amateurish, overpaid and, often, trigger-happy."

From the Times' report: "Contractors often shot with little discrimination - and few, if any consequences - at unarmed civilians, Iraqi security forces, American troops and even other contractors, stirring outrage and undermining much of what the coalition forces were sent to accomplish."

Nonetheless, our reliance on them continues. "The military cannot do without them," says the Times' Sunday report. In Afghanistan now, "There are more contractors than actual members of the military."

The latest WikiLeaks documents also detail the extent of civilian casualties in Iraq, which the US military has tried to downplay, and a much wider abuse of Iraqi prisoners, by the Iraqis themselves - "a brutality from which the Americans at times averted their eyes."

NATO Soldier, 5 Cops Killed In Afghanistan

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the Afghanistan has lost yet another soldier in an attack by suspected Taliban militants in the west of the country, local officials told media on Thursday.

An ISAF statement merely said that one of its troops had been killed in the insurgent attack. In keeping with the official policy, it did not identify the dead soldier or the site of the incident.

Elsewhere in the land-locked nation, four policemen died in an ambush by suspected insurgents in Ghoryan district in the western Afghan Herat province on Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said. They were killed when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle in Keshk-e-Kuhna district.

Another cop died in an ambush in Herat's Ghoryan district on Wednesday. Ensuing firefight also resulted in the death of a militant while three ultras were detained.

NATO soldiers were first deployed in Afghanistan in 2001 for counter-insurgency operations which led to the ouster of its Taliban-backed government.

According to the independent website iCasualties.org, which monitors military casualties in Afghanistan, over 590 U.S. and NATO-foreign troops have been killed there this year, making it the deadliest yet for the security alliance in the nearly-decade long war against the Taliban.

LAPD Bomb Expert Killed in Afghanistan

Los Angeles police officer Joshua Cullins had a knack for disarming the explosives and was being groomed to join his department's elite bomb squad.

But first the 28-year-old Marine reservist had tours of duty in the Iraq and Afghanistan, where he painstakingly disarmed roadside bombs, then collected the evidence and brought it back home to teach training classes for his LAPD colleagues. It was something he loved to do.

Two months ago he survived a roadside bomb blast in Afghanistan and was left with a concussion. Back on the job, Cullins had only two days left in the field as an explosive ordnance disposal technician when he was killed during a bomb investigation.

"It was something he loved doing and was dedicated to his fellow Marines and the people in Afghanistan trying to make the country safe," said LAPD Capt. Daryl Russell, Cullins' supervisor. "I think he obviously knew he had a very dangerous job. Every day he got up and put his boots on, he knew the dangers. But he was such a dedicated professional; he did what he had to do."

Cullins was scheduled to be home by Christmas, Russell said. With three years on the force, he patrolled the area of the downtown Los Angeles and had two years to go before he could join the bomb squad.

Toll in Karachi bloodshed rises to 33

Unknown gunmen killed four people in different incidents of the target killing in Karachi on Wednesday, bringing to 33 the number of people killed in the city in the past 24 hours.

“It is right now difficult to name any groups over involvement in the killings but I can say one thing — this is a conspiracy to destabilise Karachi,” city police chief Fayyaz Leghari told AFP.

“Police have arrested several suspects and they are being interrogated,” Leghari said without disclosing any numbers.

Moreover, a curfew may be imposed in certain neighbourhoods of Karachi, television reports quoted sources as saying.

Search operations are reportedly going to be launched in the city's sensitive areas, reports said.

Commercial centres shut down in the wake of the violence that intensified on Tuesday claiming at least 29 lives.

Police and the paramilitary troops patrolled troubled parts of the city, which were deserted with public transport on strike, an AFP reporter said.

Bomb kills three soldiers in the Khyber

Three Pakistani soldiers were killed on Wednesday when a bomb ripped through their patrol in the Khyber region of the tribal belt on the Afghan border, a military spokesman said.

The soldiers from the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) were on a routine patrol when the bomb planted by the militants hit a vehicle, the spokesman said.

The incident happened in the Qambar Khel town, which lies on the route of the Nato supply convoys heading to the US-led war effort in the Afghanistan.

“Three FC soldiers were killed and three wounded,” the spokesman said, blaming “miscreants” for the attack in a term used by the Pakistani military commanders to denote militants.

Khyber is home to Taliban insurgents and militants from the extremist group Lashkar-e-Islam led by local warlord Mangal Bagh.

Report: Pakistan Spies Tied to Mumbai Siege

Pakistan's intelligence agency was deeply involved in planning the 2008 terror attack on the Mumbai, going so far as to fund the reconnaissance missions to the Indian city, according to a report on the interrogation of a U.S. citizen convicted in the attack.

The attack, blamed on the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group, killed 166 people, paralyzed India's business capital and the froze peace efforts between the Pakistan and India.

David Headley, who pleaded guilty in the U.S. federal court to laying the groundwork for the attack, told Indian interrogators in June that officers from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency were deeply intertwined with the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The spy agency provided handlers for all the top members of the group, gave them direction and provided their funding, Headley said, according to the government report on his June interrogation. The report, marked secret, was obtained by The Associated Press late Monday.

"According to Headley, every big action of LeT is done in close coordination with ISI," the report said, using a common abbreviation for Lashkar-e-Taiba.

India has long accused the Pakistan spy service of being involved with, and in some cases directing, terror groups. U.S. officials have also accused the agency of working with the Taliban to coordinate attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan.

A senior intelligence official in Pakistan, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media on the record, said the allegations were baseless.

According to the Indian report, Headley met repeatedly with his intelligence agency handler, whom he identified as Maj. Iqbal, throughout the preparations for the Mumbai attacks.

Maj. Iqbal gave him $25,000 to fund his scouting trips to India and a camera-phone, according to the report. Headley also received training in the basics of spy work from an instructor assigned to him by Maj. Iqbal, the report said.

Taliban's Influence Expands Into Northern Afghanistan

The Taliban's influence in the northern Afghanistan has expanded in the recent months from a few hotspots to much of the region, as insurgents respond to the U.S.-led coalition's surge in the south by seizing the new ground in the areas once considered secure.

Taliban militants stop traffic nightly at the checkpoints on the road from Kabul to Uzbekistan, just outside the Baghlan province's capital city of the Pul-e-Khumri, frequently blowing up fuel convoys and seizing travelers who work with the government or the international community.

In many areas here and the rest of the north, the Taliban have effectively supplanted the official authorities, running with local administrations and courts, and conscripting recruits.

"Day by day, the Taliban are advancing into new districts," said provincial council chief Mohammad Rasoul Mohseni of Baghlan.

Such advances challenge the coalition strategy that assumes Taliban losses in its southern heartland would undermine the entire insurgency, driving the militants to pursue peace on terms acceptable to the West.

15 Killed as Somali Troops Begin New Offensive

An offensive launched by the Somali government troops has killed at least 15 people as the weak, U.N.-backed government attempts to win back the control of areas held by the militants, officials said Monday.

The government says the offensive, which began on Sunday, has recorded some early successes, with militants fleeing from at least one town near the border with Kenya.

Somalia's Ministry of Information said 11 al-Shabab militants and one government soldier have been killed in the fighting. A witness said at least three civilians died. There was no way to independently verify the casualty figures.

Somalia hasn't had a fully functioning government since 1991. The U.S. and Italy are helping pay for training for government forces to take on militants.

Fighting was seen in the Bakol region, near the Ethiopian border, and the government said its forces had recaptured the Beled-Hawa district in the southwestern region of Somalia, bordering Kenya.

"The government soldiers entered our town on the Sunday morning, forcing al-Shabab to flee," said Mohamed Osman, a resident. He said people in town burned al-Shabab's black flag and hoisted the Somali national flag above government buildings.

Somalia's Minister of Information, Abdirahman Omar Osman, said the operation is off to a good start.

"The victory in which our forces took over Beled-Hawo is for Somalis, the Somali flag and freedom. Forces will continue their struggle until they liberate the entire region from the brutal rule of al-Shabab," the minister said.

U.S. Missile Attack Kills 3 in Pakistan Tribal Area

Suspected U.S. unmanned aircraft launched two missiles at a vehicle in the Pakistani tribal region along in the Afghan border Friday, killing three people, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

The attack was in the village of the Machi Khel, near Mir Ali in the North Waziristan, two officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk with the press.

The officials said the three killed have not yet been identified, but the village is known to house a mix of militants from the Afghan Taliban and local Pakistani insurgent groups.

The U.S. has sharply escalated its use of unmanned drone missile strikes targeting militants in Pakistan's border region in the last two months.

The U.S. rarely acknowledges the covert missile program, but officials have said privately the attacks have killed several senior Taliban and al-Qaida commanders. Pakistan officially opposes the program but is believed to secretly support it.

The U.S. carried out 21 such strikes in September, nearly double the previous monthly record, and has already launched 16 this month including those Friday, according to an Associated Press count.

Elsewhere in the Pakistan, gunmen ambushed a truck early Friday that was returning home after delivering NATO supplies in Afghanistan, killing two people.

Local official Iqbal Khan said the truck was attacked near Jamrud in the Khyber tribal region. The driver and his assistant were killed, and the unidentified gunmen then torched the truck.

State Department Terror Alert for U.S. Travel to Europe Still in Effect

A terror alert for the Americans traveling and living in the Europe remains in effect after the U.S. State Department issued the warning earlier this month.

The State Department's counterterrorism coordinator said there is no reason to rescind the alert since the alleged European terror plot is still active. Concerns have centered around the terrorists plotting to carry out a Mumbai-style massacre that took place in 2008.

Britain's current terror threat level remains unchanged at "severe," meaning an attack is highly likely. Senior intelligence officials confirmed earlier this month that a list of targets includes the Eiffel Tower and the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, luxury Hotel Adlon near Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, and Berlin's Central Station.

State Department Coordinator for Counterterrorism Daniel Benjamin told journalists in London on Thursday that the American government's position on the issue has not changed.

"We don't view the conditions as warranting us rescinding the (travel) alert," he said.

The alert is one step below a formal travel warning advising Americans not to visit Europe.

Pakistan arrests 7 militants, foil plot to kill PM

Pakistani police arrested a group of the Islamist militants plotting to kill the prime minister in a gun and suicide bomb attack at his house, officials said Thursday. The seven men also are accused of targeting the other government leaders for the assassination.

Militants in the Pakistan have frequently attacked the government officials, security officers and the political leaders as part of a campaign to destabilize the U.S.-allied government and take over the state. Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed in a gun-and-bomb attack near Islamabad in 2007.

The conspiracy against Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was nearly complete, police officials said.

The suspects are accused of belonging to the al-Qaida-linked group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Their plan included monitoring the Gilani's movements and storming his private residence in the central city of the Multan with guns and a suicide bomber, police investigator Waris Bharwana said.

"These terrorists were arrested in a timely fashion, and surely we have averted an attack on the prime minister," he said.

Authorities did not offer any evidence to back up their allegations.

Like other top officials, Gilani does not publicize his movements ahead of time and travels with extensive security.

Abid Qadri, a regional police chief, said authorities learned about the plot during an initial interrogation of the seven militants, who were arrested late Wednesday after a shootout near a village in central Pakistan.

The militants opened fire when police tried to pull their car over for a routine check, Qadri said. Nobody was wounded in the shooting, but two men managed to escape, he said.

A judge has ordered the seven suspects be held and questioned in a prison. Their next court date is Oct. 27, Bharwana said.

Ukraine train and bus collision kills 42

At least 42 people have been killed and nine people hurt in a collision between a train and a small bus in the eastern Ukraine, officials say.

The incident happened near the town of the Marhanets, south of the main regional city of the Dnipropetrovsk.

The inter-city passenger bus tried to cross the track, ignoring the warning of an approaching in train, reports said.

Some of the injured are in a critical condition and the death toll could rise.

Railway officials said all the casualties were on the bus.

'Utter carnage'

The ministry of the interior said the train had dragged the bus for 30 metres after the collision.

"The driver of the bus broke traffic laws by driving through a red light before colliding with the train," a spokeswoman for the regional traffic police told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

The Transport Minister Kostyantyn Yefymenko is quoted in several Ukrainian news agencies recounting what survivors have already been saying to investigators.

"The bus was standing still," said Mr Yefymenko, "and the driver was standing near the bus, then he got in and started driving right before the locomotive."

This, he said, was despite passengers warning the driver that the alarm lights were flashing.

Pakistan's prime minister said peace talk with taliban

Pakistan's prime minister said Tuesday that peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban cannot be succeed without Islamabad's help, a reminder of the leverage the country has because of its historical ties with the group.

The drumbeat about talks has picked up in the recent days, fueled in part by the Afghan President Hamid Karzai's confirmation that his government has had informal discussions with the Taliban on securing peace in the Afghanistan "for quite some time."

Pakistan has offered to facilitate peace talks previously, but Afghanistan is believed to be suspicious of its motives. Pakistan helped the Taliban seize power in Afghanistan in the 1990s and many of the group's senior commanders, including leader Mullah Omar, are believed to be based along Pakistan's rugged border with the Afghanistan.

Many analysts suspect Pakistan would again like to see the Taliban in a position of power in the Afghanistan to act as a counterweight to Islamabad's archenemy, India, in the country. This suspicion has raised questions about how Pakistan would use its influence with the Taliban during any negotiations with the Afghan government.

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani tried to dispel concerns about the country's role when asked about the Taliban peace talks Tuesday, but also reminded observers of the leverage Pakistan has in the process.

"Look, nothing can happen without us because we are part of the solution. We are not part of the problem," Gilani told reporters while visiting the northwest town of Charsadda.

Many people wonder just how far Pakistan would go to protect its interests

Pope denounces terrorist ideas that spur violence

Pope Benedict XVI is denouncing the "terroristic ideologies" that spur violence in the God's name.

Benedict said in Monday as he opened a meeting of the bishops from around the Middle East that such ideologies were a "false divinity" that must be "unmasked."

Benedict made the off-the-cuff remarks at the opening working session of the meeting, or synod, which runs through Oct. 24. The meeting has drawn 185 participants, including nine patriarchs of the region's ancient Christian churches. A rabbi and two Muslim clerics will address the meeting.

Benedict summoned the bishops to the Rome amid a major flight of the Christians from their traditional homes in the Mideast. An influx of the Catholic immigrants from the Africa and Asia has helped offset their numbers.

9/11 link to militant in the Europe terror alert

The Islamic militant whose disclosures under U.S. interrogation in the Afghanistan triggered Europe's terror alert is an old friend of a man convicted in the 9/11 attacks and, as the strikes were being planned, frequented the same mosque where the Hamburg-based plotters often met, officials say.

Hamburg security officials in the August shuttered the Taiba mosque, known until two years ago as al-Quds, because of fears it was becoming a magnet for the homegrown extremists who, unlike foreigners, could not be expelled from the country.

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Ahmad Wali Siddiqui, a 36-year-old German of Afghan descent arrested by the U.S. military in July in Afghanistan has emerged as the latest link between the Germany and al-Qaida's worldwide terror campaign. Siddiqui is believed to have been part of the Hamburg militant scene that also included key 9/11 plotters.

Intelligence officials say he was a friend of Mounir el Motassadeq, who was convicted by a German court in 2006 of being an accessory to the murder of the 246 passengers and crew on the four jetliners used in the 2001 terrorist attacks, and also frequented the al-Quds mosque.

Motassadeq was found to have aided suicide hijackers Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah by helping them keep up the appearance of being regular university students — paying their tuition and rent — though it was never established whether he knew of the planned timing, dimension or targets of the attacks.

Governor Among 15 Killed in the Afghan Mosque Bombing

A massive blast at a mosque in the northern Afghanistan killed 15 people including the provincial governor in the northern Afghanistan on Friday, officials said.

More than 20 people were wounded in the explosion during Friday prayers at the Shirkat mosque in the Takhar province, said Gen. Shah Jahan Noori, provincial police chief.

The governor of neighboring Kunduz province, Mohammad Omar, was killed in the blast, Noori said.

Takhar Gov. Abdul Jabar Taqwa said Omar was likely the target. "We believe a bomb was set up in the mosque to kill the governor," he told The Associated Press.

Northern Takhar has been the scene of escalating violence amid intensified military operations by NATO and Afghan forces in recent days.

Sixteen militants were killed in air raids and ground fighting overnight Wednesday in the Darqad, Yangi Qala and Khwaja Bahawuddin districts of Takhar, said Noori. More than a dozen insurgents were wounded.

Noori said his convoy was ambushed early Thursday and four attackers were killed in a gunbattle that lasted several hours. No joint force casualties occurred, he said.

Police: Blasts kill 7 at Sufi shrine in Pakistan

Twin explosions rocked a famed Sufi shrine in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi on Thursday, killing at least seven people, wounding 65 others, and sending a stark reminder of the threat posed by Islamist militants to this U.S.-allied nation.

Security officials responding to the blasts at the Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine said they had found some suspicious packages and were evacuating people as quickly as possible. Two severed head were discovered, an indication that suicide bombers may have caused the explosions, officials said.

Pakistani shrines and mosques have frequently been the target of the Islamist militant groups, whose hardline interpretations of Islam leave no room for the more mystical Sufi practices that are common in this Sunni Muslim-majority nation of 175 million. Earlier this year in the eastern city of Lahore, the nearly 50 people were killed in a similar attack at the another major Sufi shrine.

The blasts at the Ghazi shrine came on a Thursday evening, the busiest time of the week for Sufi shrines across the country. Thousands typically visit that shrine on a Thursday, praying, distribute food to the poor and toss rose petals on the grave of the saint. Ghazi was an 8th century saint credited with bringing Islam to the region along the coast.

Witness Hassam Uddin said the two blasts occurred near the main entrance of the shrine's compound before the metal detector, and that he saw 18 to 20 critically wounded people lying on the ground.

Dozens of Taliban were killed as war enters 10th year

Airstrikes and ground operations by the NATO and Afghan troops killed dozens of insurgents, including a senior Taliban leader who spearheaded attacks against security forces, the alliance said Thursday as the war in Afghanistan entered its 10th year.

Sixteen militants were killed in air raids and ground fighting overnight in the Darqad, Yangi Qala and Khwaja Bahawuddin districts of Takhar province, Gen. Shah Jahan Noori, provincial police chief, told The Associated Press. More than a dozen insurgents were wounded.

Northern Takhar has been the scene of escalating military operations in recent days, as NATO and Afghan forces step up the battle for control of the Taliban-dominated south.

Noori said his convoy was ambushed early Thursday and four attackers were killed in a gunbattle that lasted several hours. No joint force casualties occurred, he said.

Taliban commander Maulawi Jawadullah — accused of organizing deadly ambushes, roadside bombings, and abductions of Afghan police and soldiers in northern Afghanistan — was killed in an airstrike Wednesday in Yangi Qala district, NATO said.

for more news : Dozens of talibans killed 

Attacks on British embassy, oil company in Yemen

Two separate attacks on foreign interests in the Yemen on Wednesday left one French national dead and several other people were wounded, officials said.

The first attack happened on a vehicle east of the capital carrying the five British Embassy staff. One person inside the vehicle was hurt along with at least two people outside the car, the British Foreign Office said.

The second attack took place at the Sanaa office of the Austrian oil and gas company OMV, when a security guard opened fire. A French national who worked for the company was shot and killed, OMV and the French Ministry of the Foreign Affairs said.

"This shameful attack on British diplomats will only redouble Britain's determination to work with the government of Yemen to help address the challenges that country faces," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement.

Eyewitnesses and security officials at the scene said they believed it was a rocket attack on the embassy vehicle, based on rocket fragments they saw at the scene.

The vehicle was on its way to the embassy when it was attacked, the British Foreign Office said.

Airstrike kills Taliban leader in northwestern Afghanistan

An airstrike in the northwestern Afghanistan killed a Taliban leader, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said on Wednesday.

Qari Ziauddin, the Taliban's shadow governor in the Faryab province, was slain on Tuesday. He was "directly associated with and took direct operational orders from a Pakistan-based leader of the northern front," according to ISAF.

When coalition forces went to the site of the strike in Faryab province, armed people threatened them, authorities said.

"The security force engaged and killed four insurgents and confirmed Qari Ziauddin was killed during the airstrike," ISAF said.

Gunmen kill crime lab chief in northern Iraq

Gunmen in the northern Iraqi city of the Mosul ambushed and killed the director of the city's crime lab Tuesday in the latest targeted killing of security officials and government workers around Iraq, police said.

A wave of bombings and shootings have hit Baghdad and elsewhere in the recent weeks blamed on Sunni insurgents. U.S. and Iraqi officials speculate that the pinpoint strikes seek to discredit the Shiite-led government after a seven-month political standstill following parliament elections in March.

Gunmen blocked the car of Col. Mohammed Aziz near his home in Mosul and opened fire with weapons fitted with silencers, police officials said.

Near the southern city of Najaf, meanwhile, a parked motorcycle packed with explosives exploded as a U.S. military patrol passed, security officials said. There were no casualties reported.

The U.S. military did not immediately provide details of the reported attack.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

In Baghdad, Iraqi officials met with U.S. business envoys as part of the first high-level American trade delegation to Iraq in more than 30 years.

Iraq has been desperate to court foreign investment, but many companies and governments have been cautious because of security worries, corruption and the political limbo after the March elections.

France: 12 arrested in counterterrorism cases

Police in the southern France arrested 12 suspects in the sweeps against suspected Islamic militant networks on Tuesday, including three men linked to a network recruiting fighters for Afghanistan, officials said.

The roundups were part of two entirely different counterterrorism cases under investigation by French judges, and fell on the same day only by coincidence, one police official in Paris said.

Firearms were seized in one of the sweeps, another official said.

The arrests come as France and many other European nations have stepped up terrorism alert vigilance amid what has been described as an abstract though heightened threat in recent weeks. The U.S. government warned Americans over the weekend to use caution when traveling in Europe.

In one of the cases, nine suspected Islamic militants were detained in southeastern Marseille and its suburbs, and authorities turned up at least one automatic rifle and a pump gun, the officials said.

In Tuesday's other roundup, two men were arrested in Marseille and another in southwestern Bordeaux on suspected ties to a Frenchman arrested in Naples, Italy, last month accused of links to an Afghan recruiting ring.

"This very morning, police operations were launched in Marseille and Bordeaux that led notably to three arrests directly linked to the fight against terrorism," Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said during a question-and-answer session in parliament's lower house.

He made no reference to the nine other arrests.

Taliban Attack NATO Supply Trucks in Pakistan

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility Monday for a pre-dawn attack on tankers carrying fuel to Afghanistan for U.S. and other NATO forces, left vulnerable on the side of the road after Pakistan shut down a key border crossing.

About a dozen militants peppered the vehicles parked at a truck stop on the outskirts of the capital Islamabad with automatic gunfire. Some 20 trucks went up in flames and four people were killed and seven injured, authorities said.

Hours later, gunmen attacked and burned two other trucks carrying NATO supplies in southwest Pakistan, killing the driver.

There have been four such attacks since Pakistan last Thursday shuttered its main border crossing into Afghanistan to NATO supply convoys in apparent reaction to a series of alleged NATO incursions, including a helicopter attack that killed three Pakistani soldiers. Traffic has since been backing up at various points along the route from the southern port city of Karachi to the crossing at Torkham — where scores of trucks remain stranded and vulnerable to attack in the volatile Khyber Pass.

Although Pakistan says the Torkham blockade will soon be lifted, the latest attack and the Taliban threat seemed certain to raise the stakes in the closure, which has exacerbated tensions between Washington and Islamabad. Convoys crossing from Pakistan bring fuel, military vehicles, spare parts, clothing and other non-lethal supplies for foreign troops.

4 Afghan civilians killed during attack on insurgents, NATO says

Four Afghan civilians died and three others were wounded in a NATO-led operation on Wednesday in the eastern Afghanistan, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said Thursday.

The incident took place in the Andar district of the Ghazni province. ISAF forces met with village elders to apologize for their actions and embarked on an investigation.

It is the latest incident of civilians caught in the crossfire of the Afghan war, a trend that has caused outrage and consternation among Afghan government officials and citizens.

ISAF said eight insurgents wielding small arms attacked an Afghan and coalition security force.

An air weapons team trying to protect the troops "accidentally struck a group of unarmed civilians, killing four and injuring three others."

ISAF spokesman Rear Adm. Greg Smith said families will be compensated in the wake of their losses.

"We deeply regret that our operation resulted in civilian loss of life and we express our sincerest condolences to the families," Smith said.

Suicide car bombing in Afghanistan kills 2, NATO says

A suicide car bomber targeting NATO-led troops in the southern Afghanistan killed two civilians and wounded 12 others Thursday, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said.

ISAF said the insurgent was also killed in the attack, which took place in the Daman district of the Kandahar province, outside Kandahar city.

The insurgent, driving a black sedan, targeted a patrol. Zalmal Ayoobi, the Kandahar provincial governor's spokesman, said all of the victims were civilians, and three were children.

The blast damaged buildings and left a "significant crater in the highway," ISAF said.

The Kandahar region has a strong militant presence and has long been the scene of many Taliban attacks and clashes between coalition and Afghan troops and insurgents.

ISAF also reported the deaths of two troops in attacks in southern Afghanistan Thursday.