Pakistan bans NATO supply convoys after troop deaths

Pakistan has banned the NATO supply convoys from entering Afghanistan after fighting between NATO troops and militants led to the killing of three Pakistani soldiers, according to a military official from the NATO-led command in Afghanistan.

The troops were killed when three NATO helicopters crossed from Afghanistan into Pakistani airspace early Thursday and attacked a military outpost, the government said. Three troops were wounded as well.

Supply convoys are all-important for the Afghan war effort, and officials from NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were trying to persuade Pakistan to lift the ban. Coalition forces rely heavily on convoys from Pakistan to bring in supplies and gear.

ISAF said in a statement Thursday that its forces saw what they thought were insurgents trying to fire mortars at a coalition base in the Dand Patan District of Afghanistan's Paktiya province, near the Pakistani border.

An air weapons team targeted the suspected insurgents' firing position, located inside Afghanistan along the border area, and the aircraft entered Pakistani airspace briefly "as they engaged this initial target," the ISAF statement said.

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Al Qaeda Group Releases Tape of French Hostages

A tape released on a jihadist forum shows the first images of the foreigners seized by an offshoot of the AL Qaeda two weeks ago.

The four-minute video was posted Thursday on a jihadist website, according to U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors the terrorism.

In the tape, the hostages are seen sitting cross-legged in front of turbaned men brandishing guns. They are questioned about their names, ages and if they know who their kidnappers are. The audio recording is accompanied by photo images.

The hostages acknowledge that their kidnappers are AL Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the group's North Africa branch. Five of the hostages abducted in the West African nation of Niger are French citizens; the other two come from Togo and Madagascar.

Senior Al Qaeda Commander Killed in Airstrike, NATO Confirms

NATO said Wednesday it has confirmed that a senior Al Qaeda commander who led attacks along the Pakistan border and several other militants were killed in an air strike over the weekend in the eastern Afghanistan.

NATO said the strike killed Abdallah Umar al-Qurayshi, a senior Al Qaeda commander who coordinated the attacks of a group of the Arab fighters in eastern Kunar province, which borders Pakistan, and elsewhere.

It said Abu Atta al Kuwaiti, an Al Qaeda explosives expert, and several Arab foreign fighters were also killed in the strike, which was carried out Saturday.

Pakistan is investigating reports a CIA missile strike killed another senior Al Qaeda commander as he traveled in a tribal region near the Afghan border, security officials said Wednesday. Sheikh Fateh al-Masri's death would be the covert U.S. missile program's latest blow to Usama bin Laden's terrorist network.

Al-Masri is believed to have replaced Mustafa al-Yazid, who was killed in a missile strike in May and was described by the group as its No. 3 commander.

The United States is believed to have launched 21 missiles into northwestern Pakistan this month, more than double the number fired in any previous month. Some of the strikes were aimed at disrupting suspected terrorist plots aimed at Europe, a Western counterterrorism official said Tuesday.

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'Mumbai-Style' Terror Attack in Europe Foiled

A commando-style terror plot that allegedly called for simultaneous attacks in the multiple European cities has been disrupted, a senior U.S. intelligence official told Fox News late Tuesday, after the CIA launched a barrage of drone strikes in Pakistan to help thwart the plot.

The plan allegedly included attacks on hotels frequented by Western tourists in the London, as well as cities in France and Germany, and was in an "advanced but not imminent stage," Sky News reported. The plotters were purportedly of Pakistani or Algerian origin and have been trained in Pakistan's tribal areas.

While officials are still working to understand the plot, a leading concern is that the plotters were modeling their European assault on the 2008 attack in Mumbai, India, in which armed gunmen killed more than 200 people in coordinated attacks at hotels and other easily accessed venues, current and former officials said.

Several U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal they haven't seen a terror threat as serious as the European plot for many years. "This isn't just your typical Washington talk about how the threats have evolved. People are very concerned about what they're seeing," the counterterrorism official said.

"There have been a succession of terror operations we've been dealing with over recent weeks but one to two that have preoccupied us," said one British government official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his work. "Still, it hasn't been to the degree that we have raised the threat level."

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Shots Fired at University of Texas Austin, Cops Hunt Possible Second Suspect

A gunman wearing a ski mask and brandishing a rifle entered a library at the University of Texas at the Austin today and fired several shots before taking his own life, university officials said.

Police are still looking for a possible second suspect and the campus, site of an infamous 1966 school shooting, remains on lockdown.

"The armed suspect is dead. No other injuries have been reported," UT President Bill Powers wrote in a campus email.

An email and text alert was sent to students and faculty around 8 a.m. Central Time, just as the day's first classes were beginning, warning that an "armed subject was reported last seen at Perry Castaneda Library" and telling students to remain in place.

"I was walking to class, a little late," senior Robby Reeb told ABCNews.com. "I was walking from the business school, and a guy sprinted past me screaming, 'There's a guy with a gun.' I looked up and saw a man in a ski mask, wearing a suit, and carrying an assault rifle. And I called 911."

Government official among 6 killed in Afghanistan blast

An explosion Tuesday morning killed six people, including a top official of the eastern Afghan province of the Ghazni, officials said.

The blast killed the Ghazni province's deputy governor, his brother, his son, his driver and the two civilian bystanders. Eight people, including the bodyguards, were wounded, the governor's spokesman Ismail Jihangir said.

Mohammad Kazem Allahyar, the deputy governor, was on the way to work when a blast hit his vehicle, Jihangir said.

It was not clear whether the explosion, which occurred in the Ghazni City around 8 a.m. (11:30 p.m. ET Monday), was the result of a suicide bombing or a roadside bomb.

Earlier this month, an Afghan parliamentary candidate and another Afghan civilian were wounded in a grenade attack at the governor's compound in the Ghazni City, the International Security Assistance Force reported.

NATO forces carry out 2 airstrikes in Pakistan, killing more than 50 insurgents

NATO helicopters based in the Afghanistan carried out at least two airstrikes in Pakistan that killed more than 50 militants after the insurgents attacked a small Afghan security outpost near the border, spokesmen said Monday.

NATO justified the strikes based on "the right of self-defense." Pakistan is sensitive about the attacks on its territory, but U.S. officials have said they have an agreement that allows the aircraft to cross a few miles into the Pakistani airspace if they are in hot pursuit of a target.

The first strike took place Saturday after insurgents based in Pakistan attacked an Afghan outpost in Khost province, which is located right across the border from Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area, said U.S. Capt. Ryan Donald, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

"The ISAF helicopters did cross into the Pakistan territory to engage the insurgents," said Donald. "ISAF maintains the right to self-defense, and that's why they crossed the Pakistan border."

The second attack occurred when helicopters returned to the border area and were attacked by insurgents based in Pakistan, said Donald.

"The helicopters returned to the scene and they received direct small arms fire and, once again operating in self-defense, they engaged the insurgents," said Donald.

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U.S., Afghan Forces Begin Battle for Kandahar

KABUL, Afghanistan -- International and Afghan troops have begun a key combat phase against the insurgents in the southern Afghanistan and expect heavy fighting, officials said Monday, in an operation that is crucial to the U.S. strategy to turn around the nine-year war against the Taliban.

The allied forces were moving into two or three areas around the Kandahar city in southern Afghanistan at once to pressure the Taliban "so they don't get the chance to run away," Shah Mohammad Ahmadi, chief of Arghandab district northwest of the city, said Monday.

"Before, when we have tried to get rid of the Taliban, when we cleaned one area we found more Taliban in a different one," he said.

A top NATO officer said Sunday that the alliance a few days ago had launched its "kinetic," or combat, phase of "Operation Dragon Strike," a joint military push with Afghan forces around Kandahar intended to rid the area of insurgents and interrupt their ability to move freely and stage attacks.

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Palestinians, Israeli police clash for 3rd day in East Jerusalem

Palestinian youths and the Israeli border police clashed on Friday in a third day of violence sparked after a security guard shot and killed a Palestinian man in an East Jerusalem neighborhood.

As they did Wednesday and Thursday, the Palestinian youths hurled rocks while border police fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets in an effort to quell the demonstrations, according to the CNN journalists who witnessed the violence.

In the Issawiya neighborhood, a man said that his 14-month-old nephew died Friday after inhaling tear gas. Ahman Abu Sara said family members, unable to reach a nearby hospital because of the clashes, took the boy to a clinic where he was treated and released. Three hours later, Abu Sara said, the boy's mother found him dead.

A police commander in the field would not comment, and CNN was unable to get into the area to obtain information from the clinic because of the clashes.

The clashes began Wednesday when a security guard shot and killed a man in East Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood. The guard and a cousin of the victim told different stories, however.

The guard was one of several in a vehicle traveling in Silwan early Wednesday when dozens of Palestinians began stoning the car, according to Israeli police. The guard fired his gun, killing Samer Sarhan, a 32-year-old resident.

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Irish terror threat rise worrying - Peter Robinson

Mr Robinson said that dissident groups were trying to attract the media attention.

"You have this group who clearly recognise that an incident in the Great Britain will get very significantly more media coverage than it would if it was occurring in Northern Ireland," he said.

"This is about press coverage. They know they're not going to advance their cause by it. It's just some micro groups wanting to advance their PR."

The threat from Irish-related terrorism to Britain is still lower than the overall threat from international terrorism, which remains unchanged at "severe".

The new category of threat from Ireland applies to England, Wales and Scotland but not Northern Ireland, where the level also remains "severe".

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19 dead in Somalia fighting

Heavy fighting between the Somali militants and the African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu, Somalia has left at least 19 people dead and 71 others wounded, according to a local ambulance group.

"What happened today was a horrific tragedy, the shelling was continuous and it was hitting a populated area of the Bakara market where people were unwitting, so it was appalling many people lost parts of their body and were screaming," said Ali Musa, director of the amblunce group in Mogadishu.

Musa said his group collected 19 died bodies and 71 people with wounds.

"The fighting started 5:30 a.m. and continued into afternoon so there was absolutely fear and chaos in Mogadishu," he said.

Meanwhile, government spokesman Abdirisaq Mohamed Qeylow claimed that government forces pushed Islamic insurgents out of some areas.

"We have pushed the militants back and our forces have reached Howl Wadag intersection near Bakara Market," said Qeylow.

Yemen intensifies fight against the al Qaeda

Yemeni forces have laid siege to a southern town believed to be a militant stronghold in what amounts to an intensified effort to the combat terrorism, a senior defense of the official said on Thursday.

Human rights groups, meanwhile, have voiced the concerns about thousands of the people displaced in the escalation of fighting.

In an exclusive interview with CNN, Rashad al-Alimi, Yemen's deputy prime minister for defense and security, said Yemeni forces have surrounded the village of the Hawta in the southern Shabwa province, a stronghold for the offshoot terrorist group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Yemeni forces are also tracking the movements of the U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, a Muslim cleric who is one of the leaders of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. He is believed to be holed up in the Rafad Valley of the Shabwa.

Al-Alimi said security forces have surrounded that area, where they have launched previous offensives against al Qaeda elements.

He said the militants have attempted to use local residents as human shields, but Yemen is determined to wipe out the extreme elements.

"The government is insisting on finding these terrorists and bringing them to justice, because we will never allow Yemen to be a safe haven for al Qaeda," al-Alimi said.

Senior Farc rebel leader 'killed' in Colombia

The Colombian armed forces say they have killed a senior commander of the Farc rebel group.

They said the guerrilla leader Sixto Cabana was among 27 rebels killed in an attack on a camp near the Ecuadorean border on Sunday.

Mr Cabana, 55, was wanted in the US for alleged cocaine trafficking and was on the Farc's ruling the general staff.

The US had offered a reward of $2.5m (£1.6m) for information leading to his arrest.

The Colombian Defence Minister, Rodrigo Rivera, said it was the most grievous blow to the left-wing rebel group in recent years.

The fighting in the Putumayo region happened near the town of San Miguel, where eight policemen died in a rebel ambush earlier this month.

Police commandos were dropped by helicopter after air force planes bombed a rebel camp in the jungle.

Cocaine mastermind

The police said one of the dead rebels had been identified as Sixto Cabana, alias "Domingo Biojo," the commander of the 48th front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).

They said he had been a member of the rebel group for 25 years and was involved in failed peace negotiations with the government a decade ago.

The US state department says Mr Cabana "controlled the production and export of hundreds of tons of cocaine to the US and the world".

He was also "responsible for the murder of hundreds of people who violated or interfered with the Farc's cocaine policies," the State Department website said.

Forces Protect Afghans During Elections

Afghan and the coalition forces protected the Afghan citizens from numerous attacks planned for the Sept. 18 parliamentary elections and in the days surrounding them, military officials reported.

In more than a dozen security operations, Afghan and the International Security Assistance Force troops captured and killed numerous insurgents, many in the process of planting roadside bombs or conducting other attacks meant to disrupt elections, officials said.

Combined forces conducted more than 15 operations in seven Afghan provinces prior to and during the elections, which resulted in seven insurgent leaders captured and five killed, all of whom were actively planning attacks against the elections, they said.

"The insurgents threatened to carry out spectacular attacks during the elections; however, they failed,” said Army Col. Rafael Torres, ISAF Joint Command Combined joint operations center director. “Afghan forces with their coalition partners disrupted the insurgent's plans and tightened security throughout the country. We're happy that the Afghan people were afforded an opportunity vote and make their choices known."

In Badghis province:

-- A combined Afghan and coalition security force on Sept. 17 detained a suspected insurgent believed to be planning a vehicle-borne bombing attack near a polling center. The arrest came after Afghan police spotted a suspicious motorbike in a village bazaar. The motorbike had a container filled with explosives and a laptop computer battery attached to it. Coalition forces detained a man carrying a remote control and a mobile phone in the vicinity. The force handed the man over to Afghan authorities for processing, and a coalition explosive ordnance disposal team disposed of the explosive device.

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Pope visit: Six men held over papal terror alert

A sixth man has been arrested in London by the police in relation to a potential threat to Pope Benedict XVI's visit.

His arrest, at 1345 BST, came after five men were seized at the 0545 BST after counter-terrorism officers received intelligence of a potential threat.

All six, who were street cleaners, have been taken to a London police station.

The BBC's Danny Shaw said the arrests were carried out as a precaution. Police are searching a number of the premises.

At least five of the men were not British nationals.

The cleaners worked for Veolia Environment Services, a major contract cleaning company that works for the Westminster Council.

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Armed officers arrested the first five men at the company's Chiltern Street depot, Paddington, as they were preparing to go on shift.

In a statement from the Scotland Yard, the Metropolitan Police said that the men had been arrested in a Terrorism Act 2000 operation, launched by officers from the force's Counter-Terrorism Command.

All six men were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

They are 26, 27, 29, 36, 40 and 50 years old and most are understood to be Algerian. Police are continuing to search eight residential premises in north and east London and two business premises in central London.

Officers have not found any hazardous items.

In the statement, the Metropolitan Police said: "Today's arrests were made after police received information following initial inquiries by detectives.

"Following today's arrests policing arrangements for the papal visit were reviewed and we are satisfied our current policing plan remains appropriate. The itinerary has not changed. There is no change to the UK threat level."

The current official threat level in the UK is "severe", which means that security chiefs believe a terror attack is "highly likely".

The BBC understands that the information acted on by the police was received by Scotland Yard and did not involve intelligence gathered by MI5, the domestic security service.

Andrew Redhead, former national police firearms tactical adviser, told the BBC that "every allegation, every bit of information that comes to light will be vetted and taken seriously".

He added: "Obviously it would appear that the concerns are such [in this case] that persons have been arrested, and it is being taken seriously.

"Is this just a group of people speaking loudly and someone has overheard, or is it something more sinister? Obviously the police authorities and the specialists will have to work through that in due course."

Violence fears in Pakistan after Imran Farooq's murder

"This is the most tragic event in the history of our party", says a red-eyed Farooq Sattar.

Mr Sattar is head of the MQM's leadership in Pakistan. He was speaking to the BBC in a small crowded room in the ancestral home of the now-deceased Imran Farooq.

Sitting beside him is a frail and weary looking Farooq Ahmed - father of the slain MQM leader.

We had arrived a little earlier at the Farooq residence in the Karachi's middle-class neighbourhood of Sharifabad. Located near the heart of the city, it is made up of apartment complexes - and small three-storey houses. The Farooq residence is just such a building.

Hundreds of grim-looking mourners are packed into the narrow lanes leading up to the house.

There is also a great deal of anger, although it has been muted so far.

Security is tight - there is a strong presence of paramilitary rangers and police.

MQM activists have also set up several checkpoints where all cars and pedestrians are thoroughly searched.

We have just driven down from the nearby MQM party headquarters. There were fewer people there, but just as tight security.

The party leadership in Pakistan is now debating what should be their future strategy.

'Cause not accomplished'

Despite the fact the murder took place thousands of miles away, there is real fear here.

After many years of relative calm, it appears the MQM is once again feeling under siege.

Imran Farooq - picture provided by MQM party

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"I spoke to my son a day before the incident - he was fine and spoke cheerfully," Mr Ahmed says.

Sitting on a bed across from him is his wife Raeesa, who breaks out in tears at the mention of her dead son's name.

"My boy was a good man - he only fought for the poor and underpriviledged," she says.

"I was so afraid for him when the operation started - but was happy when he appeared in London.

"Even though he was so far away, at least he was safe."

Both parents say the last time they saw their son was back in May 2009.

"He was happy with life and committed to his work in the party," his father says. "On Wednesday, he was telling me how his children were doing - he was quite pleased."

However, he refrained from commenting who might be behind the murder: "I can't say who was responsible."

He does add something rather cryptically.

"The situation is still the same, " Mr Ahmed says, referring to MQM's struggle against he country's status quo. "The cause for which he was fighting has not been accomplished. Being in the government was never the goal."

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Pakistan leader a 'robber president,' al Qaeda's No.2 leader says

Al Qaeda's second-in-command lashed out at the government of the Pakistan in a purported statement released Wednesday, saying it had turned on its people by cooperating with the United States and its allies.

The statement, attributed to the Ayman al-Zawahiri, referred to Pakistan's leader, Asif Ali Zardari, as a "robber president."

The statement linked Zardari to the American war effort in the Afghanistan, and to allegations of American desecrations of Qurans.

The people of Pakistan are sinning by being silent against the current administration, he wrote.

The statement also expressed the terrorist leader's condolences for the victims of the recent flooding in the Pakistan. More than 1,600 people have died, according to the country's disaster authority, and at least 17 million Pakistanis have been affected.

The statement declared that Zawahiri wished for al Qaeda to be there to help with aid efforts, "but the treasonous ruling class in the Pakistani government and army came -- and continues to come -- between us and this honor, as a service to the senior criminals in Washington, London and Tel Aviv."

Pakistani officials did not immediately comment on the statement.

The al Qaeda second-in-command also took aim at what he characterized as American manipulation of the transition from former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to Zardari, and claimed that the United States was trying to do the same with the candidacy of Mohamed ElBaradei in the Egypt.

"There must be awareness of the flimsiness of the position which says that we might be able to achieve our liberty, honor and dignity by rallying around American influence and following its emissaries," he said. "All this flimsy call will bring us is a move from one vassalage to another vassalage and from one corruption to another corruption."

Turkish explosion kills bus passengers

At least eight people were killed and three were wounded today when an explosion ripped apart the minibus they were travelling in in south-east Turkey, local officials said.

The blast occurred near the village of the Gecitli in Hakkari province, near the borders with Iraq and Iran.

Resul Kaya, the mayor of the nearby town of the Durankaya, said nine people died when the bus hit a landmine. Security officials said it was a remote-controlled explosive device left in the road.

Officials earlier said that at least 10 people had died. The Hakkari governor's office put the death toll at eight.

Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants have frequently carried out similar attacks in the past. However, such attacks are generally on military targets and the separatist PKK declared a ceasefire last month, which is not due to expire until 20 September.

Before that ceasefire there had been a rise in violence between the military and the rebels since June when the PKK ended a previous 14-month unilateral ceasefire.

Several thousand PKK guerrillas are based in the mountains of the northern Iraq, from where they regularly launch raids in south-east Turkey.

The group took up arms against Turkey in 1984. More than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have died in the fighting.