Pakistan/Terrorism:  Six Pakistani soldiers, 25 Taleban terrorists killed in clash

Six Pakistani soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel and at least 25 suspected terrorists were killed in clashes on Friday, security officials said.

According to military officials, the gun battle started when dozens of Taleban fighters attacked a security checkpoint in Ferozekhel, a key town in Aurakzai Agency. The source also reported that at least 16 Pakistani soldiers were injured in the attack that lasted almost three hours.

The attack came a day after Pakistani forces launched an air strike attack against Taleban and Al-Qaeda fighters in Orakzai, killing at least 40 people.

Pakistan/Terrorism: 23 militants killed in military offensive

At least 23 suspected terrorists were killed during a military offensive in the resistive Orakzai tribal region in north-western Pakistan on Wednesday. Military sources reported that one member of the security forces suffered injuries. According to a local government official, the Army, backed by fighter jets, struck terrorist hideouts and wiped out three of their strongholds in the area that lies along the border with Afghanistan.

“One bunker, one ammunition dump and one training centre of the terrorists have been destroyed by security forces,” said a military official. The region is considered to be the breeding grounds for Taleban and Al-Qaeda terrorists. Earlier in the day, at least another 6 suspected terrorists were killed in the North Waziristan tribal district during a raid by a US drone. Over the last 18 months, Islamabad has ordered a number of military offensives following increased pressure from Washington, killing a number of terrorists who have crossed the border from Afghanistan.

Afghanistan/Terrorism: Mullah Omar named new deputy leaders after arrest of Ghani Baradar

Following the arrest of Taleban's military chief in Pakistan last month, the Afghan Taleban chief Mullah Omar has named two new deputies, sources said.

Reportedly, Abdul Qayuum Zakir and Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor succeed Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

Taleban authorities stated that the aim of these new appointments was to send "a message that one arrest will not affect our movement.”

Meanwhile, the new deputy leaders refuse any possibility of peace talks between an insurgent faction and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and will not agree to hold talks until Western troops are withdrawn from the country.

Pakistan/Terrorism: 14 terrorists killed in Orakzai agency

Media reported that Pakistani security forces killed at least 14 suspected terrorists and wounded 17 others following a ground and air attack by security forces in three areas of the Orakzai Agency in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP).

Security forces faced no tough resistance and were able to secure important positions in the area, which is believed to be a safe haven for Al-Qaeda and Taleban terrorists. One soldier was reportedly injured in the clashes.

Following a major military offensive by Pakistani security forces, thousands of terrorists have fled from neighbouring South Waziristan to Orakzai, prompting Islamabad to stage new operations in that area to flush out the fled terrorists.

Greece/Terrorism: Left-wing Greek group claims Athens bomb attacks

(Zuma Press/Photo News)

A Greek extremist group “The Fire Conspiracy Cells” on Monday claimed responsibility for three bomb attacks which caused minor damage but no injuries in Athens during the last week.

In a statement posted on the leftist Indymedia website, the group said it was behind the explosions - one at the central Athens offices of Chryssi Avgi (Golden Dawn) on Friday morning, an explosion outside the Athens Aliens Bureau on Petrou Ralli Street on Saturday afternoon and a blast outside the home of a Pakistani community leader in the run-down district of Aghios Panteleimonas, near the city centre, also on Saturday.

The Fire Conspiracy Cells declared that the attacks were a contribution to the ongoing debate in the country on immigration. "This is the first evidence of the bomb crusade we had warned we would launch after our strike on parliament," the group said in its statement.

The authenticity of the claim has not been confirmed by the police. The same group claimed responsibility for a bomb attack outside the Greek parliament on January 9 2010.

Pakistan/United States/Terrorism: US drone attack kills 8 terrorists in North Waziristan

At least eight terrorists have been killed on Sunday when a US drone aircraft fired two missiles at a suspected Taleban hideout near the Afghan border in North Waziristan Agency, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

The identity of the terrorists killed in the Lowari Mandi area of the tribal region is yet to be ascertained, but an anonymous Pakistani military official said the targeted compound belonged to a relative of a terrorist commander.

The latest military offensive comes less than a week after Pakistani helicopters pounded terrorist hideouts in the tribal regions of Kurram and Orakzai, killing at least 18 suspected terrorists.

Also on Sunday, three people, including two policemen, were killed and 14 others wounded when a bomb attached to a bicycle went off in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta . According to police unknown men had attached the remote-controlled bomb to a bicycle and parked it on Kawari Road in Quetta. It was detonated when the official vehicle of Khuzdar district’s Chief of Police Nazir Kurd was passing by. However, the police chief was not in the car when the explosion took place.

Pakistan/Terrorism/Security: Islamabad declines ex-diplomat claims following Taleban leaders' arrest

Islamabad on Friday declined claims made by Kai Eide, a former UN diplomat, that the arrests of top Taleban leaders by Pakistan have hampered crucial talks with the terror group.

Referring to the arrest of Taleban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar last month, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said the terrorist was apprehended during a "joint operation with the US and had nothing to do with talks or reconciliation".

During an interview with the BBC earlier today, Eide had declared that classified meetings have been going on with prominent Islamist leaders for about a year and it could have brought a political solution to the eight-year-old Afghan war. He also blamed Pakistan for deliberately ruining the negotiations.

Afghanistan/United States/Terrorism: Al-Qaeda leader believed killed in North Waziristan

Hussein al-Yemeni, aka “Sadam Hussein” Al Hussami, an Al-Qaeda leader who had played a significant role in the bombing of a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) post last December in Afghanistan has been killed by a US drone strike last week, a US counterterrorism official stated on Wednesday.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the counterterrorism official said al-Yemeni was apparently killed in a strike in Miram Shah, the capital of North Waziristan. The official described al-Yemeni as an “Al-Qaeda planner and facilitator”, who had established links with the Haqqani network, which has planned many Taleban attacks in Afghanistan, and with Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

According to the official, al-Yemeni's expertise was in bombs and suicide operations and was suspected of playing a key role in a December attack at a US base in eastern Afghanistan that killed seven CIA officers.

Three other al-Qaeda members were also killed along with Al Hussami: Abu Jameelah al Kuwaiti, aka Hamed al Aazili – a close associate of Iraqi al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al Zagraw –, Abu Zahra al Maghrebi and Akramah al Bujabi.

On December 30 last year, a Jordanian doctor said to have been a triple agent blew himself up at the US base in Khost near the Pakistani border, killing seven CIA employees and a Jordanian intelligence officer.

Pakistan/Terrorism: five security personnel killed in Bara Tehsil

At least five Pakistani security personnel died in a terrorist attack on a security check point in Sheen Darand in Akakhel, the border area between Peshawar and Bara Tehsil on Wednesday. Security officials also reported that one soldier suffred injuries as the gunbattle lasted an hour.

Meanwhile, Pakistani officials reported the explosion of a bomb near the Parangsum village in the Khyber tribal district on Wednesday. The target was a tanker carrying fuel for NATO forces in Afghanistan. No casualties were reported. Administration official Shafirullah Wazir said some 40,000 litres of fuel was lost in the aftermath of the explosion.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but officials pointed towards terrorist group Lashkar-e-Islam as the main culprits. In the recent months terrorists have torched nearly 400 trucks and containers in the restless tribal district along the Afghan border, prompting the US and its NATO allies to look for alternative supply routes through Central Asian states.

Pakistan/United States/Security:  Pakistani court charges five Americans in terrorist plot

A Pakistani court indicted five US citizens on Wednesday. According to their lawyers, they stand accused of preparing terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The suspects, all Muslims in their 20s, were apprehended last December in Sargodha town in Pakistan's eastern province of Punjab, days after they returned from the eastern US state of Virginia.

Defence lawyer Hassan Katchela said his clients pleaded not guilty to all six counts labeled against them, including planning to commit acts of terrorism in Pakistan. The next hearing in the case has been fixed for March 31 and Katchela asked the prosecutors to present the evidence needed to start the trial.

The men were also charged with providing financial assistance to terrorist organistations, as well as having close contacts with jihadist groups. According to officials three of them are of Eritrean, Ethiopian and Egyptian origin while two are of Pakistani descent and all hold US passports. If they are found guilty they face life imprisonment.

Pakistan/United States/Terrorism: US drone strike kills 10 terrorists in North Waziristan

At least 10 suspected terrorists were killed during a US drone strike on Tuesday. According to security officials, the strike targeted both Taleban and Al-Qaeda hideouts in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal area.

Pakistani security officials stated that the missiles hit a compound used by terrorists near the village of Datta Khel, located 20 kilometres west of Miranshah, the main city of North Waziristan.

An intelligence official disclosed that five missiles were fired from a drone at two insurgent camps in the mountains. The identities of the slain terrorists are yet to be ascertained.

Mohammed Haqqani, brother of Al-Qaeda-linked Sirajuddin Haqqani was killed in a similar attack with US drones last month.

North Waziristan is the main stronghold for Al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters in Pakistan. According to US officials, the drone strikes are a vital weapon in the war against Al-Qaeda and Taleban.

Pakistan/Terrorism: army offensive kills 3 TTP commanders and 16 other terrorists

According to official sources, three senior Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP) commanders were killed on Monday by Pakistani security forces in the restive Swat valley in northwest Pakistan. The commanders were reportedly killed during an operation in Khwazakhela area and identified as Naseebullah, Jaja and Khalid.

Reportedly, all three men were affiliated to the Qari Abdullah group and were accused of being involved in a suicide attack in Mingora, the main city in Swat, on Saturday that killed more than a dozen people.

Earlier on Sunday, at least 16 suspected terrorists had been killed and several others wounded after Pakistani war planes had pounded Taleban hideouts in north-western tribal region near the Afghan border, a government official said.

Khaista Akbar, a government official, stated that the fighter jets had carried out the strikes in the Ghund Mela village of Orakzai, an ethnic Pashtun tribal region. "They carried out intense bombings and precisely targeted terrorist hideouts", he said, adding that the bombing killed 16 terrorists and completely destroyed three hideouts.

 Pakistan/terrorism: New twin attack in Lahore

Two explosions hit the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Friday, killing at least five people and wounding 25 others, police said. Initial reports indicate that one of the blasts went off near the busy RA Bazaar in a neighbourhood where the offices of several army and security agencies are located.

These attacks come just a few days after a suicide bomber killed 15 people in an attack against the offices of the Special Investigation Agency (SIA), an anti-terrorism wing of Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

In an earlier drive-by-shooting in the southern port city Karachi, three Muslim clerics were killed and one wounded in what police believes is a sectarian attack.

Pakistan/Terrorism: bomb blast killed four in Peshawar

At least four people have been killed as 21 others were reported to have suffered injuries when a bomb exploded near a convoy of the Frontier Corps (FC) near the Bara Qadeem police check-point in the city of Peshawar on Thursday.

Security sources reported that three suicide bombers detonated their charge, although they have not ruled out the option of an explosion of a roadside improvised explosive device (IED).

According to medical officials two men were killed on the spot while two others succumbed to their injuries at a local hospital. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

In a separate incident, three Muslim Sunni clerics were killed in a drive-by shooting in Pakistan's biggest city of Karachi on Thursday. Police sources indicated that the target of the attack was Saeed Ahmed Jalalpuri, a senior Sunni Muslim cleric. The assailants were able to escape on their motorbike.

Karachi police chief Wasim Ahmed confirmed that two other clerics and a friend of Jalalpuri travelling in the car were killed while another man was wounded. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pakistan/Terrorism: twin bomb blasts kills 45 in Lahore

Twin suicide bombers detonated their deadly load near army vehicles in the crowded R A Bazaar area of Lahore on Friday, killing at least 45 people and wounding over 100.

According to officials the explosions occurred within 15 to 20 seconds of each other. As the R A Bazaar is a busy residential and shopping area, the death toll is very high. The initial target was said to be the offices of several army and security agencies located in the area.

Security officials stated that at least five soldiers were among those killed in the explosions. The injured have been taken to the nearby hospital. The death toll is likely to rise, as several injured were rushed to the hospital with life-threatening wounds. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

The attacks came only days after suicide bombers rammed an explosives-laden truck into the main gate of an interrogation facility in Lahore used by the Pakistani military, killing 15 people. Pakistan's main terrorist group Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for that attack.

Pakistan/United States/Terrorism: US missiles killed up to 16 terrorists in North Waziristan

At least 16 suspected terrorists have been killed when two US drone missiles strikes a Taleban compound in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal belt late on Wednesday, security officials said.

Reportedly, seven terrorists were killed in the first strike targeting a compound and a nearby vehicle in Mizar Madakhel village, about 50 kilometres west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan. The second strike killed nine other terrorists.

According to military officials the compound is owned by Hafiz Gul Bahadar, the Taleban commander for North Waziristan. A senior security official in the region confirmed that 16 terrorists have been eliminated in the attack and more than a dozen wounded. The official said among the killed people at least five were foreign terrorists,  their identities are still to be ascertained.

No senior Taleban or Al-Qaeda fighters have been reported killed in the Wednesday's air strike. In a similar attack on March 8 left fives terrorists killed in Miramshah.

Pakistan/Terrorism: five Killed in terrorist attack on Western aid agency in Mansehra

On Wednesday, suspected terrorists launched an attacked on the offices of a Western aid agency in Pakistan's Mansehra district, 65 kilometers north of the capital Islamabad. According to the first police reports, at least five people including two women were killed.

According to police, the unknown gunmen stormed into the office of the World Vision agency in near the town of Oghi in Mansehra district of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) at about 9 a.m. (0400 GMT). Upon entering, the group consisting of some 15 gunmen opened fire and hurled grenades into the central hallway.

World Vision's regional spokesman confirmed that five Pakistani staff, including two women, were killed and seven other employees wounded "They gathered all of us in one room. The gunmen, some of whom had their faces covered, also snatched our mobile phones," said World Vision administration officer Mohammad Sajidm, who was in the office at the time. He said the terrorists dragged the employees one by one to an adjacent room to execute them.

World Vision identified those killed as Pakistani employees of the agency. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far, but officials pointed fingers at the Taleban for Wednesday's attack.

Pakistan/Terrorism: suicide attack targeting anti-terror unit in Lahore kills 11

At least 11 people have been killed and more than 60 others wounded when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laded car near the offices of an anti-terror unit in Punjab province’s capital of Lahore on Monday morning.

Reportedly, the bomb exploded in Model Town next to a building housing the Special Investigation Agency (SIA), an anti-terrorism wing of Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). The explosion was so strong that it brought down the entire two-storey building.

"It was a police special investigation unit that was targeted. The building was used to interrogate suspected terrorists", Pervez Rathore, Lahore’s city police chief, told reporters.

According to officials many of the injured were in critical condition, and the death toll could rise. Although no group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik blamed the Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP) faction holed up in the northwest of the country along the border with Afghanistan, who’s “backs have been broken” by the military.

Earlier on Sunday, Pakistani officials stated that Pakistani intelligence agents have arrested Adam Gadahn, the American-born spokesman for Al-Qaeda also know as Yahya Majadin Adams and Azzam al-Amriki, in an operation in the southern city of Karachi. Gadahn, is one of the FBI's top 10 most wanted terrorists and had a $1m reward on his head.

Pakistan/Terrorism: At least ten people killed in Hangu suicide attack

At least 10 people have been killed and 25 others wounded when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a convoy of passenger buses in Hangu district in northwest Pakistan on Friday.

According to police the suicide bomber, who was on foot, blew himself up as the convoy of buses approached a petrol pump in Thal area of Hangu district in North West Frontier Province.

Reportedly, the convoy was going to Parachinar, the main town of Kurram tribal region, which has witnessed by sectarian violence for more than two years.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast so far.