A female suicide bomber of the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) blew herself up at the entrance of the headquarters of a paramilitary force in Pakistan's restive Balochistan province, triggering a prolonged gunfight in which six militants were killed, security officials said on Tuesday. The attacker detonated herself at the main entrance of the Frontier Corps (FC) headquarters in Nokundi town of Chagai district on Sunday night, the officials said. The BLA later identified the bomber as Zinata Rafiq and released her photograph. Following the explosion, six militants attempted to storm the headquarters. Three were shot dead near the entrance after an extended exchange of fire, while the remaining three managed to enter the compound before being encircled by FC personnel. The security officials said the three have been killed as well. Residents said intermittent gunshots and explosions were heard from inside the headquarters until Monday evening. The incident marks at least
At least 14 people have been killed and 35 others injured in a suicide bombing shortly after the conclusion of a public rally organised by the Balochistan National Party (BNP) in Quetta, according to media reports. The explosion occurred close to Shahwani Stadium in the Sariab area on Tuesday night after the rally held to mark the fourth death anniversary of Sardar Attaullah Mengal ended, The Express Tribune newspaper reported. Provincial Health Minister Bakht Muhammad Kakar confirmed the casualties, the newspaper said. Officials confirmed it was a suicide attack, the Dawn reported. According to police, the explosion occurred about 15 minutes after the meeting ended. The bomber allegedly detonated his explosives-laden jacket in the parking area as participants were leaving the meeting. BNP chief Akhtar Mengal, who presided over the gathering, remained unhurt as the blast occurred when he was leaving for home, according to The Dawn. Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mehmood Khan
At least 13 security personnel were killed and 24 others injured in a suicide attack on Saturday in Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, security sources said. A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle belonging to the Bomb Disposal Unit early this morning in Khaddi village in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan, the sources added. Among the 24 injured are 14 civilians, including women and children, with several said to be in critical condition. A curfew was imposed in the area at the time of the incident due to ongoing military movement, sources said. Security agencies launched a rescue operation following the explosion. The militant group Usud al-Harb, a sub-faction of the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, has claimed responsibility for the attack, they added. Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ali Amin Gandapur, has strongly condemned the suicide attack. We salute the brave security personnel and their fa
A suicide bomber in Syria opened fire then detonated an explosive vest inside a Greek Orthodox church filled with people praying on Sunday, killing at least 22 and wounding 63 others, state media reported. The attack took place in Dweil'a on the outskirts of Damascus inside the Mar Elias Church, according to state media SANA, citing the Health Ministry for the toll of dead and wounded. Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there were at least 19 peopled killed and dozens wounded, but did not give exact numbers. Some local media reported that children were among the casualties. The attack on the church was the first of its kind in Syria in years, and comes as Damascus under its de facto Islamist rule is trying to win the support of minorities. As President Ahmad al-Sharaa struggles to exert authority across the country, there have been concerns about the presence of sleeper cells of extremist groups in the war-torn country. No group immediately claim
Guy Edward Bartkus, who died in the blast, held pro-mortalist views and targeted the IVF clinic in what officials are calling a deliberate terror attack
Two Chinese nationals were killed and 17 people injured in a suicide attack by a Baloch insurgent group that targeted a convoy of Chinese workers near Pakistan's busiest airport here late at night, authorities said on Monday. The explosion near the Jinnah International Airport Sunday night also killed the suspected suicide bomber. The attack is the latest in a string of violence against Chinese workers in Pakistan. It comes less than two weeks before the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's summit to be held in the national capital. The banned Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the blast was a suicide attack targeting a convoy of Chinese engineers and investors leaving the Jinnah International Airport. The attack occurred less than a mile from the airport's main terminal. Authorities briefly suspended all traffic going to the airport. The Chinese nationals were working at the Port Qasim Electric Power Company on the outskirts of the city and w
Police in the Afghan capital say a suicide bomber carried out an attack Monday, killing at least six people and injuring 13 others. The blast took place in the southwestern Qala Bakhtiar neighborhood in Kabul, said Khalid Zadran, spokesman for the Kabul police chief. The dead included one woman, he said, while 13 people were wounded, all of them civilians who were taken to a hospital for treatment. A police investigation is underway. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing. The Islamic State group's affiliate, a major rival of the ruling Taliban, has carried out previous attacks on schools, hospitals, mosques and Shiite areas throughout the country. The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 during the chaotic departure of U.S. and NATO troops after 20 years. Despite initial promises of a more moderate stance, the Taliban gradually reimposed a harsh interpretation of Islamic law, or Shariah, as they did during their previous rule of Afghanistan from 1
Sri Lanka's former president Maithripala Sirisena has settled in full the SLR 100 million compensation for the victims of the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed 270 people, including 11 Indians, during his tenure. Sirisena, 72, was ordered by the Supreme Court to pay SLRs 100 million as compensation to victims for his negligence in preventing the country's one of the worst terror strikes despite having credible information of an imminent attack. His lawyers said the full payment of rupees 100 million was completed on August 16. Nine suicide bombers belonging to local Islamist extremist group National Thawheed Jamaat (NTJ) linked to ISIS carried out a series of devastating blasts that tore through three Catholic churches and as many luxury hotels on April 21, 2019, killing nearly 270 people, including 11 Indians, and injuring over 500. Sirisena was also the minister of defence at that time. The attack stirred a political storm as the then President Sirisena and Prime Minister
Relatives of some of the 13 American service members killed during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan appeared on stage at the Republican National Convention Wednesday in an emotional moment that revived one of the low points of President Joe Biden's presidency. Many of the Gold Star families have criticized Biden for never publicly naming their loved ones. On stage Wednesday, one of the family members named each of the 13 service members, and the crowd echoed back each name as it was read aloud. Joe Biden has refused to recognize their sacrifice, Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, told the crowd. Donald Trump knew all of our children's names. He knew all of their stories. The crowd chanted Never forget! and U.S.A.! as Trump and the entire convention hall stood. President Biden cares deeply about our service members, their families, and the immense sacrifices they have made," Adrienne Watson, a National Security Council spokesperson, said in a ...
Female suicide bombers targeted a wedding, a funeral, and a hospital in coordinated attacks in northern Nigeria that killed at least 18 people, local authorities said Sunday. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the the attacks in Borno state, which has been heavily affected by the insurgency launched in 2009 by Boko Haram. The extremist group previously has used women and girls in suicide bombings, prompting suspicions that some attackers come from the many thousands of people the militants have kidnapped over the years, including schoolchildren. The first suicide bomber detonated a device during a marriage celebration in the northeastern town of Gwoza, Barkindo Saidu, director-general of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency, told reporters. Minutes later, another blast occurred near General Hospital, Saidu said, and the third bomber at the funeral service was disguised as a mourner. Children and pregnant women were among those killed. At least 30 others were wounde
Pakistan has decided to pay USD 2.58 million to the families of five Chinese nationals killed in March when a suicide bomber targeted their vehicle in the troubled northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, according to a media report on Friday. The five Chinese and their Pakistani driver were killed when a suicide attacker rammed his explosive-laden car into a vehicle in the Bisham area of the restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province on March 26 when they were being driven to a construction site of Dasu Hydroelectric power station in Kohistan district of the same province. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of Pakistan's Cabinet on Thursday decided to pay USD 2.58 million to the families of Chinese workers slain in the attack, the Dawn newspaper said. The approval of compensation for five Chinese workers of China Gezhouba Group (contractor) was approved at the rate of USD 5,16,000 per head, as a goodwill gesture, the report said. The amount would be transferred immediately to
Five Japanese nationals had a lucky escape when their vehicle was targeted by militants in a suicide attack here in Pakistan's Sindh province on Friday, police said. Deputy Inspector General (DIG) East Azfar Mahesar said the terrorists on a motorbike attempted to hit the van of the Japanese nationals near Murtaza Chorangi in Landhi. All five Japanese remained safe. However, the private security guard with them was injured, he said. The Japanese nationals were on the way to the Export Processing Zone from their residence in Zamzama, Clifton, he said. Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) DIG Asif Aijaz Shaikh told Dawn News that the Japanese nationals were travelling in a van along with two security guards when two terrorists tried to hit the van. The security guards killed one terrorist while another blew himself up in an attempt to get close to the van, the official said. All five Japanese nationals are safe, DIG Shaikh said. No one has claimed responsibility so far, the DIG said,
A suicide bomber set off his explosives late on Thursday in northwestern Syria, killing the co-founder of the country's main al-Qaida-linked group that controls much of the northwest, a war monitor said. Some activists disputed the source of the explosion, saying instead that a remotely detonated bomb killed Abu Maria al-Qahtani, whose real name was Maysara al-Jubouri. Al-Qahtani co-founded the Nusra Front in Syria, a militant group that later renamed itself Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and claimed it had severed ties with al-Qaida. The conflicting accounts could not immediately be reconciled. According to the Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor with a network of activists on the ground, the bomber entered al-Qahtani's guesthouse in the town of Sarmada in Idlib province late in the evening and detonated his explosives. The small enclave of northwestern Syria is the country's last rebel-held territory. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham controls the northwestern Idlib province while
A suicide bomber carried out an attack on Thursday at a private bank in Kandahar city in southern Afghanistan, killing at least three people and injuring 12 others, officials said. All of the victims were people who had gathered at the branch of New Kabul Bank to collect their monthly salaries, said Inamullah Samangani, head of the government's Kandahar Information and Culture Department. Abdul Mateen Qani, spokesman for the Taliban Interior Ministry, also confirmed the attack but couldn't provide more details. He said it was being investigated. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing. The Islamic State group's affiliate, a major Taliban rival, has conducted previous attacks on schools, hospitals, mosques and Shiite areas throughout the country. Kandahar city is a spiritual and political centre for Afghanistan's rulers because the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, is based there and his decisions on major issues are implemented by authorities
Turkiye's interior affairs minister said a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device near his ministry on Sunday, while a second assailant was killed in a shootout with police. Ali Yerlikaya said two police officers were slightly injured during the attack in the Turkish capital, Ankara. The attack occurred hours before Parliament was scheduled to reopen following a summer recess. Television footage showed bomb squads working near a parked vehicle in the area.
Pakistan's Army chief General Syed Asim Munir has vowed to eliminate the menace of terrorism from the country through unabated military operations against militants following Friday's twin suicide attacks that have killed 65 people. A total of 60 people were killed and more than 60 others were injured in a grisly suicide blast on Friday in Balochistan that targeted a procession to celebrate Prophet Muhammad's birthday near the Madina Masjid in Mastung, an official said. In the second bomb attack that took place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Hangu, targeting a police station's mosque, five people were killed, and 12 others were injured as the mosque's roof collapsed in the explosion's impact, it said. The Chief of Army Staff visited Quetta on Saturday where he was briefed on recent terrorist attacks, the Army's media wing said in a statement on Saturday night. Munir said that the heretics who have nothing to do with Islam were carrying out such attacks with the backing of state sponsors o
The death toll from the powerful blast triggered by an Islamic State suicide bomber at a convention of a hardline Islamist party in Pakistan's restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has risen sharply to 63, authorities said on Wednesday. The attack took place on Sunday when more than 400 members of the conservative Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) party, known for its links to hardline political Islam, had gathered for a meeting under a large tent in the town of Khar, which borders Afghanistan. The banned terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the suicide attack, which injured over 120 people in Khar, the capital of the Bajaur tribal district. According to Dr Liaqat Ali of the District Headquarters Hospital, 43 bodies were brought to the hospital after the blast, and so far, a total of 63 people have died in the Bajaur blast, The Express Tribune newspaper reported. Ali added that one severely injured person died at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) Peshawar, whil
Police in Pakistan's restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province said on Monday that an initial probe has suggested that the banned terrorist group ISIS is behind the suicide attack on a political convention of a hardline Islamist party that killed at least 44 people and injured over 100. The attack took place on Sunday when more than 400 members of the conservative Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) party, known for its links to hardline political Islam, had gathered for a meeting under a canopy in the town of Khar, which borders Afghanistan. "We are still investigating and gathering information on the Bajaur blast. The Initial probe shows that banned outfit Daesh (ISIS) was involved," Geo News quoted police officials as saying. The police said they were gathering details of the suicide bomber, while the bomb disposal squad team was collecting evidence from the site. District Police Officer Nazir Khan said three suspects have been taken into custody. Provincial police chief Akhtar Hayat Kha
The death toll in Bajaur bomb blast that took place in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday has risen to 42, and at least 111 people are injured, ARY News reported.The blast that occurred in the Khar tehsil of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Bajaur targeted Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) workers convention.Rescue teams and police units descended on the area quickly to begin moving the injured people to a nearby hospital.It was, after the blast that the authorities got to know that close to 400 people were attending the JUI-F workers convention on Shanday Morr, close to the NADRA headquarters. The area was blocked off by law enforcement, according to ARY News.JUI-F Hamidullah and Khar Ameer Maulana Ziaullah Jan were slain in the incident.The deadly incident took place around 4 pm when the JUI-F leader was addressing the convention, according to Geo News. According to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Akhtar Hayat Khan, the blast was a suicide attack, adding that 10 kg of explosives were
Shehbaz Sharif condemned the Bajaur Blast and held a telephonic conversation with JUI-F supremo Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Federal Minister for Communications Maulana Asad Mehmood