Pakistan/Terrorism: 44 people killed in suicide attacks in Quetta

Media reported on Friday that 44 people were killed and at least 78 others were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the south-eastern city of Quetta. 

Reportedy, the attack targeted a Shi’ite rally marking the Youm-al-Quds.

This comes two days after three blasts targeting as well Shi’ite religious procession claimed the life of at least 33 people in Lahore and left at least 170 others injured.

Thailand/Insurgents: Two killed in clash between army and rebels in troubled south

Thai Army Officials stated that one soldier and one Islamist separatist had been killed in a clash in the southern Yala Province early Friday morning. Allegedly, a group of ten armed rebels ambushed a troop of soldiers while they were patrolling a road in the outskirts of Yala town.

Meanwhile, a separate incident was reported in the same province later in the day when  two soldiers were wounded while entering the home of Mohammed Sarai, an alleged Islamist rebel. Sarai, who was suspected of making bombs that were used to target civilians, was later shot dead by the soldiers.

The southern Thailand provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat have been the scene for an extremely violent insurgency since 2004 which have resulted in the death of over 4000 people.

Afghanistan/Terrorism: Another attack targets parliamentary candidate in the south

Sources of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) announced that another candidate for the parliamentary polls scheduled to take place in September was the target of an attack in southern Afghanistan on Thursday.

Reportedly, the parliamentary candidate Moulana Abdul Rahman and a civilian were wounded when a grenade was launched against the Governor’s compounds in the city of Ghazni. 

As a reminder, at least four candidates have been killed and at least 15 campaign workers and supporters have been wounded in recent weeks, raising strong concerns over the security and transparence of the upcoming elections.

India/Insurgency: Maoist rebels kill policeman held hostage in Bihar

Media reported on Friday that authorities had found and identified the dead body of one policeman who had been kidnapped by Maoist rebels along with three other officers in Bihar’s Lakhisarai district on Monday.

Reportedly, the rebels had earlier warned the state authorities that on Thursday they would start killing the officers held hostages, unless eight jailed Maoists were released.

As a reminder, some 150 Maoist rebels staged an attack on a police patrol in the forest areas of Lakhisarai district at the beginning of this week, triggering a violent exchange of fire in which seven police officers were killed and several others were reported missing.

Mexico/Organized Crime: 25 gunmen killed in raid operation in Tamaulipas

Media reported that at least 25 gunmen were killed during a security forces’ operation carried near Ciudad Mier, in the northern state of Tamaulipas on Thursday.

Reportedly, two soldiers were also injured in the exchange of fire that erupted between the security forces and the suspected members of a drug cartel. However, no information has been released so far regarding the identity and the affiliation of the gunmen.

It is worth mentioning that three people being held hostages were then released and that a large amount of weapons and ammunition were seized by the authorities.

Tajikistan/Terrorism: Car bomb hits a police station in the northern city of Khujand

Media reported that at least one person was killed and 25 others were seriously injured when a suicide car bomb exploded at a police station in the northern city of Khujand, at the border with Uzbekistan on Friday morning.

According to a spokesman of the Interior Ministry, the vehicle hit the section of the offices that housed the headquarters of the organized crime department and seriously damaged the building.

This comes one month after 10 supporters of a banned Islamist group from the same city were convicted to serve imprisonment terms from three to 15 years.

It is worth mentioning that Tajikistan has a porous 1,340-kilometers border with Afghanistan and that an increasing number of Taleban and Al-Qaeda fighters had moved to the countries in Central Asia because of the military operations that the security forces have been conducting in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

United States/Pakistan/ Terrorism: U.S. charges Pakistani Taliban leader in CIA attack

International Media reported on Thursday that the leader of the Pakistani Taleban terrorist group, Hakimullah Mehsud, was charged by the U.S. government on Wednesday for involvement in a December suicide bombing that killed seven Americans at a remote CIA operating base in Afghanistan.

Mehsud was thought to have been killed by a U.S. drone strike in January, but he resurfaced in May in videos in which he vowed to attack U.S. cities. The U.S. State Department announced that the U.S. government would offer a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of Mehsud or his second-in-command.

The Pakistani Taleban are described by Daniel Benjamin, ambassador-at-large for counterterrorism at the U.S. state department, as “a part of the most  dangerous terrorists threats the United States faces”.

Iraq/Terrorism: A new series of attacks against high-officials and security forces

Media reported on Thursday that armed men had killed Jameel Shihab Ahmed, Head of Administrative Affairs in the Higher Education Ministry in a shootout in Baghdad’s western district of Amiriya.

Separately, a policeman was ambushed in his car near the town of Al-Mashahda, north of Baghdad. Reportedly, the officer was injured, while two of his bodyguards were killed.

Meanwhile, two attacks were carried against checkpoints of the Sunni Awakening Councils. One of their members was killed in Tuz Khurmato, while another attack claimed the life of two members and left five others wounded in Baiji.

In western Mosul, a roadside bomb – known as the hallmark of the Al-Qaeda terrorists – exploded near a military patrol, wounding one Iraqi soldier.

Colombia/Insurgency: Five police officers killed in roadside bomb explosion in Caqueta

Media reported on Thursday that five soldiers had been killed and three others injured when an Improvised Explosives Device (IED) suspected to have been planted by rebels of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) detonated on a highway in the department of Caqueta on Wednesday.

Reportedly, the blast set on fire the vehicle in which the soldiers were traveling.

This latest incident comes as the security forces have been carrying wide search operations in the respective department against the members of the FARC.

Israel/Terrorism: Hamas claims responsibility for a second attack in the West Bank

Media reported on Thursday that Hamas armed wing Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades had claimed responsibility for a drive-shooting that left two people injured in the Jewish settlement Kochav Hashachar east of Ramallah on Wednesday.

Moreover, the spokesman of the group, Abu Ubaida, had also vowed that further attacks would be carried in order to disrupt the peace talks that are scheduled to resume between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

As a reminder, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are to resume direct peace talks 20 months after negotiations had been halted at the end of 2008 during a trilateral meeting hosted by President Barack Obama’s administration in Washington on Thursday.

Mozambique/Civil Unrest: Death toll rise to six as riots in Maputo continues

Police and Hospital Sources reported that the death toll in Wednesday’s clashes in the capital of Mozambique, Maputo, have risen to six, including 2 children. The violence was the worst that has been seen in the country since 2008.

Conflicting stories weather the police shot live ammunition or rubber bullets to disperse the crowds are being presented by different sources. A national police spokesman told a news conference that police did not use live ammunition. The looting and the riots spread across to the city’s suburbs and shops, including banks, in the Central Business District are closed.

The riots erupted as a response the government’s decision to raise the costs for basic necessities, including bread and fuel, on Wednesday. This is a decision that will hit many of people in the poor southern African country hard. 

Afghanistan/Terrorism: Two Afghan aid workers killed by roadside bomb

Afghan Officials stated that at least two employees of the aid organisation Oxfam were killed in a roadside bomb on Wednesday.

The incident happened in Badakhstan Provincein Northern Afghanistan, the same region where 10 Western aid workers were shot and killed last month. Badakhshan has historically been one of the most peaceful areas since the war began. This has now changed when the Taliban started to make inroads across the province.

Mohammed Amin Suhul, a spokesman for Badakhshan’s governor, blamed the Taliban for the attack, saying they were offering large payments to kill government and aid workers.

Pakistan/ Terrorism: Official death toll in Pakistan blasts rise to 18

Latest reports from International Media say that the death toll from three bomb attacks in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Wednesday has reached at least 18.

Sajjad Bhutta, a senior Lahore district administration official, confirmed that the total number of killed have increased to 18 and 100 persons are estimated to be injured.

The series of attacks were perpetrated in Lahore during Shi’ite processions that commemorate imam Yaum-e-Ali.

Democratic Republic of Congo/Insurgency: Gunmen attack a group of humanitarian workers in North Kivu

Media reported on Wednesday that unidentified armed men opened fire on a civilian plane at the Walikale airport in the North Kivu province while a group of four international aid workers and their two Congolese staff members were getting on board.

Reportedly, the aid workers fled into the forest and were later rescued by peacekeepers, but a Congolese soldier and two of the armed men were killed during the subsequent gun fire.

As the aid workers were there to provide assistance to victims of a mass rape perpetrated by Rwandese Hutu FDLR fighters (Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda) and local Congolese Mai-Mai fighters, it is not unlikely that the same groups are behind this latest attack.

Mozambique/Civil Unrest: At least two children killed in clashes between police and rioters in Maputo

Media reported on Wednesday that at least two children have been shot dead and several other people have been injured during clashes that erupted between police forces and protesters in the capital of Mozambique, Maputo.

The violent incidents came as thousands of people have been protesting against the rising fuel and food prices in the country.

Reportedly, the security forces fired rubber bullets and teargas to disperse the demonstrators who had been vandalizing shops, burning tires, blocking roads and throwing stones.

As a reminder, at least six persons were killed and tens of others injured in Mozambique in similar protests in 2008.

Armenia/Azerbaijan/security: Several soldiers killed in Nagorno-Karabakh border clash

Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry said that three Armenian soldiers and two Azeris were killed in an exchange of fire on the Nagorno-Karabakh front-line on Thursday. According to the Azeri Defence Ministry, the exchange of fire had broken out when Armenian soldiers had crossed “the line of contact” and tried attack Azeri forces.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Armenian Defence Ministry, Senor Asratyan, said on the contrary that the Tuesday fighting started when Azerbaijani soldiers launched an attack within the territory. He said that four Azerbaijani troops were killed and one Armenian wounded. 

Both sides keep blaming each other for the latest clash which marks yet another violation of the ceasefire, something that has become gradually more common in the disputed area in recent month.

Somalia/Terrorism: Senior security official killed in shootout in Somaliland

Media reported on Wednesday that a group of six armed people opened fire and killed Colonel Abdi Esse Nur, a senior security official in Somaliland, outside his home in the eastern town of Las Anod on Tuesday.

Reportedly, the official, who was the regional commander of the custodian corps in Sool region, died on the spot.

It is worth mentioning that this latest incident comes as the breakaway enclave of Somaliland has been experiencing a relative stability in the last two months, but similar attacks on security agents and government officials had been frequent there in the past.

Israel/ Terrorism: Four Israelis killed in attack near Hebron

Media Reported that four Israelis, including a pregnant women, have been killed in the Jewish colony Kyriat Arba near Hebron in the West Bank. Officials said that all four victims were from the Beit Haggai Settlement. The attack was claimed by the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas.

The victims were ambushed and attacked with gun fire when they were traveling in a car on a road between Kyriat Arba and the Palestinian village Bani Naim. The area of the attack is characterized by high tensions between the Israeli and Palestinian population.

Reportedly, Hamas has saluted the attack, qualifying it as “a normal reaction to the crimes” of the Israeli. In these circumstances, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahou ordered the security forces to pursue the killers “without any diplomatic restrictions”.

The attack comes ahead of the direct peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians which are to be resumed in Washington on Thursday.

Pakistan/Terrorism: Military raid in tribal north-west kills 45

International Media reported on Wednesday that Pakistani jet strikes killed 45 people in the Khyber Tribal District. Officials claimed they had been pounding targets in the Tirah Valley from which suicide attacks were being prepared.

Three strikes on Tuesday night destroyed rebel hideouts and vehicles which were being prepared for suicide attacks in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, according to officials. Rehan Khattak, a senior government official in Khyber, said that six civilians, including women and children, were killed in one of the strikes.

Pakistan has stepped up strikes near the Afghan border in recent months.

Democratic Republic of Congo/ Insurgency: Kidnapped NGO chairman liberated

International media reported that the head of a local aid agency in Nord-Kivu’s Masisi Territory in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sylvestre Bwira, who was kidnapped on August 24 has been found alive late last night. Bwiri is currently recovering in hospital where he is treated in intensive care department for the injuries got during the captivity.

Reportedly, two men abducted Bwira last week on the road between the towns of Goma and Sake. A representative of an NGO active in this region, Thomas D’acquin Muiti, said that Bwiri frequently received death threats after the publication of a report denouncing insecurity in the Masisi and a parallel administration set up in the territory by former rebels of the National Congress for the Defence of the People, which has rallied to the Kinshasa government.

Several armed groups have been active since the 1990s in Nord-Kivu and they are regularly accused of committing violence against the civilian population. Hundreds of thousands of villagers in the province have been displaced by the unrest.