Somalia blast toll rises to 300: Deadliest attack in decades

Somalia Government has blamed the al-Qaida-linked Al-Shabaab extremist group for the attack

 

 

The death toll in the massive twin truck bombings in Somalia's capital has mounted to 300, officials said.

The officials explosion has been called as the one of the deadliest attacks to hit the capital, Mogadishu, since an Islamist insurgency began in 2007, reported the New York Times.
Apart from this, at least 300 have been left wounded, and families scrambled to find missing relatives amid the rubble and in hospitals.

The death toll is expected to rise as the emergency crews are still pulling more bodies from burned cars and demolished buildings after the Saturday blasts.

According to reports, Somalia Government has blamed the al-Qaida-linked Al-Shabaab extremist group for the attack.

However, no group including Al-Shabaab has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.



Speaking to the state-run radio station, Somalia's information minister Abdirahman Omar said the blast was the largest the city had ever seen and "this is how merciless and brutal they are, and we have to unite against them."

President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo condemned the attack and has declared three days of mourning in the country.

"Today's horrific attack proves our enemy would stop nothing to cause our people pain and suffering. Let's unite against terror. We will observe 3 days of mourning for innocent victims, flags will be flown at half-mast.

Click here to read full story about Somalia Blast

Manchester attack: 22 dead; kids missing from concert, here is what we know

The attacker was killed while detonating the devide said the Manchester police

 

 

Breaking News : A massive attack shook Manchester on today that killed at least 22 people. Reportedly 50 others have been injured. The 'terrorist attack' took place at a concert of pop star Ariana Grande in the Manchester city in the UK.

 

Eyewitnesses reported hearing a loud "bang" from inside the venue. Video footage from the scene showed bloodied victims being helped by emergency services.

 

Watch: Aftermath Of Blast At Ariana Grande's UK Concert

 Here is what we know so far:

—Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron have also expressed their sympathies for the victims.

—Prime Minister Theresa May said the incident was being treated as a terrorist attack. She is set to chair an emergency Cobra meeting in response to the atrocity, reports Daily Star.

—Police have set up a helpline for people who are worried about loved ones on 0161 856 9400.

 

Facts about Manchester Attack

—Large areas around the arena have been sealed off and Victoria Station has been closed and is expected to be closed throughout Tuesday.

—UK police responded to reports of an explosion shortly after 10:33 pm (21:33 GMT) at the arena, which has the capacity to hold 21,000 people, where the Ariane Grande had been performing to an audience that included many children, according to Reuters.

—The blasts reportedly went off at the end of the concert near the box office area of the venue. "It was one bang and essentially everyone from the other side of the arena where the bang was heard from suddenly came running towards us," an eyewitness said.

—22 people have been reported killed while 50 others are injured.

—The blast was reported to have hit the foyer of the building at 10:30 pm.

—The attacker was killed trying to detonate the bomb (read more...)

India ranked 7 among countries hit most by terrorism

The country recorded 289 terrorism-related deaths in 2015, a 45 per cent decline over 2014

India was ranked seventh in the list of countries most impacted by terrorism in 2015, according to the Global Terrorism Index (GTI), 2016, released by the Institute for Economics & Peace, a think-tank based in Sydney, Australia.

India is one of six Asian countries ranked in the top ten nations most impacted by terrorism. The Heart of Asia conference adopted the Amritsar declaration on December 4, 2016, which recognises “terrorism, violent extremism, radicalisation, separatism, and sectarianism and linkages among them” as the gravest challenges facing the region.

The declaration voiced particular concern about the “high level of violence” by ISIS and its affiliates, the Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan; all based in South Asia.

India recorded 289 terrorism-related deaths in 2015, a 45 per cent decline over 2014. However, the number of Indian Army and paramilitary soldiers killed this year is at an eight-year high, IndiaSpend reported on November 29, 2016.

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Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft to create shared database against terrorist content

Participating companies can add hashes of terrorist images or videos that are identified on one of our platforms to the database.

With an aim to limit online terrorist content, technology giants Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube said together they would build a shared database that will also help them to weed out content used to recruit people into terrorism.

According to a report on Tech Crunch, the companies said they will create a shared industry database that will be used to identify this content, including what they describe as the "most extreme and egregious terrorist images and videos" that have been removed from their respective services.

The content will be hashed using unique digital fingerprints, which is how its identification and removal can be handled more easily and efficiently by the company's computer systems and algorithms.

"We commit to the creation of a shared industry database of hashes - unique digital 'fingerprints' - for violent terrorist imagery or terrorist recruitment videos or images that we have removed from our services," read a joint statement.

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Army camp attacked in Kashmir's Kupwara, 3 terrorists killed

Three terrorists were on Thursday killed in an encounter with security forces after they attacked an army camp in north Kashmir's Kupwara district, the army said in Srinagar.

The terrorists opened fire on an army camp at Langate in Kupwara district around 5 AM, which was retaliated by the alert jawans, an army official said.

After repulsing the attack, the security forces launched a search operation in the area, during which the terrorists fired upon them, leading to an encounter.

"Three terrorists have been killed in the ensuing encounter and three AK 47 rifles have been recovered from the spot," the official said.

He said the operation was on and further details were awaited.

Read Source

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Three militants killed in Langate attack in J&K

Three separatist militants were killed on Thursday in a gunfight that erupted after they attacked a counter-insurgency Rashtriya Rifles (RR) camp in north Kashmir's Kupwara district.

"Three terrorists were killed in the resulting encounter," Colonel Rajesh Kalia, spokesman of the Indian Army's Srinagar-headquartered 15 Corps confirmed to IANS.

"Heavily armed terrorists dressed in army fatigues attacked the 30 RR camp situated in Langate town of Kupwara district at 5.10 a.m. today (Thursday)

"The alert guards at the 30 RR camp in Langate located close to a civilian facility foiled the terrorists' attempt to enter the camp by breaching its security periphery," he said.

"The terrorist firing stopped for some time, but it started again at 6.30 a.m," he added.

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The global cost of India-Pakistan nuclear war

If India and Pakistan fought a war detonating 100 nuclear warheads (around half of their combined arsenal), each equivalent to a 15-kiloton Hiroshima bomb, more than 21 million people will be directly killed, about half the world’s protective ozone layer would be destroyed, and a “nuclear winter” would cripple the monsoons and agriculture worldwide.

As the Indian Army reports striking terrorist camps across the border, and a member of Parliament (MP) of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) urges a nuclear attack and the Pakistan defence minister threatens to “annihilate”India in return, these projections, made by researchers from three US universities in 2007, are a reminder of the costs of nuclear war.

Visualisation by nucleardarkness.org based on study by researchers from Rutgers University, University of Colorado-Boulder and University of California, Los Angeles

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy said, on 23 September, 2016, that if 100 million Indians died in a Pakistani nuclear attack, India’s retaliation would wipe out Pakistan.

Source: Pakistani Nuclear Forces, 2015; Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Source: Indian Nuclear Forces, 2015; Bulletin of Atomic Scientists

Agni III, IV and V, with their longer ranges, might be able to reach all of Pakistan, but it can be safely said that they are directed more towards China.

India also possesses an estimated two ship-launched 350-km range Dhanush SRBM, which could be fitted with nuclear warheads.

India’s aircraft can deliver an estimated 45% of 106 warheads. The Indian Air Force’s Jaguar fighter bombers can deliver about 16 nuclear warheads, while the French-built Mirage-2000 fleet can deliver 32.

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India strikes across LoC; What are Pakistan's options?

India undertook surgical strikes across the Line of Control, breaching self-imposed military discipline, destroying infrastructure as well as killing terrorists who were poised to cross the border and damage Indian cities and Jammu and Kashmir.

This is bound to invite retaliation, both from Pakistan as well as the rest of world, which will now begin scrambling to plead India to continue its policy of strategic restraint.

The Director General Military Operations (DGMO) used the hotline to contact his counterpart in Pakistan. This is scrupulous observation of protocol – that is exactly what the hotline is for.

The first such interaction is likely on 6 October when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar head out to attend the World Bank meeting in the US.

But before that, how will Pakistan respond? That’s what needs to be seen.

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We are in a place where three scenarios are possible: 

1) An unpredictable actor comes into play - a suicide bomber takes it into his head to blow himself up in a crowded place, a Paris type event - which will be the equivalent of tossing a cracker into a crowd and could have unforeseen consequences. 

2) Pakistan retaliates and India hits back, gradually escalating into full scale confrontation.

3)The international community steps in and talks both Pakistan and India out of it. The UNSC holds a meeting and peacemakers step in.

The third scenario is the most likely but the first and second cannot be ruled out.

Read Source...

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Captured soldier inadvertently crossed LoC, report of soldiers killed false: Army

The Indian Army on Thursday said that one of its soldiers from the 37 Rashtriya Rifles (RR), along with his standard weapon, had inadvertently crossed over to the other side of the Line of Control (LoC) and termed as "completely false and baseless" reports in Pakistani media that eight of its soldiers had been killed.

An army release issued by the Defence Ministry said that Pakistan had been informed on the hotline by the Director General Military Operations Lt Gen Ranbir Singh about the soldier crossing over the LoC.

It said that such inadvertent crossing by army personnel and civilians was not unusual on either side and they are are returned through existing mechanisms.

"One soldier from 37 RR with weapon has inadvertently crossed over to the other side of the Line of Control. Pakistan has been informed by the DGMO on the hotline. Such inadvertent crossing by Army and civilians are not unusual on either side. They are returned through existing mechanisms," the release said.

"As regard report of killing of eight Indian Army personnel reported in sections of Pakistan media, the report is completely false and baseless," the release added.

Dawn had quoted security sources as saying that Pakistan military had said it had captured an Indian soldier and killed eight others. Dawn later withdrew the story, replacing it with another that did not specify the number of Indian soldiers killed.

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Surgical strikes: How the world conducts them and how India did it

Indian armed forces conducted surgical strikes in the early hours of Thursday across the Line of Control (LoC), involving not more than 100 commandos, in what is seen as a paradigm shift in how this government plans to deal with terrorist camps across the border.

The term "surgical strike" has been prevalent in the international media since the days of the Gulf War, and it came to typify operations conducted by the US thereafter.

Going by the generally accepted definition offered by experts, a surgical strike comprises a swift, intelligence-driven attack on a specific target or targets with minimum collateral damage to structures, infrastructure or civilians in the target's vicinity.

The operation can involve special forces units on the ground, strikes conducted by military aircraft or vessels.

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How India conducted its strikes

How the big hitters do it

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The US and Russia, with varying degrees of success, have been conducting surgical strikes in Syria for some time now, hitting extremists and ISIS targets with PGMs. 

The US in particular has been using its armed drones for targeting specific leaders of various terrorist organisations, especially the al-Qaeda; however, given reports of numerous civilian casualties attached to such strikes, the claims that such operations are surgical strikes have rung hollow for countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan. 

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Sushma Swaraj's fiery response to Pakistan: Top 10 quotes

Targeting Pakistan squarely, India on Monday told the United Nations that Jammu and Kashmir is an inalienable part of the country and nobody can wrest it away by force.

Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, in a retort to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's speech last week where he harped on Kashmir, said at the UNGA: "Kashmir is an integral part of India and it will remain an integral part of India. No one can take it away by force. Pakistan should stop dreaming."

Top quotes by Sushma Swaraj at UNGA-

• Giving a befitting reply to Pak, Sushma Swaraj said Those who seed extremist ideologies, reap a bitter harvest. This germ of evil has grown into a hydra-headed monster. 

• Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones at others

• Nurturing terrorism has become habit of some nations.

• Need to isolate nations that fail to crackdown on terrorsim, work together for world peace 

• Tried to resolve friendship with Pakistan via friendship not demands

• Dhaka, Uri, Paris, Pathankot attacks have left us with scars 

• Bahadur Ali living proof that terrorists come from across the border

• Terrorism is biggest violation of human rights 

The external affairs minister in her speech also spoke on Paris Agreement, poverty and Make in India

• On Oct 2, India will submit instrument of ratification for Paris Agreement 

• Our biggest challenge today is to end poverty

• Seeing a lot of foreign inflows due to Make in India scheme

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Watch full video of Sushma Swaraj speech at UNGA  &  Read full Story

Kashmir is ours, you'll never get it, Sushma Swaraj tells Pakistan at UNGA

In a sharp rebuke to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's "tirade" on Kashmir, India today said those accusing others of rights violations must introspect as it censured Pakistan for the first time at the UNGA for perpetrating the "worst form of state oppression" in Balochistan.

Taking a veiled dig at Pakistan, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in her address at the 71st UN General Assembly (UNGA) session said there are nations "in our midst" where UN designated terrorists roam freely and deliver "their poisonous sermons of hate with impunity", an apparent reference to Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed.

She also made a strong pitch for isolating such nations who speak the language of terrorism and for whom sheltering terrorists has become "their calling card".

"In our midst, there are nations that still speak the language of terrorism, that nurture it, peddle it, and export it. To shelter terrorists has become their calling card. We must identify these nations and hold them to account," Swaraj asserted in her nearly 20-minute speech.

"These nations, in which UN designated terrorists roam freely, lead processions and deliver their poisonous sermons of hate with impunity, are as culpable as the very terrorists they harbour. Such countries should have no place in the comity of nations," Swaraj said, in essence making a call to the international community to read full story

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Sushma Swaraj's fiery response to Pakistan: Top 10 quotes

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Nawaz Sharif's UNGA speech: Top 10 things he said and India's rebuttals to his accusations

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif raked up the Kashmir issue at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday and tried to burnish his country's credentials as an opponent of global terrorism.

His speech, which also referred to the prevailing situation in Europe and the Middle East, attempted to paint India as an uncooperative neighbour which had rebuffed Sharif's overtures for peace.

His speech came days after suspected Pakistan-based terrorists attacked an Indian army camp in Uri, in Kashmir, and killed 18 Indian soldiers. The four terrorists who participated in the attack were also eliminated by the security forces during the attack.

Here are the top 10 things Sharif said at the UNGA and India's rebuttal to some of them:

1) Describing Burhan Wani, the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander who was killed in an encounter with security forces on July 8, as a "young leader", Sharif said that he had emerged as a "symbol of the latest Kashmiri Intifada" after he was "murdered" by security forces.

India's Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar responded to Sharif's description of Wani by saying that what India saw was "... the glorification of a terrorist. Wani is declared commander of Hizbul, widely acknowledged as a terror group. It is shocking that a leader of a nation can glorify a self-advertised terrorist at such a forum. This is self incrimination by Pakistan PM."

2) Sharif said that Pakistan wanted peace with India and that he had gone "the extra mile" to achieve that aim. He added that he had repeatedly made offers for a dialogue "to address all outstanding issues".

India rejected Sharif's call for sustained dialogue, with Akbar saying that Islamabad was talking about dialogue with a "gun in its hand".

3) Insisting that resolving the Kashmir dispute was essential for peace between Pakistan and India and that dialogue was necessary for that process, Sharif alleged that India was posing "unacceptable preconditions" before being willing to participate in a read full story 

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Related Articles:

Pak PM Sharif should have talked about Balochistan not Kashmir: Baloch activist

 Pakistan ready for unconditional talks with India to resolve all issues: Sartaj Aziz

Nawaz Sharif gone beyond all shame by calling 'terrorist a leader': R K Singh

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Uri attack: Military reviews 'escalation ladder'

The strike by jihadi militants on Sunday on an army camp near Uri, in which 18 soldiers were killed and 29 injured, has inflamed tensions along the Line of Control (LoC). On Tuesday, the army shot down eight Pakistani militants after intercepting a 15-strong group that was discovered infiltrating from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK).

With public opinion and the media aroused, and with Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowing to punish those responsible; and the army's top operations officer declaring the military would retaliate at a time and place of its choosing, both sides of the LoC are bracing for what might come.

New Delhi has pinned the attack on the Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militia controlled by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), a wing of the Pakistani Army. Home Minister Rajnath Singh has declared Pakistan a "terrorist state" and the Indian Army, already grappling with public turmoil in the Kashmir Valley, is evaluating options to extract revenge for Uri.

Pakistan presents an easy target for an Indian diplomatic offensive against its terror-friendly ways, in western capitals and multilateral forums. However, a calibrated military riposte would need more careful consideration.

Business Standard has discussed India's options with senior officers close to the planning process. All of them agree the army can easily initiate retaliation. But, thereafter, there would be two sides in the game. Escalation would be both inevitable and unpredictable.

India's first option is to retaliate through fires (the effect of weapons) without Indian forces physically crossing the LoC. This would involve "fire assaults" on targets across the border, using artillery, missiles, and multi-barrel rocket launchers and Brahmos cruise missiles for deeper-lying targets. A fire assault involves suddenly opening up intense fire with massed weapons on an unsuspecting and carefully chosen target, catching people in the read full story

Act to designate Pakistan State Sponsor of terrorism introduced

A bipartisan group of two powerful American lawmakers has introduced an act in the US House of Representatives to designate Pakistan a State Sponsor of terrorism.

"It is time we stopped paying Pakistan for its betrayal and designate it for what it is: a state sponsor of terrorism," said Congressman Ted Poe, who is Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Terrorism.

The 'Pakistan State Sponsor of Terrorism Designation Act' (HR 6069) has been introduced by Republican Poe along with Congressman Dana Rohrabacher of the Democratic Party, who is Ranking member of this influential Congressional Committee on terrorism.

"Not only is Pakistan an untrustworthy ally, Islamabad has also aided and abetted enemies of the US for years," Poe said.

"From harbouring Osama bin Laden to its cozy relationship with the Haqqani network, there is more than enough evidence to determine whose side Pakistan is on in the War on Terror. And it's not America's," he alleged.

Poe said the bill will require the Obama Administration to formally answer this question.

The President must issue a report within 90 days of passage detailing whether or not Pakistan has provided support for international terrorism, he said.

"Thirty days after that, the Secretary of State must issue a follow-up report containing either a determination that Pakistan is a State Sponsor of terrorism or a detailed justification as to why Pakistan does not meet the legal criteria for designation," Poe said.

In a separate statement, Congressman Pete Olson supported every effort to bring to justice the perpetrators of the  read full story

Countering terrorism an important shared objective: Manohar Parrikar

Countering terrorism is an important objective shared by India and the United States, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said here, while appreciating American support in India's efforts to eliminate extremism in its neighbourhood.

"We resolved to continue our cooperation on counter-terrorism. Our open and diverse societies are committed to peace. However, as the United States has shown, there can be no compromise when we are faced with terrorism," Parrikar said at a joint news conference with US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter yesterday.

"The forces that seek to undermine our progress and our ways of life require our comprehensive and robust response. We appreciate the support from United States in our efforts to eliminate terrorism in India's neighbourhood," Parrikar said.

"Secretary Carter and I agreed that countering terrorism is an important shared objective. The partnership between India and the United States is driven by our shared values and interests. This was underlined by the enthusiasm of the US Congress with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in read more..