Group behind deadly Iran bombing based in Pakistan

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 TEHRAN: Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki Tuesday stepped up pressure on Islamabad, saying the group accused of launching a deadly suicide attack in the country is based in Pakistan.Mottaki said members of the group regularly violate the Iran-Pakistan border and launch attacks inside the Islamic republic."They cross into Iran illegally. They are based in Pakistan," Mottaki said without naming the group, as he ramped up pressure on Iran's friendly neighbour."The hands of those behind the crimes in southeast Iran must be cut," he added.A suicide bomber on Sunday blew himself up at a meeting between commanders of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards and local tribesmen in the town of Pisheen in Iran's restive Sistan-Baluchestan province, bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan.Seven Guards commanders and dozens of other people were killed in the attack which Iranian officials allege was carried out by the shadowy Jundallah group that is waging a rebellion against the rule from Tehran.Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday urged his Pakistani counterpart to confront the rebels, saying the "presence of terrorist elements in Pakistan is not justifiable.""The Pakistani government should help to quickly arrest these criminals so they can punished," Ahmadinejad told Asif Ali Zardari during a telephone call received from the Pakistani leader.The head of the Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said on Monday that Tehran will demand that Pakistan hand over Jundallah leader Abdolmalek Rigi, who is accused of being the mastermind of the bombing.Jafari said a Tehran delegation will head to Pakistan to deliver "proof to them so they know that the Islamic Republic is aware of its (Pakistan's) support" to the group led by Rigi.Iranian officials have also accused Britain and the United States of involvement in the attack. Both countries have denied the allegations.

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India's swine flu death rate is increasing

Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...

Suicide bombings kill 18 in Iraq

Thursday, August 13, 2009 MOSUL: At least 18 people, most of them members of the ancient Yazidi religious sect, were killed when two suicide bombers blew themselves up on Thursday in a packed cafe in northern Iraq, a local government official said.At least 31 people were also wounded after the bombers detonated suicide belts packed with explosives in the cafe in Kalaa town, in the district of Sanjar, local district chief Dakheel Qassem Hasoon, told a foreign news agency."Two suicide bombers entered the Cafe Barbaroz at 4:30 pm (1330 GMT) and blew themselves up, killing 18 civilians and wounding 31. Most of the victims were Yazidis," Hasoon said.Kalaa, northwest of the insurgent stronghold of Mosul in northern Nineveh province is predominantly populated by the minority Yazidi religious sect, as well as Arabs and Kurds.The attack is the deadliest since Monday, when 51 people were killed across Iraq, including 28 members of the tiny Shabak sect cut down when two truck bombs det...

US drones to target Taliban in Afghan war

Friday, July 31, 2009 WASHINGTON: The US military plans to use more drone aircraft to target Taliban militants in Afghanistan while focusing less on hunting down Al-Qaeda figures, report said on Thursday.Although defeating the Al-Qaeda terror network remains an overriding goal for Washington, officials now believe the best way to pursue that objective is to ensure stability in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan instead of Al-Qaeda manhunts, the paper said, citing US government and Defense Department officials.It was more important to prevent a slide towards violence and anarchy that could be exploited by Al-Qaeda, which used Afghanistan to stage its attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, the officials said."We might still be too focused on Bin Laden," an official said. "We should probably reassess our priorities."The shift in priorities for the drone fleet comes despite President Barack Obama's declaration that defeating and dismantling Al-Qaeda ...

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