Bombs kill at least 12, wound dozens at Pakistan court

Two bombs killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens outside a court complex in northwest Pakistan on Friday, a rescue official said, hours after militants killed two people in a Christian neighbourhood in the same region.

Both attacks were claimed by Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a breakaway Pakistani Taliban faction believed to be behind some of the past year's deadliest attacks, including last month's bombing of lawyers in the city of Quetta that killed 74 people.

The bodies of policemen, lawyers and other civilians were recovered, said Haris Habib, chief rescue officer in the city of Mardan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

"First there was a small blast followed by a big blast," Habib told Reuters.

The twin attacks in the northwest came one day after Pakistan's army touted the successes of its fight against myriad armed jihadist groups, though a spokesman acknowledged there was still a long way to go.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said Friday's latest bombing would "not shatter our unflinching resolve in our war against terrorism".

"These receding elements are showing frustration by attacking our soft targets. They shall not get space to hide in Pakistan," Sharif said in a statement.

Jamaat-ur-Ahrar's spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, vowed to stage more attacks in a statement sent to Reuters.

"We appeal to civilians to remain away from law enforcement installations and these un-Islamic courts. We will target them more," he said.

More than 20 people were killed in an attack in December on a government office in Mardan, which was also claimed by Jamaat-ur-Ahrar.

Earlier in the day, four gunmen wearing suicide-bomb vests attacked a Christian neighbourhood in the Khyber tribal region, killing at least one security guard and a civilian resident, military officials said.

Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, which has targeted Christians in the past, claimed responsibility within hours of the attack.

The Islamist group, which briefly declared allegiance to Middle East-based Islamic State in 2014 but recently said it was no longer affiliated with them, also staged the Easter Day attack on Christians in a park in Lahore that killed 72 people including at least 29 children.

The attackers exchanged fire with security forces and were killed, the military said.

The area is near Warsak Dam, 20 km (12 miles) northwest of Peshawar.

The official said the attackers might have been attempting to enter an adjacent security installation by exploiting weaker security arrangements in the residential area.

Christians, who number around 2 million in a nation of 190 million people, have been the target of a series of attacks in recent years.

At least 1 reported dead, 14 wounded in attack on American University of Afghanistan

At least one student died and 14 other people were hurt Wednesday after a "complex" gun and bomb attack at American University of Afghanistan in western Kabul, police and the head of the city's hospitals reported, as the military worked for hours to free students and staff inside.

Security forces were conducting a clearing operation to track down the "terrorists" and slowly rescue teachers and hundreds of students who huddled in classrooms and safe rooms, police spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said. Sediqqi said it was not clear if there were one or two attackers.

A car bomb had exploded outside a school for the blind next door before at least one attacker fired at the university campus from that school building, a police officer at the scene told The New York Times.

The U.S. Embassy was working to account for all of its personnel, State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told reporters. She said the State Department condemned the attack. 

The U.S. military was assisting Afghan forces who responded to the attack, U.S. Army Colonel Michael T. Lawhorn told Fox News. "These advisors are not taking a combat role, but advising their Afghan counterparts."

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The Taliban have been fighting to overthrow the Kabul government for 15 years, and regard foreign civilians as legitimate targets.

 

Associated Press photographer Massoud Hossaini said he was in a classroom with 15 students when he heard an explosion on the southern flank of the campus. "I went to the window to see what was going on, and I saw a person in normal clothes outside. He shot at me and shattered the glass," Hossaini said, adding that he fell on the glass and cut his hands. He also tweeted: "Help we are stuck inside AUAF and shooting flollowed by Explo this maybe my last tweets"

The students then barricaded themselves into the classroom, pushing chairs and desks against the door, and staying on the floor. Hossaini and about nine students managed to escape from the campus through a northern emergency gate. "As we were running I saw someone lying on the ground face down, they looked like they had been shot in the back," he said.

Witnesses and a U.S.-based school administrator told Fox News the gunfire had stopped but security teams were still sweeping the area. Ambulances raced victims to a nearby hospital. Local media reported fires continuted to burn on campus.

The university's president, Mark English, tells The Associated Press, "we are trying to assess the situation."

Student Ahmad Mukhtar told the BBC he climbed a 20-foot wall to escape the attack. Another student told AFP over the phone, "We are stuck inside and very afraid."

Hossaini and students with him took refuge in a house near the campus.

The university was established in 2006 to offer liberal arts courses modeled on the U.S. system. It claims as many as 1,700 students are enrolled there, 40 percent of whom are women.

Two of its professors were kidnapped at gunpoint in Kabul on August 7. The professors were identified as Kevin King, an American, and Timothy Weeks from Australia. Men in military uniforms reportedly abducted them as they traveled between the campus and their home in Kabul. The professors' whereabouts are unclear.

(FOX)

Bombing at Wedding in Turkey Kills at Least 50

 

At least 50 people were killed in the attack. Credit Ahmed Deeb/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A suspected suicide bombing killed at least 50 people and wounded at least 90 at a wedding ceremony in southeastern Turkey on Saturday, the latest in a string of attacks to strike the restive region in the past week.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said in a statement that the Islamic State militant group was probably behind what appeared to be a suicide attack on Saturday in the city of Gaziantep and that its aim was to sow divisions among ethnic groups in the country and “spread incitement along ethnic and religious lines.”

The explosion occurred about 11 p.m. in the district of Sahinbey, close to the Syrian border, the governor of Gaziantep, Ali Yerlikaya, said in a brief statement. His office also provided the casualty figures.

Relatives grieving at a hospital in Gaziantep, Turkey. Credit Ahmed Deeb/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Televised footage showed scenes of chaos in the aftermath of the blast. Crowds gathered, shouting “God is the greatest” as forensic teams moved onto the site. Ambulances could be seen rushing to the area and leaving with bodies covered in white sheets.

The attack came nearly two months after militants suspected of being affiliated with the Islamic State stormed Istanbul’s main airport with guns and bombs, killing at least 44 people. Turkey has been rocked by a wave of urban terrorist attacks in the past year as it confronts threats from multiple fronts, including the Islamic State, which recently lost ground in northern Syria, and Kurdish insurgents, who have resumed a war with the Turkish state in the southeast and were blamed by the authorities for four bombings in the past week.

Turkey is also reeling from a failed coup last month that aimed to topple the government of Mr. Erdogan and left at least 240 people dead. Mr. Erdogan said on Saturday that there was no difference between the various terrorist organizations that are attacking the country.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim condemned the attack at the wedding and vowed to continue to fight terrorist groups. “No matter what this treacherous terror organization is called, we as the people, the state and the government will pursue our determined struggle against it,” he said.

Earlier on Saturday, Mr. Yildirim had told reporters that Turkey would take a more active role in addressing the conflict in Syria over the next six months and was willing to accept a role for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria during a transitional period. But he insisted that Mr. Assad would have no place in Syria’s future.

NYT