Dozens killed in rare Afghanistan attack / CNN

photo: photo: AP / Musadeq Sadeq

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Twin suicide bombings killed dozens Tuesday in Afghanistan, most of them in a mass-scale sectarian attack on Shiite worshippers unlike anything the country has seen in its decade-long war.
The terrorist attacks in the cities of Kabul and Mazar-e Sharif killed 58 people and wounded scores of others, officials said.
A suicide bomber detonated a device at a Shiite shrine in Kabul as worshippers were marking the Shiite holy day of Ashura, Afghan Health Ministry spokesman Kargar Norughli said. Fifty-four people were killed and 150 were wounded, said Afghan Health Ministry spokesman Kargar Norughli.
Four people were killed by an explosion at a roundabout on a busy street in Mazar-e Sharif, the provincial capital of Afghanistan's northern Balkh province, police official Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai said. Another 21 were wounded in that attack.
"The enemies tried to spread fear in this important holiday in the city," Ahmadzai said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks. The Taliban denied involvement.
Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, a leading Shiite member of Parliament, blamed "foreign criminals."
The attacks showed "that those who claim to be defenders of Islam" are liars, and showed "how far from humanity they are," he said.

The attackers committed "these crimes for the interest of those foreigners who are controlling them so that they could create hatred among Muslims in Afghanistan," he said.
In Iraq, where large scale sectarian attacks have occurred frequently, government officials and analysts have said the goal of extremists was to foment sectarian tensions.
The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan issued a statement Tuesday condemning the "the twin suicide bombings that killed dozens of worshippers, many of them women and children."
The bombs detonated nearly simultaneously, the statement said.
Afghanistan has seen attacks on mosques. In 2006, rioting broke out between Shiites and Sunnis at an Ashura festival in Herat, leading to several deaths. But the country has not seen sectarian attacks of the scale that occurred Tuesday.
The attacks came a day after an international conference in Bonn, Germany, addressed the state of affairs in Afghanistan, and Afghan officials pushed for international support and contributions.
The U.S. Embassy statement Tuesday vowed that the United States "remains undeterred in standing with the Afghan people against the scourge of terrorism in our mutual aim of promoting peace and prosperity."

Gen. John Allen, commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said, "An attack against Ashura pilgrims on one of the holiest of days in the Islamic calendar is an attack against Islam itself, and we denounce and condemn these atrocities in the strongest of terms. Our prayers and deepest sympathies are with the families and loved ones of those innocent civilians killed or injured in today's horrific attacks."
Ambassador Simon Gass, NATO's senior civilian representative in Afghanistan, called the attacks "horrifying."
"That men, women and children are killed and injured on Ashura is particularly tragic," he said.
Ashura commemorates the martyrdom of Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Hussein's death in battle in Karbala, Iraq, in 680, is one of the events that helped create the schism between Sunnis and Shiites, the two main Muslim religious movements. Shiites are a minority presence in Afghanistan, which is predominantly Sunni.

At the Bonn conference on Monday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned that the Taliban could make a comeback as the country struggles with security a decade after a U.S.-led coalition ousted the hardline militia from power.
"If we lose this fight, we are threatened with a return to a situation like that before September 11, 2001," Karzai said.
In an e-mailed statement to journalists, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said he condemned Tuesday's attacks. He accused NATO forces of playing a role in the attacks "to sow mistrust and hatred among Muslims so they can stay longer."
Karzai, at Monday's conference, said that though there had been progress over the past 10 years, stability remains a distant goal.
"Our shared goal of a stable, self-reliant Afghanistan is far from being achieved," he said.

________________________________

RELATED NEWS

• Afghan police say 48 killed in Kabul bombing - Atlanta Journal
• Recent major attacks in the Afghan capital of Kabul-The Washington Post
• Afghan Police Say Almost 50 Killed in Two Separate, Rare Bombings on Shiites-Fox News

»»  read more

19 killed in Basra blasts(CNN)

AP Photo

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Many of the dead are police and security officers, authorities say
* More explosives detonate as security forces investigate two earlier blasts
* 67 are wounded and at least 19 are killed, police say

Baghdad  -- At least 19 people were killed and 67 others were wounded Thursday in three explosions in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, two police officials said.
A roadside bomb and a motorcycle exploded in quick succession in a busy commercial district that includes shops and restaurants, the officials said.
When curious onlookers and Iraqi security forces arrived to the scene to investigate, another motorcycle rigged with explosives detonated, causing most of the casualties, police said. A number of Iraqi police and army security officers were among the dead, the officials said.
The oil-rich, predominantly Shiite city of Basra is about 500 km (310 miles) south of Baghdad.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

»»  read more

At least 26 bodies dumped in Guadalajara, MEXICO CITY (Reuters)

Soldiers arrive at a crime scene where a truck with several dead bodies inside had been parked in Guadalajara November 24, 2011. REUTERS-Alejandro Acosta

MEXICO CITY - Suspected drug gang hitmen murdered at least 26 people and dumped their bodies in the center of Mexico's second city of Guadalajara on Thursday as a showdown between rival drug gangs intensified.
The bodies were found in several vans abandoned around the western city's iconic Millennium Arches monument, together with a message from drug cartels.
An official with the attorney-general's office said the death toll could rise beyond the 26 confirmed so far.
It is the fourth mass public dumping of bodies in regional centers in just over two months, a rash of killings officials blame on a brutal turf war between rival drug cartels which is ricocheting from one side of the country to the other.

Murders in Guadalajara, capital of the state of Jalisco and home to mariachi music and tequila, have spiked in the last year as the Sinaloa cartel's hold on the city has weakened.
The death of key lieutenant Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel in a shootout with soldiers in Guadalajara in July 2010 opened the door to gangs including the Zetas and Milenio, from neighboring Michoacan state, trying to muscle in on the Sinaloans' turf.

Forensic workers prepare to cover the window of a car with several dead bodies inside in Guadalajara November 24, 2011. REUTERS-Alejandro Acosta

Local media said the message found with the bodies, dumped less than 1 mile (kilometre) from the site where the Guadalajara International Book Fair will be held from Saturday, purported to be from the Zetas and was directed at Sinaloa boss and Mexico's most-wanted trafficker, Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.
Officials blamed a group with ties to Guzman for two mass dumpings of more than 60 bodies, seen as a signal to the Zetas, in the eastern port city of Veracruz in September and October.
The discovery of the latest bodies, many of them bound and shot in the head, follows the dumping of 16 charred corpses in the Sinaloan capital Culiacan on Wednesday.
"Members of organized crime are confronting each other, fighting for their turf. It could be that an atrocity happens in one part of the country and the bill is paid in another state," Sinaloa state governor Mario Lopez told local radio.

Among the Culiacan dead were at least seven people, three of them police officers, who had been kidnapped from a small Sinaloan town on Monday, a local official said on Thursday.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has deployed the army to crack down on powerful criminal gangs and some 45,000 people have died in the conflict since he took office.
Security forces flocked to Guadalajara, home to 4.5 million people and famed for its mustachioed musicians in wide-brimmed sombreros and top-flight soccer team, last month as the city hosted the Pan American Games, but have since left the city.

Organizers of the book fair expect about 600,000 visitors to the exhibition hall for the event they bill as the most important on the Spanish-language publishing calendar.
The U.S. consulate in Guadalajara warned on February 3 of "a marked escalation of criminal activity." It banned U.S. government officials from traveling after dark between the city and its main airport and urged U.S. visitors to follow suit.
Drug violence has already engulfed the northern business hub of Monterrey, a city of similar size to Guadalajara, prompting some companies to freeze investment.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

»»  read more

Syrian clashes said to leave 90 dead

Dozens of soldiers and security forces were gunned down by suspected army defectors in southern Syria, a deadly ambush that comes as President Bashar Assad increasingly appears unable to manage the crisis

Demonstrators protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad gather in Hula, near Homs on November 13, 2011. (Handout/Reuters)

Monday's hours-long clash in the southern province of Daraa came on a particularly bloody day in Syria, with as many as 90 people killed across the country. The brazen attack by the army defectors suggested a new confidence among troops who have sided with the protesters and highlighted the potential for an armed confrontation to escalate.

The UN estimates the regime's military crackdown on an 8-month-old uprising has killed 3,500 people in the past eight months. November is shaping up to be the bloodiest month of the revolt, with well over 300 people killed so far.
The latest death toll was compiled by sources including British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Local Coordination Committees activist coalition and morgue officials.
Killed in ambush

Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the observatory, confirmed that 34 soldiers were killed in an ambush in Daraa, the birthplace of the uprising that began in mid-March, inspired by successful revolts in Tunisia, Egypt and later Libya.
Although activists say the protests have remained largely peaceful, with demonstrators calling for the regime's downfall, an armed insurgency has developed in recent months targeting Assad's military and security forces.

Assad is facing the most severe challenge to his family's four-decade rule in Syria, with former allies as well as Western nations using increasingly harsh rhetoric in urging him to stop his bloody crackdown. On Tuesday, Turkey said it no longer has confidence in the Syrian regime and warned Assad that his brutal crackdown threatens to place him on a list of leaders who "feed on blood."

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's comments were a blow to Syria, because the countries once cultivated close ties. But Turkish leaders have grown increasingly frustrated with Damascus over its refusal to halt the attacks on protesters.
On Monday, Jordan's King Abdullah II said Assad should step down for the good of his country, the first Arab leader to publicly make such a call.

That prompted pro-government protesters to converge on Jordan's embassy in Damascus, with three of them scaling the fence and ripping down the Jordanian flag -- the latest in a string of attacks on foreign missions. Jordan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Kayed said no one entered the embassy and no injuries occurred.

Monday's bloodiest attacks were in Daraa province, along the Jordanian border, including the attack that killed 34 soldiers. According to the observatory, 12 defectors and 23 civilians also killed in the area.
Hours of gunbattles

A resident near the town of Khirbet Ghazaleh in Daraa province said he heard more than four hours of intense gunfire. He asked that his name not be used for fear of government reprisals.

Another witness, who is an activist in the area, said he counted the bodies of 12 people, believed to be civilians killed by security forces' fire.
"I saw two army armored personnel carriers, totally burnt," he told The Associated Press by telephone. He also asked for anonymity out of fear for his safety.

In the restive city of Homs, the morgue received 19 corpses, all of them shot.

Other activist groups had slightly different figures of those killed, a common occurrence because the Syrian government has prevented independent reporting and barred most foreign journalists. Details gathered by activist groups and witnesses are key channels of information.

Syria's crackdown has brought international condemnation, but Damascus generally had been spared broad reproach in the Arab world. That changed Saturday, with a near-unanimous vote by the 22-member Arab League to suspend Syria, and the situation appeared to be spiraling out of Assad's control.

Earlier Monday, Syria struck back at its international critics, branding an Arab League decision to suspend its membership as "shameful and malicious" and accusing other Arabs of conspiring with the West to undermine the regime.

The sharp rebuke suggests Damascus fears the United States and its allies might use the rare Arab consensus to press for tougher sanctions at the United Nations.
Assad says extremists pushing a foreign agenda to destabilize Syria are behind the unrest, not true reform-seekers aiming to open the country's autocratic political system.

Turkey cancels Syrian oil plans

Turkey on Tuesday canceled plans for oil exploration in Syria, while also threatening to cut electricity supplies after a spate of attacks by supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad on its diplomatic missions.
Energy Minister Taner Yildiz announced that Turkey had shelved plans for Turkey's petroleum company, TPAO, to jointly explore oil with Syria's state oil company in six wells within Syria. Yildiz also threatened that Turkey could review supplies of electricity to the troubled country if tensions continue.
"Right now, we are providing electricity (to Syria)," Yildiz said. "If (Syria) continues on this course, then we might have to reconsider these decisions."

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed Assad for his brutal crackdown on opponents and attacks by his supporters on Turkish diplomatic missions on Saturday.
Turkey no longer has confidence in the Syrian regime, Erdogan said, warning Assad that his brutal crackdown on opponents threatens to place him on a list of leaders who "feed on blood."

The Associated Press

»»  read more