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Monday 30 September 2013
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Major attacks this month in Iraq
- 30 September: At least 42 killed in car bombs in mainly Shia areas of Baghdad
- 21 September: At least 60 killed at funeral in Sadr City, Baghdad
- 15 September: More than 40 killed in blasts across Iraq mostly targeting Shia areas
- 3 September: At least 60 killed in mainly Shia districts of Baghdad
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Baghdad hit by wave of deadly car bombs
Footage shows the aftermath of the 13 rush hour blasts, as the BBC's Rafid Jaboori reports from Baghdad
A series of car bomb blasts in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, has killed at least 47 people and injured many more, officials say.
The blasts targeted markets and car parks in mainly Shia Muslim districts of the city.
There has been a recent upsurge in sectarian violence, sparking fears of a return to the bloodletting of 2008.
More than 5,000 people have been killed so far this year, according to United Nations data.
Monday's blasts struck during Baghdad's morning rush hour, with reports of 13 bombs, most of them in Shia neighbourhoods.
Groups of labourers gathering ahead of the working day were among the bombers' targets.
One of the deadliest attacks was reported from the eastern Sadr City district where seven people were killed and 75 injured in a crowded vegetable market.
Another six were reported killed in Shuala, a mainly Shia area of north Baghdad.
The city neighbourhoods affected also included New Baghdad, Habibiya, Sabaa al-Bour, Kazimiya, Shaab and Ur, as well as the Sunni districts of Jamiaa and Ghazaliya, the Associated Press news agency reports.
'War with terrorism'
No-one has claimed responsibility for Monday's attacks, but Sunni Muslim insurgents have been blamed for much of the most recent violence.
The interior ministry accused rebels linked to al-Qaeda of exploiting political divisions and regional conflicts to sow violence.
"Our war with terrorism goes on," interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan told AP.
The recent upsurge in violence was triggered in April by an army raid on a Sunni Muslim anti-government protest camp near Hawija, north of Baghdad.
Many in the country's Sunni Muslim minority complain of being excluded from decision-making and of abuses by the security forces. Recent raids in Baghdad on suspected al-Qaeda hideouts in mainly Sunni districts are thought to have worsened grievances.
One of the bloodiest attacks over the past few weeks was a double bombing in a funeral marquee in Sadr City on 21 September, which left more than 60 people dead.
Several dozen people died in a wave of attacks on Sunday, including another explosion at a funeral.
A suicide bomber attacked a Shia Muslim mosque south of the city, causing the roof to collapse. More than 40 people are now known to have been killed in that incident.
Irbil, the normally stable capital of Iraq's autonomous province of Kurdistan, was hit by a series of bombings on the same day, killing six members of the security services. Officials said that violence could be linked to fighting between jihadists and Kurds in Syria.
Analysis
The upsurge of violence is taking place against the backdrop of a stumbling political process.
Two weeks ago leaders of a group of main political parties signed an agreement aiming to stop the bloodshed. They dubbed it a Code of Honour. But violence continued and dozens of people have been killed since.
There have been widespread protests in Sunni areas of Iraq against the Shia-led government. Sunnis accuse the government of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki of discriminating against them, something the government vehemently denies.
After Monday's bombings, the ministry of interior's spokesman told me that violence in Syria is spilling over to Iraq. The challenge was huge, he said, and an unstable political process in Iraq only makes it worse.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq, a Sunni extremist organisation, claims responsibility for most of the attacks that target Shia areas. But no mainstream Sunni political party approves violence against Shia.
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24328932]
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24328932]
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On the trail of al-Shabab’s Kenyan recruitment 'pipeline'
The armed siege at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi has focused attention on the al-Qaeda affiliate, al-Shabab. When the attack happened, the BBC's Panorama programme had been investigating the recruitment pipeline of young Muslims through Kenya to join the Islamist group in Somalia.
I meet Makaburi in a fly-infested room not much bigger than a cupboard, in Mombasa, eastern Kenya.
It is not a place you would expect to meet a radical cleric who describes himself as Kenya's number one target in the country's fight to disrupt al-Shabab's recruitment network.
Makaburi, whose real name is Abubaker Shariff Ahmed, was placed on a UN Security Council list which banned him from travel outside Kenya and froze his assets in 2012.
The indictment describes him as "a leading facilitator and recruiter of young Kenyan Muslims for violent militant activity in Somalia," who has preached that "young men should travel to Somalia, commit extremist acts, fight for Al-Qaeda, and kill US citizens."
Makaburi makes no apology for his activities and believes they are justified according to his own controversial interpretation of verses in the Koran.
Makaburi is on a UN Security Council list banning him from travel outside Kenya
"There's no such thing as a moderate Muslim. The prophets did not teach us moderation in Islam - Islam is Islam," he said.
"Being a moderate Muslim is accepting what your enemies want you to be."
Although Makaburi is guarded in his movements - as he fears assassination - he is not in hiding.
I met him quite openly at his home and travelled with him to a village where he prayed publicly in a mosque.
Makaburi said accusations that he directly funds al-Shabab are false - but defended its right to use violence.
"Al-Shabab are using violence to stop their country from being invaded by people from outside," he said.
"It's not the right of America or any other country to interfere in what they believe in or how they want to run the country."
He took me to an Islamic boarding school just outside Mombasa where young Muslims, roughly between the ages of six and 10, some of whom are orphans, learn to memorise the Koran by heart, and are fed a particular interpretation of it by teachers who share the same views as Makaburi.
He proudly pointed out that his young son is one of its students.
The school is named after Sheikh Aboud Rogo Mohammed, who was described by the UN as a "close associate" of Makaburi. Sheikh Rogo was assassinated in Mombasa in August 2012. His supporters have no doubt that he was targeted by a police hit squad but there has never been any evidence to prove it.
Sheikh Rogo was shot in front of his family, reports said
I have spent two weeks in Kenya investigating al-Shabab's recruitment network.
It is a pipeline which begins with Makaburi and other radical clerics who deliver sermons to young Muslims, often converts who are keen to prove themselves.
I followed the trail from Mombasa via Lamu in the north and on to the remote islands off its shores from which the Somali border is only a couple of hours away by boat.
I discovered that would-be jihadis, whatever their national origin, do not chance upon the route for themselves, but are actively guided along it by radical preachers such as Makaburi.
They are told which islands they should head for, where they should stay, and who they should contact to transport them on boats from isolated outposts like Pate island to their ultimate destination, Somalia.
I interviewed two young Kenyan al-Shabab recruits who had travelled through a network such as this one to join al-Shabab in Somalia. They did not wish to be called by their real names.
They had been promised money for their families back home and a place in paradise as a reward for their commitment.
When they arrived in Somalia, their dreams of jihad and glory were shattered.
Ali said he was 13 or 14 when he travelled to Somalia. He described being forced to watch the beheading of a recruit who had tried to escape from the al-Shabab camp in Kismayo.
"His hands and legs were tied behind his back. They made him kneel down and then they took a very sharp knife, right in front of me, and slaughtered him.
"He was screaming, like an animal, the way a goat can be slaughtered."
It was a shocking warning to others who might contemplate running away.
Ali was traumatised by what he saw and still has nightmares about the horror he witnessed.
Despite all the risks involved, he managed to escape and make it back to Nairobi. He now lives away from his family because he fears he would be killed if he were identified as an al-Shabab deserter.
Khalid said it was Sheikh Rogo who encouraged him to travel to Somalia and become a jihadi.
"He used to tell us: 'Instead of sitting in the slum doing nothing, it's better to go to Somalia and fight for your religion, you'll go straight to heaven.'"
Khalid was also shocked by what he experienced in Somalia. He said he knew of children as young as six and seven having been used as suicide bombers by al-Shabab.
Both men had travelled to Somalia in the expectation of fighting jihad but found themselves being ordered to act as cooks and babysitters for even younger jihadis.
Many of the young Kenyan Muslims who travel to Somalia are still at school. Often, the authorities only learn about their decision to join al-Shabab when mothers report them as missing.
Makaburi was charged with several counts of incitement for his part in the riots following Sheikh Rogo's death
The Kenyan navy and other agencies - with support from their UK, US and European partners - have had some success in disrupting the pipeline of recruits.
In September 2012, Kenyan armed forces successfully attacked Kismayo, al-Shabab's main port and logistical base in south Somalia, and an important source of income for the group.
As a result, the notorious activities of Somali pirates have also been curtailed. The commander of the Kenyan raid on Kismayo told me that the pirates use ransom money to pay al-Shabab for a license to operate. He also suggested that some of the personnel may be interchangeable.
The key question is how these radical clerics are able to operate openly without being prosecuted.
In September 2012, Makaburi was charged with several counts of incitement for his part in the riots following Sheikh Rogo's assassination. He is currently on bail pending a trial.
The Kenyan authorities I spoke to said Makaburi and other radical clerics operate to the very limit of what the law allows and gathering the evidence to convict them is extremely difficult. The United Kingdom faces the same problem.
Their fear is that failure to stop radical clerics such as Makaburi will preserve the pipeline of young Muslims being recruited to al-Shabab.
Al-Shabab At A Glance
- "The Youth" in Arabic
- Formed as a radical offshoot of the Union of Islamic Courts, which controlled Mogadishu, in 2006
- Previously ran much of southern Somalia
- Lost some popular support by banning Western aid agencies during 2011 famine
- Estimated to have 7,000 to 9,000 fighters
- Announced merger with al-Qaeda in 2012
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-24263357]
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Pakistan explosion: Dozens killed in Peshawar market
The attack came just one week after a deadly blast at a church in the city, as Rajesh Mirchandani reports
An explosion has ripped through a market in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, leaving at least 33 dead and dozens wounded, officials say.
Police said a bomb had exploded in the Kissa Khwani market, with shops and vehicles set alight.
The blast comes a week after a double suicide bombing that killed at least 80 people at a church in the city.
On Friday, at least 17 people were killed in the bombing of a bus carrying government employees near Peshawar.
Peshawar, the main city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has been hit by numerous bomb and gun attacks blamed on Taliban insurgents in recent years.
Hospital emergency
Police said they suspected the explosion was caused by a car bomb.
Pakistan's Dawn newspaper quoted the health minister as saying that the main Peshawar police station may have been the main target.
However, bomb disposal chief Shafqat Malik said it appeared the blast had taken place some way from the station.
He told Agence France-Presse that a parked car had been "converted into a remote controlled bomb".
One shop owner, Nazar Ali, told Associated Press: "It was a huge blast that was followed by fire in vehicles. Thick black smoke covered the air and splinters spread all over. I saw people lying dead and bleeding."
An emergency situation was declared at the Lady Reading Hospital as it received the injured, many of them badly burned. Officials said 76 people had been hurt.
Anxious relatives gathered outside the hospital for news.
Rising violence has hindered new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's overtures to end the insurgency through peace talks with the Taliban.
On 21 September, Pakistan released from the jail the co-founder of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
But the Pakistan Taliban have consistently rejected the country's constitution and demand the imposition of Sharia law.
Scores were hurt in addition to those killed in the blast
A remote-controlled car bomb was used, officials said
This was the third deadly attack in Peshawar in a week
PM Nawaz Sharif said the bombing was an attack on humanity
Mr Sharif is in New York at the UN and is to meet Indian PM Manmohan Singh later on Sunday.
Mr Sharif strongly condemned the Peshawar bombing in a message from New York, saying: "Those involved in the killing of innocent people are devoid of humanity and all religions."
Ahead of the talks, Mr Singh said Pakistan must stop being "the epicentre of terrorism".
Last Sunday's attack on the historic All Saints church - thought to be the deadliest attack against Christians in Pakistan - sparked angry protests nationwide.
Two Islamist militant groups with Taliban links said they had ordered the attack to hit back at US drone strikes.
More than 120 people were wounded.
Friday's bus bomb targeted government employees returning home in the Gulbela area, some 15km (9 miles) north-east of the city.
In addition to those killed, at least 34 people were injured.
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24321647]
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Nigeria attack: Students shot dead as they slept
Militants regularly target schools in Yobe, such as this one in Mamudo
Suspected Islamist gunmen have attacked a college in north-eastern Nigeria, killing up to 50 students.
The students were shot dead as they slept in their dormitory at the College of Agriculture in Yobe state.
North-eastern Nigeria is under a state of emergency amid an Islamist insurgency by the Boko Haram group.
Boko Haram is fighting to overthrow Nigeria's government to create an Islamic state, and has launched a number of attacks on schools.
Classrooms burned
Casualty figures from the latest attack vary, but a local politician told the BBC that around 50 students had been killed.
The politician said two vanloads of bodies had been taken to a hospital in Yobe's state capital, Damaturu.
A witness quoted by Reuters news agency counted 40 bodies at the hospital, mostly those of young men believed to be students.
College provost Molima Idi Mato, speaking to Associated Press, also said the number of dead could be as high as 50, adding that security forces were still recovering the bodies and that about 1,000 students had fled the campus.
A Nigerian military source told AP that soldiers had collected 42 bodies.
The gunmen also set fire to classrooms, a military spokesman in Yobe state, Lazarus Eli, told Agence France-Presse.
The college is in the rural Gujba district.
In May, President Goodluck Jonathan ordered an operation against Boko Haram, and a state of emergency was declared for the north-east on 14 May.
Many of the Islamist militants left their bases in the north-east and violence initially fell, but revenge attacks quickly followed.
In June, Boko Haram carried out two attacks on schools in the region.
At least nine children were killed in a school on the outskirts of Maiduguri, while 13 students and teachers were killed in a school in Damaturu.
In July in the village of Mamudo in Yobe state, Islamist militants attacked a school's dormitories with guns and explosives, killing at least 42 people, mostly students.
Boko Haram regards schools as a symbol of Western culture. The group's name translates as "Western education is forbidden".
Boko Haram is led by Abubakar Shekau. The Nigerian military said in August that it might have killed him in a shoot-out.
However, a video released last week purportedly showed him alive.
Other previous reports of his death later proved to be unfounded.
Boko Haram at-a-glance
- Founded in 2002
- Official Arabic name, Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad, means "People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad"
- Initially focused on opposing Western education
- Nicknamed Boko Haram, a phrase in the local Hausa language meaning, "Western education is forbidden"
- Launches military operations in 2009 to create an Islamic state across Nigeria
- Founding leader Mohammed Yusuf killed in same year in police custody
- Succeeded by Abubakar Shekau, who the military wrongly claimed in 2009 had been killed
- Suspected to have split into rival factions in 2012
- Military claims in August 2013 that Mr Shekau and his second-in-command Momodu Bama have been killed in separate attacks; no independent confirmation
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Kenyan minister evades questions on Westgate warnings
Kenya's interior minister has refused to answer questions about possible intelligence failings in the wake of the Westgate shopping centre attack.
Joseph Ole Lenku said intelligence issues were confidential and would not be discussed in public.
The questions arose after Kenyan papers reported that the intelligence agency had issued warnings a year ago.
Some 67 people were killed after al-Shabab militants stormed the Westgate centre on 21 September.
In a news conference on Sunday, Mr Lenku confirmed the death toll but refused to give the nationalities or identities of the suspects being held.
But he said there had been one more arrest on Sunday, bringing the total now held to 10, with five militants killed in the operation.
He said three people suspected of looting from the shopping centre had also been arrested.
Mr Lenku said the government believed there were no hostages left to be found in the centre "unless forensic evidence shows otherwise".
He also denied any of the militants could have escaped through a tunnel at the centre.
The minister also repeated Kenya's anger at a US decision to reissue a travel advisory that urges Americans to take precautions following the attack.
Mr Lenku said it was "unfriendly" and "counter-productive in the fight against global terrorism".
Parliamentary questions
Kenyan newspapers have reported that the country's National Intelligence Service warned a year ago of the presence of suspected al-Shabab militants in Nairobi and that they were planning suicide attacks, including on the Westgate shopping centre.
However, while Mr Lenku dismissed questions about the government failing to act on intelligence linked to the Westgate attack, a senior interior ministry official earlier denied that ministers had ignored intelligence reports on possible militant attacks.
The official told the BBC the government received intelligence daily, that action was taken and that many attacks had been averted.
A special prayer service was held on Sunday in Kibera, Kenya, for the Westgate victims
A parliamentary committee which is meeting on Monday has signalled it intends to explore the issue of such warnings.
Briefings were given to the ministers "informing them of increasing threat of terrorism and of plans to launch simultaneous attacks in Nairobi and Mombasa around September 13 and 20, 2013", Kenya's Daily Nationhad quoted counter-terrorism reports as saying.
The warnings were first made in January, according to the newspaper, and again from the beginning of September.
A dossier from the National Intelligence Service - amounting to more than 8,000 pages according to Kenya's Standard newspaper - also suggests the Israelis issued warnings that buildings owned by its citizens could be attacked between 4 and 28 September.
Westgate is partly Israeli-owned.
The Daily Nation reports that Kenyan intelligence had established that al-Shabab leaders had begun singling out Westgate and the Holy Family Basilica for attack early this year.
Government figures said to have received the intelligence briefings include Mr Lenku, Treasury Minister Julius Rotich, Foreign Affairs Minister Amina Mohammed, Defence Minister Raychelle Omamo and Kenya Defence Forces chief Julius Karangi.
The head of the National Intelligence Service, Michael Gichangi, is due to be questioned by Kenyan MPs on Monday.
The head of the parliamentary defence committee, Ndung'u Gethenji, told the BBC on Friday that "people need to know the exact lapses in the security system that possibly allowed this event to take place".
He also said they needed to understand "the anatomy of the entire rescue operation" amid allegations of confusion over who was in charge.
Al-Shabab, a Somali Islamist group, said it carried out the attack on the upmarket mall in retaliation for Kenya's military involvement in Somalia.
Security sources have told the BBC that the militants hired a shop there in the weeks leading up to the siege.
This gave them access to service lifts at Westgate enabling them to stockpile weapons and ammunition. Having pre-positioned weapons they were able to re-arm quickly and repel the security forces.
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-24324359]
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Iraq: Rare violence targets Kurdish city of Irbil
A series of bombings has rocked Irbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous province of Kurdistan, killing six members of the security services.
Irbil is in a stable part of Iraq and the region has not witnessed such attacks in the past six years.
A central government spokesman said the violence could be linked to fighting between jihadists and Kurd in Syria.
Meanwhile, at least 25 people were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a Shia Muslim mosque south of Baghdad.
The blast is reported to have brought down the roof of the mosque in Mussayab, and bodies are feared to be trapped in the debris.
The attack took place as a funeral was under way for a man killed by militants a day earlier, said Reuters news agency.
Sectarian violence has surged across Iraq in recent months, reaching its highest level since 2008.
Both Sunni and Shia places of worship have been targeted in recent months.
At least 36 people were reported wounded in Sunday's bombings in Irbil, which targeted the security forces HQ and the interior ministry.
Reports described a car bomber who rammed a checkpoint leading to a complex housing the interior ministry and a number of security agencies.
A short while later - as emergency services arrived - another bomber struck driving an explosive-rigged ambulance, and gunmen on foot also attacked.
TV images showed black smoke rising high above the city and emergency vehicles racing to the scene, which was sealed off by security services.
"We were inside the building when there was a huge explosion outside, and when we tried to go out to see what happened it was crowded, and there was shouting everywhere," said Farhan Samed Kamil, an asayesh member who lost two fingers in the attack.
"After a while there was a second explosion. That's all I remember," he told AFP news agency from hospital.
A statement reportedly published on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) website cited witnesses as saying five would-be suicide bombers had been killed before they were able to blow themselves up. Other official reports suggested four militants had been killed.
Nozad Hadi, the governor of Irbil province, told AFP news agency that the victims were members of the Kurdish "asayesh" security services.
'Revenge'
TV images showed smoke rising high above the city
The region does not usually experience the violence common elsewhere in the country.
A spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki was quoted as saying the attacks could be linked to fighting between jihadists and Kurds across the border in Syria.
That view was echoed by Iraqi security analyst Ali al-Haidari who told AFP news agency the attack was "al-Nusra Front's revenge against the Kurds inside Kurdistan".
The conflict in neighbouring Syria has caused thousands of Syrian Kurdish refugees to flee across the border into northern Iraq.
The blasts come a day after results were announced in the region's parliamentary elections.
The main opposition Gorran (Change) party moved into second place, ahead of President Jalal Talabani's party.
His Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) had shared power in the previous government with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which won most votes in the latest election.
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/24323463]
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