Wanted Hamas member killed

Jerusalem (CNN) -- A wanted Hamas operative was killed overnight in an Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank, the military said Friday.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli military told CNN that Israeli soldiers were on a mission to apprehend Palestinian Iyad Shilbayeh for suspicions of involvement in recent "terror activity" in a town near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem.
Shilbayeh ran toward the Israeli soldiers with his hands behind his back in a suspicious manner and continued to advance despite calls for him to stop, according to the spokeswoman. It was at this point that Israeli soldiers opened fired the spokeswoman told CNN.

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Car bomb, gunmen attack Mogadishu airport: 7 dead

By Mohamed Olad Hassan, The Associated Press

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A suicide car bomber and gunmen attacked the front gate to Mogadishu's seaside airport on Thursday, triggering an explosion and gunbattle, officials said. At least seven people were killed, including six security forces.
The co-ordinated attack was the latest in a surge of assaults by Islamist insurgents, who last month declared a new, stepped-up effort to oust the country's weak government. The barrage took place about 40 minutes after Somalia's president flew out of the country.

After the car bomb exploded, a second vehicle full of militants opened fire at African Union and Somali security forces, said Osman Dahir, a police officer at the airport. He said there were several dead bodies of insurgents lying in front of the airport, but he didn't know how many.
Two soldiers with the African Union force and four Somali police officers were killed, said Maj. Barigye Bahoku, the spokesman for the AU force. One Somali civilian was also killed, he said.
Vehicles from the African Union blocked the car bomb attacker from gaining entry into the airport, said Abdul Rahman Yussef, an official with Somalia's army. The 7,000-man AU force guards the airport and presidential palace and prevents the al-Qaida-linked militant group al-Shabab from overthrowing Somalia's weak government.

Yussef said he believes two women who were begging near the gate also were killed. Bahoku could not confirm the deaths.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but the attack was likely carried out by al-Shabab, Somalia's most dangerous militant group.
Late last month al-Shabab militants stormed a Mogadishu hotel favoured by lawmakers and killed 32 people, including four parliamentarians. In July, al-Shabab masterminded twin bombings in Uganda's capital during the World Cup final, attacks that killed 76 people.

Al-Shabab recently declared a new, stepped-up campaign to overthrow Somalia's government and install the harsh, ultraconservative form of Sharia law that it practices across Somalia. Militant veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts help train al-Shabab fighters, one of the reasons the sophistication of its attacks has risen in recent months.

15 killed in car bomb attack in Russia 

A suicide car bomb attack in a busy marketplace in Russia's Vladikavkaz city, capital of North Ossetia, left at least 15 people dead Thursday, according to the Itar-Tass news agency.

Around 80 people were injured when the car packed with 40 kg of TNT exploded, according to the interior ministry of the Republic of North Ossetia.

Two people were in the car, which bore the licence plates of the neighbouring predominantly Muslim republic of Ingushetia.

The attack, which occurred on the final day of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, damaged numerous buildings in the city and set dozens of cars on fire.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin condemned the attack and called on the region's Muslim population to help prevent similar incidents in the future.

Security precautions were increased after the blast, with authorities evacuating all schools and kindergartens in North Ossetia.  

Six years ago, Islamist separatists carried out one of the worst attacks in Beslan, North Ossetia, in which more than 330 people were killed - including 168 children.

The neighbouring republics of Dagestan and Chechnya have seen repeated attacks by the separatists.

Medvedev ordered his special envoy for the northern Caucasus, Alexander Kloponin, to travel to Vladikavkaz. Police in the city defused a second bomb at the entrance to the marketplace, after the first one went off.

Putin accused the terrorists behind the car bombing of seeking to sow discord.

'We are counting on the Muslim population to make a decisive contribution towards the fight( against terrorism), Putin said.

Islamic separatists in the Muslim north Caucasus are fighting elements loyal to the Kremlin with the goal of setting up an independent 'Caucasus Emirate' in the region.  

Red Terror File: GRU dep. head dies mysteriously in Syria, Turkish fishermen find body; UK espionage expert: Spy's death "wet job" by Russian SVR

Major General Yuri Ivanov

Some time last month, reports the British media, the “badly decomposed” body of the deputy head of Russian military intelligence (GRU), Major-General Yuri Ivanov (aged 52), washed up on the Turkish coast after he disappeared in the Syrian coastal resort of Latakia. The Russian Armed Forces in-house newspaper, Red Star, did not report Ivanov’s death until August 28, when he was “quietly” buried in Moscow. According to the Kremlin, the GRU’s second-in-command was on holiday in Latakia at the time and perished in a “tragic swimming accident.”

Latakia, as it turns out, is only 50 miles from Tartus, the site of a Soviet/Russian naval facility, and relatively near the Turkish port of Ceyhan, which is the terminus for the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline. In South Ossetia, one of Georgia’s breakaway regions, Russian occupation troops are only a short distance from this pipeline. During Russia’s 2008 re-invasion of Georgia, the Russian Air Force tried to bomb the BTC pipeline. According to The Guardian, General Ivanov inspected the naval base at Tartus, before heading off for a visit with Syrian intelligence agents.

“Other reports,” state The Telegraph, suggest that Ivanov was on “official business” when he died. The British newspaper intimates that the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, may know something about Ivanov’s death: “The facility is Russia’s only foothold in the Mediterranean Sea, and Mossad . . . is known to be concerned that Moscow will use the upgraded facility as a base for spy ships and electronic espionage directed at the Middle East.” The Russian Defense Ministry, like its Soviet predecessor, is “overwhelmingly” pro-Arab.

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Mexican army kills dozens of drug suspects
guardian.co.uk

Soldiers killed 25 suspected drug cartel members yesterday in a raid in a Mexican state near the US border that has seen a surge in gang violence, the military said.
Mexico's defense department said soldiers on a reconnaissance flight over Ciudad Mier in Tamaulipas state saw several gunmen in front of a property. When troops on the ground moved in, gunmen opened fire, starting a gun battle that killed 25 suspected cartel members, according to the military.
The statement said two soldiers were injured and authorities had rescued three people believed to be kidnap victims. Troops seized 25 rifles, four grenades, 4,200 rounds of ammunition and 23 vehicles.

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Police say attacks on Pakistani minorities kill 23
(AP)

QUETTA, Pakistan — Suicide bombings targeting religious minorities killed at least 23 people in Pakistan on Friday, driving up the toll of sectarian assaults in a country already battered by massive flooding.
A blast killed at least 22 people in the southwestern city of Quetta at a Shiite procession calling for solidarity with Palestinians, Police Chief Ghulam Shabir Sheikh said. Police said dozens were wounded and some were in critical condition.

Some Shiite youths fired in the air after the blast, and Qazi Abdul Wahid, a senior police official, said officers were trying to control the situation. Shiite leader Allama Abbas Kumaili appealed to participants to remain peaceful. "We understand these are attempts to bring Sunni and Shiite sects against each other," he said.

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Iran’s New Qiam Missile

Michael Elleman IISS Senior Fellow for Missile Defence

On 20 August, Iranian Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi announced that Iran had test-fired a new surface-to-surface missile, the Qiam (Rising). Vahidi did not say when and where the test-launch took place, though state-run television showed images and video of the new Iranian missile later that same day. Assuming the test was recent, it was in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1929, which was adopted on 9 June and explicitly states that: 'Iran shall not undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using ballistic missile technology.'
Despite the scarcity of detail about the Qiam, the launch reveals much about the status of Iran's missile development efforts and the direction they may take in the near future.

Vahidi made his announcement of the missile one day before Russia was scheduled to begin loading fuel into the Bushehr nuclear reactor, and two days before Iran unveiled its long-distance 'stealth' drone Karrar (Striker). The minister said the Qiam 1 was 'part of the new generation of the Islamic Republic's surface-to-surface missiles' and 'completely designed and built domestically'. He added that the new missile 'enjoys enhanced agility due to the scrapping of its fins' and was guided by a smart navigation system that enables the missile to hit targets 'with high precision'. 

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Moscow views embassy incident as attempt to mount tensions

MOSCOW, August 31 (Itar-Tass) - Moscow said on Tuesday it views the incident on premises of the Russian Embassy in Minsk as an attempt by certain forces to introduce "elements of mistrust and tensions in bilateral relations."
"In the evening of August 30, unidentified persons threw two petrol bombs onto the premises of the Russian Embassy in Belarus. Luckily, none of the Embassy personnel was hurt," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
"We regard this incident as an outrageous act, behind which we seen the wish of certain forces to try to interfere with the normal work of the Embassy and introduce elements of mistrust and tension in bilateral relations.

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