Photo taken on Nov. 30, 2021 shows the site of a blast in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan. (Photo by Aria/Xinhua/IANS)
Security forces have reached the site of the blast and initiated an investigation, the official added as quoted by Xinhua news agency report…reports Asian Lite News
Seven people were killed and 20 others injured as a blast rocked the Dasht-e-Barchi area of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, Kabul’s police spokesman Khalid Zadran said.
The blast ripped through a mini-bus on Tuesday evening, claiming the lives of seven civilians and injuring 20 others, Zadran said, adding that all the victims were civilians.
Security forces have reached the site of the blast and initiated an investigation, the official added as quoted by Xinhua news agency report.
On October 26, a blast in the area destroyed a sports club and killed four people, for which the terror group Islamic State later claimed responsibility.
In a video interview published by the FSB, the man claims that he was blackmailed into cooperating with the SBU after Ukrainian authorities discovered that he had Russian citizenship…reports Asian Lite News
A man suspected of blowing up a gas pipeline in the Crimean village of Koreiz in June has been apprehended, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Wednesday. Authorities say the 43-year-old Russian citizen was working for Kiev.
The FSB said in a statement that the suspect was recruited by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in June 2022 in Dnepropetrovsk Region. While there, he allegedly underwent reconnaissance training and was then sent on a sabotage mission to Crimea.
On June 23 of this year, the unnamed suspect proceeded to blow up a gas pipeline using an improvised explosive device provided by his Ukrainian handlers through a hidden cache, the FSB claimed.
It was stated that during a search of the suspect’s garage, authorities seized a foreign-made C-4 plastic explosive charge weighing 2kg, two military-grade electric detonators, two electric igniters, and a home-made charger.
The FSB reported that a criminal case has been launched on counts of terrorism and the illegal possession of explosive devices. According to the authorities, the Russian citizen has already confessed to cooperating with the Ukrainian special services to prepare and commit acts of sabotage and terrorism.
In a video interview published by the FSB, the man claims that he was blackmailed into cooperating with the SBU after Ukrainian authorities discovered that he had Russian citizenship.
“They told me they wouldn’t leave me alone and would put me in prison for having dual citizenship and proposed that I cooperate. They told me I wouldn’t have any problems and would in the long term be able to move to live in Crimea along with my family, and that they would help with everything,” the man said.
He claims that after he agreed, he was given a basic course on how to work with explosives and was sent to Crimea, via a third country, to await further instructions. Several months later, the man says he was ordered to collect a package that contained several detonators and explosives, and was instructed to blow up any gas transportation pipeline he could find. His family, the SBU allegedly told him, would only be allowed to join him after he had carried out his mission.
On June 23, Crimean authorities reported that a pipeline in the settlement of Koreiz had been damaged, leaving around 500 people without gas. However, the pipeline had already been repaired by the end of the same day.
Explosion hits bridge connecting russia and crimea.(photo:@Podolyak_M)
While Ukrainian officials did not explicitly take responsibility for the attack, they cheered it…reports Asian Lite News
The blast that damaged Russia’s strategic Crimean Bridge and killed at least three people was orchestrated by Ukraine, the New York Times and Washington Post both reported.
A senior Ukrainian official interviewed by the New York Times claimed that Kiev was behind the explosion, adding that the attack was masterminded by Ukraine’s intelligence services, which had arranged a bomb to be planted on a truck that was driving across the bridge, RT said in a report.
This claim was echoed by the Washington Post, which, citing a Ukrainian government official, also attributed the explosion to the country’s special services.
This version was backed by the news site Ukrainska Pravda, which, quoting a source in the country’s security services, said that the intelligence agency, called the SBU, was behind the attack, RT reported.
While Ukrainian officials did not explicitly take responsibility for the attack, they cheered it.
An aide to President Vladimir Zelensky, Mikhail Podoliak, said that the explosion was “just the beginning”, adding that “everything illegal must be destroyed”.
Since Russia launched its military campaign in late February, Ukrainian officials have repeatedly promised to attack the bridge, which serves as a strategic link between Russia’s Crimean peninsula and its Krasnodar Region.
While the Kremlin did not directly accuse Kiev of staging the explosion, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that Ukraine’s reaction to the incident is a testament to the “terrorist nature” of its leadership.
Meanwhile, Crimean officials directly pointed the finger at Kiev. Vladimir Konstantinov, the head of the republic’s State Council, claimed that “Ukrainian vandals have finally managed to get their bloodstained hands on the Crimean Bridge”.
The powerful blast rocked the bridge early Saturday morning, causing a partial collapse of the road on the vehicle section, as well as a blaze on a parallel railway span where seven fuel tanks caught fire.
According to Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee, the bridge was damaged by a truck that exploded while making its way across the bridge. The blast caused at least three deaths, RT reported.
Earlier on Thursday, a roadside blast in Kabul injured at least two children, the fifth explosion this week in the Afghan capital…reports Asian Lite News
An explosion at a Shi’ite mosque in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif has killed at least 11 people on Thursday, police and hospital officials said, RFE/RL reported.
Zia Zendani, spokesman for the provincial health authority in the city, said that 11 people have been killed and 32 wounded in the blast.
A separate attack caused at least 11 more casualties in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, according to a provincial health official.
Earlier on Thursday, a roadside blast in Kabul injured at least two children, the fifth explosion this week in the Afghan capital.
No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, which came during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and two days after explosions tore through a high school in a predominantly Shi’ite Hazara area in western Kabul, killing at least six.
The Shi’ite religious minority is frequently targeted by Sunni militant groups, including the Islamic State.
In May 2021, bombings near a school in the same area of the Afghan capital had killed at least 85 civilians, mainly schoolgirls, and injured dozens of others.
Hazaras, an ethnic minority that widely feels under siege around the country, comprise about 9 per cent of the 36 million people currently living in Afghanistan, RFE/RL reported.
Security forces said an investigation into the blast in Mazar-e-Sharif is underway.
The term ERW refers to unexploded ordnance (UXO) and abandoned explosive ordnance (AXO) by Afghan officials…reports Asian Lite News
Four children have been killed by an unexploded ordnance blast in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, the country’s Ministry of Interior said on Saturday.
The incident occurred in Shah Wali Kot district when an Explosive Remnant of War (ERW) was detonated when the children were playing in a village, Xinhua news agency quoted the Ministry as saying.
The term ERW refers to unexploded ordnance (UXO) and abandoned explosive ordnance (AXO) by Afghan officials.
Landmines, anti-personnel mines as well as ERWs left behind from wars kill or maim about 120 people every month in the post-conflict country, according to official sources.
On Friday, two civilians were killed and three others wounded when an ERW exploded in eastern Paktia province.
According to the bomb disposal squad, the device was planted on the roadside near a bridge, which exploded when a police mobile was passing by. …reports Asian Lite News
Five policemen were injured when an improvised explosive device went off along a road in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan city on Tuesday.
An official said a police mobile was targeted with an IED in Kulachi tehsil. He said the blast occurred when the mobile of Kulachi police was on its way to a basic health unit in Maddi area for polio security duty on the second day of the anti-polio campaign, Dawn newspaper reported.
As a result, five policemen were injured and the van was badly damaged. Soon after the incident and shifted the injured to a hospital, the Pakistani newspaper reported.
According to the bomb disposal squad, the device was planted on the roadside near a bridge, which exploded when a police mobile was passing by. The police cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to track down the culprits, Dawn newspaper reported.
The Pakistani newspaper further reported that the Counter-Terrorism Department registered a case against the unidentified suspects. (ANI)
The identities of the deceased are yet to be disclosed. Source said several onboard were injured in the tragic incident….reports Asian Lite News
Three sailors were killed in a blast onboard the Indian Navy destroyer Ranvir on Tuesday when the warship was at the Mumbai Harbour.
The identities of the deceased are yet to be disclosed. Source said several onboard were injured in the tragic incident.
In a statement, the Indian Navy said, “In an unfortunate incident today at Naval Dockyard Mumbai, three naval personnel succumbed to injuries caused by an explosion in an internal compartment onboard INS Ranvir.”
The force said the ship’s crew responded immediately and brought the situation under control.
“No major material damage has been reported,” the Indian Navy said.
The INS Ranvir has been on cross-coast operational deployment from the Eastern Naval Command since November 2021 and was due to return to its base port shortly.
“A board of inquiry has been ordered to investigate the cause of the explosion,” the force said.
The fourth of the five Rajput-class destroyers, INS Ranvir was commissioned into the Indian Navy on October 28, 1986.
Admiral R. Hari Kumar mourns INS Ranvir victims
The Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral R. Hari Kumar on Wednesday termed Tuesday evening’s accident aboard warship INS Ranvir as “unfortunate”.
“The Indian Navy and all personnel extend heartfelt condolences to the families of those who succumbed to injuries caused by the unfortunate incident. We fully stand by them in this difficult time,” said Admiral Kumar.
Two Yemeni deminers were killed after an anti-tank mine exploded during a disposal operation in the country’s Red Sea port city of Hodeidah…reports Asian Lite News
“An explosion occurred while a team of pro-government deminers were clearing a field of landmines laid previously by the Houthi rebel militia in the southern parts of Hodeidah,” the official told Xinhua news agency.
He confirmed that the explosion also critically injured at least three others.
All the injured deminers were transferred by an ambulance to receive treatment at a nearby field hospital manned by the pro-government Yemeni forces in Hodeidah, according to the official.
Previous reports by humanitarian organisations said that Yemen has become one of the largest landmine battlefields in the world since World War II.
Yemen has been mired in a civil war since late 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthi militia seized control of several northern provinces and forced the internationally-recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the capital Sanaa.
The Saudi-led Arab coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in March 2015 to support Hadi’s government.
“The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre are now increasing the UK’s threat level from substantial to severe,” Patel told local media…reports Asian Lite News.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that the UK will never give in to those who seek to divide the country as on Sunday the deadly blast took place in a taxi outside a hospital in Liverpool. The British officials are treating the blast as a terror incident. The incident is a stark reminder of the need for all of us to remain utterly vigilant, Johnson said during a press conference here on Monday.
The Prime Minister also said that the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre has raised UK’s threat level from substantial to severe, meaning an attack is highly likely. Expressing his gratitude to the emergency services for reacting to the Liverpool incident, Johnson said: “On behalf of the whole country, I want to pay tribute to the emergency services, who responded as always with such speed and professionalism.”
Earlier on Sunday, authorities arrested three people in connection with the car explosion in Liverpool. A car had exploded near the Women’s Hospital in Liverpool, leaving one man dead and another one injured on Sunday.
Terror threat level raised to ‘severe’
The UK’s terror threat level has been upgraded from “substantial” to “severe” following an explosion outside a Liverpool hospital that had been declared a terrorist incident.
Monday’s upgrade, confirmed by Home Secretary Priti Patel, means further attacks are judged to be “highly likely”.
“The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre are now increasing the UK’s threat level from substantial to severe,” Patel told local media.
“And there’s a reason for that, and that reason is because what we saw yesterday is the second incident in a month.”
The “severe” level is the second highest alert in the UK, whose five-level terrorism threat alert system consists of “low, moderate, substantial, severe and critical”.
Sunday’s explosion outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital was caused by “the ignition of an explosive device” that was brought into the vehicle by a male passenger, said Russ Jackson, chief of counter-terrorism unit in northwest England.
The male passenger died in the explosion and the taxi driver managed to escape.
Home Secretary Priti Patel says the UK's terror threat level has been raised from "substantial" to "severe".
The move follows an explosion outside a hospital in Liverpool on Sunday, which police have declared a terrorist incident.
The police believe they know the identity of the passenger, but were yet to confirm.
The motivation for the incident remains unclear.
Four men in their 20s have been arrested under the Terrorism Act.
The injured cab driver, who locked the passenger in the car during the incident, has been hailed a hero.
“The taxi driver, in his heroic efforts, has managed to divert what could have been an absolutely awful disaster at the hospital,” said Liverpool Mayor Joanne Anderson.
