Suicide bomber kills at least 10 people in southwest Pakistan
Police officers guard a damaged vehicle at the site of a bomb blast in Quetta. © Reuters / Naseer Ahmed
An explosion has rocked a rally in Quetta, southwest of Pakistan, killing at least ten people and injuring many others.
The blast in the Balochistan province capital happened as demonstrators gathered outside the local Press Club on Monday. A suicide bomber set off a device near a police vehicle; two police officers are among the victims.
Medics told Reuters that they had “received ten bodies so far and 35 injured in Civil Hospital” after the incident.
Nobody has so far taken responsibility for the attack, but Islamic State, Pakistani Taliban and Baloch insurgent groups have been active in Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.
UAE Supreme Court upholds life sentences
for Hezbollah-linked terror cell
for Hezbollah-linked terror cell
Abu Dhabi: Five people had life sentences upheld by the UAE’s State Security Court on Monday.
The Federal Supreme Court found them guilty of establishing a cell linked to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
The court turned down an appeal filed by Ali N. D., Fadi A.S., and Abul Rahman T.S., all Lebanese, against their life imprisonment and upheld the lower court’s ruling.
The top court also upheld the 10 years’ jail sentence handed down to Hussain M.B. and Ahmad N. M., both Lebanese.
Ahmad N.M was also fined Dh3,000 for possessing a firearm without a licence.
The court cleared Moustafa H.K., Swedish, Hussain A. Z., Ali H.N., Mohsen Al Q, and Jihad M.A., all Lebanese, from all charges.
Last year, three men were sentenced to life in prison for setting up a terrorist cell with links to Hezbollah.
The Federal Court of Appeals sentenced another two men to 10 years each in jail and acquitted five others.
The men, described as Arab, were convicted on charges of planning to commit terrorist crimes and acts of vandalism against vital installations in the country.
The 11 defendants, all Lebanese except for a Swedish of Lebanese origin, all of whom have lived and worked in the UAE for more than 15 years, were arrested in late 2017 and early 2018.
They were charged with establishing a cell linked to the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
The court ordered them to be deported from the country after their sentences end, confiscated all their communications equipment, computers and mobile phones and charged them with all the judicial expenses.
The State Security Prosecution charged members of the Hezbollah cell with spying for the intelligence of foreign countries to carry out terrorist acts in the UAE. They communicated pictures and maps of vital facilities to agent of Hezbollah, who handed them over to intelligence of a number of foreign countries.
The UAE, along with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait, classified Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation in 2016 and warned its citizens and resident expatriates against any links to it.
Home-made bombs tested on PETS:
Columbine-style school massacre thwarted
in Crimea, 2 teen suspects arrested
Columbine-style school massacre thwarted
in Crimea, 2 teen suspects arrested
Operative shows home-made explosive devices, seized from the suspects in Kerch. © FSB
The suspects, who “were disciples of extremist ideology and followers of Vladislav Roslyakov” wanted to target two schools in Kerch, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement Tuesday.
Police discovered improvised explosive devices (IEDs) with striking elements at their homes as well as spare parts to make more IEDs, which the teens had purchased on the internet. Disturbingly, the two had already been testing their home-made bombs.
Pet animals were used to test the effectiveness of the trial versions of those explosive devices.
The teens thoroughly prepared for their attack, not only making bombs, but also obtaining the layouts of the schools they’d planned to target. They also used to be the admins of so-called online ‘Death Groups,’ in which they tried to persuade others to carry out school massacres, the FBS said.
A classmate of one of the suspects told RT that he'd openly talked about his plans to stage a massacre, saying that he just liked what Roslyakov had done.
"He hates people. He was a pariah at school, after all," another student said, explaining the possible motives of one of the arrested teens.
In October 2018, Russia was stunned by a brutal massacre at the Kerch Polytechnic College, in which Roslyakov killed 20 people, students and teachers alike, and injured dozens of others.
He first set up an explosive device and then fired indiscriminately with a pump-action shotgun, duplicating the tactics of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who attacked their classmates in Colorado in 1999. Roslyakov was also dressed in black and white like Harris; and, just like him, he committed suicide at the college’s library after the heinous act.
Chechen exile's Berlin park killer linked to Russia's FSB - Bellingcat, Der Spiegel, The Insider
A person walks past The entrance to the Russian Embassy on December 6, 2019 in Berlin, Germany.
© Getty Images / Carsten Koall
By Bryan MacDonald
When a Chechen exile was shot dead in a Berlin park last summer it strained relations between Germany and Russia. A new investigation suggests his alleged killer may have been trained by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).
A joint report from Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, the US-government funded Bellingcat website and Russian outlet The Insider claims to have obtained the phone records of "Vadim Krasikov," which they say is the real identity of Vadim Sokolov, the man German police accuse of carrying out the murder of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili.
Khangoshvili was regarded as a terrorist by Moscow for his role in conflicts in the Caucasus during the early 2000s. He moved to Germany after apparently surviving an assassination attempt in the Georgian capital Tbilisi in 2015. The deceased was born in Georgia and previously served in its military.
According to the probe, in 2019 Krasnikov/Sokolov visited training facilities belonging to the FSB Special Purpose Center at least eight times. The last trip supposedly took place just a few days before he traveled to the European Union. In April 2019, the investigators contend Krasikov spent four days at an FSB base near the village of Averkievo, which is used as a shooting range. Krasikov also supposedly twice visited Moscow building where the FSB's anti-terror center is located.
The team's research also asserts that Krasnikov/Sokolov traveled to Bryansk, near the Ukranian border, to pick up a passport before his departure. They say one of Krasikov/Sokolov's regular contacts was Eduard Bendersky, said to be "chairman of the Vympel Charitable Fund For Former FSB Spetsnaz (Special Forces) Officers."
From February to August 2019, the group alleges Krasikov/Sokolov and Bendersky spoke on the phone at least 20 times, with the frequency increasing as time passed. Bendersky told The Insider he didn't know Krasikov/Sokolov.
Khangoshvili was killed in the German capital's Kleiner Tiergarten Park last August, while traveling back from a mosque. Soon after, police detained Sokolov/Krasikov.
Der Spiegel is Germany's most famous news magazine, The Insider is edited by Roman Dobrokhotov, a Russian liberal opposition activist, and journalist who worked with numerous Moscow titles, and also contributed to US state broadcaster RFE/RL. Bellingcat's founder Eliot Higgins was previously a 'fellow' at pro-NATO pressure group Atlantic Council, which is funded by the British government, branches of the US military and various American defense contractors (IE, Deep State). Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has accused Bellingcat of being a front for Western intelligence services attempting to manipulate public opinion. (So have many other people, some of whom are not Russian).
Berlin's Foreign Ministry believes Russia hasn't fully cooperated with the investigation of Khangoshvili murder. It expelled two Russian diplomats in December. Moscow retaliated by kicking out a pair of German embassy staff. President Vladimir Putin denied the involvement of Russian special services in the murder, and claimed that Khangoshvili was involved in the fighting in the Caucasus on the side of terrorist forces. Putin called him a "cruel and bloodthirsty person."
"In just one of the attacks in which he took part, he killed 98 people. He was one of the organizers of explosions in the Moscow metro," said the President. Putin's first point referred to a June 2004 attack on Russian security forces in Ingushetia and Dagestan, in which 98 military personnel were killed. His second reference was likely to the 2010 Moscow metro bombings when 40 lives were lost, with over 100 people injured. No specific evidence was presented.
Interesting, Putin denies Russian involvement, and then justifies the murder.
Canada set to deport 96yo ex-SS death squad member as
Russia probes massacre of disabled kids in 1942
Russia probes massacre of disabled kids in 1942
Canada took 25 years to deport this guy, and he's not gone yet?
FILE PHOTO © Global Look Press / Scherl
"The deportation process has begun but it is far from over," Ron Poulton, a lawyer for Oberlander, told RIA Novosti, adding, "there is no extradition proceedings." The country's Supreme Court has previously upheld the decision to strip the man of Canadian citizenship over war crimes allegations.
It comes days after Russia's Investigative Committee requested Canadian criminal files related to the 96-year-old man who enlisted as an interpreter in the SS Sonderkommando 10A — part of the wider Einsatzgruppe D deployed to the south of the Nazi-occupied part of the Soviet Union.
The notorious death squad was basically tasked with elimination of Soviet commissars, partisans Jews, Roma and other "racially impure" people — in line with Hitler's sick vision of clearing out the conquered lands for German colonists.
Back in 1942, when Soviet forces were still on defensive, Sonderkommando 10A descended on an orphanage in the southern city of Yeysk, forcing 214 disabled children into sealed trucks. The helpless victims died from the exhaust gasses and were buried in a mass grave uncovered after the Red Army liberated the surrounding Krasnodar region.
Now, Russian authorities, which relaunched a criminal investigation into the despicable murder last October, insist that such crimes have no statute of limitations. They point out that several interpreters and members of the Sonderkommandos acting in the Krasnodar area were arrested and convicted in the 1940s and 1960s.
Oberlander, an ethnic German and a native of Ukraine — part of the USSR back in the day —remained in the Sonderkommando from September 1942 up until July 1943, when it was disbanded. He immigrated to Canada in the 1950s, concealing his SS membership during naturalization process.
When Ottawa's immigration service learned of the cover-up, the former SS-man claimed he was merely an auxiliary, tasked with doing translation, polishing boots and protecting German communications.
The explanation didn't sit well with Canadian authorities, who launched de-naturalization and deportation process back in 1995. The fugitive lost and regained his citizenship several times during the decades-old proceedings, until the final decision was made last year.
And he may be deported this year if he lives long enough. Where, in the 25 years it took to process this deportation, is there any justice?
Shooting spree at two bars in German city of Hanau
leaves ‘multiple dead’
Shootings at two hookah bars in the German city of Hanau and nearby Kesselstadt have resulted in multiple deaths, local media reported. Police suspect they are related, and that the perpetrator is still at large.
Video of the mass police response was posted to social media on Wednesday evening local time, along with speculation that up to eight people may have been killed at the two locations. Those reports are unconfirmed as of yet.
Citing law enforcement sources, the tabloid Bild said eight people have been killed and five more injured.
EHA News
@eha_news
#BREAKING
Dead and wounded after two shootings in #Germany's #Hanau city; large number of police forces at the scene
EmrePTV
@EmrePtv
Dude a guy in my little hometown Hanau Germany started shooting and already killed 7 people wtf is happening take care of each other guys!! #hanau #kesselstadt #amoklauf #mainkinzigkreis
A third shooting, in the Lamboy district, has been reported by the local TV Hessischer Rundfunk, but remains unconfirmed as of yet.
Hanau is a city of about 100,000 residents, located just east of Frankfurt on the Mein, in the German state of Hesse.
German shooting: Police ID suspected gunman;
cities hold vigils, protests
By Clyde Hughes & Danielle Haynes
People mourn as they gather at the Marktplatz in Hanau, Germany, on Thursday. Photo by Sascha Steinbach/EPA-EFE
Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Germany's federal prosecutor on Thursday identified the suspected gunman who attacked two hookah bars, killing nine people, as Tobias R.
Though officials declined to fully identify the suspect, local and international media, including Bild and CNN, determined his full name was Tobias Rathjen based on his age, place of birth and a website and YouTube channel on which he left xenophobic rants.
Authorities said he attacked two hookah bars in Hanau, Germany, late Wednesday and may have been motivated by xenophobia.
The shooting was classified "suspected terroristic act of violence" by regional interior minister Peter Beuth.
Rathjen's body was later found by authorities at his home, along with that of his mother. Police took his father into custody.
"This was a terrible evening that will certainly occupy us for a long, long time and we will remember with sadness," Hanau Mayor Claus Kaminsky said. Police said there are "no indications of further perpetrators."
Hookah bars are popular in Germany, authorities said.
A hookah bar is an establishment where patrons share shisha (flavoured tobacco) from a communal hookah or from one placed at each table or a bar.
A hookah and a variety of tobacco products are on display in a Harvard Square store window in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.
In Western countries, shisha parlors are often owned and operated by people from the Arab world or South Asia where use of the hookah is a centuries-old tradition. Many shisha parlors incorporate such elements as Islamic decor and Arabic music or Indian music and have traditional decor.
Peter R. Neumann, the founding director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization, said the shooter appeared to have had a hatred for foreigners and non-whites, according to his social accounts. The gunman called for the "extermination" of various Muslim-majority countries in North Africa, Middle East and Central Asia, according to a manifesto authorities believe belonged to him.
"He justifies his call for killing the populations of entire countries in explicitly eugenicist terms, saying that the science proves that certain races are superior," Neumann said.
CNN reported that Rathjen left a message on his personal website saying he felt an "aversion" to specific ethnic groups, including Turks, Moroccans, Lebanese and Kurds. Both his website and YouTube channel were removed from the Internet.
Police said he didn't have a criminal record.
Dozens of cities in Germany, including Hanau, held vigils to memorialize those killed in the attacks. The event in Hanau turned into a protest, with attendees holding signs decrying racism and xenophobia.
So, he sounds like a Nazi, but there doesn't seem to be any indication that he belonged to a far-right hate group. Curious. Far-right violence is a remarkably stupid way of expressing your racial bias. It invariably ends up with the victim's gaining sympathy, increased protection, and more rights.
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