Homeland Security News

At least 35 people were killed and nearly 100 wounded Friday in three separate bomb attacks in two major Pakistani cities, officials said.

A suicide bomber was involved in the first car bombing near the office of the provincial police chief in the southwestern city of Quetta that killed at least 11 people and wounded 20. There were conflicting claims of responsibility for this attack from different extremist groups.

Hours later twin bombings, minutes apart, hit a crowded market in a Shiite-dominated city in Parachinar, the main city in the Kurram tribal region and killed 24 people, mostly minority Shiite Muslims, according to government administrator Zahid Hussain.

The bomb attacks come a few days before the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Fitr, which ends the holy month of Ramadan. TV footage showed panicked people rushing to safety following the Parachinar market bombings.

Mohammad Amir, an official at a government-run hospital in Parachinar, said they had received 24 dead bodies and more than 20 of the wounded were listed in critical condition.

It was unclear who was behind the attack in Parachinar but Sunni militant groups have claimed responsibility for numerous similar attacks in the past.

Friday’s car bombing in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, was powerful enough that it was heard across the city, shattering windows on nearby buildings, said police spokesman Shahzada Farhat.

Read more:  AP

Russia has fired cruise missiles from the Mediterranean Sea on positions of the Islamic State group in Syria, the Defense Ministry said on Friday, Moscow’s latest show of strength in the conflict wracking the Mideast country.

The ministry said in a statement that two frigates and a submarine launched six cruise missiles on IS installations in Syria’s Hama province, destroying command centers and ammunition depots. It did not say when the missiles were launched.

Moscow has fired missiles from the Mediterranean at militants’ positions in Syria before, including launches from a submarine and a frigate in May at the targets in the area of the ancient city of Palmyra.

Russia is one of the strongest backers of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and has been carrying airstrikes in the country since September 2015.

Separately on Friday, a senior Russian lawmaker said Moscow is “nearly 100 percent” sure that the IS top leader was killed in a Russian airstrike last month.

The Defense Ministry first made the claim last week, saying that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s death in the May 28 strike on the outskirts of the Syrian city of Raqqa was still “being verified through various channels.”

Viktor Ozerov, head of the defense and security committee at the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, told the Interfax news agency on Friday that Russia’s intelligence about al-Baghdadi’s death is “nearly 100 percent” certain.

Read more:  AP

A suicide car bomber killed at least 11 people, including four police officers, in an attack near a checkpoint in the volatile southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Friday, officials said.

Abdul Razzaq Cheema, director general of police in Baluchistan province, told Reuters it appeared the bomber had detonated a car packed with explosives.

At least 11 bodies were taken to hospital, along with 19 wounded people, said Wasim Baig, a spokesman for the Civil Hospital in Quetta.

Four of those killed were police officers, while nine security officials were among the wounded, said Fareed Sumalan, a doctor at the Civil Hospital.

Jamaat ur Ahrar, a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack in a message sent to Reuters by spokesman Asad Mansur.

Baluchistan government spokesman Anwar ul Haq Kakar said the blast happened near the office of the inspector general of police when officers stopped the car to search it near a checkpoint.

"It's possible the IG office was the target, or the assailants were trying to enter the (army) cantonment which is close by," he said.

Television footage showed emergency services rushing to the scene, which was covered in debris, while security officials cordoned off the area.

Read more:  Reuters

The FBI says it believes the Canadian terror suspect in Wednesday's Michigan airport stabbing attempted to buy a gun while in the US.

Amor Ftouhi - who is originally from Tunisia - is in custody after allegedly attacking a police officer at Bishop International Airport in Flint.

The FBI says he unsuccessfully tried to obtain a gun in the US, before buying the knife used in the assault.

Lieutenant Jeff Neville is in a stable condition in hospital.

FBI special agent David Gelios told media on Thursday the accused legally crossed into the US by car at the Lake Champlain, New York border crossing on 16 June.

Authorities believe he entered the state of Michigan on 18 June after they found and searched his vehicle, which was left in the airport car park.

"It is a good news story that we have an individual who attempted to buy a gun in the United States and was unsuccessful," Agent Gelios told reporters.

Read more:  BBC News