Sweden suicide bomber: Taimur Abdulwahab al-Abdaly was living in Britain

Taimur Abdulwahab al-Abdaly tried to set off a car bomb packed with gas canisters in a busy shopping street in Stockholm. The car caught fire and the bomber fled the scene before blowing himself up 300yd away 15 minutes later, injuring two bystanders. It emerged last night that Abdulwahab, who was due to turn 29 yesterday, is a former physical therapy student at Bedfordshire University in Luton, and that his wife and three young children still live in the town. MI5 is now investigating possible links with extremists in Luton, whether the bomber was radicalised at the university and claims that he was helped by an extremist group in Yemen, the base for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

The suicide bombing follows an attempt by Umar Farouq Abdulmutallab, a former student at University College London, to blow himself up last Christmas on a flight to Detroit. Abdulmutallab had trained in Yemen, but had become increasingly radical during his time in Britain. The security services and police are concerned that British university campuses have become breeding grounds for extremism. Neighbours told The Daily Telegraph last night that they had last seen Abdulwahab at the 1930s semi-detached house in Luton, Beds, two and a half weeks ago. The couple have two young girls and a baby son. His wife, Mona, a Swedish citizen, is said to run a home beauty company.

Reports from Sweden said Abdulwahab was shouting in Arabic and carrying six pipebombs, one of which exploded, along with a rucksack full of nails and explosives. A paramedic said the bomber had no injuries to the face or body in general but looked as if he had been carrying something that exploded in his stomach. One witness said the bomber had worked as a sandwich board advertiser in the Drottninggatan shopping area. Carl Bildt, the Swedish foreign minister, said it was “a most worrying attempt at a terrorist attack”, adding that it “failed – but could have been truly catastrophic”. Theresa May, the Home Secretary, said: “The Swedish government have indicated they believe this was a terrorist attack. We will be talking to them about the details of that attack.”

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23 dead as Pakistan hospital, bus bombed

A hospital in Pakistan's commercial capital Karachi treating victims of an earlier bus bombing that killed 12 people was itself rocked by an explosion that killed 11 more people, local officials said. Two suicide bombers on motorcycles struck the bus and hospital, targeting Shiite Muslims in Karachi for the second time in six weeks, killing 23 people and wounding 75 others. Women and children were among 12 people killed when a bomber rammed a motorcycle bomb into a bus of Shiites on one of Karachi's busiest roads, gutting the bus and sending glass flying, officials and witnesses said. A second bomber killed 11 people, damaging ambulances and the entrance to the casualty department at Jinnah Hospital where the bus bomb victims were being treated and anxious relatives were gathering.

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Female Homicide Bomber Kills 54 in Baghdad

A female homicide bomber walking among Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad detonated an explosives belt on Monday, killing at least 54 people and wounding more than 122, officials said. The bombing was the first major strike this year against pilgrims making their way to the southern city of Karbala to mark a Shiite holy day. It came as security official warned of a possible increase in attacks by insurgents using new tactics to bypass bomb-detection methods.

The bombing raises fears of an escalation of attacks as hundreds of thousands of Shiites head by Friday to the southern holy city of Karbala to mark the end of 40 days of mourning following the anniversary of the death Imam Hussein, a revered Shiite figure.

The bomber hid the explosives underneath an abaya — a black cloak worn from head to toe by women — as she joined a group of pilgrims on the outskirts of Baghdad's Shiite-dominated neighborhood of Shaab, said Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, Baghdad's top military spokesman.
The bomber set off the blast as she lined up with other women to be searched by female security guards at a security checkpoint just inside a rest tent, al-Moussawi said.

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17 Die in Kabul Blast

KABUL, Afghanistan — A car packed with explosives blew up beside the Indian Embassy on Thursday morning, leaving 17 people dead in what India’s foreign secretary said was a direct attack on the embassy compound, the second in two years.

The blast appeared to be similar in pattern to the earlier attack, in July 2008, in which a car bomber detonated at the embassy gates around the same time. American intelligence officials concluded within weeks that Pakistan's intelligence agency helped plan that attack.

Pakistan denied any involvement, but, India is Pakistan’s archrival, and militant groups once nurtured by Pakistan’s intelligence service have struck at Indian targets, most recently last year in Mumbai.

A Taliban spokesman claimed credit for the attack and said the embassy was the intended target. That recent history and the long simmering Indian-Pakistan conflict over possession of Kashmir had some Indian security analysts pointing Pakistan's way on Thursday.

Analysis

Whatever the reason, and whoever is behind this. has miscalculated. If this blast was the work of the Taliban alone, it will sting Pakistan into more attacks that are destined to wear the Taliban down and defeat it. If the Pakistani military and intelligence forces helped plan the attack then it will result in further sympathy for India and a stronger reaction from India's allies. The sad thing is that those killed and wounded were local Pakistani's, killed by their own. If this keeps up, the Taliban will find themselves totally isolated within the very community they expect to give it support.

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Suicide bomber in Somalia lived in U.S.

An online report has identified a Somali-American from Seattle, Washington, as one of the suicide bombers who killed 21 peacekeepers in Mogadishu, Somalia, last week. The bomber allegedly lived in Washington until 2007. The report could not independently be confirmed.

An FBI spokesman in Seattle, Fred Gutt, said investigators are aware of the report, but he declined to comment about it in detail. When asked if the FBI was looking into the report, Gutt said only that "we have continuing outreach efforts with the [Somali-American] community."

Federal agents have been investigating possible recruiting efforts in the United States by al-Shabaab, a Somali group with ties to al-Qaeda that the U.S. classifies as a terrorist organization.

In an attack September 17, suicide bombers drove vehicles with United Nations markings into the headquarters of an African Union peacekeeping mission in Mogadishu. The vehicles blew up inside the compound, killing at least 21 people, the mission said.

Last Tuesday, a Somali website reported that at least one of the bombers was a Somali-American who left the United States two years ago. The website is operated by members of the Murusude clan, who make up the majority of Al-Shabaab.

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