The Facts about Islam EXPOSED!

So, you think the Ku Klux Klan and the Spanish Inquisition are bad? So do we, but... Put the Numbers in Perspective
More people are killed by Islamists each year than in all 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition combined. (source)	Islamic terrorists murder more people everyday than the Ku Klux Klan has in the last 50 years. (source)
More civilians were killed by Muslim extremists in two hours on September 11th than in the 36 years of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland. (source)	19 Muslim hijackers killed more innocents in two hours on September 11th than the number of American criminals executed in the last 65 years. (source)

"What has the Muslim accomplished vs. the Jew? Hmmmmm!"

Only Muslims can be citizens of Saudi Arabia. Even in Arab countries where shari'a (Islamic law) is not enforced by the government, Islam's influence prevents freedom of speech, of the press, of religion and of conscience. In PLO territories, Christian Arabs, who once had freedom under Israel, now suffer persecution, imprisonment and death for their faith. Yet neither the UN nor our own government ever protests such oppression behind the Islamic curtain.

WHAT ISLAM IS NOT!

Muslims build mosques and worship freely in the West, but in their own countries they deny such freedoms to others. 

Instead of reporting this hypocrisy, the world media covers it up. One Mideast author writes, "Islam is...more antagonistic to the Christian faith than Communism ever was... In Communist China today, Christianity still thrives. But confession of Christ by a national in an Islamic country is regarded as high treason. Not even an official Church that a Communist government could allow is permitted...in an Islamic country. (G.J.O. Moshay, Who Is This Allah? Dorchester. 1994, p. 111)

  Islam spread rapidly under Muhammad and his successors through jihad ("holy war").

Muhammad himself planned 65 campaigns and personally led 27 involving naked aggression and treachery. This incredible "evangelism" made "converts" by the millions at the point of a sword. At its peak, Islam had conquered all of North Africa and almost took over Europe.

   

Islam continues its conquest worldwide. Today's invaders are millions of immigrants who make converts to Islam through misrepresentation. One sees on TV well coifed and fashionably dressed women who claim to be converts to Islam and testify to its joys and peace-loving ways. 

Yet in a Muslim country they would have to be veiled with only their eyes showing, would have to wear plain black full-length robes, could not drive a car, could be one of four wives habitually mistreated by their husband, to be divorced by his mere denunciation, virtual slaves under shari'a. Oddly enough, Hillary Clinton, National Organization of Women (NOW), and other outspoken champions of women's rights are silent about Islam's notorious abuse of women.  

Imagine Islam's earnest goal, set forth in the Koran (references given herein are from three versions) and hadith (Islamic written tradition), remains the same: to bring all mankind into submission (that's what "Islam" means) and to kill or enslave all "infidels" (i.e., unbelievers in Allah and Muhammad his prophet - Surah 2:190-192; 4:76; 5:33; 9:5,29,41; 47:4, etc.). Islam (in obedience to the Koran and Muhammad's example) is the driving force behind most terrorism today. Muhammad declared, "The last hour will not come before the Muslims fight the Jews and the Muslims kill them."

  "He's Kissing Islam's WHAT??? Wow, I thought he was God on earth...has he even read the koran?" 

Westerners naively accept Allah, who inspired Muhammad, as the God of the Bible. Yet Allah has no son, and rejects the Trinity (4:171), is unknowable, and was the pagan idol/god of Muhammad's tribe (CLICK HERE) before he was born. 


Allah tells Muslims, "Take not the Jews and Christians for friends...slay the idolaters [infidels] wherever ye find them." 

"Fight against those who...believe not in Allah nor the Last Day" (5:51; 9:5; 29.41). But the triune God of the Bible wants men to know Him (Jer 9:24), a knowledge essential to salvation (John 17:3). 

Jews are His "chosen people" (Ex 6:7; Lev 20:26; 1 Chr 16:13; Ps 105:6, etc.) and Christians are His dearly loved children (Rom 8:16,21; Gal 3:26; Eph 1:5; 5:1.etc.) Instead of conversion by force, Christ said that His disciples did not fight because His kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36). Indeed, He told His disciples, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you" (Matt 5:44). 

Christ gave His life to save sinners, and His followers must be willing to lay down their lives to bring this good news to the world. Biblical salvation is a free gift paid for by the death of Christ, who said, "go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). 

That command includes today's one billion Muslims. They present a tremendous (and inescapable) challenge to every Christian. How can we bring the gospel to those who may be killed for believing it, or who may kill us for offering it to them? To die fighting infidels is the only sure way for a Muslim to gain Paradise.

Yet Christ also died for Muslims, and His love compels us. Attempts to evangelize Muslims have had little success. Lately, a new and seemingly more fruitful approach is being adopted: using Muslim scriptures to present Christ.  

In this regard, several former Muslims have written some helpful material.

 

CLICK HERE to go to a Master Lib of Muslim and Non-Muslim books (133books) Here's an Index of Muslim Myth's CLICK HERE!  

The hadith attests to the virgin birth, sinless life and miracles of Christ, who is called "the Word of Allah." Some portions of the Koran, too, speak highly of Christ: that He was born of Mary as a virgin (Surah 3:45-47; 21:91, etc.); He is the highest example (43:57); and He alone is called "Isa," which means Savior (3:45). 

Whereas Muhammad was unable to perform miracles (17:90-96; 29:50-52, etc.). Christ did so (2:252-253; 3:49): and unlike others such as Moses who did miracles at God's command. Jesus did miracles on His own initiative (26:63, etc.), even raising the dead (3:49; 5:110; 36:78-79. etc.).

Further, the Koran declares that Muhammad was a sinner (9:43; 40:55; 47:19; 48:2; 294:1-3. etc.), but Jesus was sinless (19:17-19). In spite of the honor and reverence accorded Jesus, however, the Jesus of Islam is not the Jesus of the Bible but "another Jesus" (2 Cor 11:4) - so be careful. While the Koran in its early passages honors at least parts of the Bible as "the Book" and both Jews and Christians as "the people of the Book," it often contradicts the Bible: 

It denies that Jesus is God (3:59,62; 4:171) and that He died on the cross (4:157-58; 5:116-20) for our sins. Early tradition held that at Christ's request a look-alike disciple rescued Him from the cross by dying in His place. Other passages, however, seem to declare that Christ did indeed die (3:33,55; 5:117; 19:33), and many Islamic scholars take that view today. The Koran denies that one person could die for another (17:13-15; 35:18). 

Actually, it says that no "soul laden [i.e., sinner] bears the load [sin] of another." Since Jesus was without sin. He would be an exception. For the sinner to be righteously forgiven God himself had to pay the penalty demanded by His justice; but that concept is foreign to Islam. The Koran breeds uncertainty:

"Forgiveness is only incumbent on Allah toward those who do evil in ignorance [and] then turn quickly [in repentance] to Allah... Lo! Allah oneth...all save [except] that to whom he will not..." (4:17,106,110,116). Neither "ignorance" nor "quickly" are defined nor why Allah forgives some and not others. Nor does repentance guarantee forgiveness. 

Ayatollah Khomeini declared, "Even if Salman Rushdie (author of The Satanic Verses) repents and becomes the most pious man of all time, it is incumbent upon every Muslim to employ everything he has, his life and his wealth, to send him to hell." In contrast, the Bible offers forgiveness to all. Christ even died to redeem those who hated Him, and asked His Father to forgive those who crucified Him (Luke 23:34). 

In real life, Allah's forgiveness never comes in time to prevent a hand, foot or ear from being cut off as the penalty for stealing. Hundreds of Iraqis mutilated by this inhuman Islamic decree flee to camps bordering that country. 

Yet kidnapping requires no such mutilation because a person is not considered to be property. Fornication requires no such mutilation, while petty thievery does.  

The Antichrist (Dajjal) is a major topic of the hadith, which warns of his coming. He is called the "false Christ" who will deceive many near the end of time. The hadith teaches that Christ will return at the end to destroy the Dajjal. Belief in "the Last Day" is an essential part of the Muslim's faith (2:62). Of course, seeking to win Muslims by quoting the Koran and hadith could imply that these Islamic writings are inspired of God. Even M.N. Anderson, who has done such excellent work, fell into that trap in Proud to be a Muslim at p.6:

"Although it was Gabriel [equated in Islam with the Spirit of Allah] that conveyed the Qur'an to him [Muhammad], he was referred to the people of the Book for assurance, when in doubt concerning the Qur'an." Unfortunately, it sounds as though the Koran was inspired of God, and that the people of the Book (Jews and Christians) will confirm its teachings from the Bible. 

That implication would confirm Muslims in their error. The Koran's contradictions of the Bible are excused by claiming that the Bible was corrupted. But the Koran was sent to stand "as a guardian" over the Bible (5:48); therefore, if the Bible was corrupted, the Koran failed. The Muslim's Holy Book itself admits that much of its text is ambiguous (3:7); Muslims are even to ask "the People of the Book [Bible]" for enlightenment (21:7)!

  The Koran also contradicts itself:

 (CLICK HERE to find out that the Bible is FAR superior to the koran)  

NOW THAT'S SHOVEL READY THINKING!

Allah created everything "in the twinkling of an eye" (54:49,50), "in two Days" (41:9,12), "in four Days" (41:10), "in six Days" (7:54; 10:4; 32:4); "a Day," equaling "a thousand years" (32:5) and also "fifty thousand years" (70:4); Jesus is not the Son of God (4:171) yet He is (19:17-21), etc. There are scientific errors in the Koran. Even Arabian legends are recounted as actual happenings. The Koran contains much superstition and occultism, especially its references tojinn (genies).  

In quoting the Koran and hadith we must avoid the impression that we are endorsing these writings. Consider Paul's discussion with the philosophers on Mars Hill: "...as certain also of your own poets have said" (Acts 17:28). Paul was not suggesting that these writers were inspired of God - and he went beyond them to present the gospel. Likewise, we must be careful to go beyond what the Koran and hadith say about Jesus to present the true gospel; otherwise there is no basis for salvation. For a Muslim to become a true Christian he must renounce Islam's false god, Allah, and its false gospel of salvation by works. 

Unfortunately, the gospel is being compromised to make it appealing to Muslims. (In the West it's being made appealing to everyone.) Many "converts" have never understood the gospel and thus have not believed that which is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth" (Rom 1:16). The gospel is definitely not in the Koran. Yet Muslims are supposedly being saved by heeding it. The author of Building Bridges: Christianity and Islam (NayPress, 1997) gives the testimony of a "converted Muslim" in Pakistan (p.27):

"As I was listening to the Qur'an read on the radio day after day, I heard that Christ was highly honored...and near-stationed to God. I said to myself, 'If I wanted someone to intercede for me to God, who would be better than someone like Christ...?' And so I prayed, 'Lord Isa [Jesus], please come to my help. I want to devote myself to God through you. Since you are highly honored and sitting near Him, you can do it.'" The author then comments, "After that, he felt like a changed man, much happier than before..." 

This is a delusion similar to that of those who say, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?...and in thy name done many wonderful works?", to whom the Lord responds, "I never knew you: depart from me..." (Matt 7:21-23).  

Asking Islam's Isa to intercede for oneself will not save. One must believe the gospel to be saved: "How that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures" (1 Cor 15:1-4); "That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:15). 

That gospel is not in the Koran, and there is nothing in this "convert's" testimony to indicate that he knew or believed it. The same author declares that "60 percent of Muslims who are approached with the methods explained in this book put their trust in Christ..." Yet Christ and His apostles experienced no such percentage of converts. Jesus said that few would be saved (Matt 7:13-14). 

The author enthusiastically refers to Muslims converted to Christ "while remaining [for years] in the fold of their Islamic community...without becoming detestable to their own communities" (p. 10). But Jesus warned His disciples, "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake..." (Matt 10:22; John 15:20). All men, except Muslims? 

We want to be wise, and not to needlessly offend in our presentation of the gospel (1 Cor 10:32), whether to Muslims or anyone else to whom the Lord gives us the grace to present the "unsearchable riches of Christ" (Eph 3:8). But there is an unavoidable offense to Christ (Rom 9:33; 1 Pet 2:8) and to the Cross (Gal 5:11). We must be careful that we actually present the gospel, which one must believe to be saved. It will only damn souls if in our zeal to get the world to accept the gospel we preach another gospel acceptable to the world Image The FALSE GOSPEL of ISLAM By Ric Llewellyn 

IF THE TRUTH BOTHERS YOU, ITS YOU THAT NEEDS TO CHANGE NOT THE TRUTH!

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FOR CENTURIES, Christians have recognized Islam as a false religion. Until recently Muslims (or Mohammadans as they have been known in the past) have been the focus of evangelistic outreaches. But today many people are considering Islam from a more ecumenical point of view. It is often said that Christians, Jews, and Muslims are worshipping the same God, but in different ways. Muslims have capitalized on this misconception and now urge Christians and Jews to worship the one God with them, and work together for solutions to the world's many social problems. 

It is important to know some of the history and false doctrines of Islam, and to reject the new approach of this fast growing religion. Islam began about 600 A.D. in what is modern Saudi Arabia. Muhammad, the "prophet" of Islam, received what is purported to be a revelation from God. This revelation is known as the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam. From its dubious beginnings, Islam has grown to approximately a billion adherents worldwide. 

For centuries Islam has exerted a great deal of influence over the people of the Middle East and Africa, even dominating southern Europe for a time. Today Islam is endeavoring once again to have a significant influence upon the culture and society of the Western World. The new image Islam is trying to present in the West is a far cry from the fanaticism and violence advocated by many Muslim leaders. Nevertheless, the devotion of Muslims in the West to Islamic principles is as uncompromising as any in the world. The presentation of Islam in Europe and North America is characterized by intellectualism rather than emotionalism. 

The irrational religious frenzy by which Islam has become recognized worldwide is covered by a facade of civility. Yet, Muslims around the world concur that Islamic laws and principles take precedence over the decency and morality of civilization. No matter how intellectual, civilized, or scientific Islam is made to appear, it is still a religion which embodies "another gospel.- which is not another" (Gal. 1:6-7). The Lord declares it accursed (Gal. 1:8). Christians must be prepared to present the one true Gospel of salvation to Muslims, desiring that they be delivered from their religious bondage. 

The most important thing for Christians to know when confronted with the teachings of a false religion is the Truth. It cannot be too forcefully stated that Christians must know the Scriptures. In evangelism, therefore, we must know the Evangel. Our message to Muslims is that they, like all men, are lost. All are naturally at enmity with God (Ps.14:2-3; Jn. 3:36b; Eph. 2:1-3). There is no good in us that can merit God's favor and there is no good we can do to endear ourselves to Him (Isa. 64:6; Rom. 3:12, 19-20; Titus 3:5).

But, being lost and unable to effect our own salvation, God did all that is required to reconcile men to Himself. Christ bore our sin, died on the Cross shedding His Blood as a completely propitious sacrifice for sin, and He rose again bodily from the dead. Believing this testimony and wholly trusting Jesus Christ for salvation is all that is necessary to be saved (1 Cor. 15:1-41, Rom. 5: 1, 6-9; Col. 1:12-22; 2 Cor. 5:18-21). 

The "gospel" of Islam is something quite different. Similar to many modern cults, Islam claims to revere the writings of all the prophets. Yet, Muslims unequivocally subjugate the Scriptures to the "prophecy" of Muhammad. A leaflet prepared by the Institute of Islamic Information and Education titled "Introducing Islam to Non-Muslims" states, "Muhammad is the very last Prophet of God to mankind. He is the final Messenger of God. His message was and is still to the Christians, the Jews and the rest of mankind. He was sent to those religious people to inform them about the true mission of Jesus, Moses, David, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham."  

The leaflet continues, "Muhammad is considered to be the summation and the culmination of all the prophets and messengers that came before him. He purified the previous messages from adulteration and completed the Message of God for all humanity. He was entrusted with the power of explaining, interpreting and living the teachings of the Qur'an." Believers must recognize that Joseph Smith (Mormonism), Charles T. Russell (Jehovah's Witnesses), Mary Baker Eddy (Christian Science), and Ellen G. White (Seventh Day Adventism) have all claimed that same transcendent authority. 

And along with these, Muhammad was the bearer of wicked doctrines that have plunged many into the outer darkness of eternal torment. Among the insidious doctrines of Islam is the rejection of the doctrine of imputation. "Introducing Islam to Non-Muslims" explains, "Muslims believe that people are born free of sin. It is only after they reach the age of puberty, and it is only after they commit sins that they are to be charged for their mistakes. No one is responsible for or can take the responsibility for the sins of others." First, this is a denial of the Biblical teaching that all mankind sinned in Adam, that is, Adam's sin has been imputed to the whole human race (Rom. 5.12-14). Second, this is a denial of the Biblical teaching that the sin of man is imputed to Christ, that is, Christ became sin for us on Calvary's Cross (2 Cor. 5:21). 

Third, this is a denial of the Biblical teaching that the righteousness of God is imputed to men upon believing, that is, believers possess the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21;Rom. 5:15-19).By denying these truths which are fundamental to the Gospel of salvation by grace through faith alone, Islam has laid the groundwork for a "gospel" of self righteousness and salvation by works. The Bible teaches that salvation is NOT a reward. Heaven is the eternal abode of those who have received Christ the Saviour. Islam teaches that salvation is indeed a reward for a life of relative piety and righteousness. 

The Qur'an states, "Then those whose scales are heavy, they are successful. And those whose scales are light are those who lose their souls…" In fact, Muslims are encouraged to "vie with one another to attain to your Sustainer's forgiveness and to a Paradise as vast as the heavens and the earth, which awaits the God-conscious, who spend for charity in time of plenty and in time of hardship, and restrain their anger, and pardon their fellow men, for God loves those who do good." 

From these denials of fundamental Biblical teachings and the establishment of a religion of self righteousness follows the Islamic repudiation of the Saviour. The following is so important to Islam that it was printed in very bold type in the leaflet "Prophethood in Islam"--"The Quranic account of Jesus emphatically rejects the concept of his 'Divinity' and 'Divine Sonship…" The Institute of Islamic Information and education publishes a leaflet entitled "Is Jesus Really God?" In it they totally reject the Biblical teaching that Jesus is God manifest in the flesh. Nevertheless, the Word is plain: "God was manifest in the flesh" (1 Tim. 3:16). Jesus is the self existent I AM (Jn. 8:58). The Creator dwelled as a man among men (Jn. 1:1-3, 14). 

Jesus Christ is the Forgiver of sin (Lk. 5.20-21). In short, the Son and the Father are one (Jn. 10:30). The Lord Jesus Christ said to the religious of His day who rejected His deity, :... if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins" (Jn. 8:24). Islam unashamedly rejects these truths which comprise the Gospel. While many people today say that Christians and Muslims worship the "Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, HATH NOT GOD" (2 Jn.9). 

An even greater condemnation is pronounced by God in verse seven. Denying the doctrine of Christ reveals Islam as a deception and an antichrist religion. The Qur'an has substituted false doctrines which present another gospel. Islam purports to be "the way of peace," but the end of Islam is the way of death. Bible-believers must not yield these eternally important points merely because Islam claims to esteem the patriarchs and the prophets. 

It is our responsibility to testify to the Truth, even as we cry out against the error of any false religion. It is important for God's people to be aware of the fact that many so-called Christians are willing to compromise the Truth of God's Word in the interest of building bridges with various religions. Islam seems to be asserting itself in the area of religious dialogue, and men and women who claim to represent Christianity are quickly building the credibility of Islam as a true religion. 

Instead of witnessing, Christians are encouraged to discover common ground with Muslims. Rather than exposing its errors, Christians are told to search for the truth in Islam. Thus, Islam is gaining a respectability that is simply not deserved. While "Christians" are manifesting their "open mindedness," Muslims aye spreading their false religious propaganda under the cover of dialogue. Muslims believe that all mankind must be brought into subjection to the spurious teachings of the Qur'an in order to experience peace and blessing. 

They will not compromise that belief. Muslims believe that the doctrine of the Incarnation of God is blasphemy. They will not compromise that belief. Muslims believe that Muhammad is the prophet who fully revealed the final truth. They will not compromise that belief. Muslims are "devoted to their ideals,... and uncompromising with falsehood" ("Moral System of Islam"). 

Only the glorious, liberating light of the one true Gospel will be able to break through such darkness. Although those who practice Islam profess "to respect all those who are faithful and God conscious people," it is their contention that the one true religion is Islam. Muslims trace the "true religion" from Abraham through Ishmael, but the Bible absolutely contradicts this notion. Genesis 17:15-21 makes it clear that God rejected Ishmael, con6rming the covenant blessings--including the fulfillment of the true religion to Isaac alone. In chapter 21 Hagar and Ishmael are cast out of Abraham's house with the sanction of God, "Let it not be grievous in thy sight" (v. 12). 

Galatians chapter three deals with this subject of the true religion and directly references the events of Genesis 17 and 2 1. Galatians 3:8 says, "And the scripture, farseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." The promise of salvation for Jew and Gentile was prophesied to come through the seed of Abraham. Verse 16 clearly relates the true religion, the only Gospel, to the promise made to Abraham in Genesis 17:15-21: "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.

[God] saith not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." The Gospel preached to Abraham was the Gospel of Christ delivered through Isaac, not the gospel of Islam delivered through Ishmael. Islam claims to be a religion of peace and tolerance. 

It is, in fact, characterized by instability and religious bigotry. 

It is our duty to stand for the Gospel and against all other gospels.

IF ANY RELIGION IS BASED UPON THE IMAGE OF A MERE MAN IT IS ALWAYS A FALSE IMAGE TO WORSHIP AND LEADS NO WHERE GOOD!

Islam has rejected the essential teachings of the Word of God. The "prophet" Muhammad brought a message from a false spirit that totally opposes the Gospel of grace. The message of Islam is a curse, not a blessing. Islam is being presented as a practical, modern religion though it holds its adherents in spiritual bondage. Christians must be diligent to witness to-not dialogue with Muslims. 

This is God's way of presenting the glorious light of the Gospel. There is only one true religion. It was prophesied in the Garden of Eden, typified in the days of Noah, confirmed to Abraham and Isaac, and realized in Jesus Christ. Fundamental Evangelistic Association P. 0. Box 6278, Los Oscs, CA 93412

BELOW ARE THE NUMEROUS NEWS REPORTS ABOUT THESE ANIMALS MURDERING INNOCENT PEOPLE EVEN OF THEIR OWN RELIGION. THIS IS PROOF POSITIVE THAT THEY LOVE TO KILL MORE THAN THEY LOVE GOD!

 

The News-Journal - Sept 24, 1997 Algiers, Algeria. – Massacre leaves more than 200 dead near Algiers, Algeria. Brutal Killings belie government assurances. Attackers with machine guns, firebombs and knives invaded a neighborhood out side the Algerian capital and methodically killed scores of men, women and children in one of the worst episodes in nearly six years of political bloodshed by Islamic insurgents.

Although the government reported 85 people killed, medical workers, gravediggers and eye witnesses said they counted more than 200 bodies in the suburb of Baraki, just south of Algiers…Large groups of armed men attack at night, often close to police and military barracks. They appear able to carry out horrendous murders undisturbed, then melt away with the daylight. …the incidents are reported in newspapers – but frequently are not confirmed by the government… Meanwhile, the scale of death has spiraled.

A few months ago, when attackers were hitting isolated villages, a raid might have left several dozen people dead. But in the past two months, massacres have moved into greater Algiers, and death tolls have risen correspondingly.

On Aug. 29, in what was apparently the worst single massacre of the insurgency, about 300 people were slaughtered in Rais, a village 15 kilometers from the capital. Tuesday’s massacre occurred less than 48 hours after Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia appeared on national television Sunday to announce that because of “the increased vigilance of the population, the determination of the security forces and the end of political bargaining, the country now faces only residual terrorism.”

He proclaimed. Those words meant little Tuesday. The heavily armed attackers arrived shortly after midnight surrounding the neighborhood, then systematically forced victims out of their homes, where they were gunned down or had their throats slit, according to news agency accounts. Homemade grenades and Molotov cocktails were thrown into houses, said survivors quoted by the French news agency AFP. “They even tossed children from the terraces,” one man said. 

The recent massacres have fueled demands for an intentional effort to end the conflict. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who condemned the Tuesday massacre as a ‘brutal act of terrorism”, offered three weeks ago to mediate between the government and the Islamic insurgents but was sternly rebuffed by the Algerian leadership”. 

The News-Journal (AP) – Dec 10, 1998 Algiers, Algeria – 45 Killed in Algeria’s Latest Massacre An armed band killed 45 people in a pre-dawn attack that was the bloodiest massacre in Algeria in months, security forces said. Separately, authorities said they had pulled 46 bodies from a 180-foot-deep well used as a mass grave. 

Many more victims remain in the mass grave, which could be as much as two years old. Security forces said in a statement that Wednesday’s massacre in the mountain town of Tadjena, about 125 miles west of the capital, Algiers, was committed by a “terrorist band” – language signifying Muslim insurgents blamed for many such massacres in recent years. 

The last massacre of this magnitude was in March, when 52 people were reported killed at Had Sahary Youb, 150 miles southwest of the capital. In the past, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which starts Dec. 20 this year, has brought an increase in violence, and the trend appeared to be continuing this year.

The massacre raised the death toll since the start of the month to at least 115 people. Meanwhile, south of the capital, in an area referred to as the “Triangle of Death,” security forces said they had dug 46 bodies from a well at a farm in Meftah, 10 miles from central Algiers. It is not known how many more people may have been thrown into the mass grave, which specialists date to 1996 or 1997.

The Associated Press – Mar 17, 2002 Islamabad, Pakistan – A grenade attack on a Protestant church packed with Sunday worshipers killed five people including the wife and daughter of an American diplomat, in an assault clearly aimed at Pakistan’s foreign community. 

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, in which at least 1-2 young men in black ran through the center of the church hurling grenades.

But suspicion fell on Islamic extremists. Ten Americans were among the 45 people injured, most of whom were foreigners, police and hospitals said. The attack occurred at 10:50 a.m. during a sermon before 60 to 70 worshippers. Dozens of police and soldiers rushed to the scene.

The church, about 400 yards from the U.S. Embassy, is located in the guarded diplomatic quarter in the heart of Pakistan’s capital and primarily serves the foreign community. The overwhelming majority of Pakistanis are Muslim and few Pakistani Christians live in Islamabad. Survivors spoke of deafening blasts, choking smoke and pandemonium. 


They said terrified parents screamed for their children and stunned worshippers dived beneath chairs and behind cement pillars as bits of flesh were hurled through the air. Parents groped to find their way downstairs, where their children were attending Sunday School. Other parishioners feared touching the wounded, because unexploded grenades lay near their bodies. 

“There was blood, blood, blood, intestines lying on the floor,” said Elisabeth Mundhenk, 54, of Hamburg, Germany as she awaited treatment for shrapnel wounds at a hospital. “It was horrific. There was a horrible smell and we could barely breathe.” Mark Robinson of San Clemente, Calif., who was being treated at a clinic for a minor leg injury, described “total pandemonium.” 

“Everyone panicked,” Robinson said. “I saw one woman on the steps with a piece of shrapnel in her carotid artery. She bled to death right there.” The U.S. Embassy identified the dead Americans as Barbara Green and her daughter Kristen Wormsley, a senior at the American School in Islamabad. 

Green and her husband, Milton Green, worked at the U.S. Embassy she in administration and he in the computer division. Milton Green and the couple’s young son were also injured but not seriously, according to police. In addition to the Americans, 12 Pakistanis, five Iranians, one Iraqi, one Ethiopian and one German were injured, police said. The government said the injured also included Sri Lankans, Afghans, Swiss, Britons, Australians and Canadians. 

The kidnap-slaying of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl was seen as part of an extremist campaign to embarrass the government and undercut its support in the West. The attack was the 2ND against Christians in Pakistan since the war on terrorism began. On Oct. 28, gunmen killed 15 Christians and one Muslim guard in an attack on a church in the town of Behawalpur. 

Associated Press- Jul 31, 2002 Beirut, Lebanon – A disgruntled Education Ministry employee opened fire at colleagues at a ministry office, killing eight people and wounding five before he was apprehended by police, police officials and witnesses said. Muslim police chief Maj. Gen. Walid Koleilat claimed a financial dispute was behind the shooting, and dismissed any sectarian motives. But others, noting the gunman was Muslim and his victims Christian, questioned whether religious divisions contributed to the violence. 

Koleilat said the gunman, who had worked for the fund for 23 years, went methodically through offices, shooting. Some of the victims ran out onto a balcony to escape the gunfire, but the gunman shot through the windows, killing two, whose bodies rested on the edge of the railing. Mansour’s family said he worked as a clerk and “fixer,” a term used for people who help cut through red tape at government ministries in return for a tip. He is married with four children. 

As news of the shooting reached Mansour’s village of Loubieh in south Lebanon, relatives and friends gathered at the family house for support. His wife, Mona Khalil, cried out: “This is a catastrophe. … I can’t believe Ahmed would do something like this.” She said Mansour is a diabetic who also took tranquilizers. The building housing the fund is a few hundred yards from the main Education Ministry compound and across the street from the literature department of Lebanese University. 

About 200 police sealed the area. About 20 relatives waiting outside wept as the bodies were being removed from the scene nearly three hours after the attack. They wailed whenever a body was carried out and tried to rush through the police cordon to remove the sheet to identify the victim. Colleagues of the gunman who were in the building at the time of the shooting said the 43-year-old man arrived at midmorning armed with two pistols and a Kalashnikov assault rifle. 

He went to the third floor, where the teachers’ compensation fund has its offices and began shooting. One witness, a government worker who refused to give his name, said after the gunman ran out of ammunition, he dropped his weapons, walked down the stairs and lit a cigarette. At about the same time, police arrived at the scene and arrested him. Koleilat, the police chief, told reporters at the scene that the attacker tried to conceal himself by mixing in the crowd but later tried to run. The police chief dismissed concerns that the attack may have been sectarian-motivated. “It is tragic. It was personal and isolated. We hope that no one makes of this incident more than its isolated nature,” he said.

But George Saade, the Christian head of the teachers’ union whose daughter-in-law was among the dead, was yelling outside the building: “He killed the Christian employees. How can we live in this country?” Muslim Education Minister Abdul-Rahim Murad, who rushed to the scene, said money was the reason behind the shooting. Murad said the gunman was angry that the compensation fund sought repayment of a loan of $12,000 he had taken earlier. “They asked him to sell his car, he sold it, got upset and consequently came and committed his crime,” Murad said. 

The Associated Press – Aug 01, 2002 Newark, N.J. – A Jersey City man charged with killing his pregnant wife, mother-in-law and sister-in-law was arrested by Canadian authorities as he tried to cross the border into Canada, officials said. A fugitive warrant for the arrest of Alim Hassan issued by the Hudson County prosecutor’s office indicated there had been a dispute over his desire that his wife convert to Islam, according to Lt. Larry Baehre of the Buffalo, N.Y., police department, which took custody of Hassan from the Canadians. “The warrant said that he and his wife had previous disputes that she convert to the Muslim religion,” Baehre said.

The victims were Hindu, he said. Hassan, 31, was taken off a Greyhound bus after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police received an anonymous phone call Tuesday evening, said Edward J. DeFazio, the Hudson County Prosecutor. The caller warned that a man who had stabbed the three women to death in their Jersey City home earlier in the day was headed to Toronto from New York City, DeFazio said. On Tuesday morning, Bernadette Seajatan, 49, and her daughters, Sharon Yassim, 30, and Marlyn Hassan, 29, who was married to the defendant, were found dead in the house they shared on Fox Place with their husbands and Yassim’s two sons. 

The two boys, ages 3 and 6, discovered the bloody bodies of their mother, aunt and grandmother, after the three men had left the house Tuesday morning. The Associated Press – Aug 05, 2002 Islamabad, Pakistan – Five unidentified gunmen stormed the gates of a Christian school in a popular mountain resort Monday, killing at least six people and wounding two others before escaping.

The attack occurred at the Murree Christian School in Murree Hills, about 35 miles north of Islamabad in the Himalayan foothills. The school was founded in 1956 to train the children of missionaries here and in neighboring countries. A statement by the school said there had been “several deaths and injuries”. Federal officials in Islamabad said they did not know the identities or the motive of the attackers. The dead were identified as two security guards, two school employees, one unknown person and a retired teacher who was at the school to collect his pension. 

It was the third fatal attack against Christian institutions in this predominantly Muslim country since President Pervez Musharraf joined the U.S.-led war against terrorism last year. Sixteen people were killed in October when gunmen opened fire on a Protestant congregation in the city of Behawalpur. The Associated Press – Aug 9 2002 Taxila, Pakistan – Three attackers hurled grenades Friday at women leaving a church on the grounds of a Presbyterian hospital in Pakistan, killing three nurses and wounding 23 in the second attack this week against Christians.

The attack is the latest in a series of terrorist incidents here since Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf sided with the United States against the Afghan Taliban, outraging extremists. Police said they believed the attack in Taxila, 25 miles northwest of Islamabad, was linked to an assault four days ago against a school for children of Christian missionaries in which six Pakistanis were killed. “It is clear that terrorists are targeting the Christian community in Pakistan,” said S.K. Tressler, the government minister in charge of minority affairs. 

Chief investigator Raja Mumtaz Ahmad told The Associated Press that the attackers wanted to kill Christians or Westerners to express anger over Pakistan’s support for the U.S.-led war against terrorism. The attack occurred as worshippers were leaving a church on the hospital grounds, according to Dr. Ernest Lall, a former hospital director who was in the church. The service was attended mostly by women and children, and women traditionally exit first. 

Doctors said 23 people, mostly female nurses, were wounded and two were in serious condition. Three men had been waiting by the hospital gates for the daily morning service to end before they struck, according to police at the scene in Taxila, 12 miles west of the capital Islamabad. S.K. Tressler, a Christian who is Muslim Pakistan’s minister for minority affairs, told Reuters the dead assailant was shot by an accomplice after being wrestled to the ground by a hospital worker, possibly to prevent him revealing the group’s identity. 

His account was based on police information. “I was still inside the church when I heard explosions,” said staff member Margif Tariq. “Windowpanes were falling on us, everyone was crying, everyone was in pain. … When I came out, I saw dozens of women were lying on the pavement and most of them were bleeding.” The hospital, which is supported by the Presbyterian Church USA and the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan, was founded in 1922 and treats mostly poor Muslim patients. “We have been here since 1922, and someone throws a bomb,” Lall said. “I don’t know why. It is somebody who must be against Christianity. 

We never thought we would be a target like that.” Shah, the regional police commander, said he believed the assailants were linked to the Murree shootings because the attacker who died was wearing clothing similar to that of the school attackers. One day after the Murree attack, three men believed to have carried out the school raid blew themselves up with grenades after being stopped by police in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. 

Before killing themselves, the three men in Kashmir admitted to attacking the school and warned that other groups like them “plan to carry out similar attacks on Americans and nonbelievers, and you will soon hear about it,” Shah said. Extremists have vowed revenge against both Musharraf and his Western supporters since the Pakistani government broke with the Taliban and began a crackdown on hard-line Islamic groups.

“If immediate steps are not taken by authorities to provide protection to Christians, I fear that it will lead to the start of genocide in Pakistan,” said Shahbaz Bhaddi, leader of the All-Pakistan Minorities Alliance. In October, 16 people were killed in an attack on a Christian church in Behawalpur, a city in south-central Pakistan. The Associated Press – Aug 12, 2002 Islamabad, Pakistan – A man in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore allegedly killed his wife and four children because he suspected her of adultery, police and residents said. Investigators said Mohammed Sadiq was taken into custody and that unspecified weapons were seized. 

The four children were between 7 and 14 years old, police said. Hundreds of women and children in Pakistan are killed by their husbands or other male members of their family every year when the woman is suspected of having an immoral character. In most of the cases, the murder suspects are acquitted due to a lack of evidence [in what some say is tacit state approval of extreme private applications of Sharia (Islamic) Law] . The slaying follows the highly publicized case of a woman who was allegedly gang-raped on the order of a tribal council as punishment for her teenage brother having sex with a woman from another clan. 

The Associated Press – Aug 16, 2002 Algiers, Algeria – Islamic insurgents reportedly killed 26 people early Friday, including women and children, in a rural hamlet in western Algeria, the official APS news agency reported. The agency, citing security sources, said the victims were members of three families in Bokaat Laakakcha in the region of Chlef, 155 miles west of the capital, Algiers. 

The attack was carried out by a “terrorist group,” APS said, language used to refer to Islamic extremists who have been locked in a bloody 10-year battle with security forces. The Chlef killings were the latest in what has proved a bloody summer for Algeria. A marketplace bombing on July 5 in Larbaa, just south of Algiers, left 35 people dead. About 170 people were killed in July alone, according to an unofficial count by the press. 

The violence was sparked by an army decision to cancel legislative elections in January 1992 that a now-banned Muslim fundamentalist group was poised to win. The Associated Press – Sept 23, 2002 Cario, Egypt – Two assailants killed a recently engaged 89-year-old woman and stole the jewelry her fiancé gave her at their engagement party, police said. 

Police found Hekmat Hanna dead with her neck slashed Monday, a day after she was attacked. Hanna lived alone in an apartment in Shoubra, a low-income district in Cairo. Her fiancée, George Demyan, also 89, presented the jewelry, worth about $3,000, to Hanna at their engagement party, police said. 

The Coptic Christian couple were to be married in October. It was to be Hanna’s first marriage. Reuters- Sept 25 2002 Karachi, Pakistan – Two gunmen burst into the offices of a Christian charity in the Pakistani city of Karachi and tied up and gagged Christians before shooting them at point blank range, police said. 

The attack was the latest in a series of bloody assaults on Christian or Western targets. Doctors said an eighth man faced permanent paralysis of his left side from a head wound and needed an operation, while a ninth was under sedation after being beaten up in the attack.

The gunmen fled the scene and were being hunted. The attack took place at the city center offices of the Idare-e Amn-O-Insaf, or the Organization for Peace and Justice. “The gunmen first roped all the people inside the room, they also taped their mouths,” a police officer told Reuters. “After, they fired straight at their heads.” “The dead bodies were found lying on chairs,” said provincial police chief Syed Kamal Shah. “It appeared that they were forced to sit there.

Their hands were tied and their mouths were also taped. We found eight empty bullet shells of a TT pistol which means that they were shot point blank,” he said. The attack came a day after two gunmen attacked a Hindu temple in Gujarat state in western India and killed at least 29 people.

Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani has implicitly blamed Pakistan for that attack. Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider told state-run Pakistan Television authorities would track down those responsible. “It’s a very sad incident,” he said. “We condemn it and whosoever has done it, it is matter of time, we will unmask them. But that certainly is not helping Pakistan.” Leaders of the country’s tiny Christian community, however, said the government was not doing enough to protect them.

“It seems that nobody except Muslims will live in Pakistan,” Salim Khursheed Khokhar, a local leader of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance told Reuters by telephone. “Fundamentalism is taking root in Pakistan, and Christians’ places of worships and welfare institutes are being targeted one after the other.” The charity has its offices, which are unmarked, on the third floor of Rimpa Plaza, a 12-storey block in downtown Karachi. A doctor in the next-door office said he had seen two gunmen.

“They were wearing shirts and trousers and were clean shaven,” he said. As a large crowd gathered around the office, the bodies were brought out wrapped in white sheets. Blood dripped off the stretchers carrying the dead men, and there were large bloodstains around their heads. At the hospital female relatives of one victim, Edwin Foster, wailed and beat themselves in grief.

“We were already shattered,” said his mother, Salima. “His father died just a few months back. And now my son… We are ruined, we are ruined.” Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Lopsided statistics citing only the number of deaths of each side do not answer the question of the parties’ moral culpability and standing for acts causing the casualties. Consider that, of the current causalities in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, 2.5% of Palestinian deaths were female, all unintended targets (or female homicide bombers).

Contrast that with 36% of Israeli victims being female, and targeted. There have also been hundreds of other shooting, vehicular, mortar, bomb, and stabbing attacks not listed here. The following is a chronology of only the Palestinian homicide/suicide bombing attacks since Palestinians chose violence September 2000: 

1. Oct 26, 2000 – Homicide bomber strikes near an IDF post in the Gaza Strip, wounding a soldier. 

2. Dec 22, 2000 – Homicide bomber at Restaurant in Jordan River Valley; no Israelis killed, 3 wounded. 

3. Jan 1, 2001 – Homicide bomber, Netanya no Israelis killed, 60 injured. 

4. Mar 1, 2001 – Homicide bomber in taxi near Mei Ami, 1 killed, 12 wounded. 

5. Mar 4, 2001 – Homicide bomber, rush-hour bus stop in Netanya, 3 killed, 51 wounded. 

6. Mar 27, 2001 – Homicide bomber, next to a bus in Jerusalem’s French Hill area, injured 30 Israelis. 

7. Mar 28, 2001 – Homicide bomber, Neve Yamin gas station (near Kfar Saba) kills 2 schoolboys, hurts 4. 

8. Apr 22, 2001 – Homicide bomber kills a doctor and wounds 41 in a rush-hour attack in Kfar Saba.

9. Apr 29, 2001 – Car homicide bomber near Israeli school bus outside Nablus; no Israelis killed, none hurt. 

10. May 18, 2001 – Homicide bomber kills five people and wounds around 60 at a crowded Netanya shopping mall. 

11. May 25, 2001 – Homicide bomber in Truck at military Junction in Gaza Strip; no Israelis killed, none hurt. 

12. May 25, 2001 – Homicide car bomber, attack in Hadera, 0 killed, 20 Israelis wounded. 

13. June 1, 2001 – Homicide bomber among teenagers at a Tel Aviv nightclub, 22 killed, 120 wounded. 

14. June 22, 2001 – Homicide attack, Jeep at Dugit in Gaza Strip; 2 soldiers killed, 1 wounded. 

15. July 9, 2001 – Homicide car bomber near Kissufim Junction; no Israelis killed, none wounded. 

16. July 16, 2001 – Homicide bomber, bus stop in Binyamina, 2 IDF soldiers killed, several wounded. 

17. Aug 8, 2001 – Homicide bomber stopped at military checkpoint in Jordan Valley; no Israelis killed, 1 wounded. 

18. Aug 9, 2001 – Homicide bomber in Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem, 15 killed, dozens wounded. 

19. Aug 12, 2001 – Homicide bomber, restaurant in Kiryat Motzkin (northern Israel), wounds 15 people. 

20. Sept 4, 2001 – Homicide bomber outside a Jerusalem hospital., wounds 15. 

21. Sept 9, 2001 – Israeli Arab blows himself up at a railway station in Nahariya, killing 3, many wounded.

22. Sept 9, 2001 – Homicide Car bomb next to a bus at Beit Lid Junction; no Israelis killed, 13 wounded. 

23. Oct 7, 2001 – Homicide attack near Kibbutz Shluhot; one killed, others wounded. 

24. Oct 17, 2001 – Homicide bomb attack at Nahal Oz kibbutz, no Israelis killed, 2 wounded. 

25. Nov 8, 2001 – Homicide bomber foiled at Baka al-Sharkiyeh, West Bank, no Israelis killed, 2 soldiers wounded. 

26. Nov 26, 2001 – Homicide bombing at Erez crossing, Gaza Strip; no Israelis killed, 2 wounded. 

27. Nov 29, 2001 – Palestinian blows himself up on a bus in Hadera, killing three, wounding many. 

28. Dec 1, 2001 – Double homicide car bombing, central Jerusalem Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall, 11 killed, 150+ hurt. 

29. Dec 2, 2001 – Homicide bomber on a bus in Haifa kills 15 people and wounds40. 

30. Dec 5, 2001 – Homicide bomber outside a Jerusalem hotel wounds three people. 

31. Dec 9, 2001 – Homicide bomber, hitch-hiking post near Haifa, wounds eight people. 

32. Dec 12, 2001 – 2 Palestinians blow themselves up at a Gaza Strip settlement, wounding 3 people. 

33. Jan 25, 2002 – Palestinian blows himself up near a café in Tel Aviv, wounding 25 people. 

34. Jan 27, 2002 – Female homicide bombing on the Jaffa Road in Jerusalem. 2 people killed, 111 injured. 

35. Jan 30, 2002 – Homicide bomber, Shin Bet security service near Taibeh, wounds two. 

36. Feb 16, 2002 – Homicide bomber, shopping center in Karnei Shomron (West Bank), kills 2, wounds 20. 

37. Feb 18, 2002 – Homicide car bomb at Al-Zaim checkpoint on Jerusalem-Maale Adumim road, 1 policeman killed. 

38. Feb 19, 2002 – Homicide bomber kept from boarding Bus near Mehola., none killed. 

39. Feb 22, 2002 – Homicide bomber thwarted, Efrat supermarket in West Bank; no Israelis killed, one wounded. 

40. Feb 27, 2002 – Female homicide bomber at an IDF checkpoint near Modi’in. 5 people wounded. 

41. Mar 2, 2002 – Homicide bomber, Jerusalem Orthodox neighborhood kills 11 (5 children) wounds many more. 

42. Mar 5, 2002 – Homicide bomber, on bus in the Galilee city of Afula killed 1, wounded at least 5. 

43. Mar 7, 2002 – At Ariel, café homicide bombing thwarted, no Israelis killed. 

44. Mar 7, 2002 – Homicide bomber at entrance to West Bank settlement, 4 wounded. 

45. Mar 8, 2002 – Homicide bomber intercepted and killed at Beit Hanina; no Israelis killed. 

46. Mar 9, 2002 – Homicide bomber, crowded Moment Café in Jerusalem, kills 13 people, injures more than 50. 

47. Mar 17, 2002 – Homicide bomber near bus in French Hill in Jerusalem; no Israelis killed, 25 wounded. 

48. Mar 20, 2002 – Homicide bomber on bus near town of Umm al-Fahm, killing 7, wounding 27. 

49. Mar 21, 2002 – Homicide bomber King George Street in heart of Jerusalem kills 3. 

50. Mar 22, 2002 – Homicide bomber at Roadblock interception near Jenin; no Israelis killed, 1 soldier wounded. 

51. Mar 26, 2002 – Homicide bomber near Malha Mall in Jerusalem; no Israelis killed, only accomplices wounded. 

52. Mar 27, 2002 – Homicide bomber, seaside Park Hotel lobby in Netanya, killing 29, wounding more than 100.

53. Mar 29, 2002 – Female homicide bomber, Jerusalem Kiryat Yovel suburb supermarket, killed 2, injured 20. 

54. Mar 30, 2002 – Homicide bomber, busy Tel Aviv Coffee shop on Allenby Street, 1 killed, at least 20 hurt. 

55. Mar 31, 2002 – Homicide bomber, Matza restaurant in Haifa, 15 people are killed and 44 are injured. 

56. Mar 31, 2002 – A second homicide attack wounds 6 at West Bank Ambulance station of Efrat. 

57. Apr 1, 2002 – Homicide Car bomb in Jerusalem, policeman who approached car killed, 4 others hurt. 

58. Apr 10, 2002 – Homicide bomber, commuter bus near Haifa, kills eight and wounds 12. 

59. Apr 12, 2002 – Female homicide bomber, Jerusalem’s main Mahane Yehuda market, killed 6, wounded 104.

60. Apr 19, 2002 – Homicide car bomb at Kissufim checkpoint in Gaza Strip; no Israelis killed, 2 soldiers wounded. 

61. Apr 20, 2002 – Checkpoint near Qalqiliya in West Bank, no Israelis killed. 

62. May 7, 2002 – Homicide bomber, snooker club in Rishon Letzion south of Tel Aviv, killing 16, wounding 55. 

63. May 19, 2002 – Homicide bomber rocks a market in Netanya killing 3, 59 wounded. 

64. May 20, 2002 – Homicide bomber at Taanakhim Junction exploded when approached. No Israelis killed. 

65. May 22, 2002 – Homicide bomber at Park in town of Rishon Letzion kills two people, wounds 27. 

66. May 24, 2002 – Terrorist attempted to ram a car bomb into the Studio 49 Disco in Tel Aviv. Bomber killed, 5 injured. 

67. May 27, 2002 – Homicide bombing Petah Tikva shopping center Ice-cream parlor, 2 people dead, 37 wounded. 

68. June 5, 2002 – Homicide car bomb, Tiberias bus at Megiddo road junction, 17 dead, 37 hurt. 

69. June 11, 2002 – Homicide bombing, restaurant in Herzliya; one killed, 15 others wounded. 

70. June 17, 2002 – West Bank, north of Tul Karm, Palestinian youth blows himself up as Police approach him. 

71. June 18, 2002 – Homicide bombing, Jerusalem commuter/high-school bus. 20 killed, 50 injured. 

72. June 19, 2002 – Homicide bombing at French Hill bus stop in Jerusalem; 7 killed, 35 wounded. 

73. July 16, 2002 – Explosive detonated next to Dan bus #189. Terrorists with IDF uniforms then opened fire. 9 killed, 20 injured. 

74. July 17, 2002 – Two homicide bombers kill 5 and wound 40 in Tel Aviv’s foreign worker neighborhood. 

75. July 30, 2002 – Homicide bomber wounds 5 Israelis in a fast-food store in Jerusalem. 

76. July 31, 2002 – Bomb in Jerusalem’s Hebrew University student cafeteria 9 dead (5 American) 85 wounded. 

77. Aug 4, 2002 – Series of violent events, including homicide bomb on bus near Safad. 10 killed, many hurt. 

78. Aug 5, 2002 – Car at the Umm al-Fahm junction in northern Israel, killing the terrorist and wounding the driver. 

79. Sept 18, 2002 – Bomber, waiting for bus, kills policeman who approached him at Umm al Fahm junction. 3 wounded. 

80. Sept 19, 2002 – A homicide bomb attack on a bus in Tel Aviv kills 6 injuring more than 50. 

81. Oct 10, 2002 – Denied boarding, homicide bomber at bus stop near Tel Aviv, killing elderly woman, wounding 30. 

82. Oct 13, 2002 – Tel Aviv Café homicide bomber thwarted/arrested by security, none hurt, belt unexploded. 

83. Oct 21, 2002 – A homicide car bomb exploded next to bus between Hadera/Afula, killing 16, wounding 40. 

84. Oct 27, 2002 – Jerusalem, homicide bomber at a gas station, killing 3, and injuring 20 more. 

85. Nov 2, 2002 – Thwarted at Tappuah junction checkpoint in the West Bank, 2 carrying explosive belt in car. 

86. Nov 4, 2002 – Homicide bomber in shopping mall in Kfar Saba kills 3, wounds 70 (including 2 infants). 

87. Nov 7, 2002 – Homicide bomber killed rushing guards at checkpoint near Jewish settlement of Kedumim. 

88. Nov 10 2002 – Kibbutz Metzer, car exploded killing Palestinian homicide bomber when Israeli police moved to stop it. 

89. Nov 21 2002 – Homicide bomber, Jerusalem bus packed with students/elderly/commuters, killed 11, wounded 50. 

90. Jan 5, 2002 – Tel Aviv, dual homicide bombers killed 23 bystanders and injured more than 100. 

91. Mar 5, 2003 – Haifa, homicide bomber on a bus filled with students/commuters, killing 17, injuring 53. 

92. Mar 30, 2003 – Pedestrian mall at Café entrance in the center of Netanya. Bomber killed, over 40 wounded.

93. Apr 24, 2003 – Security man killed confronting bomber outside railway station in the town of Kfar Saba. 

94. Apr 30, 2003 – Popular café in Tel Aviv, just after a new Palestinian cabinet wins approval. 4 killed, dozens injured. 

95. May 17, 2003 – Hebron, bomber disguised as a religious Jew kills an Israeli man & his pregnant wife. 3 killed 

96. May 18, 2003 – Homicide bomber in Egged bus #6 near French Hill in northern Jerusalem. 7 killed, 20 wounded.

97. May 18, 2003 – A second bomber kills self, minutes after bus bombing as emergency crews arrive. 0 killed 

98. May 19, 2003 – Gaza Strip, homicide bomber riding a bicycle detonated his explosives. 3 soldiers injured. 

99. May 19, 2003 – Woman bomber in shopping mall, northern town of Afula. 3 killed, 70 injured. 

100. Jun 11, 2003 – Homicide bomber in Egged Bus #14 in Jerusalem (Jaffa Road). 17 killed, 100 wounded. 

101. Jun 19, 2003 – Grocer killed approaching homicide bomber in his store waiting for commuters, south of Beit Shean. 

102. Jul 7, 2003 – Islamic Jihad homicide bomber in a home near Tel Aviv, killing a 65-year-old Israeli woman. 

103. Aug 12, 2003 – Homicide bomber at a Rosh Haayin strip mall, one dead, 9 wounded. 

104. Aug 12, 2003 – Homicide bomber at Ariel settlement Bus stop, one dead, 2 seriously wounded teenagers. 

105. Aug 19, 2003 – Homicide bomber in Jerusalem Bus, 22 Killed including 8 children and infants, 135 wounded. 

106. Sep 9, 2003 – Homicide bomber at a Tel Aviv bus stop serving hospital workers and soldiers, 8 killed, 15 wounded. 

107. Sep 9, 2003 – Homicide bomber at a popular Hillel Café on Jerusalem’s Emek Refaim Street, 7 killed, 30 wounded.

108. Oct 4, 2003 – Woman homicide bomber in Haifa restaurant, 21 dead including several children, 60 wounded. 

109. Oct 9, 2003 – Suicide bomber at the entrance to Tulkarm, injuring two IDF soldiers and a Palestinian. 

110. Oct 15, 2003 – Bomb demolishes armor-plated jeep in Gaza Strip convoy carrying U.S. diplomats (3 dead, 1 wounded).

111. Dec 25, 2003 – Homicide bomber at a bus stop outside Tel-Aviv kills 4. 112. Jan 14, 2004 – Homicide bomber, mother of 2, at Gaza Strip Erez crossing kills 4, wounds 15. 

113. Jan 29, 2004 – Homicide bomber in a Jerusalem bus kills 10, seriously maims 50, including several children. 

114. Feb 22, 2004 – Homicide bomber on a morning Jerusalem bus crowded with children, killing 8, maiming 59. 

115. Aug 31, 2004 – Two Be'er Sheva buses explode almost simultaneously, killing 16 and wounding 86. 116. Sep 22, 2004 – Woman homicide bomber near a hitch-hiking post in Jerusalem, killing two and wounding 15. 117. Nov 1, 2004 – Palestinian boy (16) in Tel Aviv crowded outdoor market, killing three, wounding 32. 

The Associated Press – Oct 25, 2002 Moscow, Russia – Armed assailants from Chechnya stormed a theater Wednesday and took hundreds of people hostage Muslim Chechen rebels threatened to begin killing their 600+ hostages at dawn Saturday. The head of the Russian Federal Security Service, Nikolai Patrushev, said the approximately 50 rebels’ lives would be guaranteed for the freedom of all hostages including 30 children and 75 foreigners.

The terrorists, including women who claim to be widows of ethnic insurgents, have demanded that Russia withdraw its troops from the Caucasus province of Chechnya. Earlier, a Web site linked to the rebels said they would blow up the theater if the Russians did not withdraw in seven days. 

On Thursday, two women raced to freedom under fire from a grenade launcher. Their escape came after medics dragged the body of a young woman from the theater. She was shot in the chest, reportedly killed as she tried to move around inside the theater after the attack began. The hostages include Americans, Britons, Dutch, Australians, Austrians and Germans. In the initial minutes of the hostage taking, the rebels released some children and those identified as Muslims. Russian NTV crews were allowed inside with a doctor Friday and videotape was broadcast showing three male captors in camouflage and carrying Kalashnikov-style rifles. 

Two wore black masks. The television identified a third man, who wore no mask, as group leader Movsar Barayev, a nephew of rebel warlord Arbi Barayev, who reportedly died last year. Two women in the group of rebels wore robes with Arabic script on the head coverings. Only their eyes were exposed, and they cradled pistols against their chests. The women had what looked to be explosives wrapped in tape around their waists. 

The packages were wired to a small button the women carried in their hands. A hostage, said the situation inside the theater was tense and conditions were worsening. The captives had not received food or water and were using the theater’s orchestra pit as a toilet. Yelena Malyonkina, also a spokeswoman for the “Nord-Ost” musical being staged in the theater, said captive production official Anatoly Glazychev told her a bomb was placed in the center of the theater and the stage and aisles were mined. 

“Both the terrorists and hostages are nervous,” Malyonkina said. Putin said the audacious raid was planned by terrorists based outside Russia, and the Qatar-based satellite television channel Al-Jazeera broadcast statements allegedly made by some hostage-takers and apparently prepared well in advance of the incident. “I swear by God we are more keen on dying than you are keen on living,” a black-clad male said in recorded remarks. “Each one of us is willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of God and the independence of Chechnya.” 

Over the past decade, Chechens or their sympathizers have been involved in a number of bold, often bloody hostage-taking situations in southern Russian provinces, especially in Dagestan. Nearly 200 hundred hostages and rescuers died in two of operations. Nov 4th, 2002 update, 120 hostages killed (most by gas), hundreds saved, most terrorists killed. Other recent Russian terrorist incidents perpetrated by Muslim Chechen rebels or their supporters: ; Jun 14, 1995: Chechen gunmen took 2,000 hostages at hospital in southern Russian town of Budyonnovsk, near Chechnya.

After failed attempts at force, Russia negotiated hostages’ release after week in exchange for gunmen’s escape. More than 100 dead. ; Jan 9, 1996: Chechen militants seized 3,000 hostages at hospital in southern Russian town of Kizlyar. Rebels released most, then headed for Chechnya with about 100 hostages. Stopped in village and attacked by Russian troops. At least 78 dead in weeklong fight. ; Jan 16, 1996: Six Turks and three Russians held 255 hostages on ferry in Black Sea, threatening to blow up ship if Russia didn’t halt battle near Kizlyar. 

Surrendered after three days. ; Mar 9, 1996: Turkish sympathizer hijacked jetliner flying out of Cyprus to draw attention to situation in Chechnya. Surrendered after plane landed in Munich, Germany. ; Sep 4, 1999: Bomb destroyed building housing Russian military officers and families in Buinaksk in Russia’s Dagestan region. Sixty-four dead. Russian officials blamed Chechen terrorists. ; Sept 9, 1999: Explosion wrecks nine-story apartment building in southeast Moscow. At least 93 killed. Authorities suspect Chechen bomb. ;

Sep 13, 1999: Suspected bomb destroyed apartment building in southern Moscow, killing at least 70. ; Sep 16, 1999: Bombs sheared off front of nine-story apartment building in Volgodonsk, 500 miles south of Moscow, killing 20. ; Mar 16, 2001: Three Chechens hijacked Russian airliner leaving Istanbul and diverted it to Saudi Arabia. Saudi forces stormed plane, killing one hijacker and two hostages. ;

Apr 22, 2001: Some 20 gunmen held about 120 people for 12 hours at hotel in Istanbul, Turkey, to protest Russian actions in Chechnya. Surrendered to police and released hostages unarmed. ; Dec 27, 2002: Suicide truck-bomb attack destroys headquarters of Chechnya's Moscow-backed government, killing 72 people. ; Oct 23, 2002: Chechen militants take some 800 people hostage at a Moscow theater. Two days later, Russian special forces storm building and 129 hostages and 41 Chechen fighters are killed, mostly from effects of narcotic gas Russian special forces used to subdue the attackers. ; 

May 4, 2002: Lone gunman held 13 people hostage at hotel in Istanbul to protest situation in Chechnya, later surrendered. ; May 12, 2003: Suicide truck-bomb attack kills at least 60 people at a government compound in northern Chechnya. ; Aug 1, 2003: Suicide bomber rams truck filled with explosives into a military hospital near Chechnya, killing 50 people, including Russian troops wounded in Chechnya. ; Sep 3, 2003: Two bombs were planted on the track under a commuter train of the railway line linking Kislovodsk to Mineralnye Vody in the Caucasus region.

There were about 50 people in the third car of the six-car train which was directly hit by the blast. The bombs killed five people, and 30 people were wounded. An officer at the headquarters of the Caucasus Military District, which oversees Chechnya, said that the military had received intelligence information that Chechnya rebels (terrorists) were preparing a series of attacks in southern Russia. ; Dec 5, 2003: Suicide bombing on commuter train in southern Russia kills 44 people. Putin condemns attack as bid to destabilize the country two days before parliamentary elections. ; 

Feb 6, 2004: Explosion rips through a subway car in the Moscow metro during rush hour, killing 41 people. ; Aug 24, 2004: Two airliners crash within minutes of each other after taking off from the same airport, killing a total of 90 people. Officials say explosive traces were found in the wreckage and President Vladimir Putin calls the crashes terrorist acts. ; Sep 1, 2004: Many men and women militants carrying guns and wearing suicide-bomb belts seize an elementary school in the Russian region of North Ossetia bordering Chechnya, taking up to 1200 hostages, half of them children. Ended with hundreds killed and hundreds wounded. 

The Associated Press - Oct 2, 2002 Jammu, India – Islamic Militants Kill 11 in Kashmir. Suspected Islamic militants opened fire on supporters of the pro-India governing party in Indian-controlled Kashmir and a bomb exploded on a bus filled with Hindu pilgrims on a day of violence that left at least 11 people dead. 

The attacks came a day after voters went to polls in the third of four phases of Jammu-Kashmir state elections, which separatist Islamic militants have vowed to disrupt, saying they are rigged in favor of pro-India politicians. In the first attack, a bomb exploded on a bus filled with Hindu pilgrims after it left Jammu, the state’s winter capital, killing at least two passengers and injuring 22 others, police and hospital officials said. 

The worshippers were bound for the starting point of a pilgrimage to the shrine of the Hindu goddess of power, Vaishno Devi. Hours later, five paramilitary soldiers were killed when suspected insurgents triggered an explosive device while the soldiers were checking a road for land mines in the village of Pashtoon, about 40 miles south of Srinagar, a police officer said. Voting for the state legislature was held in that area. 

The Pakistan-based Hezb-ul Mujahedeen, the largest guerrilla group in Kashmir, claimed responsibility for the attack. Also Wednesday, suspected guerrillas shot and killed three political activists with the ruling National Conference party in Haihama, a small town about 65 miles north of Srinagar, the officer said. And police said one officer was killed and another injured in a remote-controlled explosion in Bhaderwa, 127 miles northeast of Jammu. 

Nine people were killed in a raid on a bus near the Pakistan border in Kashmir’s Kathua district, just before polls opened for the third round of state assembly elections, and six paramilitary soldiers were also killed in an explosion Tuesday. The militants have waged a 12-year insurgency for the independence of Indian-controlled Kashmir or its merger with Muslim Pakistan. More than 60,000 people have been killed and thousands are missing. 

Reuters – Oct 9, 2002 Kuwait – Kuwait said it had arrested up to 50 people suspected of aiding two Kuwaitis to kill a U.S. Marine and wound another in what the government said was a “terrorist attack”. The two Kuwaitis approached the Marines in a pick-up truck, stepped out of the vehicle and opened fire on troops during the annual U.S. Eager Mace exercise on Failaka Island. U.S. defense officials, who asked not to be identified, said the Kuwaitis had attended training camps in Afghanistan run by Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network. 

The attackers, killed by the Marines in Tuesday’s incident on a Kuwaiti island, were buried in what witnesses said turned into an anti-Western rally amid loud chants of “Allahu Akbar,” or God is Greatest. Writer Mohammad al-Mulafi, who attended the burial of the two Kuwaitis, said: “A dispute erupted when the brothers (fellow Islamists of the attackers) chanted that they were martyrs and in Islam it is not right to pray ahead of burying martyrs.” Mulafi said a clergyman addressing hundreds of people at the burial had said “The Jews and Christians must exit from the peninsula of the Arabs” – a long-standing demand by bin Laden. The clergyman also said “what the attackers did was their duty.” The security source said the attackers were known to authorities as Islamic activists who had been questioned about visits to Afghanistan. 

“When we held them before, they said they were there (in Afghanistan) for humanitarian efforts and that kind of talk,” the source said, adding that direct links to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda group were being investigated. Abdullah al-Kandari, the brother of attacker Anas Kandari, told Reuters he was not aware if Anas was linked to al Qaeda, but he had earlier asked to be buried as a “martyr.” Reuters – Oct 17, 2002 Zamboanga, Philippines – Bombs ripped through the main shopping district of a mostly Christian city in an area of the southern Philippines at the heart of Muslim insurgency Thursday, killing six and wounding about 150.

It was the second major bomb attack in southeast Asia in less than a week and suspicion immediately focused on a radical Muslim group also being investigated for Saturday’s explosions on the Indonesian island of Bali, in which more than 180 people died. Shouts of “There’s a bomb,” “Another explosion,” “Run…Run” rent the air in the city of Zamboanga as terrified shoppers and shopkeepers ran on to narrow streets littered with wreckage, glass and mutilated bodies from the twin midday blasts. The military blamed radicals fighting for an Islamic state in the south of the Roman Catholic nation and said investigators were looking into the possible involvement of the militant Jemaah Islamiah group.

“All threat groups are suspect in this incident, including the Jemaah Islamiah…and others,” armed forces deputy spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Danilo Servando told reporters in Manila, referring to the Indonesia-based group linked by some to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network. The twin explosions in Zamboanga came amid a heightened security alert across the country after the Bali bombings, in which carnage Jemaah Islamiah is also suspected. Police said they were questioning 16 people, including two Turkish nationals and a Malaysian, over the Zamboanga explosions. 

The blasts occurred about two weeks after a homemade bomb exploded near a karaoke bar in the city, killing a U.S. soldier and two Filipino civilians. Police blamed that explosion, on October 2, on the Abu Sayyaf. Asked if Muslim extremist groups might be involved, Zamboanga Mayor Maria Clara Lobregat said: “Most probably. They are the only ones who would do this. One can only weep at what these terrorists have done.” She said six people were killed and that at least 20 of the 143 injured were in critical condition. The dead included at least three women and a child. One man’s head was blown off. At least one man had his limbs blown off. Police were seen later dragging away bodies, some horribly disfigured. 

The first bomb, which exploded around noon in the Shop-o-Rama, one of the most popular malls in Zamboanga, wrecked cars, flung motorcycles down the street and tore open shuttered shops. One man was thrown through a plate glass window. Thirty minutes later, an explosion rocked a store nearby. Troops found and defused at least two other bombs. “The bombings are apparently coordinated,” newly installed southern military command chief Lt. Gen. Narciso Abaya told reporters.

“They are targeting crowded places where there are plenty of civilians.” Blood smeared the floors of the hospital where doctors and paramedics worked furiously to save lives. Zamboanga has been the scene in recent years of bombings blamed on the Muslim Abu Sayyaf guerrillas, whom the United States has linked to al Qaeda. The region is home to most of the four million Muslim minority in an overwhelmingly Christian country of 76 million. 

Reuters – Oct 17, 2002 Karachi, Pakistan – Authorities are questioning eight post office employees about a series of parcel bombs that exploded in quick succession in Karachi, injuring nine people, police and postal officials said. At least one of the packages had “From Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal,” written on it, a reference to the United Action Front, a coalition of anti-American religious parties that made unprecedented gains in last week’s national elections. E-mails claiming responsibility on behalf of a militant Muslim group called Lashkar-e-Jhangvi were later received by a Pakistani daily newspaper and a local news agency. 

The e-mails said 35 packages containing 5 ounces of explosives each had been mailed from three different post offices. Four went off and six others were defused. It was not clear what happened to the others, or if they were ever sent. The e-mail said the bombs were “a warning to those police officers involved in operations against ‘Mujahedeen’ (holy warriors) at the behest of the Americans.” It said guerrilla operations would soon start against “anti-Islam police officers and other infidels.” Other Muslims are planning a mass attack on the United States, it said. Police said the e-mails claiming responsibility for the parcel bombs appeared authentic. 

Reuters – Oct 17, 2002 Bali, Indonesia – Indonesian police questioned four men Thursday over the weekend bomb blasts in Bali as Australia warned it had disturbing information of new threats against Westerners in the troubled country. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the information emerged just hours ago, and he urged Australians to leave the world’s most populous Muslim nation if they felt unsafe. 

An international team of investigators is hunting for clues to the devastating Saturday night attacks which killed more than 180 people, including up to 119 Australians, and wounded hundreds more. Under increasing international pressure, President Megawati Sukarnoputri’s government has spoken of enacting emergency anti-terror measures but there was no indication when these might go into effect.

Indonesia is considered a weak link in the U.S.-led war on terror in Southeast Asia, with critics saying the government is reluctant to crack down on radical Muslim groups for fear of upsetting the moderate mainstream. Australian Prime Minister John Howard flew to Bali for a one-day visit to attend a memorial service for the victims and assess the situation. In an earlier interview with the BBC, Howard described Islamic extremism as “dangerous and evil,” but urged his compatriots to show tolerance toward moderate Muslims in the wake of the bombings that stunned Bali and its three million people. Australia bore the brunt of the casualties from the car bomb blast that ripped through several nightclubs. Two smaller bombs went off in Bali around the same time Saturday night. 

“I hope in a small way to express the feelings of the rest of the Australian community toward those people who have suffered and lost so much,” Howard said of his visit to Bali. … suspicion has fallen on Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda and an Indonesian-based group, Jemaah Islamiah, which some link to al Qaeda. Australia said it could take weeks to identify many of the charred and mutilated victims and Howard said his one-day trip would give him a chance to assess the situation as criticism mounts about the slow pace of identification. In her strongest move yet against extremist Islamic groups, Megawati is planning to bypass parliament and issue the anti-terrorism decree that would give police stronger powers to act against suspects. 

With Washington and jittery Asian neighbors piling pressure on Indonesia to take firm action, a presidential aide said the anti-terror decree would be issued “as soon as possible.” Asian countries point a finger at a Muslim cleric living in Indonesia, Abu Bakar Bashir, as leader of Jemaah Islamiah which they say has planned acts of terror throughout the region. Bashir denies any knowledge of the group or links to terrorism and told reporters “the bombings were engineered by infidels to launch war against Islam.” He has previously blamed the United States. 

The Associated Press – Oct 17, 2002 Jakarta, Indonesia – The government seeks expanded power to fight terrorism which could put it on a collision course with Islamic extremists widely blamed for the bombings that claimed more than 180 lives Saturday, including 7 Americans. Human rights protections were written into law after the overthrow in 1998 of President Suharto, whose 32-year dictatorship saw hundreds of thousands of people sent to prison camps for long periods without trial.

Megawati met Parliamentary Speaker Akbar Tandjung to discuss the decree, based on legislation that has been stalled in Parliament for months over fears it could give the security forces too much power. Indonesia has come under enormous pressure from the United States, Australia and other countries to strike against Jemaah Islamiyah, a militant group whose alleged spiritual leader, Abu Bakar Bashir, runs an Islamic boarding school.

The government has long feared that taking action against Bashir could fuel a backlash by Islamic extremists. Ministers for the first time — delicately — said this week that Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah exist in the world’s most populous Muslim country, but have tiptoed around the issue of moving against it and Bashir. Australia, which is believed to have scores of its citizens among the 183 killed in the bombing, said that it had new information about possible threats in Indonesia and urged Australians to leave the country.

New Zealand issued a similar advisory. Malaysia has pressured Indonesia without success for months to take stronger action against Jemaah Islamiyah. A Malaysian government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that a long-sought suspect, Azahari Husin, 45, may be involved in the attack. Azahari received extensive bomb-making training in Afghanistan before late 2001 and was among seven militants who fled to Indonesia in January as Malaysia and Singapore arrested scores of suspects allegedly plotting to bomb the U.S. and other Western embassies in Singapore. 

“Our intelligence shows that Azahari is likely to have had a hand about the bombing” in Bali, the Malaysian official told AP. “Azahari is well trained in all types of bombs, especially remote-controlled explosives.” An Indonesian cleric who was long the right-hand man of Bashir, Riduan Isamudin, or Hambali, may also have been involved in the attack, said the official. Both lived in Malaysia in exile in the 1980s. Hambali is accused by Malaysia of arranging a meeting of two of the Sept. 11 hijackers and Al Qaeda operatives in Malaysia in January 2000, as well as organizing the Singapore bombing plot. His whereabouts are unknown. 

The Associated Press – Oct 17, 2002 Kuwait – Kuwaiti authorities arrested a 17-year-old male teenager Thursday who had fuel explosives in his car near a shopping center and residential high-rise where some U.S. soldiers live just outside Kuwait City, near the Alia and Ghalia towers in Fintas. The youth had 10 bottles holding gasoline-with soaked cloth fuses in his car and told police he had received orders from Pakistan via the Internet to place the explosives in the towers. 

The Associated Press – Oct 18, 2002 Manila, Philippines – A bomb ripped through a bus in suburban Manila late Friday, killing at least three people and injuring 23 others, hours after a grenade blast in the capital’s financial district and a day after two deadly bombings in the southern Philippines. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bus blast, but officials have said the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group was the most likely suspect for Thursday’s noontime bombings in downtown Zamboanga city that killed seven people and injured more than 150. 

The bus explosion took place at 10 p.m. on the EDSA highway, one of the capital’s main thoroughfares, in Quezon City, despite tightened security following the earlier attacks. The explosion in the back of the blue Golden Highway company bus ripped off its roof and part of its sides and sent debris flying 20 to 30 yards away. Two hours later, workers still had not managed to retrieve one badly mangled body from the vehicle, which had roughly 50 to 60 seats. “This is the handiwork of people with evil minds,” national police operations chief Vidal Querol said. 

The Associated Press – Oct 20, 2002 Zamboanga, Philippines – A bomb on a parked bicycle exploded near a crowded Roman Catholic shrine Sunday in the southern Philippines, killing a soldier and injuring 18 people. It was the fifth bombing this month. The blast demolished stalls selling food, candles and other religious items outside the historical site of Fort Pilar in Zamboanga, a predominantly Christian port city about 530 miles south of Manila. The ground was splattered with blood. 

Sunday’s bomb was concealed in either a box or a tin can and placed on a bicycle, witnesses said. The vehicle was parked near a gate to an open-air worship area where Mass is celebrated. “There was a loud explosion and everybody was screaming,” worshipper Fe Sanctuario said. “I knew that it was a bomb because the explosion was so loud and many stalls selling Christian icons had been destroyed.”

Although the area was crowded with worshippers, the turnout was not as great as past Sundays because of rainy weather and fears of another attack. The blast injured 18 people and killed a Filipino marine corporal assigned to guard the shrine’s gate, police said. Two other bombings happened Friday in Manila. 

A grenade went off in Makati, the Philippines’ main financial district. No one was hurt in that blast. But later, a bomb ripped open a bus in the capital and killed two people and injured 20. Security officials suspect that the Zamboanga blasts may have been staged by the Abu Sayyaf which Philippine and U.S. officials have linked to al-Qaida or Muslim separatists to divert ongoing military offensives. A police official, Napoleon Castro, said investigators were looking at the possibility of the involvement of the Jemaah Islamiyah, believed to be al-Qaida’s main ally in Southeast Asia, in Friday’s bus bombing. The attack was similar to a Dec. 30, 2000, bomb attack on a passenger bus, one of five almost simultaneous blasts in metropolitan Manila which killed 22 people.

The Associated Press – Oct 24, 2002 Seattle, WA – West Coast investigators are digging into the lives of two men named in connection with 13 sniper attacks in the Washington, D.C., area, searching for clues as to what may have motivated a killing spree. John Allen Muhammad, 42, one of the men, is a former soldier at Fort Lewis and said to be sympathetic to the Sept. 11 hijackers, The Seattle Times reported Thursday, quoting unidentified federal officials. He and John Lee Malvo, 17, a Jamaican citizen believed to be his stepson, may have been motivated by anti-American sentiments, the officials said. Neither was believed to be associated with the Al Qaeda terrorist network, authorities said.

“It appears that they are and have acted on their own,” Bellingham Police Chief Randy Carroll said. Muhammad had been targeted for conversion while serving in Iraq in 1991 after divorcing his first wife 17 years ago. He changed his name last year from John Allen Williams, investigators told the Times. Muhammad had helped provide security for Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan’s “Million Man March” in Washington, D.C., according to Leo Dudley, a former Marine who lived a block from Muhammad. 

[National of Islam officials in Chicago admitted he was a member]. Muhammad, who was stationed at Fort Lewis in the 1980s and served in the Gulf War, had four children by two marriages that ended in divorce. Both involved bitter custody battles and at least one accusation that he abducted the children, the Times reported. 

[Muhammad has since been tied to the murder of a woman in Washington State who was sympathetic to his X-wife.] Fox News learned from police sources that some people who knew both men said that 17-year-old John Lee Malvo, a Jamaican citizen, was nicknamed “Sniper” by Muhammad, who would call him that in public. The Seattle Times quoted federal sources saying Muhammad and Malvo had been known to speak sympathetically about the hijackers who attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon. 

The Associated Press – Oct 25, 2002 Algiers, Algeria – Attackers killed 21 members of the same family, including a three-month old baby, in a massacre that bore the hallmarks of Islamic extremists, Algeria’s official news agency said. The assailants stabbed and shot to death the victims in rural Ouled Abdallah, about 125 miles west of Algiers in the Chlef region, the APS agency said. Five people were in critical condition in Sobha hospital after being shot in the head. APS referred to the killers as a “terrorist group,” language used in Algeria to refer to Islamic extremists.

The radical Armed Islamic Group is present in the Chlef region and known for massacres of civilians. It was the fourth large-scale killing this month in Algeria, where the government has been trying to end a decade-long Islamic insurgency. In the most recent attack, Algerian militants killed at least seven people on Oct. 20 at a highway roadblock. Extremists are trying to topple the military-backed government and set up an Islamic state.

The Associated Press – Oct 30, 2002 Jerusalem, Israel – Tarek Abu Safaka 22, a Palestinian gunman, crawled under a fence and opened fire at about 10:30 p.m. and killed two teenage girls as they were walking and a woman at home with her husband in the Hermesh Jewish settlement in the West Bank before being shot dead in a firefight with soldiers and residents. The Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade claimed responsibility. 

The Associated Press – Oct 31, 2002 Jakarta, Indonesia – Indonesian officials said it was possible that soldiers were behind the killings of two American teachers and an Indonesian in troubled Papua province, and the military chief promised justice if that is proven. Indonesian military commanders initially blamed separatists who have been fighting a low-level insurgency in Papua for the Aug. 31 ambush on a convoy of teachers that killed the three. 

Ten others were wounded in the attack. The Free Papua Movement, which has a led the insurgency against Indonesian rule, denied any role. The Free Papua Movement members are overwhelmingly Christians and animists. … Indonesian troops have a long history of attacks on civilians in Papua, a vast jungle territory forcibly incorporated into Indonesia in 1963. 

Ten Special Forces soldiers were charged in last year’s assassination of the province’s top political leader, Theys Eluay. Reuters – Nov 11, 2002 Jerusalem, Israel – Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the removal of Yasser Arafat’s “terror regime” after a Palestinian gunman killed five Israelis, including a mother and her two children, in a kibbutz. … A gunman slipped overnight into Kibbutz Metzer, near the dividing line between northern Israel and the West Bank, and opened fire outside a dining hall, killing a woman visitor and the kibbutz’s chief administrator.

The militant then burst into a house, shooting dead a 34-year-old woman in the doorway of her children’s room and killing her two young sons, aged four and five, as they clutched covers over their head. On Monday, Avi Ohayon staggered through the toy-filled room where his ex-wife and children died, then collapsed on a mattress when he spotted several small objects on one of the beds. “God help me,” he screamed. “They killed a child who had a pacifier.” The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Arafat’s Fatah group, claimed responsibility.

It said it was avenging Israel’s killing of an Islamic militant leader, and vowed “more martyrdom attacks until occupation leaves our land.” BBC News – Nov 22, 2002 Nigeria, Africa – ‘Riots spread to capital’: Hundreds of Muslim youths have gone on the rampage in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, following Friday prayers. BBC’s Haruna Bahago in Abuja says people armed with sticks, daggers and knives set fire to vehicles and attacked anyone they suspected of being Christian.

Earlier rioting in the northern city of Kaduna, in protest at the Miss World beauty contest, left at least 100 people dead, according to Red Cross officials Thousands of Muslim youths went through the suburbs of Kaduna, putting up barricades of burning tires, setting fire to buildings, and attacking churches. Kaduna is one of Nigeria’s most volatile cities; more than 2,000 people died there in clashes between Christians and Muslims two years ago. The Kaduna rioters demanded the cancellation of the Miss World contest. 

Muslim groups say it is immoral and degrading to women, and are also angry that preliminary events began during the holy month of Ramadan. The protests began after a newspaper suggested that the Prophet Mohammed would have probably chosen to marry one of the Miss World contestants if he had witnessed the beauty pageant – which Nigeria is currently hosting. The holding of the Miss World contest in Nigeria has also provoked international controversy. 

It had been threatened by a boycott by beauty queens after a woman convicted of adultery, Amina Lawal, was sentenced by a Sharia court to death by stoning. Reuters – Dec 5, 2002 Karachi, Pakistan – An explosion and the slaying of three people at Macedonia’s consulate offices whose bodies were found inside may have been the work of al-Qaida taking revenge for the killing of seven militant suspects in the Macedonian capital, police said. Investigators found messages scrawled on a wall referring to al-Qaida and warning against “infidels”. 

The victims two men and a woman had their hands and feet bound and their throats slit. Doctors at Karachi’s Jinnah Medical Center who performed autopsies on the victims said their hands and legs were tied, their mouths gagged and their throats slit, and the weapon used was still in the body of one victim. One of the dead was the night watchman, a Christian, police said. The other bodies were not immediately identified.

The Macedonian Foreign Ministry called the assault “a professionally prepared terrorist attack” and instructed its embassies and consular offices worldwide to boost security. In a statement, the ministry also expressed “strong bitterness and deep condolences for the victims,” all believed to be Pakistani. Counter terrorism police were investigating the possibility that the slayings and subsequent explosion may have been in retaliation for the killing of seven Pakistanis in Macedonia on March 2. Macedonian police opened fire on a van that tried to drive through a roadblock in the capital, Skopje, killing seven Pakistanis inside. 

Police said they found seven Kalashnikov assault rifles, several hand grenades and ammunition in the van. Macedonian officials said the seven had planned attacks on Western embassies.

One of them was identified as Ahmet Ikaz, 24, a Pakistani listed as a known criminal by Interpol. Associated Press – Dec 26, 2002 Lahore, Pakistan – Mourners buried three girls – aged 6, 10 and 15 – killed in a Christmas grenade attack on a tiny church in eastern Pakistan, and police detained an Islamic cleric, Afzar, who in a sermon at a nearby mosque called on followers to kill Christians 3 days before the bombing. 

Afzar reportedly told his congregation that “it is the duty of every good Muslim to kill Christians,” according to Nazir Yaqub, a police officer in Daska. “Afzar told people ‘you should attack Christians and not even eat until you have seen their dead bodies”. Afzar’s son, Attaullah, was also detained for questioning.

The two are open supporters of the banned group Jaish-e-Mohammed, a violent anti-India organization with ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network, said a police officer in Chianwala, Mohammed Riaz. Police also detained three other people Thursday for questioning in the attack which injured 13 people in Chianwala, about 40 miles northwest of Lahore. 

Two assailants covered in burqas – the all-encompassing garment worn by women in some Islamic countries – tossed a grenade into the middle of worshippers at a Christmas service. Security had been increased in churches ahead of Christmas celebrations around, but a policeman who was to guard the church failed to show up for work, according to his superiors. The policeman, identified as Shah Nawaz, was being questioned, but it was not yet clear whether he was simply negligent or was party to the attack, said Yaqub. About 40 people, mostly women and children and all Pakistanis, were attending the Christmas Day service. 

There have been four other deadly attacks on Christians in Pakistan this year. The last was on Sept. 25, when gunmen entered the offices of a Christian welfare organization in Karachi, tied seven employees to their chairs and shot each in the head. Reuters – Mar 7, 2003 Rabat, Morocco – A court in Casablanca Thursday handed out prison sentences ranging from one month to one year to 14 heavy metal music enthusiasts, the official MAP news agency reported. The trial followed articles in some newspapers which described the accused as "Satanists" who recruited for an international cult of devil-worship. The 14 men, aged between 22 and 35 years, were found guilty of "possessing objects which infringe morals" and of "acts capable of undermining the faith of a Muslim."

Morocco's penal code allows a maximum sentence of three years for attempting to convert a Muslim to another faith. Nine of those sentenced are musicians in three Moroccan heavy metal groups. The judge remarked during the trial that "Normal people go to concerts in a suit and tie," rather than in a black T-shirt with heavy-metal symbols which was shown to the court. 

The judge also found suspicious the fact that one of the musicians chose to pen lyrics in English rather than Arabic. Associated Press – Apr 23, 2003 Tehran, Iran – An Iranian actress was given a suspended sentence of 74 lashes for kissing a young actor on the cheek, the actress said. Gowhar Kheirandish was prosecuted after she shook hands and kissed Ali Zamani at a public festival in the city of Yazd in September, provoking organized protests. Iran’s strict Islamic laws ban socializing between unrelated men and women. 

Public kissing between men and women is considered un-Islamic and taboo. “I’ve been sentenced to 74 suspended lashes,” Kheirandish told The Associated Press. She said the kiss was an “emotional, motherly gesture.” Earlier this week, Yazd’s public court found Kheirandish guilty and sentenced her. (Of Course the Rapping OF THE REPORTER and abusive behavior of Muslims in the Egyptian Protests was considered O.K?)

The verdict means that she will be lashed 74 times if the offense is repeated. Associated Press – May 7, 2003 Beirut, Lebanon – A bomb exploded outside the home of a Christian missionary couple in northern Lebanon, killing an Arab neighbor as he attempted to dismantle it, officials said. Police said the bomb exploded Tuesday night outside the home of a Dutch missionary and his German wife in the predominantly Sunni Muslim port city of Tripoli. The neighbor victim, Jamil Ahmed Rifai, a Jordanian who converted from Islam to Christianity, was visiting the couple when they heard a noise outside and he went to investigate. 

He found the 4 pound bomb in a bag and it exploded as he tried to dismantle it, authorities said. Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city, is home to Sunni fundamentalist groups. Qubba, the neighborhood, where the attack occurred, has a small Christian population. It was the second attack on Christian missionaries since November, when an unidentified gunman killed an American missionary in southern Lebanon. That victim, Bonnie Penner, 31, who grew up in Vancouver, Wash., worked as a nurse at an evangelical center in Sidon, also a predominantly Muslim town. 

Several explosions have ripped through American fast-food restaurants and a British cultural center in Tripoli and Beirut in recent months. Reuters – May 25, 2003 Algiers, Algeria – Islamic militants killed seven people in western Algeria Sunday, including two children whose throats were slit, state radio and neighbors said. Between 100,000 and 150,000 Algerians have been killed in violence that erupted in 1992 after the government canceled elections that fundamentalist Islamists were poised to win.

The attack took place in the Chlef region, some 200 km (125 miles) west of the capital Algiers, as the country grappled with the aftermath of an earthquake that has killed more than 2,100 people. Ten armed men slit the throats of a woman and her two children before moving to a school where they shot dead four students and wounded a fifth, neighbors said. About 25 students escaped the attack early Sunday, they said. The Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) are fighting Algerian authorities to create a purist Islamic state.

The GIA became infamous for slitting the throats of their victims, carving unborn babies out of the bodies of pregnant women and wiping out entire families. The GSPC, on a U.S. list of terrorist groups, was set up in 1998 by a dissident of the GIA. The GSPC split with the GIA was reportedly over discontent with the massacres of civilians, the GSPC advocating a higher level of brutality against all non-Muslims civilians, which the area has since witnessed. Associated Press – Aug 1, 2003 Mozdok, Russia – A vehicle packed with explosives crashed through hospital gates with a homicide bomber behind the wheel and exploded outside a Russian military hospital near Chechnya, killing and wounding scores, according to officials and Russian news agencies. 

The evening blast completely demolished the four-story red brick hospital in the city of Mozdok in Russia’s North Ossetia region, the region’s Emergency Situations Minister Boris Dzgoyev told The Associated Press. Mozdok is the headquarters for Russian forces fighting in Chechnya and has been targeted by attackers before. 

The building, which had 115 people inside, including medical workers and patients, collapsed like a house of cards, Dzgoyev said. It follows several homicide bombings that have killed more than 100 people in and around Chechnya and in Moscow since May. The number of dead and wounded was still being determined as rescuers searched through the debris for survivors. Alina Totykova, deputy head of the North Ossetian regional hospital in the regional capital Vladikavkaz, said all available ambulances were sent to Mozdok. 

There was a serious shortage of medicine, anesthetics and bandages and a severe shortage of blood, she said, adding that an appeal for people to give blood would be broadcast on television in the region. President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences to relatives of the victims and urged the North Ossetian leadership to tell federal authorities in Moscow what was needed to aid the victims, the Kremlin said. 

Putin also ordered law enforcement officials to investigate the blast. In June, a female homicide attacker detonated a bomb near a bus carrying soldiers and civilians to work at a military airfield near Mozdok, killing at least 16 people. In May in Chechnya, a homicide truck-bombing also killed 72 people and a woman blew herself up at a religious ceremony, killing at least 18 people.

A double homicide bombing at a rock concert in Moscow on July 5 also killed the female attackers and 15 other people. Soon afterward, a bomb in a downtown Moscow street killed a bomb disposal expert, authorities said a woman from Chechnya planted the device. Reuters – Aug 5, 2003 Jakarta, Indonesia – A huge car bomb tore through one of the top US owned hotels in Indonesia’s capital, killing 14 people and wounding 150 in the second major attack to shake the world’s most populous Muslim nation in a year. 

The Marriott, popular with foreign businessmen, is on a major road through the city’s business district, close to where many Western embassies and consulates are based. Management said the hotel was 70-80 percent full. The blast was timed as workers poured out of offices for lunch. It came just two days before the first verdict is due in the trials of Muslim militants accused in the Bali bombings that killed 202. Diners were eating lunch in restaurants and cafes in the hotel and in a nearby office tower when the blast blew out windows and showered people with shards of glass. Wreckage from the charred lobby was strewn over a wide area. 

Police said a Dutch banking executive was among the dead, while four Singaporeans, two Americans, two Australians and a New Zealander were among those wounded. Fox News - Nov 15, 2003 Istanbul, Turkey – Two nearly simultaneous homicide car bombs rocked two of downtown Istanbul's Jewish synagogues on Saturday, killing at least 23 people and wounding at least 303 of Turkey's 25,000-member Jewish community. One of the attacks blasted the city's largest synagogue, Neve Shalom, while hundreds convened to celebrate a bar mitzvah, the coming of age ceremony for a young man. 

Three miles away in an affluent neighborhood, the other blast hit the Beth Israel synagogue, where some 300 people were marking the completion of a remodeled religious school. Fourteen Muslims were also killed -- including two security guards at Beth Israel and one at Neve Shalom. A huge crater and the twisted wreckage of a car was left in front of the Neve Shalom, as medical teams carried away bloodied and burned victims. "There was huge panic, glass exploding and metal pieces all over the place," said Enver Eker, who witnessed that blast. "We saw someone put a head in a cardboard box." Security has been tight at Neve Shalom since a 1986 attack when gunmen killed 22 worshippers and wounded six during a Sabbath service. That attack was blamed on the radical Palestinian militant Abu Nidal. 

The Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim group Hizbullah carried out a bomb attack against the synagogue in 1992, but no one was injured. In April 2002, a vehicle bombing struck a historic synagogue on the Tunisian resort island of Djerba, killing 21 people, mostly foreign tourists, in an attack blamed on Al Qaeda. Reuters – Nov 20, 2003 Lagos, Nigeria – Muslim Rioters Burn 13 Churches Islamic militants burned to the ground thirteen churches and several houses in a remote northern Nigerian town after a Christian student was accused of blasphemy, police said. Irate youths torched churches, houses and shops in Kazaure, some 50 miles north of Kano, a northern provincial capital where hundreds have died in religious clashes in the past three years. The dispute began when a Christian student was accused of insulting the Prophet Mohammad and a group of Muslims were not satisfied with the response of school authorities. Abubakar Sale, police commissioner in the northern Jigawa state, told Reuters that the rioters attempted to invade the school but were repelled by police. 

"The hoodlums then mobilized and went into town where they started looting and burning people's property," Sale said by phone from Dutse, the state capital. "Thirteen churches were burned, several houses and shops were torched, but there were no deaths," said Keirian Dudari, assistant inspector general of police in Kano. The violence came after three students were killed and more than 30 injured in fighting between Muslims and Christians at a university in northeastern city of Maiduguri earlier this month.

More than 5,000 people have been killed in religious violence in northern Nigeria in the past four years since the introduction of Islamic sharia law in 12 states. Online Jerusalem Post - Dec 3, 2003 Yokne'am, Israel - School Bombing Foiled: Internal Security Minister Tzahi Hanegbi told Army Radio Thursday morning that the success of the terror operation aimed at the pupils of a Northern junior high school would have changed the regional map totally, referring to the retaliations for the Park Hotel bombing in Passover 2002. 

A massive security alert in the North was lifted Wednesday afternoon, after IDF soldiers captured two West Bank Palestinians, who were planning a suicide bombing at a school in Yokne’am. One security source confirmed that the would-be terrorists Munir Rabiah, 23, of Gaza City, and Morad Zeitoun, 20, of the village of Zbubeh near Jenin, are both members of the PA security forces. Once captured, the two revealed to security officials the whereabouts of a 10-kg explosive belt that Rabiah was to have worn in the attack in Yokne'am, the source said. 

The foiled plan was for Rabiah to blow himself up near the entrance of the school, as the hundreds of children were leaving it to go home. Morad Zeitoun worked nearby the school and was well acquainted with its layout. The two told investigators they aimed at Israel's north because there was no security fence there. Three days after Syrian President Bashar Assad called for renewed talks with Israel, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, whose offices are in Damascus, sent two suicide bombers to attack Israeli schoolchildren in Yokne'am and more Israelis in the northern city of Beit She'an, a senior security official said. Speaking to Channel 1, the official said that Islamic Jihad headquarters in Damascus issued the order to its Jenin cells to carry out the attacks. The order was given in the past few days, the source said. 

The arrests of the two members of the Palestinian Authority security services and affiliated with Islamic Jihad came after a daylong alert imposed on the Wadi Ara area. Security sources said the two had planned an attack on a school near the commercial center of Yokne'am and another in Beit She'an. They said that the attempt to attack a school was a "serious escalation."

A Shin Bet source said the two men left Jenin Tuesday morning and set out for Bardaleh, where they planned to cross into Israel. "They told investigators that they had chosen the location as there is no security fence in the area," he said. At about 2 p.m., acting on an intelligence tip-off, security forces arrested Rabiah after surrounding a mosque in the Israeli-controlled part of Bardaleh. Palestinians reported there were 20 worshipers inside the mosque when it was surrounded by troops, who entered the village and imposed a curfew. Zeitoun was arrested by security forces in a late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning sweep of the Jenin area. According to the source, he planned to perpetrate a suicide bombing in Beit She'an. Security officials noted that there are a number of different cells affiliated with the Islamic Jihad and the Fatah Tanzim in Samaria, which continue to plan attacks. 

On Wednesday, the security establishment registered 42 warnings of planned attacks. During the high alert, the Wadi Ara road was closed and roadblocks were set up in the area, causing severe traffic jams. Associated Press – Dec 5, 2003 Yessentuki, Russia – A shrapnel-filled bomb believed to have been strapped to a suicide attacker ripped apart a commuter train yesterday near Chechnya, killing 42 persons and injuring 200. The blast was the latest in a series of suicide bombings and other attacks that have killed about 250 people in and around the rebellious region of Chechnya and in Moscow in the past year. The remains of the suspected bomber were found with grenades still attached to his legs, Federal Security Service chief Nikolai Patrushev said. 

Three women also were involved in the attack — two jumped from the train just before the blast, and one was gravely injured and unlikely to survive, he said. Authorities suspect other accomplices may have been watching from cars near the site of the blast, which threw passengers from the train and sent its second car crashing onto its side, trapping victims beneath the buckled wreckage.

The explosion tore through the train around 8 a.m., a rush-hour attack that seemed calculated to kill and injure as many people as possible. Officials said many passengers were students from local schools and universities. A suicide truck-bomb attack last December destroyed the headquarters of Chechnya's Moscow-backed government and killed 72 persons, and another killed 60 at a government compound in the region in May. Later that month, a woman blew herself up at a religious ceremony, killing at least 18 persons. 

In June, a female suicide attacker detonated a bomb near a bus carrying soldiers and civilians to a military airfield in Mozdok, a major staging point for Russian troops in Chechnya, killing at least 16 persons. A truck bomb in August, also in Mozdok, killed 50 persons at a military hospital. In Moscow, a double suicide bombing at a rock concert in July killed the female attackers and 15 other persons. ABC News – Jan 15, 2004 - Karachi, Pakistan – A car bomb exploded outside of a Christian Bible society in southern Pakistan, leaving 15 people injured and damaging the wall of a nearby church, officials said. 

The attack in the port city of Karachi occurred after police received an anonymous phone warning that the Pakistan Bible Society would be targeted, police said. Shortly after the officers arrived, assailants in a car drove up and lobbed a small explosive device at them. Fifteen minutes later, a bomb hidden in a nearby parked car exploded, police said. Twelve people were injured, among them six police and paramilitary officers, said Seemi Jamali, a doctor at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center where many of the victims were taken. 

Police have meanwhile arrested "more than a dozen" suspected Islamic militants for investigation into a failed Dec. 25 bid to assassinate President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a government spokesman said. "The men belong to various militant groups… They are being questioned about the attack," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The Associated Press. Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and its industrial and manufacturing heart, has been the site of several terrorist attacks in recent years, as well as bouts of sectarian and political violence.

In June 2002, a suicide bomber blew up a truck in front of the U.S. Consulate, killing 14 Pakistanis. The attack came a month after another suicide attack outside a hotel that killed 11 French engineers. Associated Press – Jan 15, 2004 Gaza City, Gaza Strip – Palestinians Give Suicide Bomber a Hero's Funeral; Israel Seals Gaza Strip The first female Hamas suicide bomber was given a hero's funeral, a day after killing four Israeli border guards.

The bombing was carried out by Reem al-Raiyshi, 22, a mother with two young children. Raiyshi was escorted into a room for a security search and then blew herself up in an attack jointly claimed by Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a group linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. 

Palestinian workers, among the few with jobs in the impoverished region, worried life would only become harder - but few were willing to openly blame militants for their new hardship. In a society where consensus is valued, criticizing armed groups openly is seen by many as a betrayal. 

"She's passed away and she's going to go to heaven," said one of Riyashi's sisters-in-law. "It was always my wish to turn my body into deadly shrapnel against the Zionists and to knock on the doors of heaven with the skulls of Zionists," al-Riyashi said in a farewell video. Al-Riyashi, who wore combat fatigues with a green Hamas sash across her chest in her video, urged her husband to enroll their two children in (Islamic) religious schools. 

The Islamic militant group Hamas group threatened more violence. "She is not going to be the last (attacker) because the march of resistance will continue until the Islamic flag is raised, not only over the minarets of Jerusalem, but over the whole universe," Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said. Israel returned Raiyshi's body to the Palestinians.

Israel usually keeps the bodies of suicide bombers, burying them in unmarked graves, to prevent the celebratory funerals often held for the attackers. The military did not say why it decided to return Raiyshi's body. Thousands marched through Gaza City during her funeral. Masked gunmen from Hamas and Al Aqsa carried her coffin, draped in the Hamas green flag. "It is not enough to call her a hero. 

Calling her hero does not give the whole truth. This woman abandoned her husband and children to win paradise," Zahar said in the eulogy. Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin said the use of a woman bomber was unique for the Islamic group, but holy war "is an obligation of all Muslims, men and women." Fox News – Jan 29, 2004 Jerusalem, Israel – A homicide bomber blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing 10 people and wounding at least 50 just 15 yards from Ariel Sharon's residence.

Ali Jarrah, the bomber, was a 25-year-old Palestinian policeman. The blast peeled back the roof of the bus and catapulted passengers through the windows and down the street. Body parts could be found strewn along rooftops. Eli Beer, a paramedic, said victims had been scattered over a wide area. "There were a lot of heavy injuries, a lot of the people who were injured were in bad condition, a lot of people had missing limbs," he said. 

The attack occurred as schools were opening, and police told Fox News children were likely among the casualties. ABC News – Jan 30, 2004 Mecca, Saudi Arabia - Annual Hajj Pilgrimage Gathers Momentum The hajj pilgrimage began in earnest Friday as Muslims from around the world converged on their holy land. Police forces were on alert following yesterday’s death of six Saudi security agents in a shootout with terror suspects in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. 

In Mecca, the Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest site, overflowed with the faithful, who heard a sermon by Sheik Saleh al-Taleb who later led them in prayer. More than 460,000 crammed inside and tens of thousands more prayed in the streets. "Oh God, give victory to the mujahedeen everywhere, give them victory in Palestine. Oh God, make the Muslims triumphant and destroy their enemies and make this country and other Muslim countries safe. Oh God, inflict your wrath on the criminal Zionists," Sheik al-Taleb said. Fox News - Feb 06, 2004 Moscow, Russia - An explosion rocked a Moscow subway train during rush hour Friday morning, killing 39 people and wounding more than 120.

Citing police sources, the Interfax news agency reported that the attack was carried out by a female homicide bomber. President Vladimir Putin blamed the explosion on Chechen rebels and said it was aimed at sowing chaos before next month's presidential election. "Russia doesn't conduct negotiations with terrorists -- it destroys them," Putin said. Moscow has been on alert following a series of suicide bombings that officials have blamed on Chechen rebels. The latest was in December, when a suicide bomber blew herself up outside a hotel across from Moscow's Red Square, killing at least five bystanders. 

Moscow's subway system - the worlds busiest with an average 8.5 million passengers a day - has long been seen as especially vulnerable to terrorism. Police routinely stop people in the stations who have Chechen or North Caucasus appearance, but cheek-by-jowl crowds during much of the day make thorough surveillance impossible. Friday's blast struck the second car of a train after it pulled away from the Avtozavodskaya station. Most Russians are dependent on public transportation, and the spacious train wagons are usually packed tight during rush hour traffic.

The Russian capital has been on alert for terrorist attacks following a series of homicide bombings that officials have blamed on Chechen rebels. Two homicide bombers blew themselves up at a Moscow rock concert in July, killing themselves and 14 other people. 

That was followed five days later by an aborted homicide bomb attack at a central Moscow restaurant that killed the sapper trying to defuse the bomb. Guardian Unlimited UK – Jos, Nigeria - Feb 26, 2004 - At least 48 people have been killed in the latest outbreak of religious violence in Plateau state, central Nigeria, the police said to Reuters yesterday. They were hacked down when Muslim warriors attacked Yelwa town in the mainly Christian district of Shendam.

The Plateau police commissioner, Ilozuoke, told reporters: "The victims were pursued to a church they ran to for refuge and were killed … forty-eight of them died instantly." Security sources said the attackers' guerrilla tactics suggested that they were hired mercenaries from Nigeria's northern neighbors, Chad and Niger. Mr Ilozuoke said troops and police had been sent to the area to try to contain the violence, but no arrests had yet been made. 

About 10,000 have died in communal and religious violence in Nigeria since 15 years of military rule ended in 1999. MSNBC - Feb 29, 2004 - Mariveles, Philippines - The Muslim extremist group Abu Sayyaf claimed responsibility Sunday for a ferry explosion and fire that killed over 180, according to a radio report. The Radio Mindanao Network said Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Sulaiman claimed Friday's explosion was revenge for government attacks in the southern Mindanao area. Fire raced through the Super-Ferry on Friday shortly after it left Manila for central and southern islands. Witnesses reported a powerful explosion that sparked an inferno.

The fire and sinking occurred the same day that two alleged Abu Sayyaf members were convicted of kidnapping an American in 2000 and another was arraigned in a separate mass abduction. Yahoo News - Mar 6, 2004 - Sohag, Egypt - Egyptian authorities deployed some 1,000 police around a southern town to forestall any Muslim-Christian clashes after two Christian men were killed in a street brawl, security sources said, saying; The Christians were axed to death after a donkey being ridden by a Muslim man slipped on the wet roadway outside their house in the town of Salamoun, about 350 km south of Cairo, and the residents laughed. 

The donkey rider was later arrested and questioned. Witnesses in the town said there had been no further violence but the situation was tense. Salamoun, a Nile valley town of about 40,000 people, is close to 40 percent Coptic Christian but was also a stronghold of militant Islamists who fought the government in the 1990s. Tensions between the Muslim and Christian communities are a sporadic problem in southern Egypt. 

The last major outbreak of violence was in 1999, when 20 Christians were killed and 33 people wounded in the southern village of Kosheh. Reuters - Mar 11, 2004 - Maranatha, Indonesia - Machete Wielding Motorcyclists Kill Woman with Baby: Motorcyclists wielding machetes have attacked Christians in Donggala Regency, Central Sulawesi, leaving one dead and five injured. On Thursday evening, four men riding on two motorcycles sped through the village of Maranatha, 18 miles south of the regional capital Palu, leaving death and bloodshed in their wake. 

Nuci, a 40-year-old mother of two, died two hours after receiving fatal injuries to her head, neck and back. A witness to the incident described how she heard the roar of the motorbikes, followed almost immediately by a baby’s screams. She ran towards the cries and found Nuci, bleeding to death and crawling towards her baby. The attackers wounded five others, Efrain, 30, Kanus, 30, Kalfin, 25, Pianus, 18, and Listin, 17 (many Indonesians have just one name). Reuters - Mar 29, 2004 Tashkent, Uzbekistan - Two homicide bombings, attacks on police and an explosion at an alleged terrorist bomb-making factory in Uzbekistan killed 19 people and injured 26, the Central Asian country's prosecutor-general. Prosecutor-General Rashid Kadyrov said the events began Sunday night with an explosion that killed 10 people at a house being used by an extremist in the central province of Bukhara. 

There were also two attacks on police Sunday night and early Monday killing three policemen. and two homicide bombings near the Chorsu bazaar in Tashkent's Old City, which killed three policemen and a young child, he said. The homicide bombings were the first ever reported in Uzbekistan. Kadyrov said the attacks were carried out by Islamic extremists, singling out the banned Hizb-ut-Tahrir group and followers of the strict Wahhabi sect of Islam.

"A preliminary investigation shows all the events are interconnected and aimed at destabilization of the country," Kadyrov said. Kadyrov said one person had been arrested and that authorities were searching for other suspects, but declined to say how many people might have been involved in the planning or execution of the attacks. He said the tactic of homicide bombings was previously unknown to Uzbekistan and indicated foreign involvement in the attacks. One of the Tashkent market blasts was set off by a female homicide bomber and targeted a group of policemen and another happened near a bus station, said Atonazar Arifov, leader of the opposition Erk party, citing witnesses. 

Fox News - Mar 31, 2004 Fallujah, Iraq - The charred corpses of four coalition civilian contractors, all Americans, were pulled out of burning cars, dragged through the streets of Fallujah and hung from a bridge by rejoicing residents. Five U.S. soldiers died in a separate bombing nearby. Chanting "Fallujah is the graveyard of Americans," locals cheered during the grisly assault on two four-wheel-drive civilian vehicles, which left both in flames. Others chanted the more standard "We sacrifice our blood and souls for Islam." The four contract workers were killed in a rebel ambush of their SUVs in Fallujah, a Sunni Triangle city about 35 miles west of Baghdad.

The brutal treatment of the four contractors' bodies was some of the most graphic violence since the beginning of the American occupation a year ago. It was reminiscent of Somalia in 1993, where a mob dragged the corpse of a U.S. soldier through the streets of Mogadishu, eventually leading to the American and U.N. withdrawal from the failed East African state. Associated Press Television News pictures showed one man beating a charred corpse with a metal pole. 

Others tied a yellow rope to a body, hooked it to a car and dragged it down the main street of town. Two blackened and mangled corpses were hung from a green iron bridge across the Euphrates. "The people of Fallujah hanged some of the bodies on the old bridge like slaughtered sheep," resident Abdul Aziz Mohammed said. Some of the corpses were dismembered, he said. Beneath the bodies, a man held a printed sign with a skull and crossbones and the phrase, "Fallujah is the cemetery for Americans." 

APTN showed the charred remains of three slain men. One resident displayed what appeared to be dog tags taken from one body. U.S. News - Apr 05, 2004 - Kano, Nigeria - At least 10 churches were torched and one police station vandalized when Nigerian Muslims rioted after a young Christian defaced a copy of Islam's holy Qur’an, a witness said. 

Rioting broke out on Saturday in the religiously mixed northern town of Makarfi, hometown of Kaduna State's Governor Ahmed Makarfi, local resident Yusuf Abubakar said. 

"A teenager, who is said to have a mental defect, went into an Islamic school, took a copy of the Qur’an from one of the students and tore it. This provoked the students and people nearby who pounced on the teenager," he said. "His mother, who recently moved to Makarfi with her teenage son from Calabar in the south-east, managed to rescue him from his assailants and ran into the only police station in town for safety," Abubakar said. Muslim youths attacked the police station, smashing windows and damaging two patrol vehicles, before burning down ten churches, he said. In recent years sectarian rioting in northern Nigeria has left thousands dead, and widened the divide between the region's rival Muslim and Christian communities.

Fox News - May 11, 2004 Kano, Nigeria — Angry young Muslim men attacked "nonbelievers" with machetes Tuesday, while others burned cars, stores and apartments in apparent revenge for last week's killings of Muslims by a Christian group, that in turn a response to earlier massacres by Muslims. Three corpses lay in the streets, one charred and another badly mutilated, with unconfirmed reports of several others killed by young men who barricaded streets with burning tires and garbage.

The violence came hours after thousands of Muslim protesters some carrying daggers, sickles and clubs marched from the main mosque in the northern city of Kano, traditionally a hotbed of religious tensions. Amina Usman, a 19-year-old university student, recounted seeing two mutilated bodies next to a makeshift checkpoint where young Muslim Hausa-speaking men armed with sticks, knives and clubs were searching cars for Christians and animists and asking passengers to recite Muslim prayers. 

"It was hell," said Mohammed Aliyu, another university student, who said he saw five bodies in another part of Kano, Nigeria's largest Muslim city, one with a burning tire around its neck. Demonstrators were protesting attacks on Hausa-speaking Muslims by fighters from the Tarok-speaking tribe in the central Nigerian town of Yelwa. A Red Cross official has said between 500 and 600 people died in the Yelwa attacks, while the Nigerian government's emergency response agency estimates less than half that number. 

In Kano, soldiers and police in armored vehicles were deployed in an attempt to quell what began as an angry demonstration but quickly turned into a riot. An Associated Press reporter saw youths at a makeshift checkpoint of burning tires strike three young women with machetes after accusing them of being "nonbelievers" for wearing Western-style skirts and blouses. The women escaped with bleeding head wounds after several motorcycle taxi drivers intervened. "Everywhere, people have taken the laws into their own hands. We are trying to control the situation," said police commissioner Abdul Damini Daudu.

Sule Ya'u Sule, a state government spokesman, announced a dusk to dawn curfew and blamed the day's rioting on "disgruntled elements" he did not identify. He stressed the earlier march had been peaceful. Muslim leaders in Kano earlier linked the Yelwa attacks to the U.S.-led war against terror. "This violence is a calculated global Western war against Muslims, just like in Afghanistan and Iraq," Umar Ibrahim Kabo, the most senior Muslim cleric in Kano, told protesters, some of whom burned U.S. and Israeli flags. "Muslims are in grief." Kabo issued a seven-day ultimatum to Obasanjo to apprehend the Yelwa killers "or be blamed for whatever happens" afterward. Kano Governor Ibrahim Shekarau told protests that "killings of Muslims throughout the world ... will only embolden us." The Yelwa attacks follow a deadly succession of communal violence. 

In February, Muslim militants were blamed for the slaughter of almost 50 people there many of them Christians who took refuge in a church. New York-based Human Rights Watch accused Nigeria's government Tuesday of failing to take steps to stop the "endless cycle of revenge." MSNBC - May 30, 2004 Lahore, Pakistan - Samuel Masih, 27, was buried in Lahore, Pakistan, yesterday following injuries he received from a Muslim policeman who beat the Christian with a hammer as he lay in his hospital bed recovering from a bout of tuberculosis. 

Masih had been in jail since Aug. 23, 2003, awaiting trial on charges of blasphemy under Pakistan's strict "Law 295" – which forbids desecrating the Qur’an and "defiling" the name of Islam's prophet, Muhammad. On the day of his arrest, Masih was collecting garden rubbish, which he heaped temporarily against the wall of a mosque in Lahore's Lawrence Gardens section while collecting more that he planned to burn later. 

This action brought the blasphemy charge, which carries a maximum two-year prison sentence. He had been held in the Lahore Central Jail for nine months when he had a severe tuberculosis attack and was transferred to a local hospital. According to reports in the Lahore Daily Times, the constable assigned to guard the prisoner's room at the hospital, Officer Faryad Ali, savagely beat Masih with a hammer used for cutting bricks after learning he had been accused of strewing garbage near the mosque's walls. Faryad Ali, who has been jailed and charged with murder, reportedly told investigators it was his religious duty as a Muslim to kill the Christian man. 

According to Voice of the Martyrs, he is reported to have said, "I have offered my religious duty for killing the man. I'm spiritually satisfied and ready to face the consequences." The Observer by Jason Burke - June 6, 2004 Khobar, Saudi Arabia; Militants give blow-by-blow account of Saudi massacre, Leader tells how they killed, then ate, slept and prayed. Islamic militants who killed 22 people in a shooting spree in Saudi Arabia a week ago have posted a 3,000-word account of the operation on the internet. 

The account gives astonishing details of the attack, describing how the killers hunted down their victims, then slept and prayed after decapitating Westerners. It also challenges the Saudi Arabian government's version of events, claiming that pictures of Saudi troops storming a building from the air were stage-managed. The attack, in the northern port city of Khobar, shook the Saudi regime and, by forcing up the price of oil, caused economic upset globally.

The statement takes the form of an interview with Fawaz bin Mohammed al-Nashmi, the leader of the 'al-Quds [Jerusalem]' Brigade of the Arabian Peninsula, which carried out the attack. The first site targeted was the Khobar Petroleum Centre, which houses the offices of a number of international oil companies. The terrorists, wearing military-style clothing, arrived at the compound around 7am last Saturday. 

They shot their way in, killing at least one guard, then set about hunting down Westerners. Michael Hamilton, a 62-year-old British oil executive arriving for work, was one of the first to die. 'We saw the car of the British director and we liquidated him,' Nashmi says, before giving gory details of other executions. 'We were asking our brother Muslims, where are the Americans, and they showed us a building where companies have offices. We did find an American,' said Nashmi. 'I shot him in the head [which] exploded. 

Then we found a South African and we shot him too. In our search for unbelievers, we had to exchange fire with the security forces.' Throughout the account Nashmi claims assistance from other Muslims. The militants then drove to another complex, where light security made getting in 'a walk in the park'. They combed offices, rounding up and interrogating people to establish their religion, even lecturing some on Islam. 

Nashmi describes how they murdered a group of Roman Catholic oil workers from the Philippines, 'for the sake of our brother Muslims [there]'. Several Filipino Muslim groups, some linked to al-Qaeda, have been fighting against the Christian-dominated government for decades. Such international concerns feature frequently in the account. Nashmi also describes 'finishing off' a group of Indian engineers. 'Thanks to God we cleaned our land from unbelievers,' he says. 

New Delhi is seen as having brutally repressed Muslims in Kashmir. Nashmi also claims that he killed an Italian, after forcing him to speak with al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based Arabic satellite TV channel, and demand the withdrawal of Rome's troops from Iraq. The militants then moved into the heavily fortified Oasis Resort, which comprises 200 villas, a hotel, restaurants and spas. 

There, Nashmi says, they 'went to the hotel, found a restaurant and had a good lunch and some rest'. Then, 'we went to the first floor and we found some unbelievers. We slaughtered them'. Nashmi denies taking hostages - Muslims were moved to the top floor of a building for their own safety, he says. He also denies killing a 10-year-old Egyptian boy, one of four Muslims who died, blaming the security forces. Witnesses say the boy died when the militants opened fire on a school bus. Nashmi also claims the dawn raid by Saudi special forces was a 'publicity stunt'.

Pictures of the troops landing on the roof of a building where hostages were being held were broadcast around the world. But Nashmi says his group had left hours earlier. Saudi Arabia has been hit by a series of violent attacks recently. Last month another compound full of oil workers was raided and an American killed and dragged through the streets. It is clear the militants are focusing on the country's valuable and vulnerable oil infrastructure. 

The militants say the Khobar attack was orchestrated by Abdulaziz al-Muqrin, a well-known Saudi-born militant. In a separate statement, published alongside that of Nashmi, Muqrin praised the strike for raising the price of oil. '[The price of] oil reached $42 per barrel, the highest figure in history,' Muqrin says. 'This irks the malicious government that is committed to guaranteeing America's prosperity and the continuation of the oil flow.' Such claims echo Osama bin Laden's charges that the house of Saud, which has ruled Saudi Arabia for more than 70 years, allows the West to deprive the local population of the Arabian peninsula's resources. 

In Nashmi’s account he says the group was sure that the high security at the compounds would result in their deaths. 'We didn't want to survive the attack, but God decided that our time is not up yet,' he wrote. 'We promised God that we would be back for another battle until we die. Now the whole world knows that our goal is to clean our Muslim land. Reuters - Jun 7, 2004 - Bangkok, Thailand - Two gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead a Buddhist teacher in Thailand's restive Muslim south, the latest casualty in a spate of violence which has claimed over 200 lives since January, police said. The 49-year-old, who was in charge of general studies at an Islamic school, was shot as he was about to start his car parked at a school in the province of Pattani, police said. 

The shooting came just over a week after an elderly Buddhist man was beheaded at a rubber plantation in nearby Narathiwat province, an incident which heightened fears of sectarian tension between Buddhists and Muslims in the troubled region. The teacher was killed despite stepped up security at schools, where at least 1,000 soldiers and police have been deployed since the new school year began in mid-May. 

At least 100 people, mainly police and soldiers, have been killed in ambushes since violence erupted in Thailand's three Muslim southern provinces bordering Malaysia in January. Security authorities have blamed Muslim militants and mafia bosses for the unrest in the region, where Islamic separatists fought a low-key insurgency in the 1970s and 1980s. 

The unrest exploded into major bloodshed on April 28 when police and soldiers killed 108 Muslims who launched orchestrated attacks on government offices and security outposts. Fox News - Jun 10, 2004 Jalaw Gir, Afghanistan - Gunmen stormed a camp of sleeping Chinese road workers in northern Afghanistan, killing at least 11 of them, in the deadliest attack on foreign civilians since the fall of the Taliban. 

The contractors were attacked at about 1 a.m. at their desert camp near Jalaw Gir in Kunduz province, 120 miles north of the capital, Kabul. Mutaleb Beg, the Kunduz police chief, said six to eight assailants killed an Afghan guard at the unfenced camp and then opened fire on the Chinese men as they slept in two tents. "They died in their beds, most of them with stomach and head wounds," Beg told The Associated Press by telephone after visiting the scene. 

A spokesman for NATO-led peacekeepers who patrol the area said the toll could rise as reports come in from local clinics. Beg said no one was arrested, but raised suspicions about supporters of renegade Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who has teamed with the Taliban and vowed to oust the government of U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai. The killings are the latest in a string of deadly attacks on relief workers, private contractors and government employees which officials say is an attempt to derail planned September elections. Road workers have been a particularly enticing target for militants. Last week, three European medical relief workers and two Afghans were killed in an ambush in northwestern Badghis province claimed by the Taliban.

UPI - Jun 18, 2004 Washington, CT - Alarmed by the spread of Islamist extremism in Europe, France's new Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin asked the "Renseignments Generaux," the French equivalent of the FBI's counter-intelligence branch, for a report on what goes on in the country's mosques. Eighty percent of the imams in the 1,000 mosques surveyed by RG are foreigners; 20 percent French nationals, but only 2 percent born in France. Most of the imams said they are unpaid volunteers dependent on collection plates.

In 40 percent of the mosques, imams admitted they were "self-proclaimed" or "improvised" with no theological credentials. Only the Turks could prove they had undergone religious training. A little over one tenth of the imams surveyed said they were "self-taught" and were getting their religious training on the Internet. Asked to show what web sites they were consulting, they were all pro-al-Qaida. France's domestic intelligence agency also reported a steady increase in inflammatory sermons from Brest to Marseilles. Their attacks on French discrimination against Muslims -- female scarves banned from state schools -- paled next to anti-U.S. diatribes.

One of the most important Saudi businessmen, speaking privately in a European capital this week stated; "We are reaping what we have sown over the last 25 years," said the billionaire who is on good terms with the highest ranking members of the Saudi royal family. The Saudi royals detained over 1,000 imams after last year's bombings in May and November.

They were warned they would go straight to jail if they so much as mentioned the word jihad (holy war) in their Friday prayers. The Saudi billionaire, speaking not for attribution, said there are 40,000 mosques in Saudi Arabia, and the warnings go largely unheeded. Associated Press - June 23, 2004 Baghdad, Iraq - Iraq's interim prime minister said he was determined to confront the mastermind of bombings and beheadings who threatened to assassinate him. A recording purportedly made by Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi threatened to kill interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and fight the Americans "until Islamic rule is back on Earth."

The audio was found on an Islamic Web site from the group that claimed responsibility for the beheading of American hostage Nicholas Berg and Kim Sun-il, a South Korean whose decapitated body was found Tuesday between Baghdad and Fallujah. In the audiotape, the speaker thought to be al-Zarqawi told Allawi that "we will continue the game with you until the end." The speaker said "we will not get bored" until "we make you drink from the same glass" as Izzadine Saleem, the Iraqi Governing Council president killed last month in a car-bombing claimed by al-Zarqawi's group. 

"We will carry on our jihad against the Western infidel and the Arab apostate until Islamic rule is back on Earth," the voice said. Associated Press - Jun 24, 2004 United Nations - NASA photos of the Darfur region of western Sudan show destruction in nearly 400 villages, and there have been reports of fighting or threatened attacks in every camp for displaced people, the U.S. aid chief said. 

Andrew Natsios, administrator of the Agency for International Development, warned that time is running out to help 2 million Sudanese in desperate need of aid in Darfur. He said his agency's estimate that 350,000 could die of disease and malnutrition over the next nine months "is conservative." Fighting between Arab militias and African residents has killed thousands of people and forced more than 1 million to flee their homes.

International rights groups say the government has backed the Arab fighters in an ethnic cleansing campaign against the African villagers. Natsios put the blame for the crisis squarely on the Sudanese government, saying U.S. and U.N. reports from the country show clearly that the Sudanese military is directly connected to Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed, that are fighting in Darfur. "They arm them, they use them, and now they have to stop them," Natsios said in an interview with reporters.

Natsios said that despite frequent Sudanese government announcements about "all the things they've done to improve things," virtually nothing has changed on the ground. The latest weekly assessment of conditions in the 36 camps for displaced people in Darfur showed that in every one, security was poor and those taking refuge faced attacks or threats of attacks, Natsios said. He did not say who ran the camps. "They've got to stop stonewalling the relief effort," Natsios said of the government.

Fighting erupted in February 2003 when African tribes in Darfur rebelled against what they regarded as unjust treatment by the Sudanese government in their struggle over land and resources with Arab countrymen. Natsios said the United States had NASA take photographs of the destruction of villages in Darfur. "We've now analyzed 576 villages, 300 of which are completely destroyed, 76 of which are substantially destroyed," he said. "When we checked them on the ground, we confirmed what we found. We are going to watch them, using aerial photography for the duration to track what's happening." Ambassador Michael Ranneberger, a U.S. State Department expert on Sudan, said "until now, we have not seen any systematic action to rein in the Janjaweed."

"What we've seen is a series of half-steps by the government in response to international pressure," he said. U.S. officials have been highlighting the plight of the displaced Sudanese, mindful that the world's inattention to Rwanda a decade ago may have contributed to the genocide that occurred there. Natsios said the U.S. government has spent $116 million on the relief effort in Sudan more than all other donors combined, with $188 million pledged between now and the end of next year." 

The United States is moving "with a maximum sense of urgency to try to save lives," said Ranneberger, who accompanied Natsios. "We don't have time to sit around also and decide, is this ethnic cleansing or is this genocide, or what is it."

Natsios said President Bush has made clear to Bashir that U.S.-Sudanese relations will not be normalized "until these atrocities are stopped and until all impediments to the relief effort are ended." The black African tribes of Darfur province in western Sudan have faced murder, displacement, pillage, rape, razing of villages, and other crimes committed by Arab militias. [Authors note: To faithful Muslims, this is true Islamic peace, complete silence from the dead, and the survivors subject to whatever tax or burden their masters see fit to inflict. Because the locals chose to resist slavery, ‘ dar al-Islam’ is being established through genocide. 

Practicing Al-taqiyya, ‘moderate’ Muslims will say these Arab Muslims committing the atrocities are deviants, but in fact they know they are following Islamic norms and morality. The ‘evil empire’, the ‘enemy of Islam’, strives to stop the slaughter and to provide relief to the victims, while the worlds ‘best religion’ does nothing but provide tactic support to the Arab militants.] WORLD TRIBUNE - July 10, 2004 Sudan - U.S. finds Sudan-militia links in 'cleansing' of black non-Muslims The United States has determined that Sudan provided major military support to the Janjaweed militia, accused of expelling 1.2 million black Africans from their homes in the western Darfur province. Two U.S. delegations sent to Sudan in late June examined the link between Janjaweed and the Khartoum regime. 

They were said to have concluded that the Sudanese military provided training and equipment to Janjaweed as part of Khartoum's policy to remove black Christians and other non-Muslims from Darfur, which neighbors Chad. A congressional delegation that returned from Sudan this week said the Janjaweed was directly supported by the military. Delegates said Janjaweed fighters participated in Sudanese Air Force attacks on black African villages in Darfur as well as led ground attacks that resulted in the death of at least 30,000 people and the displacement of 1.2 million people. 

Rep. Frank Wolf, a Republican from Virginia, recounted testimony he heard regarding the coordination between the Sudanese air force attacks and Janjaweed raids of black villages. Wolf told a July 6 news conference that a Janjaweed base in Darfur was adjacent to the Sudanese air base at Geneina in Darfur that contained two Soviet-origin attack helicopters and an Antonov air transport.

"The militiamen we saw did not look like skilled pilots who could fly planes or helicopters," Wolf said. Delegates said the Antonovs and helicopter gunships usually strafed and bombed villages to prepare for the Janjaweed assault. They said Janjaweed fighters arrived on horseback and camels to kill, loot, rape and burn. 

The Janjaweed have been heavily armed and well-supplied, U.S. officials and congressional members said. They were provided with satellite phones to maintain constant communications with Sudanese military commanders. Sen. Sam Brownback, chairman of the Senate Near Eastern and Southasian subcommittee, said the Janjaweed effort has eliminated an entire generation of black Africans from Darfur, the size of Texas. Brownback dismissed a decision by the African Union to send 279 military observers to Darfur. "We did not see any men in any of these camps from the ages of 18 to 45," Brownback, a Kansas Republican, said. 

"There's a whole generation that's missing, and it is ethnic cleansing, and I believe that clearly the seeds of genocide have been sown in Darfur." Associated Press - Aug 6, 2004 Korhogo, Ivory Coast - Dozens of boys and men suffocated in an airless, sweltering shipping container in which rebels locked people for days, two survivors told The Associated Press, backing accounts of atrocities during factional fighting in Ivory Coast's Muslim rebel-held north. When the 40-foot-long by 9-foot-high container was opened, 75 bodies were pulled out, a second survivor, Amadou, told the AP. "We were in difficult conditions: no water, no food, no air. Sometimes they pumped tear gas into the container," said Siaka, who also refused to allow his full name to be used for fear of reprisal. 

"We were 125 in there, and it became extremely hot," Amadou said. "We were hot and hungry. Some of us began collapsing in the container." Rebel leaders opened the container two days later - at 3 a.m. on June 22, Amadou said. By that time, it was filled with dead. Kouakou's people immediately put inmates to work removing the corpses, Amadou and Siaka said. "We took the dead and put them in a truck, and we counted 75 bodies," Amadou said, adding that one of his relatives was among the dead. "When we finished counting the corpses, (Kouakou's men) took three of us to go with them and the bodies," Amadou said. "These three never came back." The accounts - along with others describing numerous missing men - support U.N. and Amnesty International findings on three newly discovered mass graves in northern rebel territory. 

Amnesty International said it believes some of the 99 mass grave victims had their hands tied behind their backs before being beheaded. The U.N. Security Council called the killings a massacre. Rebels have controlled the north of cocoa-rich Ivory Coast - once one of West Africa's most stable and prosperous nations - since launching an unsuccessful coup attempt in September 2002. The civil war that followed split the country between the mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian and animist south. The Associated Press - Aug 27, 2004 Moscow, Russia - Both Russian airliners that crashed nearly simultaneously were brought down by a terrorist act, officials said, after finding traces of explosives in the plane's wreckage. An Islamic militant group claimed responsibility for the attack in a Web statement.

The planes, with 90 people aboard, went down within 20 minutes of each other Tuesday night. In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said there was "mounting evidence" that both crashes "were acts of terrorism." The Chechen women Amanta Nagayeva and S. Dzhebirkhanova bought last minute tickets for the flights. The two Muslim women, former roomates who had previously traveled together, were the only passengers who have not had relatives call for information. Reuters - Aug 31, 2004 Moscow, Russia - A woman strapped with explosives blew herself up just outside a busy subway station, killing at least 10 people and wounding more than 50. 

The woman intended to cause even more death in a subway, but turned back after seeing two police at the entry way and instead moved to a large group of people and detonated. Associated Press - Aug 31, 2004 Bagdad, Iraq - A video showing the methodical, grisly killings of 12 Nepalese workers kidnapped in Iraq was posted Tuesday on a Web site linked to a Islamic militant group operating in Iraq. If true, the slayings would mark the largest number of foreign hostages killed at one time by insurgents in Iraq who have seized more than 100 hostages in recerkers to withdraw. The video of the Nepalese showed a masked man in desert camouflage apparently slitting the throat of a blindfolded man lying on the ground. 

The blindfolded man moaned and a shrill wheeze was heard. The masked man then displayed the head to the camera before resting it on the body. Other footage showed a man firing single shots from an assault rifle into the back of the heads of 11 others. Blood seeped from their bodies into the sand. Associated Press - Aug 31, 2004 Be'er Sheva, Israel - Two buses exploded almost simultaneously in this southern Israel city, the first major Palestinian attack inside Israel in nearly six months. Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service gave the casualty toll and said many wounded were in serious condition. In the Gaza Strip, Muslim leaders praised the "heroic operation" a phrase referring to suicide bombings over mosque loudspeakers. 

"There will be no security for Israel as long as the occupation stands," said one of the leaders. In the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh in southern Lebanon, gunmen fired shots into the air to celebrate the attacks, a Palestinian official said. In the Gaza Strip, Muslim leaders praised the "heroic operation" over mosque loudspeakers. Palestinian militants haven't carried out a major attack inside Israel since March 14, when 11 people were killed in the port of Ashdod.

"Revenge is so sweet," said one Hamas activist at a rally in Gaza. Cheering in the streets of the Gaza Strip after the bombings, thousands of Hamas supporters threw sweets into the air and sang songs after the attack which killed 16 people, including a 3 year old boy, and wounded 86, many shoppers returning from an open-air market. Multiple sources - Sep 3, 2004 Beslan, Russia - Commandos stormed a school Friday in southern Russia and battled Muslim militants holding hundreds of hostages as crying children, some naked and covered in blood, fled through explosions and gunfire. 

A gang of men and women stormed into the secondary school in Beslan in North Ossetia province during a ceremony to mark the first day of the new school year. "They had said that for every fighter wiped out they will kill 50 children and for every fighter wounded -- 20," regional Interior Minister Kazbek Dzantiyev told reporters. 

A cameraman for the British network ITN reported seeing around 100 bodies in the gymnasium where the hostages reportedly held up to 1,500 of them, mostly women and children, for nearly three days. Russia's Interfax news agency reported that dozens of people were killed when the school's roof collapsed amid explosions early in the day's violence.

The assault was triggered either when several hostage takers escaping, or panicked hostages making a break for freedom, possibly driven by extreme thirst. It began after militants had agreed to let Russia retrieve the bodies of people killed early in the raid. Explosions went off as the emergency personnel went to get the bodies at around 1 p.m., and hostages may have taken the noise as a signal to flee. Militants then opened fire on fleeing hostages and security forces returned fire. 

The Interfax new agency reported some terrorists split into three groups to blend in with the fleeing hostages and took refuge in a nearby home. Once the hostage-takers sought to flee, commandos moved in. Huge columns of smoke billowed from the school, where windows were shattered, part of roof gone and another part charred. The scene around the school was chaotic, with people running through the streets, the wounded carried off on stretchers. An Associated Press reporter saw ambulances speeding by, the windows streaked with blood. Four armed men in civilian clothes ran by, shouting, "A militant ran this way."

Soldiers and men in civilian clothes carried children, some naked or clad only in underpants, some covered in blood, to a temporary hospital set up behind an armored personnel carrier. The children drank eagerly from bottles of water given to them once they reached safety. One unidentified woman freed Thursday told Izvestia that during the night children occasionally began to cry, adding: "then the fighters would fire in the air to restore quiet". Negotiators said the hostage-takers had repeatedly refused offers of food and water throughout the standoff. 

"They are very cruel people, we are facing a ruthless enemy," said Leonid Roshal, a pediatrician involved in the negotiations. Correspondents say many of those released were desperate for water when they came out, and some were barely able to stand. Many of the children were only partly clothed because of the stifling heat in the gymnasium where they had been held since the militants took the building on Wednesday. 

The hostage-takers had refused to let food or water into the school throughout the standoff. The regional health minister reported that 409 people were wounded, including at least 218 children. Officials told FOX News that 10 of the 20 terrorists killed by Russian soldiers were Arabs. Jihadists from the Middle East are known to have joined the Chechen uprising. Fox News - Sep 09, 2004 Jakarta, Indonesia - A powerful car bomb exploded outside the gates of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, killing seven people and wounding nearly 100 in an attack police blamed on terrorists linked to Al Qaeda. 

The blast flattened the embassy's gate, mangled cars on the busy commercial street and shattered the windows of nearby high-rise buildings. Dazed survivors desperately tried to locate colleagues and relatives. "I can't find my family," said Suharti, who had eight relatives working in the mission. "I am terrified. I don't know where they are." A senior Indonesian police officer who asked not to be identified said seven people died in the 10:15 a.m. blast, including three policemen guarding the building. A doctor at a nearby hospital said 98 people were admitted with injuries, none of them foreigners. 

The explosion shook buildings across a large part of the central commercial district of the city of 12 million people. A thick plume of white smoke rose up above the embassy. Passers-by witnessed grisly scenes as security officers covered the bodies of victims ripped apart by the blast with newspapers. A severed human leg lay on the intersection between the two lanes of the street, its trousers torn of the by force of the explosion. Police immediately blamed Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian terror network that is linked to Al Qaeda. The group has been accused in several deadly bombings, including the bombing of the JW Marriott hotel in the same neighborhood last year, in which 12 people were killed.

"The modus operandi is very similar to other attacks, including the Bali bombings and the Marriott blast," Bachtiar said, "We can conclude (the perpetrators) are the same group". Associated Press - Nov 2, 2004 Amsterdam, Netherlands - A Dutch filmmaker who had received death threats after releasing a movie criticizing the treatment of women under Islam was slain in Amsterdam on Tuesday, police said. A suspect, a 26-year-old man with dual Dutch-Moroccan nationality, was arrested after a shootout with officers that left him wounded, police said. Filmmaker Theo van Gogh had been threatened after the August airing of the movie "Submission," which he made with a right-wing Dutch politician who had renounced the Islamic faith of her birth. 

Van Gogh had received police protection after its release. Dutch national broadcaster NOS and other media reported that Van Gogh's killer shot and stabbed his victim and left a note on his body. NOS said witnesses described the attacker as having an "Arab appearance." The slain filmmaker was the great grandson of the brother of famous Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh, who was also named Theo. In a recent radio interview, Van Gogh dismissed the threats and called the movie "the best protection I could have. It's not something I worry about."

In addition to his film, van Gogh also wrote columns about Islam that were published on his Web site, www.theovangogh.nl, and Dutch newspaper Metro. The short television film "Submission" aired on Dutch television in August, enraged the Muslim community in the Netherlands. The English-language film was scripted by a right-wing politician who years ago renounced the Islamic faith of her birth and now refers to herself as an "ex-Muslim." Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a member of the Dutch parliament, has repeatedly outraged fellow Muslims by criticizing Islamic customs and the failure of Muslim families to adopt Dutch ways. 

The Associated Press - Nov 5, 2004 Bangkok, Thailand - Nine Buddhists were murdered in a series of shootings in southern Thailand's bloodiest 24 hours since a government crackdown on a Muslim rioting last week left 85 dead. The revenge slayings by Muslim Separatists heightened anxiety Thursday among Buddhists in the mainly Islamic southern region, which included the beheading this week of a local official. "Buddhists are living in a state of fear because we find that the insurgents are now targeting us. They are exacting revenge on innocent Buddhists who have nothing to do with the ongoing violence," said Pairat Wihakarat, a teachers' association president. 

The latest violence started Wednesday night with the shooting deaths of a police sergeant in the southern province of Songkhla and two civilians in nearby Narathiwat. On Thursday, police Maj. Kaow Kosaiyakanon was killed when a man posing as a customer entered his grocery store, shot him and fled. Kaow, 53, of Yala, was the most senior police officer to be killed recently. A gunman also shot to death a motorcycle salesman, 42-year-old Taweesak Monthong, and seriously wounded one of his co-workers elsewhere in Yala, police said. Also Thursday, two railway employees were fatally shot while inspecting tracks in Narathiwat. 

In Pattani province, a district official was shot to death while driving to his fruit plantation, and in nearby Songkhla, a Buddhist monk on his way to a religious ceremony was fatally wounded by a motorcycle gunman. Since January, more than 400 people have died in the south, many in drive-by shootings by motorcyclists. But the violence has escalated since Oct. 25, when seven people were killed when police opened fire on rioters outside a police station and another 78 died later in military custody after being stacked on top of each other in trucks. 

The government blames Islamic separatists for the violence while Muslim leaders cite discrimination and heavy-handed tactics by officials against the religious minority. Outside the south, most Thais are Buddhists. On its Web site last week, the Muslim Pattani United Liberation Organization urged Buddhists to leave the south and threatened terrorist attacks in Bangkok.

ABC News - Nov 18, 2004 Brussels, Belgium - A British secretary to a rabbi in Antwerp was shot in the head early Thursday and was in the hospital with life-threatening injuries, the prosecutor's office said. Spokeswoman Dominique Reniers said the man was shot once in front of his home in Antwerp's Jewish neighborhood. Yehuda Ceitlin, a local aide of Israel's Zaka rescue services, identified the victim as Moshe Naeh, a father of five. Ceitlin said that, though racial harassment had increased in recent years in Antwerp, it was the first shooting of a Jewish victim in a long time. Antwerp, some 30 miles north of the capital, has one of the biggest orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in western Europe. The victim was a "devout young man" of 24 who was shot once from close range.

There were no witnesses to the shooting. There have been a series of incidents involving physical attacks and intimidation of Jews in the city this year, often blamed on youths from the large Arab immigrant community. In June, a 16-year-old Jewish student nearly died after being stabbed outside his school. Days later, a 43-year-old Jewish man was beaten unconscious. Antwerp, Belgium's second city and a major seaport, boasts a large immigrant population, with some 10 percent of its 500,000 inhabitants of North African descent. 

The city is also home to a 17,000-strong Jewish community, many of whom are Orthodox and wear their distinctive black garb. The leader of Belgium's Jewish community, Dr. Joseph Wybran, was shot to death in Brussels in 1989, and four young people were injured in 1982 when gunmen opened fire on a Brussels synagogue. Both attacks were blamed on Palestinian groups. In 2002, 18 shots were fired into the facade of a synagogue in the southern city of Charleroi without causing injury. AFP - Jan 5, 2005 Algiers, Algeria - Islamic extremists killed 18 people in an ambush of an army convoy south of the capital Algiers. The L'_Expression newspaper said some 50 extremists used a bomb to blow up the convoy and then raked it with machine-gun fire, killing 13 soldiers and five civilians who were traveling with them.

The attack took place in the early hours of Monday in a remote area in the region of Biskra, some 420 kilometers (260 miles) south of the capital, the paper said Wednesday. Some of the soldiers were able to fire back, reportedly injuring some of the assailants. The paper said the rebels, said to be from Algeria's extremist Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), were later surrounded by security forces.

The attack was the deadliest in Algeria since 16 people were murdered more than three months ago in the region of Medea, also south of Algiers. The GSPC has become the principal extremist group in Algeria's Islamist rebellion that has left some 150,000 people dead since 1992. It was allegedly founded on the instructions of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. 

The group was linked to the kidnapping last year of 32 European tourists, most of them Germans, in southern Algeria. One group was freed in a raid by Algerian soldiers, but the other was forced to trek across the desert into Mali, before they were eventually released, allegedly in exchange for a ransom. Asia News - Feb 8, 2005 Talwandi, Pakistan - Reports of Christian persecution in Pakistan are on the rise with one man getting his arm hacked off and a family kidnapped, assaulted and tortured. A Muslim customer allegedly assaulted a Christian shopkeeper in the small village of Talwandi, Punjab province.

After the shopkeeper, Shahbaz Masih, refused to rent a TV to Ahmed Ali, a butcher, Ali reportedly insulted Masih for being a Christian and left the store. He later returned with a butcher's ax and allegedly hacked off Mashi's left arm near the elbow. As he left, Ali allegedly threatened the victim and his widowed mother with even more "dire consequences" for the supposed insult he had endured. Asia News reported Masih, 22, spent four days in the hospital and then closed his shop and fled the village with his mother. 

According to the report, a group of Christian leaders from the area filed a complaint with the police and Ali was arrested. Local police reportedly are under heavy pressure to whitewash the case and free Ali. In another incident, Hanifan Bibi, 55, who worked as a domestic servant for a Muslim family, and three male relatives were abducted and abused for two days. According to Barnabas Fund, which monitors Christian persecution worldwide, Bibi, her husband, son and nephew were at home in Lahore Jan. 10 when they were kidnapped, allegedly by her employer's husband and others.

They were driven to an unknown destination and kept there for two days without food or water, the organization reported. Bibi's nephew was suspended upside down naked and beaten with a hot metal pipe, while Bibi was stripped, forced to drink wine, photographed, videotaped and severely beaten, the report states. The other two victims also were beaten. Barnabas Fund reported that after the ordeal the family was taken to a police station and accused of stealing money and jewelry from Bibi's employer. The family says the abduction was in retaliation for Bibi's refusal to provide the men of her employer's family with Christian women for sex. 

The human-rights group says many Christian women are illiterate and earn their living as ill-paid domestic servants, often for affluent Muslim families. They are very vulnerable to abuse and rarely dare to complain, Barnabas Fund says, fearing the influence of their employer in the local community. World-AFP - Feb 14, 2005 Manila, Philippines - At least 10 people were killed and 136 wounded in Valentine's Day bombings by Al-Qaeda-linked Muslim militants that hit Manila and two southern Philippine cities, officials said. Six people were killed on the spot and 94 injured when a powerful bomb ripped through a bus in the Makati financial district of Manila during the early evening rush hour, national police chief Director General Edgardo Aglipay said. 

The blast set two nearby buses on fire. One person was killed and nine were wounded when a blast hit a bus depot in the southern city of Davao on Mindanao island at dusk. Earlier Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said five people had been killed, but Davao officials insisted she misspoke. Three people were killed and 33 wounded when a bomb hit a shopping mall in the southern city of General Santos on Mindanao at about the same time as the Davao bombing, Soliman said over DZBB radio. The three bombings, which appeared to have been coordinated, were claimed by the Abu Sayyaf, a militant Muslim group operating in the southern Philippines. Abu Sayyaf spokesman Abu Solaiman told DZBB radio in an interview that the three bombings were "our Valentine's gift to her (President Gloria Arroyo)". 

"The defenders of Islam have struck again," he said. "Our latest operations in Manila, Davao and General Santos, planned and executed with precision by the gallant warriors of Islam, is our continuing response to the Philippine government's atrocities committed against Muslims everywhere," he said. In a reference to an ongoing rebellion by several hundred Muslim gunmen on the southern island of Jolo he accused the military of "massacring whole families". And he warned every Filipino and foreigner alike that "we will not stop until we get justice for the countless Muslim lives and properties that you people have destroyed." 

The Abu Sayyaf, founded in the early 1990s with seed money from September 11 terror mastermind Osama bin Laden, has waged a bombing and kidnapping campaign over the past decade. The latest attacks came nearly a year after the group last February firebombed a passenger ferry with more than 800 people on board on Manila Bay, killing more than 100 people in the worst known terrorist attack in the Philippines. The Jordan Times - Feb 28, 2004 - Amman, Jordan - A 26-year-old man walked free from the Criminal Court on Thursday after receiving a four-month prison sentence for murdering his younger pregnant sister in Mafraq 6 months earlier. 

The man was sentenced to six months by the Criminal Court for stabbing his 21-year-old sister, however, his verdict was immediately commuted by the tribunal because his family, also the victim's family, dropped charges against him. Court documents said the victim went missing from her family's house in September 2002, and was later arrested by the authorities on drug possession charges. The woman was later released from prison but never returned to her family's house, the court added. One week prior to the murder, the court continued, the victim contacted her sister to tell her that “she was pregnant out of wedlock.” “The victim's sister informed her brother who became enraged by the news and went looking for her,” the court said.

On Aug. 14, the defendant headed to the town of Khalidieh after being tipped off by some of his friends that his sister was in that area. “The defendant saw his sister in the street, followed her for a while then pulled a knife and stabbed her repeatedly. He then waited for police to come and arrest him,” the court said. The defendant was originally charged with one count of premeditated murder by the criminal prosecutor. But the court on Thursday decided to amend the charge to a misdemeanor as stipulated in Article 98 of the Jordanian Criminal Code, “the defendant did not plot the murder and because the victim tarnished her family's reputation.”

“The defendant lost his temper after seeing his pregnant sister and could not think rationally because of the unlawful act the victim had committed which brought shame and disgrace to her family,” the court ruled. Pathologists had testified in court that the victim received at least 15 stab wounds to her chest and arms and was nine months pregnant with a baby girl. The court also acquitted the defendant of abortion charges. Also on Thursday, a second tribunal sentenced a 24-year-old man to one-year imprisonment after convicting him of murdering his minor sister in one of Amman's neighborhoods in July last year. 

Ali H. was declared guilty by the tribunal of shooting his 17-year-old sister to death at their family home on the night of July 30, following an argument about her alleged extramarital affairs. Court papers said the victim went missing from her home in May 2003, but was later arrested by the authorities and returned to her family after they signed a guarantee at the governor's office that they would not harm her. The defendant, who “only saw his sibling on the day of the murder, had a heated argument with her over her alleged affairs and disappearance.” The victim told him that it was none of his business and that she was free to do whatever she wanted, the court said, quoting the defendant and his mother who was present in the house when the murder occurred.

“Ali became enraged, drew a gun normally in his possession, and shot his sister twice in the head and chest,” the court said. The victim's mother claimed in court that her daughter informed her that she was engaged in extramarital affairs, adding “she was not shy or embarrassed when she told me about it, as if I was not her mother. I told my son [the defendant] what she told me.” AFP - Mar 19, 2005 Jerusalem, Israel - Palestinian kills sister: A 17-year-old Palestinian girl, who became pregnant after her father raped her, was strangled to death by her brother in a so-called honour killing in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian newspaper reported yesterday. 

Al Ayyam daily said the teenager was strangled by her 27-year-old brother on Wednesday in Bala’a town near the northern city of Tulkarem. Arrested by Palestinian security forces, the brother admitted he had killed her to “erase the shame” after her pregnancy began showing. He also admitted knowing that his sister had become pregnant because their father raped her.

Police are now hunting the 52-year-old father, who witnessed the murder, and has since disappeared. A Palestinian women’s group said the girl had reported the rape to the police after learning she was pregnant. “The police did not arrest or even question the father,” the group charged in an open letter published in another paper. Signed by the Palestinian Working Women’s Society for Development, the letter called on the Palestinian parliament to adopt laws to protect women from all forms of violence. Associated Press - Mar 28, 2005 Kano, Nigeria - Islamic Preachers' Rejection of Vaccines Threaten Efforts to Combat Measles Epidemic in Nigeria. 

Accusations by Islamic preachers that vaccines are part of an American anti-Islamic plot are threatening efforts to combat a measles epidemic that has killed hundreds of Nigerian children, health workers say. Government officials play down the anti-vaccine sentiment, but all the measles deaths have been in Nigeria's north, where authorities had to suspend polio immunizations last year after hard-line clerics fanned similar fears of that vaccine. 

Nigeria, whose 130 million people make it Africa's most populous nation, has recorded 20,859 measles cases so far this year. At least 589 victims have died, most of them children younger than 5 and all in the north, the Nigerian Red Cross and the U.N. World Health Organization say. 

Southern Nigeria, which is mainly Christian, had only 253 measles cases, and no deaths. (Islamic) clerics have added the measles vaccine to their campaign against immunizations. Nasir Mohammed Nasir, imam of Kano's second-largest mosque, said Americans "can't be killing my brothers and children in Iraq and at the same time claim to want to save my children from polio and other diseases. We suspect a sinister motive," he said. Reuters - Apr 7, 2005 Cario, Egypt - A bomb exploded in a Cairo tourist bazaar on Thursday killing one French woman tourist and another unidentified person and wounding 17 others, Egypt's Interior Ministry said in a statement. 

Police sources said a man on a motorbike threw the bomb into the busy tourist area in the center of the Egyptian capital but the ministry statement made no mention of what caused the blast. The wounded — four French, three Americans, an Italian, a Turk and nine Egyptians — were taken to hospital where the French woman died, the statement added. The bomb went off on one of Cairo's streets lined with shops catering for tourists, a Reuters reporter said. Police sealed off the road and shops were closed. 

The bombing was the latest in a series of attacks on tourists in Egypt, which thousands of foreign nationals visit each year to see its ancient treasures and pyramids. An Egyptian man stabbed and wounded two Hungarian tourists in central Cairo last month in what police said was revenge for Western policies toward Iraqis and Palestinians. 

A series of bombings on the Taba Hilton hotel on Egypt's border with Israel and two beaches further south killed 34 people last October. AFP - May 28, 2005 Jakarta, Indonesia - Two bombs exploded on Saturday in a busy market on Indonesia's Sulawesi island, killing 22 people and wounding 60 others in the worst attack in the country since the October 2002 Bali bombings. 

Police in Jakarta said the attack bore hallmarks of Islamic militants behind a string of other atrocities in Indonesia, including the Bali blasts in which 202 mainly Western tourists died. The latest bombs detonated within minutes of each other in the centre of the Christian-dominated town of Tentena in the Central Sulawesi province, which has been a flashpoint of sectarian violence in recent years. The second explosion struck outside a police station as people rushed to help those hit by the first blast near a bank 15 minutes earlier. A Christian cleric and an infant were among those killed. 

"The first bomb was placed to attract the crowd's attention so that they would gather in the area and become the target of the second bomb," said First Inspector Adam, a policeman on duty in the nearby city of Poso. ABC News - Jun 24, 2005 Bangkok, Thailand - Islamic separatists in southern Thailand slashed the necks of a couple, almost severing their heads, police said Friday. The couple, Jad Suwanchatri, 52, and his wife, Serm, 51, had stopped their motorcycle to clear a log from a road in Yala province when assailants shot Jad and then cut the throats of the couple, police Lt. Somporn Ritthirat said Friday. 

The couple's dog, which was in a sidecar, also was slashed to death, he said. The couple were rubber plantation workers, Buddhists and members of a local defense militia. Drive-by shootings and bombings have claimed the lives of more than 880 people since January 2004 in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces, which are dominated by Muslims in this overwhelmingly Buddhist country.

It was unclear exactly when the couple was killed, but police were notified early Friday of the attack, which apparently was a failed beheading, police said. On Wednesday, insurgents decapitated a man at a teashop in one of the most brazen attacks since a wave of violence swept the provinces near Malaysia early last year.

It was the fifth beheading in recent weeks and apparently the first carried out in daylight. The first victim beheaded, also a rubber plantation worker, was slain in May 2004. The brutal killing caused widespread fear and prompted many workers to stop tapping rubber at night, when the work is usually done, and go out in the morning instead. Also Friday, two unidentified gunmen shot and killed Kobkua Ransaewa, a school principal in Narathiwat province, while she was riding a motorcycle away from the school at lunchtime. 

The school temporarily closed after the incident. The upsurge in violence has been attributed to the return of a decades-old secessionist movement believed to have faded after a government amnesty in the 1980s. Southern Thai Muslims have long complained of unfair treatment by the central government, mainly in jobs and education.

The Associated Press – Aug 13, 2005 Jammu, India - Suspected Islamic militants raided a remote mountain village in India's Jammu-Kashmir state and attacked two Hindu families as they dined together, killing five people, police said. The gun and grenade attack on Friday night in Sajroo village, 100 miles north of Jammu, came despite stepped up security in the region to prevent militant attacks ahead of India's Independence Day celebrations Monday. Five people were killed and nine others were wounded, said Deputy Inspector General of Police Satbir Gupta, adding that three of the injured were in serious conditions. He said the militants attacked the two families as they ate an evening meal together.

The targeted families volunteered for a village defense committee and the government had given them arms to help protect the village. Gupta said the killers were from one of about a dozen Pakistan-based militant groups that have been fighting security forces in India's portion of Kashmir for the Himalayan region's independence or its merger with mostly Muslim Pakistan. More than 66,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the Kashmir insurgency since it began in 1989.

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