Latest news with #IslamicMilitants
BBC News
21-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
2006 Mumbai train bombings: India court acquits 12 men
A court in India has acquitted 12 men previously convicted in the 2006 Mumbai train bombings that killed 187 people and injured over had in 2015 sentenced five of the accused to death and the remaining seven to life Monday, a two-judge bench of the Bombay High Court overturned the earlier order, ruling that the prosecution had "utterly failed" to establish that the accused had committed the offences for which they had been prosecution can appeal against the order in a higher court. On 11 July 2006, seven blasts ripped through the busy commuter trains during the evening rush hour in one of India's deadliest terror bombs, packed into seven pressure cookers and put in bags, detonated within six minutes of each blasts took place in the areas of Matunga, Khar, Mahim, Jogeshwari, Borivali and Mira Road, with most on moving trains and two at bombs appeared to have targeted first-class compartments, as commuters were returning home from the city's financial security agencies blamed the attack on Islamic militants backed by Pakistan, an allegation the country accused, who were arrested shortly after the blasts, have been in jail since then. One of them, Kamal Ansari, who had been sentenced to death, died of Covid in 2015, a special court convicted the men of murder, conspiracy and waging war against the country. The prosecution appealed to confirm the death sentences, while the defence sought July 2024, the Bombay High Court formed the two-judge bench to expedite the hearings. Reports say that over the next six months, the court conducted more than 75 sittings and examined 92 prosecution witnesses and over 50 defence the 667-page order on Monday, the court noted that the defence had questioned the credibility of the witnesses produced by the prosecution, as well as the confessional statements made by the accused. It also acknowledged the defence's contention that the recovered evidence was not maintained in a "sealed condition throughout".Follow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, X and Facebook
Arab News
21-06-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Suicide bomber kills at least 10 in a restaurant in northeast Nigeria
ABUJA: A suicide bomber in Nigeria's northeast state of Borno killed at least 10 people and injured several others in an explosion in a restaurant, police said Saturday. The blast occurred in the Konduga area late Friday, police spokesperson Nahum Daso told The Associated Press. The suicide bomber was able to slip through unnoticed because of a heavy downpour, said Ismail Ahmed, a resident of Konduga. The town is about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. Local media reported that those injured in the attacks have been taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. They also reported that the bomber was female. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Nigeria's northeast has been hit by attacks carried out by Islamic militants from the Boko Haram group and its splinter, the Daesh West Africa Province. Boko Haram, Nigeria's homegrown militants, took up arms in 2009 to fight Western education and impose their radical version of Islamic law. The conflict also has spilled into Nigeria's northern neighbors. Some 35,000 civilians have been killed and more than 2 million displaced in the northeastern region, according to the UN Despite promises by President Bola Tinubu's administration to address Nigeria's security challenges, the violence has persisted.
National Post
19-06-2025
- Politics
- National Post
Vivian Bercovici: Iran could fall any day, and Carney could not be more irrelevant
On Feb. 1, 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, the leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, stood at the top of the stairs of an Air France jet that had just landed in Tehran. This stern, robed man had been whisked from his country villa provided by the French government (then led by President Valery Giscard d'Estaing) to a waiting jet. During his 14 years in exile, Ayatollah Khomeini was treated reverentially by the French. Before descending the stairs, the 40 year old cleric paused, triumphantly. Article content Article content Eleven days later, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi left Iran in disgrace, marking the end of 54 years of his family's dynastic rule. He died not long after, in exile. Article content Article content Article content I remember the moment the Islamic student militants stormed the American Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979. It was unthinkable. Sixty-six American diplomatic staff and other embassy personnel were taken hostage and held for 444 days. The footage of them being led, helpless and blindfolded, through the embassy compound is still so fresh. The 'students' were enraged that the United States had admitted the Shah for cancer treatment. Article content The fanatical supporters of the Islamic regime were veiled, bearded and unsmiling. They spent months painstakingly piecing together strips of documents that had been shredded in the final, panicked moments before the embassy was stormed. It was all so dramatic, dark and ominous. They were also masters at media manipulation. Article content The gravity of the moment was not lost on anyone. But, almost 50 years on, many world leaders seem oblivious to the import of what is going down in Iran today. Some, of course, were barely in grade school in 1979. The intensity of the seismic shift — when Islamism was empowered — is not seared in their historical memory. Article content Article content Article content In recent days, small minds huddled in Kananaskis country, just north of Calgary for a G7 summit. They were embarrassingly unconcerned with events unfolding in Iran and were much more excited by the self-aggrandizing diplomatic statements they churned out lionizing their brilliant accomplishments. Meanwhile, an emerging new world order rendered their theatrics irrelevant. The disconnect was total. Article content Since 3 am local time, Friday June 13, an indescribably brilliant Israeli assault on key strategic and military sites throughout Iran has made the collapse of this repressive, theofascist dictatorship suddenly become very possible. Article content Intelligence assessments confirming that Iran was possibly moments away from nuclear breakout created the urgency. U.S. President Donald Trump had been persistent for months in urging Iranian leadership to negotiate a deal which would require that they abandon all military nuclear ambitions. Iran refused. Israel attacked.
Washington Post
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
France's plan to build a maximum security prison wing in French Guiana angers local officials
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — France plans to build a maximum-security prison wing for drug traffickers and Islamic militants near a former penal colony in French Guiana , sparking an outcry among residents and local officials. The wing would form part of a $450 million prison announced in 2017 that is expected to be completed by 2028 and hold 500 inmates. The prison would be built in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, a town bordering Suriname that once received prisoners shipped by Napoleon III in the 1800s, some of whom were sent to the notorious Devil's Island off the coast of French Guiana.
