• Six suicide bombers kill at least two outside spy agency in Kabul

    GRAPHIC WARNING: Contains images which some viewers may find disturbing.

    Musadeq Sadeq / AP

    A victim is transported to a hospital following a militant attack in Kabul, on Jan. 16.

    S. Sabawoon / EPA

    Afghan security officials inspect the scene of a suicide bomb attack that was targeting the office of the Afghan intelligence agency in Kabul on Jan. 16.

    By Mirwais Harooni and Hamid Shalizi, Reuters

    Six suicide bombers launched a coordinated attack on Afghanistan's spy agency in Kabul on Wednesday, killing at least two and wounding 22 others, Afghan officials said.

    The attack started at around noon (0730 GMT) when the first assailant detonated a large car bomb near the entrance to the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the Kabul police chief's office said in a statement.

    Five others strapped with explosives and driving a minivan were shot dead as they tried to enter the NDS compound, it said. Two NDS guards were killed by the first bomber and 22 others wounded, security and health officials said. Continue reading.

    Shah Marai / AFP - Getty Images

    An Afghan woman with her child move to safety as security personnel secure the site of a suicide attack near the Afghan intelligence agency headquarters in Kabul on Jan. 16.

    Shah Marai / AFP - Getty Images

    A truck driver peers through the broken windshield of his vehicle at the site of a suicide attack near the Afghan intelligence agency headquarters in Kabul on Jan. 16.

    Ahmad Jamshid / AP

    Security men with the Afghan intelligence services talk on their cell phones at the scene of a bombing in Kabul on Jan. 16.

    Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

    Aref Karimi / AFP - Getty Images

    More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

    Launch slideshow

    Previously on PhotoBlog:

  • Sanaa holds funerals for victims of suicide bombing

    Yemen's Defence Ministry via Reuters

    Soldiers carry coffins during the funeral of dozens of soldiers killed in Monday's suicide bombing in Sanaa on May 24. A man with explosives strapped under his army uniform killed more than 90 people in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Monday when he blew himself up in the midst of a military parade rehearsal, the defence ministry said.

    Funerals were held today for the victims of Monday's suicide bombing in Sanaa, Yemen. The attacks killed more than 90 people at a military parade rehearsal and wounded about 200 others. On Tuesday, the National Day parade was relocated to air force academy under heavy security. Reuters reports:

    Yemeni soldiers marched in a National Day parade on Tuesday as the president watched from behind a bullet-proof glass shield in a show of defiance after a bomber killed more than 90 troops in an attack on the ceremony's rehearsal.

    A somber mood hung over the event, meant to celebrate the 1990 unification of north and south Yemen, but it passed off without any repeat of Monday's bloodshed despite militant threats to carry out more attacks.

    The bombing, one of the deadliest in Yemen in recent years, was a setback in its battle against Islamists linked to al Qaeda and heightened U.S. concerns over a country in the front line of Washington's global war on militants. Continue reading.

    Mohammed Huwais / AFP - Getty Images

    A Yemeni soldiers sits next to the grave of a comrade who was killed in a suicide bombing that targeted soldiers earlier in the week, at a cemetery in Sanaa on May 24. A suicide bomber clad in a soldier's uniform detonated explosives on May 21 as Yemeni troops were rehearsing for a parade scheduled for May 22, killing 96 soldiers and wounding 300 more.

    Yahya Arhab / EPA

    A Yemeni man walks over graves at a cemetery ahead of burying dozens of soldiers who were killed in a suicide bombing in Sana'a, Yemen, on May 24.

    A suicide bomber blew himself up at a military parade rehearsal in Yemen's capital, killing more than 90 soldiers. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.

  • Mohammed Ameen / Reuters

    A man inspects bloodstained copies of the Koran after a blast occurred inside Umm al-Qura mosque in Baghdad's Ghazaliya district on Monday, Aug. 29. A suicide bomber posing as a beggar detonated his explosives inside a main Baghdad Sunni mosque on Sunday, killing at least 24 people, including an Iraqi lawmaker, and wounding more than 30 others, hospital and local officials.

    Suicide bomber attacks Iraq mosque; 29 dead

    By Jonathan Woods, msnbc.com

    AP reports -- A suicide bomber blew himself up inside Baghdad's largest Sunni mosque Sunday night, killing 29 people during prayers, a shocking strike on a place of worship similar to the one that brought Iraq to the brink of civil war five years ago. (Read more).

  • 4 security guards killed in suicide attack on Afghan hotel

    The AP reports:

    A suicide bomber blew up his car outside a small residential hotel frequented by foreigners just after dawn Tuesday, killing four guards, as two other militants stormed the hotel in Kunduz city and engaged the Afghan police in a two-hour gunbattle. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault — the latest in a rising number of attacks in northern Afghanistan.

    Wahdat Afghan / Reuters

    Police fight suicide attackers who took over a guesthouse in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on August 2. Three suicide bombers raided a guesthouse frequented by foreigners on Tuesday, killing four Afghan security guards employed by a German company, a senior police detective said. One attacker detonated a car bomb at the gates of the guesthouse. The other two stormed the building where they fought Afghan forces for a couple of hours before detonating their explosives, said Kunduz police detective Abdul Rahman.

    Ahmed Bilal / AP

    Police officers wrap the body of a hotel guard in a black cloth after a suicide attack in Kunduz on August 2.

     

  • Ahmad Nadeem / Reuters

    A blood-stained turban is seen at the site where Kandahar's city mayor Ghulam Haidar Hamidi was killed after a suicide blast in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on July 27.

    Suicide bomber kills Kandahar mayor, official says

    Reuters reports from KANDAHAR:

    The mayor of Afghanistan's southern Kandahar city was killed in a suicide bomb attack on Wednesday, officials said, just two weeks after the controversial and powerful brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai was assassinated in the same city.

    Mayor Ghulam Haidar Hamidi was killed when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a corridor near Hamidi's office, said Zalmay Ayoubi, the spokesman for the Kandahar provincial governor.

    "It appears the bomber was carrying the bomb in his turban," Ayoubi said. Continue reading.

  • Mohammad Zubair / AP

    Men carry a lifeless body of a man out of the rubble of a government building targeted in a suicide bombing in the Pakistani town of Hangu on May 27.

    Suicide truck bomb kills at least 32 in Hangu, Pakistan

    The AP reports from PESHAWAR, Pakistan:

    A suicide bomber in a pickup truck detonated his explosives near several government offices in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least 32 people, in the latest violence to hit the country since the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Continue reading.

  • Bombers target Pakistani politician for second consecutive day

    A. Majeed / AFP - Getty Images

    A Pakistani plain-clothes policeman examines the wreckage of a police van after a bomb blast in the town of Charsadda on March 31. A bomb blast targeting an Islamic party chief killed at least 10 people and wounded 20 others in the northwestern Pakistani town, police said. The bombing took place in the town of Charsadda, close to the convoy of Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) party - the second attack against the politician and his supporters in as many days.

    A. Majeed / AFP - Getty Images

    Schoolchildren cry in a classroom near the site of a bomb blast in the town of Charsadda on March 31.

    A suicide bomber struck a convoy carrying a prominent hardline Islamist leader in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, killing 12 people in what was the second attack that targeted the politician in as many days, police said.

    Maulana Fazlur Rehman, head of the Jamiat Ulema Islam party, told local TV after the attack in Charsadda town that he was unharmed but his vehicle was slightly damaged. The attack came a day after a suicide bomber blew himself up amid a crowd of Rehman's supporters minutes after he passed by in a vehicle. Continue reading.

  • Suicide bomber kills dozens at Pakistan funeral

    Riaz Khan of AP reports: PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A suicide bomber struck a funeral attended by anti-Taliban militiamen in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing at least 36 mourners and wounding more than 100 in the deadliest militant attack in the country this year. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.

    Arshad Arbab / EPA

    Relatives of the victims of a suicide bomb blast targeting the funeral procession of an anti-Taliban militiaman's wife, cry at a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan on March 9.

    The blast near the city of Peshawar was not far from the tribally administered regions bordering Afghanistan where militants are at their strongest. The area struck is home to several tribal armies that battle the Taliban with the government's encouragement.

    K. Parvez / Reuters

    Medics assist a man injured by a suicide bomb attack at a funeral procession on the outskirts of Peshawar, at Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar on March 9.

    Police officer Zahid Khan said about 300 people were attending the funeral for the wife of a militiaman in the Matani area when the bomber struck. TV footage showed men picking up bloodied sandals and caps from a dusty, open space where mourners had gathered.

    Fayaz Aziz / Reuters

    A man stands next to sandals at the site of a suicide bomb attack on the outskirts of Peshawar on March 9.

    Witnesses said the bomber, who appeared to be in his late teens, showed up at the funeral just as it was about to begin. "We thought this youth was coming to attend the funeral, but he suddenly detonated a bomb," survivor Syed Alam Khan said.

    Arshad Arbab / EPA

    Relatives of the victims of a suicide bomb blast cry at a hospital in Peshawar on March 9.

    Follow developments in the story here.

     

  • Egyptian Christians Clash With Police in Cairo After Deadly Church Bombing

    By Mish Whalen

    According to the Associated Press, "The New Year's Day suicide bombing of a church that killed 21 people has opened up a vein of fury among Egypt's Christians, built up over years of what they call government failure to address persistent discrimination and violence against their community." See full story here.

    Amr Abdallah Dalsh / Reuters

    Riot police shield themselves from objects being thrown at them by Coptic Christians during clashes outside al-Abasseya Cathedral in Cairo January 2, 2011.=

    Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters

    Egyptian Christians clash with riot police in front of al-Abasseya Cathedral in Cairo late night January 2, 2011.

    Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters

    Riot police assist a colleague during clashes with Egyptian Christians in front of al-Abasseya Cathedral in Cairo late night January 2, 2011.