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Tag: attack
Pakistan bombing death toll tops 50, ISIS affiliate suspected in attack on pro-Taliban election rally
Khar, Pakistan — The death toll from a massive suicide bombing that targeted an election rally for a pro-Taliban cleric rose to 54 Monday, as Pakistan held funerals and the government vowed to hunt down those behind the attack. No one immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday’s bombing, which also wounded nearly 200 people, but police said their initial investigation suggested the ISIS group’s regional affiliate could be responsible.
The victims were attending a rally organized by the Jamiat Ulema Islam party, headed by hard-line cleric and politician Fazlur Rehman. He did not attend the rally, held under a large tent close to a market in Bajur, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan.
Rehman, who has long supported Afghanistan’s Taliban government, escaped at least two known bomb attacks in 2011 and 2014, when bombings damaged his car at rallies.
Victims of the bombing were buried in Bajur on Monday.
ABDUL MAJEED/AFP/Getty
As condolences continued to pour in from across the country, dozens of people who received minor injuries were discharged from hospital while the critically wounded were taken to the provincial capital of Peshawar by army helicopters. The death toll continued to rise as critically wounded people died in hospital, physician Gul Naseeb said.
On Monday, police recorded statements from some of the wounded at a hospital in Khar, Bajur’s largest town. Feroz Jamal, the provincial information minister, said police were “investigating this attack in all aspects.”
At least 1,000 people were gathered under a large tent Sunday as their party prepared for parliamentary elections, expected in October or November.
ABDUL MAJEED/AFP/Getty
“People were chanting God is Great on the arrival of senior leaders, when I heard the deafening sound of the bomb,” said Khan Mohammad, a local resident who said he was standing outside the tent.
Mohammad said he heard people crying for help, and minutes later ambulances started arriving and taking the wounded away.
Abdul Rasheed, a senior leader in Rehman’s party said the bombing was aimed at weakening the party but that “such attacks cannot deter our resolve.”
Islamist groups have long had a presence in Bajur. The district was formerly a base for al Qaeda and a stronghold of the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. The army declared the district clear of the group in 2016 following a series of offensives.
The regional ISIS affiliate, known as the ISIS-Khorasan or ISIS-K, is based in neighboring Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province and is a rival of the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda.
Shaukat Abbas, a senior police officer, said that police have made progress in their investigation, but did not provide details.
Pakistani security analyst Mahmood Shah told The Associated Press that breakaway factions of the TTP could also be behind the attack. He said some TTP members have been known to disobey their top leadership to carry out attacks, as have breakaway factions of the group.
Shah said such factions could have perpetrated the attack to cause “confusion, instability and unrest ahead of the elections.”
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is expected to dissolve Pakistan’s parliament in August.
Rehman’s party is part of Sharif’s coalition government, which came to power in April 2022 by ousting former Prime Minister Imran Khan through a no-confidence vote in the legislature.
Sharif called Rehman to express his condolences and assure the cleric that those who orchestrated the attack would be punished. The bombing has also drawn nationwide condemnation, with ruling and opposition parties offering condolences to the families of the victims. The U.S. and Russian embassies in Islamabad also condemned the attack.
Khan condemned the bombing Sunday.
The Pakistani Taliban also distanced themselves from the attack, saying that the attack aimed to set Islamists against each other. Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, wrote in a tweet that “such crimes cannot be justified in any way.”
Sunday’s bombing was one of the four worst attacks in northwestern Pakistan since 2014, when 147 people, mostly schoolchildren, were killed in a Taliban attack on an army-run school in Peshawar.
In January, 74 people were killed in a bombing at a mosque in Peshawar. And in February, more than 100 people, mostly policemen, died in a bombing at a mosque inside a high-security compound housing Peshawar police headquarters.
8-year-old boy survives cougar attack at national park in Washington state
An 8-year-old camper at Olympic National Park in Washington state survived with only minor injuries after a cougar attacked Friday evening, the National Park Service said.
“The cougar casually abandoned its attack after being yelled and screamed at by the child’s mother,” the park service said in a statement Sunday.
The attack was reported at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, and the injuries were minor enough that the child, identified by a park spokesperson as a boy, was hospitalized only for evaluation, it said.
The big cat was being sought by park service personnel, who plan to euthanize it under longstanding guidelines, the park service said.
“Olympic National Park has extensive protocols in place for wildlife observations, interactions, and attacks and the lethal removal of this cougar is in line with these protocols,” it said.
The area of the attack, Lake Angeles, was evacuated, campers there were made to leave, and access was closed until further notice, the park service said. Adjacent Heather Park was also closed, it said.
The park, near the U.S.-Canada border, is about 85 miles northwest of Seattle.
If the cougar is captured and killed, park service officials will order a necropsy — an autopsy for animals — in a quest to find clues about its state at the time of the attack, the park service said.
Interactions with humans, let alone attacks, are uncommon, and the reclusive big cats are a rare sight, it said.
Interaction does happen, however: Olympic National Park is cougar territory, the park service said.
“If you meet a cougar, it is important to not run because it could trigger the cougar’s attack instinct,” it said. “People should group together, appear as large as possible, keep eyes on the animal, make lots of noise and shout loudly.”
Erick Mendoza contributed.
Protesters attack French embassy in Niger as West African governments threaten coup leaders
NIAMEY, Niger — Thousands of protesters supporting a coup in Niger took to the streets on Sunday and attacked the French embassy as West African governments warned of possible military action to restore democratic rule.
Demonstrators in the capital, Niamey, many waving Russian flags, smashed windows at the French embassy and set a perimeter door on fire but never breached the walls of the embassy compound
Protesters filled the Boulevard de la Republique and several other main thoroughfares in the capital, some running, others riding motorcycles, and many packed into vehicles. They blocked cars at traffic circles, backing up traffic on side streets. Some shouted and waved flags, mostly from Niger.
In a span of several minutes, hundreds of protestors passed us as we watched from a vehicle, before deciding to turn around rather than trying to navigate through the sea of people. The morning also brought another new presence on the streets of Niamey — dozens of police checkpoints.
Most protestors seemed to support the coup leaders and, for the most part, those who gathered did not seem angry. In fact, many smiled and seemed joyful.
As the demonstrations unfolded in Niger, West African nations held an emergency summit in Nigeria and announced sweeping sanctions on Niger unless President Mohammed Bazoum was released from detention and returned to power.
The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) gave the coup leaders one week to reverse their seizure of power or face possible military intervention.
“In the event the authorities’ demands are not met within one week (ECOWAS will) take all measures necessary to restore constitutional order in the Republic of Niger. Such measures may include the use of force,” ECOWAS said in a statement.
ECOWAS said it was suspending all financial transactions with Niger, freezing Niger’s assets in central and commercial banks and imposing a travel ban and asset freeze on military officers involved in the coup.
The Army officers who lead the coup in Niger said earlier that the ECOWAS bloc was on the verge of orchestrating a military intervention in the country.
Niger has been the anchor for Western counter-terrorism efforts across the turbulent Sahel region, with roughly 1,100 U.S. troops operating drones and training local forces to fight Islamist extremists.
For decades, France ruled Niger as a colonial power until it gained independence in 1960. Paris has retained an influential role since and currently has about 1,500 troops conducting joint operations with local forces against Islamist extremists. A French state-owned firm also operates a uranium mine in the country’s north.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that assaults on France and its interests would not be tolerated.
“France calls for an end to the unacceptable violence observed today,” said the French foreign ministry, adding that it had stepped up security at the country’s embassy in Niamey.
France also said it supported the statement from the West African leaders in ECOWAS denouncing the coup.
U.S. officials have condemned the military officers’ seizure of power but have so far avoided using the word “coup.” Under U.S. law, such a declaration would require halting all American aid to the country and the end of all security cooperation with Niger.
U.S. officials told NBC News the situation remained fluid and it was unclear if the coup would hold. But they acknowledged that the strong statement from the ECOWAS summit may have increased tension in Niger
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday warned that economic and security ties between the U.S. and Niger would depend on the release of President Bazoum from house arrest and the restoration of “the democratic order in Niger.”
Although U.S. officials say there is no sign Russia was behind the coup, former diplomats and regional experts say Russia’s paramilitary Wagner Group has churned out anti-Western, anti-French propaganda for months that sought to depict President Bazoum’s government as puppets of Paris.
Wagner paramilitaries have ties to military juntas in Mali and other countries in the region. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group, which led a brief mutiny in Russia last month, praised the coup in Niger on Thursday, calling it a fight against “colonizers.”
Late Sunday night, the streets of Niamey were quiet, with most people adhering to a nationwide curfew in effect for a fifth night. With President Bazoum still held captive in his presidential residence, no clear path appeared to exist for resolving Niger’s crisis.
An overnight drone attack on Moscow injures 1 and temporarily closes an airport
Three Ukrainian drones attacked Moscow in the early hours on Sunday, Russian authorities said, injuring one person and prompting a temporary closure of traffic in and out of one of four airports around the Russian capital.
It was the fourth such attempt at a strike on the capital region this month and the third this week, fueling concerns about Moscow’s vulnerability to attacks as Russia’s war in Ukraine drags into its 18th month.
The Russian Defense Ministry referred to the incident as an “attempted terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime” and said three drones targeted the city. One was shot down in the surrounding Moscow region by air defense systems and two others were jammed. Those two crashed into the Moscow City business district.
Photos from the site of the crash showed the facade of a skyscraper damaged on one floor. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the attack “insignificantly damaged” the outsides of two buildings in the Moscow City district. A security guard was injured, Russia’s state news agency Tass reported, citing emergency officials.
No flights went into or out of Vnukovo airport on the southern outskirts of the city for about an hour, according to Tass, and the airspace over Moscow and the outlying regions was temporarily closed to all aircraft. Those restrictions have since been lifted.
Moscow authorities have also closed a street to traffic near the site of the crash in the Moscow City area.
There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials, who rarely if ever take responsibility for attacks on Russian soil.
The attack follows a night of reported drone skirmishes between Russia and Ukraine. Moscow announced Sunday that it had foiled a Ukrainian attack on Russian-annexed Crimea, shooting down 16 drones and neutralizing eight more with an electronic jamming system. There were no casualties, officials said.
The Ukrainian air force reported that it had destroyed four Russian drones above the country’s Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Information on the attacks could not be independently verified.
Meanwhile, two people were killed and 20 wounded by a Russian missile strike late Saturday evening on the city of Sumy in northeast Ukraine. A four-story building belonging to a vocational college was hit, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said. Local authorities said that dormitories and teaching buildings were damaged in the blast and the fire that followed.
Russia’s Defense Ministry reported shooting down a Ukrainian drone outside Moscow on Friday. Four days earlier, two drones struck the Russian capital, one of them falling in the center of the city near the Defense Ministry’s headquarters along the Moscow River about 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the Kremlin. The other drone hit an office building in southern Moscow, gutting several upper floors.
In another attack on July 4, the Russian military said four drones were downed by air defenses on the outskirts of Moscow and a fifth was jammed by electronic warfare means and forced down.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Jan. 6 rioter who stole radio in D.C. officer Fanone attack sentenced to 4 years
A New York man who took part in the violent assault on a Washington, D.C., police officer during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was sentenced to over four years in prison Friday, prosecutors said.
Thomas Sibick, 37, of Buffalo, stole the badge and radio of then-Metropolitan Police Department Officer Michael Fanone, who has been one of several officers attacked that day to testify before Congress.
Sibick was sentenced to 50 months, or four years and two months in prison, and was ordered to pay over $7,500, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington said in a statement. He pleaded guilty in March.
Fanone “fought for his life against members of the violent mob” on Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum that asked for 71 months in prison. They called the attack on Capitol “an attack on the rule of law.”
“Sibick’s criminal conduct, assaulting a police officer who was in the course of performing his official duties, and stealing his badge and radio — his lifeline in his time of need — is the epitome of disrespect for the law,” the prosecution argued in the sentencing memorandum.
An attorney listed as representing Sibick did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday evening.
Sibick’s attorney argued in a sentencing memo that Sibick did not punch, kick, or otherwise attack Fanone like other people charged in the assault, and was limited to taking two items off of the officer’s vest.
Sibick “has been devastated by his actions that day,” and has expressed his remorse, attorney Stephen Brennwald wrote.
Sibick wrote in a letter to the judge that he was in a manic state, and he called his actions an “an embarrassment to myself, my family and my nation.”
“If I could tell Officer Fanone how deeply sorry I was for impeding him from doing his job, I would,” he wrote.
Sibick pleaded guilty to one felony count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers, which is a felony, and one misdemeanor count of theft on March 3.
His attorney argued for home confinement. Sibick has spent eight months in jail since his arrest.
At least three other men — Daniel Rodriguez, Kyle Young and Albuquerque Head — have also been convicted and sentenced in the attack on Fanone as well as in the Jan. 6 riot.
Rodriguez, who attacked Fanone with the stun gun, was sentenced to 12½ years in prison last month. Young was sentenced in September to over 7 years in prison. Head was sentenced in October to 7½ years.
The attack on the U.S. Capitol occurred as Congress was formally counting the electoral votes affirming Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election, and after repeated lies that baselessly claimed fraud in the election.
Trump is the target of an investigation before a grand jury in Washington over Jan. 6 and efforts to overturn the election.
California stabbing suspect arrested after posting video of the fatal attack online, police say
A California man is accused of fatally stabbing a woman and posting video of the killing on Facebook, San Mateo police said Thursday.
The investigation started after someone in Nye County, Nevada, reported having seen the video to Nye County authorities, San Mateo police said.
That person provided the name and phone number of the person who posted it, which led police to the San Francisco Bay Area city. After almost three hours of searching, officers found a woman dead in a unit at a large apartment complex, police said.
Mark Merchikoff, 39, was arrested in San Jose, around 20 miles southeast of San Mateo, police said.
San Mateo police said Merchikoff knew the victim, whose name was not released. A motive was under investigation and was not known Thursday, police said.
“We do know Merchikoff mercilessly filmed the last moments of the victim’s life and posted the video to Facebook, then fled the area,” police said in a statement.
Merchikoff was arrested on suspicion of homicide, police said. Online court records did not appear to show a case for him Thursday night.
It was not clear Thursday night whether Merchikoff had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
“It’s pretty hideous what that video contained,” San Mateo police spokesman Jerami Surratt said, according to NBC Bay Area.
Facebook’s parent company, Meta, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.