“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” – Blaise Pascal (philosopher and mathematician 1623-1662).

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 worshippers 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 2^ND 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 fianc 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 fiance, 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 wounds 40.

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 caf 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, caf 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 Caf 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 Caf 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 Caf 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 caf 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 Caf 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 4^th, 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. [Nation