Car Bomb

BAGHDAD - The body of a Chaldean Catholic archbishop was found in a shallow grave in northern Iraq yesterday, two weeks after he was kidnapped by gunmen in one of the most dramatic attacks against the country's small Christian community. The discovery of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho's body was made on a day that saw more violence elsewhere in Iraq. A parked car bomb exploded in a commercial district of central Baghdad, killing 18 people and wounding dozens more, police said.

Suspected drug cartel gunmen opened fire on a hotel being used as a police barracks then attacked it with a car bomb Thursday, wounding eight officers less than 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) from the U.S. border, Mexican officials said. A Tamaulipas state official said authorities believed the Zetas cartel, one of Mexico's two most powerful criminal organizations, carried out the attack on the Hotel Santa Cecilia in Nuevo Laredo, a city across the border from Laredo, Texas. The Zetas, founded by Mexican special forces defectors, have carried out a number of sophisticated attacks, but...

BAGHDAD -- A car bomb exploded outside the main gate to the headquarters of the US-led coalition this morning, wounding several Iraqis and at least one American soldier, a US general said. American officials said there were "estimates" of 15 Iraqi dead. The blast occurred near the "Assassin's Gate" to Saddam Hussein's former Republican Palace complex, now used by the US-led occupation authority for headquarters. The gate is used by hundreds of Iraqis employed by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the formal name of the US-led occupation authorities, as well as US military vehicles.

Prosecutors said Monday an Indonesian militant known as the "Demolition Man" should spend the rest of his life in prison for helping to build the car bomb used in the 2002 Bali nightclub attacks. Umar Patek, a leading member of the al-Qaida-linked network Jemaah Islamiyah, is the last key suspect to be tried in the blasts that killed 202 people, thrusting Indonesia onto the frontlines in the war on terror. Many of the victims were foreign tourists, including 88 Australians and seven Americans.

BAGHDAD — A car bomb exploded outside a funeral tent yesterday in a mainly Shi’ite area of Baghdad, killing at least 48 people — the latest in a wave of attacks that has triggered fury over the government’s inability to stop the bloodshed. As ambulances raced to the scene and Iraqi helicopters buzzed overhead, young men enraged over the security lapse pelted Iraqi forces with sticks and stones, prompting skirmishes. The violence over the past 10 days has mainly targeted the majority Shi’ite community and Iraqi security forces, posing a major challenge for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and...

MADRID -- A car bomb blamed on Basque separatists exploded in a Madrid office park yesterday near where King Juan Carlos later appeared, injuring at least 43 people in the worst terrorist attack in the Spanish capital since last year's bombing of commuter trains. The bomb exploded at about 9:30 a.m., less than an hour after a warning call purportedly made by the Basque separatist group ETA. It shattered thick panes of glass in buildings, spraying shards over a wide area, and damaged cars.

IRELAND DUBLIN — A 25-year-old Catholic who had just joined Northern Ireland’s police force died yesterday when a booby-trap bomb exploded as he got into his car in Omagh, police said. No group claimed responsibility, but police and politicians blamed Irish Republican Army dissidents for the bombing. SPAIN Prime minister says he will step down MADRID — Spain’s embattled socialist prime minister yesterday said he will not seek reelection in 2012 as his country grapples with debt, joblessness, and a faltering economy hit by the international financial...

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — A car bomb killed at least five people Sunday in a central Nigerian city that has seen hundreds die in religious and ethnic violence in recent years, amid warnings by diplomats of possible terrorist attacks during the Easter holiday, officials said. The blast struck Kaduna, the capital of Kaduna state, leaving charred motorcycles and debris strewn across a major road in the city where many gather to eat at informal restaurants. The explosion injured many others, some critically, meaning the toll of the attack could rise as the day goes on, said Yushau Shuaib, a...

BAGHDAD — A car bomb outside a Shi’ite mosque in a village north of Baghdad killed 15 people yesterday, the third deadly attack in the region in as many days, and a US soldier was killed in a separate bombing in the same province, Iraqi officials and the US military said. The blast in a shopping area in the village of Abu Sayda also left 21 wounded, Ghalib al-Karkhi, a police spokesman in Diyala Province, said. Diyala was once an insurgent stronghold, and the three consecutive days of violence there underscores the fragile nature of Iraq’s security as insurgents persist in...

Northern Ireland police say they have arrested three suspected Irish Republican Army dissidents over a car bomb that was planted on a road junction in Londonderry. The alert snarled traffic in Northern Ireland's second-largest city from Monday afternoon until early Tuesday as police removed the bomb. The area's police commander, Chief Inspector John Burrows, declined to speculate on the dissidents' target or why the bomb failed to explode. He said police evacuated four nearby homes overnight.

BEIRUT - A car bomb in the parking lot of a Syrian military compound killed at least nine people Saturday, the latest in increasingly frequent bombings in the country's major cities to target the regime's security services. President Obama said that the members of the Group of Eight industrial nations support the UN peace plan for Syria but that it had not taken hold fast enough. In Damascus, top United Nations' peacekeeping and military officials met with Syrian officials to try to salvage that peace plan, which has been marred by daily violence and dismissed by the opposition as...

A midday bombing that killed two bodyguards of an archconservative former interior minister and injured at least 39 people in a busy commercial district of Bogota has raised fears that violence not seen in the Colombian capital in years could return. Former Interior Minister Fernando Londono, 68, had glass shards removed from his chest and was out of danger, authorities said. But the ex-minister's driver and another bodyguard were killed almost instantly. Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro said a pedestrian attached an explosive to a door of Londono's armored SUV and set it off remotely.

BAGHDAD - Bombings killed six people Sunday in separate attacks targeting Iraq's security forces, officials said, while the US Embassy in Baghdad maintained it will continue training Iraqi police despite cutbacks to the program. In Falluja, west of Baghdad, a car bomb hit an Iraqi army patrol, killing two soldiers and wounding six people, according to police and hospital officials. A roadside bomb exploded near a security patrol in the western city of Ramadi, killing a police officer and wounding seven people.

Twin suicide car bombs exploded outside a military intelligence building and killed 55 people Thursday, tossing mangled bodies in the street in the deadliest attack against a regime target since the Syrian uprising began 14 months ago. The bombings fueled fears of a rising Islamic militant element among the forces seeking to oust President Bashar Assad and dealt a further blow to international efforts to end the bloodshed. The first car bomb went off on a key six-lane highway during the morning rush hour, knocking down a security wall outside the government building and drawing people...

A list of major suicide bombings and large-scale explosions during Syria's 14-month uprising: —Dec. 23, 2011 — Two car bombers blow themselves up near intelligence agency compounds in the capital Damascus, killing 44 people in the first suicide attacks since the uprising began in March. —Jan. 6, 2012 — Two weeks later, another suicide explosion rips through a busy intersection and a police bus in the capital's Midan neighborhood, killing 26 people. —Feb. 10, 2012 — Two suicide car bombers strike in the northern city of Aleppo,...

DAMASCUS, Syria — Twin suicide car bombs exploded outside a military intelligence building and killed 55 people Thursday, tossing mangled bodies in the street in the deadliest attack against a regime target since the Syrian uprising began 14 months ago. The bombings fueled fears of a rising Islamic militant element among the forces seeking to oust President Bashar Assad and dealt a further blow to international efforts to end the bloodshed....

DUBLIN - Irish Republican Army dissidents left a 400-pound car bomb outside police reform headquarters in Belfast but the homemade device failed to detonate, Northern Ireland’s police commander said yesterday. As politicians warned of a rising threat from IRA diehards, four other suspected IRA dissidents were arrested yesterday following a gun attack on police. Chief Constable Matt Baggott said Saturday night’s attempted bombing of the Northern Ireland Policing Board office in Belfast’s docklands represented an attack on the province’s entire peace process.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A suicide car bomber attacked a group of international troops at a bazaar in southern Afghanistan yesterday, killing three NATO soldiers and four Afghans, officials said. Two Danish troops, a Czech Special Forces soldier, and an Afghan translator were killed in the attack in the Gereshk district of Helmand Province. Provincial police Chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal said the suicide car bomb killed three Afghan civilians and wounded seven others. Four soldiers also were wounded in the attack, a NATO spokesman said.

His voice trembling, the militant accused of building bombs for the 2002 Bali nightclub attacks apologized Monday for the first time to the victims and their families. Umar Patek, a leading member of the al-Qaida-linked network Jemaah Islamiyah, was emotional as he testified at his trial in the capital, Jakarta, that he'd been against the bombings that killed 202 people from the start. He said he had been afraid, however, to challenge more senior members of the group. "I still feel guilty," Patek said, in a trembling voice.