LONDONBERRY (BNO NEWS) -- Authorities in Northern Ireland are investigating a possible car bomb explosion outside a police station in Londonberry on early Saturday.
Police said a small explosion happened at about 0015 a.m. local time outside Strand Road police station in Londonderry, a city located about 112 kilometers (70 miles) northwest of Belfast.
Army bomb experts were examining a car in nearby Queen Street which was reported to have been on fire shortly after the explosion was heard.
A nearby home for elderly residents had to be evacuated for several hours, with people spending the night at Brooke Park leisure center.
The are has been cordoned off as authorities investigate the incident, but there have been no reports of injuries.
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BRUSSELS (BNO NEWS) -- European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek on Saturday strongly condemned two attacks on worshipers from a minority sects in Model Town and Garhi Shahu in Lahore on Friday, killing at least 98 people and leaving more than 100 injured.
"I am very shocked that people who came together peacefully to pray were attacked and taken as hostage," Buzek said. "I really condemn this destructive and shameful attack against the Pakistan people."
Buzek said that 'everyone in Europe' mourns with the people of Pakistan in the wake of the attack. "I would like to insist on the absolute importance of the mutual respect between all religion groups," Buzek added. "And I also insist on the importance of respect towards the life of human beings. You do not prove you are right when you kill innocent people."
Lahore is often rocked by deadly terrorist attacks, but they rarely cause such a high number of casualties.
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ANCHORAGE, ALASKA (BNO NEWS) -- A trans-Alaska oil pipeline was restarted on Friday afternoon after a shutdown which lasted more than three days, the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company said on Saturday.
Alyeska shut down the pipeline on Tuesday morning for a planned six-hour window to perform various maintenance work, which included the testing of Pump Station 9's fire command system. A power failure at the station caused valves that are normally closed on the tank to open, as they are designed to do in power interruptions.
Tank 190 subsequently overflowed oil into a containment area surrounding the tank, causing no injuries and no impact to the environment.
The pipeline was restarted on Friday at 4.40 p.m. local time, after 79 hours and 40 minutes, and a crew will staff the pump station around the clock until normal operations have resumed. "About 200 people remain involved in managing the incident," the company said. "That includes 125 people on site, and a team based in Fairbanks."
The initial recovery effort was largely mechanical, with trucks suctioning crude oil into container trucks. The crude will be metered, filtered, and ultimately returned into the Trans Alaska Pipeline System. Soil and gravel on top of the liner will be cleaned up according to an approved process for handling contaminated material. Alyeska estimates approximately 5,000 barrels were released to containment.
A comprehensive tank safety analysis and remediation will be performed before the tank is returned to normal service.
The pipeline normally delivers about 650,000 barrels of oil daily from Prudhoe Bay in Alaska's North Slope to the port at Valdez.
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JHARSUGUDA, INDIA (BNO NEWS) -- Five small crude bombs were found lying along a train track in northwest India on Saturday, according to local media reports, just a day after a train disaster killed at least 98 people in eastern India.
The crude bombs, described as small, were found along a track at Chaukipada, near the municipality of Jharsuguda in Orissa state. A bomb detection and disposal squad, as well as other agencies, immediately responded to the scene, according to CNN-IBN.
However, before the bomb squad arrived at the scene, a local police officer acquainted with bomb detection and dispotal operations seized the bombs and neutralized them by immersing the objects in water.
Train services on the route were affected for about an hour.
CNN-IBN reported that police suspect the bombs could have been thrown by petty criminals, who generally use such devices while committing crimes to scare people.
The discovery comes just a day after a passenger train derailed in eastern India, apparently after a device blew up the train tracks. A freight train then struck the derailed carriages.
As of Saturday, at least 98 people were reported killed while many others were injured.
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GYEGU, CHINA (BNO NEWS) -- A moderate earthquake rattled northwest China on Saturday morning, seismologists said, but there were no reports of damage or casualties.
The 5.7-magnitude earthquake at 10.29 a.m. local time (0229 GMT) was centered about 80 kilometers (50 miles) west-northwest of Gyegu, a town in the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of China's Qinghai province. It struck about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to the China Earthquake Network Center.
The earthquake was felt strongly in Gyegy, said Xu Chuanjie, head of the emergency rescue section at the provincial earthquake bureau, but there were no reports of damage or casualties.
Liu Jie, director of the quake forecast center at the China Earthquake Network, told the state-run Xinhua news agency that the earthquake was an aftershock to the 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck the region on April 14.
The U.S. Geological Survey, however, was not able to confirm if the earthquake was in fact an aftershock. A geophysicist at the agency said there were many seismic faults in the area, and that it would be difficult to say if it is indeed an aftershock.
The earthquake in April killed more than 2,220 people and left more than 12,000 others injured.
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TEHRAN (BNO NEWS) -- A blaze at an Iranian oil well near the Iraqi border left at least three people dead and injured 12 others, state-run media reported on Saturday.
The fire broke out during the early morning hours in an oil well at the Naft Shahr border region, said Bahram Teimouri, governor of Qasr-e Shirin in Kermanshah province.
Teimouri said there was no risk of the fire spreading because of its location, according to the IRNA news agency.
Iran produces around 42 million barrels of oil per day, making it OPEC's second largest oil exporter.
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KABUL (BNO NEWS) -- The U.S. Military on Saturday released its findings from the investigation into an airstrike in February that killed up to 23 Afghan civilians in southern Afghanistan's Uruzgan province. It detailed how a poorly functioning command and unprofessional operational reporting led to the incident.
The incident, which left up to 23 Afghan civilians killed and twelve others injured, happened on February 21 in the vicinity of Shahidi Hassas when the convoy they were traveling in was mistaken for an insurgent force and was engaged with air-to-ground fire.
"The tragic loss of life was compounded by a failure of the commands involved to timely report the incident," said Major General Timothy McHale of the U.S. Army. "The strike occurred because the ground force commander lacked a clear understanding of who was in the vehicles, the location, direction of travel and the likely course of action of the vehicles."
McHale said the lack of understanding resulted from poorly functioning command posts which failed to provide the ground force commander with the evidence and analysis that the vehicles were not a hostile threat and the inaccurate and unprofessional reporting of the Predator crew operating out of Creech Air Force Base in Nevada which 'deprived the ground force commander of vital information.'
The ground force commander was executing a combined combat operation in the southern village of Khod, and he believed the vehicles - which were approximately 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) away - contained a group of insurgents attempting to execute a flanking maneuver to reinforce insurgents operating near the village.
"Movements of the vehicles appeared to match calls heard over intercepted communication [ redacted ] for insurgents to mass for an attack on the combined US and Afghan forces near Khod," McHale wrote in his report. The Major General said the vehicles were first spotted at 5 a.m. local time, and none of the women were spotted in or near the vehicles during the three-and-a-half hours the movements of the vehicles were tracked.
"Two children were spotted near the vehicles, but inaccurate reporting from the crew of the unmanned Predator aircraft to the forces on the ground led the Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) to believe that the vehicles contained only armed military aged males," McHale said. Information that the convoy was anything other than an attacking force was ignored or downplayed by the Predator crew, he added.
In addition to the poor communication and poor analyses by the Predator crew, the operations centers failed to analyze the readily available information and communicate effectively to the Operational Detachment Alpha Commander.
When the ODA Commander, who was conducting Battle Damage Assessment (BDA), counted 15 or 16 men killed at the site. During follow-up operations, however, local elders claimed that 23 men were killed and compensation payments were made to their families. Though it is unclear which claim is correct, local elders sometimes exaggerate claims of civilian casualties to receive additional compensation.
Besides the fatalities, eight men, one woman, and three children sustained injuries in the engagement and are receiving medical care from U.S. and coalition personnel. "The ODA Commander immediately released the remains of the deceased to local Afghan Police and community leaders at the strike site and the ODA team evacuated the wounded for medical care," McHale said.
McHale continued that initial observations of the vehicles appeared to indicate a threat force, as adult men were observed gathering in and around the vehicles, moving tactically and appearing to provide security during stops. "The movement of the vehicles matched pre-mission intelligence," he said.
According to the investigation, the ODA Commander had displayed 'tactical patience' in letting the situation develop for several hours before the engagement. "The time bought by that patience was wasted because of the Predator crew's inaccurate reporting and the failure of both command posts to properly analyze the situation and provide control, insights, analysis, or options to the ODA commander," McHale said.
The investigation did reveal that a more experienced Day Battle Captain came on shift during the final phase of the operation. It said he analyzed the situation and took appropriate steps to assist in developing alternative engagement scenarios with the [redacted] Commander. "Unfortunately, these alternatives had not yet been implemented before the engagement occurred," McHale said.
U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal, the Commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, in response to the incident, approved a series of recommendations to U.S. and coalition forces. Among the recommendations is to develop a seminar taught by former Battalion/Brigade/Division level Commander/Command Sergeants Majors, using case studies and vignettes that educate and train leaders on leading COIN formations. He also called on developing a required professional reading list of books, periodicals, articles and investigations that bring to light the complexities and leadership responsibilities of leaders at all levels of COIN operations.
Four officers, including senior leaders at the battalion and brigade level, have been reprimanded since the incident, the military said.
The commander also approved a recommendation to develop a mobile training team to evaluate and train units' Command Posts on COIN operations as well as to develop a seminar to educate and train leaders on leading COIN formations. "Further, this training should ensure full development and training on the targeting process, responsibilities and engagement criteria at all levels in accordance with the Rules of Engagement and Tactical Directives," McChrystal wrote in a letter.
McChrystal also requested that the Wing Commander for the 432nd Air Expeditionary Wing Commander convene a Commander's Directed Investigation to determine the actions and assessments of the Predator crew involved in the incident.
Gen. McChrystal briefed Afghan President Hamid Karzai on the findings of the investigation earlier this week. "This was a deeply regrettable incident and I share the sadness felt by the people of Afghanistan over this loss of innocent life," Karzai said. "General McChrystal pledged to me that the most exhaustive investigation would be conducted to determine what happened and why, and I believe this has been done. I am also confident that appropriate actions are being taken with regard to those involved in the incident, and most importantly, to ensure measures are taken to prevent such accidents from happening again."
McChrystal further said the U.S. Army would do all it can to regain the trust of the Afghan people. "Our most important mission here is to protect the Afghan people; inadvertently killing or injuring civilians is heartbreaking and undermines their trust and confidence in our mission," he said. "We will do all we can to regain that trust."
(Copyright 2010 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without explicit prior permission from BNO News B.V. Contact sales@bnonews.com for more information about subscriptions.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- The U.S. military is reviewing options for a unilateral strike in Pakistan in the event that a successful attack on the United States is traced to the country's tribal areas, according to a report from the Washington Post on Saturday.
The report comes nearly a month after 30-year-old Pakistani-born U.S. citizen Faisal Shahzad attempted to carry out a car bombing in New York's Times Square. "Planning has been reinvigorated in the wake of Times Square," one of the officials - who were not identified because they requested anonymity - told the Washington Post.
Faisal Shahzad is believed to have been a member of the Pakistani Taliban, raising concerns about terrorists operating from Pakistan.
The U.S. officials stressed that a U.S. reprisal would be contemplated only under extreme circumstances, such as a catastrophic attack that leaves President Obama convinced that the ongoing campaign of CIA drone strikes is insufficient.
At the same time, the administration is trying to deepen ties to Pakistan's intelligence officials in a bid to head off any attack by militant groups. The United States and Pakistan have recently established a joint military intelligence center on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Peshawar, and are in negotiations to set up another one near Quetta, the Pakistani city where the Afghan Taliban is based, according to the U.S. military officials who spoke to the newspaper.
(Copyright 2010 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without explicit prior permission from BNO News B.V. Contact sales@bnonews.com for more information about subscriptions.)
KABUL (BNO NEWS) -- The U.S. Military on Saturday released its findings from the investigation into an airstrike in February that killed up to 23 Afghan civilians in southern Afghanistan's Uruzgan province.
The incident, which left up to 23 Afghan civilians killed and twelve others injured, happened on February 21 in the vicinity of Shahidi Hassas when the convoy they were traveling in was mistaken for an insurgent force and was engaged with air-to-ground fire.
"The tragic loss of life was compounded by a failure of the commands involved to timely report the incident," said Major General Timothy McHale of the U.S. Army. "The strike occurred because the ground force commander lacked a clear understanding of who was in the vehicles, the location, direction of travel and the likely course of action of the vehicles."
McHale said the lack of understanding resulted from poorly functioning command posts which failed to provide the ground force commander with the evidence and analysis that the vehicles were not a hostile threat and the inaccurate and unprofessional reporting of the Predator crew operating out of Creech Air Force Base in Nevada which 'deprived the ground force commander of vital information.'
The ground force commander was executing a combined combat operation in the southern village of Khod, and he believed the vehicles - which were approximately 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) away - contained a group of insurgents attempting to execute a flanking maneuver to reinforce insurgents operating near the village.
"Movements of the vehicles appeared to match calls heard over intercepted communication [ redacted ] for insurgents to mass for an attack on the combined US and Afghan forces near Khod," McHale wrote in his report. The Major General said the vehicles were first spotted at 5 a.m. local time, and none of the women were spotted in or near the vehicles during the three-and-a-half hours the movements of the vehicles were tracked.
"Two children were spotted near the vehicles, but inaccurate reporting from the crew of the unmanned Predator aircraft to the forces on the ground led the Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) to believe that the vehicles contained only armed military aged males," McHale said. Information that the convoy was anything other than an attacking force was ignored or downplayed by the Predator crew, he added.
In addition to the poor communication and poor analyses by the Predator crew, the operations centers failed to analyze the readily available information and communicate effectively to the Operational Detachment Alpha Commander.
When the ODA Commander, who was conducting Battle Damage Assessment (BDA), counted 15 or 16 men killed at the site. During follow-up operations, however, local elders claimed that 23 men were killed and compensation payments were made to their families. Though it is unclear which claim is correct, local elders sometimes exaggerate claims of civilian casualties to receive additional compensation.
Besides the fatalities, eight men, one woman, and three children sustained injuries in the engagement and are receiving medical care from U.S. and coalition personnel. "The ODA Commander immediately released the remains of the deceased to local Afghan Police and community leaders at the strike site and the ODA team evacuated the wounded for medical care," McHale said.
McHale continued that initial observations of the vehicles appeared to indicate a threat force, as adult men were observed gathering in and around the vehicles, moving tactically and appearing to provide security during stops. "The movement of the vehicles matched pre-mission intelligence," he said.
According to the investigation, the ODA Commander had displayed 'tactical patience' in letting the situation develop for several hours before the engagement. "The time bought by that patience was wasted because of the Predator crew's inaccurate reporting and the failure of both command posts to properly analyze the situation and provide control, insights, analysis, or options to the ODA commander," McHale said.
The investigation did reveal that a more experienced Day Battle Captain came on shift during the final phase of the operation. It said he analyzed the situation and took appropriate steps to assist in developing alternative engagement scenarios with the [redacted] Commander. "Unfortunately, these alternatives had not yet been implemented before the engagement occurred," McHale said.
U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal, the Commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, in response to the incident, approved a series of recommendations to U.S. and coalition forces. Among the recommendations is to develop a seminar taught by former Battalion/Brigade/Division level Commander/Command Sergeants Majors, using case studies and vignettes that educate and train leaders on leading COIN formations. He also called on developing a required professional reading list of books, periodicals, articles and investigations that bring to light the complexities and leadership responsibilities of leaders at all levels of COIN operations.
The commander also approved a recommendation to develop a mobile training team to evaluate and train units' Command Posts on COIN operations as well as to develop a seminar to educate and train leaders on leading COIN formations. "Further, this training should ensure full development and training on the targeting process, responsibilities and engagement criteria at all levels in accordance with the Rules of Engagement and Tactical Directives," McChrystal wrote in a letter.
McChrystal also requested that the Wing Commander for the 432nd Air Expeditionary Wing Commander convene a Commander's Directed Investigation to determine the actions and assessments of the Predator crew involved in the incident.
Gen. McChrystal briefed Afghan President Hamid Karzai on the findings of the investigation earlier this week. "This was a deeply regrettable incident and I share the sadness felt by the people of Afghanistan over this loss of innocent life," Karzai said. "General McChrystal pledged to me that the most exhaustive investigation would be conducted to determine what happened and why, and I believe this has been done. I am also confident that appropriate actions are being taken with regard to those involved in the incident, and most importantly, to ensure measures are taken to prevent such accidents from happening again."
McChrystal further said the U.S. Army would do all it can to regain the trust of the Afghan people. "Our most important mission here is to protect the Afghan people; inadvertently killing or injuring civilians is heartbreaking and undermines their trust and confidence in our mission," he said. "We will do all we can to regain that trust."
(Copyright 2010 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without explicit prior permission from BNO News B.V. Contact sales@bnonews.com for more information about subscriptions.)
SCOTT COUNTY, TENNESSEE (BNO NEWS) -- The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) on late Friday issued an Amber Alert after a father violently kidnapped his two young children.
Authorities say the suspect is 35-year-old Brandon West, who forced the children's mother off the road on Friday - causing her vehicle to strike a tree. Brandon then forcibly removed the children from the vehicle and fled the scene in a car.
The victims were identified as 1-year-old Reason Blake West, a boy, and 2-year-old Zoe Lee West, a girl. The Scott County Sheriff's Department said Brandon does not have custody of the children.
Zoe is described as a white girl and has brown hair and green eyes. She is 3'5'' tall and weighs 32lbs. At the time of the kidnapping she was wearing a black and white polka dot dress with hot pink ties on the shoulders, black patent leather shoes with bows and green ball earring.
Reason is described as a white male with brown hair and green eyes. He is 29'' long and weighs 26lbs. He was last seen wearing a one piece shorts outfit with blue and white stripes and a small dog on the front. His hair is cut in a burr cut.
West, the suspect, is described as a white male with brown hair and green eyes. He is 5'6'' tall and weighs 165lbs.
Police said West is also wanted for previous aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping and two counts of reckless endangerment. Charges in Friday's kidnapping are still pending.
Brandon and the children were last seen driving in a gray 2004 Chevy Impala with Tennessee license plate 234QJG.
If you see Brandon, Zoe, or Reason, or if you have any other information about the case, please call 423-663-2245 or 1-800-TBI-FIND. If you believe you may have important information, call 9-1-1 immediately.
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