Summary: A female suicide bomber walking among Shiite pilgrims in northern Baghdad detonated an explosives belt, killing at least 54 people and wounding around 117. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 1, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that three recent U.S. Special Forces operations in Afghanistan killed 50 people — the vast majority civilians, according to Afghan officials — raising the ire of villagers and President Hamid Karzai. The problem, Afghan officials say, comes when ordinary villagers hear the commotion of Special Forces nighttime raids and, fearing robbers or an attack from a hostile tribe, grab their guns and run outside or fire from their homes. U.S. forces then fire back and end up killing civilians.

  ::  Read Comments (0)

Summary: The suicide bombing on a CIA base in Afghanistan was carried out by a Jordanian doctor, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, who was an al-Qaida double agent. Personality profile of al-Qaida No. 2, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 4, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that a female suicide bomber, in what has become an emerging pattern in Iraq — the mujahidaat — killed at least 38 and wounded 72 in an attack on pilgrims at the Imam Moussa al-Kadhim shrine in Kadhimiya, Iraq.

  ::  Read Comments (0)

Summary: Bachmann is at it again, making false or outrageous claims in the national media and then playing the victim by leveraging her disingenuousness, incendiary rhetoric and political paranoia into campaign cash. … One year ago today, on the 31st day of his campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for the Republican nomination as House of Representatives candidate in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman took a one-day break from his Sixth District walking tour to rest his feet and catch up on administrative matters and correspondence while tracking international developments relevant to his campaign focus on national security — specifically, the Russian invasion of Georgia and the emerging threat of female suicide bombers in Iraq.

  ::  Read Comments (0)

Summary: Dozens of Iraqis have been killed and hundreds wounded in a spate of bombings this week, raising fears of a sustained insurgent campaign aimed at provoking new sectarian tensions. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on the 29th day of his campaign against U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for the Republican nomination as House of Representatives candidate in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, Aubrey Immelman took a one-day break from his 100-mile Sixth District Walking Tour and highlighted an emerging threat in Iraq, the mujahidaat: female suicide bombers motivated by revenge for family members killed by U.S. and Iraqi forces.

  ::  Read Comments (0)

Summary: A rocket attack on Bagram Air Base, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, early Sunday, June 21, 2009 killed two U.S. troops and wounded six other Americans. … A truck bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in Taza, near Kirkuk in northern Iraq on Saturday, June 20, 2009 killing more than 70 people in the deadliest attack of 2009.

  ::  Read Comments (0)

Summary: Back-to-back suicide bombings have killed 60 people outside the most important Shiite shrine in Baghdad, a day after the country was rocked by its most deadly violence in more than a year. The bombings, in which nearly 80 people were killed, are the latest in a series of high-profile attacks blamed on Sunni insurgents. … A new review of available evidence compiled by The Associated Press suggests that more than 110,600 Iraqis have died in violence since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

  ::  Read Comments (0)

Summary: Suicide bombers struck a humanitarian aid distribution point and a crowded restaurant in separate attacks in Iraq, killing at least 78 people in the deadliest day of violence to strike the country thus far in 2009.

  ::  Read Comments (0)

Summary: In the deadliest attack in Iraq so far this year, a female suicide bomber struck a tent filled with women and children resting during a pilgrimage south of Baghdad, killing 40 people and wounding about 80 in the deadliest of three straight days of attacks against Shiite worshippers.

  ::  Read Comments (0)

Summary: The economic crisis has trumped bullets and bombs in the intelligence agencies’ latest assessment of threats to the United States. Sounding more like an economist than the war-fighting Navy commander he once was, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair told a Senate panel that if the economic crisis lasts more than two years, it could cause some nations’ governments to collapse. “The longer it takes for the recovery to begin, the greater the likelihood of serious damage to U.S. strategic interests,” he told the Senate Intelligence Committee, as Congress prepares to vote on a $789 billion stimulus package.

  ::  Read Comments (0)

Summary: A classified Pentagon report urges President Barack Obama to shift U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan, de-emphasizing democracy-building and concentrating more on targeting Taliban and al-Qaida sanctuaries inside Pakistan with the aid of Pakistani military forces.

  ::  Read Comments (0)