Azerbaijan detained a group of militant Islamists who were preparing an armed attack near the US embassy in Baku, the former Soviet state’s security ministry said yesterday.
The ministry said it had thwarted a plot to conduct a “large-scale, horrifying terror attack” against government structures and diplomatic missions in the Azerbaijan capital.
– The Guardian
A suicide bomber killed at least six people today less than a kilometre from the army headquarters in Rawalpindi of General Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani President, police said.
Three policemen and three passers-by were killed, plus the bomber, while 11 people were wounded in the blast, Saud Aziz, the city police chief, said. The policemen were manning a checkpoint on a road leading to the army headquarters.
“Our policeman challenged the attacker who exploded himself near their picket,” Mr Aziz said. “The police were the target.”
– The Times
Books calling for the beheading of lapsed Muslims, ordering women to remain indoors and forbidding interfaith marriage are being sold inside some of Britain’s leading mosques, according to research seen by The Times.
Some of the fundamentalist works were found at the bookshop in the London Central mosque in Regent’s Park, which is funded by the Saudi regime and is regularly visited by government ministers. Its director, Ahmad al-Dubayan, is also a Saudi diplomat and was among those greeting King Abdullah when he arrived in Britain last night for his official state visit.
– The Times