71 killed, 201 Wounded In Attacks Across Baghdad

No fewer than 71 people have been
killed and 201 wounded in a series of
bombings and other attacks across
Baghdad, police and medical sources
said, the latest casualties in a
continuing wave of bloodshed. The northern neighbourhood of
Kadhimiyah, home to a prominent,
gold-domed Shia shrine, was the worst
hit. Two bombs went off in a parking lot,
followed by a suicide car bomber who
struck onlookers who had gathered at
the scene. Police said 10 people were
killed and 27 wounded in that attack. In Sadr City, an impoverished Shia
district in Baghdad’s northeast, two car
bombs killed seven people. A
restaurant owner said he saw an
attacker just before one of the
explosions. “A man parked his car in front of the
restaurant. He got breakfast and drank
his tea. Then I heard a huge explosion
when I was inside the kitchen,” the
owner, who requested anonymity, told
the Reuters news agency. “When I went outside, I saw his car
completely destroyed and he had
disappeared. Many people were hurt.” Another car bomb killed seven people
and wounded 23 in Jisr Diyala in
southeastern Baghdad, police and
medics said. The Interior Ministry described the
attacks as “terrorist explosions” but
said the number of people killed was
only 20, with 213 wounded. Baghdad
has said that media reports exaggerate
attacks in Iraq, and that security forces have stopped many attempted
bombings. If the higher death toll was correct,
Wednesday’s violence was worst since
August 10, when nearly 80 people were
killed during a religious holiday. More than 1,000 Iraqis were killed in
July, the highest monthly death toll
since 2008, according to the United
Nations. The renewed violence, 18 months after
US troops withdrew from Iraq, has
stirred anxiety about a relapse towards
the widespread sectarian slaughter of
2006-07. In other attacks on Wednesday,
gunmen killed six members of the
Sahwa, (“Awakening”) movement, a
group of former Sunni fighters who
rebelled against al-Qaeda. They were
attacked in an ambush on a checkpoint in Latifiya, a suburb 40km south of
Baghdad. Armed men also stormed a Shia home
in the same area, killing six family
members, police and medical sources
said. Four soldiers were killed and five were
wounded in Madaen, southeast of
Baghdad, by a roadside bomb targeting
an Iraqi army patrol, police and medics
said. After years of reduced violence, the
intensity of attacks has dramatically
risen since the start of 2013. Bombings have often targeted cafes
and other places where families gather,
as well as military facilities and
checkpoints.

Egypt Arrests Brother Of Al-Qaeda Chief

Mohammed al-Zawahri Egyptian authorities have arrested the
brother of al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-
Zawahri, security officials said. Mohammed al-Zawahri, leader of a Salafist
group, was detained at a checkpoint in Giza,
the city across the Nile from Cairo. Mohammed al-Zawahri’s group espouses a
hardline ideology but was not clandestine
prior to the military takeover on July 3. He was allied with ousted President
Mohamed Morsi, whose supporters are now
taking to the streets to protest the killings
of its supporters in a security crackdown
last week. The official news agency, MENA, confirmed
the arrest. Authorities said earlier that Mohammed al-
Zawahri had commanded fighters in Sinai
Peninsula. He was detained as part of a round up of
more than than 1,000 Islamists in the
country. The round up, announced by the
authorities, was conducted after Friday’s
protests. Mohammed al-Zawahiri had been seen in
Cairo in January at protests outside the
French Embassy by hundreds of Salafists
against the French military campaign in Mali.

Britain Warns Shipping Firms Over Yemen As US Evacuates 75 Embassy Staff

Britain has issued the highest possible security
alert to British shipping companies operating
off the coast of Yemen, an expert says, amid a
worldwide terror alert focused on the country. Neil Roberts, a senior insurance underwriter at
Lloyd’s Market Association, said the
Department for Transport had issued a “level
three” warning about Yemen on Monday. Under the International Ship and Port Facility
Security (ISPS) code, level three is
“exceptional”, suggesting a “probable or
imminent risk of a security incident”. Insurers have listed Yemen as a high-risk area
for at least the last five years, requiring
shipping companies to alert their underwriters
before they head to the country. But Roberts said that the government advice
suggested a more pressing threat. “They have put it at security level three, which
is unusual,” he said on Tuesday. “This is a wake-up call for British shipowners
that the risk has increased significantly.” Meanwhile, the United States has evacuated
75 embassy staff from the Yemeni capital,
after both the US and United Kingdom told
their citizens to leave due to the threat of
“terrorist attacks.” The US citizens were flown out of the country
on military aircraft on Tuesday, according to
the Pentagon, which declined to comment
further, citing security concerns. The new US measures, announced in a
statement on Tuesday, followed a heightened
security warning from Washington on Friday
that prompted the closure of several Western
embassies in Yemen and several US missions
across the Middle East and Africa. It also came after at least four suspected al-
Qaeda members were killed in what local
tribal leaders said was a US drone strike in
central Yemen early on Tuesday. “The Department urges US citizens to defer
travel to Yemen and those US citizens currently
living in Yemen to depart immediately,” the
statement posted on its website said. The UK’s foreign office, meanwhile, advised
against all travel to Yemen, and “strongly urge
[d] British nationals to leave now”. It said that
all British embassy staff had been temporarily
withdrawn from the country. Italy also urged its citizens to leave, citing the
“particularly high risk of kidnap,” while the
UN’s refugee agency boosted security, though
it did not withdraw its personnel. Tuesday’s warning came after US media
reports indicated that the increased threat
levels were the result of what US intelligence
officials said were intercepted
communications between top al-Qaeda
leaders. The New York Times reported on Monday that
the closure of the embassies was the result of
intercepted electronic communications
between Ayman al-Zawahri, who replaced
Osama bin Laden as head of al-Qaeda, and
Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the head of Yemen-based affiliate al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
(AQAP). US sources said that while some type of
message between Zawahri and AQAP was
intercepted recently, there were also other
streams of intelligence that contributed to the
security alert, which was prompted by a threat
from AQAP. “The threat picture is based on a broad range
of reporting, there is no smoking gun in this
threat picture,” a US official told the Reuters
news agency on condition of anonymity. US officials said there was still no information
about a specific target or location of a
potential attack, but the threat to Western
interests had not diminished.