Tag Archives: Explosion

Canada security questioned after FBI tip thwarts attack

Police photograph of taxi where suicide bomber detonated in Canada

By Andrea Hopkins

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Aaron Driver first came to the attention of Canadian officials in late 2014 after he voiced support for Islamic State on social media. In 2015, the Muslim convert was arrested for communicating with militants involved with attack plots in Texas and Australia. Early this year, he agreed to a court order known as a peace bond that restricted his online and cell phone use.

Yet it took a tip from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to alert Canadian intelligence officials to what police say was an imminent attack Driver was planning on a major Canadian city.

Driver, 24, died after he detonated an explosive device in the backseat of a taxi as police closed in and opened fire, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said in Ottawa.

The RCMP said Driver, one of only two Canadians currently subject to a peace bond, was not under constant surveillance before the tip from the FBI came on Wednesday morning.

Driver’s father, Wayne Driver, questioned why authorities did not intervene more decisively earlier. He said he wished his son had been forced into a de-radicalization program.

“I don’t think [the peace bond] was very effective at all. I mean, look at the outcome,” Driver’s father told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

“Why wasn’t he on some kind of parole where he had to report a couple times a month instead of never?”

RCMP Deputy Commissioner Mike Cabana said that even when, as in Driver’s case, there is enough evidence for a court-ordered terrorism-related peace bond, the tool cannot really prevent an attack.

“Our ability to monitor people 24 hours a day and 7 days a week simply does not exist. We can’t do that,” Cabana told reporters at a news conference in Ottawa.

Phil Gurski, a former Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) analyst and now a risk consultant, said it takes about 20 to 40 officers in multiple surveillance teams to watch a suspect.

“It is not like Hollywood films where it is one car following one guy,” said Gurski. “So you have to start prioritizing.”

With Driver’s death, one Canadian resident remains under a terrorism-related federal peace bond, a type of restraining order issued by a provincial judge. According to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, nine more such orders are pending, nine have already expired, and three applications for peace bonds have been withdrawn.

LIMITS TO PEACE BONDS

Driver’s peace bond required him, among other things, to get permission before purchasing a cell phone, stay off social media websites and refrain from communications with members of Islamic State and other radical groups.

After Driver’s foiled attack, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said peace bonds have limits.

“Those issues will obviously need to be very carefully scrutinized,” he said in an interview with CBC.

While some 600 RCMP officers and staff were transferred from organized crime, drug and financial integrity files to the counter-terrorism beat in recent years, critics of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new Liberal government have argued that not enough money is being spent to fight terrorism.

The 2016 budget provided C$35-million over five years to combat radicalization, but little in the way of new funding for the RCMP or CSIS.

Trudeau was elected in October 2015 pledging to end Canada’s combat role against Islamic State and roll back some of the security powers his Conservative Party predecessor had implemented.

Ray Boisvert, a former assistant director of intelligence at CSIS, said Driver was likely on an increasingly long list of so-called “B-listers” – people known to law enforcement, but considered lower risk than others and not followed regularly.

“The problem today, of course is that a target can go from mildly radicalized to highly ‘weaponized’ in a matter of weeks – or sooner,” Boisvert, who left CSIS in 2012 and is now a security consultant to private firms, said in an email.

Mubin Shaikh, a former undercover operative with CSIS, told Reuters he considered Driver a threat back in 2015, in part because he was a Muslim convert.

“That’s a red flag,” he said on Thursday.

In October 2014, a Canadian Muslim convert shot and killed a soldier at Ottawa’s national war memorial before launching an attack on the Canadian Parliament. The same week, another convert ran down two soldiers in Quebec, killing one.

Shaikh, now a Canadian counter-terrorism and national security consultant, said law enforcement officers walk a fine line in determining which Islamic State sympathizers are just talkers, and which represent an actual threat to Canada.

“You don’t know who is going to be the one guy who is not just talking but may take action,” he said. “It’s better to assume that they are going to be a threat.”

(Additional reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal, Leah Schnurr in Ottawa, Ethan Lou in Toronto, Rod Nickel in Winnipeg; Editing by Sue Horton, Diane Craft and Frances Kerry)

Investigators play down explosion theory in EgyptAir crash

Recovered debris of the EgyptAir jet that crashed in the Mediterranean Sea are seen in this still image taken from video

By Amina Ismail and Lin Noueihed

CAIRO (Reuters) – The head of Egypt’s forensics authority dismissed a suggestion on Tuesday that the small size of the body parts retrieved since an EgyptAir plane crashed last week indicated there was an explosion on board.

Investigators struggling to work out why the Airbus 320 jet vanished from radar screens last Thursday, with 66 passengers and crew on board, are looking for clues in the human remains and debris recovered from the Mediterranean Sea so far.

The plane and its black box recorders, which could explain what brought down the Paris-Cairo flight as it entered Egyptian air space, have not been located.

An Egyptian forensic official said 23 bags of body parts have been collected since Sunday, the largest of them no bigger than the palm of a hand. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said their size suggested there had been an explosion although no trace of explosives had been detected.

But Hisham Abdelhamid, head of Egypt’s forensics authority, said that assessment was “mere assumptions” and that it was too early to draw conclusions.

At least two other sources with direct knowledge of the investigation also said it would be premature to say what caused EgyptAir flight 804 to plunge into the sea.

French investigators say the plane sent a series of warnings indicating that smoke had been detected on board as well as other possible computer faults shortly before it disappeared.

The signals did not indicate what may have caused the smoke, and aviation experts have said that neither deliberate sabotage nor a technical fault could be ruled out.

Investigators rely on debris, bags and clothes as well as chemical analysis to detect the imprints of an explosion, according to people involved in two previous probes where deliberate blasts were involved.

An Egyptian team formed by the Civil Aviation Ministry is conducting the technical investigation and three officials from France’s BEA air accident investigation agency have also been in Cairo since Friday, with an expert from Airbus, to assist.

Egypt has deployed a robot submarine and France has sent a search ship to help hunt for the black boxes, but it is not clear whether either of them could detect signals emitted by the flight recorders, lying in waters possibly 3,000 meters deep.

The signal emitters have a battery life of just 30 days.

LAST MOMENTS

Five days after the plane vanished off radar screens, Egyptian and Greek officials — who monitored the flight before it crossed into Egypt’s air space — have given differing accounts of its last moments.

Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said on Thursday that Greek radar had picked up sharp swings in the jet’s trajectory, 90 degrees left, then 360 degrees right as it plunged from a cruising altitude to 15,000 feet before vanishing from radar.

But Ehab Mohieldin Azmi, head of Egypt’s air navigation services, said Egyptian officials saw no sign of the plane swerving, and it had been visible at 37,000 feet until it disappeared.

“Of course, we tried to call it more than once and it did not respond,” he told Reuters. “We asked the planes that were nearby to give it a relay and we could not reach it. That’s it.”

Egypt’s public prosecutor has asked Greece to hand over transcripts of calls between the pilot and Greek air traffic control, and for the officials to be questioned over whether the pilot sent a distress signal

He also asked France for documents, audio and visual records on the plan during its stopover at Charles de Gaulle airport and until it left French airspace.

At a hotel near Cairo airport where relatives of the victims were giving DNA samples to help identify the body parts recovered so far, grief mixed with frustration.

Amjad Haqi, an Iraqi man whose mother Najla was flying back from medical treatment in France, said the families were being kept in the dark and had not even been formally told that any body parts had been recovered.

“All they are concerned about is to find the black box and the debris of the plane. That’s their problem, not mine,” he said. “And then they come and talk to us about insurance and compensation. I don’t care about compensation, all I care about is to find my mother and bury her.”

(Additional reporting by Haitham Ahmed, Ahmed Tolba and Ahmed Aboulenein in Cairo, Tim Hepher in Paris; Writing by Dominic Evans, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

Bombs in Baghdad kill 14, including some Shi’ite pilgrims

Car bomb attack in Baghdad May 2, 2016

By Kareem Raheem

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Three bombs went off in and around Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 14 people, including Shi’ite Muslim worshippers conducting an annual pilgrimage inside the capital, police and medical sources said.

The largest blast, which Islamic State said it was behind, came from a parked car bomb in the Saydiya district of southern Baghdad that killed 11 and wounded 30, the sources said.

At least a few of the casualties were pilgrims passing through the area on their way to the shrine of Imam Moussa al-Kadhim, a great-grandson of Prophet Mohammad who died in the 8th century.

Explosives planted on the ground in Tarmiya, 25 km (15 miles) north of Baghdad, killed two and wounded six, while a roadside bomb in Khalisa, a town 30 km (20 miles) south of the city, left one dead and two wounded. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the smaller attacks.

Islamic State militants fighting Iraqi forces in the north and west regularly target security personnel and Shi’ite civilians whom they consider apostates.

The group said in an online statement distributed by supporters that a suicide bomber had targeted pilgrims in the Dora neighborhood adjacent to Saydiya. It said the attack was part of an offensive launched recently in apparent revenge for the killing of a senior leader.

Islamic State’s al Qaeda predecessor was blamed in the past for such attacks on Shi’ite pilgrims, including blasts in 2012 that left 70 people dead nationwide.

Security has gradually improved in Baghdad, which was the target of daily bombings a decade ago, but there has been a string of blasts in recent days, including a suicide attack on Saturday that killed at least 19 people.

Monday’s blasts come as Iraq struggles to emerge from a political crisis over reforming its governing system which saw protesters hold an unprecedented sit-in over the weekend in Baghdad’s heavily-fortified Green Zone.

(Additional reporting by Saif Hameed and Mostafa Hashem in Cairo; Writing by Stephen Kalin; Editing by Toby Chopra)

‘Christmas Miracle’ Saves Louisiana Couple From Bomb Explosion

A Louisiana couple says it’s a “Christmas miracle” that they were not injured when a bomb that police said was intentionally left at their home exploded, according to several published reports.

“We think it was our Christmas miracle,” Tracy Hewlett told CBS News, adding that she, her husband Bobby and their four pets did not suffer any injuries in the blast early Saturday.

The Hewletts own and live at the Holly Hill Farm Equestrian Center in Benton, Louisiana.

According to the Bossier Sheriff’s Office, one of their maintenance workers named Douglas Holley is accused of making a bomb and detonating it in an attempt to kill the Hewletts. Law enforcement authorities allege Holley placed the bomb in a crawl space below their bedroom.

Tracy Hewlett told The Bossier Press-Tribune that she and her husband were asleep in bed when she saw a huge flash of light and was launched into the air. They were covered with debris, including shards of glass and wood, but were able to leave the house to telephone emergency responders.

“As we walked out, we just looked at each other and said it was a miracle,” Tracy Hewlett told The Bossier Press-Tribune. “We literally stopped, looked up and said, thank you Jesus.”

Tracy Hewlett told the newspaper she and her husband initially thought it might have been a gas explosion, but investigators ultimately determined that the bomb had been placed right below their heads. She said the two of them definitely had “divine protection” to walk away unscathed.

The Bossier Sheriff’s Office said it searched a separate home on the horse farm property where Holley lived and found materials that could be used to make explosives, as well as evidence that he had looked up “bomb-making information.” Police said he worked at the farm for four years, and that his job as a maintenance worker would have allowed him to access the explosion site.

He’s being held on two counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of bomb making, authorities said in a news release. Authorities did not disclose a motive, but said an investigation found “the explosion was not accidental, but purposely planned and specifically targeted.”

Crimea in State of Emergency after Explosion Knocks Out Power for 1.6 Million People

The Russian-annexed nation of Crimea is under a state of emergency after four electricity transmission towers located in Ukraine were damaged by bombs in two different attacks. Approximately 1.6 million people are without power.

At this time, officials are unclear on who attacked the pylons, but Russian authorities stated it was “an act of terrorism,” according to Voice of America News. And while Russian officials didn’t directly place blame, they implied Ukrainian nationalists may have been behind the attacks. The attacked pylons are located in Ukraine, where Crimea gets the majority of its electricity supplies.

The attacks were a couple days apart with two of the pylons being hit on Friday and the next two being hit Sunday. The Washington Post reports that more than a quarter of the population, mostly in major cities, had their power restored through the use of mobile gas turbine generators by Sunday afternoon. However, there are still many without power, and the Crimean government said it would come up with a schedule for supplying electricity and water to homes without power.

But repairs were delayed when Ukrainian activists took the roads on Saturday and attempted to block the trucks from getting to the damaged towers. However, they retreated after clashes with the police, according to Voice of America News.

Crimea was annexed in 2014 by Russia after pro-Western Ukrainian protests forced President Viktor Yanukovych from office. Weeks later, a rebel group that wanted to separate from Russia, launched a large enough rebellion that trade and travel sanctions were placed on key Russian officials. Voice of America News reports that the U.N. announced in September that nearly 8,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict.

Paris update – Possible 160 or More Murdered in Attacks, Siege at Concert is over

The night has been a terrifying and deadly one for the people of Paris and the country of France.  Although the numbers vary, News reports say that up to 160 people have been in killed and scores injured in numerous attacks beginning at the center of Paris.

Terrorists set off bombs close to the Paris futbol stadium and systematically shot people in and outside of restaurants with AK7 type weapons.

At the same time, the Bataclan theatre, filled with heavy metal concert goers was stormed by armed gunmen.  Over 100 people were held hostage until government troops were able to kill the terrorists  As we are learning from several news sources, many people hid in the balcony areas, lying between seats to escape the horror.  Buses have been brought in to remove survivors from the concert hall area.

According to the BBC,  French radio reporter Julien Pearce was inside the Bataclan theater when gunmen entered. Two men dressed in black started shooting what he described as AK-47s, and after wounded people fell to the floor, the two gunmen shot them again, execution-style, he said. The two men didn’t wear masks and didn’t say anything. The gunfire lasted 10 to 15 minutes, sending the crowd inside the small concert hall into a screaming panic, said Pearce, who escaped. He said he saw 20 to 25 bodies lying on the floor.

One official described “carnage” inside the building, saying the attackers had tossed explosives at the hostages.

Witnesses outside the venue in the 11th arrondissement reported hearing five successive explosions followed by gunshots.

Deputy Mayor Patrick Klugman told CNN the death toll in the attacks is going to rise significantly. “We are facing an unknown and historic situation in Paris,” he said.

The exact number of attacks are being investigated at this time. Unsubstantiated reports have stated up to 7 different locations. France has declared a state of emergency and has closed it’s borders.  President Francois Hollande has called for more troops to be brought in as military personnel are being deployed across the city.

As the investigation continues, more information will be provided on the number of gunman, deaths and injuries.

Rain Could Release Cyanide into Air after Tianjin Explosion

Environmental officials are warning the deaths from the explosion at the port of Tianjin may not end with the dousing of the fires that are still burning.

There are now fears that rain could release poisonous hydrogen cyanide into the air in the event of a heavy rain.  Also, more explosions could be possible as many of the chemicals still at the site violently explode when they come into contact with water.

“If there is rain, it will produce hydrogen cyanide, so we are monitoring it closely,” Bao Jingling, chief engineer for the Tianjin Environmental Protection Bureau told NBC News.  He added the nation’s anti-chemical warfare military divisions are on site.

Scientists also have admitted that they have found sodium cyanide in the waters of Bohai Bay.  Local officials say that they learned over 700 tons of sodium cyanide was stored at the site, 70 times the legal limit and that the chemicals had not been reported to Chinese customs officials.

The government has cleared a 1.8 mile area of the city with over 6,000 families forced from their homes.

The death toll from the blast has officially reached 114 and local rescuers say at least 90 people are still reported missing including many firefighters.  One firefighter told the NY Times that he doesn’t know the fate of 25 men from his brigade and “no one told [his crew] the fire involved chemicals.”

Some fire experts are speculating that the water from the hoses of the fire crews came into contact with explosive chemicals, causing the massive second explosion that had the force of 21 tons of TNT.

A 40-year-old man was found alive in the debris on Saturday and is hospitalized.  Thousands are now homeless because of the fire’s impact on surrounding buildings.

The city’s residents have taken to the streets to demand the government buy out their homes so they can begin a new life.  They say the toxins from the explosion are likely much worse than the government will admit.

Chinese Firefighter Rescued After Being Trapped 32 Hours

In what might be the only good news to come out of the massive explosion at a Chinese port late Wednesday, a lone firefighter was found alive after 32 hours of being classified as “missing” by Chinese authorities.

The 19-year-old firefighter, Zhou Ti, was quickly rushed to a local hospital where it was reported he has significant injuries to his face, chest and feet.  Fire officials said that they are continuing to search for other missing fire personnel.

“Forces from all sides are searching for the (remaining) missing firefighters,” Tianjin Fire Department head Zhou Tian said at a news conference Friday, according to The Associated Press.

Chinese government officials confirmed that 56 people have died because of the explosion including 21 firefighters.  Over 700 remain hospitalized because of blast related injuries.

Western officials are now asking if the firefighters contributed to the intensity of the explosions because many of the chemicals reportedly stored at the site react with water to form explosive compounds.

David Leggett, a chemical safety expert, told Reuters that calcium carbide reacts with water to form acetylene, a highly explosive gas.  That could have ignited ammonium nitrate that was stored at the facility. (By comparison, ammonium nitrate and acetylene were used by terrorist Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing.)

“In my mind, the presence of ammonium nitrate makes it easier to explain the level of devastation,” he told the news agency.

Chinese City Rocked by Massive Explosion

A massive explosion ripped through parts of the Chinese city of Tianjin Wednesday causing at least 300 reported injuries and seven deaths.

“The hospital cannot count how many patients we have received – there are too many of them and many of them have burn injuries,” an unidentified doctor told the London Guardian newspaper.  He said that doctors who had been in Beijing for a conference are being rushed back to the community because of the amount of injured.

The Chinese Seismological Network reported two major explosions, the first equivalent to the detonation of 3 tons of dynamite and the second which took place 30 seconds later equivalent to 21 tons of dynamite.

China’s state broadcaster, CCTV, reported that the explosions took place at a container port where flammable material was being stored.  The initial blast also triggered secondary blasts that residents reported feeling similar to earthquake tremors.

The blasts shattered windows and in some cases blew apart fish tanks in homes of nearby residents.

Chinese Public Security Ministry released information that they initially were called to the scene because of a fire and that the explosions took place after they arrived on the scene.  At least four firefighters are injured and two have been reported to have “lost contact” with Ministry officials.