The Taliban has claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack near Kabul airport in Afghanistan on Monday. A senior US official said the target was a convoy of American embassy guards, moving to a secure compound in Afghan capital. No one was killed, but 28 people were wounded. The country’s public health ministry says that at least 19 adults and 9 children were being treated in facilities around the city.
Two weeks ago, the IAF assassinated infamous Lebanese militant Samir Kuntar.
Kuntar was held by Israel for nearly three decades in connection with his role in a 1979 raid that killed four people including a four-year-old girl. He returned to Lebanon in 2008 in a prisoner swap with Hezbollah, which he subsequently joined.
To the Israelis, Kuntar is evil incarnate - the very embodiment of terrorism. For many in Iran and Lebanon, he’s something of a folk hero. Here he is with Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah:
Saudi Arabia is reportedly planning to stop all flights to and from Iran and banning its citizens from travelling there. The Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir told Reuters that all commercial ties between the countries would also be cut. The move follows attacks on the Saudi embassy in Iran by protesters angry at the execution of Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al Nimr. Sunni-led Saudi Arabia claims that the execution was part of a war on terrorism.
Over the weekend, a geopolitical black swan landed in the Mid-East where Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric set in motion a series of events that led Riyadh to sever diplomatic ties with Tehran.
Protests broke out almost immediately after news of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr’s death hit the wires. Tensions reached a boiling point on Saturday evening in Tehran where demonstrators torched the Saudi embassy. In Bahrain, angry Shiites burned tires and confronted riot police who used tear gas to disperse the crowds.
Author and filmmaker Peter Valentino claims that New York city was ‘nuked’ on 9/11 using a 150 kiloton 70m deep underground nuclear weapon. Mike Philbin Blog reports: Author and film-maker Peter Valentino has put together a to-camera piece called the Papamundi Files, NYC Final Conclusions in which he discusses the meat & potatoes of his Kissinger Konfessional polemic-omentary Papamundi and the 911 Mechanism or what we know as the Great Magic Show of September 11th 2001.