KAIROUAN, Tunisia - Supporters of the hard-line Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia clashed with Tunisian police on Sunday after the government banned its annual rally, saying it posed a threat to society. 

Ansar al-Sharia, which openly supports al Qaeda, is considered the most radical of the hardline Islamist groups to emerge in Tunisia since a 2011 revolution overthrew secular dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

The annual rally, expected to have drawn tens of thousands of members, was due to have been held in the central city of Kairouan, and supporters there threw stones at police, who fired teargas in response, a Reuters witness said.

Police also prevented the group holding a smaller religious meeting in the Ettadamen district of Tunis on Sunday, prompting clashes with the Salafists, who chanted: "The rule of the tyrant should fall," another Reuters witness said.

Police there fired teargas and shots into the air and to disperse some 500 protesters throwing stones at officers.

Military aircraft were patrolling the skies over the district.

Ansar al-Sharia said police had arrested its spokesman Saifeddine Rais. It was not immediately clear where or when he had been arrested, but a security source confirmed he had been detained.

The Interior Ministry said on Friday it had banned the gathering of the group, "which has shown distain for state institutions, incited violence against them and poses a threat to public security." 

Hardline Islamist Salafists are seeking a broader role for religion in Tunisia, alarming the secular elite which fears their agenda is to impose strict views on people and compromise individual freedom, women's rights and democracy.

Tunisian police blamed a Salafist for the assassination of secular opposition politician Chokri Belaid on February, which provoked the biggest street protests in Tunisia since the overthrow of Ben Ali.

Related:

• Nervous smiles as Tunisia enters new democratic era

• Tunisia recovers $29 million from wife of ousted leader Ben Ali

• Young jobless man sets himself alight in Tunisia

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Six Americans were among at least 15 people killed when a suicide bomber targeted a convoy carrying foreign troops in Kabul on Thursday, NATO sources and local officials said.

The American victims included two soldiers and four civilian contractors, the NATO source added.

Two children were among the Afghan victims, Afghan officials said.

About 40 people were injured in the powerful blast, which took place at around 8 a.m. local time (11.30 p.m. ET Wednesday).

Kabul police spokesman Hashmatullah Stanikzai said the attacker detonated a Toyota Corolla.

"It was a powerful explosion and some of the dead civilians were badly burned and cannot be recognized," Kane Backlash, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Health Ministry, told Reuters.

Hizb-i-Islami,  an insurgent group which is allied with the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack. In September, the group said it had launched an attack near Kabul's airport that police said killed 12 people. 

Afghan officials said nine Afghan civilians were killed, including two children.

"Some of the dead civilians were badly burnt and cannot be recognized," Kaneshka Baktash, a spokesman for the Health Ministry, told Reuters.

Helicopters buzzed over Kabul's diplomatic area after the attack and sirens whined.

President Hamid Karzai strongly condemned the "cowardly" attack. "Terrorists and enemies of Afghanistan's peace brutally targeted a residential area," Karzai said in a statement. 

Related: 12 killed, vehicles torn apart in Kabul suicide attack

Reuters contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Thu May 16, 2013 6:49 AM EDT

An al Qaeda-linked cell disrupted in Egypt was planning suicide attacks on the French and U.S. embassies, the state news agency MENA reported, according to Reuters.

In light of this news and last week’s stabbing of a U.S. citizen on the embassy’s perimeter, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo alerted U.S. citizens to exercise “elevated awareness.”

“The knife attack on the Embassy's perimeter, along with weekend media reports acknowledging that Egyptian authorities have disrupted a terror cell possibly targeting Egyptian and Western interests, serve as yet another reminder of the need to exercise good situational awareness,” read a statement from the embassy, which was obtained by NBC News. 

According to Reuters, authorities announced Saturday they had captured three Egyptians with al Qaeda links, saying they had been found in possession of 22 pounds of explosive materials.

"The investigations revealed that the suspects were intending to carry out terrorist bomb operations inside Egypt via suicide operations, penetrating the security cordon in front of the American and French embassies with a car bomb," MENA said, citing a source in the state security prosecutor's office, according to Reuters.

MENA said the suspects had escaped from prison in 2011, during the revolts that removed Hosni Mubarak from power.

Reuters contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 2:33 PM EDT

Tobin Jones / AMISOM via AFP - Getty Images

A Somali dock worker carries cement unloaded from a ship to a waiting truck at Mogadishu's main port. The aid effort in the war-torn country is shifting toward boosting the economy amid claims it now has a "bright future."

Somalia has long been defined by terrorism, famine, and piracy.

But as the United States this week pledged another $40 million towards its recovery, Somalia's leaders said the country had finally turned a corner in the fight against the al Qaeda-linked militant group, al-Shabab.

“A bright future for Somalia is within touching distance,” Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon proclaimed on Twitter as the U.S. attended a global summit in London to discuss the country’s future.  

Organizers of the conference sought to build upon the new normality creeping into the nation’s capital, Mogadishu. The country that is often referred to as "the world's most dangerous" is not as dangerous as it once was.

Pirates have not successfully hijacked any ships off Somalia's coast in almost a year and a growing sense of security and confidence has been fueled by the relative retreat of al-Shabab, which controlled much of the country until Kenyan forces invaded in 2011.

Somalia is a battleground not only for its own rival factions, but also for the U.S. and its allies in the fight against al Qaeda, which is opening up Africa as a new global front line.

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said the international community should be careful to avoid Somalia becoming a hotbed for radicalism.

"If we ignore it, we will be making the same mistakes in Somalia that we made in Afghanistan in the 1990s. I'm not prepared to let that happen," he told the summit on Tuesday. 

To that end, the U.S. has pumped more than $1.5 billion worth of assistance into the country since 2009, including the $40 million pledged on Tuesday. It is among the countries pledging aid in the hope that stability will encourage security.

The fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 left Somalia without effective central government and awash with weapons.

But there are signs of fragile progress. Airplanes flying in from neighboring Kenya are filled with members of the diaspora returning home after being forced out by hunger and civil war.

Last year, Turkish Airlines decided to start a commercial service from Istanbul. Officials in Mogadishu hope that the city’s beaches might one day attract a significant number of tourists on those flights. 

But Somalia’s renaissance has limits. Mogadishu is still considered too dangerous to host a meeting of world leaders and senior government officials.

Although al-Shabab has been pushed to the outskirts of the capital by foreign peacekeepers, it maintains the ability to strike at its heart.

Mohamed Abdiwahab / AFP - Getty Images

Security surround the area following a suicide attack on a government convoy in Mogadishu on May 5. Around 11 people were killed.

It proved its deadly potential on April 14 when terrorists attacked Mogadishu’s courthouse. A deadly car bomb was detonated in the center of the city a month earlier. On Sunday, a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a convoy carrying Qatari officials, killing at least eight Somalis.

Ahmed Soliman, research assistant at British think tank Chatham House, believes such attacks will become more frequent as al-Shabab tries to disrupt areas it no longer controls.

“Al-Shabab still controls the majority of rural and south-central areas of Somalia,” he said. “The shift toward insurgent attacks could be a sign of weakness – that it has been forced to change tactics and attack areas that it no longer dominates.  But I think it could also play a game of cat-and-mouse with foreign troops by trying to make gains in northern areas just as the troops establish control in south-central areas.”

“It is being kept at bay by international forces under AMISOM [the African Union Mission in Somalia] but that will only last as long as those forces are there. Things are undoubtedly changing, but the jury is still out on whether al-Shabab has been defeated.”

Abdulhakim Haji Faqi, Somalia's defense minister, said his country's forces desperately need military resources. 

"In order to win this war against al-Shabab, we need to get the proper equipment," he said. "We are not asking for air forces, we are not asking for ships, we are not asking for huge military equipment, we are asking only for light weapons and ammunition so that our soldiers can effectively fight."

He added that this was an "international issue," not just a problem for Somalia as extremists from Pakistan, Yemen and Afghanistan -- as well as the U.S., Canada and Britain -- had been operating in the country.

"International organizations based in Somalia are trying to attack neighboring countries in the region and are also trying to cause international problems elsewhere," he said. 

Somalia’s fledgling U.N.-backed government, which took power in September after more than a decade of transitional rule, insists things are looking up – but admits the process will take time.

“Somalia is a country that has been exposed to anarchy for over two decades,” President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told the U.K.’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper in an interview ahead of the summit. “When I was elected I was attacked within two days, and there were suicide bombers in every corner of my hotel. There are threats against me all the time.”

“There is a huge amount at stake in Somalia: the future of this country, the security of the region, the removal of the piracy stranglehold," he added.

The sharp reduction in attacks on commercial ships off East Africa has been driven by a government amnesty for young pirates backed by international military patrols.

Slideshow: Famine strikes East Africa

Dai Kurokawa / EPA

Somali refugees are seeking shelter in Mogadishu and Kenya from extreme drought and hunger in what the UN's refugee agency is calling the worst humanitarian disaster in the world.

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“As long as the international naval presence remains, piracy rates will stay low,” said Adjoa Anyimadu, research associate at Chatham House.  “It’s impressive how much countries have worked together to provide naval protection - China and Russia are among those working in the U.S.-led operation.”

In another potential sign of recovery, Deputy U.N. Secretary-General Jan Eliasson wants to shift aid efforts away from away from humanitarian aid and toward development projects. The U.N. estimates Somalia will need $1.33 billion this year.

The country still faces desperate poverty. More than 200,000 children under 5 are acutely malnourished, and just under half of Somalis live on less than $1 a day.

Millions still live in refugee camps, and that country lacks government structures such as schools, hospitals and sanitation.

"The main reason we have hope now, more than ever .... is we now have a leadership which has a sense of responsibility," Eliasson told Reuters on Tuesday.  "The trend is positive, but it has been interrupted, and it might still be interrupted by sporadic attacks of the nature we have seen. Al-Shabab are still a threat.”

Al-Shabab is blamed not only for causing instability across the Horn of Africa, but for contributing to the famine that struck Somalia between 2010 and 2012. According to a report released last week by the U.S.-funded famine early warning system (FEWSNET) and the United Nations, more than a quarter of a million people died during the crisis.

A peaceful solution to these problems is far from likely. Al-Shabab remains an attractive organization to many in country where youth unemployment is running at about 70 per cent. “Al-Shabab pays its fighters and gives them food,” Soliman noted.

“Several of its commanders are high on the list of the U.S. government list of most wanted terrorists,” so direct peace talks are off the agenda, Soliman said. However, unofficial meetings with Somalia’s government are possible.

There are also problems with the country’s own forces. In a report published Monday, Human Rights Watch said it had documented “serious abuses” by Somali security forces, including the army, police, intelligence agencies, and government-affiliated militia.

“Abuses documented include murder, rape, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, and looting,” the report said. “These abuses were committed with almost complete impunity.”

However, Somalia’s president remains committed to the task ahead. “One thing is very clear…that Somalia is fragmented into pieces,” Mohamud said. “Reversing all that has been happening in the past two decades is a very tedious work that requires some time.”

NBC News' Michele Neubert and Alastair Jamieson and Reuters contributed to this report.

Related:

Rehan Khan / EPA

People look over the scene of a bomb blast near a polling station in Karachi, Pakistan, on Saturday.

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistanis voted in a landmark test of democracy on Saturday and were quickly reminded of the militant violence that plagues the country, with election-related bombings in several cities.

Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

Muhammed Muheisen / AP

Images of daily life, political pursuits, religious rites and deadly violence.

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An attack on the office of the Awami National Party (ANP) in the commercial capital, Karachi, killed 10 people and wounded 30, followed by another blast minutes later.

An explosion destroyed an ANP office in the northwest. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Television channels also reported an explosion in the city of Peshawar.

Pakistan's Taliban, who are close to al Qaeda, have killed over 110 people in election-related violence since April. The group, which is fighting to topple the U.S.-backed government, regards the elections as un-Islamic.

The election will bring the first transition between civilian governments in a country ruled by the military for more than half of its turbulent history.

The people hope the polls will deliver change and ease frustrations with the Taliban, a feeble economy, widespread corruption, chronic power cuts and crumbling infrastructure.

"The problems facing the new government will be immense, and this may be the last chance that the country's existing elites have to solve them," said Anatol Lieven, a professor at King's College, London, and author of a book on Pakistan.

"If the lives of ordinary Pakistanis are not significantly improved over the next five years, a return to authoritarian solutions remains a possibility," Lieven wrote in a column in the Financial Times.

Disenchantment with the two mainstream parties appeared this week to have brought a late surge of support for former cricket star Imran Khan, who could end up holding the balance of power.

Khan, 60, is in a hospital after injuring himself in a fall at a party rally, which may also win him sympathy votes.

With no clear-cut winner, weeks of haggling to form a coalition will follow, which would raise the risk that the government is undermined by instability.

That would only make it more difficult to reverse the disgust with politicians felt among the country's 180 million people and drive through the reforms needed to revive its near-failed economy.

Power cuts can last more than 10 hours a day in some places, crippling key industries like textiles, and a new International Monetary Fund bailout may be needed soon.

The Taliban have focused their anger on secular-leaning parties like the outgoing coalition led by the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the ANP. Candidates, fearful of being assassinated, have avoided open campaigning.

The army stayed out of politics during the five years of the last government, but it still sets the nuclear-armed country's foreign and security policy and will steer the thorny relationship with Washington as NATO troops withdraw from neighboring Afghanistan next year.

The party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif looks set to win the most seats in the one-day vote. But Khan could deprive Sharif of a majority and dash his hopes for a return to power 14 years after he was ousted in a military coup, jailed and later exiled.

Pakistan's best-known sportsman, who led a playboy lifestyle in his younger days, Khan is seen by many as a refreshing change from the dynastic politicians who long relied on a patronage system to win votes and are often accused of corruption.

Related:

• The ex-cricket star vs. the comeback kid: Who will be nuclear-armed Pakistan's next leader?
• Son of former Pakistan PM kidnapped at gunpoint during election rally
• Prosecutor probing Pakistan ex-PM's assassination slain in 'targeted killing'

NEWS ANALYSIS

ANTAKYA, Turkey -- War makes strange bedfellows. President Bashar Assad’s regime is in the unique position of being targeted both by Israel and supporters of al Qaeda.

It is hard to imagine more a diverse couple: Sworn enemies fighting against the same government.

Israel carried out a series of attacks on military targets in Damascus early Sunday, close to President Assad’s main compound, US officials told NBC News. A rebel spokesman said about 10 locations had been hit, adding: “They shook all of Damascus. There was still smoke in the air as the sun came up.”

Witnesses said they heard low-flying jets in the air, but only after the explosions began.  Witnesses also claim to have heard jets in Lebanon shortly before the raid.  Israel has not confirmed it carried out any attack.

Syrian state TV blamed Israel, and said it was helping the rebels it calls terrorists.

An Israeli source said Sunday’s targets included Iranian-made missiles bound for Hezbollah.

The rebel spokesman in Damascus said the rebels’ “spirits were lifted” by the pre-dawn raid, and that they resumed “intense attacks” on the regime in the capital on Sunday morning.

While there is no evidence that Israel is coordinating with the Syrian opposition, both are worried about what could happen as the civil war spins further out of control.

Israel specifically does not want Syria to hand over weapons, chemical or conventional, to Hezbollah.

Both Hezbollah – which is based in Lebanon, just north of Israel - and Iran are allies of Bashar Assad.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a bloody war in 2006.  But Israel doesn’t fully back the rebels either, especially not a powerful contingent of Islamic radicals. 

Israel does not want the Nusra front, which has pledged allegiance to al Qaeda, to obtain chemical weapons.  Neither does Washington.  Israel’s strategy thus far appears to be targeting threats as they come up and picking them off. 

If Israel sees weapons moving toward its border, it acts.  But many across the region are now wondering if this raid, larger in scale, is the start of a more active Israeli military role.  Has Israel decided that the longer the conflict drags on, the more risks there are regional stability?  Was this another surgical strike or the start of a new policy?  The answer may become clear in the coming days.

Related video: Syrian government used chemical weapons 4 times, rebels say

Baz Ratner / Reuters file

Mount Hermon is seen in the background as Israeli soldiers travel on mobile artillery units after an exercise on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on February 14. Israel is worried that the Golan, which it captured from Syria in 1967, will become a springboard for attacks targeting Israelis by jihadists who are taking part in the armed struggle against Syrian President Bashar Assad.

News analysis

TEL AVIV – About 2,000 Israeli army reservists were woken in the middle of the night this week and instructed by recorded announcement to report immediately to the northern border with Syria. They raced there, armed for war, only to discover it was a drill – Israel's largest in the north for years.

Every day, Israeli military leaders say, is a day in which peace could turn to war, especially in the north. Israeli army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz warned last month that Israel's border with Syria, its most stable border since the two countries signed their disengagement agreement 40 years ago, could explode at any moment.

"We are commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, and the years of quiet and stability are disappearing," he said at meeting at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies think tank, choosing his words carefully. "Instability (on the Golan Heights) is increasing."

Israel conquered the Golan Heights in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it, a move not recognized by the international community which considers it to be occupied territory. Today, 44,000 people live on the Golan Heights and a United Nations force is stationed in a buffer zone between Israel and Syria. 

Israel has warned it will do whatever is necessary to prevent the Syrian government's large stockpile of chemical and biological weapons from falling into the hands of militants, believing that one day they may be used against Israel. It would be better, Israeli leaders believe, to fight in Syria against Islamists armed with non-conventional weapons than wait for them to attack Israel with them.

According to army sources quoted in the Maariv newspaper, Israel is sending fresh troops to man forward bases that have not been used for years because it was so quiet. The roads to the bases will also be paved and improved, the paper said.

Bullets and rockets have been fired from Syria into Israel at least a dozen times this year. Most are believed to be errant fire from fighting on the other side of the border, but the army says it sometimes comes from bunkers abandoned by the Syrian army, which pulled out to defend President Bashar Assad's regime in Damascus.

That vacuum along the border has been filled by Islamist militias – especially the al-Nusra front which says it is allied with al Qaeda – who repeatedly say their goal after toppling Assad is to use his territory as a launch-pad for attacks against Israel.

Israel has a history of short, sharp, specific attacks when its interests are threatened. In September 2007, Israel destroyed Syria's al-Kibar nuclear facility with a single devastating air attack. Earlier this year, Israel destroyed a truck convoy allegedly transporting strategic weapons from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Slideshow: Syria uprising

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A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.

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But the prospect of Israeli soldiers operating on the ground in Syria, even if to protect Israel's interests, is at the very bottom of Israel's agenda, according to military analysts and politicians alike.

From a high point overlooking Israel's border near the Syrian town of Quneitra, abandoned and heavily damaged during the 1973 war, there is little sign of tension for now. The United Nations base for 1,000 international peacekeepers whose job is to patrol the buffer zone between Israel and Syria, showed no sign of activity during a two-hour visit this week. Not one vehicle entered or left the base.

It sits on the Israeli side of a new hi-tech razor fence that Israel built along its 50-mile border with Syria to keep the Syrian conflict from spilling into Israel. It is designed to keep out Syrians seeking refuge, militiamen seeking to attack Israeli targets, and above all, to keep Israel from intervening in Syria's civil war.

But the longer the bloody conflict lasts, Israeli military analysts warn, the more likely Israel will be dragged in.

Martin Fletcher is the author of "The List", "Breaking News" and "Walking Israel."

Related stories:

• Israel: Syria has used chemical weapons, victims seen 'foaming from the mouth'
• Israel becomes a fortress nation as it walls itself off from the Arab Spring
• Full Israel coverage on NBCNews.com

This story was originally published on Thu May 2, 2013 5:09 AM EDT

BEIRUT -- Two Syrian bishops kidnapped by gunmen on Monday are still missing, church sources in Damascus and Aleppo said on Wednesday, contradicting a report that the men had been freed.

A source at the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of Aleppo said the bishops had not been released and he was unaware of any contact with their abductors. At the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Damascus, a source also said there was no indication they had been freed.

Greek Orthodox archbishop Paul Yazigi and Syriac Orthodox archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim were seized near the northern commercial and industrial hub of Aleppo, which is contested by rebels and forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.

Authorities blamed the abduction on a "terrorist group", the label they usually give to anti-Assad rebels, but opposition fighters in the province denied they had kidnapped the two and said they were working for their release and trying to find out who had taken them.

The bishops were the most senior church figures caught up in the fight between Assad's forces and rebels trying to end four decades of family rule by Assad and his late father.

The conflict has killed more than 70,000 people and frightened minority groups as the mainly Sunni Muslim rebels gain ground in northern Syria, where Salafi and jihadi groups, including the al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front, have emerged as among the most formidable insurgent formations.

Slideshow: Syria uprising

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A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.

Launch slideshow

Related stories:

• 'Maybe my friends will kill me': Inside a Syrian city split by rival militias
• Tale of a kidnapping: 'First-rate killer' served tea, talked poetry
• Destruction and resistence: Window into war-torn Aleppo
• Full Syria coverage from NBC News

The two suspects in the alleged al Qaeda-backed plot to blow up a rail line between the United States and Canada appeared in court on Tuesday, as revelations emerged that the Muslim community helped foil the potentially deadly plan.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Monday that it had arrested Chiheb Esseghaier, of Montreal, and Raed Jaser, of Toronto, over what sources said was a plan to derail a train from the United States after it had crossed the border.

Jaser, 35, appeared briefly in a Toronto court on Tuesday for a bail hearing. A long beard covered his face, and he wore a black shirt with no tie, and was accompanied by  his parents and brother, the Associated Press reported.

Jaser entered no plea and was ordered to appear again in court next month. His lawyer was granted a publication ban on future evidence and testimony.

In a Montreal courtroom, Esseghaier, 30, declined a court appointed lawyer and addressed the judge in French, according to the Montreal Gazette. “All the conclusions that have been made, I can describe them as conclusions that have been made from facts and things said that are nothing but appearances. We can’t make these conclusions because we are not in a backwards state,” the paper reports him telling the judge.

Neither of the men are Canadian citizens, but authorities have not revealed their nationalities.

Several sources told NBCNewYork.com that Amtrak trains out of New York City may have been scouted by the suspects.

Muhammad Robert Heft, a Muslim community leader in the Scarborough area of Canada's biggest city, told the Toronto Sun newspaper that he expected ordinary Muslims would experience problems because of the allegations.

But he said Muslims had helped the security services detain the suspects.

"There is going to be backlash," Heft told the Sun. "But I want to reiterate. Who was the one who tipped the RCMP off? It was our community."

"We have to be on the front lines," he said. "To either nip it in the bud in the very beginning or co-operate with authorities so they can be brought to justice."

"In our community we may look a little different, but in our hearts we love Canada. It's our country. It's our tribe," he added. "We want safety for all Canadians regardless of their religion."

Police also said a tip from the Muslim community had helped their year-long investigation, Reuters reported.

"Had this plot been carried out, it would have resulted in innocent people being killed or seriously injured," Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s Assistant Commissioner James Malizia told reporters.

"The individuals were receiving support from al Qaeda elements located in Iran," he said.

Iran denied any involvement in the alleged attack plan. “Iran's position against this group is very clear and well known. Al Qaeda has no possibility to do any activity inside Iran or conduct any operation abroad from Iran territory,” the Iranian Mission to the U.N. said in a statement to NBC News. “We reject strongly and categorically any connection to this story.”

Malizia said the RCMP believed the two had the capacity and intent to carry out the attack, but there was no imminent threat to the public, passengers, or infrastructure, Reuters reported.

U.S. officials said the attack would have targeted a rail line between New York and Toronto, a route that travels along the Hudson Valley into New York wine country and enters Canada near Niagara Falls.

New York-area commuters like Jason Rivers told NBCNewYork.com that they took the threat seriously.

"I'm always concerned," Rivers said at Penn Station. "I live in New Jersey, but every day I come through here. You just never know."

"Unfortunately, the country's a little bit on edge about what's going on, so I think it's natural that everybody be concerned," another commuter Michael Milch said.

Some security experts were surprised by the alleged link to al Qaeda factions in Iran, whose Shiite rulers have a generally hostile attitude toward the Sunni militant movement. Reuters explained:

Iran did host some senior al Qaeda figures under a form of house arrest in the years following the September 11 attacks, but there has been little to no evidence to date of joint attempts to execute violence against the West.

However, a U.S. government source said Iran is home to a little-known network of alleged al Qaeda fixers and "facilitators" based in the Iranian city of Zahedan, very close to Iran's borders with both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The source said the operatives serve as go-betweens, travel agents and financial intermediaries for al Qaeda operatives and cells operating in Pakistan and moving through the area.

They do not operate under the protection of the Iranian government, which periodically launches crackdowns on the al Qaeda elements, though at other times appears to turn a blind eye to them.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Related:

Canada thwarts plot to blow up U.S.-Canada rail line

This story was originally published on Tue Apr 23, 2013 5:08 AM EDT