• Makhachkala: Dusty Russian city where Boston suspect felt he 'belonged'

    2013 Getty Images

    A view of Makhachkala, where suspected Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev spent time, on April 25.

    By Adrienne Mong, Correspondent, NBC News

    MAKHACHKALA, Russia — This dusty capital of Dagestan, Russia’s southernmost republic in the North Caucasus region, was home briefly last year to one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects.

    Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the 26-year-old alleged mastermind behind the Boston attacks, spent six months in the Russian Federation in 2012. At least half of that time he was in Dagestan, visiting his father Aznor Tsarnaev, who had moved back from the U.S. a year earlier. Investigators are trying to retrace the younger Tsarnaev’s footsteps and determine whether he met any Islamic militants during his stay.

    His father maintains his son's innocence and said he only met relatives while he was there. He said his son was so taken with the place that he began talking about moving to Dagestan. In an interview with NBC News earlier this week, Aznor said his son "felt he belonged" there.

    Adrienne Mong / NBC News

    The beach in Makhachkala, Russia, the port city in Dagestan Tsarnaev spent several months in 2012. Its economy is growing rapidly and corruption is rife.

    Tough town
    A port city that dots the western edge of the Caspian Sea, Makhachkala is surrounded by low-lying mountains on its other sides. (Dagestan means “land of mountains.”)

    The beaches reflect none of the glossy luster of Black Sea resorts; speed bumps seem to outnumber traffic lights; Residents and hotel guests complain about long periods of water shortages.

    Nonetheless, the capital is enjoying robust economic growth. Construction sites are everywhere and new hotels are being built. Shops are full of well-known western brands, including Apple’s iPhones. Cafés are teeming with young people and families.

    But life is not easy in this North Caucasus town. Take the mayor, for instance.

    Said Amirov has survived 15 assassination attempts since the 1990s; one of them put him in a wheelchair. He refuses to be photographed in it, wanting to project an image of power and authority in a culture obsessed with male athleticism and physical prowess (wrestling and soccer are the most popular sports).

    Though named the Best Mayor of Russia 2012, Amirov is an emblem of corruption, according to one local journalist. When asked about corruption during a press briefing this week about the Boston bombing suspects, Amirov dismissed the topic: “Corruption exists everywhere.”

    However, local residents say corruption is particularly rampant in Dagestan.

    In an interview with reporters, Zubeidat Tsarnaev, the mother of Boston bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, insists her sons are not responsible for the marathon attacks and expresses her regret in relocating the family to the U.S.

    “If you have money, you can get anything done,” said a former policeman, who quit his job because he couldn’t stomach the corruption in the local police force.

    In a town that features a clothing shop called “Tony Montana” – named after the Cuban gangster played by Al Pacino in “Scarface” – men swagger in leather jackets and sweatpants. Police checkpoints dot the main roads and semiautomatic weapons are on plentiful display.

    The majority of women wear hijabs and long skirts, but it’s not unusual to see women with uncovered hair, three-inch Louboutin heels and tiny skirts.

    With a population of half a million, the capital is also a cultural crossroads. Dagestan is Russia’s most ethnically diverse republic with more than 30 ethnic groups.

    Sectarian strife
    Apart from geography, Islam is the other tie that binds so many diverse groups. Arab conquerors introduced the religion to Dagestan in the seventh century, making it the oldest Islamic republic in the Russian Federation. Dagestan has between 1,800 to 2,000 mosques, according to official Russian government reports, more than neighboring Chechnya or Ingushetia.

    During Friday prayers, hundreds of men streamed toward the white multidomed Central Mosque, the largest in Makhachkala. As they prayed, heavily armed men – some dressed in camouflage, some in civilian clothes – ringed the edge of the mosque grounds.

    It is the perfect snapshot of the strife surrounding Islam in Dagestan.

    Adrienne Mong / NBC News

    The Central Mosque in Makhachkala. Dagestan is the oldest Islamic republic in Russia.

    In 1999, Chechen rebels invaded, marking the beginning of the second Chechen war. The arrival of Chechen fighters in Dagestan deepened sectarian rifts between Sufis (those who mix Islam with local customs) and Salafis (ultra-conservative Sunni Muslims who believe they are practicing a “pure” form of Islam and adhere strictly to Shariah law).

    As terrorist attacks spread throughout Dagestan – now considered more volatile than Chechnya – Russia’s security forces have cracked down further on dissidents and suspected militants, fueling violence, tension and fear.

    “As soon as we began preaching Salafism, the government began targeting us,” said Gadzhi Mohamed, who helps run a local Islamic civil rights organization called “Akhlusuna.” In fact, “as soon as someone says ‘pure Islam,’ they become an enemy of the people, created by the state.”

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  • 'Terrorist attack' involving axes, knives kills 21 in China

    By Sally Huang, Reuters

    BEIJING - A confrontation involving axes, knives, at least one gun that ended with the burning down of a house left 21 people dead in China's troubled far-west region of Xinjiang, a government spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

    It was the deadliest violence in the region since July 2009, when Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, was rocked by clashes between majority Han Chinese and minority Uighurs that killed nearly 200 people.

    Nine residents, six police and six ethnic Uighurs were killed in Tuesday's drama, said Hou Hanmin, spokeswoman for the Xinjiang government.  "It's certainly a terrorist attack," she said.

    It was not immediately clear how many burned to death.

    Hou did not name any group, but China has blamed previous attacks in energy-rich Xinjiang - strategically located on the borders of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Central Asia - on Islamic separatists who want to establish an independent East Turkestan.

    Many Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim people native to Xinjiang, chafe at Chinese controls on their religion, language and culture.

    Three "community workers" were patrolling a neighborhood of Bachu County, known as Maralbexi by Uighurs, in Kashgar after a tip-off that there were "suspicious people" in a private house, Hou said.

    One of the three used a phone to call for help after they found a number of knives, resulting in their being killed by 14 Uighur "rioters" in the house, Hou said.

    "The community people were just conducting regular checks, but the action from the rioters was planned and well prepared," Hou said.

    Several police and other "community workers" came in different groups to the home where the Uighurs used axes and large knives to slash the police officers and workers, Hou said.

    Only one police officer was armed with a gun, she said.

    The battle ended with the gang members burning down the house, killing the rest of the people there, Hou said. Eight people had been detained.

    Some Chinese officials blame such attacks on Muslim militants trained in Pakistan. But many rights groups say China overstates the threat to justify its tight grip on the region.

    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the "violent terrorist acts" would not win popular support.

    "The current situation in Xinjiang is good, but a small group of terrorist forces is still trying every possible means to disturb and destroy the present stability and trend of development in Xinjiang," Hua told reporters.

    Related:

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    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • 13 boys killed in Myanmar Islamic school fire amid anti-Muslim violence

    Damir Sagolj / Reuters

    Muslims prepare to pray around the coffins of the victims of a fire during funerals at Yaeway cemetery in Yangon, Myanmar, Tuesday.

    By Aung Hla Tun and Min Zayar Oo, Reuters

    YANGON - A fire caused by faulty electrical equipment killed 13 boys at an Islamic school in Yangon on Tuesday, the fire service said, although some Muslims voiced concern since it came after a wave of anti-Muslim violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

    The boys suffocated after the fire broke out in a dormitory of the school in the central, multi-ethnic Botataung district of the former capital at about 2:40 a.m. (4:10 p.m. ET on Monday), neighbors and officials said.

    Yangon Region Fire Service said it was setting up a team to investigate the fire with the police, the electricity company and representatives from Muslim groups.

    "The fire, caused by the overheating of the transformer placed under the staircase, spread, trapping the boys sleeping in the attic. As a result, 13 twelve-year-old boys died of suffocation after inhaling smoke," a duty fire officer said, reading from a statement.

    Armed riot police cordoned off the area but the crowd that had assembled in the area remained peaceful.

    According to official records, electrical faults and overheating are major causes of fires in Yangon.

    But, against the background of the recent sectarian violence, many Muslims were "very suspicious" about the Yangon fire, said Mya Aye, a Muslim member of the 88 Generation Students' pro-democracy group.

    "We are worried and sad because innocent children died," he said.

    A funeral for the 13 boys was due to be held on Tuesday afternoon.

    Yangon, by far the biggest city in Myanmar, escaped the anti-Muslim violence in March although authorities posted police outside mosques and ordered restaurants in some areas to close early on some evenings as a precaution. 

    Related:

    PhotoBlog: Freedom of the press returns to Myanmar after 50 years

    Muslims vanish as Buddhist attacks approach Myanmar's biggest city

    Read more Asia-Pacific stories on NBCNews.com

     

     

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  • From Dallas to Damascus: The Texas 'straight shooter' who could replace Syria's Assad

    Ozan Kose / AFP - Getty Images

    Ghassan Hitto, speaking to reporters after his March 18 election as Syria's interim prime minister.

    By Ayman Mohyeldin and Alastair Jamieson, NBC News

    He is a “straight shooter” from Texas who worked as a telecoms executive until November. But Ghassan Hitto now finds himself the presumptive caretaker-leader of Syria as world powers plot the end of Bashar Assad’s crumbling regime.

    The American citizen, born in Syria, is the new prime minister of the opposition’s interim government – the apparatus that the international community hopes will seal the end of Assad’s rule.

    Friends describe Hitto, 50, as “sincere” and “practical,” but the charismatic technocrat will need all the charm he can muster to unify Syria’s fragmented opposition.

    His rapid rise has prompted questions about how the deadly conflict should end and has cast a light on infighting, fueled by regional countries purportedly supporting certain opposition figures.

    The Free Syrian Army, one of the key rebel groups fighting Assad’s forces on the ground inside Syria, responded to Hitto’s appointment in Istanbul on March 18 by refusing to recognize his authority.

    “The situation there is so dire, I’m afraid for him,” said Mustafa Carroll, who worked alongside Hitto in Texas as a volunteer at Muslim advocacy groups. “It’s a big responsibility and it’s very complicated.”

    “He’s a straight shooter, very sincere, very well-regarded and a very active community person,” said Carroll, who is director of the Houston chapter of the Council for American-Islamic Relations.

    Seen as Muslim Brotherhood's pick
    Hitto, a father of four, lived in the U.S. for three decades, most recently on the outskirts of Dallas working as director of operations for telecoms supplier Inovar, where co-worker Arshad Syed remembers him as "honest" and "personable."

    He left Syria in the early 1980s and received an MBA at Indiana Wesleyan University on top of a degree in computer science and mathematics from Purdue University in Indianapolis.

    Strongly active in community groups, he was a member of the board of directors at the private Islamic school Bright Horizons Academy, in Garland, Texas, where his wife Suzanne still teaches English.

    In November, he made the decision to get involved in the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces -- the international grouping that seeks to end Syria’s civil war on the condition that Assad is removed from power.

    Slideshow: Syria uprising

    /

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

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    “Like a lot of people living away, he just wanted to help his homeland,” said Carroll.

    Hitto’s wife did not return calls, but the academy issued a statement describing him as “a practical man with great management experience.”

    It said: “He was always open minded and open to debate. He conducted himself with the highest honesty and integrity. His talent for bringing people together for the common good will be missed in our community.”

    Hitto, a respected technocrat but an inexperienced politician, won the overwhelming number of votes from those who cast a ballot -- other possible candidates that included a former Syrian regime official -- but some members of the Coalition boycotted the vote in protest at the process.

    Not everyone was convinced the opposition needed an interim government, seeing it as yet another organization that could compete for control of a post-Assad Syria.

    Official spokesman Walid al-Bunni walked out of the vote in protest and Moaz al-Khatib, president of the Coalition, resigned and had to be persuaded back on board just in time for the Arab Summit in Doha, which began Tuesday.

    “Hitto’s whole role has been undermined from the start,” said Christopher Phillips, associate fellow of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at U.K. think tank, Chatham House.

    “He’s very much the Muslim Brotherhood’s man, and is seen as such. There was a lot of pressure to get an interim opposition leader in place ahead of the Doha talks, but the way in which it was done, and the choice of very much the man that Qatar and Turkey wanted, has infuriated and alienated just about every key player in the process.”

    Represents 'the some of the some'
    Salman Shaik, director of the Brookings Center in Doha, said many Syrians "still regard the appointment of Hitto with suspicion." Even if Assad is toppled from power, Hitto is by no means certain of the authority he needs to implement free and fair elections.

    “The huge elephant in the room is that there is no guarantee that, if and when the Assad regime falls, that any of the groups fighting in Syria will gather around this official opposition,” said Phillips. “There are huge uncertainties in all of this.”

    Abdulrahman al-Rashed, commentator and general manager of the Al Arabiya news channel, wrote: “I am confident that Mr. Hitto is a respectable person and that he cares about Syria. But during this difficult time, we want a person who represents everyone and not only some Syrians. Some members of the Syrian coalition decided to choose Hitto but the coalition itself only represents some Syrians. Therefore, Hitto represents the some of the some!”

    Yasser Tabarra, the Chicago-based legal adviser to the Coalition, says the interim government will focus on managing the 60 to 70 percent of the country that is liberated and controlled by opposition rebels.

    The government would coordinate local management efforts, including establishing law and order, and delivering basic goods and services, Tabarra said.

    Two key stumbling blocks remain: whether the Coalition should enter into any form of negotiations with the regime while Assad is still in power, and whether Hitto, an ethnic Kurd viewed as the Muslim Brotherhood's favored candidate, can unite the ideological differences between its liberal and Islamist members.

    In his task, Hitto at least has the backing of the U.S.

    “This is an individual who, out of concern for the Syrian people, left a very successful life in Texas to go and work on humanitarian relief for the people of his home country,” said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland after Hitto’s election.

    “We’re very hopeful that his election will foster unity and cohesion among the opposition.”

    NBC News' Becky Bratu contributed to this report.


     

  • Bombs kill at least 50 on 10th anniversary of Iraq invasion

    Mohammed Ameen / Reuters

    Residents gather at the site of a car bomb attack in Baghdad. A series of apparently coordinated blasts hit Shiite districts across Baghdad and south of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday.

     

    By Reuters

    BAGHDAD - Car bombs and a suicide blast hit Shiite districts of Baghdad and south of Iraq's capital on Tuesday, killing at least 50 people on the 10th anniversary of the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein. 

    March 19, 2003: President George W. Bush addresses the nation from the Oval office announces the that war against Iraq has begun.

    Sunni Islamist insurgents tied to al Qaeda have stepped up attacks on Shiite targets since the start of the year in a campaign to stoke sectarian tension and undermine Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government. 

    Tuesday's car bombs exploded near a busy Baghdad market, close to the heavily fortified Green Zone and in other districts across the capital. A suicide bomber driving a truck attacked a police base in a Shiite town just south of the capital, police and hospital sources said. 

    "I was driving my taxi and suddenly I felt my car rocked. Smoke was all around. I saw two bodies on the ground. People were running and shouting everywhere," said Al Radi, a taxi driver caught in one of the blasts in Baghdad's Sadr City.

    Another 160 people were wounded in the attacks, hospital officials said.

    No group claimed responsibility for Tuesday's blasts, but Iraq's al Qaeda wing, Islamic State of Iraq, has vowed to take back ground lost in its long war with American troops. Since the start of the year the group has carried out a string of high-profile attacks. 

    This week marks the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. ITV's John Irvine in Baghdad assesses a country that, ten years on, remains gripped by the violence of its sectarian divide.

    Gunmen and suicide bombers stormed the well-protected Justice Ministry building in central Baghdad on Thursday, killing 25 people in an attack by the al Qaeda affiliate. 

    A decade after U.S. and Western troops swept into Iraq to remove Saddam from power, Iraq still struggles with a stubborn insurgency, sectarian frictions and political instability among its Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions. 

    Syria's civil war is further fanning Iraq's volatility as Islamist insurgents invigorated by the mainly Sunni rebellion against Syrian President Bashar Assad try to tap into Sunni Muslim discontent in Iraq. 

    In the ten years since guided bombs brought "shock and awe" to Baghdad, almost 4,500 troops and 130,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed and Saddam Hussein has been captured and executed in a mission that has cost nearly $2 trillion. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    Related:

    Iraq, 10 years on: Did invasion bring 'hope and progress' to millions as Bush vowed?

    Waste, fraud and abuse commonplace in Iraq reconstruction effort

    Full Iraq coverage from NBC News

    This story was originally published on Tue Mar 19, 2013 6:34 AM EDT

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Bomb blast in Karachi kills 45, wounds dozens

    Fareed Khan / AP

    Pakistanis check the site of a bomb blast in Karachi, Pakistan, on Sunday, March 3.

     

    By Fakhar Rehman and Craig Giammona, NBC News

    An explosion rocked a Shiite section of Pakistan's largest city Sunday, killing at least 45 people and wounding dozens, according to officials and local television reports.

    Two-bomb laden vehicles exploded in a residential area of Karachi and local officials searched for victims trapped in the rubble.

    Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

    Mohsin Raza / Reuters

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

    Launch slideshow

    Officials earlier said at least 25 were dead, but a Pakistani doctor said Monday that the toll had risen to 45 as wounded victims died overnight, according to reports in Pakistan's The Nation and Dawn.

    The Associated Press said the blast occurred outside a Shiite Mosque as people were leaving evening prayers.

    Azhar Iqbal, a local police official, told the AP that a bomb appeared to have been rigged to a motorcycle and that the damage indicated there could have been additional explosives at the scene. Iqbal said several nearby buildings caught on fire. Published reports have indicated women and children were among the dead.

    Police in Karachi told Reuters a suicide bomber may have been responsible for the attack.

    No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Sunni militants linked to al-Qaida and the Taliban have targeted Shiites in the past.

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

  • Car bombs rip through Baghdad shops, restaurants, killing 26

    By Kareem Raheem, Reuters

    BAGHDAD - Several car bombs exploded in Shi'ite Muslim neighborhoods across Iraq's capital Baghdad on Sunday morning, killing at least 26 people in blasts that tore into shops, restaurants and busy commercial streets.

    No-one claimed responsibility for the attacks but Sunni Muslim insurgents have stepped up their operations since the beginning of the year in a bid to undermine the Shi'ite-led government and trigger deeper intercommunal fighting.

    One blast tore off shop fronts in Qaiyara district while another left the remains of a car and its twisted engine littered across a high street in the busy, commercial Karrada district packed with restaurants and shops.

    "I was buying an air conditioner and suddenly there was an explosion. I threw myself on the ground. Minutes later I saw many people around, some of them dead, others wounded," said Habibiya district salesman Jumaa Kareem, his jacket spattered with blood.

    Sunday's blasts followed the assassination of a senior Iraqi army intelligence officer on Saturday, the latest in a wave of suicide bombings since January. No one claimed responsibility for that attack.

    Many Iraq Sunnis feel they have been sidelined and unfairly targeted by security forces since the fall of Saddam Hussein and the rise of the country's Shi'ite majority through the ballot box.

    Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's fragile power-sharing government, made up of Shi'ite, Sunni and ethnic Kurds, has been paralyzed by political infighting since American troops, who invaded the OPEC country to oust Saddam in 2003, withdrew more than a year ago.

    Violence is still far from the mass sectarian bloodletting that killed tens of thousands in 2006-2007, though insurgents have carried out at least one big attack a month since the last U.S. troops left.

    More than 10 suicide attackers have struck security forces, Shi'ite targets and a Sunni lawmaker since the start of January.

    In the most recent attacks, a suicide bomber killed the head of the army's intelligence school on Saturday after storming his home in a northern town. Another suicide bomber killed 26 at a Shi'ite funeral at the start of the month.

    There are fears the war in neighboring Syria - where Sunni rebels are fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Shi'ite Iran - could further destabilize Iraq's delicate sectarian and ethnic balance. 

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • 'Like the world was ending': Taliban attack on Shiite procession kills 23

    T. Mughal / EPA

    People react at the site of a suicide bomb attack targeting a Shiite Muslim mourning procession in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Wednesday.

    By The Associated Press

    Updated at 7:29 a.m. ET: A Taliban suicide bomber struck a procession near Pakistan's capital, killing 23 people in the latest of a series of bombings targeting Shiite Muslims during the sect's holiest month of the year, officials said Thursday. 


    The bomber attacked the procession around midnight Wednesday in the city of Rawalpindi, said Deeba Shahnaz, a state rescue official.

    At least 62 people were wounded by the blast, including six police officers. Eight of the dead and wounded were children, Shahnaz said.

     

    Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

    Muhammed Muheisen / AP

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

    Launch slideshow

    Police tried to stop and search the bomber as he attempted to join the procession, but he ran past them and detonated his explosives, senior police official Haseeb Shah said. The attacker was also carrying grenades, some of which exploded, Shah said.

    Malala's wounded friends back in Pakistan school

    "I think the explosives combined with grenades caused the big loss," said Shah.

    Local TV footage showed the scene of the bombing littered with body parts and smeared with blood. Shiites beat their heads and chests in anguish.

    "It was like the world was ending," said one of the victims, Nasir Shah, describing the blast. He was being treated at a local hospital for wounds to his hands and legs.

    Officials in india say the lone surviving gunman from the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai was executed. The Pakistani citizen was one of ten gunmen who went on a three-day killing rampage. TODAY's Natalie Morales reports.

    Earlier Wednesday, the Taliban set off two bombs within minutes outside a Shiite mosque in the southern city of Karachi, killing one person and wounding 15 others, senior police official Javed Odho said.

    Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility for the attacks in Rawalpindi and Karachi.

    "We have a war of belief with Shiites," Ahsan told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location. "They are blasphemers. We will continue attacking them."

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  • Beirut car bomb blast kills top intelligence official

    Hundreds were rushed to emergency rooms after an explosion left a 15-foot crater in one of Beirut's nicest neighborhoods. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    Updated at 4:43 p.m. ET: BEIRUT, Lebanon -- A huge car bomb explosion in Beirut on Friday killed a top Lebanese security official whose investigations implicated Syria and Hezbollah in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri seven years ago.

    The rush-hour bomb in the center of the Lebanese capital killed eight people and wounded about 80 others, heightening fears that Syria's war is spilling over into Lebanon.

    Among the dead was Wissam al-Hassan, the head of a Lebanese intelligence agency who had also uncovered a recent bomb plot that led to the arrest of a pro-Syrian Lebanese politician, a Lebanese official said.

    NBC's Paul Nassar describes the scene after a bomb killed 8 people in Lebanon Friday.

    Al-Hassan was a close aide to Hariri, a Sunni Muslim who was killed in a 2005 bomb attack in downtown Beirut. Al-Hassan's investigation into Hariri's death uncovered evidence that implicated Syria and Hezbollah in the killing.

    Follow this story at BreakingNews.com

    It was also not clear if the explosion targeted any political figure in Lebanon's divided community but it occurred at a time of heightened tension between Lebanese factions on opposite sides of the Syria conflict.

     

    Ambulances rushed to the scene in the Ashafriyeh district, a mostly Christian area, as smoke rose from the area. 

    The explosion ripped through the street where the office of the anti-Damascus Christian Phalange Party is located near Sassine Square.

    Reuters

    Phalange leader Sami al-Gemayel, a staunch opponent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and a member of parliament, condemned the attack.

    "Let the state protect the citizens. We will not accept any procrastination in this matter, we cannot continue like that. We have been warning for a year. Enough," said Gemayel, whose brother was assassinated in November 2006.

    Several cars were set on fire by the explosion and the front of a multi-story building was badly damaged. Residents ran about in panic looking for relatives while others helped carry the wounded to ambulances, Reuters reported. 

    Slideshow: Bombing in Beirut

    Reuters

    Huge blast explodes in a central Beirut street injures dozens, kills at least eight.

    Launch slideshow

    Pope tells Christians in Beirut: 'Be peacemakers'

    Security forces blanketed the area.


    Witness Danny Rizkallah told NBC News the blast took place close to the headquarters of a Lebanese opposition political party with links to Syria rebels and close to the scene of the 1982 assassination of then president-elect Bachir Gemayel. The affluent, largely Christian, district is also home to the American University of Science and Technology (AUST).

    He said he was having lunch nearby when the blast lifted him from his chair. “It was an incredibly powerful explosion,” he said. “I knew immediately it was a bomb because it has such a different sound to shelling.”

    “I rushed around the corner to see what happened there were lots of people injured by broken glass from the windows of nearby stores. It did a great deal of damage to nearby buildings and there was a lot of glass.

    Hasan Shaaban / Reuters

    Burning cars and damages are seen at the site of an explosion in Ashafriyeh, central Beirut, October 19, 2012.

    “For this to happen is shocking because we really thought this sort of thing had stopped in Beirut, and for it to happen in the Christian district is also very unusual. I really don’t know who is behind this, or why. Our politics is very messed-up.”

    The last bombing in Beirut was in 2008 when three people were killed in an explosion that damaged a U.S. diplomatic car. 

    U.S. officials are condemning the attack "in the strongest terms," calling the blast a terrorist attack.

    "We condemn this act of terrorism," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

    "There is no justification for such violence," she added. "We obviously express our heartfelt sympathies for the families and the loved ones of those who were killed and injured, and we stand by the people of Lebanon and renew our commitment to a stable, sovereign, and independent Lebanon."

    National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement there is "no justification for using assassination as a political tool." He says the U.S. will stand with the Lebanese government to bring to justice those responsible "for this barbaric attack."

    Sunni-Shiite tensions
    Tension between Sunnis and Shiites has been rumbling in Lebanon ever since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war but reignited after the Syria conflict erupted.

    It reached its peak when Hariri, a Sunni, was killed in 2005. Hariri supporters accused Syria and then Hezbollah of killing him -- a charge they both deny. An international tribunal accused several Hezbollah members of involvement in the murder.

    Clashes over Syrian conflict in Lebanon leave ten dead

    Hezbollah's political opponents, who have for months accused it of aiding Assad's forces -- have warned that its involvement in Syria could ignite sectarian tension of the civil war. 

    At least nine people die as Sunni Muslims and Alawites fight for a second day. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

    However fighting had broken out this year between supporters and opponents of Assad in the northern city of Tripoli.

    Reuters, The Associated Press and NBC News' Paul Nassar contributed to this report.

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  • 'Jesus is a monkey' daubed on Jerusalem monastery wall

    Hebrew graffiti, including the phrase "Jesus is a monkey," was written on the walls of a monastery in Jerusalem in what police suspect was an attack by right-wing, pro-settler extremists. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    By NBC News' Alastair Jamieson and wire reports

    Hebrew graffiti, including the phrase "Jesus is a monkey," was daubed on the walls of a monastery near Jerusalem early Tuesday in what police suspect was a so-called 'Price Tag' attack by right-wing, pro-settler extremists, according to reports.

    Vandals torched the wooden door of the Latrun Monastery and spray-painted the graffiti on the holy site's stone walls, Israeli police said.

    PhotoBlog: Jewish settlers voluntarily evacuate West Bank enclave

    Menahem Kahana / AFP - Getty Images

    A Trappist monk stands between graffiti reading in Hebrew, "Jesus is a monkey" (L) and "mutual guarantee, Ramat Migron and Maoz Ester" (West Bank settlements) (R), which was sprayed on the wall of the Latrun Monastery between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Tuesday after unknown people set the monastery's door ablaze.

    "Police have opened a special investigation into the incident," Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

    Israeli security officials had expressed concern about possible acts of retribution by a suspected settler vigilante campaign known as 'Price Tag' for Sunday's court-ordered eviction of 50 families from Migron, a settler site near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Police believe the incident was part of the campaign, the Times of Israel and the Jerusalem Post reported.

    Rosenfeld said "Migron" and the words "Jesus is a monkey" were among the phrases scrawled at the monastery, which is located inside Israel but not far from the occupied West Bank.


    'Price Tag' incidents are so-called because the extremists believe their attacks are extracting a price from Palestinians for their action in evicting settlers.

    Jerusalem Post reporter Melanie Lidman posted pictures of the graffiti on Twitter.

    She reported that, following the evacuation of Migron on Sunday, Judea and Samaria District police commander Amos Yaakov said: "I assume that there will be an increase in 'Price Tag' incidents, and we have carried out preparations for this."

    The attack happened at around 3:30 a.m. local time Tuesday (8:30 p.m. ET Monday) and was quickly discovered by monks, who notified police, she reported.

    PhotoBlog: A ballet class in Gaza

    The report added that the monastery was a way station for pilgrims on their way from Jaffa to Jerusalem in the 19th century, and that the current building was built in 1890.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Dozens of police hurt in Northern Ireland sectarian clashes

    Peter Morrison / AP

    Masked loyalists gather before attacking police in North Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Sunday.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    Police in Northern Ireland fired plastic bullets and water cannon on rioters late on Monday in a second night of sectarian clashes between Catholics and Protestants that have injured dozens of police officers.

    Police fired controversial plastic rounds for the first time during the disturbances after protesters threw Molotov cocktails, fireworks, bricks and stones at officers trying to separate rival groups in north Belfast.


    Rioters from the Protestant group hijacked a van at one point and pushed it at police lines. At least three of the injured officers were taken to a hospital.

    Riots often erupt during the summer months when Protestant groups hold traditional parades that are seen as provocative by nationalists, who want to be part of a united Ireland, and Catholics.

    The second night of disturbances over the last week followed a parade by Catholic Irish nationalists in an area where Protestant groups were recently barred from marching.

    At least 47 officers were hurt in clashes on Sunday in the dispute over the rights of the two communities to hold parades in the area. As many as nine were reportedly injured on Monday night.

    The Queen is making a historic visit to Northern Ireland as part of her Diamond Jubilee tour. She arrived in Enniskillen, the scene of one of the worst atrocities of The Troubles, and meet the Stormont deputy first minister, former IRA commander Martin McGuinness, in a gesture which will herald another milestone in Anglo-Irish relations. ITN's Martha Fairlie reports.

    Over the weekend, seven police officers were hurt in the same area when a Protestant band marched past a Catholic church playing music in defiance of a ban from the parades commission, which regulates marches in the province.

    Photos: Riots erupt in Northern Ireland

    Paramilitary violence between the province's mainly Catholic republicans and pro-British Protestants, which raged on and off for three decades, has largely ended since a peace agreement was signed in 1998, but much of Belfast remains socially divided along sectarian lines.

    The head of the Northern Ireland Police Federation, Terry Spence, praised the officers on the front lines. 

    Martin McGuinness, a former commander of the Irish Republican Army met with Queen Elizabeth in Northern Ireland. It was a historic moment decades after the IRA led a bloody fight against British rule. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

    "Their bravery and courage is in stark contrast to that of the cowardly thugs responsible for trying to murder them," he said, according to BBC News. 

    Alban Maginness of the predominantly Catholic and moderate nationalist political party S.D.L.P., claimed that the riots were not spontaneous, the BBC reported.

    Violence flared for a second night running in Northern Ireland as Catholic youths clashed with police following Protestant parades. NBC's Yuka Tachibana reports.

    "The bulk of the violence over the past two days has, I believe, been sustained by loyalist paramilitaries," the BBC quoted him as saying. "I think this is an attempt to intimidate the lawful authorities."

    Police had blamed loyalists for the weekend's violence at a republican march, the BBC reported, adding that up to 350 loyalists had rioted. 

    Reuters contributed to this report. 

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  • Bulldozer wrecks Sufi mosque and graves in Libya sectarian attack

    Mahmud Turkia / AFP - Getty Images

    Libyan Islamist hardliners use a bulldozer to raze the mausoleum of Al-Shaab Al-Dahman near the centre of Tripoli on Saturday.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    Attackers bulldozed a mosque containing Sufi Muslim graves in the center of Tripoli in broad daylight on Saturday, in what appeared to be Libya's most blatant sectarian attack since the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi.

    Government officials condemned the demolition of the large Sha'ab mosque and blamed an armed group who, they said, considered its graves and shrines to Sufi figures un-Islamic.

    It was the second razing of a Sufi site in two days. Ultra-conservative Islamists wrecked Sufi shrines with bombs and another bulldozer and set fire to a mosque library in the city of Zlitan in the early hours of Friday, an official said.

    Libya's rulers have struggled to control armed groups who are competing for power in the north African country a year after Gadhafi’s fall.

    Ismail Zitouny / Reuters

    A grave sits empty after Libyan Salafis Muslims destroyed a Sufi mosque in central Tripoli Saturday.

    The president of Libya's newly elected National Congress, Mohamed al-Magariaf, called the prime minister to an emergency meeting on Sunday.

    "What is truly regrettable and suspicious is that some of those who took part in these destruction activities are supposed to be of the security forces and from the revolutionaries," Magariaf told reporters on Saturday night.

    He did not elaborate on how security forces took part.

    The English-language Libyan Herald news site reported that three journalists from the Al-Assema television station were detained by security forces as they tried to cover the destruction.

    It said their detention was “a clear violation of press freedom in Libya”.

    Security forces “sought to cordon off the site throughout the demolition and were hostile to any attempts by journalists to cover the situation,” it reported.

    Slideshow: Conflict in Libya

    Goran Tomasevic / REUTERS

    An uprising in Libya ousts dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

    Launch slideshow

    A Reuters reporter saw the bulldozer level the Sha'ab mosque as police surrounded the site and prevented people from approaching and did not stop the demolition.

    Inside the mosque, empty graves lay gaping in the rubble.

    "A large number of armed militias carrying medium and heavy weapons arrived at the al-Sha'ab mosque with the intention to destroy the mosque because of their belief graves are anti-Islamic," said a government official who declined to be named.

    He told Reuters that authorities tried to stop them but, after a small clash, decided to seal off the area while the demolition took place to prevent any violence spreading.

    "The SSC (Libya's Supreme Security Council) joins the ... condemnation," said council spokesman Abdel Moneim al-Hurr.

    Pictures and video of the attack were posted on Twitter by user Thanku4theanger.

    A man who appeared to be overseeing the demolition told Reuters the interior ministry had authorized the operation after discovering people had been worshipping the graves and practicing "black magic". The ministry was not available for comment.

    One of Libya's highest-profile cultural clashes since the toppling of Gadhafi has been between followers of the mystical Sufi tradition and ultra-conservative Salafis, who say Islam should return to the simple ways followed by its prophet.

    Salafis have formed a number of armed brigades in Libya. They reject as idolatrous many Sufi devotions - which include dancing and the building of shrines to venerated figures.

    Conservative Muslims across the region - emboldened by the Arab Spring revolts - have targeted Sufi sites in Egypt, Mali and other parts of Libya over the past year.

    The assaults recalled the 2001 dynamiting by the Taliban of two 6th-century statues of Buddha carved into a cliff in Bamiyan in central Afghanistan.

    Could sun-soaked Libya be the Mediterranean's next tourism hot spot?

    The Sha'ab mosque housed close to 50 Sufi graves inside and, outside, the tombs of Libyan Sufi scholar Abdullah al-Sha'ab and a martyr who fought Spanish colonialists.

    Mahmud Turkia / AFP - Getty Images

    A picture shows the destroyed section of the mausoleum of Al-Shaab Al-Dahman near the centre of Tripoli on Saturday after Islamist hardliners bulldozed part of the revered mausoleum in the second such attack in Libya in two days.

    On Friday attackers razed the revered resting place of Abdel Salam al-Asmar in Zlitan, about 160 km (90 miles) west of the capital, and also set fire to a historic library in a nearby mosque, ruining thousands of books.

    The destruction followed two days of clashes between tribal groups in Zlitan, said a local official.

    "The extremist Salafis took advantage (of the fact) that security officials were busy calming down the clashes and they desecrated the shrine," Zlitan military council official Omar Ali told Reuters.

    Sufi scholar and caretaker of the Asmar shrine in Zlitan Mohammed Salem said the government was coming under increasing political pressure from ultra-conservatives.

    A Facebook page titled "Together for the Removal of the Abdel Salam al-Asmar Shrine" congratulated supporters on the "successful removal of the Asmar shrine, the largest sign of idolatry in Libya."

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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