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Taliban Claims Responsibility For Massive Blast In Kabul

Posted: 15 Aug 2009 12:25 AM PDT

kabul

The Taliban claimed responsibility for a large suicide car bomb
that detonated on Saturday in the heart of the Afghan capital’s most
secure neighborhood just five days before an election the Islamist group
has vowed to disrupt.

Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry said at least four people were
killed and 91 wounded in the blast, which hit outside the sprawling
headquarters of the NATO-led international force, near the U.S. embassy,
in Kabul.

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Taliban Claims Responsibility For Massive Blast In Kabul

17 Charged With Brutal Kidnappings, Slayings In San Diego

Posted: 14 Aug 2009 06:04 PM PDT

san_diego

Authorities announced charges Thursday against a Mexican gang
that took Tijuana-style violence to the upscale suburbs of San Diego
County, kidnapping, torturing and killing well-to-do residents, even after
some families paid large ransoms.

The gang, a rogue cell of the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix drug
cartel, moved across the border in 2002 and posed as U.S. law enforcement,
donning FBI and police uniforms and caps while snatching victims outside
homes and public places, said San Diego County prosecutors.

Nine victims were killed from 2004 to 2007, and the bodies of
two of them were dissolved in chemicals at a rented house in San Diego.
Gang members were also charged with trying to murder a Chula Vista police
officer in September 2005, peppering his car with high-caliber bullets
before fleeing in a car.

The gang targeted people it suspected of having links to
organized crime, although some victims had no known ties, authorities
said. Prosecutors charged 17 defendants, including gang leader Jorge Rojas
Lopez, who is serving a life sentence for one of the abductions. Eight of
those charged Thursday remain at large. The others are in custody on
previous charges.

“This rogue group of individuals is responsible for a string of
brutal murders and kidnappings that demonstrate the ugly reality of
cross-border violence,” said San Diego County Dist. Atty. Bonnie M.
Dumanis.

Spillover crime from Tijuana’s gang wars is relatively small,
given the scale and brutality of the violence there. Nevertheless, the
gang’s migration to the San Diego area reinforces concern that border
vigilance is no match for Mexican organized crime.

via 17
charged in string of brutal kidnappings and slayings in San Diego suburbs
— latimes.com.

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Terror Alert. National Terror Alert is America's trusted source for homeland security news and information.

17
Charged With Brutal Kidnappings, Slayings In San Diego