(Xinhua) -- Afghan forces with NATO air support killed 25 Taliban insurgents in an operation from Friday to Saturday in Malik Shahi district of Paktika province of eastern Afghanistan, a local Afghan officer told Xinhua Saturday on condition of anonymity. The officer said three Afghan troops and one NATO solider were also injured in the operation, adding four Taliban militants were arrested.
However, Paktika governor Akram Khpalwak told Xinhua that he only saw two Taliban bodies in the district on Saturday. Maybe there were other Taliban casualties, but he had no information about it, he added. He also said four Afghan and four NATO soldiers were wounded inoperations in the province on Friday. Paktika has been a hotbed of Taliban and other militants, who clash with government and foreign forces frequently.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2006 00:00 ||
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MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Heavy fighting erupted in central Somalia Sunday, a day after the transitional government rejected a peace initiative with the country's Islamic movement, officials said.
Islamic militia captured the town of Bandiradley after claiming they came under attack from pro-government militia backed by Ethiopian troops near the border of the semiautonomous region of Puntland in the north, one of the few areas still outside their control.
"The fighting is continuing and we are pursuing Puntland troops," Mohamed Mahmud Agaweyne, spokesman for the Islamic group in central Somalia, told The Associated Press by telephone. Sa'id Abdirahman Dakaweyne, a colonel with the Puntland militia, also confirmed the fighting.
Neither side would comment on casualties or the sizes of forces involved. However Agaweyne said the Islamic fighters captured two tanks and 11 pickup trucks mounted with machine guns.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/12/2006 10:25 ||
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#1
The Islamofascists are receiving huge Arab support while the fledgling government of Somalia and that of Ethiopia are without known resources. This fact has to sink in: any Islamofascist government will serve as a base for global Islamofascist terror. While Euros worry over Israel's security policies, the real enemy is on the march.
#8
The US will not help anyone after Jan 1. Maybe even before. I think that election lost us the next round of battles in the WoT.
You may be correct - but I'm not altogether certain that that would be a bad thing. It would certainly send a few wakeup calls around the world if the US simply were to say "Sorry, we're busy spending money on all our domestic issues and really can't be bothered with helping you out."
In the short-term, it would, of course, be disastrous and would have many longer-term implications - but it would also send a loud and clear signal to a great many parties about just how badly they need the US and our military presence and assistance around the world.
Of course, it would also engender a great deal of ill will towards us in the short and long-terms, but sometimes you have to slap a hysterical individual to get their attention (or use a baseball bat on a donkey to get its').
Honestly, at least half of our foreign aid probably needs to be cut off at the spigot anyway IMO.
#9
Foreign aid, as most of us think of it, is nearly inconsequential when compared to the overall Federal budget. If you're talking about military aid, you're talking Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan and Free China. Everyone else qualifies as diddly squat. If you're talking about non-military, non-disaster aid, the amounst are staggeringly small. Oh, I wouldn't mind having it in my bank account, but you don't buy much influence with thirty million dollars in today's world.
#10
Good point FOTs. Thought that myself. The Euro's sure would't be living with 6 weeks vac and 35 hr work weeks if they had to finance there own military's as much as they would need to without us.
#11
Maybe so, Chuck, but I can't help but wonder how much weaponry that could buy a country like Ethiopia, or any other # of countries that are on the front lines against Arab jihadis in North/East Africa?
Posted by: BA ||
11/12/2006 22:25 Comments ||
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(SomaliNet) Algeria has lost seven soldiers to an ambush by Islamic militants, the Algerian press has said. Thirteen other Algerian soldiers were seriously wounded in the attack.
It is suspected that the attack on the Algerian soldiers was by the Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which attacked the soldiers who were searching or them (GSPC).
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/12/2006 00:00 ||
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RABAT, Morocco (AP) - Three former detainees at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were convicted in Morocco for creating a criminal group and forging documents, the state news agency reported.
The criminal court in Sale, near the capital, Rabat, sentenced Mohamed Souleymani Laalami to five years in prison for creating a criminal group, the MAP news agency reported late Friday. Two other defendants, Najib Lahssini and Mohammed Ouali, were sentenced to three years each on charges of falsifying documents, the news agency said. It said the Moroccan court case was unrelated to their detention at Guantanamo, where the three men spent up to 4 1/2 years in U.S. custody.
Abdelaziz Nouidi, a lawyer for Souleymani, said his client would appeal. The lawyer denied accusations that Souleymani, 30, had any ties to Salafia Jihadia, a radical group allegedly linked to al-Qaida that has been blamed for simultaneous suicide attacks in Casablanca in May 2003 that killed 45 people, including 12 bombers.
"Lies! All lies!"
Souleymani also denied claims that he trained with al-Qaida in Afghanistan, where he was detained in October 2001, according to the lawyer.
"No, no, certainly not!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/12/2006 00:00 ||
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Four cadres of United People's Democratic Front (UPDF) were arrested along with firearms after a 20-minute gunfight with Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) in Raozan upazila bordering Chittagong Hill Tracts yesterday evening. An official at the Rab headquarters said the members of the UPDF, an anti-peace treaty outfit, were engaged in gunrunning.
So that's where they get the shutter guns!
"Acting on a tip-off, a team of Rab-7 raided a remote hilly area at Haladia in Raozan. Sensing the presence of the elite force, ...
"Hark! My spider-sense is tingling! Cheez, it's the RAB!"
... about 30 UPDF men opened fire on the law enforcers, prompting them to retaliate," said the official.
And after a desultry, aimless exchange ...
After a 20-minute exchange of fire, the Rab personnel caught four of the gang while others managed to flee. The Rab men seized two firearms from their possession.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#3
There's a tourist trap on Highway 50 west of Pueblo, Colorado, called "Buckskin Joe". They have "gunfights" every day, very similar to the picture shown in #2. I think they could be more effective than the RAB. The RAB doesn't seem to be able to hit anyone farther away than ten feet.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/12/2006 14:22 Comments ||
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#4
'Bout time for an update; I was running on RAB fumes.
OS; I don't think that there is any need for a > 10foot accuracy, since the RAB opens fhire as soon as they reach the deserted (fill in the location here) and the bad guy only justs steps from the RAB-mobile....(and the unnamed / unseen accomplices can't hit anything anyway.
Dutch magazine Elsevier quotes Iran specialist Kenneth R Timmerman saying that The Netherlands is mentioned as a terror target during a secret meting between Iran and the Al-Qa'ida terror group. One of Timmerman's most important sources is a ex Iran secret service member named Hamid Reza Zakeri who surrendered to US authorities before 9/11.
Zakeri was involved as a contact person between Al-Qa'ida and Irans'secret service. He said that the US the UK and The Netherlands were mentioned as specific targets. It seems that more than enough sleeper cells are available in The Netherlands capable of striking with "spectacular attacks".
#1
Why now? Wait 10 years and you'll own the country. Anyone who has recently travelled by NS and seen the crowds at Rotterdam, Utrecht and Amsterdam stations know what I mean.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
11/12/2006 15:51 Comments ||
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LOWER DIR: Security forces on Saturday foiled an attack on an army base in the Timar Gara region of Lower Dir, a private television channel reported. Unidentified terrorists planted seven Russian-made rockets aimed at the military base in Raman Gar. Security forces, however, located the rockets and defused them.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2006 00:41 ||
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Abdullah Mujahid, a founding member of religious group Jamaatud Dawa (JD) and close associate of its chief Hafiz Saeed, was shot and killed by a robber in Taj Bagh on Saturday morning. The deceaseds family and lawyer lodged a complaint of murder during robbery with the police, while JD activists claimed that the incident was an act of terrorism. According to Superintendent of Police Ahsan Younas, Mujahid was returning from morning prayers at a mosque in Taj Bagh when a man named Safdar tried to stop his car. The two then traded fire, Safdar hitting Mujahid in the face, killing him, and Mujahid hitting Safdar in the belly. Police arrived at the scene and arrested Safdar as he tried to flee. He is in critical condition in hospital. During interrogation, police found that he was a robber and recovered a stolen motorcycle, cell phones, credit cards and an unlicensed pistol from him.
Police registered a first information report against Safdar for the homicide, and handed over Mujahids body to the family after autopsy. He was later buried in a local graveyard in Mustafabad, where funeral prayers were led by Hafiz Saeed. However, JD activists released a statement saying three terrorists had killed Mujahid. They said Mujahids friends Farooq, a passenger in the car, and Idrees and Abdur Rehman, who were following on a motorbike, were at the scene and saw three attackers. They claimed that Safdar had been shot accidentally by one of his accomplices and not by Mujahid.
A police officer investigating the case dismissed their claim that there were three attackers. He said Safdar came in front of the car to stop it, brandishing a gun.
"Stand and deliver!"
Mujahid saw the gun and shot first, hitting Safdar in the belly.
"Take that, yew varmint!"
Safdar responded by shooting Mujahid in the jaw, causing his instant death.
"Aaaaaiiiieeee! Rosebu-... [Rattle!]"
The investigator said if Safdar had fired first, Mujahid could not have shot back. He said police found only two empty shells at the crime scene and matched them to the weapons, both of which were 0.30 calibre. After Mujahid was shot, his car crashed into a tree about 100 yards away, the policeman said, adding that Mujahid was alone in the car.
Wasn't this on "Walker, Texas Ranger" a couple weeks ago?
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2006 00:41 ||
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#1
Gonna take a whole lotta more Safdars at this rate.
Arise, Ents, and free yourself from the vines that enslave you!
HYDERABAD - Indian police shot dead nine Maoist rebels, including five women, on Friday in a forest gun battle in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, police said.
Commandos specially trained to fight the rebel insurgency that affects a large swathe of rural India ambushed the Maoists in Kadapa district, 390 km (240 miles) south of Hyderabad, the state capital. Police had been searching for another group of rebels who had killed a local leader of the states ruling Congress party on Thursday night at the time, top officer Y. Nagi Reddy said.
Andhra Pradesh is one of the worst-hit of at least 13 Indian states facing Maoist violence.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/12/2006 00:00 ||
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Srinagar: A suspected rebel said yesterday he was paid $20 (Dh73) to throw a grenade during Friday prayers in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed five people including four children.
Blood money, and not much of it, not even in Kashmir.
Police said Ghulam Nabi Mir belonged to Hizbul Mujahideen, a rebel group which is fighting for Kashmir's merger with Pakistan. It has denied involvement in the attack and said Indian security agencies were behind it.
"Wudn't us. It wuz [spit!] them!"
"I threw it. They gave me Rs1,000 ($20)," Mir, who looked to be in his late 20s, told reporters in the presence of police. "Forgive my mistake. I wouldn't make such a mistake again."
I'd be surprised if he was given the opportunity to do it again, but then, I've been surprised pretty often in the past five years, to the point where I'm not surprised when I'm surprised anymore.
Mir was captured by villagers immediately after the attack in the Tahab area of Pulwama district south of Srinagar and handed over to police.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
"Forgive my mistake. I wouldn't make such a mistake again."
I'll make bigger mistakes instead!
Sorry, nobody's that stupid. Not even JFnK. Death by slow-turning wood chipper missing a few teeth is in order here. Or perhaps slow-roasted over an open fire. His choice.
#2
A massacre for Rs 1,000 (20 dollars)!
The Army on Saturday presented an "overground worker" of Hizbul Mujahideen before media who was responsible for throwing a grenade on a religious congregation at a mosque in Tahab village of south Kashmir on Friday.
The job was done for a paltry Rs 1,000!
Four teenaged girls and two boys were killed in the blast and around 60 others were injured. The main target of the blast was religious preacher and chief of Sawt-ul-Awliya (voice of friends of Allah) Abdur Rashid Dawoodi, who sustained splinter injuries in the attack.
Brigadier GS Katoch, Commander of 70 Infantry Brigade, said that the accused Ghulam Nabi Mir alias Nikka was directly responsible for lobbing the grenade. "He was overpowered by a group of locals and handed over to us at 9.30 pm", he said at a press conference at 55 RR headquarters at Pulwama. He said that two Hizbul Mujahideen militants hatched the conspiracy to eliminate Molvi Dawoodi "who is spreading message of peace in his sermons".
The sand labourer Nikka, 22 is nephew of Hizb's local "Battalion Commander" Abdur Rashid Ganai alias Ashfaq. But he denied that he lobbed the grenade at Ashfaq's behest. "I was lured by upper ground Hizb worker Gulzar Ahmad who gave me the explosive and Rs 1000 with an advice to lob it at Maulana Dawoodi", he said.
He said that some people spotted him while tossing the grenade and chased him. "I attempted to run away but they chased and caught me outside the village. I was tied with ropes and even they tried to hang me", he said. Nikka said that he had no practice of lobbing grenades. "I did it for the first time", he said.
Posted by: john ||
11/12/2006 6:34 Comments ||
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#3
The Kashmiri police have actually caught several grenade throwers recently, all were local people paid to lob grenades by Pak terrorists. A few were minors.
They are all muslim. All did the job for paltry sums of cash.
Posted by: john ||
11/12/2006 6:38 Comments ||
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#4
On July 12, 2005, Mohammad Akram, 11, was on his way home from school when he was stopped by a group of terrorists. They asked him to throw a grenade in the local market place, and promised him Rs 500 (1US$=Rs 43) for the task. Terror-stricken Akram did not have a choice - he had to do as the men said. But before he could fling the grenade, it exploded in his hands, injuring him severely.
A few days later, Tahira, 9, from Pangai village, Poonch district, was seriously injured when an improvised explosive device (IED) that she was handling exploded. She too had been forced by terrorists to place the IED on a road often used by the Indian troops.
An alarming number of children are being used as 'terror tools' by various terrorist groups in Jammu and Kashmir. The children are used as spies, porters, and as guerrillas who throw grenades and plant IEDs. The children (some barely nine or 10 years of age) are even used as shields in encounters and deployed in operations against Indian security agencies.
Posted by: john ||
11/12/2006 6:58 Comments ||
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#5
Srinagar, July 27
Jammu and Kashmir police has announced a reward of Rs one lakh besides government job for anyone who will catch a grenade thrower.
The announcement of the reward came days after police smashed the modules of Pakistan based Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT), Al-Badr and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), responsible for grenade and other attacks in the Kashmir valley, particuarly on tourists in the city.
Encouraged by the recent arrest of Mudasir and Hanief Bengali after announcing a reward of Rs five lakh and Rs three lakh respectively, the Zonal police headquarter said anyone who will catch a grenade thrower anywhere in the valley, will be given Rs one lakh and a government job.
About 30 persons were injured in three different grenade attacks at Narabal, Magam chowk and Sopore in north Kashmir during the past three days.
About a dozen tourists from Kolkata, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh were killed and scores wounded in different grenade attacks in the city and outskirts during the past two months.
However, police arrested the militants responsible for these grenade attacks.
Posted by: john ||
11/12/2006 7:02 Comments ||
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#6
Cut off this perp's hand - just below his chin.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/12/2006 14:39 Comments ||
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a police recruiting center in Baghdad early Sunday, killing at least 33 people and wounding 56, police said.
Crowds of recruits were gathering outside the center in western Baghdad's Nissur Square when the bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body, police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razaq said.
He said the death toll was expected to rise because many of the injuries were extremely serious.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/12/2006 10:20 ||
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#1
I have a NEW (and I am serious) strategy for Iraq. Announce we are pulling all our forces back to rear bases for 30 days. During this time we expect, and ENCOURAGE, the various factions to kick the living shit out of each other! At the end of 30 days we return and kick the living shit out of the victors!
#2
I have a basic question:
Given how often this happens, and how long it's been going on, why haven't the Iraqis set up a screening process at the recruiting centers before anyone is allowed to stand in line?
The Israelis had guard in front of every cafe and grocery store within a couple of months. How hard can it be?
Al
Posted by: frozen al ||
11/12/2006 16:21 Comments ||
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#3
Well, you're being logical... and they're Arabs.
#5
Justrand, I heard a Marine call in to a talk show last night who just got back from Iraq. He was taking it all in on the effect of the Donks winning last Tuesday (both in real life and how it's "perceived" overseas).
He said that maybe we need to come up with a timeline. Nothing TOO prescriptive, but one that gave a "start date" of handing back the country to the natives. BUT, in the mean time, the US (and Iraqi forces, where they're ready) get to do to every major city what we did to Fallujah. Cordon off, let out women and children (and ducks and fluffy bunnies, too), the pound the living Shiite out of it, until it's ALL CLEAR. Lather, rinse, repeat as necessary. Then declare victory, hand over control and be done with it.
Iraq is NOT Vietnam. I still hold out hope that the natives will get sick and tired of the violence. Flood the place with weapons, continue to back up (via $ and smaller teams of our guys) the good guys, and (hopefully), they won't fall. The other option is to split the place in 3...and FORCE the media to focus on the Kurdish areas, where all's pretty much well.
On the homefront, get out the good news. Couch it in terms of "Look, we're gonna start bringing the boys home, but in the meantime, we've got some SERIOUS arse-kicking to do to do final clean-up." Ban the media from operational areas. Finally, just show a basic map of Iraq, broken down into provinces, where which groups are majorities (Kurdish vs. Shi'a vs. Sunni), and then show how ALL the violence is centered in 1-2 provinces. Get the "good news" out (not just what we've done reconstruction-wise, but look at the Kurds). Continue on until we march to Tehran.
Posted by: BA ||
11/12/2006 22:16 Comments ||
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Israel refuses to stop overflights
Israel on Saturday refused to heed a renewed request by the United Nations to stop its surveillance flights over Lebanon. Israel insists the flights are necessary to monitor violations of UN resolution 1701 to ensure that there are no armed terror groups in southern Lebanon.
The international community, in turn, is of the opinion that the flights themselves are a violation of UN resolution 1701. Nevermind the letter. The spirit of the resolution = Jews to the ovens.
#4
Maybe next time the Jews will do the same job on the Lebanese that they did against the walls of Jericho, only using nukes to accomplish the mission. I wouldn't mind seeing a 9.8 earthquake centered on Beirut, but I'm not sure God's in a vengeful spirit these days.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/12/2006 14:44 Comments ||
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#5
Sounds to me like you got two terror groups in southern leb; Hezbollah and the UN.
#7
DRUDGEREPORT.com > IRANIAN UAV video depicts US carrier + title PAPER: CHINESE SUB STALKS USS KITTY HWK [unconformed]/Chinese mil move surprises US officios.
Suspected Muslim insurgents opened fire early Sunday at a tea shop in restive southern Thailand, killing one person, as attackers elsewhere burned down a Buddhist villager's home, police said. Two hooded gunmen fired from motorcycles at the tea shop in Narathiwat province's Rue So district shortly after midnight, killing a 30-year-old male customer seated at a table with his brother, who was injured, said police Lt. Kuma-aen Sanya. He blamed the attack on suspected Muslim insurgents.
Buddhist villagers in Yala province have sought refuge since Thursday at a Buddhist temple after some of their family members were killed and their houses were burned down by suspected insurgents. Arsonists destroyed the home of a Buddhist man Saturday night in the Muang district of Yala province, while he was out guarding a nearby Buddhist temple, police said.
In neighboring Narathiwat province, Buddhist monks have said that as of Monday they will temporarily stop their morning ritual of walking through villages to seek alms as a safety precaution. The move comes after five monks were injured and two marines escorting them killed on Oct. 22 as they walked near a Narathiwat city market to collect alms.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
(Xinhua) -- Afghan forces with NATO air support killed 25 Taliban insurgents in an operation from Friday to Saturday in Malik Shahi district of Paktika province of eastern Afghanistan, a local Afghan officer told Xinhua Saturday on condition of anonymity. The officer said three Afghan troops and one NATO solider were also injured in the operation, adding four Taliban militants were arrested. 
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Heavy fighting erupted in central Somalia Sunday, a day after the transitional government rejected a peace initiative with the country's Islamic movement, officials said.
(SomaliNet) Algeria has lost seven soldiers to an ambush by Islamic militants, the Algerian press has said. Thirteen other Algerian soldiers were seriously wounded in the attack. 
Four cadres of United People's Democratic Front (UPDF) were arrested along with firearms after a 20-minute gunfight with Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) in Raozan upazila bordering Chittagong Hill Tracts yesterday evening. An official at the Rab headquarters said the members of the UPDF, an anti-peace treaty outfit, were engaged in gunrunning.
Abdullah Mujahid, a founding member of religious group Jamaatud Dawa (JD) and close associate of its chief Hafiz Saeed, was shot and killed by a robber in Taj Bagh on Saturday morning. The deceaseds family and lawyer lodged a complaint of murder during robbery with the police, while JD activists claimed that the incident was an act of terrorism. According to Superintendent of Police Ahsan Younas, Mujahid was returning from morning prayers at a mosque in Taj Bagh when a man named Safdar tried to stop his car. The two then traded fire, Safdar hitting Mujahid in the face, killing him, and Mujahid hitting Safdar in the belly. Police arrived at the scene and arrested Safdar as he tried to flee. He is in critical condition in hospital. During interrogation, police found that he was a robber and recovered a stolen motorcycle, cell phones, credit cards and an unlicensed pistol from him. 
Srinagar: A suspected rebel said yesterday he was paid $20 (Dh73) to throw a grenade during Friday prayers in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed five people including four children.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a police recruiting center in Baghdad early Sunday, killing at least 33 people and wounding 56, police said.
