Terrorism across the Globe this week

Aftermath of the mosque blast in India on Friday - view of the Char Minar gate in Hyderabad in the background

Lest we forget, Iraq and Palestine are not the only parts of the world to see violence this past week. Here's a quick rundown of terrorism, in its many different forms in the past few days:

India was a particularly volatile place. Yesterday, violent Sikh protests. On Friday, a blast at the Mecca Masjid mosque in India killed at least 13 and injured 50 others. The death toll could have been higher; two more bombs were found nearby that didn't explode. During Friday prayers (The Muslim worship day is Friday) there are thousands worshipping in that mosque. Last year, there were two similar mosque bombings during Friday prayers in India.

Counterterrorism Blog runs down more of what could have happened:

Early May 23, morning, Uttar Pradesh Police recovered 10 kg of explosives and 20 litres of ammonium nitrate from the railway station in another communal sensitive Faizabad/ Ayodhya city. On May 20, the Railway Protection Force seized around six hundred grams of highly explosive RDX from a coach of Darbhanga bound passenger train near Samastipur, Bihar. Next day (May 21), at least four bombs were recovered from inside a local passenger train in busy Howrah station in Kolkata (West Bengal). There must be some more escaped vigil eyes and already found their way near the targets.

Yesterday, a blast in a crowded shopping mall in Ankara, Turkey has been blamed on the Kurdish separatist group, the PKK (BBC is now reporting it was a suicide bombing). Last count was six killed and 100 wounded. This is particularly disturbing to me because I actually have a lot of sympathy for the Kurds and the abysmal way they have been treated in Turkey (their situation has slightly improved in recent years, but only as a result of very half-hearted reforms hastily drafted in order to keep alive Turkey's bid as a viable candidate for accession into the European Union). But no matter how badly they have been treated, who can condone killing innocent men, women, and children? The goal is to force Turkey to crack down militarily and suspend human rights, so the Kurds can claim further victim status in the eyes of the international community. It's a tactic taken straight from the Palestinian playbook...

Today in Afghanistan, which has had too many acts of violence to count this week, a suicide bomber killed two people and injured four others.

Today in Thailand, 6 people were killed in separate shootings, and 7 injured in a bomb attack by Muslim separatists. On Sunday 5 more people were killed (link to Little Green Footballs, original seems dead).

On Saturday in Somalia, sea deliveries of food aid have been halted, after pirates attacked a ship chartered by the UN food relief agency.

Also on Saturday, in Kenya, three park rangers and four poachers were killed in a gun battle.

And that's not all by a long shot...