A makeshift bomb exploded at a Nogales, Arizona power substation Wednesday morning, destroying a diesel fuel tank and causing a massive federal investigation.
Agents from the FBI and ATF that specialize in bombings quickly reached the site after the blast at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday morning. The explosion was strong enough to damage the tank and cause a diesel fuel spill but fortunately the bomb did not ignite the fuel.
Officials say had the fuel ignited it would have likely destroyed the substation.
Nogales police Lt. Carlos Jimenez said that the plant was critical for the area and had it been destroyed over 30,000 people would have been without power for days.
“The whole city of Nogales could have been compromised,” Jimenez said.
The blast did not cause any power disruptions and repairs should not cause the station to be off-line.
Egyptian officials confirm a group of Islamic extremists attacked the businesses of Christians today in the town of Luxor.
Many of the shops owned by Coptic Christians were burned to the ground.
Authorities investigating the attack said that Islamists marched into the shops in the village of el-Mahmeed and threw gasoline bombs into shop windows. Police say that they have not made any arrested and currently have no persons of interest because of a lack of witnesses coming forward to identify who threw the bombs.
The Islamists are launching attacks ahead of the blasphemy trial of a young Coptic Christian who Islamists claim posted disparaging remarks about Islam on the internet. The trial had been scheduled to begin today.
The young Christian, Kerolos Ghattas, is facing the death penalty if convicted.
In the wake of the devastating explosion that destroyed two buildings in Harlem, the discovery of a Bible is being called a miracle by not only members of the Spanish Christian Church that was destroyed in the blast but firefighters and emergency personnel.
On the third day of their recovery efforts, rescue workers found a waterlogged Bible under the debris of the church. The Bible was not singed by fire at all and the water damage was minimal.
Members of the church hailed it as a miracle because the Bible was the one placed on the church’s altar because it was the used for the founding of the church 80 years ago.
The church’s pastor, Rev. Thomas Perez, became so overwhelmed at the sight of the Bible being brought out intact from the rubble that he had to be hospitalized for observation.
Attendees told reporters the Spanish-language Bible belonged to the founding couple of the church.
Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano said the discovery of the Bible means a lot because now the church will have a remnant as they rebuild.
A security threat issued this week by Homeland Security regarding shoe bomb attacks on international flights into the U.S. is due to intelligence reports showing Al-Qaeda plotting the attacks.
DHS issued the warning after Ibrahim Hassaon al-Asiri, a Saudi Arabian man who plotted other failed shoe bomb attacks for the terrorist group, reportedly has developed a new method of hiding explosives in shoes.
U.S. officials label al-Asiri the best terrorist bomb maker in the world.
The bulletin to security screeners around the world calls on them to use swabs containing explosive detecting chemicals on shoes because an X-ray may not be able to detect the devices.
Increased security has already been seen in London and Amsterdam.
The DHS report says that the current plot is not connected in any way to plot involving the current Olympic games.
New Jersey State Police are using the attacks near the Sochi Olympics site as a model for security for this weekend’s Super Bowl.
Law enforcement was quick to add they had no specific threats toward the Super Bowl that required bomb detection.
“Of particular concern to us is what was going on overseas in Volgograd in regard to the Sochi Olympics. As you know both of those bombings were targeting mass transit,” New Jersey State Police spokesman Rick Fuentes told reporters. “That is a concern with the mass transit; we’ve prepared ourselves for it.”
Officials have limited parking near MetLife Stadium forcing tens of thousands attending the game to use public transportation to arrive at the game site. The stadium has been locked down all week and people will travel at least 10 miles from New York City via public transit.
New York Police Department Commissioner William Bratton told reporters that the city was using “advanced intelligence gathering operations” developed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
The French army has found a workshop in the northern part of Mali that is a factory for making homicide bomber vests.
Troops reported finding 11,000 pounds of fertilizer that could be used in explosives. A sample homicide vest and 18 sewing machines were found. According to a French army spokesman, local women said they were employed in the factory. Continue reading →
The head of al-Qaeda in Yemen has released a recording threatening Americans and saying the kind of bombs used in Boston were within “everyone’s reach.”
Qassin al-Rimi claims the attack in Boston shows the U.S.’s weakness in security and urged Muslims to “defend their religion”. Continue reading →
French police arrested 12 people in weekend raids resulting in the discovery of one of the biggest bomb plots in the nation in almost 20 years.
Prosecutors on Friday announced that one suspect was killed after firing on police officers. Five of those detained have been released but seven remain in custody including two that Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said had connections to an international Islamic Jihadist network. Continue reading →
The University of Texas was evacuated Friday morning after a man with a middle-eastern accent called the school claiming to be with Al-Qaeda and said he had planted bombs throughout the campus.
The call arrived around 8:35 a.m. with a warning the bombs would go off in 90 minutes. University officials posted a message on the campus’ emergency alert website at 9:53 a.m. telling people to “immediately evacuate ALL buildings and get as far away as possible.” Continue reading →
A source working closely with US intelligence has identified a group within Al Qaeda Yemen whose entire purpose is designing attacks against the United States according to CNN.
The unit is working to help develop explosives that are designed to get back the X-Ray screening at major airports. The unit, based in southern Yemen, has yet to pull off a successful attack against American troops or civilians. Continue reading →
