| news july/august 2003 |
Bomb
alert halts town
Wrexham town centre ground to a halt
when bomb squad experts were called to a suspect package.
Grosvenor Road and Regent Street were cordoned off and local businesses
evacuated on Friday as police investigated the bomb scare aimed
at the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service
(Cafcass).
Scotland Yard is investigating a series of suspect packages received at a number of addresses associated with the organisation throughout the UK during the course of Thursday and Friday. It is not known who is behind the campaign or why.
The packages are being examined and at present none have proved dangerous
CAFCASS represents the needs and interests of children and teenagers and is independent of the courts, social services, education and health authorities.
Traffic and shoppers were diverted away from the Cafcass building on Grosvenor Road.
"The packages are being examined and at present none have proved dangerous," said a spokeswoman for Cafcass."Cafcass's priority at all times is to protect staff and the children and families that visit our offices.
"Cafcass is clear, however, that this is an unacceptable and criminal activity which puts our staff and the families and children who visit our offices at risk and, understandably causes them distress," she added.
17 August 2003, BBC
Court
evacuated in powder alert
A magistrates court was evacuated on Wednesday morning after the
discovery of a suspect package.
The alarm was raised at Guildford Magistrates Court in Surrey
at about Just as court proceedings for the day were about to start.
An envelope containing an unidentified white powder had been delivered to the court building.
Emergency services were called to the scene and members of Surrey Police's special Chemical, Biological and Radiological Team were still at the site on Wednesday afternoon.
Ten people who may have come into contact with the package have been taken to hospital for checks.
Prisoners in custody who had been due to appear before magistrates at the court were returned to their cells.
13 August
2003, BBC
Colombia
car bomb kills five
Five people have been killed and three injured in a car bomb explosion
in north-eastern Colombia, police have said.
A Colombian army patrol was passing by when a bomb exploded in
the town of Saravena, Arauca State, killing three adults and two
children.
Arauca State is one of Colombia's hottest war zones where rebels and paramilitary forces have been fighting each other over oil resources.
The explosion occurred near Saravena's airport and a Colombian military base, where US special forces have been training Colombian troops.
No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The authorities are reported to have offered a reward of 50m Colombian pesos ($17,500) for information leading to those responsible.
Arauca is a stronghold of Colombia's two main guerrilla groups - the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), and the National Liberation Army, or ELN.
US special
forces troops have been there since January, training a Colombian
anti-guerrilla unit and to defend an oil pipeline from rebel bomb
attacks.
8 August 2003, BBC
Jordan's
Iraq embassy attacked
At least 11 people have been killed by a truck bomb outside the
Jordanian embassy in Baghdad.
Some of those killed are thought to have been in cars parked close
to the embassy.
The Jordanian Information Minister, Nabil al-Sharif, called the
attack - in which the bomb appears to have been concealed inside
a minibus or sports utility vehicle - a "cowardly terrorist"
act.
7 August 2003
Alert
after Bombay bus attack
Security has been heightened in the Indian city of Bombay after
a bomb explosion ripped through a bus, killing three people and
injuring more than 40 others.
Extra security is also in place in the capital, Delhi, with police roadblocks set up and checks on public transport.
The blast occurred near a telephone exchange at Ghatkopar - a north eastern suburb India's of financial capital, also known as Mumbai late on Monday night.
This is the fifth bomb blast in Bombay in recent months, three of which targeted the city's public transport system.
On Tuesday, police in Bombay said they had declared a "high alert" in the city and elsewhere in the state of Maharashtra.
"We have
stepped up security at all the key areas and installations of
the city and increased vehicular checking at various entry points
of the city and the state," said joint police commissioner
Ahmed Javed.
29 July 2003,
AFP News
Bomb
rocks Spanish airport
A bomb has ripped through a car park at Santander airport in northern
Spain, destroying vehicles but causing no injury.
A warning call purporting to be from the Basque separatist group
ETA allowed time to evacuate the area on Sunday afternoon.
Evening departures were cancelled and incoming flights diverted to Bilbao as a plume of black smoke hung in the air.
The attack on the popular holiday destination comes five days after ETA bombings in the seaside resorts of Alicante and Benidorm.
The bomb went off just 20 metres from the terminal's main entrance. It destroyed 12 cars and damaged another 40 as well as blowing out windows and twisting metal in the airport's facade, local officials said.
A warning call received by a Basque newspaper an hour earlier had given the authorities time to evacuate about 60 people in the terminal out to the runway.
Santander, the capital of the Cantabria region which borders the Basque Country, is a top travel destination in Spain, popular with Spaniards and foreigners alike, with a direct ferry service to Plymouth in the UK.
ETA has been blamed for the deaths of about 800 people in a violent campaign for independence for the Basque region, now into its 35th year.
28 July 2003, BBC
Bomb
blasts hit Spanish hotels
Two bombs have exploded in the Spanish resorts of Alicante and
Benidorm, injuring at least 13 people.
The devices went off minutes apart in the Hotel Residencia Bahia
in Alicante and the Hotel Nadal in Benidorm, after a warning from
Basque separatist group ETA.
British, Russian and Swedish people were among the injured in Alicante. In Benidorm, four police officers were hurt.
One British woman needed several stitches in a small wound before being released from hospital, said the UK Foreign Office.
"This is evidently a case of two booby-trapped bombs placed by the terrorist organisation to multiply the impact," said Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes.
23 July 2003, BBC
Alert
over device left on bus
An explosive device left on a bus in Belfast has been made safe
by Army bomb experts.
Masked men had left the device in a sports bag on the bus and
ordered the driver to take it to Woodbourne police station on
Saturday night.
The driver stopped the bus at the junction of the Stewartstown Road and Black's Road while police closed the road and evacuated nearby houses.
Army bomb experts carried out a controlled explosion on the device during the alert, which lasted for about four hours.
Forensic experts
took the device away for examination.
17 July 2003,
BBC
