bomb – Houghton STAR

On Saturday September 17 at approximately 8:30 p.m., a blast caused panic in the Chelsea district of Manhattan. The explosion, caused by an improvised bomb, injured 29 people in its vicinity, mainly through shrapnel. The New York Times reported by Sunday morning 26 of those individuals were released after being treated in area hospitals. Aside from injuries, multiple news sources reported blown out windows and widespread street closures as a result of the detonation.

luchtfoto_van_lower_manhattan City and state officials remained on high alert after confirming the existence of a second “pressure cooker” bomb in the same district, according to CNN. The New York Times reported the device was transported to the New York Police Department (NYPD) firing range at Rodman’s Neck in the Bronx, where it was deactivated. This particular kind of explosive has not garnered national attention since the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings, which killed eight people and injured dozens.

A photo of the device surfaces on social media websites late Saturday evening. The photo, which was confirmed by police to be authentic, pictured a cookware item attached to wires, christmas lights, and a cell phone.

New York City Mayor, Bill de Blasio, called the act “intentional,” yet as of Sunday evening there was no known motive for the violent act. State and city authorities found no evidence of an international terrorist connection, though the New York Times quoted New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, as having stated , “A bomb exploding in New York is obviously an act of terrorism.”

BBC, as well as CNN, have acknowledged the existence of a “person of interest,” a man who was spotted at both bomb locations, however, at this time the man’s identity is unknown. Reports of the accident claimed surveillance footage showed a man walking with a wheeled duffel near the explosion of the bomb, and then later show what appears to be the same man with the same bag in the location where the second, un-detonated bomb was found.

The reason of the targeted location is also a mystery. A police officer told the New York Times, “”We don’t understand the target or the significance of [the detonated device]. It’s by a pile of dumpsters on a random sidewalk.” At this point, it is thought to be because of the dense population of the district, with its crowded bars, restaurants, and shops.

Both the Democratic and Republican Presidential candidates responded to the bombing,BBC stated. Republican candidate, Donald Trump, tweeted condolences to those affected. Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, advised Americans to avoid premature conclusions about the nature of the bombing.

Saturday’s violence preceded the Tuesday meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, which U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders were expected to attend. De Blasio promised a “bigger than ever” police presence in the city, according to the BBC.

Cuomo backed up this promise, deploying 1,000 additional New York State Troopers to patrol the city’s subway tunnels, busses, and sidewalks in the coming days and weeks. “Whoever placed these bombs – we will find them and they will be brought to justice,” Cuomo said.

Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The Iraqi military, alongside thousands of Shiite militia fighters, began a wide-scale offensive on Monday March 2, 2015 to retake the city of Tikrit from the Islamic State.

This was not the first time the Iraqi military has sought to retake Tikrit in the months since the city, Saddam Hussein’s hometown and a Sunni stronghold, fell into rebel hands during the Islamic State’s blitz through the country after seizing the northern city of Mosul in June of last year.

Several times since then, the Iraqi army and allied Shiite militias have begun counteroffensives, only to abort them shortly after. These counteroffensives were sometimes in the defiance of objections from American officials, who would warn the Iraqi military of a blood bath should they try and enter Tikrit.

By sundown Monday, March 2, 2015 fighting raged in the areas surrounding Tikrit, but the army and militia fighters had not yet pushed on the city’s center. ISIS, during this time, released a video that was intended to terrify the citizens who were considering aiding the advancement of the Iraqi military forces.

The video clip showed the execution by gunshot of four men dressed in orange jumpsuits. These men were said to have been local tribesmen collaborating with the Iraqi Military.

In a speech Monday to Parliament, Mr. Abadi echoed the words of President George W. Bush in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trades Center, saying that the residents of Tikrit were either with Iraqi or with ISIS. “There is no neutrality in the Battle against ISIS. If someone is being neutral with ISIS, then he is one of them.”

The fight against ISIS has brought the United States and Iraq into an awkward alliance in Iraq. While the United States’ effort has been in airstrike campaigns, Iraq has taken the most prominent role on the ground.

In a statement that addressed the worries over militias taking retribution on the local population, the United Nations representative in Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, said Monday that “Military operations reinforced by international and Iraqi air support must be conducted with the utmost care to avoid civilian casualties, and with full respect for the fundamental human rights principles and humanitarian law.”

Rebels undertook a series of attacks in and around the Iraqi Capital Baghdad on Thursday, March 5, 2015 killing at least 16 civilians. These attacks by armed insurgents were mostly targeting civilian areas as Islamic State militants (ISIS) in the country’s north, set oil wells ablaze in an attempt to slow the Iraqi Government forces that were battling to reclaim territory.

In separate attacks on an outdoor market in the Baghdad suburb of Nahrawan, thirteen civilians were killed. At least thirty-nine individuals were wounded in a residential area in the southern district of Dora and in a market in Mahmoudiyah only twenty miles south of Baghdad.

An attack targeting a military patrol in a northeastern district, a bomb killed three soldiers and had wounded seven.

These armed attacks continue to come as government forces, Iranian-backed Shiite militias, and Sunni volunteers continue their fight to recapture areas around Saddam Hussein’s hometown, Tikrit, which fell to Islamic State Militants in June of 2014.

On Thursday, March 5, 2015 militants set fire to some oil wells outside the city. The smoky fires were apparently meant to obscure targets from government bombing raids. The Iraqi government took part in wide-scale operations that began Monday, March 2, 2015.