“A coordinated attack by terrorists,” says the Indian government. Probably militant Methodists again. And has anyone seen Tim McVeigh? Sure, they tell you he is dead, but they tell you Osama bin Laden was behind 9/11, also. Today is the birthday of Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab, the only surviving jihad mass-murderer from the November 2008 attack in Mumbai. Was this a present to him from his friends?
“Three blasts rock Mumbai, CM Chavan says 20 dead, 81 injured,” from the Times of India, July 13:
MUMBAI: Three near-simultaneous explosions rocked Mumbai at rush-hour on Wednesday, killing at least 20 people in what the government said appeared to be another terrorist strike in the city hit by a major attack nearly three years ago.
Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said the latest attack killed 20 people, and home minister P Chidambaram said the toll was likely to rise.
Television footage showed dozens of police officials, several of them armed, at the sites of the explosion and at least one car with its windows shattered. A photograph showed victims of a blast at the Zaveri Bazaar crowding into the back of a cargo truck to be taken to a hospital.
Because of the close timing of the string of explosions, “we infer that this was a coordinated attack by terrorists,” home minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said.
One blast hit the crowded neighborhood of Dadar in central Mumbai. The others were at the Zaveri Bazaar, which is a famed jewelry market, and the busy business district of Opera House, both in southern Mumbai and several miles (kilometers) apart, police said.
All three blasts happened from 6:50pm. to 7pm., when all the neighborhoods would have been packed with office workers and commuters….
Stratfor strongly suspects that Misunderstanders of Islam are behind this. “Red Alert: Multiple Explosions in Mumbai,” from Stratfor, July 13 (thanks to Pamela Geller):
Three explosions were reported in Mumbai on July 13 in the crowded Opera House, Zaveri Bazaar and Dadar areas of the city. The explosions began around 7:10 p.m. and occurred within minutes of each other. There are reports that a fourth bomb, likely at the Roxy Theater, failed to detonate. Current casualty estimates indicate five people have been killed and 100 injured thus far.
This marks the first major attack in India since the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. Though the magnitude of these attacks has yet to be determined, this attack does not appear to be as sophisticated as the 2008 attacks, which involved an assault team consisting of a number of militants that coordinated 10 shooting and bombing attacks across the city. The July 13 attack, by contrast, appears to have not involved suicide attackers but consisted of explosives placed in a taxi, a meter box and locations where they could be remotely detonated. This tactic is much more in line with those used by more amateurish groups, such [as] the Indian Mujahideen, who have targeted crowded urban areas before.
Nonetheless, the attack comes at a critical juncture in U.S.-Pakistani relations as the United States is trying to accelerate a withdrawal of its military forces in Afghanistan. The 2008 Mumbai attacks revealed the extent to which traditional Pakistan-based Islamist militant groups, such as elements from the defunct Lashkar-e-Taiba, had collaborated with transnational jihadist elements like al Qaeda in trying to instigate a crisis between Islamabad and New Delhi. Such a crisis would complicate U.S.-Pakistani dealings on Afghanistan, potentially serving the interests of al Qaeda as well as factions within Pakistan trying to derail a negotiation between the United States and Pakistan.