One police officer has been killed and some 60 people injured as a result of a double terror attack in the capital of the Russian republic of Dagestan, Makhachkala. Militants wanted over the blast are being besieged by federal troops.

Several militants are blocked in a village house in the north of Dagestan region, counter terror officials reported. Negotiations with the alleged organizers of the overnight blasts in the capital are being held at the moment.

One of the bandits has been killed in the shoot-out, reports Interfax news agency citing the National Counter-Terrorism Committee.

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The terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which some suspected of carrying out a deadly attack in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Tuesday, has denied responsibility for the explosion.

The People’s Defense Forces (HPG), the armed wing of the PKK, told the Fırat news agency, known to have close contact with the terrorist organization, it has nothing to do with an explosion that left three civilians dead. The statement, released on Wednesday, said, “Attempts to hold the PKK responsible for the attack aims to boost enmity against Kurds and to target Kurdish civilians.”

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Columns of anti-Qaddafi forces entered Bani Walid on Friday after their position came under attack and one of their number said they were planning to take the town, one of the last bastions of support for the ousted Libyan leader.

“We have received orders from our commanders and we are going into Bani Walid today from different locations,” anti-Qaddafi fighter Mohammed Jwaida told Reuters at a factory 15 miles (20 km) north of the city, where the rebels were dug in.

“We were planning to do this today anyway but Qaddafi forces launched this attack to prevent our advance. They thought we would run away, they are cowards,” he said.

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Al-Qaeda’s chief of operations in Pakistan Abu Hafs al-Shahri has been killed, a senior US official said on Thursday.

The death of Abu Hafs in Waziristan follows the killing of al Qaeda’s number two Atiyah abd al-Rahman last month, and comes amid stepped up US drone strikes following the killing of Osama bin Laden in May.

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Fierce clashes overnight between government forces and Islamist militants in southern Yemen killed 14 people, including 12 militants, Yemeni officials said Wednesday.

Loud explosions and exchanges of gunfire were also heard late Wednesday in Sana, the capital, in the neighborhood where the leader of the main tribe opposing Yemen’s president lives. Blasts and gunfire could also be heard early Thursday, Reuters reported, and it said that Al Arabiya television had reported two deaths.

Three explosions were also reported near police stations and an intelligence agency office in Aden, a city in southern Yemen.

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Taliban suicide fighters in Kabul have stormed a multistory building that is under construction, taking over the structure and using it as a fortress tower to fire rockets toward several nearby embassies and NATO compounds.

Afghan officials said at least one policeman and two attackers were killed in gun battles within a few hours of the attack on September 13, and that fighting was continuing with several other militants.

Officials later said at least six people had been killed and at least 15 wounded in the attack.

The fighting was taking place in what is usually the most heavily protected part of Kabul.

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Three government troops were killed and four others injured on Sunday, when a landmine planted by al-Qaeda militants exploded in the southern province of Abyan, an army officer said.

The army officer, who asked to remain anonymous, said that a landmine exploded on the eastern outskirts of Zinjibar city, the provincial capital of Abyan, which was freed on Saturday by a large campaign of the Yemeni army forces.

“A landmine exploded when an army convoy was heading to the Amodia area to track the rest of the al-Qaeda militants,” the army officer from the 119th Armored Brigade told Xinhua.

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