The vehicle was detonated near a courthouse in Izmir, Turkey, and a shootout followed. A police officer, a court employee and two attackers were killed. </s> A car bomb has exploded outside a courthouse in western Turkey, killing two people and wounding at least five, less than a week after a massacre in an Istanbul nightclub killed 39 revellers and left the country on edge.

Turkish authorities said two alleged gunmen were killed in a shootout following the attack in the city of İzmir. A third man is believed to have escaped. The city had been the scene of raids connected to the Istanbul attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State terror group.

The latest attack comes days after the end of an especially deadly year in Turkey, in which 275 people were killed in terror attacks and more than 1,000 maimed, according to Turkish media.



Kurdish militants have also intensified their deadly insurgency in recent months and the smaller scale of the attack, as well as the choice of target, led some officials to suggest it was carried out by one of several Kurdish militant groups. Provincial governor Erol Ayyıldız blamed Thursday’s carnage on the most prominent of them, the PKK.

Isis attacks in Turkey have focused on soft civilian targets and political rallies, whereas strikes by groups such as the PKK have typically targeted police officers and soldiers, as well as state institutions.



Ayyıldız said the gunfight occurred when police officers tried to stop a vehicle at a checkpoint and that the attackers detonated the car bomb while trying to escape. Arms including Kalashnikov rifles, hand grenades and ammunition for rocket-propelled grenade launchers were found at the scene, he said.

Images from the scene showed one suspect attacker apparently dead on the ground, still clutching an assault rifle. A video taken as the attack unfolded shows the flash of an explosion from a car. A burst of gunfire can be heard on other footage taken after the blast.

A police officer and court employee were killed, said Turkish deputy prime minister Veysi Kaynak, adding that the weapons found at the scene suggested that a much larger attack had been foiled. “Based on the preparation, the weapons, bombs and ammunition seized, it is understood that a big atrocity was being planned,” Kaynak told reporters.

The focus of the manhunt for the Istanbul gunman, who escaped after mowing down 39 people with an AK-47 in a seven minute rampage, had turned towards İzmir on Wednesday, when 20 members of the Uighur ethnic minority were arrested by counter terrorism police. After initially suspecting the gunman to be from Kyrgyzstan, officials now believe he may be a Uighur. Authorities say some of those arrested had travelled from China’s Xinjiang region.

Intelligence officials are also working on a separate theory that the attacker is from Uzbekistan. Either way, he is believed to have spent time in the central Turkish city of Konya, through where many of those to have launched attacks in Turkey are thought to have transited. European intelligence officials have long believed that Konya has been home to an Isis cell that has taken direct instruction from the group’s senior leaders inside Syria and also acts as a reception base for jihadis travelling beyond Turkey’s borders.

Turkey has stepped up its efforts to curb Isis inside its frontier and in Syria, where Turkish tanks and troops are supporting Syrian rebels as they push towards the town of al-Bab - a vitally important hub for Isis, where its external operations arm has been based for the past three years.



After using Turkish borders to cross into Syria and Iraq from mid-2012, Isis has increasingly turned its guns on Turkey, which it accuses of allying with western interests as the military push to defeat it steps up in Iraq and Syria.



Efforts to fight Kurdish groups, especially the PKK, have also intensified, with Ankara believing that the Kurds are using the chaos of Syria to advance a four-decade goal of self-determination in south-eastern Turkey.



In December, two bombs outside a football stadium in Istanbul killed 44 people, most of them police officers. The TAK – an offshoot of the PKK – claimed responsibility for what was the deadliest strike against security forces in several decades. Days earlier, a bomb on a bus in central Turkey killed 13 soldiers and wounded more than 50. </s> Three men who killed five people in a "bomb-like" shop blast have been convicted of murder and plotting to claim a £300,000 insurance pay-out.

Arkan Ali, Hawkar Hassan and Aram Kurd used "many, many litres of petrol" in an arson attack on Kurd's supermarket - causing an explosion which completely destroyed the shop and a flat above the premises.

Leicester Crown Court heard how some residents living near the Polish supermarket on Hinckley Road, Leicester, thought a bomb had reduced the property to rubble.

A five-week trial was told the defendants left shop worker Viktorija Ijevleva, 22, to die in the building because she was aware of the insurance policy taken out less than three weeks earlier.

Opening the Crown's case at the start of the trial, prosecutor David Herbert QC told a jury of seven women and five men the defendants intended to maximise the damage to the premises and "would have known" people would have been in the two-storey flat above.

Ali, 38, Hassan, 33, and Kurd, 34, were assisted by a Kurdish interpreter throughout the trial after denying murder and alternative counts of manslaughter.

But they were unanimously found guilty of five counts of murder after 11 hours and 26 minutes of deliberations.

The trio were also convicted of conspiring with Ms Ijevleva to make a gain, by dishonestly pursuing an insurance claim in respect of the fire.

Ms Ijevleva, Mary Ragoobeer, 46, her teenage sons Shane and Sean, and 18-year-old Leah Beth Reek, 18, who was Shane's girlfriend, were all killed in the blast on Sunday February 25.

Around 26 litres of petrol was used to start the fire in the basement of the supermarket, triggering a massive explosion at 7.01pm.

CCTV and traffic camera footage released by police at the end of the trial shows people escaping from a nearby takeaway moments after the explosion, and rubble being blasted into the roadway as cars pass by.

Footage recovered by police from a neighbouring business showed Ali in shot three days before the blast - moments before the camera angle was moved.

Further images from the same CCTV unit a day before the fire showed a gloved hand moving the camera angle again - at a time when all three defendants were nearby.

Kurd was also recorded on a security camera as he escaped from the scene at the rear of the shop.

Ali, of Drake Close, Oldham, Hassan, of Eld Road, Coventry, and Kurd, of Hillary Place, Leicester, were remanded in custody and will be sentenced in mid-January.

During his opening address, Mr Herbert told jurors: "The explosion and the proceeding fire demolished a building and killed five people in the building - one person who was in the shop and four who were in the flat above enjoying a peaceful night in."

Mr Herbert said: "Even on camera 50 metres away you can see the explosion and the enormity of what happened.

"It was an explosion, the prosecution say, caused by many, many litres of petrol.

"The explosion and the fire that followed was deliberately caused by these defendants who intended to profit from loss of stock, contents and future loss of business from the shop.

"It was not an accident, the prosecution say, that the petrol used caused such devastating damage."

Describing the unlawful killing of Ms Ijevleva, Mr Herbert added: "The defendants thought she knew too much and decided to leave her to die in the explosion that they created.

"In other words, the devastation that they caused was carried out with the intention to kill."

In a statement issued by police after the verdict, Jose Ragoobeer, the husband of Mary, and father of Shane and Sean Ragoobeer, said: "Mary was a hard-working, loving mother and wife who was devoted to her family.

"Shane was in a relationship with a lovely girl called Leah. They were so happy together. Leah was a lovely girl who bought so much joy and happiness to our home.

"Sean was a good person and loving son who like Shane was always willing to help family and friends. He was looking forward to going to university and to study French and history."

The family of Leah said she had been looking forward to training as a nurse.

Speaking outside court, her older sister Molly said: "The light went out of our world on that terrible night. No parent should ever have to arrange a funeral for their child. It is so difficult to put into words how much we miss Leah." </s> Image copyright Reuters Image caption A wrecked car stood outside one of the banks targeted by the gang

At least five hostages, including a child, have died as armed police battled robbers who had tried to raid two banks in north-east Brazil.

Six other people also died in the gun battle in the city of Milagres, reports say. It is not clear if they were robbers or police officers.

The mayor of Milagres, in Ceara state, said the hostages were killed by their captors as police moved in.

Two suspected robbers were arrested, Brazilian media reported.

Four of the hostages, including the child, were all from the same family, city mayor Lielson Landim told Radio Band News.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption A wrecked car stood outside one of the banks targeted by the gang

According to initial reports, police surprised the robbers in the early hours of the morning and engaged them in a shootout. The gang then fled, reportedly grabbing the hostages on their way.

Mr Landim, quoted by Brazil's Globo newspaper, said the gang had blocked a road with a truck and seized the family from a vehicle that was forced to stop.

"The criminals killed the hostages and the police killed the criminals," he added.

However, a spokeswoman for the state governor said that 12 people had died, including six police officers.

Security officials said police had seized guns and explosives used by the gang. Three vehicles had been used in the attempted robberies on two bank branches, they added. </s> Three men who killed five people in a "bomb-like" shop blast have been convicted of murder and plotting to claim a £300,000 insurance pay-out.

Arkan Ali, Hawkar Hassan and Aram Kurd used "many, many litres of petrol" in an arson attack on Kurd's supermarket - causing an explosion which completely destroyed the shop and a flat above the premises.

Leicester Crown Court heard how some residents living near the Polish supermarket on Hinckley Road, Leicester, thought a bomb had reduced the property to rubble.

A five-week trial was told the defendants left shop worker Viktorija Ijevleva, 22, to die in the building because she was aware of the insurance policy taken out less than three weeks earlier.

Opening the Crown's case at the start of the trial, prosecutor David Herbert QC told a jury of seven women and five men the defendants intended to maximise the damage to the premises and "would have known" people would have been in the two-storey flat above.

Ali, 38, Hassan, 33, and Kurd, 34, were assisted by a Kurdish interpreter throughout the trial after denying murder and alternative counts of manslaughter.

But they were unanimously found guilty of five counts of murder after 11 hours and 26 minutes of deliberations.

The trio were also convicted of conspiring with Ms Ijevleva to make a gain, by dishonestly pursuing an insurance claim in respect of the fire.

Ms Ijevleva, Mary Ragoobeer, 46, her teenage sons Shane and Sean, and 18-year-old Leah Beth Reek, 18, who was Shane's girlfriend, were all killed in the blast on Sunday, February 25.

Around 26 litres of petrol was used to start the fire in the basement of the supermarket, triggering a massive explosion at 7.01pm.

CCTV and traffic camera footage released by police at the end of the trial shows people escaping from a nearby takeaway moments after the explosion, and rubble being blasted into the roadway as cars pass by.

Footage recovered by police from a neighbouring business showed Ali in shot three days before the blast - moments before the camera angle was moved.

Further images from the same CCTV unit a day before the fire showed a gloved hand moving the camera angle again - at a time when all three defendants were nearby.

Kurd was also recorded on a security camera as he escaped from the scene at the rear of the shop.

Ali, of Drake Close, Oldham, Hassan, of Eld Road, Coventry, and Kurd, of Hillary Place, Leicester, were remanded in custody and will be sentenced in mid-January. </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Besiktas TV presenter flees as blast hits stadium

A twin bomb attack on police officers outside a football stadium in Turkey's largest city, Istanbul, has killed 38 people and injured many more.

A car bomb hit a police vehicle and a suicide bomber detonated a suicide vest in quick succession late on Saturday.

The blasts occurred near the stadium of top-division team Besiktas, two hours after a match. Ten arrests were made.

The government says initial findings point towards Kurdish militants, who have targeted police in the past.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told CNN Turk news channel that "arrows point" to the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK).

Thirty of those killed in the attack were police officers, officials say.

A further 155 people were being treated in hospital, 14 of them in intensive care, health officials say.

Photographs posted on Instagram after the explosion showed helmets strewn on a road and damaged vehicles.

No group has said it was behind the attack but a wave of bombings in Turkey this year has been carried out both by the PKK and so-called Islamic State (IS), says the BBC's Mark Lowen in Istanbul.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Mark Lowen reported on the Besiktas bombing some 90 minutes after the attack

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the explosions "aimed to maximise casualties".

But they came two hours after the end of the match between top teams Bursaspor at Besiktas at the Vodafone Arena.

Local media reported that fans had already dispersed. Bursaspor posted on Twitter that it knew of no injuries to its supporters.

Deadly attacks in Turkey this year

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Scene of explosion in Ankara's central Kizilay district on 13 March

20 August: Bomb attack on wedding party in Gaziantep kills at least 30 people, IS suspected

30 July: 35 Kurdish fighters who try to storm a military base are killed by the Turkish army

28 June: A gun and bomb attack on Ataturk airport in Istanbul kills 41 people, in an attack blamed on IS militants

13 March: 37 people are killed by Kurdish militants in a suicide car bombing in Ankara

17 February: 28 people die in an attack on a military convoy in Ankara

Image copyright Reuters Image caption The attack appears to have targeted riot police </s> A suicide car bombing by al Shabaab militants on two neighbouring restaurants in Somalia's capital Mogadishu killed 18 persons. Later reports said gunmen were killed by security forces.

The attack began around 8 pm on Wednesday evening with a suicide car bombing at the Post Treats restaurant and club, after which gunmen stormed inside the nearby Pizza House restaurant. Both venues are popular with affluent, young and diaspora Somalis and were busy on Wednesday, with customers breaking their Ramadan fast.

"The operation is over now and the gunmen were killed by the security forces," said Mohamed Ahmed Arab, spokesman for Somalia's security ministry.

"They have attacked business places and killed innocent civilians, 18 civilians were killed, including a Syrian national, and more than 10 others were wounded," he said.

Reports said the gunmen spent the night roaming the restaurant, killing those they found trapped before security forces intervened.

Gunmen were also holding at least 20 people hostage in a restaurant, police said.

"The fighters are still inside Pizza House and they hold inside over 20 people. We do not know how many of those are dead or alive," Ibrahim Hussein, a police major, told Reuters.

Earlier on Wednesday, police said nine people, mostly women who were hotel staff, had died in the attack. Security officials said a suicide attacker had rammed an explosive-laden car into the hotel's entrance before gunmen stormed the restaurant.

"A suspected car bomb is also parked in front of Pizza House. This and snipers have made it difficult for the security forces to head inside,’ said Hussein.

Other officials said victims inside the hotel had been safely evacuated, but there are likely to be more casualties. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attacks; the group has carried out a campaign of suicide bombings, in its bid to topple the Somali government and impose its strict interpretation of Islam.

"A mujahid (fighter) with his suicide car bomb martyred himself after he rammed into the Posh Hotel, which is a nightclub. The operation goes on," Abdiasis Abu Musab, the group's military spokesman, told Reuters.

Since losing large swathes of territory to African Union peacekeepers supporting the government, the group has frequently launched raids and deadly attacks in Mogadishu and other regions controlled by the federal government.

The East African country has been hit by armed conflict since 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Siad Barre and then turned on each other. </s> Three men have been found guilty of murder after they deliberately set fire to a shop in Leicester, causing an explosion that killed five people.

Shopkeeper Aram Kurd, 34, and his friends Arkan Ali, 37, and Hawkar Hassan, 33, plotted to destroy the Polish supermarket in order to claim £300,000 in insurance because the business was failing.

The trial at Leicester Crown Court heard that Ali's girlfriend, Viktorija Ijevleva, who worked in the shop, was left to die in the blaze because she had been in on the plot and "knew too much".

"In other words, the devastation that they caused was carried out with the intention to kill," prosecutor David Herbert QC told the trial.

Ms Ijevleva and Mary Ragoobeer, 46, her teenage sons Shane and Sean, and 18-year-old Leah Beth Reek, who was Shane's girlfriend, were all killed in the blast in February.

The Ragoobeer family lived in the flat above the shop which was completely destroyed.

Mrs Ragoobeer's husband Jose was out at work at the time of the explosion. Their third son survived after he was rescued from the rubble.

Mr Herbert told the court that Kurd, Ali and Hassan intended to maximise the damage to the premises and "would have known" people were in the two-storey flat above.

The day before the explosion, Hassan was seen on CCTV buying 26 litres of petrol. The container he put it in was recovered from the wreckage after the fire.

On the night of the blast, Ali doused the basement of the building with petrol before running to be collected in the getaway car, driven by Hassan.

Kurd remained in the shop and emerged soon after the blast, feigning shock and concern for the victims.

In the hours afterwards he did a series of television interviews expressing concern for the people trapped inside the building.

But soon police began to suspect the fire was started deliberately.

"The evidence shows that this was a really callous act borne out of greed and financial gain and showed a real disregard for human life," Detective Chief Inspector Michelle Keen told Sky News.

The trial heard that the explosion was so loud that people nearby thought a bomb had gone off.

Kurd chose not to give evidence during the trial. Both Ali and Hassan went into the witness box to claim they did not know of any plan to set fire to the shop.

Mr Herbert told the jury "they are remorseless, callous men dominated by greed, who have proved they're capable of trampling over the boundaries of basic human decency and honesty". </s> In a sensational jailbreak, chief of the Khalistan Liberation Front Harminder Mintoo on Monday escaped along with five other prisoners after armed men in police uniforms stormed the high-security Nabha prison here, exposing “lapses” and raising doubts of possible collusion of insiders. Parminder Singh, the leader of the gang, which stormed into the jail, was later arrested in Kairana police circle of Shamli district in UP.



 Parminder was driving the SUV which was used in the attack, when he was intercepted by the police. Director General of Police (DGP) UP Javeed Ahmed said the arrest was made following an alert about the movement of the SUVs in which the jail break accused had escaped. He too is a fugitive and was lodged at Nabha jail from where he escaped in March, said Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Saharanpur (Range) Jitendra Kumar Shahi.



 Punjab DGP Suresh Arora earlier said that “the unidentified assailants came in police fatigues and were carrying small firearms.” He said that they told police personnel deployed on jail premises that they were bringing a prisoner. “Later, they fired indiscriminately and fled with six criminals, including a terrorist,” he said, adding over 35 rounds were fire and there was no casualty among the jail personnel, who were allegedly taken offguard and did not offer any strong resistance. “The firing was also done from inside the jail. We will see why the firing was not effective,” the DGP said and added there is a “conspiracy somewhere”. A woman died after being hit by a bullet when the police opened fire at her vehicle after it jumped a barrier about 20 km away from the prison. The incident occurred at a ‘naka’ on Patiala-Gulha Cheeka road.



 Punjab government sacked Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent, ADGP (Jails) and formed an SIT to probe the incident. It ordered a separate inquiry headed by Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Jagpal Singh Sandhu to look into the “security lapses”.



 Those who escaped include hardcore Khalistani militant Mintoo, who was arrested by Punjab police in November 2014 after he was deported from Thailand and was wanted in 10 terror cases. The other absconders are gangster Vicky Gaundar, Amandeep Dhotian, Gurpreet Sekhon, Nita Deol and Kashmira Singh, who is also a terrorist. The DGP said that the prisoners had fled towards Haryana. Punjab government has announced a reward of Rs 25 lakh for any person who provides information leading to the arrest of the under-trials.



 After the jailbreak, security agencies in northern states were put on high alert and Home minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal. He sought an immediate report on the incident, besides directing the state to step up security in jails. National security advisor Ajit Doval spoke to deputy CM Sukhbir Badal who apprised him of the steps being taken to nab the six absconders. Sukhbir said Pakistan could be behind the incident as it was desperate to revive terrorism in the state.



 With Punjab going to polls early next year, the opposition Congress said the incident exposed the “complete breakdown of law and order” in the state and triggered fears of revival of terrorism ahead of Assembly elections.
A shootout in İzmir kills two gunmen while another one escapes. During the shootout a car bomb explodes, killing a police officer and court employee.