1 Afghan bombing: A suicide car bomb targeted a checkpoint in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province, killing at least six members of an intelligence unit, an Afghan official said Tuesday. The Taliban have stepped up attacks across Afghanistan since the U.S. and NATO formally concluded their combat mission at the end of 2014, leaving a smaller contingent of troops behind to focus on training and counterterrorism. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for a car bombing in Baghdad that killed 27 people the previous day, shattering a relative lull in the Iraqi capital. The Sunni militant group said in an online statement posted on an Islamic State-affiliated website hours after the attack that a militant parked the explosive-laden car in the commercial area of Baghdad’s Shiite-dominated southwestern Amil neighborhood. The Senate previously approved Lafontant, who is a physician and political outsider who formerly headed the Rotary Club in the commercial district of Petionville. Greek counterterrorism officers have uncovered eight parcel bombs resembling those sent last week to the German finance minister in Berlin and to the Paris offices of the International Monetary Fund, a police official said Tuesday. A Greek extremist group called Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire claimed responsibility for the parcel to the German finance minister but made no reference to the Paris attack or to any other possible targets.
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