No terror ties found in mosque killings
ZURICH — Swiss police have found no radical Islamist or far-right motives by a gunman who killed himself after carrying out a shooting rampage at a Zurich mosque that wounded three worshippers, a top police official said Tuesday.
Authorities are still investigating the possible motive of the 24-year-old Swiss citizen of Ghanaian origin, who had a penchant for the occult and carried out Monday’s shootings in Switzerland’s largest city.
The suspect, who was not identified by name but had a criminal record stemming from a bicycle theft years ago, had only days earlier repeatedly stabbed and killed an acquaintance of South American origin with whom he had been arguing.
Zurich state criminal police chief Christiane Lentjes Meili said no links to any far-right movements were found, nor was there any indication of connections to any terrorist groups or “an Islamic radicalization of the suspect.”
A Zurich city police spokesman said Monday that the gunman, dressed in dark clothes, stormed the mosque’s prayer hall and opened fire on worshippers, wounding three people before fleeing.
Mexico fireworks market blast kills 29
TULTEPEC, Mexico — A chain-reaction explosion ripped through Mexico’s best-known fireworks market on the northern outskirts of the capital Tuesday, killing at least 29 people and sending a huge plume of charcoal-gray smoke into the sky.
Video of the blast showed a dramatic staccato of rockets exploding in flashes of light, leveling the open-air San Pablito Market in Tultepec in Mexico state as it bustled with shoppers stocking up on fireworks to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Day.
Vendors’ stands were reduced to piles of rubble, ash and charred metal.
In comments broadcast on local TV news, Mexico State Gov. Eruviel Avila reported Tuesday night that in addition to the 26 people who perished at the market, three more victims died after being taken to hospitals.
State Health Secretary Cesar Nomar Gomez Monge said 72 people were being treated for injuries including severe burns, in some cases on more than 90 percent of their bodies. Those hospitalized included 10 children.
“My condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in this accident and my wishes for a quick recovery for the injured,” said President Enrique Pena Nieto via Twitter.
Jordan shootout fatal to 4 policemen
AMMAN, Jordan — Four policemen were killed Tuesday in an exchange of gunfire with wanted men in a central Jordanian province where assailants had killed 10 people in a series of ambushes earlier this week, state media said.
Several wanted men were killed and others arrested after the firefight in the province of Karak, the official Petra news agency reported. The report did not say how many of the fugitives had been killed.
State media said police officers came under fire during a raid of a suspected hideout of the fugitives. Petra said the cell targeted Tuesday was not connected to those involved in Sunday’s attacks in Karak.
Earlier Tuesday, the extremist group Islamic State claimed responsibility for Sunday’s shootings that killed nine Jordanians and a tourist from Canada.
Sunday’s shootings were the bloodiest in Jordan in recent memory and raised new concerns about the rise of Islamic militancy in the pro-Western kingdom.
Iraqis scale back Baghdad checkpoints
BAGHDAD — Iraqi authorities have started removing some of the security checkpoints in Baghdad in a bid to ease traffic in the country’s capital with a population of about 6 million people, a senior military commander said Tuesday.
The development appears to reflect the government’s confidence in its ability to secure Baghdad — even as it wages a weekslong offensive to take back Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, from the Islamic State extremist group.
More than 25 checkpoints and 85 patrols were removed Tuesday from Baghdad’s eastern side of Rasafa, said Maj. Gen. Jalil al-Rubaie.
Hundreds of much-criticized checkpoints have for years dotted Baghdad as authorities struggled to establish security.
The removal of checkpoints brought relief to some residents, but didn’t alleviate their worries.
“I feel happy and comfortable,” said Salam Hassan, a 35-year-old from the capital’s eastern New Baghdad neighborhood. “We want a beautiful Baghdad without heavy military presence, but what are the alternatives?”