Premiership of Gordon Brown into further talks over the issue. Finally, after a Commons Home Affairs Committee meeting between campaigners, the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office on 19 May, Brown announced to the House of Commons on 20 May that the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith would make a statement on the issue the following day. Smith subsequently announced that all Gurkha veterans who had served four years or more in the British Army before 1997 would be allowed to settle in Britain. In the days following the release and high-profile return to Libya of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi in August 2009, speculation
2009 NATO Afghanistan headquarters bombing 2009 NATO Afghanistan headquarters bombing The 2009 NATO Afghanistan headquarters bombing occurred on August 15, 2009 when an Taliban suicide bomber detonated himself outside the NATO headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan. The bomber killed at least seven people and injured 91. The bomber drove his automobile undetected through three or fewer police-checkpoints before detonating his explosive payload, estimated as variously and , from the main gate of the NATO base. The attack, coming five days before the country's presidential elections, was the first major attack in the capital since February. The attack wounded 91 people and immediately killed seven civilians, though