Tag Archives: Al Qaida

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Iraq attacks make for deadly start to holy month

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Ramadan this year is shaping up to be the deadliest in Iraq since a bloody insurgency and rampant sectarian killings pushed the country to the edge of civil war in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

Suicide attacks, car bombings and other violence have killed more than 160 Iraqis just seven days into the Islamic holy month. The death toll in the first week of Ramadan hasn’t been that high since 2007, intensifying fears that Iraq is slipping back into widespread chaos.

There seems to be little pattern in the range of targets, adding to the sense of unease in what is meant to be a month of spiritual growth and generosity.

Several of those killed over the past week died at a busy northern teashop while playing mehebis, a game where players hope to win sweets by guessing who among their opposing team is hiding a ring in their hands. Others were slain as they swam with friends, or as they shopped for festive evening dinners, or made their way home from mosques after late-night prayers.

Even for Iraqis who have grown used to hearing about random violence, day after day of double-digit death tolls makes for a worrying trend.

Many are choosing to stay home after breaking their dawn-to-dusk fast rather than venture out for festive family get-togethers and late-night cafe sessions, worrying they could be among the next victims.

“Al-Qaida and other terrorist groups … have a better ability to move around and attack targets whenever it suits them,” said Qais Hameed, an engineer and father of three from eastern Baghdad who quit going to a nearby coffee shop after breaking his daily fast. “This just shows that these terrorist groups are getting stronger while our security forces are getting weaker.”

The bloodshed during Ramadan is an extension of a surge of attacks that has been roiling Iraq since the spring. It follows months of rallies by Iraq’s minority Sunnis against the Shiite-led government over what they contend is second-class treatment and the unfair use of tough anti-terrorism measures against their sect.

The killings significantly picked up after Iraqi security forces launched a heavy-handed crackdown on a Sunni protest camp in the northern town of Hawija on April 23. A ferocious backlash followed the raid, with deadly bomb attacks and the return of sporadic gunbattles between insurgents and soldiers …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

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France confirms body found in Mali is hostage

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The office of President Francois Hollande has formally confirmed the death of a French hostage in Mali, one of six French citizens captured by al-Qaida’s North African arm.

A statement from the president’s office on Monday evening said an autopsy would be performed to learn the cause of death of Philippe Verdon once the body is transferred to France.

The media arm of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, had said on Twitter in April that Verdon was dead after an unofficial announcement in march. Verdon had been captured in eastern Mali in November 2011 along with another French citizen. AQIM, al-Qaida’s North African offshoot, is still believed to be holding five French hostages.

AQIM was one of three Islamic extremist groups who controlled northern Mali until a January French-led military intervention cut their stranglehold, killing extremists and scattering others to neighboring countries.

Verdon was known to be in ill health and there has been speculation that his death was related to pre-existing conditions. However, AQIM took credit for his death, saying in April that the fate of the remaining captives “is in the hands of French President Francois Hollande and the door is still open to find a just solution.”

The presidential statement reiterated that “those responsible for the death of our countryman must be identified and judged.”

France’s Foreign Ministry had said that a body was found in northern Mali and that there was a “strong proability” it was Verdon. Tests to verify identity were carried out in Mali.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

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France says 2 journalists held in Syria are alive

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France says that two French journalists who were kidnapped in Syria last month are alive, but that one of six French hostages in Mali is likely dead — as the al-Qaida-linked captors have said.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told Europe 1 radio Sunday that Didier Francois and Edouard Elias, the two journalists who disappeared in June in Syria, are alive. President Francois Hollande said later on French TV that “we’re doing everything to find where they are, to know exactly the intentions of their captors.”

However, Hollande said that Philippe Verdon — who was kidnapped in 2011 in Mali, the African country where France led a military intervention against extremists — apparently is dead.

Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb’s media arm said in April that Verdon was dead.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

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Yemen: 5 soldiers, 2 al-Qaida militants killed

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A Yemeni security official says five soldiers and two al-Qaida militants have been killed in fighting in the central town of Radda, and a senior intelligence officer was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in the south.

During Yemen‘s 2011 uprising, al-Qaida occupied large sections of the south before being driven out by the new government. Al-Qaida has retaliated with assassinations and bombings at military compounds.

The official says the soldiers were killed Saturday when al-Qaida fighters attacked a military checkpoint in Radda.

Another security official says Col. Ahmed Abdel-Razaq, who was the intelligence chief in Mukalla, the capital of southern Hadramawt province, was killed Saturday by two gunmen on a motorcycle.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

Articles of Interest

Boston Tragedy Points To The Need For A Spiritual Renewal

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By Kevin Banet

It seems as if our whole country is falling apart. When crazed individuals kill others as in Sandy Hook, or bombers strike as in Boston, one wonders if we will be forced to live under the specter of violence every day in our lives.

The Boston killing on Monday of three people and injuring of more than 170 during the running of the city’s marathon reveals a hints of troubling cultural problems. For years, we have lived in relative safety from such attacks, while Europeans and those in places such as Israel have suffered from violence in public places. Now it’s happening here.

But why? Are we becoming weak in some way — and thus victimized by enemies within and without?

A recently-published book compares Europe’s cultural and economic slide with America’s similar increasing woes that might cast light on the problem. Titled Becoming Europe: Economic Decline, Culture, and How America Can Avoid a European Future, it is authored by researcher Samuel Gregg, who talks about Europe’s fallout after World War I and II and the tug of war between Christian and socialist ideology since then. Socialist policy is certainly winning there, and now we are seeing similar growing economic problems and violence that we don’t want to see on this side of the Atlantic.

Spiritual Renewal as a Defense

I’d like to suggest that we need a spiritual as well as economic and political renewal to enable our citizens to live in safety and peace.

A culture strong in the values of hard work, honesty, and a fear of God provides the spiritual infrastructure that provides for well-balanced people who don’t go shooting school children or killing others randomly.

I might be wrong, but it looks to me like Boston may have been a lone-wolf Al-Qaida attack. That is, a small operation of the kind that Al-Qaida encourages; but yet there is no communication with the terrorists in the field. It can be done by just a few (or even one person), and thus it is very difficult for the FBI to trace.

If it is Al-Qaida, it helps to understand their mindset. One reason why Muslim extremists hate us is because of our materialism — how we get wrapped up in our SUVs and wide-screen TVs, forgetting about God, and practicing all kinds of sexual license and perversion. This of course doesn’t justify killing innocent people, but it may point to a cause and effect. A moral and religious society, on the other hand, would garner more respect from these people instead of attacks.

“Get Religion Out”

I saw a bumper sticker on a car yesterday in the parking lot of a private, non-religious grammar school near my home; the school’s principal prides himself on the idea of a secular education. The sticker proclaims “Get religion out of politics.” Whoops — that’s dangerous thinking, folks. What would happen to the moral glue in society if we divorced our laws from a respect for Christianity and the Ten Commandments? I’d rather see a bumper sticker that says

From: http://www.westernjournalism.com/boston-tragedy-points-to-the-need-for-a-spiritual-renewal/

News, Politics, Government

AQIM warns France, allies of revenge for Mali

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Al-Qaida’s North Africa branch is threatening to seek revenge against all countries taking part in the French-led war in Mali.

The terror group warned late Thursday: “No one who participated in this ferocious attack on our people in north Mali will be safe.”

Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, had taken written questions from international journalists. On Thursday, the group released a 28-page document outlining responses to the questions in English.

The terror group, which is holding a number of French hostages in the desert, said the captives’ fate “is in the hands of French President Francois Hollande.”

The group declined to comment on how many casualties it has suffered since the French-led war began in January.

From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/1ivIx0WR_6E/

News, Politics, Government

UN lists Syrian army and militias as sex predators

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The U.N. Security Council lists Syria‘s army and intelligence agency and an allied militia as sexual war criminals for assaults on women and children, along with the al-Qaida movement in Mali and various African rebel movements.

The “name and shame” tally of sexual predators and outlaws was in a report adopted unanimously Wednesday by the U.N. Security Council as part of a debate on “Women in Peace and Security.”

The report cited Syria‘s army, intelligence services and the government-controlled Shabbiha militia.

In Mali, where French troops have largely ousted an Islamic occupation of the northern part of the country, the U.N. list named Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, Ansar Dine, and the lesser-known National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad and the Movement for uniqueness and jihad in West Africa.

From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/5yfPrmI6rLY/

News, Politics, Government

Pressure cooker bombs used in past by militants

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Homemade bombs built from pressure cookers, a version of which was used in the Boston Marathon bombings, have been a frequent weapon of militants in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. Al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen once published an online manual on how to make one, urging “lone jihadis” to act on their own to carry out attacks.

President Barack Obama underlined Tuesday that investigators do not know if the twin bombing the day before that killed three people and wounded more than 170 was carried out by an international organization, a domestic group or a “malevolent individual.” There has been no claim of responsibility.

A person briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press that the explosives were fashioned out of pressure cookers and packed with shards of metal, nails and ball bearings to inflict maximum carnage.

The relative ease of constructing such bombs and the powerful punch they deliver has made them attractive to insurgents and Islamic extremists, particularly in South Asia. They have turned up in past bombing plots by Islamic extremists in the West, including a plan by a U.S. soldier to blow up a restaurant frequented by fellow soldiers outside Fort Hood, in Texas. One of the three devices used in the May 2010 Times Square attempted bombing was a pressure cooker, according to a joint FBI and Homeland Security intelligence report issued in July 2010.

Al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen gave a detailed description on how to make a pressure cooker bomb in the first issue of its English-language online magazine “Inspire” in 2010 — in a chapter titled “Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom.”

“The pressurized cooker is the most effective method” for making a simple bomb, the article said, describing how to fill the cooker with shrapnel and gunpowder and to create a detonator using the filament of a light bulb and a clock timer.

“Inspire” magazine has a running series of such training articles called “Open Source Jihad,” which the group calls a resource manual for individual extremists to carry out attacks against the enemies of jihad, including the U.S. and its allies. The magazine is targeted heavily at encouraging “lone wolf” jihadis.

An issue last year reprinted an older article by a veteran Syrian jihadi Abu Musab al-Souri addressing would-be jihadis proposing a long list of possible targets for attacks, among them “crowded sports arenas” and “annual social events.”

From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/V4Yx5XHlX8c/

News, Politics, Government

AP Glance: Pressure Cooker Bombs

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The explosives used in the Boston Marathon bombing were crude devices often called “pressure cooker” bombs, according to a person briefed on the investigation.

The person spoke condition of anonymity because the investigation in Boston was still ongoing.

While the devices have been frequently used in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan, in recent years they have also shown up in plots in the U.S. and France.

Explosives typically are placed inside a pressure cooker — a commonplace cooking utensil in many countries — and the device is then detonated using everyday electronic equipment such as digital watches, garage door openers, cellphones or pagers. Pressure builds inside the container and shrapnel is expelled. Al-Qaida affiliates have provided training and manuals on how to build such devices.

Here’s a look at some of the most recent container bombs:

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February 2013: A bomb hidden in a pressure cooker explodes inside a restaurant in northern Afghanistan, killing five people.

October 2012: French police find bomb-making materials in an underground parking lot near Paris as part of a probe into an attack on a kosher grocery. The discovery includes bags of potassium nitrate, sulfur, headlight bulbs and a container used as a make-shift pressure cooker.

May 2012: U.S. jurors hear that explosives experts had found a pressure cooker containing smokeless gunpowder and other material in the Texas motel room of a soldier accused of planning to blow up Fort Hood military troops and other personnel.

May 2010: One of the three devices used in the May 2010 Times Square attempted bombing was a pressure cooker, according to a joint FBI and Homeland Security intelligence report issued in July 2010.

March 2010: Suspected militants attack the U.S.-based Christian aid group World Vision in northwestern Pakistan, killing six Pakistani employees. Officials say the attackers remotely detonated a pressure cooker bomb.

March 2006: A series of bombings kill 20 people in India. One bomb — at a temple in the northern city of Varanasi where five people died — was placed in a pressure cooker and detonated by a timing device.

From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/OVSgdvYLCmc/

News, Politics, Government

Tensions emerge in al-Qaida alliance in Syria

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Tensions emerged Wednesday in a newly announced alliance between al-Qaida’s franchise in Iraq and the most powerful Syrian rebel faction, which said it was not consulted before the Iraqi group announced their merger and only heard about it through the media.

Al-Qaida in Iraq said Tuesday that it had joined forces with Jabhat al-Nusra or the Nusra Front — the most effective force among the mosaic of rebel brigades fighting to topple President Bashar Assad in Syria‘s civil war. It said they had formed a new alliance called the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

The Syrian government seized upon the purported merger to back its assertion that it is not facing a true popular movement for change but rather a foreign-backed terrorist plot. The state news agency said Wednesday that the union “proves that this opposition was never anything other than a tool used by the West and by terrorists to destroy the Syrian people.”

Talk of an alliance between Jabhat al-Nusra and al-Qaida in Iraq has raised fears in Baghdad, where intelligence officials said increased cooperation was already evident in a number of deadly attacks.

And in Syria, a stronger Jabhat al-Nusra would only further complicate the battlefield where Western powers have been covertly trying to funnel weapons, training and aid toward more secular rebel groups and army defectors.

Washington has designated Jabhat al-Nusra a terrorist organization over its links with al-Qaida, and the Syrian group’s now public ties with the terrorist network are unlikely to prompt a shift in international support for the broader Syrian opposition.

Earlier this year, the U.S. announced a $60 million non-lethal assistance package for Syria that includes meals and medical supplies for the armed opposition. It was greeted unenthusiastically by some rebel leaders, who said it does far too little.

Washington’s next step is expected to be a broader package of non-lethal assistance, expanding from food and medical supplies to body armor and night-vision goggles. However, President Barack Obama has not given final approval on any new package and an announcement is not imminent, a senior administration official said.

Secretary of State John Kerry, who met with Syrian opposition leaders in London on Wednesday, hinted at the new non-lethal aid package this week, saying the administration had been holding intense talks on how to boost assistance to the rebels.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

France names new spymaster

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President Francois Hollande has appointed French ambassador to Afghanistan Bernard Bajolet as the new head of France‘s main spy agency.

Hollande’s office said Wednesday that Bajolet, 63, will head the DGSE intelligence agency. Officials said Bajolet (Baa-Zho-LAY) is expected to take over from outgoing chief Erard Corbin de Mangoux within two weeks.

Before taking up his Afghanistan post in 2011, Bajolet served for three years as the first in-house intelligence chief at the presidential palace under then-President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The DGSE is France‘s answer to the CIA. It has recently focused on counterterrorism against Al-Qaida’s north Africa arm and dealing with hostage-takings of French citizens in Africa, including a failed operation in January to free one of its agents held in Somalia. Two commandos and the agent died.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

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French forces step up efforts in Mali's Gao region

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French military forces are stepping up their military operations against jihadists in the northern Malian region of Gao.

French Col. Emmanuel Dosseur said Monday that his forces don’t want to give the impression that they’re going to “abandon our Malian friends.”

France has been talking about reducing its presence in its former colony in the coming months, but also has said it aims to keep about 1,000 soldiers there.

French forces are proceeding cautiously because it’s believed a French hostage being held by the militants is in the area.

Al-Qaida-linked militants inspired by a radical interpretation of Islam ruled Gao and northern Mali for nearly 10 months before the French-led military operation forced them into the surrounding desert.

But the militants have launched some attacks since being ousted from power.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

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Malian newspaper editor released on bail

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The editor of a Malian newspaper has been released on bail, after spending more than three weeks in jail following the publication of a letter critical of the coup leader’s salary.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement that Boukary Daou, editor-in-chief of The Republican newspaper, was allowed to leave the capital’s central prison Tuesday afternoon. He was imprisoned 27 days ago, after his newspaper published an open letter from an army captain, who called on his fellow soldiers to mutiny if coup leader Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo‘s $8,000-a-month salary is not reduced.

Sanogo led the March 2012 coup which plunged Mali into chaos. Al-Qaida’s local affiliate took advantage of the power vacuum to seize more than half of Mali‘s territory.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

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US Army vet charged with fighting with al-Qaida

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A U.S. Army veteran is charged with conspiring with an Al-Qaida group to wage war against the Syrian regime.

Eric Harroun of Phoenix was charged Thursday in federal court in northern Virginia with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the U.S. An affidavit states Harroun has been engaged in military action in Syria, siding with rebel forces against the Syrian government. It says he used rocket-propelled grenades in the fighting earlier this year.

On his Facebook page, he claimed credit for downing a Syrian helicopter.

Prosecutors say one of the groups with which Harroun served is the al-Nusrah Front, which is commonly known as al-Qaida in Iraq.

Harroun has made an initial court appearance. A public defender was appointed to represent him in a detention hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

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France confirms death of Al-Qaida chief Abou Zeid

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France says Al-Qaida-linked North African warlord Abou Zeid was killed in combat with French troops in Mali in February.

In a statement Saturday the office of French President Francois Hollande said the death was “definitively confirmed” and that Zeid’s death “marks an important step in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel.”

Chad‘s president had said earlier this month that Chadian troops had killed Abou Zeid. He was a pillar of the southern realm of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, responsible for the death of at least two European hostages.

The French military moved into Mali on Jan. 11 to push back militants linked to Abou Zeid and other extremist groups who had imposed harsh Islamic rule.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

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Canadian remains found at site of Algeria gas site

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Police have confirmed that the remains of a Canadian, possibly one of the militants involved in the hostage taking at an Algerian gas plant in January, have been found.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which has sent officers to Algeria, said Monday the investigation is ongoing and that no further information will be given at this time.

Algeria‘s prime minister has said two Canadians of Arab descent were among the militants involved in the gas plant attack.

Al-Qaida-affiliated militants stormed the complex near the Libyan border on Jan. 16, taking hundreds of people hostage. The resulting fight with the Algerian army ended with at least 37 hostages and 29 militants killed. At least 36 of the dead hostages were foreigners.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

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Less fuss this time over NYC terror trial

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The first court appearance for Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law and onetime propagandist unfolded at a Manhattan courthouse Friday without the fuss over security that the Obama administration encountered three years ago over its plan to hold a civilian trial for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

There were no signs of unusual police activity around the court complex as lawyers for defendant Sulaiman Abu Ghaith entered a “not guilty” plea on his behalf. Public officials who had warned in 2009 that Mohammed’s very presence in New York would put civilians at risk said they didn’t have the same fears this time around.

“Times have changed,” said Michael Balboni, a top domestic security adviser to two New York governors.

Bin Laden is dead. Al-Qaida’s ability to launch a strike in the U.S. is greatly diminished. Other terror trials have proven the city can handle security with minimal cost and disruption. And in any case, Abu Ghaith was known as a “functionary” in the al-Qaida network, rather than a leader, and as such was far less likely to inspire reaction from bin Laden’s followers, said Balboni, New York‘s former deputy secretary of public safety.

“The NYPD is more than capable of locking down Foley Square and making sure they can protect anything going on there,” he said, referring to the part of the city where the trial is taking place.

New York City had a solid track record for handling major terrorism trials until the effort to bring Mohammed to justice collapsed amid opposition to his presence on U.S. soil. The thrust of that debate was over whether al-Qaida figures were more properly tried in a military court, but security challenges also loomed as a factor.

At the time, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he planned to spend $200 million a year on extra security for the trial, which Obama ultimately moved to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly drew up a plan that would have created a “frozen zone” in vital business districts, involving thousands of extra officers and checkpoints for inspecting vehicles.

Since then, prosecutions of less infamous terror figures have quietly resumed in New York.

Three Queens men were prosecuted for plotting to bomb New York City’s subway system. An Egyptian preacher extradited from Great Britain is awaiting trial on charges that he conspired to set up a terrorist training camp and helped abduct American tourists …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

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French soldier, about 10 rebels die in Mali clash

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French and Malian forces moving into far eastern Mali clashed with jihadist fighters in a spontaneous gunbattle on Wednesday, leaving a French soldier and about 10 insurgents dead, a French military spokesman said.

The skirmish about 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Gao, northeast Mali‘s largest town, marked the latest bloodshed since French forces swooped into the West African nation in January to help its embattled government root out extremist fighters. Mali‘s regional allies have since contributed hundreds of troops in a support role.

Col. Thierry Burkhard, a French military spokesman, said the battle came as a military patrol involving troops from France, Mali, and Niger was extending into a previously uncontrolled territory. Four Malian soldiers were also injured.

“Around Gao, we are on a mission to secure the area,” Burkhard said at a news conference to detail the incident, which was first announced by French President Francois Hollande‘s office. The insurgents were “rather mobile terrorist groups who were looking more to harass our actions than to hold a firm position.”

With Wednesday’s death of the soldier from an artillery regiment, France has now lost four soldiers since its military operation began Jan. 11. The goal of the intervention has been to help Mali‘s weak government take back the country’s vast north from al-Qaida-backed fighters who had seized power and imposed harsh Islamic rule for 10 months.

French officials say their blistering air and ground campaign involving Rafale and Mirage fighter jets, helicopter gunships, armored vehicles and artillery pieces have killed hundreds of militants.

The most intense and almost daily fighting over the last two weeks has been to the north of Wednesday’s firefight — in the rocky and sandy Adrar des Ifoghas range along the Algerian border. French officials say the area is a crucial base and operations center of Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.

Hundreds of militants are said to be under pressure from a deployment of French and Chadian troops there.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

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France: Key al-Qaida chief in Mali likely killed

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France‘s top military man says it is “probable” that Abou Zeid, an al-Qaida leader in North Africa, was killed in military operations by French and Chadian forces in northern Mali.

However, Admiral Edouard Guillaud, the head of France‘s joint chiefs of staff, also said Chadian claims that their forces had killed Zeid, who is the Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb faction leader, could not be confirmed because “we haven’t recovered the body.”

Speaking Monday on Europe-1 radio, Guillaud also noted unverified chatter on Internet jihadist forums saying the suspected mastermind of Algerian hostage taking in January, Mokhtar Belmoktar, was alive. A Chadian military chief claimed he, too, was killed.

Guillaud said the French military operation to support Mali‘s government fight against the rebels is “breaking the kidneys” of AQIM.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

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Algeria defends raid that ended hostage standoff

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Algeria‘s army says it made the decision to storm a gas plant where dozens of foreigners were being held hostage without consulting their governments.

Al-Qaida-affiliated militants raided the desert complex in January, leading to a four-day confrontation punctuated by exploding cars, attacks from helicopters and a final assault by Algerian special forces. In all, 37 hostages, including an Algerian security guard, were killed. Some have suggested that the special forces’ raid was reckless.

The army rejected that criticism Sunday in its weekly magazine, El Djeich.

The editorial says the army attacked “without any consultation or coordination so that no one can intervene in the internal affairs of the country.” It added that the assault prevented a greater tragedy: the possibility that the militants might have blown up the gas site.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News