The Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram has made another deadly attack on a Christian church in Nigeria.
The terrorists bombed Saint Charles Catholic Church in Kano, Nigeria on Sunday, killing at least 5 people and wounding 8 others. The bombing happened shortly after the ending of Sunday mass as the crowd was beginning to leave the building. Police estimate the weapon was an IED thrown from across the road.
The attack was one of two attempted in Kano on Sunday. A woman wearing a homicide bomb vest was surrounded and isolated by police, detonating her device where she could not cause damage. Five officers were slightly wounded when she detonated the device.
In a surprising show of support to the Christian community of Kano, Muslim officials cancelled the city’s celebrating of the Eid festival marking the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan.
Government officials say that Boko Haram has started receiving weapons and training from other al-Qaeda related groups like Al-Shabab in Somalia.
The Islamic terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria accepted responsibility for a homicide bombing in Baghdad that has left at least 31 people dead.
Another 58 people were injured in the blast, some very severely, and officials say it’s likely the death toll is going to rise.
Christian bishops in Iraq are now calling for the government to protect Christians who are being killed and driven out of their homes in masses. They’re calling for the government to also provide funding for the thousands of families suddenly displaced by Islamic extremists.
Over 35,000 Christians have been forced to flee the city of Mosul after ISIS threatened to kill them unless they convert to Islam or pay a huge fine. Many of them have fled to Baghdad, where ISIS targets them in attacks.
Christian relief group World Compassion estimates at least 750,000 Christians have been forced to leave their homes since the Islamists began their campaign in northern Iraq.
Officials say that half of the Israeli population is in bomb shelters because of ongoing rocket attacks in central Israel by the Islamic terrorist group Hamas. The terrorist group has declared in a public statement “all Israelis have now become legitimate targets.”
The leaders of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem opened their city’s public bomb shelters because of the level of the attacks. Officials also told residents to open and prepare their private bomb shelters for the possibility of a prolonged assault.
An Iron Dome battery was able to successfully shoot down an incoming rocket over Tel Aviv. Hamas announced they had fired four rockets at the capital but there was no evidence of three more rockets impacting in the city.
According to the Israeli Defense Force, over 120 rockets struck within the Israeli borders during the night. Iron Dome destroyed 23 rockets in Ashdod, Ashkelon and communities along the Gaza border.
Israeli spokesman Mark Regev told reporters that Israel had reached out to the terrorist group in an attempt to de-escalate the situation and found that the terrorist group was not interested in ending the current conflict. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called world leaders to tell them their position that they could not sit by and allow their country to be attacked by a terrorist organization and not respond to their provocation.
The Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram bombed a market in northern Nigeria Tuesday morning leaving dozens dead and at least 50 injured.
Witnesses say that the bomb was located under a load of charcoal that was in a pickup parked near the market in Maiduguri. The bomb was powerful enough to reduce sales stalls to rubble and even completely destroy nearby vehicles.
A trader said the bomb went off just before 8 a.m. local time, before most of the traders and customers arrived for daily business.
Officials cordoned off the area, refusing to allow access because of previous patterns of Boko Haram bombings where secondary devices were timed to hit rescue and emergency personnel.
The attack is the second major assault on a shopping area by Boko Haram in the last two weeks. Last week a bombing at a major shopping area in the nation’s capital of Abuja killed 24 and wounded dozens.
Nigerian military sources reported the arrest Monday night of a prominent businessman who they say had been working with Boko Haram by funding many of their terror attacks. They stated the businessman, Babuji Ya’ari, had been working with a vigilante group as a cover to provide information to the terrorists.
An Islamic terrorist group attacked an open-air market in western China, leaving 31 people dead and close to 100 injured.
China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported that terrorists drove off-road vehicles into a market in Urumqi and began to throw bombs into the crowds of shoppers. One of the vehicles was then abandoned in the center of the market and exploded as the terrorists fled the scene.
Witnesses say the majority of the dead are elderly people who visited their market to get fresh food for their family’s daily meal.
The attack comes as Chinese officials crack down on the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, who they accuse of launching the Tiananmen Square attack last October and an attack on a train station in Urumqi last month.
An expert in ethnic relations in China says the attacks show a shift by the Muslim group. They had previously focused attacks and actions against military targets and government installations; now they are targeting innocent civilians with the intent of causing maximum casualties.
Seventy-one people died and over 120 were injured when a bomb exploded under a bus in a crowded bus station in Abuja, Nigeria.
Christian leaders in the nation said that the attack was carried out by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram in their deadliest attack on the country’s capital.
Friar Patrick Tor Alumuku, the director of Communications for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, told reporters that the bus depot where the explosion happened destroyed 16 luxury busses and 24 minibuses.
“The bus depot where the explosion took place is normally used by a large number of commuters to get to work in the center of the capital,” FFr. Alumuku said. “The victims are therefore normal people, who belong to the working class.”
The bus station was described as being in a “poor, ethnically and religiously mixed” area. Boko Haram has been working to create a civil war in the nation that is almost evenly split between Christians and Muslims.
The Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda is calling on its members to launch terrorists attacks in their home countries.
The terror group released a statement in the latest copy of their magazine Inspire that calls for a series of car bombings in countries that they feel are working against Allah.
The magazine piece specifically calls on jihadists to launch attacks in New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. The article also specifically calls for attacks in “crusading” countries Great Britain and France.
“Choosing the place and time is a crucial factor to success in any operation,” the magazine reads. “Choose targets in your own country. You know the enemy better, you are within … The important thing is that you target people and not buildings.”
The bombers are used to making attacks during “election seasons” and between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
The article also gave instructions on how to make a simple bomb.
Security for the February Sochi Russia Olympic Games is being called into question after back-to-back days of terror attacks in a major transportation hub north of the Olympic city.
A deadly homicide bombing on a bus in Volgograd has killed at least 11 and wounded dozens the day after a female homicide bomber detonated a backpack of explosives and shrapnel at the security checkpoint for the city’s main train station. At least 17 people are dead from that attack and hospital officials say the number of critically wounded patients means the death toll is likely to rise.
No group has claimed responsibility for the terror attacks.
Investigators say there is strong evidence linking the two attacks.
Volgograd is a major railroad hub for the region and thousands pass through the city every day heading to Moscow. The town is expected to be a major route for international visitors who will fly into Moscow and then travel to Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
At least one terrorist group has vowed to carry out attacks on the Winter Olympics.
Leaders within Egypt’s security forces are reportedly meeting in private over concerns that the Islamic militancy growing under the Muslim Brotherhood could be a major disruption in moving the country forward.
The concern has been heightened by a bus bombing in Cairo and homicide car bombing at a police headquarters in Mansoura that killed 16 people.
“If this battlefront for militants becomes Cairo and urban centers, then the prospect for the security situation and the human toll becomes pretty grim,” Michael Hanna, an Egypt expert at the New York-based Century Foundation, told the Wall Street Journal.
While the government did not publicly blame anyone for the Thursday attack on the Cairo bus, the unspoken allegation ties it to the Muslim Brotherhood who was designated a terrorist organization by the Egyptian government on Wednesday.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Egypt’s foreign minister to express his concern about the Muslim Brotherhood being designated a terrorist group.
The Taliban attempted an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan on Christmas Day.
Two rockets struck the compound before dawn on Christmas Day. Officials at the Embassy report that no one was injured and there was no damage to consular buildings. A U.S. Embassy official called the rockets “indirect fire” in an apparent attempt to show the insignificance of the assault.
The Taliban immediately issued a claim of responsibility that said four rockets struck the compound and caused mass casualties despite the evidence showing the opposite.
The Taliban also detonated a bicycle bomb outside a restaurant in Puli Alam, killing 6 and wounding 13 including several children.
The Taliban has been ramping up attacks as the U.S. and other nations continue to withdraw troops before a deadline at the end of 2014 for all troops to leave the country.
