Tag Archives: car attack

GoDaddy removes white supremacist website after offensive post

The logo for internet company GoDaddy inc is shown on a computer screen

(Reuters) – The web hosting company GoDaddy said on Sunday it had given The Daily Stormer 24 hours to move its domain to another provider after the extremist web site posted an article denigrating the woman who was killed at a white nationalist rally in Virginia.

“We informed The Daily Stormer that they have 24 hours to move the domain to another provider, as they have violated our terms of service,” GoDaddy Inc said on its official Twitter page.

The Daily Stormer is a neo-Nazi, white supremacist website associated with the alt-right movement, which was spear-heading the rally on Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia which resulted in violence, including the death of Heather Heyer, who was fatally struck by a car allegedly driven by a man with white nationalist views.

The hosting company’s rules of conduct ban using its services in a manner that “promotes, encourages or engages in terrorism, violence against people, animals or property.” Company representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.

The post on Heyer denigrated her physical appearance and what it said were anti-white male views.

On Monday, a note appeared on the Daily Stormer’s home page, which claimed that the site had been taken over by Anonymous, a loose-knit collective of hacker activists that intended to permanently take it offline in 24 hours.

Other original content remained on the Daily Stormer site, including appeals for financial support and the article attacking Heyer.

YourAnonNews, a Twitter feed that promotes attacks conducted by hackers who identify with Anonymous, said it had no confirmation that members of the group were involved.

It said it suspected the notice was posted as a “stunt.”

Daily Storm publisher Andrew Anglin could not immediately be reached for comment.

Scottsdale, Arizona-based GoDaddy, is one of the largest U.S. web hosting providers with some 6,000 employees.

 

(Reporting by Chris Michaud and Jim Finkle; Editing by Michael Perry and Nick Zieminski)

 

Suspect in hit-and-run on French soldiers unknown to spy agencies: source

Suspect in hit-and-run on French soldiers unknown to spy agencies: source

PARIS (Reuters) – The Algerian national suspected of ploughing a hire car into a group of soldiers in a wealthy Paris suburb is believed to be unknown to French intelligence services and had no criminal record, a police source said on Thursday.

Investigators late on Wednesday raided several addresses associated with the 36-year-old suspect, who was cornered by armed police from elite units on a motorway some 260 kilometers (162 miles) north of the capital.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said the incident was a “deliberate act” and prosecutors opened a counter-terrorism investigation. The police source said the suspect is called Hamou Benlatreche, confirming local media reports.

Benlatreche was not thought to be on a secret service list of people linked to radical Islam, the police source said.

“When a suspect is on the list, we know immediately,” the source said. “But in this case we’ve not been given any indication that he is.”

Benlatreche’s uncle described his nephew as a faithful Muslim who prayed regularly, and expressed shock at hearing that his relative was linked to the attack.

“I couldn’t believe it. It totally stunned us,” Mohammed Benlatreche told BFM TV.

The attack targeted a group of soldiers as they began a morning patrol in the upscale area of Levallois-Perret, home to France’s domestic intelligence agency and only a few kilometers from landmarks such as the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower.

Six of the soldiers were injured, three of them seriously.

They were part of Operation Sentinel, a 7,000-strong force launched in the wake of Islamist attacks in Paris in early 2015.

Wednesday’s attack was the sixth on troops belonging to the force and has raised questions about the strain the operation on home soil has placed on an army facing budget cuts.

Opponents say it is overstretching the army, reducing time between operational rotations, depriving regiments of time for training for foreign deployments and hurting morale. Some say the troops are sitting ducks for would-be militants.

“All it has done is hand Daesh clear targets,” Vincent Desportes, former director of France’s Ecole de Guerre, was quoted as saying in daily newspaper Le Parisien. Daesh is the commonly used Arabic name for Islamic State.

Supporters of Operation Sentinel, which costs hundreds of millions of euros a year, say the force has served as a deterrent and given French citizens and tourists greater peace of mind.

Jacques Bessy, president of the Association for the Defence of Soldiers’ Rights, acknowledged the strains placed on the military but said the mission was essential.

“It is true that the operation is tiring and stressful,” said Bessy. “We need to examine the resources in order to refocus the patrols on priority areas such as stations, tourist sites, certain places of worship.”

 

(Reporting by Caroline Pailliez, Cyril Camy and Miranda Alexander-Webber; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Catherine Evans)

 

Car rams into soldiers in Paris suburb in suspected terrorist attack

Armed soldiers secure the scene where French soliders were hit and injured by a vehicle in the western Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret, France, August 9, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

By Benoit Tessier and Richard Lough

PARIS (Reuters) – A car rammed into a group of soldiers in a Parisian suburb on Wednesday, injuring six before speeding off in what officials identified as a suspected terrorist attack.

The vehicle, a BMW, was parked in an alley before it accelerated into the soldiers as they left their barracks to go on patrol, said Patrick Balkany, mayor of Levallois-Perret.

“The vehicle did not stop. It hurtled at them … it accelerated rapidly,” he told broadcaster BFM TV.

Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said the driver was on the run and being sought, and an investigation was under way to determine “the motives and circumstances” for what she called a “cowardly act”.

A justice ministry official said counter-terrorism investigators had been assigned to the case.

The incident follows a string of Islamist-inspired attacks on soldiers and police, who have been deployed in large numbers nationwide after calls by militant group Islamic State for attacks on France and other countries bombing its strongholds in Syria and Iraq.

The soldiers hit on Wednesday were rushed to hospital and police said two of the six were seriously injured.

SCRAPING METAL

Balkany said that what he called a “disgusting” act of aggression was “without any doubt” premeditated.

Jean-Claude Veillant, resident of an apartment building directly above the scene, witnessed part of the attack.

“I heard a loud noise, the sound of scraping metal. Shortly after, I saw one of the badly wounded lying in front of the Vigipirate (army patrol) vehicle and another one behind it receiving treatment,” he told reporters.

France remains on maximum alert following a string of attacks over the past two years in which Islamist militants or Islamist-inspired attackers have killed more than 230 people.

Most were civilians killed in Paris in early and late 2015 as well as in the southern seaside city of Nice in mid-2016, Since then a string of attacks have primarily targeted police and soldiers.

This year, assailants attacked soldiers at the Louvre museum site in Paris in February and at Orly airport in March. An assailant shot a policeman dead on the Champs Elysees avenue in the capital in April. Another man died after ramming his car into a police van in June and soldiers disarmed a knife-wielding man at the Eiffel Tower earlier this month.

The car in Wednesday’s attack, which police said was dark-colored and probably a BMW, was parked near the edge of the Place de Verdun square in the center of Levallois-Perret, a relatively affluent suburb on the western edge of Paris.

The area, quieter than normal in peak summer holiday season, was cordoned off after the incident, which happened at around 8:00 a.m., police said.

Levallois-Perret is about 5 km (3 miles) from city center landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and the Elysee Presidential Palace.

(Additional reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Caroline Paillez, Brian Love and Johnny Coton; Writing by Brian Love; editing by John Stonestreet)

Times Square driver who mowed down pedestrians denies guilt

FILE PHOTO: A vehicle that struck pedestrians and later crashed is seen on the sidewalk in Times Square in New York City, U.S., May 18, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Segar

By Peter Szekely

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The man accused of killing a woman and injuring 22 others by using his car to cut a three-block swath through the crowded sidewalks of New York’s Times Square denied all charges on Thursday related to the May attack, prosecutors said.

Richard Rojas, 26, pleaded not guilty to second degree murder, second degree attempted murder and first and second degree assault, prosecutors said. A grand jury indicted him on May 24.

Rojas, a Navy veteran, drove his Honda sedan down Seventh Avenue on May 18 and made a U-turn, mowing down pedestrians on sidewalks for three city blocks before crashing, prosecutors said. His lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.

Alyssa Elsman, an 18-year-old woman visiting from Michigan, was killed, while 22 other pedestrians suffered various injuries, some serious.

After the car crashed, the driver was subdued by onlookers and police as he tried to flee on foot.

Rojas previously told the New York Post in a tearful jailhouse interview shortly after the crash that he had unsuccessfully sought psychiatric care and had no recollection of the incident.

He was believed to be under the influence of some intoxicating substance, a police source previously told Reuters, while law enforcement officials told ABC News he was apparently high on synthetic marijuana.

Rojas has had numerous run-ins with the law over the past decade, according to Navy and public court records. He has had at least four prior arrests, including two for drunken driving and one for allegedly threatening a man with a knife outside his apartment in New York City’s Bronx borough.

While serving in the Navy in 2013, he spent two months in a military jail in South Carolina, though records do not disclose the reason.

(Reporting by Peter Szekely; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Taxi hits pedestrians near Boston airport, at least 10 hurt

A Massachusetts State Police officer walks past the scene where a taxi cab crashed into a group of bystanders at the taxi pool at Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., July 3, 2017. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

By Gina Cherelus

(Reuters) – A taxi plowed into a group of pedestrians near the taxi pool serving Boston’s Logan International Airport on Monday, sending at least 10 people to hospitals with injuries, authorities said, adding that it appeared to be an accident.

“At this preliminary point in the investigation, there is no information that suggests the crash was intentional,” the Massachusetts State Police said in a statement.

Local media, citing unnamed sources, said the taxi driver may have hit the gas instead of the brake pedal. Police said they were interviewing the driver, a 56-year-old man from Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Boston police officers, as well as fire and emergency services personnel, were on the scene of the crash, which occurred in the city’s East Boston section, the Massachusetts State Police said in a Twitter post.

“Preliminary reports indicate several pedestrians with injuries, varying severity,” the police said.

At least 10 people were taken to hospitals after the crash, Boston Emergency Medical Services said in a Twitter message.

Video footage on CNN showed what appeared to be a taxi, with its front hood buckled, resting next to a building.

The people who were hit were on a patio next to the parking lot where dozens of taxis were parked, WCVB-TV reported.

(Reporting By Gina Cherelus in New York and Bernie Woodall in Detroit; Additional reporting by Daniel Wallis in New York, Tim Ahmann in Washington; Writing by Frank McGurty; Editing by Chris Reese and Jonathan Oatis)

Driver rams his car into Brazil’s presidential residence

Federal policemen and Brazilian armed forces reinforce security in front of Alvorada Palace after a driver rammed his car through the gates of Brazil's presidential residence in Brasilia, Brazil, June 28, 2017. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – A driver rammed his car through the gates of Brazil’s presidential residence on Wednesday and was arrested, security forces said, though President Michel Temer was not inside the building.

Guards fired warning shots and then opened fire at the vehicle when it refused to stop, before detaining the driver, who appeared to be a minor, the statement said. Temer himself lives in another official residence.

The driver was not wounded and the car stopped inside the compound of the Alvorada residence. Images published by the G1 news website show the presidential residence gate knocked to the ground and shotgun shells over the floor outside the residence.

Access to the area was closed after the incident. Temer lives in Jaburu, another official residence, less than a mile away from Alvorada.

Temer has the lowest approval rating of any president in almost 30 years, only seven percent, pollster Datafolha showed last week.

Brazil’s president was charged on Monday for taking bribes by prosecutor-general Rodrigo Janot and the Supreme Court sent the charges to the lower house on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Sandra Maler, Bill Trott and Michael Perry)

Champs Elysees attacker stashed weapons, was on French watchlist

Police secure the area near a burned car at the scene of an incident in which it rammed a gendarmerie van on the Champs-Elysees Avenue in Paris, France, June 19, 2017. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

By Emmanuel Jarry and Richard Lough

PARIS (Reuters) – A man who rammed a car into a police van in Paris stored a cache of weapons at his home and held a gun permit despite being on a secret service list of people linked to radical Islam, police sources and French officials said on Tuesday.

A judicial source said investigators were compiling an inventory of the arms and equipment found in the 31-year-old’s home. The man, who died in the attack, was also carrying in his car an assault rifle, two pistols, ammunition and two large gas canisters when he rammed a police convoy on Monday.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the individual first received a permit to possess a gun before he was flagged to intelligence agencies as a potential militant threat. At the time there was no reason to deny him the permit, Philippe said.

Philippe said it was “quite possible” the license was active at the time the attacker was on a security watchlist. Three sources close to the investigation confirmed it was.

“Nobody can be happy, and certainly not me, that someone who has been flagged to security agencies can continue to benefit from such an authorization,” Philippe told BFM TV.

The man was placed on France’s so called ‘Fiche S’ watchlist after he was found to belong to a radical Islamist movement, two police sources said.

Individuals on the list are placed under surveillance though the intensity of that surveillance varies depending on the perceived threat the individual poses.

Philippe said draft legislation drawn up in May envisaged changes to allow officials who handle gun permits to check if individuals seeking licenses are on a watchlist.

ARRESTS

But refusing permits in such cases had it drawbacks, he said. “If you revoke the authorization of someone who is under surveillance, they’re going to know why.”

On Monday, witnesses saw the man being pulled from the car as thick yellow smoke poured out.

Police arrested four of his close relatives in a raid south of Paris late on Monday, a police source said. They included his father and brother.

France has been on high alert after a wave of militant Islamist attacks over the past two years, including most recently an attack on police outside the Notre Dame Cathedral and an Islamic State-claimed attack on police on the Champs Elysees in April.

In July last year, 86 people were killed when a truck plowed through a crowd in Nice, and similar incidents have occurred in other European cities.

Philippe said the government would be presenting a draft law soon to toughen counter-terrorism legislation.

“We need to find legal instruments that at once guarantee that we continue to live in a Fifth Republic which safeguards freedoms and ensure the security of French people,” Philippe said.

(Additional reporting by Marine Pennetier and Brian Love; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Car rams police vehicle on Paris’ Champs Elysees, driver likely dead

A burned car is seen on the Champs Elysees avenue after an incident in Paris, France, June 19, 2017.

By Michel Rose and Marine Pennetier

PARIS (Reuters) – A driver deliberately rammed his car into a police van as it drove down Paris’ Champs Elysees avenue and was probably killed, police said, adding that no officers or bystanders were injured and the situation was under control.

The Paris prosecutor’s counter-terrorism unit said it had opened an investigation into the incident, which occurred only a short walk away from the Elysees presidential palace and the U.S. embassy.

The car hit the front of the police van as it was overtaking it and caught fire, a police spokeswoman told reporters.

“It appears to have been a deliberate act on the part of the individual,” said Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet.

Brandet told reporters the driver, who was armed, was “most likely dead”, adding that it was difficult to say for sure while the area where he was lying was being checked for explosives.

A report on France’s BFM TV said the man was known to security services and had been carrying a gas bottle in the car.

France has been on high security alert following a series of militant Islamist attacks in recent years, including the shooting of a policeman in an Islamic State-claimed attack on a police bus on the Champs Elysees in April.

(Reporting by Michel Rose and Marine Pennetier; Editing by Leigh Thomas and Andrew Callus)

Militants drive van into people on London Bridge, stab others

Police attend to an incident on London Bridge in London, Britain, June 3, 2017. Reuters / Hannah McKay

By Megan Revell and William Schomberg

LONDON (Reuters) – Attackers drove a van at high speed into pedestrians on London Bridge before stabbing people in the nearby Borough Market area of bars and restaurants on Saturday in what British authorities described as terrorist incidents.

Armed police rushed to the scene and authorities urged Londoners on Twitter to “run, hide, tell” if they were caught in an attack. The BBC cited police as saying there had been more than one fatality.

Britain’s Sun newspaper said seven people were feared killed and that two attackers were shot dead by police near London Bridge; but there was no immediate confirmation of this. Some media reports said police were seeking another attacker.

The attacks come days ahead of a June 8 election and less than two weeks after a suicide bomber killed 22 people at a pop concert by U.S. singer Ariana Grande in Manchester in northern England. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The BBC showed a photograph of two possible London attackers shot by police, one of whom had canisters strapped to his body.

A Reuters reporter said some time after the attack began that he had heard loud bangs near the Borough Market area.

Witnesses described a white van veering into pedestrians near London Bridge and knocking over several people.

“A van came from London Bridge itself, went between the traffic light system and rammed it towards the steps,” a taxi driver told the BBC. “It knocked loads of people down.

“Then three men got out with long blades, 12 inches long and went randomly along Borough High Street stabbing people at random.”

Islamic State earlier on Saturday sent out a call on instant messaging service Telegram urging its followers to launch attacks with trucks, knives and guns against “Crusaders” during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Similar attacks, in Berlin, Nice, Brussels and Paris, have been carried out by militants over the past couple of years.

“Following updates from police and security officials, I can confirm that the terrible incident in London is being treated as a potential act of terrorism,” Prime Minister Theresa May said.

London’s river Thames police said it was working with the lifeboat rescue service to help evacuate people caught up in the attack, described by police as a terrorist incident.

U.S. President Donald Trump took to Twitter to offer U.S. help to Britain. The White House said he had been briefed on the incidents by his national security team.

One woman told Reuters she saw what appeared to be three people with knife wounds and possibly their throats cut at London Bridge at the Thames river. Reuters was unable to immediately verify her account.

People flee as police attend to an incident near London Bridge in London, Britain, June 4, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall

People flee as police attend to an incident near London Bridge in London, Britain, June 4, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall

STABBINGS ON THE STREET

Police said they fired shots after reports of stabbings in the nearby Borough Market area. They also responded to an incident in the Vauxhall area further west, but later said it was unconnected to the van and knife attacks.

Streets around London Bridge and Borough Market, fashionable districts packed with bars and restaurants, would have been busy with people on a Saturday night out. BBC showed dozens of people, evidently caught up in the attack, being escorted through a police cordon with their hands on their heads.

BBC radio said witnesses saw people throwing tables and chairs at the perpetrators of the attack to protect themselves.

One witness told the BBC she saw a speeding white van veering into pedestrians at London Bridge. That witness said the van hit five to six people. Reuters television pictures showed dozens of emergency vehicles in the area around London Bridge.

The incident bore similarities to a March attack on Westminster Bridge, west of London Bridge, in which a man killed five people after driving into a crowd of pedestrians before stabbing a police officer in the grounds of parliament.

Several witnesses also reported hearing gunshots.

“We were in an Uber (taxi) going towards London Bridge and suddenly we saw people running. The Uber stopped, we asked people what was going on – people said there was shooting,” said Yoann Belmere, 40, a French banker living in London.

“Now the area is completely closed with police cars going one way and ambulances going the other,” he told Reuters.

A witness told CNN two men had entered a restaurant in the Borough Market area near London Bridge and stabbed two people inside. He said a waitress was stabbed in the throat and a man was stabbed in the back.

The Manchester bombing on May 22 was the deadliest attack in Britain since July 2005, when four British Muslim suicide bombers killed 52 people in coordinated attacks on London’s transport network.

Idle buses are seen from the west side of London Bridge after an incident in the area in London, Britain June 4, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall

Idle buses are seen from the west side of London Bridge after an incident in the area in London, Britain June 4, 2017. REUTERS/Neil Hall

(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Nick Tattersall; additional reporting by Ralph Boulton, David Milliken and Paul Sandle; Editing by William Schomberg and Ralph Boulton)

Driver indicted in deadly Times Square attack, crash

FILE PHOTO: A vehicle that struck pedestrians and later crashed is seen on the sidewalk in Times Square in New York City, U.S., May 18, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Segar

By Gina Cherelus

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A grand jury has indicted the driver charged with killing a young woman and injuring 22 people when he careened through three blocks in New York City’s crowded Times Square, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Richard Rojas, 26, is scheduled to be arraigned on the indictment on July 13.

Authorities say Rojas drove his Honda sedan down Seventh Avenue on May 18, made a U-turn and mowed down pedestrians on the packed sidewalk for three city blocks before crashing. Alyssa Elsman, an 18-year-old woman from Michigan, was killed.

The driver was subdued by onlookers and police as he tried to flee on foot.

The charges in the indictment were not immediately made public. Rojas, who did not appear at the Wednesday hearing, was previously charged with second-degree murder, vehicular homicide and multiple counts of attempted murder.

His defense lawyer, Enrico Demarco, declined to comment after the brief hearing.

Rojas, who served in the Navy, told the New York Post in a tearful jailhouse interview last week that he had unsuccessfully sought psychiatric care, and said he had no recollection of the incident.

He was believed to be under the influence of some intoxicating substance, a police source has told Reuters, while law enforcement officials told ABC News he was apparently high on synthetic marijuana.

Rojas has had numerous run-ins with the law over the past decade, according to Navy and public court records. He has had at least four prior arrests, two for drunken driving, and one earlier this month for allegedly threatening another man with a knife outside his apartment in New York City’s Bronx borough.

While serving in the Navy in 2013, he spent two months in a military jail in South Carolina, though records do not indicate why.

Of the 13 attack victims Bellevue Hospital received, nine have been released, the health provider said in a statement on Wednesday. One of the remaining patients is in critical condition, another is in serious condition and the other two are in fair or good shape, it said.

The last of six victims sent to Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai St. Luke’s hospitals was released on Tuesday, a spokeswoman said.

(Additional reporting by Laila Kearney; editing by Jonathan Oatis and David Gregorio)