Tag Archives: Terrorism

Nigerian Army Rescues Almost 300 From Boko Haram

The Nigerian army scored a major victory in their battle with Boko Haram, saving 293 women and girls from a Boko Haram camp.

The total included 200 girls although they were not the same girls kidnapped from Chibok last year that lead to the #BringBackOurGirls movement.

The raid in the Sambia Forest is the latest in a series of military movements in that region where Boko Haram had maintained a stronghold in their campaign against the government.  The region is not far from Chibok, which had initially led to hopes the girls were from the Chibok kidnapping.

The terrorists announced they are changing their name to Islamic State’s West Africa Province after aligning their group with the terrorist group ISIS.

A security officer to the governor of Borno State, where the raided area is located, said that unless the military focuses on taking out the leader of Boko Haram, the kidnapping of women is going to continue.

“How could they rescue over 200 women without getting Shekau or the top B. H. commanders?” Hussaini Monguno asked of the New York Times. “How many were killed? Without clear explanation, people will always believe they just want to cover up.”

Saudi Arabia Arrests 93 in ISIS Crackdown

Saudi Arabian officials announced the arrests of 93 people who are connected to the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.

The Saudi Press Agency reported the arrests took place between December and April with all but five of those arrested Saudi nationals.  The group had set up training sites and planned suicide bombings.

One of the reported targets was the U.S Embassy in Riyadh.

Intelligence officials say that two Syrians and one Saudi national had planned to drive a car loaded with explosives into the embassy.  The revelation explains why the State Department mysteriously shut down Saudi embassies in mid-March citing security concerns.

The largest cell consisted of 65 Saudi nationals who plotted an attack “on residential areas, and operations to incite sectarian sedition.”  Another 15 member cell was focused on bombing security headquarters and soldiers.

Security officials said they arrested Nawaf al-Enezi for the killing of two police officers in Riyadh earlier this month.  The ISIS operative was detained after a shootout with police about 60 miles east of the capital city.

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi stated in November that ISIS should focus efforts on attacking Saudi Arabia and the ruling Saudi family.

Italian Authorities Arrest Terrorists Who Plotted Vatican Attack

A massive anti-terrorism operation in Italy has arrested several terrorists including one cell that had plans for an attack on the Vatican.

Authorities say that some of the cell members had contact with Osama bin Laden before his 2011 death and that they had recordings of the exchanges from wiretaps.

Prosecutor Mauro Mura said that intelligence showed the group had planned attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan along with domestic attacks.  The plot against the Vatican first came up among the terrorists in 2010 discussions.

Police say some of the suspects arrested Friday had been under surveillance for a decade.

The group was also smuggling currency to other terror networks.  One of the suspects arrested today was captured on a flight from Italy to Pakistan with 55,000 euros.

Investigators say the group tried to grow by smuggling migrants into Italy.  They would attempt to recruit the migrants to be a part of the al-Qaeda network.

The raids, which police called a “first-of-its-kind operation”also took out the terrorist’s headquarters on the island of Sardinia.

ISIS Rise Masterminded By Former Saddam Hussein Officer

A German magazine has uncovered an ISIS document that says their rise has been guided by a former intelligence official for Saddam Hussein.

The “blueprint”consists of 31 pages of information that showed handwritten notes and charts from Samir al-Khlifawi.  Khlifawi was a colonel in the air force intelligence service of the former Iraqi dictator.

“Even his best-known pseudonym, Haji Bakr, wasn’t widely known. But that was precisely part of the plan. The former colonel in the intelligence service of Saddam Hussein’s air defense force had been secretly pulling the strings at IS for years,” according to the report. “Former members of the group had repeatedly mentioned him as one of its leading figures. Still, it was never clear what exactly his role was.”

Bakr was killed last year.  However, the group continued to use his plans as guideline for their operations according to the report in Der Spiegel.

“What Bakr put on paper, page by page, with carefully outlined boxes for individual responsibilities, was nothing less than a blueprint for a takeover,” the Spiegel article added. “In addition, months of research undertaken by Spiegel in Syria, as well as other newly discovered records, exclusive to Spiegel, show that Haji Bakr’s instructions were carried out meticulously.”

The report says that in 2013, Bakr moved to a town outside of Aleppo called Tal Rifaat.  His home then became the first stronghold for the terrorists.

France Arrests Islamic Terror Suspect After He Shoots Himself In Leg

An Islamic terrorist who had been planning to carry out attacks on French churches has been arrested after he accidentally shot himself in the leg.

The 24-year-old terrorist, whose name is being withheld by authorities, was found with guns, bulletproof vests and notes about intended targets after he called an ambulance for his self-inflicted wound.

French police say the man is a computer science student who had been under observation as a security risk since last year.

AFP news agency reported the suspect was wounded in the leg after a dispute.

In addition to the weapons, police found in the suspect’s car blue lights and orange police armbands that led investigators to believe the terrorist would pose as a police officer to gain entry to churches for attacks.

Police also said that a woman found murdered Sunday morning in what they thought was a random attack was killed by the terrorist suspect in what could have been a practice run.

Attacks on churches would be new for France as previous attacks took place on synagogues.

Six Arrested In Plot To Join ISIS

Six men have been arrested in connection with a plot to travel to Syria to become members of the terrorist group ISIS.

While all six men are residents of Minnesota, two were arrested in San Diego.  The other four were arrested in Minneapolis.  The men are Somalis in their late teens or early 20s.

Federal officials identified the six men as Zacharia Abdurahman, 19, Adnan Farah, 19, Hanad Musse, 19, Guled Omar, 20, Abdirahman Daud, 21, and Mohamed Abdihamid Farah, 21.

“These were not confused young men,”Minnesota U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger stated during a press conference on Monday. “These are focused young men who were intent on joining a terrorist organization by any means possible.”

The men had connections to another Minnesota man who was indicted in February on terror charges after he tried to head to Syria.

“This is a very serious issue,”Somali activist Omar Jamal told the International Business Times. “We as a community are concerned about losing our kids to ISIS.”

FBI director James Comey said that every state has people like the ones arrested in Minnesota.

“Those people exist in every state,”he outlined. “I have homegrown violent extremist investigations in every single state. Until a few weeks ago there was 49 states. Alaska had none, which I couldn’t quite figure out. But Alaska has now joined the group, so we have investigations of people in various stages of radicalizing in all 50 states.”

ISIS Kills Ethiopian Christians In Libya

The White House has condemned ISIS after a release of a video showing the execution of Ethiopian Christians in Libya was released Sunday.

The video shows ISIS terrorists shooting and beheading the Christians.

“We express our condolences to the families of the victims and our support to the Ethiopian government and people as they grieve for their fellow citizens,” National Security Council spokesperson Bernadette Meehan said in a statement. “That these terrorists killed these men solely because of their faith lays bare the terrorists’ vicious, senseless brutality.”

The 29-minute video comes on the heels of Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani saying ISIS was behind a suicide attack that killed at least 35 people.  The attacks show ISIS is beginning to develop the ability to attack far outside their strongholds in Iraq and Syria.

The video also mirrors their previous killing of Coptic Christians in Egypt.

Ethiopia has been in the sights of Islamic terrorists because they are part of the African Union force that has driven the Islamic terrorists group al-Shabaab out of their neighbor Somalia.

ISIS Carries Out Bombing Near U.S. Consulate in Irbil

The Islamic terrorist group ISIS has claimed responsibility for a bombing near the U.S. Consulate in the Kurdish Iraqi city of Irbil.

The terrorists said the consulate was their target.

Police said four people are dead and at least 18 people were injured by the car bomb.  The U.S. State Department said that all Consulate personnel were safe.

Police told reporters that a small improvised bomb detonated in the area which was followed by a car moving toward the consulate.  Security personnel began to fire on the car and when it was clear they would not make the consulate, the people within the car detonated their devices.

A witness reported a gun battle between the terrorists and police.

The blast took place across the street from a row of bars, cafes and shops frequented by consular employees.

“The United States will continue to stand with the people of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and all Iraqis as we work together in confronting these terrorist acts and towards our shared goal of degrading and defeating (ISIS),” the State Department said in a statement.

Five Australian Teens Arrested For ISIS Style Plot

Australian officials say that five teenagers were arrested Saturday accused of plotting a terrorist attack on a Veterans’ Day ceremony.

The aim of the attack was police officers.

Australian Federal Police Acting Deputy Commissioner Neil Gaughan told reporters that two of the 18 year olds were plotting an attack on the ANZAC Day ceremony in Melbourne.  Two other 18 year olds and a 19 year old were arrested.  All of the arrests took place in Melbourne.

“At this stage, we have no information that it was a planned beheading. But there was reference to an attack on police,” Gaughan said. “Some evidence that we have collected at a couple of the scenes, and some other information we have, leads us to believe that this particular matter was ISIS-inspired.”

ANZAC Day is April 25th, the anniversary of the first major military action by Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during World War I.

Two of the teens had connections to Numan Haider, an 18 year old who stabbed two police officers before being shot and killed in September.

Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Michael Phelan told reporters the teens had been “on the radar” for months.

“This is a new paradigm for police,” Phelan said. “These types of attacks that are planned are very rudimentary and simple. … All you need these days is a knife, a flag and a camera and one can commit a terrorist act.”

ISIS Destroys Christian Cemetery in Mosul

The Middle East Media Research Institute is reporting that the terrorist group ISIS has destroyed a Christian graveyard in Mosul.

Pictures of the terrorists smashing headstones in Mosul were posted online titled “Leveling Graves and Erasing Pagan Symbols.”

“The April 16 destruction of Christian graves in Mosul, Iraq by the Islamic State (ISIS) is part of the organization’s ongoing campaign against Christianity, in the Middle East and throughout the Muslim world,” said Steven Stalinsky, executive director of The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

The terrorists claim that Islamic teaching requires them to destroy any grave higher than ground level.  Images on the graves must also be destroyed.

“It is important to note that ISIS is documenting its destruction and desecration of Christian sites and its attacks on Christian communities, and on other minorities’ sites and communities, and is disseminating these images worldwide via social media,” Stalinsky told Fox News. “By doing this, ISIS is not only showcasing what it is doing, but is also mocking the West by demonstrating that it is doing so freely, with no one trying to stop it.”

Mosul has been under the control of the terrorists since June 2014.