Violence in tourist resort in Mali - four jihadists killed

The government of Mali has indicated that five suspected jihadists have been arrested following an assault on a popular tourist resort near the capital, Bamako. Two civilians died in the attack and four jihadists were killed at the scene. 36 persons taken as hostages were also rescued and majority of them were French and Malian.
This has been reported in zeenews.com dated 19 June 2017.

The latest attack is one in a series of high-profile assaults in north and west Africa and had targeted locals and tourists, including hose from Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. In 2015, gunmen had stormed a major hotel and killed 20 people after which the government imposed a state of emergency which has been in place more or less ever since.
Earlier this month, the US embassy in Bamako had warned about possible increased threat of attacks against Western diplomatic missions, places of worship and locations frequented by Westerners in the city of Bamako.


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Two schoolgirls turn suicide bombers and kill 56 in a Nigerian market

A couple of schoolgirl became suicide bombers and killed at least 56 people and wounded dozens more in a coordinated attack on a crowded market in Nigeria. It happened in the northeastern Nigerian town of Madagali. In the opinion of experts, the bombings bore the hallmark of Islamist militant group Boko Haram. However, no group has claimed responsibility.
This group has been waging an insurgency to set up a state that will adhere to a strict interpretation of Muslim laws in the northeast.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 10 December 2016.

An official of the local district government has confirmed that the bombings have left 56 people dead and another 57 wounded. The attacks had been carried out simultaneously by two schoolgirls.
It is known that Boko Haram usually targeted crowded areas like markets, places of worship and refugee camps. These suicide bomb attacks happen across northeast Nigeria and in neighboring Cameroon and Niger. The jihadist group has so far killed some 15,000 people and forced more than two million people to flee their homes.


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All is not well in Europe - 1750 ISIS jihadists have returned to carry out attacks

EU has indicated that nearly 1,750 ISIS jihadists have returned to Europe - some of them have orders to carry out terror attacks. It seems 5,000 European fanatics had gone to Syria and Iraq and 15 to 20 per cent of them have been killed on the battlefield.
However, 35 percent have returned and some of them have come with 'specific missions'. Another 50 percent have remained in the battle arena.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 8 December 2016.

Belgium had expressed concerns on this development. There were two types of 'foreign terrorist fighters' returning and one of these is those who will be sent on specific missions.
Some of the European women and children born or raised in the so-called caliphate declared by ISIS in Iraq and Syria could pose a security threat because of radicalization. Some returnees have been convicted and are serving prison sentences and others are being monitored while some are free in their communities.


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French police arrest ISIS suspects who were targeting a theme park

Anti-terror officers arrested ISIS suspects from the eastern city of Strasbourg and Marseille in the south. The suspects were planning to target a theme park and an area with a high police presence and the arrest came after an investigation by security services that lasted for more than eight months.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 23 November 2016.

In the course of the raids, two handguns, an automatic pistol, a machine pistol and jihadist propaganda were found. The alleged terror ring could have been plotting an attack on a theme park. However, no specific target was revealed.
The seven alleged plotters detained by the police hail from France, Morocco and Afghanistan. Moreover, the four suspects held in Strasbourg, all French, aged between 35 and 37 and not previously known to the intelligence services, were still being interrogated. Two of them are suspected of traveling to Syria in 2015 before returning to Europe.
It may be noted that France is under a state of emergency. This gives security forces enhanced powers to mount surveillance and launch raids. These are after the attacks by Islamic State jihadists on Paris that left 130 people dead.
It may be recalled that France has suffered three major attacks since January 2015 - when gunmen targeted the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a Jewish supermarket, followed by last November's atrocities in Paris. Then in July, a self-radicalised extremist drove a truck through crowds watching fireworks in the southern city of Nice and killed 86.


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ISIS kills over 200 and abducts 8000 families to use as human shields in Mosul

ISIS is feeling the heat and is realizing that its days are numbered as troops are closing in on Mosul. Therefore, ISIS has killed more than 200 people and abducted nearly 8,000 families from their homes around Mosul and shifted them to the center of the city to be used as human shields.
Those killed included 190 former Iraqi Security Forces officers.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 28 October 2016.

The United Nations Human Rights Office has indicated that at least 232 people in and around the city were shot dead because they refused to follow their orders as Iraqi forces advanced and jihadis retreated. The reports of the dead are not corroborated and the number could be higher.
Inside the small, sparsely populated villages that ring Mosul, Iraqi forces have to deal with explosive booby-traps and hidden snipers.
It may be recalled that the jihadists had captured the city in a matter of days in 2014, and have been holding fort for more than two years to build up its defenses and brutally root out any internal opposition. Therefore, the operation to retake Mosul is expected to be a long drawn out affair.


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Battle to liberate Mosul rages and ISIS fighters flee the city dressed as women

ISIS fighters who do not have the courage to stand up and fight are believed to be fleeing Mosul, some of them dressed in women's clothing after orders had been given for wives and girlfriends to evacuate the city. Even as the battle to liberate Mosul enters the fourth day in Iraq, the terror group's commander Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has apparently issued orders to women affiliated with the group's leaders to get themselves out of the firing line.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 20 October 2016.

It is evident that Baghdadi is cornered in Mosul and his band of spineless terrorists have used his orders as an opportunity to escape the war by dressing as women. Two men, presumed to be ISIS fighters, were caught by Kurdish Peshmerga troops near Mosul as per media reports.
A Major General of the US Army, who is in-charge of the anti-IS coalition's land component has indicated that ISIS commanders are 'fleeing the city' ahead of 'multiple assaults' that have been planned. In his opinion, many foreigners among the 6,000 IS fighters would likely end up forming the core of the holdout jihadist force.
The women were evacuated by orders from Baghdadi to avoid being captured by the security forces or rebellious people of Mosul after Mosul was liberated.


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21 school girls of Chibok, abducted by Boko Haram in 2014, return home

276 school girls were abducted from their school in Chibok in 2014 by a Boko Haram jihadi group and, 21 of them have now returned - some of them have come back with their children born during this period. These 21 school girls who have been freed from their Boko Haram captors in Nigeria have been pictured for the first time.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 14 October 2016.

The release of these girls is believed to be the result of a swap for detained Islamic leaders. Another school of thought is that they were released in lieu of a ransom payment. This gains ground because a Nigerian hostage negotiator, who was not involved in the release, believes that a 'handsome ransom' in millions of dollars was paid by Switzerland's government on behalf of Nigerian authorities.
Anyway, the freed girls, some with their children, attended a reception held by the Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the state house. His wife also embraced several of the girls, who had been forced to become jihadi brides during their time in captivity.


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Super powers Russia and America still undecided on military cooperation in Syria

In spite of several meetings and discussions at different forums, the solution to the situation in Syria keeps eluding the super powers. America and Russia have, yet again, failed to arrive at an agreement on military co-operation and a cessation of hostilities in Syria.
The latest round of talks in Geneva between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov went on for nine hours and, at the end of the talks, all they agreed upon was that they had "achieved clarity on the path forward", but still have issues to resolve before an agreement could be reached.
They have indicated that teams on both sides would try to finalize details in the coming days.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 27 August 2016.

Both the sides agreed that they were looking for a deal that would work for the people of Syria and make the region more stable and secure. Kerry's counterpart echoed the same sentiments and said that "very important steps" had been made on a deal to stop the violence.
It is now for the technical teams comprising US and Russian military and intelligence experts, to try and figure out how best to separate the opposition groups, backed by the US and Gulf Arab countries, from the jihadis. The future of President Assad is not a part of the current talks. Rather, the focus is on finding an effective and lasting solution to end the violence, which would open negotiations on a political transition in Syria.


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Syrian city of Aleppo falls into hands of rebels and jihadists

Aleppo is the second largest city in Syria and it has been taken over by jihadists and rebels who have captured strategic military positions on the edges of the city thereby turning the tables on Russian-backed regime forces who had been besieging the city.
This has been reported in thehindu.com dated 7 August 2016.

Moreover, Western-backed alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters have scored a major victory against the Islamic State (IS) group in the town of Manbij after a fierce two-month battle.
The capture of territory south of Aleppo has been done in a bid to cut off regime forces and open up a new route into besieged rebel-held districts. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said that 'The Army of Conquest... took control of the armament school, where there is a large amount of ammunition, and a large part of the artillery school” at a military academy. The coalition of rebels, Islamists, and jihadists “is about to cut off, by gunfire, the supply route into government-controlled districts ... That road passes through a southwestern suburb of Ramussa and is the last route into Aleppo used by regime troops.'


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Security experts have cautioned that ISIS could launch attacks on Britain by using drones to drop bombs of nuclear wastes or poison bombs over Britain because they have already done it in Iraq and Syria. UK officials are believed to have come across evidence that the terror group is flying armed commercial drones over Syria and Iraq.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 28 July 2016.

It seems the militants have deployed small drones carrying explosives to blow up troops and made use of spy cameras on drones to map out army positions. Hence, there are fears that lone-wolf jihadists could use drones to spray deadly nuclear waste over British cities or blow up civilians on the streets.
Moreover, the drones or pilotless flying machines posed a 'direct threat' to Western troops on the ground in Iraq, including British troops and these can be purchased easily on websites such as Amazon and delivered to doors in Britain. The terror group could easily purchase drones in Britain and insert a small explosive on them to kill a handful of people or even chemical weapons to inflict mass casualty damage. There is, therefore, a need to to have tougher regulations on commercial drones in Britain to ensure safety of the people.


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ISIS carries out suicide bombing in Qamishli - death toll at least 44

At least 44 persons have been killed in a massive bomb blast in Qamishli and has injured dozens in Syria - it was an attack by the ISIS and is believed to be in retaliation to was airstrikes against its forces. The airstrikes were in the town of Manbij, a stronghold for the jihadist group in Syria's Aleppo province. This attack was the biggest to hit Kurdish-majority Qamishli since the start of the civil war in 2011.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 27 July 2016.

Kurdish officials have revealed that the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber who was driving an explosives-laden truck. It was initially described as a double bombing, but it has since been clarified that the bomb had detonated a nearby fuel container which led to a second explosion.
Syrian state media has revealed that 44 people had been killed and 140 injured, while the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has revealed that 48 had been killed including women and children. Qamishli is under the shared control of the Syrian regime and Kurdish authorities and the attack was targeted at Kurdish administration buildings including the defense ministry - the area is considered a secure zone.
It may be noted that more than 280,000 people have been killed in Syria since the war began and more than half the country's population has been displaced by the ensuing violence.


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Jihadist kills 85-year-old priest in a church Normandy - churches in Britain to tighten security

An ISIS jihadist has killed an 85-year-old priest in a church in Normandy and, as a result, churches in Britain have been told to tighten their security. The church that had been targeted was on a "hit list" found on a 24-year-old Algerian jihadi who had planned attacks last year in a Parisian suburb.
The man is a computer sciences student and had been arrested by French police who are investigating whether he had instructions to carry out attacks on churches by Islamic State.
This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 27 July 2016.

Even though there are no specific intelligence relating to attacks against the Christian community in the UK, the police is cautioning the community to be alert but not necessarily alarmed. They should report concerns and review their security as a precaution.
In the Normandy attack, there were two terrorists who stormed the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, a working-class town near Rouen, northwest of Paris. The incident took place during morning mass. They forced the Father Jacques Hamel to kneel and then slit his throat after taking worshippers hostage - two nuns were among the hostages.
The killers were later shot dead by police.
One of the pair has been identified. He is a 19-year-old "Isis soldier" and a known terror treat - he was being monitored with an electronic tag after being arrested twice for attempting to flee France and join the terror group in Syria. He has been released early from prison and his bail conditions allowed him to roam freely between 8.30am and 12.30pm. The attack happened between 9am and 11am.


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Two suspected ISIS jihadists arrested in Ataturk Airport

Two suspected ISIS jihadists have been arrested in Ataturk Airport in Istanbul - the two had with them night-vision binoculars, fake passports and military-style clothing and were from Kyrgyztan. One of the earlier suicide bombers who killed 45 persons in an attack in the airport a week back was also from Kyrgyztan.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 4 July 2016.

It may be recalled that 45 people have died following the attack on Tuesday night. In the attack, three men walked into the airport and open fire before blowing themselves up. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far, but the Turkish government believes ISIS was behind it. Moreover, there are suspicions that the bombers were part of a Russian-speaking unit of jihadis and was led by a one-armed Chechen warlord.
Anyway, the two men now arrested have been identified and are aged 25 and 35 respectively. It is still not clear whether they were arriving or leaving Ataturk Airport. Police have recovered night-vision binoculars and military-style clothes from their suitcases along with two passports in different names.


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Violence in Sirte between ISIS and pro-government militiamen kills at least 60

Fierce clashes in Libya between pro-government militiamen and ISIS jihadists in the city of Sirte and an explosion at a depot near the capital, Tripoli, has left more than 60 dead in just one day. Sirte is believed to be the last bastion of the ISIS group in the North African country and the latest clashes led to the death of 36 militiamen aligned with the newly-UN brokered government. They are mainly from the western town of Misrata and have been leading an offensive since early May to take full control over Sirte.
Along with the 36 militiamen killed, mostly in direct gun battles with ISIS jihadists, Misrata hospital spokesman has indicated that another 140 were wounded in the violence.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 22 June 2016.

ISIS jihadists have apparently gone into hiding at its headquarters in Sirte where the sprawling Ouagadougou convention center had been built by late dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The city was also Gaddafi's birthplace and the city he fled to during the 2011 civil war, when Libyan rebels backed by NATO bombings forced him out of the capital, Tripoli.
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Kurdish and Arab forces battle with ISIS near Raqqa

There is no sight of an end to the war against ISIS in Iraq and, Kurdish and Arab forces have begun a new assault near Raqqa which is the group's de-facto capital in Syria. This assault is against the backdrop of offensive of Iraqi troops against the jihadists in the city of Fallujah for a second day.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 24 May 2016.

These are believed to be the most serious ground operations against IS since the militants declared their self-styled 'caliphate' covering large areas of Syria and Iraq in 2014. The purpose of the assault in Raqqa province by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was to dislodge IS from the northern part and, simultaneously, secure other areas.
The SDF is having the backing of the US - it is a seven-month-old alliance of Syrian militias, including the Kurdish YPG and with the help of American-led coalition airstrikes, the YPG has successfully driven the jihadist organisation from large areas of northern Syria in the last year. However, the activists claim that in Raqqa, IS fighters make use of civilians as shields in Raqqa and, therefore, will be found in the same building. It seems inside a civilian building, there will be groups of ISIS fighters.
Moreover, they also use schools as places to stay. The reason is that schools have basements which protects them from the air strikes.


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The RAF has eliminated nearly 1000 ISIS jihadists as indicated by figures released by the Ministry of Defence in a Freedom of Information request. It seems since warplanes were deployed to Iraq in September 2014, the RAF has killed at least 996 extremists. The figure includes 22 jihadists killed in Syria following the go-ahead given by the parliament for strikes over the chaotic country last November and, in a single month, 152 militants were killed as they tried to mercilessly murder civilians and local forces.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 30 April 2016.

The bombing raids carried out by RAF warplanes have targeted secret underground bunkers, jihadists hiding in palm trees, vehicles packed with explosives and deadly sniper and machine gun positions. Drone pilots who were stationed at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire would spend hours spying on selected targets as they prepared for battle. Finally, they would complete the task by killing them with laser-guided missiles and 500lb Paveway bombs. It is believed that ever since additional number of jets were sent to the region last year, RAF pilots have trebled the rate at which they are eliminating the ISIS militants.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Britain under threat from Syria and Iraq returned jihadists

A senior member of counter terrorism cell has revealed that a fifth of the 350 British jihadists who have returned to the UK are 'high threat' extremists and it is suspected that they could be plotting or wanting to carry out attacks on British soil or could be spreading radical propaganda.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 21 April 2016.

As per estimates, nearly 800 British extremists are believed to have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS. A warning has been sounded by the national counter terrorism co-ordinator that destroying ISIS may not happen soon and it would pose a serious threat to national security for a 'long, long time'. It is also understood that they are trying to recruit new members because they plan further attacks on European soil.
ISIS has already claimed responsibility for the deadly attacks in Paris last November in which 130 people were killed, and also the Brussels attacks last month, which killed 32. They have been targeting Britain for months and there are fears that these terrorists are planning nuclear and chemical attacks in Britain.


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ISIS struggling to survive - selling body organs of their own wounded soldiers to make money

Hemmed in from all quarters by airstrikes of the US and its allies, the ISIS is struggling to survive and, if reports are to be believed, they are running out of funds. Therefore, the have taken steps to sell organs of their own wounded fighters in the black market in Iraq. These soldiers are killed, their organs removed and sold to raise money.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 20 April 2016.

These shocking claims originated from an Arabic-language al-Sabah newspaper and it quoted an unnamed source in Mosul. As per the report, doctors were threatened and forced to extract the body organs of a wounded ISIL militant. The jihadi group were allegedly removing vital organs from their wounded fighters and selling them abroad to raise much needed funds for their fighters dreadful salary. Even prisoners held by ISIS have also been forced to give blood to the jihadi group.
The news coming on the heels of the initial contingent of 170 U.S. soldiers entering Baghdad as advisers in June 2014. Right now, there are 3,000 American security workers involved in Iraq with Defense Secretary Ash Carter authorizing a total above 4,000. The figure could increase.
In the words of the Pentagon this is 'tightening the noose' on the militants. Of course, critics feel these are indecisive steps with limited chance of success.


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ISIS hatches diabolical plan to massacre tourists on Mediterranean beaches

ISIS is hatching plans to carry out terror attacks across Europe this summer - they would be targeting holidaying tourists by posing as innocent ice cream and T-shirt sellers. This has been revealed by Italian intelligence chiefs. According to BND (Germany's equivalent of MI6), the beaches which are definitely targeted include resorts in southern France, the Costa del Sol in Spain and both coasts in Italy.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 19 April 2016.

German media has indicated that ISIS is sending jihadists who would pretend to be selling refreshments before detonating suicide vests and bombs that would be buried under sun loungers at Spanish, French and Italian resorts. The intention is to bring bloodshed to holiday resorts.
The Italians came to know about the sinister terror plans through a credible source in Africa. The would-be killers had formed 'concrete plans' to pose as refugees serving tourists with drinks and snacks or hawking beach accessories and T-shirts. Their plans involve the use of automatic weapons on crowded waterfronts, suicide bombings and explosive devices buried in sand beneath sun loungers.
ISIS is squeezed financially as the international coalition ranged against it in the Middle East hampers its movement and military actions and it is, therefore, on the lookout of more soft targets in the west - their solution is the holiday bombing plans.


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More than 25,000 ISIS members have already been killed by Britain and its allies

In continuous strikes on ISIS positions, Britain and her allies have succeeded in eliminating more than 25,000 ISIS fighters. As a result of such repeated assaults, the campaign has halved the number of jihadi fighters in IS-controlled areas of Syria and Iraq within a period of just 20 months. It has also eliminated scores of the group's leaders and bombing raids and missile strikes by the RAF have played a crucial role in bringing this situation.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 16 April 2016.

These revelations have been made by Colonel Steve Warren, the US military spokesman for the US-led global coalition against Islamic State. AS he has put it - 'much like a boxer, Daesh [Islamic State] has taken several hard blows to the mid-section. We believe the knees are getting weak, and the head is starting to drop, and they are beginning to feel the effect of the exceptional pressure we've placed on them over 20 months.'
The effect of air strikes in IS-held oilfields has been a slash of its cash flow by a third – that, in turn, led to a drastic 50 per cent pay cut for its fighters. That, coupled with the attack by 650 RAF strikes, the ISIS was forced to flee from 40 per cent of territory it once held in northern Iraq.
The IS extremists had seized swathes of eastern Syria in 2014 during its bloody civil war, before it swept into northern Iraq and proclaimed itself an Islamic caliphate. However, it now appears to be on the back foot. Col Warren indicated that a huge bombing campaign would soon be unleashed on its capital, Raqqa, to pave the way for a ground attack by Kurdish troops.


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