Egypt unsafe for British tourists – ISIS attacks patrol ship off coast of Sinai

Extremists loyal to ISIS in Egypt have attacked a naval patrol ship in off the coast of Sinai causing it to burst into flames. As a result, British tourists have been warned that there is a ‘high threat’ from terrorism in Egypt.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 17 July 2015.

The attack took place in a region that is popular with tourists, including the beach resort of Sharm el Sheikh. The authorities have intensified security in and around the holiday destination. Egypt sees nearly 900,000 Britons traveling there every year and, the country has so far been considered as a safe destination.
However, of late, the thinking has changed because ISIS is gaining influence in the Egyptian peninsula - Sinai Province had pledged its allegiance to ISIS last year and, recently, about two months earlier, IS extremists had urged militants in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula to carry on beheadings and attacks against security forces.
IS has carried out a number of attacks in the northern part of the peninsula whereas Sharm el Sheikh is in the southern part of the peninsula. But, militants have killed dozens of soldiers as it attacked multiple military checkpoints and attempted for the first time to control a small pocket of territory in the Sinai desert.
Hence, Home Office has thought it fit to advise Britons in Egypt of the threats.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Iraq prison breakout – 40 killed, many terrorists escape

#Khalis #ISIS #Iraq #Baghdad #Diyala #PrisonBreak The Khalis prison in Diyala province of Iraq witnessed a prison breakout when nearly forty inmates, some of them convicted of terrorism charges, escaped during a riot in which at least six police officers and 30 prisoners were killed. Khalis is located 50 miles north of Baghdad.
This has been reported in foxnews.com of 9 May 2015.

The figures of toll in the violence is not confirmed because two provincial police officials and a medical official put the toll at death of 51 inmates and 12 policemen and the number of inmates who escape was in the region of 200. The official version as indicated by Brig. Gen. Saad Maan Ibrahim, the Interior Ministry spokesman, is that the death toll is 36, including six police officers and 30 prisoners, and said 40 inmates escaped.
It seems a fight broke out among the inmates of the prison and when guards went to investigate, they were overpowered and their weapons were seized. Some of those who escaped were wanted on terrorism charges.
Security forces had cordoned off the area and were searching out the escaped inmates.
Islamic State group has described the incident as a coordinated operation that involved use of multiple explosives outside the prison. There were 30 Islamic State members among those who escaped.

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Hatchet attack on a New York police officer was an act of terrorism

Police commissioner Bill Bratton of NYPD has confirmed that the hatchet attack on a New York rookie police officers was an act of terrorism that had been carried out by a self-radicalized, 32-year-old loner nzherald.co.nz. He had converted to Islam a couple of years back.

The rookie officer 25-year-old Kenneth Healy is in hospital in a critical but stable condition – he was injured in the back of the head during the attack in broad daylight. It happened in a busy shopping area of Queens.
The attack was of seven seconds duration and Zale Thompson, the attacker, charged with a hatchet in his hand – he struck two officers before being shot dead by the two other officers. Incidentally, an innocent bystander, a 29-year-old female, was accidentally shot and is also in hospital in a critical but stable condition.

The attacker does not have any police record in New York but had been arrested six times in California in 2003-04. Incidentally, he had spent three years in the military but was involuntarily discharged in 2003 – probably due to drugs.