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Showing posts from January 10, 2016

Two Australians kidnapped in Burkina Faso, Mali Islamist group sayscouple held by Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists

Ouagadougou (AFP) - Burkina Faso's Communications Minister Remi Dandjinou said Saturday that a couple abducted in the country's north are Australian nationals, correcting an interior ministry statement earlier that they were Austrian. The couple were kidnapped in Baraboule, near the west African country's borders with Niger and Mali. It is not yet known whether they were living in Burkina Faso or were there as tourists. Source  http://u.afp.com/ZWpu

Monitor says IS militants kill 35 soldiers, pro-govt fighters ineastern Syria attack

 | Reuters BEIRUT  The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Islamic State fighters killed at least 35 Syrian soldiers and pro-government forces in an attack on several areas in the city of Deir al-Zor on Saturday. "The fighters have infiltrated the northwestern side of the city and carried out the attacks," the Observatory which monitors the conflict in Syria via a wide network of local sources, said. Islamic State group is in control of most of the eastern province while the government is holding parts of the city including a military airport which are under siege by the group. Source  http://m.firstpost.com/world/monitor-says-is-militants-kill-35-soldiers-pro-govt-fighters-in-eastern-syria-attack-reuters-2587324.html

600 Britons caught on way to join ISIS since 2012: UK minister

London: A total of 600 British citizens have been caught trying to enter  Syria  to join the Islamic State and other terrorist groups since 2012, UK foreign secretary Philip Hammond has said. During a visit to southern Turkey, Hammond hailed closer cooperation between the two countries in preventing these potential terrorists arriving at their destination. "We've stopped about 600 (Britons) in total... The net result is that Turkey has become the key partner when it comes to intercepting the flow of foreign fighters," he said yesterday. He added: "Some of them were stopped at the UK border trying to exit and some of them were intercepted on arrival in Istanbul or in transit at points along the way, but a large proportion were picked up by the Turks on the basis of intelligence that we were able to provide." "What we've really seen is a very impressive turnaround by the Turks of short notice information." According to the 'Daily Telegra

Indonesian police arrest 12 after Jakarta attack

JAKARTA, Indonesia: Indonesian police said Saturday they have arrested 12 people suspected of links to the Jakarta bombings. The audacious attacks by suicide bombers and gunmen on Thursday that targeted a Starbucks and traffic police post in bustling central Jakarta killed seven people, including two civilians. More than 20 people were injured. It was the first major assault by militants in Indonesia since 2009 and police said the attackers were tied to the Islamic State group through Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian fighting with IS in Syria. National police chief general Badrodin Haiti told reporters that arrests were made in west and east Java and in Kalimantan. Elaborating on an earlier claim that the militants received funding from Bahrun, he said police have determined money was transferred to Indonesia via Western Union. "One of those arrested had received money transferred from ISIS," Badrodin said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group. Separately, authorities say

Man Accused Of Financing Jakarta Attacks With ISIS Funds Arrested: Police

JAKARTA, INDONESIA:   Indonesian police announced today they had arrested a man they believe financed the deadly Jakarta attacks, alleging the suspect received the funds from the ISIS. National police chief Badrodin Haiti said twelve suspects had been detained in nationwide raids since today's attacks, including one accused of bankrolling the suicide bombings and shootings that left seven dead. "One of the people detained had received financial transfers from ISIS to fund the operation," he told reporters, using another acronym for ISIS. Source:  http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/man-accused-of-financing-jakarta-attacks-with-isis-funds-arrested-police-1266610

German Town Bars Male Asylum Seekers From Its Public Pool

BORNHEIM, Germany — A western German town has barred adult male asylum seekers from its public indoor swimming pool after receiving complaints that some women were sexually harassed there. It was the latest sign of social tensions related to the arrival last year of 1.1 million migrants in Germany, and followed reports of sexual assaults on women by young foreigners during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Cologne. The deputy mayor of Bornheim, a town of 48,000 about 18 miles south of Cologne, said Friday that a difficult decision was taken to send a clear message that breaching German cultural norms was a red line that should not be crossed. “There have been complaints of sexual harassment and chatting-up going on in this swimming pool by groups of young men,” said the deputy mayor, Markus Schnapka, “and this has prompted some women to leave.” “This led to my decision that adult males from our asylum shelters may not enter the swimming pool until further notice,” he added.

British woman on trial for taking baby to join ISIS

A British mother who is accused of taking her 14-month-old baby to Syria to join the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group has gone on trial in the UK. A British mother who is accused of taking her 14-month-old baby to Syria to join the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group has gone on trial in the UK. Tareena Shakil, 26, told her family she was leaving for a holiday in Turkey in October 2014 but instead travelled to the city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIS in northern Syria, Birmingham Crown Court was told this week. She is believed to be the first British woman to return from the ISIS heartland to face terror charges. “Although she booked a return flight, she was not going to come back, and this was no spur-of-the-moment decision,” prosecutor Sean Larkin told the jury. “She was given a house to live in. She was provided for. She was given access to firearms, and there were images of her child wearing clothing with the ISIS logo and posing by a firearm,” he said.

‘Anti-Islamic’: Pakistan rejects bill banning child marriage

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Legislation to ban child marriages was struck down in Pakistan as the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) said it was “anti-Islamic” and “blasphemous.” The new law failed at the first stage of the legislative process. The Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill 2014, which would have made it more difficult for children to marry, was quickly withdrawn on Thursday by Marvi Menon of the Pakistan Muslim League party. The decision to pull the plug on the anti-pedophilia bill was triggered by CII speaking out against the idea. The council provides advice for lawmakers on whether the newly proposed laws comply with Sharia laws. The proposed legislation was shut down in its infancy on  “purely religious grounds,”  The Express Tribune reported. View image on Twitter  Follow RT   ✔ @RT_com Pakistani couple's throats slit over marriage without parents’ consent http:// on.rt.com/gy49fx   11:00 PM - 28 Jun 2014 CII Chairman Mohammad Khan Sheerani said t

‘West using Madaya, humanitarian crisis in Syria to undermine peace talks’ – Russian dep envoy to UN

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The West is attempting to derail the upcoming Syrian peace talks by using the humanitarian blockade of besieged cities as an “unscrupulous tactic,” Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN told the Security Council. “It looks like that, under the pretext of the deterioration of the situation in besieged cities, attempts are being made to undermine the launch of the inter-Syrian dialogue scheduled for January 25,”  Vladimir Safronkov  told  an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. Britain, France and the US requested the urgent talks after reports from Madaya revealed the direness of the situation in the Syrian city of 42,000 following months of blockade. View image on Twitter  Follow RT   ✔ @RT_com ‘Starvation as a weapon is a war crime’ UN head blasts warring sides in Syria http:// on.rt.com/71uy   2:37 PM - 15 Jan 2016 However, the sudden concern clearly exposes a  “double standard,”  Safronkov said, as the West is solely focused on Madaya –

Target all terrorist groups, no exceptions: US to Pak

Condemning the recent attack on the Indian Air Force Base in Pathankot, a senior US official has urged Pakistan to intensify their fight against terrorist outfits especially those working along its borders Condemning the recent attack on the Indian Air Force Base in Pathankot, a senior US official has urged Pakistan to intensify their fight against terrorist outfits especially those working along its borders. According to Dawn, Under-Secretary of State for Civilian Security Sarah Sewall addressed a seminar in Delhi where she urged Pakistan to target all terrorist groups, without any exceptions. "We will continue to work with the government of Pakistan to take the fight to all terrorist networks in the border region and do everything in their power to help India achieve justice for the Mumbai attacks," she said in her speech Sewell said that 'the shared trauma of terrorism,' including the recent deadly attack in Pathankot, had brought India and the United S

126 hostages freed, 20 dead; 3 Al-Qaeda terrorists killed in Burkina Faso hotel siege

Security operations to drive al-Qaeda fighters from a hotel they seized in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou late on Friday have ended with 126 hostages freed, the West African nation's security minister said on Saturday. "Three jihadists were killed. They were an Arab and two black Africans," Simon Compaore told Reuters, adding that operations were continuing at the nearby Yibi Hotel. Sixty-three hostages, including 33 wounded, were evacuated in the early hours of Saturday from a Burkina Faso hotel besieged by Al-Qaeda-linked gunmen, communication minister Remis Dandjinou said. "There are some dead but we don't have the numbers. The assault is ongoing with the Burkinabe forces supported by French special forces," Dandjinou told AFP in the morning, adding that amongst those rescued was labour minister Clement Sawadogo. At least 20 people have been killed in an Al-Qaeda attack on a hotel in the capital of Burkina Faso popular with United Nations staff an

Boko Haram attacks killed nearly 1,200 people since 2013

Boko Haram in the past year stepped up cross-border attacks in Niger, Chad and Cameroon while continuing shooting and suicide assaults on markets, mosques and other mostly civilian targets within Nigeria itself. Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamists have killed nearly 1,200 people in neighbouring Cameroon's far north since 2013, the communications minister in Yaounde said on Friday. Issa Tchiroma Bakary told reporters that the group had staged 315 raids in the border region during this period and carried out 32 suicide bombings. "In total, 1,098 civilians, 67 of our soldiers and three police officials have been killed in these barbaric attacks by the Boko Haram terrorist group," Bakary said. Since July last year, Cameroon's far north has been hit by a series of attacks blamed on Boko Haram, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. This year, the number of attacks in the region has increased to a near daily basis with simultaneous incursions in some

Pakistan rejects US President Barack Obama's remarks on terror, instability

Obama has said the US' foreign policy must be focused on the threat from Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda, but it can't stop there. Pakistan on Friday rejected US President Barack Obama's remarks that the country could become a safe haven for terrorists and would continue to face instability for decades to come. In his last State of the Union address on Tuesday, Obama said "instability will continue for decades in many parts of the world in the Middle East, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in parts of central America, Africa and Asia". Obama has said the US' foreign policy must be focused on the threat from Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda, but it can't stop there. "For even without IS, instability will continue for decades in many parts of the world in the Middle East, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in parts of Central America, Africa and Asia," he has said. "Some of these places may become safe havens for new terrorist networks; others

Dutch man arrested for killing IS fighters in Syria

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File photo of an Islamic State fighter. PHOTO: REUTERS THE HAGUE:  Dutch police have arrested a former soldier suspected of killing Islamic State group extremists while fighting alongside Kurdish forces in Syria last year, the prosecutor’s office said on Friday. The 47-year-old man, who was not identified, was arrested on Wednesday in the eastern Dutch city of Arnhem and appeared in a Rotterdam court on Friday where he was provisionally released. “The man is a former soldier whose case was extensively reported on last year in the media and on Facebook due to his involvement in the fight against the Islamic State,” a statement said. “Dutch law – apart from exceptional circumstances like self-defence – does not give citizens the right to use force and particularly not deadly force. “Killing an IS fighter therefore could mean being prosecuted for murder,” the statement said. The man is alleged to have fought in Syria alongside the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG