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Showing posts from July 7, 2019

New Zealanders hand over weapons after mosque killings

Dozens of New Zealanders have handed over their firearms in a gun buyback scheme aimed at ridding the country of semi-automatic weapons in the wake of the Christchurch mosque massacre. The first of more than 250 collections to be held nationwide took place on Saturday in Christchurch, where 51 Muslim worshippers were gunned down while praying less than four months ago. The government, with support from opposition parties, immediately rushed through legislation to tighten New Zealand 's gun laws. Weapon owners have until December 20 to hand in illegal guns under an amnesty agreement, after New Zealand banned most semi-automatic firearms, some pump-action shotguns, and certain large-capacity magazines in April. Police Minister Stuart Nash said the objective was to "remove the most dangerous weapons from circulation". $290,300 compensation With armed police monitoring the handover, 169 firearms owners handed in 224 weapons and 217 parts and accessories.

26 killed in hours-long al-Shabab hotel siege in Somalia

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The death toll from a hotel attack in Somalia  rose to 26 on Saturday with victims including Kenyans, Tanzanians,  Americans, a Briton, a Canadian as well as prominent Somali politicians. A presidential candidate for upcoming regional elections was also killed in the siege in Kismayo city that was  carried out by al-Qaeda -linked al-Shabab, Jubbaland President Ahmed Mohamed said in a statement. More than 50 people were also wounded. Police in the southern port city  earlier put the toll at 13. The attack lasted more than 14 hours before troops shot dead all attackers inside the hotel compound, Colonel Abdiqadir Nur, a local police officer, told The Associated Press. "The operation is over. The four attackers were shot dead," police officer Major Mohamed Abdi told Reuters news agency by telephone from Kismayo. Al-Shabab members stormed the hotel after detonating a car bomb on Friday while local elders and legislators met to discuss approaching region

The Muslim Brotherhood as auxiliaries of the Pentagon, by Thierry Meyssan

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This article is an extract from the book Fake wars and big lies . See Contents . In 1988, the Saudi Oussama Ben Laden and his personal doctor, the Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, published the « World Islamic Front for Jihad against Jews and Crusaders ». This text was distributed by their office in Londonistan, the Advice and Reformation Committee. Al-Zawahiri organised the assassination of President Sadate, then worked for the Sudanese secret services of Hassan el-Tourabi and Omar el-Bechir. He now commands Al-Qaïda. The Islamists controlled by the Pentagon At the beginning of the 1990’s, the Pentagon decided to work with the Islamists, who had hitherto depended only on the CIA. This was operation Gladio B, by reference to the secret services of NATO in Europe (Gladio A [ 1 ]). For a decade, all the Islamist chiefs – including Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri – travelled on aircraft of the US Air Force. The United Kingdom, Turkey, and Azerbaidjan part

NIA busts Tamil Nadu-based terror module planning attacks

NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency ( NIA ) on Saturday busted a Tamil Nadu-based outfit planning terrorist attacks in the country with the intention of establishing Islamic rule, and as part of the crackdown raided the houses of three of its members based in Chennai city and Nagapattinam district. As per the case registered by NIA on July 9, the accused hailing from Chennai and Nagapattinam, and others "while being within and beyond India, had conspired and conducted consequent preparations to wage war against the Government of India by forming the terrorist gang Ansarulla". NIA said it had learnt that the accused persons --Syed Mohammed Bukhari, resident of Chennai; Hassan Ali Yunusmaricar, native of Nagapattinam; and Mohammed Yusuffudeen Harish Mohamed, also from Nagapattinam -- and their associates had collected funds and made preparations to carry out terrorist attacks in India, with the intention of establishing Islamic rule in India. After it

New curriculum hopes to counter violent extremism, reduce radicalisation

ABU DHABI, 10th July, 2019 (WAM) -- Search for Common Ground (Search) in collaboration with Hedayah, the International Centre of Excellence for Countering Violent Extremism (CVE), has released the first ever complete CVE Training Curriculum. Financed by the European Union’s Strengthening Resilience to Violent Extremism (STRIVE) Global programme, the initiative is aimed to raise awareness on collaborative CVE approaches among governments and civil societies, while better equipping them to prevent and counter violent extremism. Patrizio Fondi, Ambassador of the European Union to the UAE, said, "The EU is proud of having contributed to such an important and unique initiative, together with our partners from Hedayah and Search. By now, we are all aware that securitised responses to violent extremism need to be complemented with whole of society approaches

Women in Syria's Raqqa Enjoy Newfound Freedoms after Islamic State

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WASHINGTON - Women in the Syrian city of Raqqa say their lifestyle drastically changed after U.S.-backed forces freed their city from the Islamic State terror group. The Syrian Democratic Forces liberated the city in October 2017. Since then, Raqqa residents have been determined to bring a sense of normalcy back to their city, which was once the de facto capital of IS's self-proclaimed caliphate. Throughout the partially restored market in downtown Raqqa, shops selling women's clothing and cosmetics now openly showcase their merchandise, something unthinkable during IS rule. "Now, I can exhibit anything I want in front of my store," said a 37-year-old man who owns a women's boutique. "When Daesh was here, we had to hide things like revealing clothes and lingerie in the back of the store. Men couldn't sell these things to women, so we had to hire women to sell to other women,"

Turkey’s Africa Strategy Threatens to Breed Islamist Extremism

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Sudan’s President Omer Al Bashir welcomes Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at Khartoum Airport, Sudan, December 24, 2017. (Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters) Will the Erdogan regime become to that continent what Saudi Arabia became to the Middle East? W hen the Carter and Reagan administrations began supporting Islamists in Afghanistan, few policymakers recognized the Pandora’s box they were opening. The great global threat, after all, was Communism. And even if radical Islamism was a threat — as early as 1946 , the U.S. intelligence community predicted it would be — Afghanistan was half a world away. While the notion that the Pentagon and the CIA once allied themselves with the Taliban or al-Qaeda is a popular but achronological myth, the blowback from Cold War support for Islamists is hard to dispute. Hand-wringing about Islamist terrorism and the post–9/11 “global war on terrorism” created a smokes

Germany must repatriate IS militant's wife and children from Syria, court rules

A Berlin court has ruled that Germany's foreign ministry should repatriate the German wife and three children of a suspected IS fighter from Syria. Germany's foreign ministry must repatriate from Syria the German wife and three children of a suspected Islamic State [IS] militant, a Berlin court ruled on Thursday. The suspected IS militant, whose fate is unknown, left Germany in 2014 and headed to Syria with his wife and two daughters, now aged seven and eight. His wife had a third child in Syria two years ago, the court spokesperson said. His family sued the foreign ministry after authorities rejected a request to help return his wife and her three children from a Kurdish-controlled area in northern Syria. The German state wanted to repatriate only the children, and Thursday's ruling comes as a first against the government. A foreign ministry spokesman said the government was reviewing the ruling and may appeal

UN chief condemns Syria airstrikes after Idlib hospitals hit

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Thursday strongly condemned airstrikes in northwest Syria following reports that four health facilities were hit during a single day of bombing. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Thursday strongly condemned airstrikes in northwest Syria following reports that four health facilities were hit during a single day of bombing. An ambulance center, a clinic and two hospitals including one in Maarat al Numan that is among the largest in the area were attacked on Wednesday, according to the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations, a Syrian doctors' group. "Civilians and civilian infrastructure, including medical facilities, must be protected," said Guterres in a statement released by his spokesman. The United Nations had shared the coordinates of the hospital in Maarat al Numan with the warring parties, the statement said. "Parties to the conflict must respect their obligations under internationa

Turkey's President Erdogan claims Muslim Uighur minority 'live happily' in China, despite abuse reports

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told President Xi Jinping that ethnic minorities live happily in Xinjiang, Chinese media have reported. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping that ethnic minorities live happily in  Xinjiang , in what would be a stark reversal of Ankara's past criticism of Beijing's crackdown in the region. Erdogan met Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday, four months after the Turkish foreign ministry called the treatment of mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking Uighurs "a great embarrassment for humanity". China has come under growing criticism over its security clampdown in the northwest region, where more than one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are believed to be held in a network of internment camps.  Beijing denies forcibly holding people in what it describes as "vocat

AU envoy urges greater involvement of youth in anti-terrorism war

NAIROBI, July 11 (Xinhua) -- African countries should harness the energy and creativity of the youth to revitalize action on violent extremism that has gained foothold amid poverty, conflicts and social exclusion, an African Union (AU) envoy said on Thursday. Aya Chebbi, AU youth envoy said that success of counter-terrorism initiatives in Africa depends on robust engagement of the continent's youthful population in policy formulation and awareness on the menace. "Our governments should change policies that discriminates the youth in leadership and policy formulation to ensure they play a meaningful role in peace, security and prevention of violent extremism," Chebbi said on the sidelines of a Pan African counter-terrorism forum underway in Nairobi. The 31-year old Tunisian peace activist said the African regional high-level conference on counter-terrorism presented an opportunity to discuss greater involvement of youth to fight a vice that is

Tanzania says does not know whether missing journalist is dead or alive

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) – Tanzania does not know whether a missing journalist who disappeared two years ago while investigating a series of murders of police and ruling party officials is dead or alive, the country’s foreign minister was quoted on Thursday as saying. Activists have cited Azory Gwanda’s disappearance as a sign of worsening conditions for journalists under President John Magufuli’s government, which they accuse of cracking down on press freedoms by suspending newspapers. The government denies the allegations. In an interview with the BBC on Monday, Foreign Minister Palamagamba Kabudi appeared to confirm Gwanda’s death and said a series of deadly attacks in the Rufiji area where he had been based were linked to armed “extremism”, which has now spread to Tanzania’s southern neighbour Mozambique. But in a clarification issued through Tanzania government spokesman Hassan Abbasi on Thursday, Kabudi denied that the journalist was dead. “The reference I ma

Terrorism ‘spreading and destabilizing’ entire regions, Guterres warns States, at key Kenya conference

Speaking in Nairobi at the opening of a conference on counter-terrorism, Mr. Guterres recalled how attackers had laid siege to a hotel complex in the capital in January, killing 21 people. Africans on ‘front line’ against terror The deteriorating situation in the Sahel and “increasing risks” in West Africa are also deeply concerning, the UN chief continued, amid ongoing attacks by armed militants in the Lake Chad region, central Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. In light of these developments, “there is an urgent need for the international community to support Member States in this region”, Mr. Guterres said, noting that the people of Africa “are on the front line of efforts to tackle terrorism and the spread of violent extremism”. Women’s role countering extremists, ‘inspirational’ Welcoming the determination of Africans to find solutions to terrorism, the UN Secretary-General highlighted the “inspirational” role of women in prevention effo

Kenya pledges grassroots-led campaign against violent extremism

NAIROBI-- Kenya will implement a community-led campaign against radicalisation and violent extremism as the menace spread in traditional hotspots, officials said on Thursday. Martin Kimani, director of Kenya National Counterterrorism Centre, said the Government has invested in education and awareness programmes to strengthen the capacity of local communities to combat militancy and other vices that are a threat to public security. “We have developed county action plans that aims to empower local communities to fight violent extremism,” Kimani said on the sidelines of a Pan African conference on counter-terrorism underway in Nairobi. He said the Government had mobilised resources from bilateral partners to hasten implementation of community based anti-terrorism strategies that leverage on youth empowerment and enhanced vigilance. “So far, we have built robust networks across the country to assist in detecting, reporting and monitoring of youth at risk of joining terr

Counter-terrorism expert urges leniency on home-grown extremists

A counter-terrorism expert is urging the Australian government to rethink travel bans to Middle Eastern war zones, along with laws stripping citizenship from home-grown extremists. Isaac Kfir, from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, is also calling for major changes in dealing with convicted terrorists and would-be jihadis. Watch the related video above: Police questioning Sydney terror suspects Dr Kfir argues Australian policymakers must adjust their approach following the collapse of the Islamic State "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria. In a new report released on Wednesday, Kfir suggests politicians have for years been focused on stopping Australians from travelling to the conflict zone. RELATED: Terror watch focus of Vic police drones Terror accused Isaac el Matari allegedly bought plane ticket from Flight Centre Sydney terror raids: Alleged IS supporters were targeting police stations, churches "The demise of the caliphate and t