Terrorism Watch

NAIROBI/ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - The Ethiopian government rebuffed an African effort to mediate on Saturday, saying its troops had seized another town in their march towards the rebel-held capital of northern Tigray region. More than two weeks into Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s offensive, the government says Tigrayan forces are bulldozing roads and destroyed bridges to hold up the advance on regional capital Mekelle, home to about half a million people. The Tigrayans have promised “hell” for their advancing enemies. They have denied destroying bridges but were not reachable for comment about ploughing up roads. Hundreds, possibly thousands, have died and more than 30,000 refugees have fled to Sudan since the conflict erupted on Nov. 4. The fighting has spread beyond Tigray, whose forces have fired rockets at the neighbouring Amhara region and the nation of Eritrea, spurring concern of a wider war and the splintering of multi-ethnic Ethiopia. Abiy’s government has said it wi

  Story highlights 'Torbaaz', starring Sanjay Dutt, is releasing on Netflix on December 11. Today, Sanjay Dutt shared the trailer of his upcoming Netflix movie 'Torbaaz'. Starring in the lead, Dutt is all set to play an ex-army man name Nasser Khan, who wants to change the life of a few young refugee kids living in Kabul by teaching them cricket. The trailer is set in Kabul and opens up with Sanjay Dutt talking to the locals and telling them about training camp, he is willing to open for the boys at the refugee camp. While a terrorist group of the area, led by actor Rahul Dev, wants to train the children as suicide bombers.  The trailer also looks back at a personal tragedy of Dutt's character that led him to save the life of the refugee kids from terrorism.  The movie is helmed by Girish Malik and stars Nargis Fakhri as Dutt’s

India has told the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) that it calls for an “immediate comprehensive ceasefire” in Afghanistan, while welcoming all opportunities to bring peace to the country. Also read: Another Afghan peace push and a role for India India’s position was articulated by its Permanent Representative to the United Nations, T.S. Tirumurti, at a UNSC meeting on Friday, convened under the Arria Formula (informally convened at the request of a UNSC member). Current and incoming members of the UNSC spoke on how the Council could support the Afghan peace process. Also read: India has joined Afghan peace process at the right time, should engage Taliban directly: Hamid Karzai The timing of the remarks is significant as India is weeks away from beginning a two-year term at the Council and comes days after U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement this week that he would dramatically cut the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan by January 15, an act that cou

WASHINGTON - Weeks of continued calm in and around Baghdad’s Green Zone were disturbed Tuesday when several rockets were fired toward the U.S. Embassy, located in the fortified area that houses key government offices and other diplomatic facilities. Iraqi officials say at least three of the seven rockets fired were intercepted by the Counter Rocket, Artillery and Mortar (C-Ram) system installed near the U.S. Embassy, but some of them fell in nearby civilian areas, killing at least one child and injuring several others. The attack did not kill or wound any Americans. Initially, a new pro-Iran group called Ashab al-Kahf or “the cave companions,” which Iraqi intelligence sources describe as a subgroup of Kataib Hezbollah, the usual suspect in attacks on U.S. interests in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attack on social media. Denial of responsibility But after news of civilian casualties broke, KH and its political ally in the Iraqi parliament, the Fatah Coalitio

On November 19, four terrorists were killed and two policemen injured in a gunfight at Ban Toll Plaza near Nagrota on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the security forces had defeated a “nefarious plot to target grassroots level democratic exercises in Jammu and Kashmir” by killing “four terrorists” belonging to the Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammad. News Analysis | With ‘terror dossier’ against India, Pakistan tries to kill two birds with one shot The terrorists, who recently infiltrated from Pakistan, were killed in a gunfight at the Ban Toll Plaza near Nagrota on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway on Thursday. The four had huge quantities of ammunition and explosive materials on them. Two policemen were injured in the incident. The Prime Minister held a detailed review of the Nagrota encounter on Friday. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary Harsh Shri

Key Highlights The killing of Osama bin Laden in a US operation in Pakistan in 2011 left the beleaguered group in the clutches of Zawahiri However, many believe he did not possess Laden’s ability to rally Islamic radicals from around the world The biggest challenge the terror outfit now faces is not just to find a new leader, but also to match up to the level of fear the organisation commanded during Laden’s reign Kabul: Ayman Al-Zawahiri, a chief of dreaded terror organisation Al-Qaeda died in Afghanistan a month due to natural causes, according to Arab News report. If true, his death could prove a catastrophic turnaround for the terror outfit, which he co-founded with former leader Osama bin Laden in 1988 in Pakistan’s Peshawar. What’s even more concerning for the terror group is that they have to now scramble t

  Although the Islamic State extremist group is battered and scattered, it cannot be fully defeated until the world finds a way to reconcile and resettle the thousands of people displaced by years of war in Iraq and Syria, the general overseeing American military operations in the Mideast said Thursday. Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of US Central Command, said there is no military means of solving the problem of Mideast refugees and internally displaced persons, or IDPs, who await repatriation or resettlement and represent what he called an unfortunate byproduct of armed conflicts.  Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter "Today, across vast swaths of Syria and Iraq, the systemic indoctrination of IDP and refugee camp populations who are hostage to the receipt of ISIS ideology is an alarming development with potentially generational implications," McKenzie said in remarks to the National Council on US-Arab Relations. He said a solution must come

  Binay Kumar Singh X i Jinping, leader-for-life of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has recently directed his party members to “form an impregnable fortress in maintaining stability” by strengthening the role of the CCP in Tibet. He also stated that “absolute loyalty (to CCP) was necessary to counter major battles (in Tibet) and prevent major risks”. In the same vein, he also remarked that “Tibetan Buddhism had to adapt to socialism and Chinese conditions”. This missive to the party’s higher leadership during the ongoing border tensions with India along the Line of Actual Control indicates that the CCP is likely to intensify its Sinicization programmes in this mountainous region. Strategic, economic, environmental and cultural implications of these actions are significant and could have a telling impact on the future of Asia itself. Two decades ago, the 21st century was dubbed as Asia’s Century, which the developing economies of the region set to drive global growth. But as it stand

  JAMMU/SRINAGAR :   Huge cache of arms, ammunition and explosive material including 11 AK rifles, 3 pistols, 29 grenades and 6 UBGL grenades recovered   Two cops injured in the 3-hour-long gunbattle that broke out when truck carrying militants was intercepted by security forces    FOUR suspected Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists were killed and two policemen were injured in a gunbattle on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway after a truck carrying a group of freshly-infiltrated militants was intercepted by security forces on the outskirts of Jammu city on Thursday, top police officials said. The terrorists had come to execute a “big plan” which has now been foiled, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Jammu, Mukesh Singh, said. In Srinagar, IGP, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar said the four terrorists were on their way to the Kashmir Valley to disturb the District Development Council (DDC) polls scheduled later this month, as Pakistan has been trying to cause disruption of district-level elections. Givin

  In yet another case of grooming jihad , a Hindu woman in Noida Uttar Pradesh was lured into a love affair and then into marriage by a Muslim man who hid his identity from her. According to reports, the victim woman has alleged that the Muslim man kept her in the dark about his real identity and presented himself as a Hindu. The man named Sahil Khan, who is a resident of Noida sector-15, introduced himself to the victim as a Hindu man named Sahil Singh. He even forged documents like Aadhar card in this fake name to lure the victim Hindu woman into a relationship. He married the victim woman and they started living together. But when the victim came to know about his real identity, she wanted to end the marriage. However, the man demanded Rs 25 lakh from her for ending the relationship. He even threatened the victim to kill her. Terrified by his threats, the victim filed a complaint about the incident at sector-20 police station. SHO Rakesh Singh said that the victim

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is still giving preferential treatment to Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed despite his sentencing in two terror-financing cases. A Lahore anti-terrorism court sentenced Hafiz Saeed to 10-year imprisonment in two terror-financing cases. According to sources, the Counter-Terrorism Department officials are treating Hafiz Saeed as a VIP. Saeed is still roaming in his SUV escorted by his aides, they said. He was slapped with a prison sentence of five-and-a-half years and a fine of Rs 15,000 in each case. The sentences of both cases will run concurrently. The court also granted him the benefit of Section 382-B of the Code of Criminal Procedure (reduction of period of sentence of imprisonment). Malik Zafar Iqbal, the secretary of Al-Anfaal Trust, has also been convicted in the same cases and has been awarded similar punishment, the Dawn reported. They were convicted under the Anti-Terrorism Act Section 11-F(2) — pertaining to memb

  New Delhi | Jagran News Desk:  Addressing the 12th BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) summit, held virtually, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday asserted that there is a need to ensure that countries supporting terrorists are held guilty, a call backed by Russian president Vladimir Putin, who dubbed such nations "black sheep of the family". Other than terrorism, PM Modi spoke on a range of issues, including the coronavirus pandemic and the need for reform of the UNSC, as well as key global bodies like the World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund and the World Health Organisation. Here is what PM Modi said on different issues: Terrorism As the five-nation BRICS grouping adopted a new counter-terrorism strategy to effectively deal with the menace, PM Modi said terrorism is the "biggest problem" the world is facing, and needed to be dealt with in an organised manner. "Terrorism is the biggest probl

LAHORE: Mumbai terror attack mastermind and Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed was on Thursday sentenced to 10 years in jail by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan in two more terror cases. Saeed, a UN designated terrorist whom the US has placed a $10 million bounty on, was arrested on July 17 last year in the terror financing cases. He was sentenced to 11 years in jail by an anti-terrorism court in February this year in two terror financing cases. He is lodged at the Lahore's high-security Kot Lakhpat jail. "The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) of Lahore on Thursday sentenced four leaders of Jamat-ud-Dawa, including its chief Hafiz Saeed, in two more cases," a court official told PTI. Saeed and his two close aides - Zafar Iqbal and Yahya Mujahid - have been sentenced to 10 and a half years each, while JuD chief's brother-in-law Abdul Rehman Makki was sentenced to six months imprisonment. "Judge Arshad Hussain Bhutta of ATC Court No. 1 heard the case N

  AMY GOODMAN : This is Democracy Now! , democracynow.org, The Quarantine Report . I’m Amy Goodman. A nearly three-decade-old ceasefire has ended in occupied Western Sahara. Morocco has occupied the territory since 1975 in defiance of the United Nations and the international community. Western Sahara is widely considered to be Africa’s last colony. Over the weekend, fighting broke out in several areas between the Moroccan military and the Polisario Front, the Sahrawi liberation movement seeking independence. Meanwhile, Morocco has intensified its repression in occupied Western Sahara, raiding the homes of independence activists, cracking down on protests. Moroccan military drones were reportedly spotted in the city of Dakhla. The ceasefire ended Friday after the Moroccan military broke into a no-go buffer zone in southern Western Sahara and exchanged fire with the Polisario Front. For the past three weeks, Sahrawi civilian protesters had blocked a Morocco-built road i