Terrorism Watch

The children stumble in from a burned desert of the dying and the dead. They are weak from hunger and filled with horror. And they are alone. Aid workers say hundreds of unaccompanied children have arrived in the Sudanese town of Tewila in recent weeks after escaping El Fashir , where fighters from the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary ( RSF ) have carried out  mass killings  and kidnappings after seizing the city last month. Some children saw their parents killed; others lost them in the chaos of fleeing. There are babies too, some just weeks old, found clinging to the bodies of their parents and brought to the displacement camp by strangers, according to humanitarian groups in Tewila. Sudan’s civil war , pitting the RSF against the country’s armed forces, has given rise to a historic humanitarian crisis. U.S. officials  estimated  last year that 150,000 people had been killed, and the bloodletting has only intensified. Twelve million have been displaced. The RSF ...

The UN Security Council on Friday called for an end to cross-border and maritime attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis and urged member states to beef up efforts to implement an arms embargo against them. In a resolution renewing sanctions against the group, the Council condemned the attacks and demanded an end to all such actions, “including those against infrastructure and civilian targets.” The text was adopted in a 13-0 vote, with permanent members China and Russia abstaining. Targeted sanctions were extended until November 14, 2026 , including a freezing of assets and travel bans currently in place against about 10 people, most of them high-ranking Houthi officials and the group as a whole. The text says that sanctions could now affect those who launch cross-border attacks from Yemeni territory using ballistic and cruise missile technology , or attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden . Member states were asked to “increase efforts to combat the smuggling...

Last week, Indonesia experienced an unprecedented act of violence when  explosive devices detonated  at a school complex in the capital Jakarta during Friday prayers. Over 90 students were taken to hospital, some with burns and others with injuries from flying shrapnel and shattered glass, although there were no reported deaths. The suspected perpetrator, a 17-year-old student at a neighboring school who has not been named, was also taken to hospital, where he reportedly underwent surgery after he was similarly injured in the blasts. He had apparently prepared seven crude explosive devices at home, three of which failed to detonate, having learned bomb making on the “dark web.” Some of the devices had been placed  inside soft drink cans , Indonesian police said on Tuesday. Also found at the scene were two toy guns covered in scrawling handwriting, which featured the names of perpetrators of shootings such as  Brenton Harrison Tarran t, the Christchurch mosque attacke...

ERBIL , Kurdistan Region - Kurds in Kirkuk say they are upset that despite an increase in the number of votes for Kurdish parties in Iraq's parliamentary elections , they actually lost seats in the disputed province. Of 13 seats, including one reserved for minorities, five went to Kurdish parties - the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). In 2021, Kurdish parties won six seats in Kirkuk - three PUK, two KDP, and one the New Generation Movemenet (NGM). "Kurdish people are all upset. Five seats is a very, very low number for us. We intended to achieve seven seats. We do not know why it happened this way," said Sulaiman Mohammed, a Kurdish resident of Kirkuk. Mohammed Dwyz, another resident, blamed the Kurdish parties for not establishing a united front. "We did not run for the election on a shared list. We lost a lot of votes because of the multiplicity of lists, which harmed Kirkuk. People slowly start to lose confidence,"...

Authorities stressed that initial communications made no mention of terrorism being suspected as a motive. A man wielding a knife at the Montparnasse train station in Paris was shot and wounded by police on Friday, the city's prosecutor’s office said. At least one shot was fired during the incident involving a 44-year-old man "known for domestic violence ," a statement said. It added that the man then apparently inflicted knife wounds on himself and emergency services were called. "A 53-year-old bystander, who was shot in the foot, was also treated by the emergency services," the public prosecutor's office said in a statement Authorities stressed that initial communications made no mention of terrorism being suspected as a motive French rail operator SNCF said that a security perimeter was set up "on a small part of the station" following the police intervention, causing slight traffic disruption. The incident comes a day after the 10th anniversa...

Hediya Youssef, the member of the Co-Presidential Council of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), affirmed that the only thing that can protect Turkey from the negative impacts of the current regional transformations is the establishment of a new phase of peace with the Kurds. She said that Turkey’s future enjoyment of freedom and democracy is tied to resolving the Kurdish issue   The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has taken historic steps to advance the “Call for Peace and Democratic Society” launched by Abdullah Ocalan from his prison on İmralı Island on February 27 of this year, by dissolving itself, holding a symbolic weapons-burning ceremony, and announcing the withdrawal of its fighters from within the borders as a gesture of goodwill and proof of seriousness in this process. In this context, Hediya Youssef explained in an interview with ANHA Agency that with the withdrawal of the fighters of the Kurdish Liberation Movement from Northern Kurdistan and Turkey, in response to ...

A new round of clashes between Druze armed groups and Government forces in the province of Sweida in southern Syrian had subsided Friday but left fears of another escalation. Clashes on Thursday led to both sides blaming each other for violating a ceasefire that ended several days of violent fighting in July. There were reports of people wounded on both sides, but no deaths reported. The National Guard , the de facto military in Sweida, accused Government forces of launching an attack on the town of al-Majdal Thursday, “employing heavy and medium weapons and attack drones, in an aggressive attempt to breach our defence lines and target vital locations.” “Our forces bravely and with high combat efficiency repelled this attack, inflicting heavy losses on the attacking forces in terms of equipment and personnel,” it said in a statement. The Government in Damascus accused the Sweida factions of violating the ceasefire first. Mustafa al-Bakour , the Damascus-appointed governor of Sweida p...

The armed group abducted civil judge Ali Ezz al-Din from a plantation owned by his family in the Wadi al-Dhahab neighborhood, with no information available about the kidnappers, his location, or the motives behind the incident. Homs has witnessed a notable increase in kidnappings, killings, and forced displacements, in the absence of effective measures to curb these crimes, which are occurring at an alarming rate. The current situation reflects the severe security breakdown in the city, exacerbating the suffering of its residents and raising concerns about further deterioration in the coming period   Source:  Civil judge kidnapped in Homs amid worsening security situation -ANHA

A woman has been injured in an explosion in the Mezzeh district of Damascus , according to Syrian state media. Rockets were fired at a home in Syria’s capital on Friday night, causing the injury as well as material damage, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported. The attack in the city’s western Mezzeh 86 neighbourhood was caused by “unknown assailants,” state media said. A security source told state TV channel al-Ikhbariya that security forces have launched an investigation into the circumstances of the incident and are pursuing those responsible. SANA reported that the party behind the attack and the exact weapons “remain unknown so far.” However it added that the rockets were fired from a mobile launcher . Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent in Damascus said that the area targeted was entirely civilian, explaining that the targeted area included buildings and diplomatic headquarters. The reporter added that the attack comes at a time when the Syrian Interior Ministry is continu...

Ethiopia accuses Eritrea of “preparing to wage war,” Eritrea retorts that its neighbor’s words were fueling “dangerous conflicts,” and analysts fear another war is brewing in the volatile Horn of Africa . What does Ethiopia want? For months, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been demanding access to the sea for his landlocked country, while insisting it will be through peaceful means. Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country with some 130 million people, lost its shoreline when Eritrea broke away in 1993. In a statement to parliament on October 28, Abiy asserted he was “a million percent sure that Ethiopia will not remain landlocked whether anyone likes it or not.” He called for “mediation,” particularly from the United States and Europe, to find a “peaceful solution.” The Eritrean government in Asmara believes Ethiopia is eyeing its port of Assab and, through its minister of information, denounced Abiy’s words as “fomenting dangerous conflicts.” “(Abiy’s) messaging about ...