Terrorism Watch

  A Yazidi woman says she is willing to testify against some of the so-called "ISIS brides" after alleging she was kept as a slave in their family's home in Syria. Two women have been charged with crimes against humanity offences, including enslavement, which a legal expert describes as "unprecedented" for Australia. What's next? The women have appeared in court and will remain behind bars.  The ABC can reveal new details about the alleged treatment of a Yazidi woman who says she was held captive in the home of ISIS-linked Australians in Syria, including two women who have just returned to Melbourne and have been charged with crimes against humanity. The Yazidi woman also confirmed to the ABC that she has been interviewed by the Australian Federal Police and would be willing to testify in any proceedings. Four women and nine children linked to ISIS returned home to Australia on Thursday evening, and upon their arrival, two women were arrested on crimes again...

  “Russian society has not only viewed but also taken to heart – with deep outrage and bewilderment –  the fact that Armenia, a country we have long regarded as a friendly and brotherly nation, served as a platform for a terrorist, for the leader of a neo-Nazi regime, who was received very warmly in Yerevan,” Zakharova said, as quoted by TASS. “Zelensky took advantage of this unfathomable hospitality from his Armenian hosts to voice his ad nauseam, old anti-Russian tirades,” Zakharova added.  “It’s wonderful that Zelenskyy visited Yerevan. Let the people of Armenia see who Brussels considers a symbol of its successful policies. Zelenskyy’s visit to Yerevan showed the people of Armenia the future that the European Union has in store for them,” she said during a briefing. RIA Novosti quoted another remark by the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson: “During their recent visits to Moscow, the Armenian leadership assured us that it would not take any steps against Russia. If...

  Cyber attacks more than doubled in 2025, with   Health-ISAC’s 2025 Fourth Quarter Health Sector Heartbeat reporting a 55% year-over-year increase in cyber incidents.  While attacks continue to grow in frequency, the more alarming shift is in their impact. As attacks against governments and critical infrastructure like  healthcare and  manufacturing  are intensifying in both scale and ambition, the cybercrime losses are staggering. According to the  FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report , US cybercrime losses hit a historical high of nearly $21 billion, a 26% YoY increase. We’ve analyzed recent cyber attacks within the past 6 months and a larger sample within the past 5 years to identify important patterns, trends, and actionable takeaways that can help organizations understand emerging threats and shifting criminal tactics and improve their resilience to help prevent cyber attacks. Recent Cyber Attacks 2026 This year marks a noticeable escalation in cyber...

( NewsNation ) — Pirates have hijacked at least three vessels off Somalia’s coast, raising fears of a possible resurgence of armed maritime attacks in the region. The recent incidents mark the  highest number of hijackings in Somali waters over a 10-day period  since the peak of the piracy crisis in 2012, according to the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute. A cargo ship carrying cement and flying the flag of St. Kitts and Nevis was  seized off the Somali coast  a day after a dhow was hijacked, according to the Maritime Security Centre Indian Ocean, the European Union naval force’s tracking service. The vessel had departed Egypt and was bound for Mombasa, Kenya, when nine pirates reportedly boarded and took control. The incident followed a series of attacks on April 21, including the hijacking of a fuel tanker carrying 18,000 barrels of crude oil off northeastern Somalia. The vessel was taken in waters between the coastal towns of Hafun and ...

  Damascus, Syria   - On 6 March, days after launching the   war against Iran , US President Donald Trump stated he would approve of   Iranian Kurds taking military action   against the Iranian regime. "I think it's wonderful that they want to do that, I'd be all for it," Trump said in an interview with news agency  Reuters . As Washington sought to mobilise opposition against Tehran, it reportedly  engaged  in talks with Iranian-Kurdish factions. However, at the peak of US and Israeli attacks on Iran, Kurdish factions - including the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK) - ultimately  remained on the sidelines . The PJAK is an offshoot of the  Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a militant group that fought for the creation of a Kurdish state for decades. “If the PJAK had entered the war, Iran would have hit them very hard in the areas where they actually live and operate - that would have been an existential risk,” Erdem Ozan, a former Turkish ...

  Since Israel began repeatedly violating the   fragile ceasefire that took effect   on 17 April, a new phase of confrontation has taken hold in southern Lebanon, shaped less by large-scale offensives and more by a quiet but highly disruptive shift in battlefield tactics. At the centre of this transformation is  Hezbollah's growing use  of fibre-optic guided drones, a weapon that has quickly evolved from a supplementary tool into a defining feature of the current fighting. According to sources who spoke to  The New Arab , Hezbollah has deployed Kamikaze drones guided via fibre-optic cables to strike Israeli troop gatherings, tanks, and artillery positions, framing these attacks as a response to  ongoing Israeli violations  and attempts to entrench forces in the south. These drones, the sources said, now represent a "major operational challenge" for Israeli forces, particularly given their low cost, high precision, and resistance to interception. A...