Syria: Islamic State Starts Attack On Air Base
 
August 20, 2014 

Islamic State militants have launched an attack on Tabqa air base in northeastern Syria, looking to seize the last position held by regime forces in Raqqa province, an Islamic State stronghold, AP reported Aug. 20. The group has tightened its siege of the facility in recent days, capturing a number of nearby villages. Islamic State has effectively eliminated the military's presence in Raqqa outside of Tabqa.

Norway On Alert For Islamist Terror Attempt

July 24,2014

Norway announced Thursday that they are on alert for a possible terror attempt within a few days. The Police Security Service "recently received information that individuals affiliated with an extreme Islamist group in Syria may have the intention of carrying out a terrorist action in Norway," the service said in a statement ...We also have information indicating that a terrorist action against Norway is planned to be carried out shortly -- probably in a few days ...We have no information about who is behind such an attack, how it will be carried out, the target or in what way such an attack will be carried out. ... As the information is not specific and not very concrete but at the same time credible, it is difficult to give advice to the citizens of this country on how to act in this situation."

Syrian Rebel Jihadists Arrested in France

July 22,2014

French authorities have arrested two former Syrian rebel jihadists in the town of Albi. They appear to have been part of a cell attempting to recruit individuals to commit attacks inside of France.

Hezbollah Leader Says They Are Ready To Support Hamas
 
July 21, 2014
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has been heard in conversation with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shalah stating that Hezbollah is prepared to assist Hamas against Israel

Israel Strikes Weapons Cache is Sudan

July 21, 2014

There are reports that Israeli forces have destroyed a cache of weapons in Sudan that was headed for Hamas in Gaza. It appears that Israel's air force carried out the attack on a warehouse in Sudan.

Hamas unveils new UAV

Mohammed Najib, Ramallah and Jeremy Binnie, London - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly

15 July 2014

 

 

The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, announced on 14 July that it has a self-produced unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) called the Ababil 1.
It said it had developed three different models: the A1A for reconnaissance missions; A1B for offensive missions; and A1C for attacking suicide missions, in which the UAV is used as a loitering munition.
The announcement was accompanied by the release of a video showing what the al-Qassam Brigades said was an A1B in flight.
The aircraft has a boxy fuselage with a high-wing, twin-boom, pusher configuration and fixed, wheeled under-carriage. It carried what appeared to be two improvised rockets under each wing. While it did not appear to be fitted with an electro-optical turret, it had a camera fixed under each boom to film what is in front of the UAV.

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ISIL Militants Seize Nuclear Materials in Iraq

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
July 10, 2014

NBC’s Keir Simmons reports the Iraqi government is reaching out to the U.S. for help, as Iraqi state TV confirms that militants there have seized uranium compounds.
“Iraqi state TV confirming that uranium was taken from Mosul University when ISIL overran that city last month, it is a small amount, just 88 pounds we are told. The International Atomic Energy Agency is saying it’s low-grade uranium; it does not present a significant safety, security, or nuclear proliferation risk,” Simmons said on the Today Show.
“All the same, the Iraqi government wrote to the U.N. warning them about this saying the uranium could be used as an act of terrorism and says that’s why the West should get involved in Iraq,” he added.

This entry was posted in National Security and tagged Iraq, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.  

Llink.

 

Nigeria gas depot blast was suicide bombing


July 10, 2014
By Robin Dixon

Nigeria's nightmare scenario has been this: Islamist militias waging terror in the country's northeast launch attacks in distant Lagos, a chaotic megacity of about 20 million in the southeast and the country's economic engine.
Two weeks ago, Islamic extremists from Boko Haram, or an offshoot group, did attack Lagos, according to security analysts who believe the government and security forces hid the truth.
A female suicide bomber parked her car next to a gasoline tanker in Lagos' Apapa district beside a fuel depot and blew herself up June 25, said security analysts who viewed photographs of the aftermath. Moments earlier, an improvised bomb was thrown over a nearby fence, the analysts said.

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Jihadists seek to open new front in Burma

July 15, 2013
By Bill Roggio

"A brigade of Mujahedeen from Burma, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan" purportedly have launched operations in Burma. Photographs of scores of armed jihadists in military uniforms have appeared on a jihadist website.

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Former bin Laden doctor reportedly heads al Qaeda in the Sinai Peninsula

By David BarnettJuly 17, 2013

Ramzi Mowafi. Image from Al Arabiya.

Egyptian security forces have reportedly arrested a number of jihadists operating in the Sinai Peninsula who are linked to Ramzi Mowafi, a former physician for Osama bin Laden.
Sources have told Egyptian media outlets that Mowafi's group has been responsible for numerous attacks in the Sinai over the past two years. Among those recently arrested are a Yemeni and a Palestinian who were found in the possession of maps and laptops.
In August 2011, Egyptian security officials told CNN that Mowafi, who is also thought to be an explosives expert, was spotted in the Sinai. At the time, Mowafi, born in Egypt in 1952, was said to be providing military training to a number of people in the Sinai.
Mowafi, who is believed to have done chemical weapons work for al Qaeda, was involved in the January 2011 prison break in which former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi escaped along with a number of other senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders.

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Wanted Hamas member killed

Jerusalem (CNN) -- A wanted Hamas operative was killed overnight in an Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank, the military said Friday.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli military told CNN that Israeli soldiers were on a mission to apprehend Palestinian Iyad Shilbayeh for suspicions of involvement in recent "terror activity" in a town near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem.
Shilbayeh ran toward the Israeli soldiers with his hands behind his back in a suspicious manner and continued to advance despite calls for him to stop, according to the spokeswoman. It was at this point that Israeli soldiers opened fired the spokeswoman told CNN.

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Car bomb, gunmen attack Mogadishu airport: 7 dead

By Mohamed Olad Hassan, The Associated Press

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A suicide car bomber and gunmen attacked the front gate to Mogadishu's seaside airport on Thursday, triggering an explosion and gunbattle, officials said. At least seven people were killed, including six security forces.
The co-ordinated attack was the latest in a surge of assaults by Islamist insurgents, who last month declared a new, stepped-up effort to oust the country's weak government. The barrage took place about 40 minutes after Somalia's president flew out of the country.

After the car bomb exploded, a second vehicle full of militants opened fire at African Union and Somali security forces, said Osman Dahir, a police officer at the airport. He said there were several dead bodies of insurgents lying in front of the airport, but he didn't know how many.
Two soldiers with the African Union force and four Somali police officers were killed, said Maj. Barigye Bahoku, the spokesman for the AU force. One Somali civilian was also killed, he said.
Vehicles from the African Union blocked the car bomb attacker from gaining entry into the airport, said Abdul Rahman Yussef, an official with Somalia's army. The 7,000-man AU force guards the airport and presidential palace and prevents the al-Qaida-linked militant group al-Shabab from overthrowing Somalia's weak government.

Yussef said he believes two women who were begging near the gate also were killed. Bahoku could not confirm the deaths.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but the attack was likely carried out by al-Shabab, Somalia's most dangerous militant group.
Late last month al-Shabab militants stormed a Mogadishu hotel favoured by lawmakers and killed 32 people, including four parliamentarians. In July, al-Shabab masterminded twin bombings in Uganda's capital during the World Cup final, attacks that killed 76 people.

Al-Shabab recently declared a new, stepped-up campaign to overthrow Somalia's government and install the harsh, ultraconservative form of Sharia law that it practices across Somalia. Militant veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts help train al-Shabab fighters, one of the reasons the sophistication of its attacks has risen in recent months.

15 killed in car bomb attack in Russia 

A suicide car bomb attack in a busy marketplace in Russia's Vladikavkaz city, capital of North Ossetia, left at least 15 people dead Thursday, according to the Itar-Tass news agency.

Around 80 people were injured when the car packed with 40 kg of TNT exploded, according to the interior ministry of the Republic of North Ossetia.

Two people were in the car, which bore the licence plates of the neighbouring predominantly Muslim republic of Ingushetia.

The attack, which occurred on the final day of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, damaged numerous buildings in the city and set dozens of cars on fire.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin condemned the attack and called on the region's Muslim population to help prevent similar incidents in the future.

Security precautions were increased after the blast, with authorities evacuating all schools and kindergartens in North Ossetia.  

Six years ago, Islamist separatists carried out one of the worst attacks in Beslan, North Ossetia, in which more than 330 people were killed - including 168 children.

The neighbouring republics of Dagestan and Chechnya have seen repeated attacks by the separatists.

Medvedev ordered his special envoy for the northern Caucasus, Alexander Kloponin, to travel to Vladikavkaz. Police in the city defused a second bomb at the entrance to the marketplace, after the first one went off.

Putin accused the terrorists behind the car bombing of seeking to sow discord.

'We are counting on the Muslim population to make a decisive contribution towards the fight( against terrorism), Putin said.

Islamic separatists in the Muslim north Caucasus are fighting elements loyal to the Kremlin with the goal of setting up an independent 'Caucasus Emirate' in the region.  

New additions to Abū Muḥmmad al-Maqdisī’s English language jihādī library

Today Abū Muḥmmad al-Maqdisī’s English language jihādī library (tawhed.net) added new articles and interviews to its archives. According to the Combating Terrorism Center’s Militant Atlas, al-Maqdisī is considered “the most influential living Jihadi Theorist.” The following documents were added:

• A Letter from the Afghan Lands to the Shaykh Abū Muḥmmad al-Maqdisī
• Biographies of the Martyrs- Abū Hussayn al-Yūsufīyyah
• Biographies of the Martyrs- Abū Baṣīr al-Tūnisī
• Usāmah Bin Lāden: The Way to Save the Earth
• Usāmah Bin Lāden: Call For Jihād To Stop Aggression Against Gaza
• Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri: The Aggression Against Lāl Masjid
• Khālid Al-Ḥusaynān: How can you out do the scholars?
• ‘Aṭīyyah Allah al-Lībī: Responses to the Ruling on Leaving for Battle and the Precondition of Takfīr
• Abū Muḥmmad al-Maqdisī: Ramaḍān, un mois de victoires et de changement
• The Open Meeting with Shaykh Ayman al-Zawahiri 1429H