US military confirms 2 troops killed & 6 injured in Afghanistan by ‘individual in Afghan uniform’
FILE PHOTO: US troops in Afghanistan © Reuters / Goran Tomasevic
At least two US service members were killed and six others injured after an individual in “Afghan uniform” armed with a machine gun opened fire on a joint patrol in Afghanistan, the US military has confirmed.
The incident took place in Nangarhar province earlier on Saturday as a combined US and Afghan force was returning from a "key-leader engagement," a spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan said in a late-night statement.
The wounded service members are receiving medical treatment at a US facility, Colonel Sonny Leggett added, sharing no details of their condition.
We are still collecting information and the cause or motive behind the attack is unknown at this time
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but given the uniform, there’s a possibility it was an insider "green-on-blue" attack. In addition, both the Taliban and affiliates of Islamic State terrorists are active in Eastern Nangarhar province.
Nangarhar Prov., Afghanistan
Ethnic clashes in Kazakhstan leave 8 dead
By Danielle Haynes
A house lies in ruins in the village of Blas-Batyr after ethnic clashes between Kazakhs and Dungans in Kazakhstan on Saturday. Photo by Igor Kovalenko/EPA-EFE
(UPI) -- Ethnic violence in southern Kazakhstan left at least eight people dead and dozens others injured, local officials said.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said local police and the national guard brought the violence under control Friday.
Ethnic Kazakhs fought with the Dungan, a minority group of Muslims originally from China. Those involved set fire to houses and overturned cars. BBC News reported about 30 houses and 15 commercial properties were destroyed during the violence.
RFE/RL reported the clashes sent hundreds of people fleeing across the border to Kyrgyzstan. Some sought medical care in the neighboring country.
Some Kazakh witnesses said there had been long-standing feuds between the two groups, especially in the town of Masanchi, where Dungan families control much of the businesses.
Interior Minister Erlan Turghymbaev said police arrested at least 47 people.
"It was scary. [I was worried] about the [safety] of my family," Kharsan Subakhunov, a truck driver who fled to Kyrgyzstan told RFE-RL. "We stood guard to defend them ... Someone had been spreading fake news -- people had been duped [into believing them], and innocent people ended up suffering."
Tokayev said he ordered security forces to target people spreading hate speech and "provocative rumors and disinformation."
The attacks were believed to be in the vicinity of Almaty, on the southern border
6 dead, 12 injured in Kabul suicide bombing
By Clyde Hughes
Afghan security forces carry a damaged vehicle from the site of a suicide attack that targeted the entrance gate
of Marshal Fahim Military Academy in Kabul, Afghanistan Tuesday. Photo by Hedayatullah Amid/EPA-EFE
of Marshal Fahim Military Academy in Kabul, Afghanistan Tuesday. Photo by Hedayatullah Amid/EPA-EFE
(UPI) -- At least six people died and 12 others were injured in a suicide bomb attack outside of a military academy in Kabul Tuesday morning, Afghanistan's Ministry of the Interior said.
The suspected suicide bomber detonated the device while the employees and cadets were entering the Marshal Fahim Military Academy building. Early reports said that at least four of the dead were military personnel.
No group so far has claimed responsibility for the bombing. The Islamic State has targeted the same military academy in the past.
The United States and the Taliban have been in peace talks for months, coincided with a drop off in violence over that time. Military operations had also slowed fighting conducted by the Islamic State.
Those talks were postponed in December by U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad after the Taliban attacked a U.S. military base in Bagram.
No one took responsibility for a previous attack in November when 13 people were killed and 20 injured.
Russian military court convicts 7 anti-fascists
of terrorism in very suspect trial
By Sommer Brokawof terrorism in very suspect trial
General view of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) in Moscow, Russia.
File Photo by Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA
(UPI) -- A Russian military court Monday convicted seven young anti-fascist and anarchist men on terrorism charges an international human rights group said were fabricated.
The seven men standing trial in Penza are among 11 the Federal Security Service (FSB) accused in 2017 of planning bomb attacks at the 2018 World Cup soccer tournament in Russia and other attacks leading up to the 2018 presidential election. Four other defendants are still awaiting a verdict from a St. Petersburg military court.
Defendants convicted on terrorism charges, ranging in age from 23 to 31, included Dmitry Pchelintsev, Arman Sagynbaev, Vasily Kuskov, Mikhail Kulkov, Maxim Ivankin, Andrey Chernov and Ilya Shakursky.
They were enthusiasts of airsoft, a game similar to pinball. The FSB, a successor agency to the KGB, said the games were a form of training for the men they accused of organizing a terrorist group called "Network."
Investigators said Pchelinstev and Shakursky were leaders of a group accused of terrorism-related attacks, and they received the longest sentences of 18 and 16 years respectively, in maximum security, with overall prison sentences ranging from six to 18 years.
Prior to the verdict, Amnesty International said in a statement that the charges were made up to silence dissent.
"These terror charges are a figment of the Russian security services' imagination that was fabricated in an attempt to silence these activists," Natalia Prilutskaya, Amnesty International Russia's researcher, said in the statement. "The trial has been a sham -- the men say their confessions were extracted by torture and the so-called evidence contradicted by the facts."
Prilutskaya added that the terrorist group was nonexistent.
"It is clear from the trial that no criminal organization called 'Network' has ever existed," she said. "What has probably existed is a loose group of young like-minded people interested in playing airsoft. There is no evidence linking them to terrorism-related activities."
"This case is the latest politically-motivated abuse of the justice system to target young people," she added. "The allegations of torture and ill-treatment must be investigated, the men must be released, and the Russian government must stop resorting to fabricating criminal charges to silence all dissent."
Pakistan court sentences accused terrorist who masterminded the Mumbai massacre
By Don Jacobson
Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack that killed 166 people, has
been slapped with a prison sentence of more than five years in Pakistan in a terrorism financing case.
File photo by Rahat Dar/EPA-EFE
The presiding judge in the Lahore court handed down a prison term of five years and six months to Saaed and an associate in a terrorism financing case unrelated to the Mumbai attack, his lawyer said.
That works out to 12 days for each person killed in the attack. Shows you how seriously Pakistan is tackling terrorism.
Saeed, 69, is the founder of the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has blamed by India and the United States for the deadly 2008 incident. Both have designated him as a terrorist and had long advocated for his arrest.
He had escaped punishment in Pakistan, however, until July 2019, when he was arrested by the Counter-Terrorism Department of the Punjab Police near Lahore. He and more than a dozen accomplices were charged with financing terrorism in two separate cases.
Saeed had pleaded not guilty and claimed the Pakistan government was being pressured by India and the United States to file "false" cases against him.
The sentencing came shortly before the international Financial Action Task Force watchdog group was to meet in Paris.
Pakistan is seeking to avoid being blacklisted by the task force as a country that tolerates financing for terrorism, a designation that would result in its isolation from the international banking system and a strict regime of checks and safeguards.
North London man published terrorism-related material on an extremist website
One man from North London and another from Rochdale appeared in court
My London
Mohammed Abdul Ahad and Muhammad Abdur Raheem Kamali (Image: Met Police)
A north London man has been sentenced for his part in publishing terrorism-related material on an extremist website.
Working together, the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command (CTC), Counter Terrorism Police North-East (CTPNE) and North-West (CTPNW) disrupted an Islamist propaganda website for Daesh supporters.
The team brought to justice its two main administrators and contributors, 38-year-old, Mohammed Abdul Ahad, from north London, and 31-year-old, Muhammad Abdur Raheem Kamali, from Rochdale, Manchester.
Ahad and Kamali recorded and transcribed extremist speeches they then typed and edited them to be uploaded to the website. A significant number of these speeches glorified terrorist organisations, such as Al-Qaeda and Daesh, and encouraged both the support and act of terrorism.
The pair came to the attention of police in 2016, when CTPNE investigated a 20-year-old woman who shared terrorism-related documents on the website and on a linked Facebook page. She was convicted in 2017 for dissemination of a terrorist publication.
During this investigation, it was discovered Ahad and Kamali were administrators who had edited and published a number of these and other documents on the website.
The investigations into the two men meant both were simultaneously arrested on March 1, 2017 on suspicion of terrorism offences in a coordinated operation.
They were interviewed and bailed pending further enquiries. A search of their home addresses recovered a number of digital media devices which identified that Ahad and Kamali had been the website administrators.
On June 21, 2018, Ahad was further arrested for possession of an article from a terrorism propaganda magazine which gave instructions on how to assemble an AK47 automatic rifle. Again he gave a no-comment interview and was released on bail. Then on July 10, 2018, Ahad was charged with four counts of dissemination of a terrorist publication, contrary to Section 2 of the Terrorism Act (TACT) 2006 and one count of possession of a document or record likely to be of use to a terrorist, contrary to Section 58 of the TACT 2000.
On August 9, 2018, Kamali was charged with seven counts of dissemination of a terrorist publication, contrary to Section 2 of the TACT 2006.
Following a trial, Ahad was convicted on December 10, 2019 on all the counts of terrorism for which he was charged. Kamali was convicted on the same day of four counts of dissemination of terrorist publications. The jury did not reach a verdict in relation to the remaining three counts.
Ahad was today (Wednesday, February 12) sentenced at the Old Bailey to four-and-a-half years’ imprisonment for the charges of dissemination of a terrorist publication and three years’ imprisonment for possession of a document or record likely to be of use to a terrorist, to run concurrently - making a total of four-and-a-half-years’ imprisonment. Once he is released, he must serve a further year on licence and will be subject to a 10-year Part 4 Notification Requirements Order, meaning he must notify the police of particular changes in his circumstances.
Kamali was sentenced to four-and-a-half years’ imprisonment in total for the four counts of dissemination of a terrorist publication of which he was found guilty. He must then serve a further 12 months on licence. He is also subject to a 10 year Part 4 Notification Requirements Order.
The judge ordered that the remaining three counts on which the jury did not return a verdict should remain on file.
So, they will both be out next year and back in business. Radical Muslims need to be separated from sane western societies, permanently.
Two Indonesian maids jailed for terrorism
financing offences in Singapore
Shaffiq Alkhatib, Court Correspondent
Straits Times
Two Indonesian maids were jailed yesterday after pleading guilty to terrorism financing offences.
The separate court cases, under the Terrorism (Suppression of Financing) Act, involved Turmini, 31, and Retno Hernayani, 37.
Turmini was sentenced to three years and nine months in jail for her role in remitting cash totalling $1,216.73 to a man in Indonesia who supported the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group.
Retno's jail term is 11/2 years. She had collected $100 in donations from her friends in Singapore and added $40 from her own pocket before remitting the monies to her fiance, Fikri Zulfikar, a known supporter of terrorist entities.
TURMINI'S CASE
Turmini, who goes by one name, is from a village in Cilacap in Central Java and arrived in Singapore in 2012 to be a domestic worker.
Yesterday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Nicholas Khoo told District Judge Christopher Tan that the $1,216.73 she had donated for terrorism financing is so far the largest amount before the courts.
The donations were made through her unsuspecting employer who was duped into remitting the monies into a bank account belonging to a man called Edi Siswanto, who supported ISIS and its Indonesia-based affiliated group, the Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD). The employer had thought it was a joint bank account belonging to Turmini's mother and brother.
DPP Khoo said cash was remitted on five occasions, "which was the most number of occasions any offender has donated to terrorism".
The maid pleaded guilty to three charges involving more than $800. Two similar charges linked to the remaining amount were considered during sentencing.
The court heard from DPP Tan Hsiao Tien that Turmini met Edi, whom she also knew as "Zubair", in 2018 via Facebook. He was a member of a purported religious charity called Aseer Cruee Centre (ACC) and told her that if she wanted to go to heaven, she must support organisations like ISIS and JAD that were "trying to uphold Islamic law".
Later that year, she befriended on Facebook one Rozaliany Rozz who asked her to download messaging app Telegram to learn about ISIS.
Turmini was exposed to many articles on ISIS and JAD, DPP Tan said. From 2018 until the middle of last year, she chatted with Edi almost daily on WhatsApp and their conversation included ISIS matters.
As part of an arrangement, the court heard, Turmini's entire salary was held by her employer for safekeeping. Her employer would help her remit money to her family whenever she needed to do it.
On three occasions, between September 2018 and January last year, Turmini asked her boss to remit cash to Edi's bank account. It was not mentioned in court how her offences came to light but she was arrested last Aug 22.
Her lawyer Mohamed Muzammil Mohamed asked for a one-year jail term, saying Turmini had been "easily influenced" to support the terrorist groups owing to her "shallow knowledge and exposure to the real teachings of the Islamic religion".
He also told Judge Tan that after serving her sentence, she plans to enrol herself in a mainstream religious school in Indonesia to "learn more about the true teachings of the religion".
RETNO'S CASE
Retno, who is from a village in Lampung, Sumatra, came to work in Singapore in 2006.
Yesterday, she pleaded guilty to two charges .
In 2012, she befriended a fellow Indonesian called Tuning Ambarwati while on an MRT train.
Two years later, she found out about ISIS after reading Tuning's Facebook posts on the group.
In 2018, she developed an interest in ISIS and in April that year, Tuning introduced her to Fikri, an ISIS sympathiser who wanted to join the terror group in Syria.
Fikri became her fiance and she wanted to go with him to Syria.
On March 10 last year, she met three other Indonesian maids in Paya Lebar. The trio, all aged 33, were Anindia Afiyantari, Yulistika and Nurhasanah.
During the meeting, the women agreed to donate to ACC to help the families of JAD members who had died or were in prison. They also wanted to support JAD's activities, which included violent causes.
All contributed cash and Retno remitted the monies to Fikri in Indonesia. She was arrested on Aug 20 last year.
The case involving Anindia is pending while Tuning, Yulistika and Nurhasanah left Singapore last year before investigations started.
For each charge under the Terrorism (Suppression of Financing) Act, offenders can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined up to $500,000.
Seems like a modest start, but, it's a start.
Egypt condemns deadly terrorist attack on
border army barracks in Algeria
CAIRO, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Egypt condemned on Wednesday a recent terrorist attack that targeted an Algerian army barracks near its border with Mali and left one soldier dead.
In a statement, the Egyptian foreign ministry expressed Cairo's solidarity with the Algerian people and government, extending condolences to the family of the deceased soldier.
The ministry also highlighted Egypt's rejection of terrorism and extremism of all forms.
On Feb. 9, a bomb-laden car raced to a military barracks in the Algerian town of Timiaouine before exploding at the entrance, killing a soldier.
In 2019, the Algerian army killed 15 terrorists and arrested 25 others, while 44 surrendered to authorities.
The North African nation deployed tens of thousands of troops along the border with Mali and Libya to thwart intrusion of terrorists and arms.
Turkish prosecutor indicts Assyrian priest
on terrorism charges
By SCF - February 12, 2020A Turkish prosecutor has drafted an indictment against Sefer (Aho) Bileçen, an Assyrian priest who was arrested and released pending trial in January, charging him with membership in a terrorist group, the Gazete Karınca news website reported.
The Assyrian Church is called the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East.
The indictment included accusations based on an informant’s testimony and a 2018 gendarmerie report claiming that Bileçen’s monastery was visited by alleged members of terrorist groups.
During his four days under arrest in January, Bileçen had been questioned with regard to allegations.
While he has not denied claims that he offered food to the militants, he insisted that he only did it as a requirement of his faith, and not by a motivation to aid the group.
The prosecutor’s indictment on the other hand pointed out that the priest did not report the militants to law enforcement, asserting that his statement makes it clear he was aware of the visitors’ identity.
Bileçen’s monastery is located in the country’s predominantly Kurdish Southeast, which for decades has been the scene of armed clashes between security forces and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Turks consider PKK to be terrorists.
The Assyrians are an autochthonous (indigenous rather than descended from migrants or colonists) Christian group who were the victims of massacres and forced displacement at the beginning of the 20th century in what is today recognized by many as genocide by the Ottomans against Christians, during WWI.
The atrocity lead to God's judgment on the Ottomans and they were overthrown by Ataturk, who promptly established a secular government that stood for nearly 100 years until Erdogan purged the high ranks of the military of anyone who wasn't a devout Muslim. Since then, he has been slowly trying to establish his own Caliphate. At least, IMHO.
/turkishminute.com
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