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Dead and injured after knife-wielding man goes on rampage
in Germany's Wuerzburg
25 Jun, 2021 16:59
Screenshot © Twitter / @BurekShakur
Police in the German city of Wuerzburg have arrested a stabbing suspect after a “major operation.” Local media reports claim that three people were killed and six injured before police shot and arrested the man.
A “major police operation” was announced by local authorities on Friday afternoon, with law enforcement stating shortly afterwards that they had arrested a suspect.
video 0:14
German tabloid Bild reported that three people were killed and six injured, some seriously, and that the perpetrator was stopped by police with a gunshot to the leg.
Police did not confirm precise casualty numbers, but said that there had been “several injuries and also fatalities,” and that they had used firearms to subdue the perpetrator.
Video footage purportedly shot at the scene of the incident showed police confronting a masked man armed with what appeared to be a long knife.
At the time of writing, Barbarossa Square, where the incident took place, remains closed to the public.
Update: 26 Jun 21
The knifeman who killed three people and injured six more in Wuerzburg, Germany may have been motivated by jihad. According to the Bild tabloid, the Somali attacker had read ISIS propaganda before his rampage.
Police in Wuerzburg, Bavaria shot and arrested a 24-year-old Somali man on Friday after he stabbed three people to death and injured six others, two seriously. The killer reportedly took a knife from a department store and immediately began attacking those around him, and according to witnesses he shouted “Allahu Akbar” during his stabbing spree.
Bild reported on Saturday that, although he was not known to authorities as an extremist, the attacker had made stabbing threats back in January, and police had gotten involved. Bild also reported that a search of the homeless shelter in which he was living revealed Islamic State propaganda in a garbage can, apparently discarded by the suspect before his attack.
After the incident, the 24-year-old apparently said that he had achieved his “jihad,” per an official note reportedly seen by Bild.
Car bomb attack wounds 15 German UN peacekeepers in northern Mali
25 Jun, 2021 15:39
UN peacekeepers stand guard in the northern town of Kouroume, Mali, May 13, 2015.
Kourome is 18 km (11 miles) south of Timbuktu. © REUTERS/Adama Diarra
The UN peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA) confirmed via Twitter on Friday morning that one of its temporary bases was attacked in a car bombing, resulting in the injury and evacuation of 15 German ‘Blue Helmet’ soldiers.
Friday’s attack, which hit a deployment of German soldiers, is the first time that Bundeswehr troops have been targeted in Mali. Of the 15 injured peacekeepers, 12 are in serious condition and have been flown back to Germany via Niger.
German media reported that the car bomb hit a temporary forward operating base at around 7am local time near the Tarkint Township in Gao Province. The blast occurred a day after another, less serious, attack had been attempted on Malian soldiers moving towards Kidal, damaging a vehicle but causing no injuries.
In response to Friday’s attack, MINUSMA strongly condemned the car bombing, wishing a “Speedy and complete recovery to the injured.”
Germany’s defense minister, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, is due to release a statement on the incident later on Friday.
Members of the Bundeswehr have been involved in the MINUSMA mission for a number of years, with roughly one thousand German soldiers based in Mali as part of the 13,000-strong multinational peacekeeping force.
The UN body has been seeking to combat Islamist insurgencies in the region, with France leading a Western mission in the Sahel region, which covers Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. Within northern Mali, the MINUSMA mission is working to uphold a peace agreement signed in 2015 by the government, pro-government militias, and other groups who want autonomy.
Swedish policeman killed in Gothenburg shooting becomes
1st officer to be murdered in 14 yrs
1 Jul, 2021 13:26
A Swedish police officer died from his wounds after being fatally shot in Gothenburg on Wednesday. It reportedly marks the first killing of a law enforcement officer in 14 years, as gun violence in the country continues to soar.
The officer’s death was announced by police in a statement on Thursday, which revealed that he died in hospital following the shooting in Hisingen, Gothenburg.
Local police chief Klas Johansson called the killing “a terribly tragic event” and a “sad message to receive,” while the police statement claimed that the officer was “talking to a couple of people” on Wednesday evening before he was shot. However, it is still not clear what exactly happened during the incident.
National police chief Anders Thornberg vowed to dedicate “the resources required to be able to prosecute the culprit,” though there are currently no known suspects.
According to Radio Sweden, Wednesday’s shooting was the first time that a Swedish police officer has been killed while performing his duties in 14 years.
Just days before the shooting, Swedish journalist Paulina Neuding warned that Sweden has been experiencing a “gun crime epidemic” which is “spiraling out of control.”
“Since 2015, deadly violence has spiked in what many still think of as a quiet corner of Scandinavia,” Neuding declared in an article for the Spectator, explaining that the “spate of violence is mainly due to the country’s bloody gang wars, in which both perpetrators and victims are often young men of immigrant origin.”
Of course, 2015 was the year Sweden allowed a stupid number of Muslim migrants into the country and it has steadily gone downhill since.
“The period between 2016 and 2020 saw a yearly average of 112 homicides, compared to an average of 87 in the preceding five years,” she wrote.
In May, the Swedish national council for crime prevention reported that Sweden is the only European country where fatal shootings have risen significantly since 2013, after previously being at the bottom of the gun violence list at the start of the century.
Lithuania declares emergency, appeals to EU over ‘flood’
of Iraqi migrants from Belarus
2 Jul, 2021 19:34
© pasienis. lt/VSAT
After catching 150 migrants illegally crossing the border from Belarus, Lithuania has declared an emergency and appealed to the EU for assistance. Vilnius and Brussels say Minsk is weaponizing migration in reprisal for sanctions.
Lithuania has requested help from Frontex, the EU border service, after catching 150 people who tried to sneak across the border from Belarus in just the past 24 hours. Most of them were Iraqi nationals, who immediately claimed asylum.
Visiting Vilnius on Friday, European Commission chair Ursula von der Leyen said a “politically motivated pattern” was on display, and that the EC and the EU in general “really stand by your side in this difficult time.” Lithuania has been an EU and NATO member since 2004.
Other EU officials have also expressed concern about the “influx of migrants” on the border. European Parliament President David Sassoli said, “someone is unacceptably playing with people's lives.”
While neither Sassoli nor von der Leyen named the suspect, the Lithuanian government has already accused President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus. They claim Lukashenko is deliberately letting migrants from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia fly to Belarus and then cross into the EU via Lithuania.
On June 27, Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite said she had evidence of a “well-organized” plan involving Belarusian border guards and “the regime” to flood Lithuania with migrants from the Middle East, in an interview given to the news portal Delfi. The charge was quickly echoed by Western outlets such as the Telegraph, the US government-funded RFE/RL, and the NATO-backed Atlantic Council.
The Foreign Ministry in Minsk announced the suspension of its agreement with the EU to cooperate on border enforcement a day after Bilotaite’s interview, on June 28. The move was explained as retaliation for EU sanctions against Belarus, imposed on June 24 on grounds of “human rights violations.”
Brussels cited the arrest in May of two opposition activists on board a Ryanair flight that made an emergency landing in Minsk due to a bomb threat. The EU has claimed – with no evidence – that the bomb threat was fabricated in order to arrest Roman Protasevich and his friend Sofia Sapega, who were flying to Vilnius from Greece.
Lithuania and Poland have served as operations hubs for Belarusian opposition activists, including the “president in exile” Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who has called for sanctions against Minsk and claimed that the August 2020 presidential election was rigged and stolen from her.
The Lithuanian state border security service VSAT said that a total of 822 migrants have illegally crossed over from Belarus since January 2021. Most of them have no documents, but more than half – 428 – claim to be Iraqi nationals, with 51 Iranians and 45 Syrians. A VSAT spokesman told RFE/RL that “most migrants” arrived in Minsk “via direct flights from Istanbul and Baghdad.” Lithuanian intelligence knows how they got from Minsk to the border, he added, but could not disclose that information, citing “an ongoing investigation.”
There has, however, been no similar surge of migrants to Poland or Latvia, EU member states that also share a border with Belarus. Latvia has registered only one illegal crossing so far this year.
While Lithuania is ringing alarm bells over 800 migrants, the US has captured nearly 900,000 people crossing over from Mexico illegally between January and April 2021, while the White House insists there is no “crisis” on the border.
Muslims - If they can't find Americans or Jews to fight, they will fight each other.
Over 300 Afghan troops fleeing from Taliban cross border to Tajikistan after heavy fighting, border forces tell media
3 Jul, 2021 21:18
Several hundred Afghan border troops were forced to seek shelter in Tajikistan on Saturday, fleeing a major offensive by the Taliban, which has intensified its attacks amid the withdrawal of US troops from the country.
More than a dozen districts, mostly in Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan Province, have fallen into the hands of the Taliban over the past 24 hours, security sources told local outlet TOLOnews.
The heavy fighting on the other side of the border was also confirmed by the military of neighboring Tajikistan.
More than 300 Afghan frontier troops had to cross into Tajik territory to avoid heavy losses amid clashes with the advancing militants, the press service of Tajikistan’s border forces told news agency RIA Novosti.
The foreign servicemen were allowed to enter “in line with the principles of humanity and good neighborliness,” it added. The press service confirmed that the border with Afghanistan remained under the full control of Tajik forces.
The Afghan defense ministry said that, despite retreating, the government troops managed to kill at least 224 Taliban militants on Saturday.
“The security and defense forces of Afghanistan will not spare any efforts” to retake the areas that have been recently seized by the Taliban, Ministry Spokesman Fawad Aman promised.
The Taliban has intensified its activities after the US began the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan following a two-decade-long stay in the country. On Friday, the Americans abandoned the Bagram Airfield, which used to be their largest Afghan base. US President Joe Biden previously set a September 11 deadline for the pullout to be completed.
Israeli cargo ship gets attacked by an 'unknown weapon,'
catches fire in the Indian Ocean – reports
3 Jul, 2021 19:44
An Israeli merchant ship has reportedly been hit by an “unknown weapon,” causing the vessel to catch fire in the northern Indian Ocean. The incident comes amid rising tensions between Jerusalem and Tehran.
Lebanese media outlet Al-Mayadeen reported the attack on Saturday, citing “reliable sources,” and posted a picture of the damaged vessel with black smoke billowing from a fire on one side of the ship. Unnamed Israeli officials have also confirmed the incident to the Jerusalem Post. The newspaper claimed that “Hezbollah-linked” Al-Mayadeen's framing of the report suggests the attack was Iran's retaliation for a drone strike on an Iranian nuclear facility last month near Karaj.
The vessel was reportedly anchored in the port of Jeddah, in the Red Sea, and was heading toward the United Arab Emirates – on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula -- when it was attacked. There were no injuries reported, and the extent of the damage is unclear.
Media in Israel identified the ship as the Tyndall, which is partly owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer. It flies a Liberian flag and is operated by non-Israeli crewmen.
Israel and Iran's shadow war has heated up at sea since 2019, with Israel reportedly hitting ships transporting Iranian oil or weapons bound for Hezbollah. Another Israeli-owned vessel with a Liberian flag, a container ship called the Lori, was struck by a missile while heading for the Gulf of Oman in March. The ship was lightly damaged, and as in the case of the Tyndall, Israeli officials suspected that Iran was the culprit.
The latest incident comes one day after Lt. General Aviv Kohavi, chief of staff for the Israel Defense Forces, warned that those who attack his country will face fierce retribution. “Anyone who tries to harm the state of Israel knows that any offensive enemy activity, near or far, will be answered with a significant overt or covert response,” Kohavi said at a graduation ceremony for new IDF officers. “This is how we have behaved in the past, and this is how we will behave in the future.”
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