French special forces ‘neutralize’ terrorist leader of Islamic State’s
Greater Sahara cell, Macron says
15 Sep, 2021 23:51
© Reuters / Benoit Tessier
The commander of Islamic State in the Greater Sahara was killed in a French military operation, President Emmanuel Macron said in a tweet. The jihadist cell was active in the Mali-Niger border region in the African Sahel.
“Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi, leader of the terrorist group Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, was neutralized by French forces. This is another major success in our fight against terrorist groups in the Sahel,” Macron tweeted in the early hours of Thursday morning, though he offered no details about the operation.
Al-Sahrawi declared allegiance to Islamic State in 2015, and his group is believed to have carried out several attacks on local and foreign troops in the Sahel region, including a 2017 ambush on Nigerien and American soldiers outside the village of Tongo Tongo in Niger. Al-Sahrawi’s group claimed responsibility several months after the attack – which killed five Nigeriens and four Americans – and Washington later put out a $5 million bounty for information on the commander’s whereabouts.
He was added to the United Nations terrorism list in 2018 for association with Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, and is also accused of involvement in kidnappings of foreigners, including Kenneth Elliot, an Australian citizen.
Prior to proclaiming loyalty to IS, al-Sahrawi served as a spokesman for the Movement for Unification and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), a splinter group of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an affiliate based in countries across North Africa, according to the UN.
French forces have embedded with local troops for its massive Operation Barkhane, a multinational counter-terrorism mission that launched in 2014 and is active in several former French colonies in the Sahel region, including Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. Barkhane followed Operation Serval in 2013, in which French forces helped to retake swaths of northern Mali from Islamist groups. The sweeping, ongoing mission is also supported by American and British forces – though US involvement became more controversial when it was revealed that American troops provided training to Colonel Assimi Goita, a Malian military commander who led two separate coup attempts between August 2020 and May 2021.
Yom Kippur attack on German synagogue thwarted, 4 detained
September 16, 2021
A 16-year-old was among four people detained on suspicion of planning an “Islamist-motivated” attack on a synagogue on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
By Associated Press
A 16-year-old boy and three other people were detained Thursday in connection with a suspected plan for an attack on a synagogue in the German city of Hagen, authorities said.
The detentions took place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, and two years after a deadly attack in another German city on the Yom Kippur holiday.
Police cordoned off the synagogue on Wednesday, and a worship service planned for the evening was called off.
Officials had received “very serious and concrete information” that there could be an attack on the synagogue during Yom Kippur, said Herbert Reul, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, where Hagen is located. The tip pointed to “an Islamist-motivated threat situation,” and named the possible timing and suspect, he added.
Police using sniffer dogs found no dangerous objects in or around the synagogue, Reul said. On Thursday morning, the 16-year-old, a Syrian national who lives in Hagen, was detained. Three other people were detained in a raid on an apartment, and authorities are investigating whether they were involved in the suspected plan, the minister said.
Reul said searches were ongoing in Hagen, but gave no details and took no questions. He didn’t say where the tip came from.
News magazine Der Spiegel reported, without identifying sources, that the tip came from a foreign intelligence service. It said the teenager told someone in an online chat that he was planning an attack with explosives on a synagogue, and the probe led investigators to the 16-year-old, who lived with his father in Hagen.
Two years ago on Yom Kippur, a German right-wing extremist attacked a synagogue in the eastern German city of Halle. The attack on is considered one of the worst anti-Semitic assaults in the country’s post-war history.
The attacker repeatedly tried, but failed, to force his way into the synagogue with 52 worshippers inside. He then shot and killed a 40-year-old woman in the street outside and a 20-year-old man at a nearby kebab shop as an “appropriate target” with immigrant roots.
He posted an anti-Semitic screed before carrying out the Oct. 9, 2019, attack in the eastern German city of Halle and broadcast the shooting live on a popular gaming site.
German Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht sharply condemned the foiled Hagen attack.
“It is intolerable that Jews are again exposed to such a horrible threat and that they cannot celebrate the start of their highest holiday, Yom Kippur, together,” the minister said.
How despicable! Two large groups with nothing in common except hatred for Jews. This in the home of the Nazis. There is one more thing in common between the two groups - evil.
10 to be tried for Brussels bombings that killed 32,
with 6 suspects already facing trial for Paris attacks
17 Sep, 2021 16:30 / Updated 5 hours ago
Candles are displayed in tribute to the Brussels attacks victims on March 24, 2016 on place de la Bourse in Brussels,
two days after the suicide bombing attacks © AFP / Patrik Stollarz
Ten men accused of being involved in the March 2016 bombings in Brussels, which killed 32 people, are to face trial, prosecutors have announced. Six of them are already accused in France over the Paris attacks a year before.
On Friday, spokesman for the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office, Eric Van Duyse, tweeted that “ten of those charged were today ordered to stand trial in the Court of Assizes by the indictment chamber in Brussels.”
The hearing, set to be the largest criminal trial in Belgian history, is likely to start in September 2022 and could last a year. The proceedings will be carried out in a purpose-built high-security court.
Twin blasts from suicide bombers targeted Brussels’ Zaventem Airport on March 22, 2016, with a third hitting the city’s crowded Maalbeek Metro station, close to several European Union institution buildings. The attack killed 32 people and injured hundreds of others.
Six of the suspects, including Salah Abdeslam, are currently on trial in Paris for their involvement in the November 13, 2015 attack that rocked France’s capital. Abdeslam, a Belgian-born French Moroccan, is allegedly one of the only surviving shooters directly involved in the coordinated terrorist assault on six Parisian bars and restaurants, the Bataclan music venue and the Stade de France, where 80,000 people – including then-President Francois Hollande – were watching a football match.
He was arrested in the Brussels district of Molenbeek in March 2016 after fleeing the scene of the Paris attack. The jihadist’s suicide vest had failed to blow up during the attacks.
Last Wednesday, he was among a group of 20 men transported to the Palais de Justice courthouse in central Paris for the long-awaited trial of the November 2015 slayings that saw over 130 people killed.
The Islamic State terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Brussels and Paris.
2 killed, one injured in eastern Netherlands, suspect arrested,
reportedly armed with crossbow
17 Sep, 2021 10:58 / Updated 7 hours ago
Dutch police have arrested a suspect in a knife attack in the city of Almelo after two people were killed and a third person was injured in a “stabbing incident.” The assailant also sustained injuries.
On Friday, police in the Netherlands were called to an incident on Steynstraat, a side-street in the city center of Almelo, in municipality in the eastern part of the country.
Around 10am local time (8am GMT) Dutch police warned people to stay away from the area using Twitter, noting that officers were using firearms. “Do not come to this location,” the tweet read, adding that it was a “stabbing incident.”
Shortly after midday, the police said that a suspect had been arrested and had sustained injuries. Two people had died in the incident and a third was injured. The police investigation is ongoing, the tweet added.
Unconfirmed images have also emerged online, confirming media reports, showing that the assailant was armed with a crossbow. In one photo, a topless man can be seen leaning over the edge of a balcony, brandishing his deadly weapon.
In a video shared by Dutch media, the man armed with his crossbow can be seen aiming at people on the ground as he stands on his balcony. Gunshots can be heard in the background.
Dutch media reported that no less than six ambulances and many more police cars rushed to the scene of the accident (incident). It is understood that the bodies of the diseased were found inside a flat after the crossbow-wielding assailant had been detained. It has been reported that the identities of the dead are as yet unknown.
And the identity of the nut-case has not been made known - consequently, he must be Muslim.
‘Expel all terror planners from Germany,’ Merkel’s potential successor
says, as Syrian teen is accused of plot to attack synagogue
17 Sep, 2021 12:12
Armin Laschet, the new head of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) & her possible successor, has said migrants must be thoroughly integrated into society while terrorists must be expelled from the country.
“Whoever integrates here, should integrate, learn German and also have a job, and should be allowed to stay. But those who plan terrorist acts must be expelled from the country,” Armin Laschet, who serves as minister-president of the northwestern North Rhine-Westphalia region, said. “It must be clear as daylight. That’s what [the CDU] stands for.”
Laschet’s comments came after four men were arrested in the western city of Hagen over an alleged plot to attack a synagogue on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.
On Thursday evening, police said that three of those arrested had been released, while the main suspect, a 16-year-old of Syrian origin, remains in custody. German media reported that the young man has communicated with a prominent Islamist base abroad, who consulted the suspect on how to make explosives.
“Thank God, we have discovered [the plot] in advance and stepped up our security efforts,” Laschet said, recalling an attack in Halle three years ago, when a far-right extremist killed two people after failing to enter a synagogue on Yom Kippur.
“The fight against international terrorism continues to be one of the great challenges of our time,” the politician said.
Laschet was elected as CDU’s leader in January, which means he will likely succeed Merkel as chancellor if the party performs well during the September 26 general election.
Iraqi Family Arrested in Arizona Following Alleged
‘Honor Kidnapping’of Woman for Dating Non-Muslim Man
Richard Moorhead
Sep 9, 2021
Peoria, Arizona police arrested six members of an Iraqi family for an alleged kidnapping plot targeting a relative in a relationship with a non-Muslim man last month, in an incident familiar to accounts of ‘honor killings’ in Europe and America.
Six members of the Alfartousi family are accused of attempting to kidnap a 20-year old pregnant relative on several occasions, with police suspecting they intended to send the victim back to Iraq. In an incident at a medical facility in Avondale, Arizona, the victim of the alleged plot describes being ambushed, with her relatives taking her purse, phone and her boyfriend’s gun.
The alleged attempted kidnapping involved the young woman’s father, her mother, a sister and three brothers.
In an earlier incident at a hotel, the victim’s brother allegedly grabbed her in a bear hug, only relenting when her boyfriend confronted him with a gun. In court documents, the victim’s boyfriend also recounts receiving threatening voicemails from the victim’s brother, in which he threatened to kidnap the boyfriend’s 15-year old sister.
“This is Ali, her brother. If you don’t bring my sister back, I’m going to kidnap your sister. I’m not scared of your American laws,” Ali Fartousi allegedly threatened in the voicemail.
How do you feel about them now?
In most disturbing fashion, the Alfartousi family is accused of an attempt to beat their exogamous relative when she arrived for a doctor’s appointment. The beating attempt may have represented an attempt at forcible abortion.
“Ali, Yaser, Zahraa, Souad and Fares pulled the victim into a vehicle and began punching her in the stomach. Two witnesses in the parking lot came to the aid of the victim allowing her to escape,” reads a witness statement in court documents detailing the charges against six Alfartousi family members.
The charged include:
Ali Alfartousi, 33
Bashir Alfartousi, 36
Fares Alfartousi, 63
Souad Alfartousi, 59
Yaser Alfartousi, 35
Zahraa Alfartousi, 31
The family members, described as “traditional Muslims,” each face criminal charges of kidnapping, with five also facing charges of aggravated robbery.
The victim and her boyfriend describe filing 20 police reports as they faced continual harassment from the Alfartousi family.
Traditional Muslims should live in a Muslim country. If they have no fear of American law, they don't belong in America.
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