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Terrorism Tag

Gunmen with explosives killed over 200 people at a Sufi mosque in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. From Fox News:
The extremists launched an attack on the al-Rawdah mosque in the town of Bir al-Abd, some 25 miles from the North Sinai provincial capital of el-Arish, Egypt's state news agency MENA reported. The attack appeared to be the latest by the area's local Islamic State affiliate.

At the 2012 Democratic National Convention, the big moment was Joe Biden triumphantly declaring “Osama bin Laden is dead, and General Motors is alive." It turns out that in order to make that narrative stick, Obama had to downplay the actual strength of al-Qaeda.

Israel's elite Air Force instructors are training Indian Special forces, Israeli media reports confirm. Israel Defense Forces' Airborne Rescue and Evacuation Unit 669 is carrying out joint drills with Garud Commando Force, the Special Forces unit of the Indian Air Force. According to Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post, 16 Indian commandos are currently stationed at Nevatim and Palmahim air bases. These personnel are part of a 45-man delegation and a C-130J Super Hercules transport plane that are in Israel to take part in Blue Flag 2017, Israel's largest aerial drill ever, the newspaper added.

Some anti-Trump folks have come up with the proof-positive that Trump is a bigot, because he demanded the death penalty for the New York Islamic terrorist Sayfullo Saipov, but didn't demand the death penalty for Las Vegas white-guy shooter Stephen Paddock. Ironically, it might actually create a legal problem in obtaining the death penalty for Saipov that a president has made that demand so publicly.

With the New York truck attacker having been identified as an Uzbek national, at least four of the recent high-profile Islamist terror attacks have been carried out by either an Uzbek national or an ethnic Uzbek. This list includes the Stockholm truck attack that killed four and the Saint Petersburg bombing that killed 13. Muslims from former Soviet republics in Central Asia, or the '5 stans,' are one of the largest group serving in the ranks of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq -- perhaps second only to recruits coming from Europe.

The CIA has released thousands of documents, videos, computer files, and pictures that U.S. forces captured during the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan in May 2011. FDD's Long War Journal (LWJ) has been pressing the agency to release these items, which have given us insight into al-Qaeda and the man responsible for the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed over 3,000 Americans. This includes bin Laden's journal and more recent images of his son Hamza bin Laden.

Sayfullo Saipov, 29, killed eight people and injured 11 on Monday in Lower Manhattan when he plowed a rental pickup truck into a crowd of people. He screamed "Allahu Akbar!" after he exited the truck and police confronted him. An officer shot Saipov and took him into custody. They transported him to a hospital and he's recovering from surgery. Authorities found Saipov's notes near the truck, in which he declared he carried out the attack for the terrorist group the Islamic State (ISIS).

A man identified as Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, 29, from Tampa, FL, drove a rental pickup truck down a bike bath and into a crowd in Lower Manhattan while shouting "Allahu Akbar!" The attack killed eight people and injured at least 11 others. The police shot and took the Saipov, an Uzbekistan native, into custody. He is recovering at a hospital.

It’s that time of the year here again in Germany. As winter sets in, the first Christmas decorations have started appearing on the shop fronts. Before you know it, the Christmas markets will be coming up in every town and city across the country. For Merkel's Germany, however, it is also the time of the year when radical Muslim terrorists target the Christmas markets and innocent shoppers.

France's parliament on Wednesday passed a new anti-terrorism law that gives law enforcement sweeping powers to search homes, carry out surveillance, and set up borders checks. The new law replaces the state of national emergency that came into effect after the 2015 Paris attacks, which killed 130 people. The state of emergency was extended six times and due to expire next month. Despite the unprecedented powers given to the police and the security forces, France has been hit by a series of attacks leaving 241 people dead since the imposition of the emergency.

The Islamic State (ISIS) has held Raqqa, Syria, for four years and made it the the group's de facto capital. That appears to have ended as US-backed Syrian forces have declared they retook the city from the terrorists. From CNN:
"Major military operations in Raqqa are finished but they are now clearing the city of sleeper cells -- if they exist -- and mines," Talal Salo, spokesman for the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, told CNN. The SDF is a coalition of Arab and Kurdish fighters.

Kirkuk, Iraq has become a centerpiece in the Iraqi government's rejection of the overwhelmingly successful Kurdish Independence Referendum. Monday, Iraq took control of Kirkuk, which has been under Kurdish control since they took it from ISIS in 2014 as Iraqi forces fled.  It is surprising that the Kurds did not stand and fight for the hard-won Kirkuk, but it's not yet clear this was the case as there have been reports of gunfire and "clashes" in the city.  The resistance by Kurdish forces appears to have been somewhat minimal. The BBC reports:
The Iraqi military moved into Kirkuk three weeks after the Kurdistan Region held a controversial independence referendum.

Two truck bombs detonated in Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Saturday, killing at least 230 people and wounding hundreds more.  Reports indicate that the Somali government believes al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab is responsible. The United States has condemned the attack, calling it "cowardly," and has vowed to continue to fight the "scourge of terrorism." The BBC reports:
A massive bomb attack in a busy area of the Somali capital Mogadishu on Saturday is now known to have killed at least 230 people, police say. Hundreds more were wounded when a lorry packed with explosives detonated near the entrance of a hotel. It is the deadliest terror attack in Somalia since the Islamist al-Shabab group launched its insurgency in 2007.

Pakistan officials announced that the Taliban has freed an American woman, her Canadian husband, and their children after five years of imprisonment. From ABC News:
Caitlan Coleman, 31, and her husband Joshua Boyle, 34, who were abducted while hiking in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province in 2012, were secured in an exchange between Pakistani military and U.S. commandos late Wednesday in a secret operation to bring them home after one of the longest -- and strangest -- American hostage ordeals in recent history, counterterrorism officials revealed.