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Terrorism Tag

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on June 12, 2016 72 Comments
An Islamic terrorist shot up an Orlando nightclub, killing 50 people and injuring at least 53 further people are hospitalized. CNN reports:

Approximately 20 people are dead inside Pulse, a gay nightclub, Orlando Police Chief John Mina said Sunday morning, just hours after a shooter opened fire in the club. At least 42 people have been transported for medical treatment, he said.

Police have shot and killed the gunman, Mina told reporters.
"It's appears he was organized and well-prepared," the chief said, adding that the shooter had an assault-type weapon, a handgun and "some type of (other) device on him." Law enforcement sources told CNN that the device, which was strapped to the suspect, was possibly explosive, but authorities don't know if it was real or not.
A canine unit indicated there were explosives inside the suspect's car as well, the sources said.
The most recent information released by police in Orlando is that 50 people have been killed and a further 53 are hospitalized.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 09, 2016 7 Comments
Just three days ago, on June 6, the American Anthropological Association announced that the membership narrowly defeated an anti-Israel academic boycott resolution. The resolution was opposed by many Israel anthropologists, including Dr. Michael Feige of Ben-Burion University of the Negev: Michael Feige Ben Gurion Page The boycott, if passed, would have directly affected not only universities like Ben-Gurion, but those who work there like Dr. Feige. Feige was one of hundreds to sign a statement against the boycott, which read in part:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 08, 2016 5 Comments
One of the goals of my recent trip to Israel was to meet with the families of the victims of the ongoing Palestinian violence, sometimes referred to as the Knife or Stabbing Intifada. Of course, the Knife or Stabbing Intifada hasn't only been knives and it hasn't only been stabbings -- there have been shootings and cars turned into deadly weapons. Unfortunately, because my two-week trip was reduced to three days because I had return to the U.S. due to a family medical emergency, I did not get to meet with any families. I was to meet with the widow of Yaakov Don, but the call to me came just 30 minutes before our meeting, and I had to cancel. With the news today of another terrorist shooting, this time in Tel Aviv, it's important to remember that the Tel Aviv attack is just one in dozens of attacks the past few months. You probably don't recognize the name Yaakov Don. But you may remember the name Ezra Schwarz, the American Teenager Murdered in Palestinian Attack on November 19, 2015.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 07, 2016 5 Comments
Police suspect Islamic militants killed an elderly Hindu priest in Bangladesh, the latest in attacks on non-Muslims in the Asian country. Three men on a motorcycle attacked Anando Gopal Ganguly, 68, as he rode his bike "in an isolated rural area nor far from his home" in Jhenidah:
“It seems the attackers were following the priest from his home and killed him at a convenient place,” Mr. Kanjilal said. Mr. Ganguly’s throat was slit, and he was “almost beheaded,” said Mr. Kanjilal, who said he suspected that Islamist militants were responsible.
Jhenaidah lies about 100 miles west of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Kanjilal said farmers found Ganguly's "body in a rice field." The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the murder, but police said "all the recent attacks were the work of domestic extremists."

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on June 07, 2016 3 Comments
Despite massive security measures, dubbed by the French news agency AFP as a “State of Emergency”, the authorities in France remain fearful of a new wave of Islamist terror during the European soccer tournament Euro 2016 -- due to start this week. Over a million soccer fans from all across Europe are expected to visit France during the month long sporting event. France’s President Francois Hollande admitted the likelihood of fresh terrorist attacks during Euro 2016, saying that the Islamist threat “will unfortunately be there for a long time,” even as he refused to be “intimidated” by it. The European soccer championship is being held just six months after a group of suicide bombers tried to enter a stadium in Paris packed with thousands of fans during a soccer match between Germany and France. Despite the foiled attempt, terrorists, owing allegiance Islamic Caliphate (ISIS), killed around 130 people in Paris, arguably one of the most deadly Islamist attacks Europe had ever witnessed.

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 06, 2016 1 Comment
Police suspect radical Islamists murdered a top Bangladesh officer's wife who has investigated numerous murders of bloggers. In Chittagong, three men shot Mahmuda Khanam Mitu in the head at 7AM local time as she walked their son to a bus stop. Then the men stabbed her nine times before they sped away on a motorbike. The police promoted her husband Babul Akter "after leading a slew of raids against banned Islamist extremist groups, such as Jamaat ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB)." The groups have claimed responsibility for the murders of many anti-secularist and gay bloggers in Bangladesh.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on May 24, 2016 9 Comments
Revolting details have come to light about Islamic State’s secret chemical weapons program. British newspaper The Telegraph reported that ISIS has been testing lethal chemical on humans, as well as setting up labs and moving chemical weapons stockpiles to residential areas of the Iraqi city of Mosul. The report claims that ISIS has been experimenting on captives held at a prison camp in Nineveh, Mosul. The residents near the prison have been reporting breathing difficulties and children were developing severe rashes -- side effects associated with chlorine and mustard gas. The residents of a former Christian neighbourhood in Mosul reported that ISIS moved their chemical labs after US airstrikes on the terrorist group's chemical facility at a local university. ISIS fighters moved in the locality with huge unmarked trucks and had been dumping dead dogs and rabbits in the nearby waste heap. The Telegraph corroborated the local eyewitness accounts with an ISIS informer who verified that animals dumped in the area had previously been tested with chemicals.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 22, 2016 3 Comments
The Afghanistan government confirmed a U.S. drone killed Taliban leader Mullah Mansoor in Pakistan. The U.S. Department of Defense said the government targeted the leader "while travelling in convoy near the town of Ahmad Wal." From The Guardian:
The US secretary of state, John Kerry, speaking in Myanmar on Sunday, said Mansoor “posed a continuing imminent threat to US personnel in Afghanistan, Afghan civilians, Afghan security forces” and members of the US and Nato coalition. He said the air strike on Mansoor sent “a clear message to the world that we will continue to stand with our Afghan partners”. “Peace is what we want. Mansoor was a threat to that effort,” Kerry said. “He also was directly opposed to peace negotiations and to the reconciliation process. It is time for Afghans to stop fighting and to start building a real future together.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 19, 2016 5 Comments
EgyptAir Flight 804 disappeared over the Mediterranean Sea on its way to Cairo from Paris with 66 people onboard. Not much is known at this time, but Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Sharif Fathi has mentioned terrorism without any proof:
"We do not deny there is a possibility of terrorism or deny the possibility of technical fault," Fathi said at a Cairo news conference. "I will continue to use the term missing plane until we find any debris." Later at the same news conference, he indicated that while there were "no known security issues" with passengers aboard the plane, the probability of terrorism downing it is higher than the likelihood of a mechanical cause. "I don't want to go to speculation. I don't want to go to assumptions like others. But if you analyze this situation properly, the possibility of having a different action aboard, of having a terror attack, is higher than having a technical problem," Fathi said.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 18, 2016 1 Comment
A civilian fighter in Nigeria has rescued one of the 276 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014. The fighter with the Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) recognized Amina Ali Nkek in the Sambisa Forest, located near the Cameroon and Nigeria border. Officials believe the radical Islamic group has held the girls in the forest since the kidnapping. The kidnapping launched the #BringBackOurGirls campaign across the world and social media, including First Lady Michelle Obama.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 13, 2016 4 Comments
There have been a series of assinations of top Hezbollah commanders in the recent past, including Imad Mughniyeh (mastermind of almost all attacks on Israel and the U.S.), his son Imad Mughniyeh (who was killed along with several high level operatives and an Iranian general), Hassan Laqqis (key Hezbollah link to Iranian weapons procurement) and Samir Kuntar (who killed an Israeli girl by smashing her head against the rocks on a beach). In some of the cases (Imad Mughniyeh) Israeli involvement was clear, in the others it's presumed. Hezbollah just lost another top commander, the brother-in-law of Imad Mughniyey, and its top commander in Syria, Mustafa Amine Badreddine. The BBC reports:

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on May 12, 2016 3 Comments
One year after the Obama-backed Nuclear Deal came into effect, Islamic Republic of Iran remains the leading sponsor of international terrorism, says a policy paper published by British policy think-tank Henry Jackson Society. According to the report released on Wednesday at the House of Lords in London, Iran maintains a large and lucrative illegal financing network to bypass the remaining sanction that are in place to stop Tehran from funding terrorist outfits and regime. The report quotes an economist close to current Iranian regime describing the extent of the network, stating that “between 5,000-10,000 people worked in the [illicit financing] network, handling deals worth between $300 billion and $400 billion over the past decade.” Even after easing of sanction by the U.S. and the West, Iran seems to have no intention of giving up this illicit financing network which also acts as a lucrative source of income for the members of the military and the regime.

Posted by Miriam Elman on May 11, 2016 8 Comments
The Day of Remembrance for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism (Yom Ha’zikaron) began yesterday when a memorial siren at 8:00 p.m. brought Israel to a standstill. It marked the start of the commemoration day nationwide, with an official state candle-lighting ceremony at the Western Wall (the Kotel) in Jerusalem also taking place at that time. https://twitter.com/Hilajes81/status/730323383284604929 Another two-minute siren wailed this morning across Israel.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 10, 2016 4 Comments
Today is Israel Memorial Day, in which those killed in combat and in terrorist attacks are remembered. One of my goals is to follow up on the victims of the Knife Intifada. Last week I updated regarding the murder of Israeli mother Dafna Meir, who was stabbed in her home by a Palestinian teen in front of her children; the 16 year old was recently convicted. When I travel to Israel again, currently planned for June, I hope to meet with several of the families. You may recall our on February 19, 2016, report on the murder of Tuvia Yanai Weissman, 21, who was stabbed to death in a supermarket while he was shopping with his wife and baby daughter. When he saw the Palestinians stabbing other shoppers, he rushed towards them and fought them with his bare hands, but was killed in the process.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on May 07, 2016 35 Comments
In December 2001, alert passengers on an American Airlines flight thwarted a terrorist attack by "shoe bomber" Richard Reid, and in the wake of the San Bernardino terrorist attack, we learned that neighbors had noted suspicious activity at the terrorists' home but had not reported it for fear of being accused of profiling or of being racist. This week, a passenger on an American Airlines flight was seated next to a man who was intently focused on "scribblings" she could not decipher, and after repeated attempts to engage him in conversation, she reported behavior she found to be suspicious. The Washington Post reports:
On Thursday evening, a 40-year-old man — with dark, curly hair, olive skin and an exotic foreign accent — boarded a plane. It was a regional jet making a short, uneventful hop from Philadelphia to nearby Syracuse. Or so dozens of unsuspecting passengers thought. The curly-haired man tried to keep to himself, intently if inscrutably scribbling on a notepad he’d brought aboard. His seatmate, a blond-haired, 30-something woman sporting flip-flops and a red tote bag, looked him over. He was wearing navy Diesel jeans and a red Lacoste sweater – a look he would later describe as “simple elegance” – but something about him didn’t seem right to her. She decided to try out some small talk.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 05, 2016 7 Comments
If you spend any time reading propaganda from the anti-Israel movement, you will hear how Israel imprisons Palestinian "children," meaning anyone under the age of 18. Of course, many if not most of those children were participating in attacks on Israelis and are 15, 16 and 17 year olds who have both the power and the will to kill. One of the hallmarks of the so-called Knife Intifada is knife attacks perpetrated by young teens, with devastating effect. If you don't think a 13-year old with a knife is dangerous, than you have never been attacked by a 13-year old with a knife. One of those attacks by a Palestinian "child" killed Israeli mother Dafna Meir, in front of her children. We reported on the attack on January 17, 2016:

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on May 05, 2016 8 Comments
A leading German Islamist Sven Lau is standing trial for creating ‘Sharia Police’. In 2014, a group of young Muslim men under Lau’s commend took to the streets of Wuppertal enforcing Islamic law. The Higher District Court in Düsseldorf will hear the case against 36 year-old German convert Lau, who goes by is Muslim name of Abu Adam, for supporting a terrorist organisation. The group led by Lau is one of the many Islamist outfits presently active across Germany. Some 700 Germans have reportedly joined the ranks of Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, including 29 former German army soldiers. The District Court in Wuppertal is also putting Lau and seven of his Sharia enforcers to trial for patrolling the city wearing unauthorised uniforms. If convicted, the Islamists could face fines or a prison sentence up to 2 years. It is doubtful if a proverbial slap on the wrist is going to prompt hardened Islamists of the Sharia Police to mend their ways.
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