The capture of an al-Qaeda terrorist in Libya by U.S. Special Forces has caused a stir among Islamic extremists to the point they’re declaring open season on Americans.
“Over the past few days, we picked up significant chatter related to the kidnapping of American citizens in response to the abduction of Abu Anas al-Libi,” a source told Fox News.
One of the terrorists being monitored by analysts told followers on Twitter there was no need to consult with anyone if you wanted to kidnap an American.
According to multiple jihadist websites, the general plan is to kidnap a number of Americans to use as bargaining chips to get terrorists released from jails across the world. Specifically mentioned was Omar Abd Al-Rahman, convicted for his part in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-described creator of the 9/11 attacks.
While there is nothing explicitly saying al-Qaeda is supporting the evolving plan, no leaders from the group have taken any steps to stop it.
Turkey has raised concerns about the number of al-Qaeda related terrorists in northern Syria.
Turkish officials say that the “indiscriminate terror” which is the normal tactics of the al-Qaeda related fighters could be turned north toward Turkish military troops and U.S. soldiers who are based their to help protect Turkish airspace.
The al-Qaeda fighters call themselves ISIS, which they translate into “Greater Syria”. They have aligned with the Free Syrian Army to oust President Bashir al-Assad. However, the group has stated a goal of turning the nation into a key piece of a radical Sunni Islamic empire.
The group sees Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan as not a “real Muslim” because he is a moderate leader.
The group has also been fighting against rebel groups that are pro-west in nature. Last month they destroyed a pro-western rebel group called Northern Storm in the city of Azaz. ISIS has repeatedly torn down churches and Christian symbols.
An accused al-Qaeda terrorist Abu Anas al-Liby has been brought to New York to face charges.
Al-Liby, whose real name is Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, was questioned on a Navy ship while being transported to New York. He is facing charges connected to bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Over 220 people were killed in the two terrorist attacks.
Al-Liby has been on the FBI’s Most Wanted List for over a decade and had a $5 million bounty on his head.
U.S. prosecutors have evidence stretching back decades of al-Liby’s work conducting surveillance of terrorist targets and planning attacks on Western targets in Africa.
Al-Liby was captured by U.S. special forces in a raid inside Libya on October 5th.
A French citizen believed to have links with a German al-Qaeda cell connected to the September 11th attacks in New York is in custody in Paris.
Naamen Meziche has been placed under “formal investigation”. He was deported from Pakistan on Tuesday on charges of criminal conspiracy regarding a terrorist enterprise. Meziche is believed an associate of al-Qaeda commander Younis al-Mauritani who planned attacks for Osama Bin Laden in Australia, Europe and the U.S.
“This is a big fish, at the historic heart of al-Qaeda,” a French anti-terrorism officer told AFP news agency.
Meziche recruited jihadists at a mosque in Hamburg, Germany where the 9/11 hijackers regularly met before moving to the United States.
A source inside the court told French media outlets that evidence against Meziche will date back into the 1990s.
Andrew Parker, the new head of Britain’s MI5 security service, is warning that the British general public is now a legitimate target for attacks by Islamic extremists.
In an address to the Royal United Services Institute, Parker said that al-Qaeda and its affiliates in Pakistan and Yemen present “direct and immediate threats to the UK.”
“It remains the case that there are several thousand Islamist extremists here who see the British public as a legitimate target,” Parker said.
Parker said that 330 people had been convicted of terrorism offenses in the last decade and that in the first few months of 2013 at least four major trials were connected to terrorist plots. In those cases, 24 terrorists were sent to prison.
Parker said the increase in technology is allowing terrorists to communicate in ways difficult for their intelligence services to track under current laws. He called for lawmakers to allow services to use the same tools the terrorists use to track terror plots.
Bombings aimed at markets in Baghdad has killed at least 23 people.
Local officials say that 40 others were injured, some critically, in the attacks. At least 16 were killed in a packed market in the Sabaa al-Bour section in northern Baghdad while at least 7 died in a bombing at a market in Dora district south of Baghdad. Continue reading →
In an audio message marking the 12th anniversary of the group’s attack on the United States, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri says the U.S. has “fled” Iraq and Afghanistan “in defeat.”
Al-Zawahiri also called for small-scale, “lone wolf” style attacks to damage the U.S. economy. Continue reading →
The al-Qaeda related terror group al-Shabab ambushed and killed two top Islamists in Somalia after the duo had a falling out with al-Shabab leadership.
Omar Hammami, known as al-Amriki, and Osama al-Britani were killed in a village southwest of the capital Mogadishu. Al-Britani was a British citizen and al-Amriki was an American. Continue reading →
Over 160 Somali religious scholars have declared a fatwa against the al-Qaeda related terrorist group al-Shabab. The group said that al-Shabab has no place as a part of Islam.
Al-Shabab is in control of most of the rural areas of Somalia although government and African Union forces have driven the terror group out of the cities. Continue reading →
A Syrian rebel group with connections to the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda attacked the historically Christian village of Maaloula Wednesday starting with a homicide bomber from the Jabhat al-Nusra group blowing himself up at a government checkpoint according to the Observatory for Human Rights.
The rebels then seized the checkpoint and a mountaintop hotel that was used as a base to bomb Christian churches throughout the town. A Jewish temple was also damaged in the bombing assault. Continue reading →