An attack on two Palestinian homes in the West Bank that burned the homes and killed an 18-month-old boy is causing a major increase in the region’s tension.
The buildings were marked with graffiti that lead authorities to believe it was carried out by Jewish terrorists. A star of David was painted on one building along with the message “Long live the Messiah.”
The family of the murdered boy has been hospitalized in critical condition, including a 4-year-old-boy.
“I am shocked by the murder of Ali Dawabshe,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement released on Facebook. “This is a reprehensible and horrific act of terrorism in every respect. The State of Israel takes a strong line against terrorism regardless of who the perpetrators are. I have ordered the security forces to use all means at their disposal to apprehend the murderers and bring them to justice forthwith. The Government of Israel is united in its strong opposition to such deplorable and awful acts. On behalf of the citizens of Israel, I would like to share in the sorrow of the family of Ali Dawabshe and wish a quick recovery to the family members who were injured.”
The Palestinian Authority said they will take the Israeli government in front of the International Criminal Court and say that the action is a war crime by the Israeli government.
Other nations around the world condemned the attack but welcomed Israel’s position they will go after the terrorists and bring them to justice.
“[The U.S.] condemns in the strongest possible terms last night’s vicious terrorist attack in the Palestinian village of Duma. We convey our profound condolences to the Dawabsha family and extend our prayers for a full recovery to those injured,” US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.
“We welcome Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu’s order to Israel’s security forces to use all means at their disposal to apprehend the murderers for what he called an act of terrorism and bring them to justice.”
Both Netanyahu and Israeli President Reuben Rivlin visited the family at the hospital and told them they would seek swift justice to whoever carried out the attack.
Palestinians have already begun to carry out acts of terrorism in response to the Thursday night action. Israelis across the nation are reporting various acts of arson by Palestinians. Israeli cars have been hit by gunfire and at least one policeman was wounded in an attack at the Temple Mount.
He may have died in 2013, but officials in Afghanistan are now confirming for the first time that the leader of the Taliban is dead.
Afghani President Ashraf Ghani released a statement Wednesday citing “credible information” that the one-eyed Omar died in a Karachi, Pakistan hospital in April 2013.
“The government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, based on credible information, confirms that Mullah Mohammad Omar, leader of the Taliban died in April 2013 in Pakistan,” the statement said. “The government of Afghanistan believes that grounds for the Afghan peace talks are more paved now than before, and thus calls on all armed opposition groups to seize the opportunity and join the peace process.”
Omar had been suffering from liver and kidney issues. Afghani Security Services spokesman Abdul Hassib Seddiqi told the BBC Omar died from health problems.
Several U.S. intelligence officials said they had long believed Omar to have died because of the fractured nature within the current Taliban.
“I’ve tended to believe the rumors that he was dead since the serious splits started in the Taliban,” one official told CNN. “If he were alive, he wouldn’t allow these rumors to continue to threaten the movement’s unity to this degree. He would risk some small exposure to invalidate the rumors, and he has not done that despite incredible internal demands that he do so.”
Analysts are now concerned the official announcement of Omar’s death will spur ISIS to try and gain a foothold among the Taliban supporters in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
A man police described as a “drifter” opened fire in a Lafayette, Louisiana movie theater on Thursday night, killing two and wounding nine before the gunman took his own life as police closed in on the situation.
Police officials say that some of the wounded are in “very critical” condition with “life-threatening” injuries.
According to witnesses, the gunman, 58-year-old John Russell Houser, sat in the back of a showing of the film “Trainwreck.” About 100 people were in the theater when he stood up shortly after the film started and began to open fire with a handgun.
“The information we have at this time indicates that he was by himself, he sat by himself and the first two people he shot were sitting right in front of him … When he stood up and started firing, people started rushing out. It looks like he spotted the officers coming in and he turned around, went against the crowd and fired a single gunshot,” Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft told reporters.
Witnesses told NBC that the shooter said nothing as he carried out his rampage.
Governor Bobby Jindal praised two teachers who were inside the theater for their bravery. One took a bullet that was heading for the second teacher’s head, the second pulled an alarm.
“Both teachers ended up shot. The second one, the one whose life was saved, even though she was shot in the leg, she had the presence of mind to pull the fire alarm to help save other lives,” he said.
One of the dead has been identified as 21-year-old Mayci Breaux, a pro-life activist who is being remembered as an “amazing young woman.”
A Navy petty officer wounded in the terror attack on two military recruiting centers in Chattanooga, Tennessee has died from his wounds.
The fallen soldier is Navy Petty Officer Randall Smith. He leaves behind a wife and three young daughters.
Smith’s mother Paula Proxmire went to the memorial site for those slain by Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez and placed an American flag and baseball mitt in honor of her son. She said that America and baseball were her son’s passions.
“My son is a hero. He died doing what he loved. He would have had it no other way,” Proxmire, from Kansas, told NBC News. “He’s been my hero since the day I gave birth to him.”
Meanwhile, the family of Abdulazeez reportedly told investigators that their son suffered from depression and was a drug addict, so they sent him to Jordan to try and get him away from Chattanooga friends who were a “bad influence.” However, relatives and friends admitted they saw changes in his behavior after his return from seven months in Jordan.
Investigators say Abdulazeez sent a text message to a friend before the attacks that included the Islamic verse “Whoever shows enmity to a friend of mine, then I have declared war against him.”
The FBI reports there is nothing to connect the gunman to ISIS or any other international terrorism group.
Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram is believed to have continued to follow the call of ISIS leadership to conduct attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan by killing 64 people in multiple bomb attacks.
Two female suicide bombers killed 12 people at two prayer grounds in Damaturu. People were in the area preparing for the end of Ramadan at the site of the attack.
Nigerian Army Col. Sani Usman said one of the bombers was a 10-year-old girl.
“The first blast went off around 07:15 local time (06:15 GMT) while security volunteers who had come earlier than worshippers were waiting for the worshippers so they could assist in crowd control,” added eye witness Ahmad Adamu, a security volunteer.
A few hours earlier two other bombers killed 50 people who were buying groceries for the end of the holiday at a market in Gombe.
Officials confirmed at least other 75 people were wounded and were in two separate hospitals for treatment.
The group has killed over 300 people this month.
A gunman opened fire on two military recruitment centers in Chattanooga, Tennessee on Thursday, leaving soldiers dead and wounded.
Officials in the Chattanooga area say the gunman has been shot and killed and that they believe he is the only one involved in the attacks.
Fox News reported that four Marines were killed at one of the two centers. FBI officials confirmed others were injured and are being treated at local hospitals but there was no information on their condition.
The U.S. Prosecutor for the region said at a press conference the investigation is being conducted “as a case of domestic terrorism.” He added there is a joint federal, state and local investigation which is why much of the information about the shooting is being withheld from the media and public.
The FBI, ATF and the Department of Homeland Security were on the scene within hours and leading the investigation.
Ed Reinhold, special agent in charge of the FBI at the same news conference praised the local police department for the response and for “neutralizing the threat to the community.”
The FBI confirmed the suspect carried “multiple weapons” but would not describe the weapons. They believe that the gunman was residing in the area before the attack. Reinhold also said that while it’s being investigated as domestic terrorism, it’s possible the attack was not related to terrorism and just an act of violence.
Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear has declared a state of emergency after flooding that left two people dead and six people missing.
Severe storms raged through the state dumping inches of rain in just hours over parts of the state already saturated from previous storms. The flash flooding swept through rural areas, washing away mobile homes and vehicles.
Among the missing is a man being hailed as a hero for saving his father, uncle and sister. Scott Johnson went back after saving the first three from the flood waters to get his grandmother and a teenage nephew. He jammed his nephew into a tree before the flood water swept him away along with his grandmother.
The grandmother’s body was found Tuesday. Johnson is still missing.
“It just wears your legs out to walk,” said Gary McClure, the local emergency management director. “You walk from here to there in that mud and you’re ready to sit down. It just pulls you down.”
The other confirmed death was a 65-year-old man whose SUV was being swept away by flood waters and he tried to exit the vehicle to escape.
Police say that the search area for the missing stretches more than 8 miles through rugged Appalachian Mountains terrain east of Lexington. Over 500 homes and 1,200 residents live in the area.
The National Guard has been called into the area to help with search and rescue efforts.
The forecast for the region is calling for more rain which officials say has “nowhere to go but roads, homes and yards.”
A new report on the deaths of three German men who worked as squirrel breeders has found that they all died from a new strain of virus that jumped from the squirrels to the men.
“A new bornavirus that can be transmitted to humans and cause severe disease has been detected in variegated squirrels. The study shows that exotic animal species can have the risk of transmitting novel zoonotic viruses to humans from close contact,” said Dr. Martin Beer, head of virus diagnostics at Germany’s Friedrich-Loeffler Institute.
The men developed encephaltits, or brain inflammation, and died within two to four months after showing symptoms
The breed of squirrel involved live in southern Mexico and Central America. That’s one of the reasons Dr. Marc Siegel of NYU Langone Medical Center in New York told HealthDay the general public shouldn’t be concerned at this time.
“It’s likely that bornavirus, commonly found in horses and sheep and capable of causing neurological symptoms, was present in the squirrels that scratched these men, causing the neurological and behavioral symptoms,” he said. “It is possible that this virus could spread to squirrels here in the U.S. and occasionally to humans, but we wouldn’t see sustained spread, as there is no evidence of spread from human to human.”
All the men who died from the virus were in their 60s or older and had other health conditions that doctors say could have contributed to the virus being able to impact them.
A 14-year-old Minnesota boy is the nation’s second confirmed 2015 death from a brain eating amoeba.
The family of Hunter Boutain, who died Thursday at University of Minnesota Medical Center, said that it’s likely he caught Naegleria fowleri while swimming at Lake Minnewaska in Pope County, Minnesota.
“Hunter’s condition deteriorated throughout the night and he was declared brain dead this morning. Hunter died surrounded by his family. It is a deeply emotional time for all us. We ask for privacy and prayers as we remember our beloved Hunter,” family spokesman Bryan Boutain said in a statement.
“I thank you all for praying for Hunter,” the teen’s brother Lee Boutain posted on Facebook. “The Lord didn’t want him to stay on earth. As much as I am hurt I know I can’t love him as much as God.”
Hunter’s death is the third in Minnesota from the amoeba. Officials are concerned because the two previous cases, one in 2010 and one in 2012, happened in smaller lakes and in much warmer conditions than where Hunter was believed to have contracted the parasite.
As previously reported, a 21-year-old California woman died in late June from the amoeba after officials say she caught the amoeba “on private land.”
Only three people are known to have survived an infection with Naegleria fowleri.
A Nigerian pastor whose daughter was stoned to death by the Islamic group Boko Haram says that he is “grateful” to know that she stood up for Christ until the end.
“I was told that my daughter refused to change her religion. I was told that they dug a hole and buried her from the neck and stoned her to death,” Pastor Enoch Mark said. “To die for the sake of Christ, that’s the happiest thing for me. I’m grateful that she didn’t change her religion. She trust[ed] in God.”
Pastor Mark was told of his daughter’s martyrdom by a 17-year-old girl named Miriam who escaped from her captors.
“I believe she died with dignity. Monica is now in heaven because she refused to convert,” Pastor Mark’s wife told the BBC.
The girl who told the pastor is one of the girls that informed western leaders that Boko Haram is forcing the kidnapped girls to carry out killings and bombings. Miriam told the BBC that they were trained to kill on captured Christians.
“They were Christian men. They [Boko Haram militants] forced the Christians to lie down. Then the girls cut their throats.”