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.
Islamic terrorist group ISIS says their affiliate in the Sinai Peninsula fired a guided rocket at an Egyptian Navy vessel near Rafah that burst into flame.
The military confirmed a frigate had been pursuing ISIS terrorists near Rafah and had “engaged in gunfire” with the extremists and the ship experienced a fire but said no one had been killed.
The terrorists, however, released a series of photos that appear to show a rocket flying toward an Egyptian frigate, causing a massive explosion and fire. The terrorists claim everyone on board was killed.
The SITE Intelligence Group told the BBC the missile appeared to be an anti-tank missile. Witnesses say that other Egyptian military craft rushed to the side of the stricken vessel.
The attack is believed to be the first time the terrorist group has launched a missile attack on a ship. It raises concerns that they would attempt to disrupt shipping traffic through the Suez Canal.
ISIS has been particularly active in Egypt over the last four weeks. The group claimed the assassination of the country’s top prosecutor, killing 21 soldiers in the town of Sheikh Zuwaid and Saturday’s bombing of the Italian Consulate in Cairo.
FBI Director James Comey told reporters at FBI Headquarters that a least 10 people radicalized by ISIS were arrested in connection with plots to kill Americans on July 4th.
“I do believe that our work disrupted efforts to kill people, likely in connection with July 4th,” Comey said.
Comey did not release details of the arrests or investigations but said they involved “very serious efforts to kill people in the United States.” He could not confirm all those arrested were plotting Independence Day attacks but said “some of them were focusing on the Fourth of July.”
Comey had previously told Congress this week that ISIS and westerners being radicalized by the Islamic terror group had been using sophisticated encryption to keep investigators from being able to track their plans.
He said that because of the system being used, ISIS can activate potential terrorists on any day or the terrorists themselves could just decided to launch their plans.
“Rahim in Boston, I believe, was bent on doing something in the future,” Comey said referring to terrorist Usaama Rahim, “and woke up on the morning of June the 2nd and said, ‘You know what, I think today is the day,’ and just went out to try and kill people.”
FBI Director James Comey admitted to lawmakers that ISIS and other terrorist groups are using encryption methods as a way to avoid federal investigators.
“This is not your grandfather’s al Qaeda,” he told a Senate panel.
Comey said that ISIS has been effective in using social media outlets like Twitter where they have over 22,000 English-language followers.
“[It’s like a] devil in their pocket all day long that says ‘Kill, kill, kill,” Comey said. “There is simply no doubt that bad people can communicate with impunity in a world of universal strong encryption.”
“We cannot break strong encryption,” Comey told lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee. “I think people watch TV and think the bureau can do lots of things. We cannot break strong encryption.”
Comey cited as an example the case of Usaamah Rahim, the Boston man killed when he attacked FBI and Boston Police as they tried to question him. The agents tracking him couldn’t see his exact plans because they went into an encrypted site.
The FBI calls that “going dark.”
“ISIL does something al-Qaida would never imagine: they test people by tasking them,” Comey told the senators. “Kill somebody and we’ll see if you are really a believer. And these people react in a way that is very difficult to predict. What you saw in Boston is what the experts say is flash-to-bang being very close. You had a guy who was in touch in an encrypted way with these ISIL recruiters and we believe was bent on doing something on July 4th. He woke up one morning, June 2nd, and decided he was going to go kill somebody.”
Islamic terrorists launched a day of violence in Nigeria against both Christians and Muslims on Sunday leaving more than 60 dead.
Boko Haram bombed a crowded mosque and Muslim restaurant in the city of Jos. Muslim community lawyer Ahmed Garba told Fox News that 51 people died in the twin attacks and were buried on Monday. An additional 67 were wounded and remain hospitalized.
A witness said that the bomber at the mosque appeared to be targeting cleric Sani Yahaya.
“He is a great Islamic scholar who has spoken out against Boko Haram, and that is why we believe he was the target,” Danladi Sani told The Associated Press.
The terrorists also attacked an evangelical Christian church in Potiskum along with a campaign of arson against villages that burned over 300 homes.
Boko Haram has ramped up violence in response to a call by ISIS terrorists for increased activity during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the attacks and said that he will protect the rights of Nigerians to freely worship.
In the last week the terrorist group has killed over 300 people.
ISIS terrorists smashed cultural artifacts from the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra according to a statement from the terrorists and from Syrian state media outlets.
Terrorists caught a man smuggling six ancient statues through Aleppo province and then destroyed the statues after he was taken to an “Islamic court” in Manbij.
“An IS checkpoint in Wilyat arrested a person transporting several statues from Palmyra,” the group said in an online statement. “The guilty party was taken to an Islamic court in the town of Minbej, where it was decided that the trafficker would be punished and the statues destroyed.”
The statues “appear to be eight statues stolen from the tombs in Palmyra. The destruction is worse than the theft because they cannot be recovered,” Maamoun Abdelkarim, Syria’s Antiquities Director, told the London Guardian.
Also reported destroyed was a 2,000 year old statue of a lion that was outside the museum in Palmyra discovered during a 1977 archaeological mission.
“IS members on Saturday destroyed the Lion of al-Lat, which is a unique piece that is three metres [10ft] tall and weighs 15 tonnes,” Abdelkarim told AFP. “It’s the most serious crime they have committed against Palmyra’s heritage.”
Abdelkarim said the items destroyed by the terrorists were “priceless.”
A woman whose son died while fighting alongside Islamic terrorists has come out swinging against radicalization of westerners with a new organization called Mothers For Life.
Christianne Boudreau lost her 22-year-old son when Damien became radicalized by Islamist propaganda and then died while fighting with al-Nusrah, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda. Now she is working to help other parents spot the signs of radicalization in their children.
“If I knew back then what I know now, I may have seen it before my son left,” Boudreau told Fox News. “There are things that only a mother will notice. Maybe your child will disconnect and separate from their social group, or start saving money, whereas they never did before. It is only getting harder, as ISIS is encouraging recruits to hide their religion, so it is really important to pick up on other changes.”
Boudreau said her son was raised Christian but converted to Islam a few years before joining the terrorists. She said he claimed he had been “wasting his life and had no direction” before the Islamists came along and provided him with a “purpose.”
She says the group is needed because of the stigma that can be placed on families if their children leave for the terrorist groups.
“How can families reach out for help if they are afraid people will come after them?” Boudreau said. “That’s why something like Mothers for Life was needed. To show that parents aren’t always to blame, but that we need to do whatever we can to stop this. We need the politicians to start to listen. We need them to help with outreach and with prevention.”
Boudreau hopes that by going public with other mothers who have lost their sons they can stop another mother from suffering in the way they’ve done in losing their child.
Federal officials say that security measures across the country will be increase ahead of the July 4th holiday weekend.
Police say that they are concerned about ISIS sympathizers in the country who might heed the group’s call for major terror attacks during the month of Ramadan.
New York Congressman Peter King told ABC there was “great concern” about terror attacks and that it was unusual for officials to put out warnings so far in advance of a holiday unless they had major reason for concern.
“ISIS is incomparable as far as terrorist organizations as far as being able to reach,” King said on “This Week.” “They can reach the disaffected, they can reach the deranged, they can also reach the ideologically committed.”
King is not alone in his concern.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re sitting here a week from today talking about an attack over the weekend in the United States. That’s how serious this is,” Former CIA deputy director Michael Morrell told CBS News.
The warnings come on the heels of three coordinated terrorist attacks in Europe that were claimed by ISIS.
Islamic militants claiming connection to ISIS are warning that they will “cleanse” Israel of all Christians and “non-believers” by the end of Ramadan unless they leave the country.
“Those who work with the Zionists also encourage Muslims to leave their religion and become more secular and open, and they spread evil,” Arabic-language leaflets warns, according to The Jerusalem Post. “They take these Muslims away from us. … We know where they are, but we need help to find them all — all those Christian collaborators.”
“ISIS soldiers will work to kill these people so this country is clean of them and … will clean this country and the Muslim Quarter from these Christians during this holy Ramadan.”
The Jerusalem Post said that no Arabic Christians who received the note would talk to them but their neighbors said the messages have rattled the community.
“They’re fearful for their lives and don’t want to go to the police because they feel that the police won’t be responsive,” an Israeli man told the Post, requesting anonymity.
“What’s most problematic is that in this case individuals aren’t being targeted but an entire group, which is pretty darn serious. If leaflets with swastikas and similar threats were sent to Jewish neighborhoods, people would be outraged. I hope and pray it amounts to nothing at all.”
ISIS has called for terror attacks during Ramadan and has taken responsibility for attacks last week in France, Tunisia and Kuwait.
Islamic terrorist group ISIS launched a surprise attack on the Kurdish held city of Kobani Thursday night, slaughtering entire families inside their homes.
Survivors of the assault told the Christian Science Monitor of the devastation of the assault.
Silva Sheikh, 7, talked to CSM outside of a hospital with her T-shirt covered in the blood of her mother, father, grandfather and grandmother who were gunned down by the terrorists.
“I took my brothers and sisters by the hand and we escaped, but I forgot the pram with baby Linda inside,” she cries as her other siblings sit silently with her.
“My neighbors told me IS entered the house and killed everyone but the children” explains their aunt, Aida Sheikh, who collected them after an ambulance brought them across the border. “Everyone we’ve called in Kobane is too scared to go rescue the baby. Look at these innocent children. How will I care for them? What will I tell them?”
Witnesses say the terrorists were disguised as allied militia.
“I assume that the main purpose of the attack was almost certainly not to take and hold Kobane, but to throw the Kurds off balance and force them to divert forces to protect Kobane and other rear areas, so as to ease the threat they pose to Isis’s ‘capital’ in Raqqa,” said Yezid Sayegh, an expert at the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut. “Consequently, Isis didn’t need to use large numbers of fighters, just enough to do something dramatic – easily done by attacking a ‘soft’ target such as civilians.”