The leader of a Russian Islamic terrorist group believed to be behind the plot to bomb the Winter Olympics was killed in a shootout with security troops while the woman believed to be the suicide bomber remains at large.
Russian security officials say that Eldar Magatov, the mastermind behind the bombings of public transportation in Volgograd last month that killed 34 people, was killed in a shootout after police surrounded a house in the Dagestan region. Dagestan is considered the home base for the Islamic terrorist group that was led by Magatov.
Russian President Vladimir Putin received an offer of support from the United States to combat the terrorists during the Olympics but has not responded to the offer.
Meanwhile, the woman called a “black widow” believed to be planning to attempt a suicide attack on the games is still at large in the Sochi area. In what has not been confirmed by Russian security officials, sources in Sochi say Russian security forces have sent out revised posters to hotels and hostels that show two separate women being sought as possible terrorists.
Islamic terrorists have released a video from two men who claim to be suicide bombers.
The two men in the video are dressed in street clothes with nothing to identify them as Islamists. They identify themselves as part North Caucasus Islamic Extremist group while standing in front of a black jihadist flag and holding AKMS rifles.
“We’ll have a surprise package for you,” the terrorists say in the clip. “And those tourists that will come to you, for them, too, we have a surprise. If [the Olympics] happens, we’ll have a surprise for you. This is for all the Muslim blood that is shed every day around the world, be it in Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria, all around the world. This will be our revenge.”
U.S. Intelligence officials say they have been studying the video trying to determine authenticity. However, the video was posted on a website that is considered credible for the Russian terrorist group. Sources say that U.S. Intelligence officials are working to come up with a rescue plan for Americans who may get trapped in a terror attack at the Olympics.
Russian authorities continue to insist their forces will be enough to protect participants and attendees at the Olympics.
Islamic terrorists have released a video from two men who claim to be suicide bombers.
The two men in the video are dressed in street clothes with nothing to identify them as Islamists. They identify themselves as part North Caucasus Islamic Extremist group while standing in front of a black jihadist flag and holding AKMS rifles.
“We’ll have a surprise package for you,” the terrorists say in the clip. “And those tourists that will come to you, for them, too, we have a surprise. If [the Olympics] happens, we’ll have a surprise for you. This is for all the Muslim blood that is shed every day around the world, be it in Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria, all around the world. This will be our revenge.”
U.S. Intelligence officials say they have been studying the video trying to determine authenticity. However, the video was posted on a website that is considered credible for the Russian terrorist group. Sources say that U.S. Intelligence officials are working to come up with a rescue plan for Americans who may get trapped in a terror attack at the Olympics.
Russian authorities continue to insist their forces will be enough to protect participants and attendees at the Olympics.
After months of suggesting that the Muslim Brotherhood was behind terrorist attacks and bombings, the Egyptian government made it official on Wednesday.
The announcement of the declaration that the Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization means that any Egyptian who is associated in any way with the group can be immediately arrested and jailed. All activities related to the group, including providing funding to any part of the organization, is criminal.
Hossam Eissa, Egypt’s Minister of Higher Education, said the action by the Cabinet comes after Tuesday’s deadly terror attack on a police headquarters in a Nile Delta city that killed 16 and wounded 100. The Muslim Brotherhood denied participation in the attack and referred to an al-Qaeda inspired group that tried to claim responsibility.
“Egypt was horrified from north to south by the hideous crime committed by the Muslim Brotherhood group,” Eissa told reporters. “This was in context of dangerous escalation to violence against Egypt and Egyptians, a clear declaration by the Muslim Brotherhood group that it still knows nothing but violence. It’s not possible for Egypt the state nor Egypt the people to submit to the Muslim Brotherhood terrorism.”
The head of the Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, said the decision is only worth the paper that it is printed on and will have no impact on their organization.
The declaration allows police and military troops to increase activity against Brotherhood groups including entering buildings housing Brotherhood members without a warrant.
It was another bloody Christmas for Christians in the Iraqi capital city.
Two separate bombings in Christian parts of the city left at least 37 people dead and hundreds wounded, some critically.
A car bomb placed outside a Catholic church was detonated as parishioners were leaving Christmas mass. Officials at the bombing site say 26 people died at the scene and over 40 others were rushed to hospitals. Witnesses say it appears the bomb was remotely detonated by someone who could see the crowd leaving the building.
Two bombs also ripped through a market in the Christian section of Athorien leaving 11 people dead.
There have been no immediate claims of responsibility for the attack but the rapidly dwindling Christian community in Iraq has been a major target for Islamic extremist terrorist groups like al-Qaeda.
At least 441 people have died from terrorist attacks in Iraq this month.
A group of Islamists have captured the ancient quarter of the Christian town of Maaloula and are holding nuns hostage inside a monastery.
Reports say terrorists linked to the al-Qaeda affiliated al-Nursa Front stormed the Greek Orthodox monastery of Mar Thecla and are keeping the nuns hostage. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the Islamists captured the town after four days of intense fighting.
The capture of the town reportedly was part of a rebel surge to obtain control of a central Syrian Highway between Damascus and Homs.
The government capturing the highway is seen as a key objective for the al-Assad government as it would allow the country’s cache of chemical weapons to be transported for removal and destruction.
“Security remains a key challenge for all. The destruction of a chemical weapons program has never taken place under such challenging and dangerous conditions,” Sigrid Kaag, head of the joint mission of the U.N. and Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons told OPCW delegates.
Lady Warsi, a Muslim who is Great Britain’s Faith and Communities Minister, told the BBC that Christianity in large parts of the Middle East and in a majority of Islamic nations is on the brink of extinction.
I’m concerned that the birthplace of Christianity, the parts of the world where Christianity first spread, is now seeing large sections of the Christian community leaving, and those that are remaining feeling persecuted,” Lady Warsi told the BBC Radio 4 Today program. “One in 10 Christians live in a minority situation and large numbers of those who live in a minority situation around the world are persecuted.”
She said that as Islamic extremist groups gain influence, they are able to convince the local population that Christians are “newcomers” to the area that should be driven out when in many cases the Christians were living in the area before the arrival of the Islamists. She also said that Christians are being made the scapegoat for problems in the Middle East created by Islamists.
She also said that violence against Christians in Pakistan is threatening to drive all Christians from that nation.
She said that violence against Christians worldwide should not just reverberate in the Christian community but in all communities.
A trial has started in the United Arab Emirates for thirty Islamic extremists accused of setting up an illegal arm of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The defendants all claimed innocence and said they were victims of torture in prison.
Twenty of the defendants are Egyptian nationals including three doctors. Six Egyptians are being tried in absentia as part of the trial. All are accused of being part of the Islamist political society al-Islah, which prosecutors say is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
This is the second trial of Islamists connected to the establishment of an illegal Brotherhood branch. In July, 69 Islamists were convicted for their connections to the group and were sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
Kenya’s air force destroyed a training base for the al-Qaeda related Islamic terrorist group Al-Shabab.
Kenyan Defense Force spokesman Col. Cyrus Oguna said that the training camp housed about 300 recruits but he was unable to confirm the number of deaths. He speculated that the total number of terrorists killed and wounded would be available by early next week.
Al-Shabab is responsible for an attack on a Nairobi mall last month that killed 67 people.
Col. Oguna said that the attack on the terrorist camp is the first in a planned series of military actions against training camps of the terrorist group.
Nigerian military officials say that close to 100 terrorists were killed after a major clash between troops and Islamic terrorists in Yobe state.
The military spokesman said that the attack from the Islamic terror group Boko Haram lasted over five hours and was the result of a major government action against terrorist safe houses. Sources tell Reuters that both planes and ground forces were used in the raids.
The military says that 95 terrorists were killed along with 23 soldiers and eight police officers. However, local hospital officials put the total of military fatalities at 35.
Boko Haram also lost 37 terrorists in a military raid last week in Borno. The assaults are part of the state of emergency declaration made in May.