Tag Archives: Terrorism

Islamic State Profiting From Antiquities

Arranged antiquities are pictured in Damascus, Syria

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq are netting between $150 million and $200 million per year from illicit trade in plundered antiquities, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations said in a letter released on Wednesday.

“Around 100,000 cultural objects of global importance, including 4,500 archaeological sites, nine of which are included in the World Heritage List of … UNESCO, are under the control of the Islamic State … in Syria and Iraq,” Ambassador Vitaly Churkin wrote in a letter to the U.N. Security Council.

“The profit derived by the Islamists from the illicit trade in antiquities and archaeological treasures is estimated at U.S. $150-200 million per year,” he said.

The smuggling of artifacts, Churkin wrote, is organized by Islamic State’s antiquities division in the group’s equivalent of a ministry for natural resources. Only those who have a permit with a stamp from this division are permitted to excavate, remove and transport antiquities.

Some details of the group’s war spoils department were previously revealed by Reuters, which reviewed some of the documents seized by U.S. Special Operations Forces in a May 2015 raid in Syria.

But many details in Churkin’s letter appeared new.

The envoy from Russia, which has repeatedly accused Turkey of supporting Islamic State by purchasing oil from the group, said plundered antiquities were largely smuggled through Turkish territory.

“The main center for the smuggling of cultural heritage items is the Turkish city of Gaziantep, where the stolen goods are sold at illegal auctions and then through a network of antique shops and at the local market,” Churkin wrote.

Turkish officials were not immediately available for comment on the Russian allegations. Russian-Turkish relations have been strained ever since Turkey shot down a Russian plane near the Syrian border last November.

Churkin said jewelry, coins and other looted items are brought to the Turkish cities of Izmir, Mersin and Antalya, where criminal groups produce fake documents on their origin.

“The antiquities are then offered to collectors from various countries, generally through Internet auction sites such as eBay and specialized online stores,” he said. Churkin named several other Internet auction sites that he said sold antiquities plundered by Islamic State.

EBay did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

“Recently ISIL has been exploiting the potential of social media more and more frequently so as to cut out the middleman and sell artifacts directly to buyers,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Many Americans Believe In Torture

Guantanamo detainee's feet are shackled to the floor

By Chris Kahn

(Reuters) – Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe torture can be justified to extract information from suspected terrorists, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, a level of support similar to that seen in countries like Nigeria where militant attacks are common.

The poll reflects a U.S. public on edge after the massacre of 14 people in San Bernardino in December and large-scale attacks in Europe in recent months, including a bombing claimed by the militant group Islamic State last week that killed at least 32 people in Belgium.

Donald Trump, the front-runner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, has forcefully injected the issue of whether terrorism suspects should be tortured into the election campaign.

Trump has said he would seek to roll back President Barack Obama’s ban on waterboarding – an interrogation technique that simulates drowning that human rights groups contend is illegal under the Geneva Conventions. Trump has also vowed to “bring back a hell of a lot worse” if elected.

Trump’s stance has drawn broad criticism from human rights organizations, world bodies, and political rivals. But the poll findings suggest that many Americans are aligned with Trump on the issue, although the survey did not ask respondents to define what they consider torture.

“The public right now is coping with a host of negative emotions,” said Elizabeth Zechmeister, a Vanderbilt University professor who has studied the link between terrorist threats and public opinion. “Fear, anger, general anxiety: (Trump) gives a certain credibility to these feelings,” she said.

The March 22-28 online poll asked respondents if torture can be justified “against suspected terrorists to obtain information about terrorism.” About 25 percent said it is “often” justified while another 38 percent it is “sometimes” justified. Only 15 percent said torture should never be used.

Republicans were more accepting of torture to elicit information than Democrats: 82 percent of Republicans said torture is “often” or “sometimes” justified, compared with 53 percent of Democrats. (Graphic: http://tmsnrt.rs/1ShObx1)

About two-thirds of respondents also said they expected a terrorist attack on U.S. soil within the next six months.

TERRORISM TOP CONCERN

Surveys by other polling agencies in recent years have shown U.S. support for the use of torture at around 50 percent. A 2014 survey by Amnesty International, for example, put American support for torture at about 45 percent, compared with 64 percent in Nigeria, 66 percent in Kenya and 74 percent in India.

Nigeria is battling a seven-year-old insurgency that has displaced 2 million people and killed thousands, while al Shabaab militants have launched a series of deadly attacks in Kenya. India is fighting a years-old Maoist insurgency that has killed hundreds.

In November, terrorism replaced economy as the top concern for many Americans in Reuters/Ipsos polling, shortly after militants affiliated with the Islamic State killed 130 people in Paris. (Graphic: http://polling.reuters.com/#!poll/SC8/type/smallest/dates/20151101-20151231/collapsed/true/spotlight/1)

At the same time, Trump surged in popularity among Republicans, who viewed him as the strongest candidate to deal with terrorism. Besides his advocacy of waterboarding, Trump said that he would “bomb the hell out of ISIS,” using an alternative acronym for Islamic State.

“You’re dealing with people who don’t play by any rules. And I can’t see why we would tie our hands and take away options like waterboarding,” said Jo Ann Tieken, 71, a Trump supporter.

Tieken said her views had been influenced by the injuries suffered by her two step-grandsons while serving in the military four years ago in Afghanistan.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll included 1,976 people. It has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 2.5 percentage points for the entire group and about 4 percentage points for both Democrats and Republicans. (Graphic: http://reut.rs/1Rp3x6C)

(Reporting by Chris Kahn; Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Ross Colvin)

Israel urges citizens to leave Turkey due to upgraded travel advisory

Turkey Security Tourism

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel urged its citizens visiting Turkey to leave “as soon as possible” in an upgraded travel advisory on Monday predicting possible follow-up attacks to the March 19 suicide bombing in Istanbul blamed on Islamic State.

Three Israeli tourists and an Iranian were killed in the Istanbul attack, which prompted the counter-terrorism bureau in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to issue a generalized “level 3” warning against travel to Turkey.

A statement by the bureau raised this to “level 2” on Monday, signifying what it called a “high concrete threat” that Islamic State or similar groups would attack Turkish tourist attractions. It did not elaborate on what prompted the alert.

A senior diplomatic source said the advisory was intended only for Israeli tourists, not for dual-nationals living in Turkey, and that the update was issued in line with the latest information from the Turkish authorities.

President Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman, when asked at a briefing about the Israeli advisory, said the move had followed Turkey’s own warnings to its citizens. But he urged countries against playing into the militants’ hands, after a series of security alerts from foreign diplomatic missions in Turkey.

“One should refrain from moves that lead to the suspension of daily lives, in a way which would be welcomed by the terrorists,” presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said.

The Israeli statement said Israelis should avoid going to Turkey and, if already there, “depart as soon as possible”.

If a “level 1” alert were by issued by Israel, that would urge citizens to leave the country “forthwith”.

(Additional reporting by Nick Tattersall in Istanbul, Ercan Gurses in Ankara; Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Alison Williams)

Yemen peace talks expected in Kuwait next month, official says

CAIRO (Reuters) – Talks aimed at ending Yemen’s war are expected in Kuwait next month along with a temporary ceasefire, a senior Yemeni government official said, raising the prospect of an end to violence that has killed thousands.

There have already been several failed attempts to defuse the conflict in Yemen, which has drawn in regional foes Saudi Arabia and Iran and triggered a humanitarian crisis in the Arab world’s poorest country.

On Tuesday Saudi-led airstrikes targeting al Qaeda-linked militants in eastern Yemen killed and wounded dozens of people, a provincial governor and medics said.

“The talks will be on April 17 in Kuwait, accompanied by a temporary ceasefire,” the Yemeni official said, declining to be named. There were two inconclusive rounds of peace talks in Switzerland last year.

A Saudi-led coalition began a military campaign in Yemen a year ago with the aim of preventing Iran-allied Houthi rebels and forces loyal to Yemen’s ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh from taking control of the country.

There was no immediate response from the Houthi militia regarding the prospect of talks. A prisoner swap and pause in combat on the border with Saudi Arabia earlier this month had raised hopes of a push to end the war.

Tuesday’s Saudi-led airstrikes hit an area west of Mukalla, a port city and capital of the Hadramout province. Residents said at least 30 militants were killed and many more wounded. A spokesman for the Saudi-led alliance was not immediately available for comment.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), an affiliate of the global Sunni Muslim militant organisation, has expanded its foothold in the country as the government focuses on its battle with the Houthi rebels.

The United Nations says more than 6,000 people have been killed since the start of the Saudi-led military intervention whose ultimate aim is to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi following his ousting by Houthi and pro-Saleh forces.

“It has been a terrible year with air strikes, shelling and localized violence. An already very impoverished country has been put at a very sharp end,” Jamie McGoldrick, U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, told reporters in Geneva.

One in ten Yemenis is displaced, he said, adding that half of those killed and injured were civilians.

He said U.N. special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed had been in the capital Sanaa over the past few days for discussions with parties involved and also was in Riyadh.

“What they are hoping for is to put in place a ceasefire of some kind or a cessation of hostilities for a week or so prior to the talks and build confidence,” he said.

The spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir have said that any peace talks can take place only between Hadi and the Houthis, and through the U.N. special envoy.

(Additional reporting by Mohamed Mukashaf in Aden and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Richard Balmforth)

U.S. airports on edge after deadly Belgium bombings

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Major U.S. transportation hubs were placed on alert on Tuesday and Denver International Airport briefly evacuated part of its main terminal in a false alarm there hours after suicide bombings in Brussels killed at least 30 people.

Despite public safety concerns unleashed by the violence in Belgium’s capital, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the agency had no intelligence that would point to a similar attack being plotted against the United States.

But the State Department issued a travel alert warning U.S. citizens in Europe to avoid crowded places, to be vigilant when in public or using mass transit and to exercise extra caution during religious holidays and at large festivals and events.

“Terrorist groups continue to plan near-term attacks throughout Europe, targeting sporting events, tourist sites, restaurants, and transportation,” it said in a statement.

The Brussels bombings reverberated on the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign trail, with Democratic contender Hillary Clinton declaring that more needed to be done to confront the Islamic State militants who claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The Republican front-runner in the White House race, Donald Trump, called again for tighter border security and suggested U.S. intelligence services could use torture to head off future attacks.

Some of the country’s busiest airports and other transportation facilities were placed on heightened security status, as illustrated by a greater law enforcement presence.

Large numbers of uniformed police officers and National Guard troops dressed in battle fatigues and carrying rifles patrolled New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. Several U.S. carriers – Delta Air Lines Inc, United Continental Holdings Inc and American Airlines Group Inc  – said they canceled or rerouted flights as a result of the Brussels attacks.

At midafternoon, authorities at the Denver airport evacuated two levels on the west side of the main terminal after several packages that appeared suspicious were spotted near ticket counters, airport spokeswoman Stacey Stegman said.

Denver police, FBI and U.S. Transportation Security Administration officers converged on the airport, but the packages were ultimately deemed to pose no threat, and the terminal was fully reopened within two hours.

Several airlines were affected by the scare, including American Airlines, Aeroméxico, Air Canada, Lufthansa and British Airways, the airport said.

‘WORLD MUST UNITE’

U.S. President Barack Obama ordered flags flown at half-staff in memory of the victims in the Belgium attacks.

The State Department said an undetermined number of U.S. citizens had been injured in Brussels but none were killed. Three Mormon missionaries and a U.S. Air Force member and his family were among those hurt.

The Obama administration also was expected to impose tighter security measures at U.S. airports following the Brussels Airport bombings, which occurred in a public hall outside of the security check area.

U.S. Representative William Keating of Massachusetts, senior Democrat on a House subcommittee on terrorism, said the suicide bombings illustrated the difficulty of protecting “soft targets” outside tightly controlled security cordons.

“The targets aren’t going to be just getting on the plane itself, but the airport in general,” he said in a phone interview.

Obama addressed the attacks briefly in a speech in Havana on his historic visit to Cuba, vowing to support Belgium as it hunts for those responsible.

“This is yet another reminder that the world must unite. We must be together regardless of nationality or race or faith in fighting against the scourge of terrorism,” Obama said.

Candidates seeking their party’s nomination for the Nov. 8 presidential election immediately weighed in, with Clinton, a former secretary of state, vowing to strengthen her drive to “defeat terrorism and radical jihadism.”

Trump, a billionaire businessman, told NBC’s “Today” program: “If they could expand the laws, I would do a lot more than waterboarding. You have to get the information from these people.”

His Republican rival, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, strengthened his call for Obama to clip the flow of refugees from “countries with significant al Qaida or ISIS presence,” and called for heightened police scrutiny of neighborhoods with large Muslim populations.

The attack raised worries among some U.S. Muslims that they could face more hostility, although mainstream Muslims have repeatedly denounced violence.

“The media hype and political manipulation heightens our concerns,” said Sheikh Shaker Elsayed, imam of the Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Virginia.

Some travelers expressed concern that new security measures at airports, which had already imposed extensive restrictions since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, would increase inconvenience without improving safety.

“It already takes all day,” said Hans Vermulst, 66, who was at New York’s Kennedy airport trying to get home to the Netherlands after his connecting flight to Brussels was canceled. “We have to take it as it comes, but I’m not happy with it.”

(Additional reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Idrees Ali, Julia Edwards, Mark Hosenball, Ian Simpson, Alana Wise and Susan Heavey in Washington and Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Grant McCool and Peter Cooney)

U.S. says it may not need Apple to open San Bernardino iPhone

(Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors said Monday that a “third party” had presented a possible method for opening an encrypted iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters, a development that could bring an abrupt end to the high-stakes legal showdown between the government and Apple Inc.

A federal judge in Riverside, California, late Monday agreed to the government’s request to postpone a hearing scheduled for Tuesday so that the FBI could try the newly discovered technique. The Justice Department said it would update the court on April 5.

The government had insisted until Monday that it had no way to access the phone used by Rizwan Farook, one of the two killers in the December massacre in San Bernardino, California, except to force Apple to write new software that would disable the password protection.

The Justice Department last month obtained a court order directing Apple to create that software, but Apple has fought back, arguing that the order is an overreach by the government and would undermine computer security for everyone.

The announcement on Monday that an unnamed third party had presented a way of breaking into the phone on Sunday – just two days before the hearing and after weeks of heated back-and-forth in court filings – drew skepticism from many in the tech community who have insisted that there were other ways to get into the phone.

“From a purely technical perspective, one of the most fragile parts of the government’s case is the claim that Apple’s help is required to unlock the phone,” said Matt Blaze, a professor and computer security expert at the University of Pennsylvania. “Many in the technical community have been skeptical that this is true, especially given the government’s considerable resources.”

Former prosecutors and lawyers supporting Apple said the move suggested that the Justice Department feared it would lose the legal battle, or at minimum would be forced to admit that it had not tried every other way to get into the phone.

In a statement, the Justice Department said its only interest has always been gaining access to the information on the phone and that it had continued to explore alternatives even as litigation began. It offered no details on the new technique except that it came from a non-governmental third party, but said it was “cautiously optimistic” it would work.

“That is why we asked the court to give us some time to explore this option,” a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, Melanie R. Newman, said. “If this solution works, it will allow us to search the phone and continue our investigation into the terrorist attack that killed 14 people and wounded 22 people.”

It would also likely end the case without a legal showdown that many had expected to reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

An Apple executive told reporters on a press call that the company knew nothing about the Justice Department’s possible method for getting into the phone, and that the government never gave any indication that it was continuing to search for such solutions.

The executive characterized the Justice Department’s admission Monday that it never stopped pursuing ways to open the phone as a sharp contrast with its insistence in court filings that only Apple possessed the means to do so.

Nate Cardozo, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group backing Apple, said the San Bernardino case was the “hand-chosen test case” for the government to establish its authority to access electronic information by whatever means necessary.

In that context, he said, the last-minute discovery of a possible solution and the cancellation of the hearing is “suspicious,” and suggests the government might be worried about losing and setting a bad precedent.

But George Washington University law professor Orin Kerr, a former Justice Department computer crime prosecutor, said the government was likely only postponing the fight.

“The problem is not going away, it’s just been delayed for a year or two,” he said.

Apple said that if the government was successful in getting into the phone, which might involve taking advantage of previously undiscovered vulnerabilities, it hoped officials would share information on how they did so. But if the government drops the case it would be under no obligation to provide information to Apple.

In opposing the court order, Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, and his allies have argued that it would be unprecedented to force a company to develop a new product to assist a government investigation, and that other law enforcement agencies around the world would rapidly demand similar services.

Law enforcement officials, led by Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey, have countered that access to phones and other devices is crucial for intelligence work and criminal investigations.

The government and the tech industry have clashed for years over similar issues, and Congress has been unable to pass legislation to address the impasse.

(Reporting by Joseph Menn, additional reporting by Mari Saito; Editing by Leslie Adler and Andrew Hay)

Captured Paris attacks suspect ‘worth weight in gold’ to police, lawyer says

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The only suspected participant in Nov. 13 Paris attacks to be captured alive has been cooperating with police investigators and is “worth his weight in gold”, his lawyer said on Monday.

Belgium’s Interior Minister Jan Jambon said the country was on high alert for a possible revenge attack following the capture of 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam in a flat in Brussels on Friday.

“We know that stopping one cell can …push others into action. We are aware of it in this case,” he told public radio.

French investigator Francois Molins told a news conference in Paris on Saturday Abdeslam had admitted to investigators he had wanted to blow himself up along with others at the Stade de France on the night of the attack claimed by Islamic State; but he later backed out.

Abdeslam’s lawyer Sven Mary said he would sue Molins for making the comment public, calling it a violation of judicial confidentiality.

Mary said Abdeslam was now fully cooperating with investigators.

“I think that Salah Abdeslam is of prime importance for this investigation. I would even say he is worth his weight in gold. He is collaborating. He is communicating. He is not maintaining his right to remain silent,” Mary told Belgian public broadcaster RTBF.

MORE OPERATIONS PLANNED?

As the only suspected participant or planner of the Paris attack in police custody, Abdeslam would be seen by investigators as a possible major source of information on others involved, in support networks, finance and links with Islamic State in Syria. There would also be urgent interest in finding out what further attacks might be planned.

Belgian prosecutors said in a statement they were looking for Najim Laachraoui, 25, using the false name of Soufiane Kayal. His DNA had been found in houses in Belgium used by the Paris attackers.

Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said on Sunday that Abdeslam may have been plotting more operations drawing on a weapons discovered in the Forest district of Brussels and a network of associates.

Jambon said he could not confirm that, but it was a possibility.

“After 18 months of dealing with this terrorist issue, I have learned that when the terrorists and weapons are in the same place, and that’s what we saw in Forest, we are close to an attack. I’m not saying it is evidence. But yes, there are indications,” he said.

Reynders said Belgium and France had so far found around 30 people involved in the gun and bomb attacks on bars, a sports stadium and a concert hall in the French capital.

(Reporting By Jan Strupczewski and Barbara Lewis; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Erdogan says Turkey battling ‘terrorist wave’ after Istanbul bombing

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday Turkey would use all its military and intelligence might to battle “one of the biggest and bloodiest terrorist waves in its history”, after a suicide bomber killed three Israelis and an Iranian in Istanbul.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon described Turkey as “awash in terrorism”. Turkey’s main opposition party blamed what it called the government’s “adventure-seeking policies” in the Middle East for turmoil washing across Syria’s borders.

Saturday’s attack on Istiklal Street, a long pedestrian avenue lined with international stores and foreign consulates, was the fourth suicide bombing in Turkey this year. Two in Istanbul have been blamed on Islamic State, while the two others in the capital Ankara have been claimed by Kurdish militants.

The attacks have raised questions at home and among NATO allies as to whether its security services are overstretched as they fight on two fronts.

“Turkey has recently been facing one of the biggest and bloodiest terrorist waves in its history … Our state is fighting terrorist organizations and the forces behind them with everything at its disposal – its soldiers, police, village guards and its intelligence,” Erdogan said in a speech in Istanbul.

But his critics, including privately some of Turkey’s allies, argue that Erdogan’s focus on battling Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in the largely Kurdish southeast – a campaign he has repeatedly vowed will continue – comes at the expense of its fight against Islamic State.

Erdogan said the PKK and other groups were working with Islamic State and had turned on Turkey because they had failed to achieve their aims elsewhere in the region. He accused Europe of “two-faced behavior” for allowing PKK sympathizers to set up a tent near an EU-Turkey summit in Brussels last week.

Turkey has seen phases of civil disorder, a military coup in 1960, and left-right street clashes in the 1970s and 1980s that triggered two further army interventions. The Kurdish conflict has also caused widespread bloodshed, but rarely has a Turkish government faced such serious domestic conflicts simultaneously.

Turkey is part of a U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, but is also fighting PKK separatists in its southeast, where it sees an upsurge in violence since July as fueled by the territorial gains of a Kurdish militia in Syria.

Israeli Defense Minister Yaalon said the roots of the violence lay in radical Islam he said was “flooding the world”.

“What must be ensured is that terrorism is not initiated, like the way Hamas initiates terrorism against us, from Turkey, from Istanbul,” he said in a speech, in a swipe at Ankara’s support for the Palestinian Islamist militant group, which Israel sees an obstacle to repairing bilateral ties.

MANHUNT

Government officials deny suggestions that Turkey, long seen by Washington as a model for Islamic democracy but now facing Western criticism over its human rights policies, is not focused on fighting Islamic State.

But the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which has criticized what it sees as a pro-Sunni sectarian meddling in Syria, blamed Turkish foreign policy.

“What we are going through now is the result of the (ruling) AK Party’s unstable, contradictory, utopian, adventure-seeking policies in the Middle East,” CHP group deputy chairman Engin Altay told a press conference in parliament.

At least half a dozen newspapers from across the political spectrum carried head-and-shoulders pictures of three more suspected Islamic State members on Monday, saying they had been instructed to carry out further attacks in crowded areas.

“All provincial police units have taken action to try to capture the three terrorists suspected of being Islamic State members planning sensational attacks,” the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

Interior Minister Efkan Ala on Sunday identified the Istanbul bomber as a Mehmet Ozturk, born in 1992 and from the southern province of Gaziantep near the Syrian border. Five people had been detained in connection with the blast.

ISRAELIS TARGETED?

Israel has confirmed that three of its citizens died. Two held dual citizenship with the United States. An Iranian was also killed, Turkish officials have said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel is trying to determine whether its citizens were deliberately targeted. Eleven of the 36 wounded were Israelis.

Turkey’s Haberturk newspaper said police had been examining CCTV footage and that it appeared the suicide bomber had followed the group of Israeli tourists for several kilometers from their hotel, then waiting outside the restaurant where they ate breakfast before blowing himself up as they emerged.

Israeli media gave details of those who died.

Yonathan Suher, a father of two, had traveled to Istanbul to celebrate his 40th birthday with his wife, who was seriously wounded. Kindergarten teacher Simcha Damari, 60, and Avi Goldman, 63, who worked as a tour guide in Israel, both left behind several grandchildren, Israeli media said.

(Additional reporting by Daren Butler in Istanbul, Gulsen Solaker in Ankara, Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Writing by Nick Tattersall; editing by Ralph Boulton)

France carries out biggest ever attack drill ahead of soccer championships

PARIS (Reuters) – France has staged a mock chemical weapons attack on a soccer “fan zone” as it prepares for the Euro 2016 soccer championships in June, less than a year after Islamist militants killed 130 people in attacks in and around the French capital.

More than a thousand police and firemen took part in the attack response drill in the southern city of Nîmes, the largest ever carried out in France.

The exercise was designed to simulate a chemical attack in a “fan zone”, a closed perimeter area where soccer fans will be able to monitor the competition on giant outdoor screens when not attending matches in one of the 10 stadiums.

A Reuters witness saw dozens of police and military officers taking part in the drill, some of them equipped with gas masks.

French anti-terrorism police arrested a group with Islamist militant ties on Wednesday, suspecting one of them may have been planning another attack in the capital.

“In Nîmes, it was about a chemical or bacteriological threat,” Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve was quoted as saying in daily newspaper 20 minutes.

“We don’t believe there is a genuine risk of this type of attack but we must envisage every hypothesis.”

It will be the third time that France hosted the UEFA European Championship after having been chosen for the 1960 inaugural tournament and the finals in 1984.

(Reporting by Matthias Blamont; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Activists raise concerns over Indonesia’s proposed anti-terrorism law

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Rights activists on Friday called on Indonesia’s parliament to reject government proposals designed to tighten the country’s anti-terrorism laws.

The revisions to the law, proposed in the wake of a militant attack in the capital Jakarta in January, include detention without trial for up to three months and allow the arrest of people “if they assemble to discuss terrorist and radical acts”.

International Commission of Jurists and other rights groups said in a joint statement that the proposed amendments are “an attack on human rights”.

“The proposed amendments would authorize unnecessarily prolonged detention of suspects, putting them at risk of torture, ill-treatment, enforced disappearance, and arbitrary detention,” said the statement.

Other rights NGOs raised concerns over a proposal to strip Indonesians of citizenship if they join overseas militant organization, arguing such a move would leave people stateless.

Government officials were not immediately available for comment.

The legislation is pending parliamentary approval and government officials have urged MPs to pass revisions as soon as possible, citing a persistent security threat from militants in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

January’s attack in Jakarta, which killed eight people including four attackers, announced the arrival of Islamic State in Southeast Asia. Since then, Indonesian police have rounded up dozens of suspected militants across the island of Java island.

Earlier this week, Indonesian anti-terror forces killed two ethnic Uighur Chinese men on Sulawesi island where they had joined the country’s most high-profile Islamic State supporter.

Indonesia’s proposed counter-terrorism measures are not as harsh as those in neighboring countries.

Malaysia last April reintroduced a law under which individuals can be detained without trial for up to two years with two-year extensions thereafter.

Australia has in recent years passed measures banning its citizens from returning from conflict zones in Syria and the Middle East, while making it easier to monitor domestic communications.

(Reporting by Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Michael Perry)