Tag Archives: Terrorist Attacks

Islamic State supporters call for more holiday attacks in Europe

FILE PHOTO: An Islamic State flag is seen in this picture

CAIRO (Reuters) – A pro-Islamic State group on Wednesday urged supporters of the jihadists to carry out attacks on targets such as markets and hospitals in Europe over the Christmas holiday period and urged Muslims to stay away from Christian celebrations.

The threat came as European authorities have stepped up security following an attack claimed by Islamic State in which a truck ploughed into crowds in a Berlin Christmas market and killed 12 people this month.

The Nashir Media Foundation, which backs Islamic State, posted its message online, accompanied by images of fighters with guns and knives, Santa Claus, reindeer and a Christmas tree, according to the according to the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant groups online.

“Their celebrations, gatherings, clubs, markets, theatres, cinemas, malls and even their hospitals are all perfect targets for you,” the online message to Islamist “lone wolves” in Europe said.

It said Islamic State would “replace their fireworks with explosive belts and devices, and turn their singing and clapping into weeping and wailing”.

The message reminded Islamic State supporters of a call earlier this month by the group’s new spokesman, Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajer, who said they should also attack Turkish consulates and embassies.

Turkey may have been chosen as a target because it has backed rebels in Syria against Islamic State.

(Reporting by Ali Abdelaty; Writing by Giles Elgood)

Obama to deliver speech defending his counterterrorism fight

President Obama

By Ayesha Rascoe

WASHINGTON, Dec 6 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will make the case on Tuesday that his counterterrorism policies have helped protect Americans from evolving international threats as he prepares to hand over the White House to a successor who has been critical of his approach.

Obama will deliver his final major speech on national security as president at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.

He will argue that his administration has been successful in building coalitions and working with local governments to take out militant leaders and disrupt Islamic State and other groups without overextending the U.S. military, the White House said.

“This represents a more sustainable approach … one where we had a limited number of U.S. forces on the ground,” White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said on a call with reporters.

Some counterterrorism experts have pointed to the rise of Islamic State as an example of Obama being too slow to respond to an emerging threat.

While the United States has been successful in killing some key militant leaders, Obama’s “legacy has been tarnished by the way terrorist groups have regenerated and strengthened in the latter parts of his presidency,” said Robin Simcox, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

Republican President-elect Donald Trump referred to Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton as the “co-founders” of Islamic State during the presidential campaign, blaming them for the initial spread of the militant group.

Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has chided Obama for not speaking out more bluntly against “radical Islam.” He has also voiced support for waterboarding captives.

Obama signed an executive order after taking office in January 2009 that banned waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques” or EITs. Such executive orders can be rescinded by a president’s successors.

Many lawmakers and human rights groups have denounced waterboarding, an interrogation technique that simulates drowning, as torture.

Some former officials from President George W. Bush’s  administration and the CIA officials have defended waterboarding and other EITs, denying they are torture and saying they elicited valuable intelligence.

Rhodes said Obama’s national security speech had been planned long before the Nov. 8 election and was not aimed specifically at the incoming Trump administration.

Rhodes said, however, that Obama would argue the administration’s decision not to use waterboarding had actually improved national security.

“We’ve actually been strengthened because it’s easier to get other nations to cooperate with us,” Rhodes said.

(Reporting by Ayesha Rascoe; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Hungary’s PM says ‘obvious connection’ between terrorism and migration

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrives on the second day of the EU Summit in Brussels, Belgium,

WARSAW (Reuters) – Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Thursday there was a clear link between illegal immigration to Europe and terrorist attacks on the continent.

“It is clear as two and two makes four, it is plain as day. There is an obvious connection,” Orban told reporters after a meeting of the Visegrad Four group of central European leaders in Warsaw.

“If somebody denies this connection then, in fact, this person harms the safety of European citizens,” he said through an interpreter.

(Reporting by Marcin Goettig; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

U.S. warns of possible terrorist attacks in Europe

A group of tourists walk through the streets in downtown Valencia

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department warned Americans on Tuesday of the possible threat of terrorist attacks in Europe this summer, saying targets could include tourist sites, restaurants and large events such as the European Soccer Championship in France.

“We are alerting U.S. citizens to the risk of potential terrorist attacks throughout Europe, targeting major events, tourist sites, restaurants, commercial centers and transportation,” it said in a travel alert expiring Aug. 31.

“The large number of tourists visiting Europe in the summer months will present greater targets for terrorists planning attacks in public locations, especially at large events.”

The travel alert noted that France will host the UEFA Euro 2106 soccer championship from June 10 to July 10 and that the French government had extended its state of emergency, imposed after the Nov. 13 Paris attacks that killed 130 people, through July 26 to cover the July 2-24 Tour de France bicycle race.

“Euro Cup stadiums, fan zones, and unaffiliated entertainment venues broadcasting the tournaments in France and across Europe represent potential targets for terrorists, as do other large-scale sporting events and public gathering places throughout Europe,” the department said.

It also said the Catholic Church’s World Youth Day event is expected to draw up to 2.5 million visitors to Krakow, Poland, between July 26 and July 31, saying local infrastructure may be strained by the large number of visitors to Poland.

“Poland will impose border controls at all of its national borders from July 4 to August 2, and visitors to Poland during this period should be prepared to show their passport and undergo stricter security screening throughout Poland,” it said.

(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Boko Haram Kills Near 100

Islamic extremist group Boko Haram attacked the Nigerian town of Damasak and left at least 70 people dead with local officials saying the death toll could top 100.

A witness told Reuters that a mass grave with the bodies was found under a concrete bridge after the terrorists were driven out of the town by Niger and Chadian troops.

“There are about 100 bodies spread around, under the bridge just outside of town,” Chad military spokesman Colonel Azem Bermandoa Agouna told AFP. “This is the work of Boko Haram.”

Agouna said that the killings likely happened two months ago because body parts are basically mummified from the desert conditions.

“There are heads here and bodies there,” Agouna explained. “The mass grave has become like a termite mound.”

Residents say that Boko Haram kidnapped at least 400 women and children from the town before they withdrew on Tuesday.

The retreat from the town is the latest by Boko Haram.  The terrorists also withdrew from the town of Bama but committed a mass killing of their wives before they left the town so that they could not be married to non-Muslims.

Court Rules Palestinian Terror Groups Liable For Deaths

A court has ruled that two Palestinian groups are responsible for terror attacks that killed Americans.

The Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization were found liable by a jury in Manhattan for supporting six terrorist attacks within Israel between 2002 and 2004.

The jury awarded the families of the victims $655.5 million dollars under a special terrorism law. 

The case has been running through courts for a decade in an attempt to hold the Palestinian Authority responsible for funding and supporting terrorism within Israel and the surrounding region.  

The ruling is a big win for Israel as well as the victims, because Israel can now claim the groups that many Western governments have claimed are the “moderates” in the region are actually funding and supporting terrorism.

The Palestinian groups said they plan to appeal the verdict.