Redazione Islamedianalysis, Autore presso Islam Media Analysis

Britain to expand Iraq training mission to counter Islamic State

8 Giugno 2015 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

Britain is to expand its military training mission in Iraq in the coming weeks, Prime Minister David Cameron announced on Sunday, saying the Iraqi army needed more help to deal with improvised bombs planted by Islamic State militants.

Cameron, speaking before a meeting of the Group of Seven industrial nations (G7), said Britain would send 125 new military advisers to Iraq, most of whom would train the Iraqi army in how to counter improvised explosive devices or IEDs.

That will take the total number of British military trainers in Iraq up to 275, officials said, and the overall number of British personnel engaged in various roles against Islamic State across the region up to around 900.

“We’re already the second largest contributor in terms of air strikes in Iraq, and support for the Syrian opposition,” Cameron told reporters at the G7 in Germany.

“But I’m announcing today that we’re increasing our training effort in Iraq. It’s a particular request the Abadi government has made, it’s a particular thing we’ve been working with the Americans on.”

Cameron was due to brief US President Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on the plans at the G7. He was also expected to discuss with Obama what more Britain can do to help train moderate Syrian opposition forces in locations outside Syria such as Turkey.

Critics say gains made by Islamist militants in both Iraq and Syria show that the US-led strategy against them is faltering, and that Western ground troops are needed.

British officials said the new trainers would be deployed in “a handful of locations” across Iraq including Taji, Besmaya and Al Asad. Around 100 would carry out IED training, while 25 would focus on first aid, equipment maintenance, or logistics and information support.

A spokeswoman for Cameron’s office said Islamic State routinely planted large numbers of bombs when retreating, and that training Iraqi forces to clear them would allow local people to return more quickly to their homes.

She said the deployment was consistent with the scale of Britain’s current engagement in Iraq, and did not herald deeper involvement. After taking part in the US-led invasion of Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003, Britain withdrew the last of its forces in 2011.

Afghanistan: five soldiers martyred, 41 insurgents killed in military operations

8 Giugno 2015 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

Five soldiers have embraced martyrdom while 41 militants were killed in latest military operation across the country, Ministry of Defense announced on Monday.

A statement issued Monday morning by the ministry states that the four soldiers embraced martyrdom in insurgent fire and landmine explosions in past 24 hours. The statement does not specify the exact location of the incident.

Ministry of Defense statement furhter states that 41 militants were killed and 32 wounded in military operation during the operations conducted in 15 provinces in past 24 hours.

The operations were carried out in Andar and Waghaz districts of Ghazni province, Gomal District of Paktika, Janikhil District of Paktia, Aqcha and Mardyan districts of Jawzjan, Musakhil and Sabari districts of Khost, Dehrawoud, Charchino and Surab of Urozgan, Gizab and Gujran districts of Daikundi, Nish, Shah Wali Kot, Khakriz and Panjwai districts of Kandahar, Juram, Wardouj, Yamgan and Baharak districts of Badakhshan, Imam Sahib District of Kundoz, Chamtal District of Balkh, Mizan District and Qalat the capital of Zabul province, Aab Kamari District of Badghis, Pusht Rod District of Farah, capital of Sar-i-Pul and Nawzad and Kajaki districts of Helmand province.

Six suspects were also arrested and weapons and ammunition seized by the security forces but the defense ministry has not mentioned its specific number in statement.

Boko Haram: Borno suicide bomber kills 16

8 Giugno 2015 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

A female suicide bomber detonated an explosive on the outskirts of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital at the weekend, killing 16 people.

“At about 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, they brought casualties from the blast scene …16 bodies were deposited with 24 injured,” Lawal Kawu, a paramedic at the teaching hospital in Maiduguri, told Reuters.

He said some of the injured were also in critical condition.

Zakariya Shettima, who lives nearby and arrived on the scene after the blast in the small community of Musari, said he saw blood and body parts and that it had left a crater and destroyed several shops in the market.

But the police said only four people died. Borno Police Commissioner Aderemi Opadokun said the explosive happened along Baga/Monguno road.

He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Maiduguri, that four persons were also injured.

“A female suicide bomber detonated an Improvised Explosive Devise (IED) strapped on her body along Baga/Monguno highway, killing herself and two others on Saturday.

“Four persons sustained injuries during the attack,” he said.

He also confirmed an IED explosion near a military check point in Konduga Local Government Area, in which two persons were injured.

“It is true that we had a suspected IED explosion at Tungushe village in Konduga LGA on Saturday near a military check point.

“Two persons were injured and they are now being treated at the hospital,” he said.

Opadokun advised residents to be vigilant and report strange objects to the nearest security check point for action. (NAN

Boko Haram has killed thousands of people and displaced some 1.5 million in an insurgency to establish an Islamic caliphate in the northeast of Nigeria but appears to have lost most of the territory it seized to government counter-offensives this year.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which followed two weekend bombings that killed at least 30 people and also appeared to be the work of Boko Haram.

Algeria raises alert level as ISIS pushes against Libyan border

8 Giugno 2015 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

ISIS has rampaged all the way from inner Libya to the Algerian border, prompting the Algerian military to raise its alert level, moving tens of thousands of troops over the past few months to the thousand kilometers of desert it shares with Libya.

Middle East Monitor relays the words of an Algerian military source who spoke with the Turkish Anadolu news agency: “Algeria’s Chief of Staff of the People’s National Army, Admiral Ahmed Kaid Saleh, ordered all ground forces, the national gendarmerie, Special Forces and Air Force stationed in the border areas with Libya to increase their alert level.”

The source further asserted that Algerian troops have been given shoot-on-sight orders against any militants who try to cross the border, following the capture of the Libyan city of Sirte by ISIS-aligned forces. Officials from Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt have scheduled a meeting to discuss the deteriorating situation in Libya.

Algeria is also dealing with a growing ISIS threat within its borders, following years of trouble from the Islamic State’s godfathers in al-Qaeda. In March, Algerian authorities found it necessary to evacuate a hundred Turkish workers from a roadway project near Algiers for 24 hours, in response to a credible threat from ISIS militants. An ISIS sect called the “Caliphate Soldiers,” splintered off from al-Qaeda, remains a menace after killing a French hostage last year.

In early May, the Middle East Monitor reported that Interpol has given the Algerian government a list of fifteen hundred ISIS operatives, from 33 different countries, who might be attempting to enter Algeria using forged passports.

Four killed, three injured in Islamic State attack in Western Libya

8 Giugno 2015 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

Four security personnel were killed and three others injured Sunday in an attack by Islamic State (IS) affiliated militants in Libya’s western city of Misrata, Xinhua news agency reported.

A source from Misrata’s local council said the militants attacked the Abu-Grin gate in Misrata in two vehicles before fleeing.

Misrata has been targeted several times by IS affiliates.

Last week, a suicide attack on the city’s western gate left five people dead and another six injured.

An IS affiliate claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack on Twitter and identified the bomber as a Tunisian national.

Isis recruiting ‘highly trained foreigners’ to produce chemical weapons

7 Giugno 2015 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

The Australian Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, said the group was now undertaking “serious efforts” to develop their chemical weapons arsenal.

Speaking to the Australia Group, which is composed of nations against chemical weapons, she said: “Da’esh [Isis] is likely to have amongst its tens of thousands of recruits the technical expertise necessary to further refine precursor materials and build chemical weapons,” Ms Bishop added.

Ms Bishop’s speech is the latest concern that Isis is attempting to acquire nuclear and chemical and biological weapons, after India warned the extremists could obtain a nuclear weapon from Pakistan.

It was reported in March that Isis had been attacking Iraqi soldiers with roadside bombs containing chlorine gas in fighting around Tikrit, after footage emerged showing plumes of orange smoke emerging for the bombs.

It follows similar allegations that the extremists had released toxic gases in the eastern district of Kobani, during the siege of the town on the Syrian border, although it could not be confirmed.

Ms Bishop added: “Apart from some crude and small scale endeavours, the conventional wisdom has been that the terrorist intention to acquire and weaponise chemical agents has been largely aspirational.

“The use of chlorine by Da’esh [Isis], and its recruitment of highly trained professionals, including from the West, have revealed far more serious efforts in chemical weapons development.”

They seek to undermine and overthrow that order – and as we have seen, are prepared to use any and all means – any and all forms of violence they can think of to advance their demented cause.

Three killed in al-Shabab attack in northeast Kenya

7 Giugno 2015 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

Three people have died in an attack by suspected al-Shabab militants in Kenya’s northeastern Wajir county that borders Somalia, officials said Sunday.

Wajir county’s police commander, Samuel Mukindia, said a group of gunmen opened fire in a residential area late on Saturday, killing two men and a women before escaping.

Officials and residents said the attackers were believed to have been seeking to kill a local administrator, who lives close to the scene of the attack and is known to be on an al-Shabab “wanted” list for speaking out against the Islamists’ activities in the region.

“The attackers were possibly heading to the chief’s residence, but since they were not familiar with the house, they started shooting people indiscriminately,” said Ahmed Muhamed, an elder in Wajir.

Wajir, situated 490 kilometres (310 miles) northeast of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, is part of a vast border area — including Mandera county to the north and Garissa county to the south — to have been hit by an upsurge of attacks by the Somali-led and Al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab rebels.

Last year, al-Shabab carried out a string of massacres in Mandera, and in April attacked a university in Garissa, killing 148 people — most of them students.

The Islamists have vowed to continue attacks until Kenya pulls its soldiers out of Somalia, where they are part of an African Union mission trying to rout the insurgents and protect the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu.

However there are increasing fears that al-Shabab are steadily building their support network in the lawless, impoverished and Muslim-majority border region, and shifting the bulk of their activities from Somalia to Kenya.

Pakistan: five killed in sectarian attack in Quetta

7 Giugno 2015 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

Gunmen killed five people after storming two tea shops belonging to the Hazara Shiite Muslim community in Pakistan’s southwestern city of Quetta on Sunday, police said.

“Two gunmen, one each, stormed two tea shops belonging to the Shiite (ethnic minority) Hazara community in the Meezan Chowk neighborhood of the city and started indiscriminate firing,” local police official Muhammad Tariq told AFP.

Abdul Razzaq Cheema, city police chief, confirmed the incident and said the attack was sectarian in nature.

“The assailants fled on a motorbike after spraying bullets in the tea shops, police are searching for the suspects,” he said.

Later, around 500 people from the community took to the streets in protest against the incident carrying the coffins of the deceased and refusing to bury them.

About 500 protesters placed the coffins of the victims on the road and chanted slogans against the government for failing to protect them.

“We are facing a genocide and the government makes only empty promises instead of providing protection,” Husnain Ali, a protestor in his early 20s, told AFP.

He said he would sit on the road with the dead bodies until the perpetrators are arrested.

Sectarian violence – in particular by Sunni hardliners against Shiites, who make up roughly 20 percent of Pakistan’s 200 million people – has claimed thousands of lives in the country over the past decade.

In the latest bloodshed, 45 Shiite Ismaili were massacred in the southern city of Karachi in May in the first attack in the country claimed by ISIS.

French police arrest 2 men in thwarted terror plot

7 Giugno 2015 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

France’s interior minister says police have arrested two men suspected of assisting a 24-year-old Algerian student accused of plotting a terrorist attack on a church near Paris in April.

In a brief statement at the Interior Ministry, Bernard Cazeneuve said the two suspects, aged 35 and 39, were arrested at dawn Sunday at their homes in Paris’ western suburbs. He said their exact role in student Sid Ahmed Ghlam’s plot remains to be determined.

Authorities say Ghlam, a computer science student, planned an attack on a church in Villejuif, south of Paris, and is suspected in the killing of a woman nearby. He was arrested April 26 after apparently shooting himself by accident. Investigators have said Ghlam received instructions from someone in Syria before implementing the plot.

Saudi Arabia detains 45 suspects in Shia Mosques attacks claimed by Islamic State

7 Giugno 2015 By Redazione Islamedianalysis

Saudi Arabia’s security forces detained 45 people suspected of involvement in the deadly Shia mosques bombings claimed by the Islamic State (ISIL) jihadist group, media reported Sunday.

The detentions occurred over the last several days all across the country, Al Hayat pan-Arab newspaper reported.

On May 22, a suicide bomber carried out an attack at a Shia mosque in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, killing over 20 people and injuring more than 100 others. A week after the incident, another Shia mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia was hit by a suicide bombing that killed four people, including the bomber. The ISIL jihadist group claimed responsibility for both attacks.

Saudi Arabia is a Sunni Muslim kingdom, with its Shiite minority living mostly in the east of the country. In late May, amid the anti-Shia attacks, the residents of the Saudi Eastern Province organized a spontaneous protest, blaming the authorities for the failure to ensure the security of the Shiite region.

In response, Saudi Arabia pledged to prosecute the Shia mosques attackers.

According to the Saudi Interior Ministry’s Bureau of Investigation, the Islamic State has been operating in Saudi Arabia since the beginning of 2015, and has been actively recruiting young people and children via social networks.

Islamic State is a Sunni radical group in control of vast territories in Iraq and Syria. A number of ISIL cells, with local insurgent groups pledging allegiance, are also known to operate in Libya, Yemen and other territories across the Middle East and North Africa.