Yemen’s dominant Houthi movement on Friday dissolved parliament and said a new interim assembly would be formed.

The new assembly will elect a five-member interim presidential council to manage the country’s affairs, according to a televised statement.

Yemen has been in political limbo since President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the government of Prime Minister Khaled Bahah resigned after the Houthis seized the presidential palace and confined the head of state to his residence in a struggle to tighten control.

A car bomb explosion killed three, including the driver and a child, in the eastern Libya city of Benghazi, Reuters reported. Approximately 20 others were injured in the explosion.

The car appeared to be driving toward an army tank base, but it detonated in the conflict-ridden neighborhood of Lithi before reaching the target.

The suicide-bombing occured the day after clashes erupted between pro-government and Islamist militias in a battle for control over a major Benghazi port. 

Benghazi has faced ongoing violence since the ousting of Colonel Gaddafi in 2011. 

The country currently has two governments battling for power: the internationally-recognized government based of Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni and the Islamist coalition known as Libya Dawn.

Source: albawaba

EU member states must develop a common approach to lawfully intercept services such as Skype to stem the flow of European citizens returning from Syria radicalised and trained, the bloc’s agency on judicial cooperation said.

Since the Islamist attacks against satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris last month, security has risen higher on the political agenda and Internet companies have been in the spotlight given militants’ use of web-based social networks to spread jihadist propaganda and recruit new members.

“The use of the Internet for terrorist purposes creates an additional burden for investigations and prosecutions of foreign fighters,” the Eurojust report, which was discussed by a committee of the European Parliament on Thursday and seen by Reuters on Friday, said.

The report stresses that “the interception of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications (e.g. Skype, Viber, etc.) is problematic and seriously hinders relevant investigations” and that “a harmonised approach at EU level may be necessary to address technical difficulties and legal challenges in the gathering and admissibility of e-evidence”.

For example, evidence gathered online from different jurisdictions raises issues as to its admissibility in court and requires national judicial authorities to cooperate.

“Eurojust recommends exchange of experience, including the collection and dissemination of best practice and challenges encountered by national judicial authorities in using information extracted from the Internet as evidence in terrorism cases,” the report said.

It also highlights the problems of freezing personal social network accounts, for example on Facebook, when the Internet service provider is located in a different country.

EU heads of state meet in Brussels next week to discuss ways of combating radicalisation, including by removing jihadist propaganda from the Internet with the support of web companies, according to a draft statement from EU leaders seen by Reuters.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants have reportedly begun massing in Afghan areas bordering Turkmenistan.

Some media source in late January cited the Afghan National Directorate for Security (NDS) as saying that ISIL militants were moving northward from southern Afghanistan, media reported in late January, quoting.

Radio Liberty’s Turkmen Service, in particular, reported on January on January 22 that ISIL militants recently appeared in Almar District, Faryab Province. “Natives of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have been observed among them,” Afghan Senator Gulmuhammad Rasouli, who represents Faryab Province, said.

Information from NDS authorities and from Faryab Province residents indicates that the appearance of ISIL could worsen the situation on the border, Rasouli said.  According to him, the ‘jihadists’ are trying to create a centre for themselves in Faryab.

If militants try to expand their sphere of influence into Central Asia, they bear watching, analysts said.
Turkmenistan would be the first target if ISIL militants in Afghanistan are looking north, analyst Semen Bagdasarov said, according Centralaisaonline.com.

“In [Turkmenistan] many natural resources exist,” he said. “The Islamists-‘jihadists’ will ignore Turkmenistan’s neutrality.”

Turkmen authorities have reason to keep an eye on any militant build-up along their border, given how in 2014 the Afghan Taliban killed several Turkmen border guards in a number of ambushes.

But Turkmen army Lt. Col. Soltan N. has confidence in the ability of his country to ward off any militant ambitions.

They won’t dare “infiltrate Turkmenistan, because they know they’d bite off more than they can chew,” he said.

“They might be strong … in their own mountains, but on the Turkmen plains, they’d be defeated,” he said, citing the Turkmen military’s acquisition of modern weapons in recent years.

The militants lack either order or a unified command, Soltan N. said, citing intelligence gathered by Afghanistan. The militant units have rival goals and differ greatly, he said. For example, ISIL and the Taliban appear to be more competitors than allies, media have reported.

“The ethnic Turkmens along the Afghan frontier reject the Islamists who have appeared there,” he said.

“Turkmen tribal elders [in Afghanistan] dissuade their youth from joining the Islamists, explaining that [Turkmenistan] is their historic motherland.”

Centralaisaonline.com quoted Ashgabat political scientist Aidan Arazbayev as saying that even if the militants somehow poured into Turkmenistan, they wouldn’t find enough Turkmens willing to support their idea of a “caliphate.”   They’d find only “a few isolated individuals,” he said.

On the assumption that prosperity can help defeat militancy, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and his Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani reportedly discussed a number of joint infrastructure projects during Ghani’s visit to Turkmenistan last month.

They expressed support for building the long-discussed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India natural-gas pipeline, the Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Turkmenistan railway and the Afghanistan-Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey transit and transport corridor.

Ghani expressed gratitude for Turkmenistan’s various aid projects serving Afghanistan, the State News Agency of Turkmenistan reported.

Further plans for Turkmen assistance include construction of a 20-bed maternity ward in Turgundi and a 300-bed children’s home in Sheberghan.

Source:  http://news.tj

Twenty-five “extremists” were killed and at least 20 others were injured on Friday in a military aerial bombardment over North Sinai’s town of Sheikh Zuweid, a source at North Sinai security directorate said.

Apache helicopters targeted an extremists’ assembly South of Sheikh Zuweid, who were planning an attack against security forces, the source told Aswat Masriya. He added that the “extremists” were affiliated with the Sinai-based militant group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis.

Militants have stepped up attacks targeting security forces in Egypt, particularly in the Sinai Peninsula, following the military ouster of President Mohamed Mursi in July 2013 after mass protests against his rule.

In the deadliest attack since last October, at least 30 people were killed and 50 others were injured on January 29 in four separate attacks against security forces in the governorate.

Egypt’s most active militant group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which changed its name to Sinai Province after pledging allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria, has claimed responsibility for the attacks on its Twitter account hours after they were launched.

Egypt’s Supreme Council for the Armed Forces (SCAF) announced intensifying operations against all “terrorist” elements nationwide in cooperation with police forces, one day after the attacks.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi established a unified command to combat terrorism east of the Suez Canal following the deadly attacks.

Source:  aswatmasriya.com

United States President Barack Obama is expected to formally ask the Congress to authorize use of military force in the fight to take on the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria, even as lawmakers contended that devising such a measure would be a challenge.

According to Fox News, Obama has been relying on congressional authorizations that President George W. Bush employed to vindicate military action in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

Although Obama had earlier argued that a new authorization isn’t legally necessary, critics have dubbed the White House’s use of post-9/11 congressional authorizations “a legal stretch”.

The U.S. has been conducting airstrikes against the jihadists in Iraq and Syria since August and September, respectively.

The news followed the release of a new video by the IS purporting to show a Jordanian hostage being burnt alive.

The Sinai Peninsula has moved from the margins of the Egyptian body politic to the uncontested center, as Egypt’s strong man – President Abdul Fatah al-Sisi – finds himself greatly undercut by the rise of an insurgency that seems to be growing stronger with time.

Another series of deadly and coordinated attacks, on January 29, shattered the Egyptian army’s confidence, pushing it further into a deadly course of a war that can only be won by political sagacity, not bigger guns.

The latest attack was a blow to a short-lived sense of gratification felt by the regime that militancy in Sinai had been waning, thanks to a decisive military response that lasted for months. When militants carried out a multistage attack on an Egyptian military checkpoint in Sinai, on October 24, killing 31 and wounding many, the Egyptian government and media lines were most predictable. They blamed “foreigners” for what was essentially a homegrown security and political crisis.

Instead of reexamining Egypt’s entire approach to the poor region of North Sinai, the army moved to further isolate Gaza, which has been under a very strict Israeli-Egyptian siege since 2007.

What has taken place in Sinai since last October was predictably shattering. It was seen by some as ethnic cleansing in the name of fighting terror. Thousands of families were being forced to evacuate their homes to watch them being detonated in the middle of the night, and resentment grew as a consequence.

And with resentment comes defiance. A Sinai resident, Abu Musallam summed up his people’s attitude towards government violence: “They bomb the house; we build a hut. They burn the hut; we build another hut. They kill; we give birth.”

Yet, despite a media blackout in Sinai, the scene of devastation created by the military campaign was becoming palpable. “Using bulldozers and dynamite” the army has demolished as many as 800 houses and displaced up to 10,000, the New York Times reported. Sisi spokesman referred to the demolished neighborhoods as terrorist “hotbeds”. The long-discussed plan for a “buffer zone” between Egypt and Gaza was carried out, and to a more devastating degree than expected.

The Jerusalem Post quoted the Egyptian publication, Al-Yom a-Sab’a reporting that “the security forces will work to clear the area of underground tunnels leading to Gaza and it will also level any buildings and structures that could be used to conceal smuggling activity.”

But no Gaza connection was ever found. The logic of a Gaza connection was bewildering to begin with. Attacks of this nature are more likely to worsen Gaza’s plight and tighten the siege, since the tunnels serve as a major lifeline for the besieged Palestinians. If the attacks carry a political message, it would be one that serves the interest of Gaza’s enemies, Israel and rival Palestinian factions, for example, not Hamas.

But no matter, Sisi, who rarely paused to consider Sinai’s extreme poverty and near-total negligence by Cairo, was quick to point the finger. Then, he called on Egyptians to “be aware of what is being hatched against us. All that is happening to us is known to us and we expected it and talked about it before July 3,” he said, referring to the day the military overthrew Mohammed Morsi.

In a televised speech, he blamed “foreign hands” that are “trying to break Egypt’s back,” vowing to fight extremism in a long-term campaign. Considering the simmering anger and sorrow felt by Egyptians, the attacks were an opportunity to acquire a political mandate that would allow him to carry whatever military policy that suited his interests in Sinai, starting with a buffer zone with Gaza.

While awaiting the bodies of the dead soldiers in Almaza military airport in Cairo, Sisi spoke of a “great war” that his army is fighting in the Sinai. “These violent incidents are a reaction to our efforts to combat terrorism. The toll during the last few months has been very high and every day there are scores of terrorists who are killed and hundreds of them have already been liquidated.”

Without much monitoring in Sinai, and with occasional horror stories leaking out of the hermetically sealed desert of 60,000 square kilometers, and the admission of “scores” killed “every day”, Sinai is reeling in a vicious cycle.

Resentment of the government in Sinai goes back many years, but it has peaked since the ousting of President Morsi. True, his one year in power also witnessed much violence, but not at the same level as today’s.

Since the January 2011 revolution, Egypt was ruled by four different regimes: The supreme military council, the administration of Mohammed Morsi, a transitional government led by Adli Mansour, and finally the return of the military to civilian clothes under Abdul Fatah al-Sisi. None have managed to control the violence in Sinai.

Sisi, however, insists on using the violence, including the most recent attacks that struck three different cities at once – Arish, Sheikh Zuwaid and Rafah – for limited political gain. He blamed the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) once more without providing much evidence. The MB, in turn, released a short statement blaming government neglect and brutality in Sinai for the violence, which promises to increase.

Following the October killings, I wrote: “If the intentions are to truly curb attacks in Sinai, knee-jerk military solutions will backfire.” Others too sounded the alarm that the security solution will not work.

What should have been common sense – Sinai’s problems are, after all complex and protracted – was brushed aside in the rush for war. The folly of the military action in the last few months may be registering internationally, at last, but certainly not locally.

That denial is felt through much of the Egyptian media. A top military expert, Salamah Jawhari declared on television that the “Sinai terrorists are clinically dead” and the proof is the well-coordinated attacks of January 29. Per his logic, the attacks, which targeted three main cities all at once were “scattered”, thus the “clinical death” of the militants. He blamed Qatar and Turkey for supporting the militants of Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, which, as of November vowed allegiance to the so-called Islamic State, announcing their new name: “The Sinai Province”.

The massive comeback of Sinai’s militants and the change of tactics indicate that the war in Sinai is heading to a stage unseen since the revolution, in fact since the rise of militancy in Sinai starting with the deadly bombings of October 2004, followed by the attack on tourists in April 2005, at the Sharm el-Sheikh resort in the same year, and on Dahab in 2006. The militants are much more emboldened, angry and organized.

The audacity of the militants seems consistent with the sense of despair felt by the tribes of Sinai, who are caught in a devastating politically motivated “war on terror”.

The question remains: how long will it be before Cairo understands that violence cannot resolve what are fundamentality political and socio-economic problems? This is as true in Cairo, as it is in Arish.

The United Nations Security Council today condemned “in the strongest terms” the escalation of attacks perpetrated by Boko Haram terrorists along the border between Cameroon and Nigeria, including back-to-back attacks this week that killed Chadian and Cameroonian troops, as well as “a sizeable number of civilians.”

The 15-member Security Council also urged countries in the region to enhance military operations and coordination to more effectively and immediately combat Boko Haram, which, after more than a year of large-scale deadly attacks in in northern Nigeria, has in recent weeks attacked villages in Cameroon, displacing thousands to neighbouring countries and sparking fears that its insurgency was expanding beyond Nigeria.

In their statement, the second on Boko Haram attacks in as many days, Council members commended the Chadian army’s swift assistance in the fight against Boko Haram in Nigeria, during which territory was recaptured from Boko Haram, and more than 200 members of the terrorist group were neutralized and equipment was recovered including a dozen vehicles mounted with heavy weapons.

Council members referred to an attack on Tuesday 3 February alongside the Cameroon-Nigeria border against the Chadian army contingent deployed to fight Boko Haram in Cameroon and Nigeria. That attack killed 13 Chadian soldiers and injured twenty one others, according to the press statement.

The Council also condemned an attack a day later on 4 February “against the civilian population and Cameroonian troops, which killed at least three Cameroonian soldiers and a sizeable number of civilians in Fotokol.”

The Chadian military counterattack against Boko Haram into Nigerian territory was conducted with the consent and the collaboration of the Federal Republic of Nigeria whose territorial integrity remained intact, according to the Council statement.

The Security Council members also extended their condolences to the families of the victims and their sympathy to all those injured in these heinous attacks, as well as to the people and the Governments of the Republic of Chad and Cameroon.

Recalling its Presidential Statement of 19 January, the Council reiterated its deep concern that the activities of Boko Haram are undermining the peace and stability of the West and Central African region.

Urging the region to enhance regional military operations and coordination to more effectively and immediately combat Boko Haram, the members of the Security Council welcomed the convening of a meeting of experts in Yaoundé, Cameroon, from 5 to 7 February 2015, following the recent African Union (AU) Summit held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to finalize the concept of operations for the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) and other related documents.