A 10-year-old girl was forced to carry out suicide attack after she was abducted by Taliban group in southern Helmand province of Afghanistan.

An Israeli attack which killed several prominent members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah last week was an attempt by Israel to set “new rules” in the conflict between the two foes, Hezbollah’s deputy leader said at a gathering to commemorate those who died.

 
Gunmen kidnapped a Libyan deputy foreign minister from his hotel room on Sunday in the eastern city of Al Baida where the recognised government is based, a ministry official said.

The kidnappers told staff they were members of the security forces when they entered the hotel before dawn, the official said, citing witnesses.

They drove deputy minister Hassan Al Saghir off to an unknown destination.

No group immediately claimed his abduction but Libya has been rocked by a spate of kidnappings of both foreigners and Libyans.

The oil-rich North African nation is awash with weapons and has two rival governments and powerful militias battling for territory.

The internationally recognised government has been based in the remote east since a militia alliance seized the capital last August.

Al Baida lies 1,200 kilometres from Tripoli. The government established its headquarters in the city after initially taking refuge in the towns of Tobruk and Shohat further east.

Source:  khaleejtimes.com

The So-called “Islamic State” has published a list of punishments ranging from 80 lashes for drinking alcohol and losing a hand for theft, to death for committing blasphemy, Mail Online reports.

The what ISIS imagine “Sharia code of conduct” will be enforced in areas under its control which now covers swathes of Iraq and Syria.

Those who commit adultery will be stoned to death if the adulterer was married and lashed 100 times and exiled if he or she was unmarried.

Those engaged in sodomy (homosexuality) will be sentenced to death, along with those who ‘spy for the unbelievers’.

Those who steal ‘as part of banditry’ will have their right hand and left leg cut off, and the punishment for terrorizing people is exile.

Charlie Winter, a researcher for the counter-extremism think tank Quilliam, said the document appeared to be authentic.

He told The Independent it was released on 16 December from the Aleppo branch of Isis.

Last week, ISIS published pictures of the crucifixions of two men accused of being bandits, and of a woman being stoned to death, allegedly for adultery.

The terrorist group also released a video showing the two men being thrown off the top of a tower block in Raqqa, Syria, for being gay.

A masked ISIS fighter announced the charges against the accused using a small handheld radio, before declaring them guilty of engaging in homosexual activities.

He said they should be punished by death, in accordance with “Islamic State’s radical interpretation of Sharia law”.

The men were then bound and blindfolded before being pushed off the 100ft tower block to their deaths.

Down on the ground, two men accused of banditry have been tied to makeshift metal crosses.

Strung up tightly with yellow and green ribbon around their wrists, the men were hanged from the crosses, wincing in agony’.

And it’s believed the ISIS militants killed three of at least 15 pigeon breeders in Iraq after deciding it is against “Islamic religion” to keep birds this week.

The extremists also executed 13 teenage boys for watching the Asian Cup football match between Iraq and Jordan last week.

The young football fans had been caught watching the game on television in the Iraqi city of Mosul, which is controlled by the ISIS.

The teenagers were rounded up and publicly executed by a firing squad using machine guns, according to anti-ISIS activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently.

The small activist group said the teenagers were rounded up by militants in the Al-Yarmouk district of Mosul after ‘breaking religious laws’ by watching football.

Images also emerged of a woman, dressed in a black burqa, being stoned to death by a horde of ISIS militants.

Four doctors were recently killed in central Mosul, allegedly after refusing to treat ISIS fighters.

The group also reportedly executed 15 civilians in front of a large crowd in Fallujah on January 1, on suspicion they had cooperated with Iraqi security forces, and 14 more in a public square in Dour, north of Tikrit, for refusing to pledge allegiance to ISIS, Shamdasani said.

Images also emerged of a woman, dressed in a black burqa, being stoned to death by a horde of ISIS militants.

Four doctors were recently killed in central Mosul, allegedly after refusing to treat ISIS fighters.

The group also reportedly executed 15 civilians in front of a large crowd in Fallujah on January 1, on suspicion they had cooperated with Iraqi security forces, and 14 more in a public square in Dour, north of Tikrit, for refusing to pledge allegiance to ISIS, Shamdasani said.

The terrorist group also released a video showing the two men being thrown off the top of a tower block in Raqqa, Syria, for being gay.

A masked ISIS fighter announced the charges against the accused using a small handheld radio, before declaring them guilty of engaging in homosexual activities.

He said they should be punished by death, in accordance with “Islamic State’s radical interpretation of Sharia law”.

The men were then bound and blindfolded before being pushed off the 100ft tower block to their deaths.

Down on the ground, two men accused of banditry have been tied to makeshift metal crosses.

Strung up tightly with yellow and green ribbon around their wrists, the men were hanged from the crosses, wincing in agony’.

And it’s believed the ISIS militants killed three of at least 15 pigeon breeders in Iraq after deciding it is against “Islamic religion” to keep birds this week.

The extremists also executed 13 teenage boys for watching the Asian Cup football match between Iraq and Jordan last week.

The young football fans had been caught watching the game on television in the Iraqi city of Mosul, which is controlled by the ISIS.

The teenagers were rounded up and publicly executed by a firing squad using machine guns, according to anti-ISIS activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently.

The small activist group said the teenagers were rounded up by militants in the Al-Yarmouk district of Mosul after ‘breaking religious laws’ by watching football.

Source: Al Alam

Shia rebels break up anti-Houthi rally in Sanaa, arresting protesters and attacking journalists, witnesses say.

Houthi fighters have violently dispersed a protest against their takeover of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, wounding several people, witnesses have said.

The Houthis reportedly arrested several demonstrators in Sanaa on Sunday, after firing rounds in the air to break-up the rally by their opponents.

Witnesses told the AFP news agency that several protesters who had gathered near Sanaa University, in the heart of the city, were injured while journalists were attacked and had their cameras broken.

Sunday’s demonstration came a day after more than 10,000 people marched in solidarity with President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, denouncing the takeover of the presidential palace and much of the capital by the Shia Houthi rebels.

The Houthis, who had long been concentrated in their northern highlands where Shia Muslims form a majority, have captured several key cities across the north as they push to control more territory of the country.

Hadi, a key US ally in the fight against al-Qaeda, tendered his resignation along with Prime Minister Khalid Bahah on Thursday, saying he could no longer stay in office as the country was in “total deadlock”.

The crisis in the Arabian Peninsula country escalated on January 17 when the Houthis seized Hadi’s chief of staff, Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, in an apparent bid to extract changes to a draft constitution they oppose.
In another development, Yemen’s parliament once again postponed a session that had been due to discuss Hadi’s resignation, state news agency Saba has reported.

Parliament “has decided to postpone an emergency meeting set to take place on Sunday… to another date which will be decided later to make sure all members are informed to attend,” the news agency said.
Politicians had originally been due to meet on Friday to discuss his request to step down.

Under the constitution, parliamentary speaker Yahya al-Ra’i takes office for an interim period while new elections are organised.

The fall of Hadi’s Western-backed government raise fears of chaos engulfing Yemen, strategically located next to oil giant Saudi Arabia and on the key shipping route from the Suez Canal to the Gulf.

Source: Al Jazeera

Boko Haram militants attacked Nigeria’s restrictive northeastern city of Maiduguri on Sunday, military, government and locals reported. The attack came as a surprise to some as the group had released 192 hostages it kidnapped earlier this month.

Just after 9 a.m. local time (0800 UTC) witnesses said shelling could be heard around the city. A military helicopter was also circling above, they reported.

“Troops are repelling a simultaneous attack on Monguno and Maiduguri by terrorists,” the defense headquarters tweeted.

It said air and land operations were continuing against the Islamists, adding also a curfew had been imposed on the city which had been a hotbed for the Boko Haram insurgency over the past five years.

A security source said all roads had been closed and commercial activity in the immediate area shut down.
The rebels launched their attack on the outskirts of the city in the Njimtilo area where they first attacked Jintilo settlement early Sunday morning.

The rebels were met with resistance by troops deployed to the village, just five kilometers (three miles) from Maiduguri. Capturing Njimtilo would be a major coup for militants as they try to succeed in establishing an Islamic State within Africa’s biggest economy.

“It is flying bullets everywhere. All we hear are sounds of guns and explosions,” Buba Kyari, a resident of Moronti neighborhood, near Jintilo told the AFP news agency.

“A rocket-propelled grenade hit and killed a person from my neighborhood who was fleeing into the city.”
Fears have been growing for months about a strike on the city after Boko Haram insurgents started seizing towns and villages in three northeast states about six months ago.

Boko Haram last tried to seize Maiduguri in December 2013, attacking a nearby army and air force base at the time.

The rebels have control of large areas of Borno state and some areas of neighboring Adamawa and Yobe states. The group recently seized the town and army base at Baga near Lake Chad.

Sunday’s attack comes a day after the terror group freed 192 hostages, mostly women, kidnapped during a raid earlier this month. They were sent back to their community in the northeastern state of Yobe, where 218 women and children were abducted in January.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who is seeking re-election in February, has tried in vain to crush the group and stop its growth. Jonathan visited the state as part of his election campaign on Saturday, opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari was expected to visit on Monday.

Islamic State militants have taken over practically the whole area from where migrant crossings are launched and are effectively running the whole show, a prominent Libyan politician has warned.

Speaking to Italian journalists during the Davos World Economic Forum, former Libyan Finance Minister Ali Tarhouni, who now serves as President of the Constituent Assembly of Libya, warned that the EU is underestimating the risk of IS militants infiltrating Europe’s shores hidden among refugees.

The former Minister said IS is effectively managing the migrant crossings and the risk of Kalashnikov-toting militants infiltrating Europe’s shores hiding among the refugees is being overlooked by the EU. “Europe is seriously underestimating the possibility that militants will infiltrate Lampedusa, Sicily or Malta,” he said. “The risks are increasing at a dramatic rate.”

Mr Tarhouni told journalists in Davos that IS militants, who took control of the eastern Libyan city of Derna last year, are moving west and securing footholds all along the Libyan coast. According to reports, they have advanced on Sabrata and Harat az-Zawiyah although, at least for now, they have bypassed Tripoli.

The Libyan politician explained that most of the migrant boats that leave Libya in search of Europe depart from this stretch of coastline. “This area has descended into anarchy, a perfect breeding ground for smugglers, human traffickers and Islamic militants. The police and the army no longer venture into these areas,” he said.

Mr Tarhouni also warned that IS is eyeing Libya’s neighbouring countries – Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria – in a bid to expand its caliphate.

Earlier this week, at a meeting of the anti-IS coalition in London, Italian Foreign Affairs Minister Paolo Gentiloni also warned of the risk of infiltration by Islamic militants.

He is quoted to have said that the Italian security structures have been warned of the risk and are functioning well, although this does not mean that the threat level should be lowered. “It would be a grave error if any democratic country ignored the possibility that militants armed with Kalashnikovs are hiding behind the boatloads of migrants reaching Europe’s shores,” Direttanews.it quoted him as saying.

However, according to other reports, Mr Gentiloni later back-tracked on his statement and insisted that terrorists would not risk crossing the Mediterranean on rickety boats. He said the threat of terrorism should not be confused with the migration phenomenon. “Asking to suspend the rescue operations at sea would not only be a political mistake but also a moral one.”

Italian Home Affairs Minister Angelino Alfano did not exclude the possibility of infiltration by terrorists but said that Italy’s security forces are monitoring every avenue that can be used by extremists. However, Mr Alfano said this was not being done as a reaction to the risk of infiltration but because the threat level was already high, especially after the Paris attacks.

On the other hand, Matteo Salvini, the federal secretary of the anti-immigration Italian Lega Nord party, said this serious matter should be discussed in the Italian Parliament as well as among the members of the Triton mission. Other politicians said they have been warning the authorities of this threat for some time but have been ignored.

Missions like Frontex, they argued, which bring in thousands of migrants every year, may have elevated the risk. They also accused Mr Gentiloni of only telling the truth now, after ignoring the situation for months on end.

Some politicians have also noted that, apart from the threat from IS, which now even has a foothold in Libya, there are other groups that are becoming stronger, including Boko Haram in Nigeria and Al Qaeda in the Gulf.

There have been a number of migrant landings in Sicily and Calabria in the past few days. The Maltese authorities saved some 80 migrants earlier this week.

Source: independent.com.mt

Japan early on Sunday strongly criticized a recording purporting to announce the execution of a Japanese citizen held by Islamic State militants and demanded the immediate release of another captive depicted as appearing on the image.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, in a brief televised statement, said the recording appeared to show captive Haruna Yukawa being killed.

“This is an outrageous and unacceptable act,” Suga said. “We strongly demand the prompt release of the remaining Mr. Kenji Goto, without harm.”

Suga read the statement and declined to take questions.

Japan’s government is investigating a new message purported to be from the Islamic State group holding two Japanese hostages.

Suga said late Saturday that Cabinet ministers were holding an emergency meeting about the new message, the release of which he condemned as unforgivable.

The Associated Press could not verify the contents of the message, which varied greatly from previous videos released by the Islamic State group, which now holds a third of both Syria and Iraq.

The Islamic State group had threatened on Tuesday to behead the hostages within 72 hours unless it received a $200 million ransom.

Source: Arabnews