Pakistan’s military command has shared with the British authorities a list of more than 50 suspicious organisations that are headquartered in the United Kingdom and are operating here, for strict scrutiny and surveillance over their finances and operations.

These organisations not only include banned outfits but also include dozens of Islamic charities registered in the UK as social welfare and humanitarian organisations on the pretext of communities’ services. The reported development surfaced during Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif’s three-day visit to the UK (January 14-16).

The British authorities, in response, are said to have assured their complete support to Pakistan in its ongoing counterterrorism drive. According to informed security sources, the COAS conveyed to the top UK government functionaries and security officials that majority of the organisations marked as suspicious by Pakistan’s security agencies (but were not banned here) were operating as charity organisations.

These organisations are mainly registered in the United Kingdom and some other Western countries including Canada, France and the United States. “The financial controls on dozens of 50 plus Islamic charities and other outfits are loose and they are freely moving millions of pounds from the UK to Pakistan each year,”. “What do they do of this big amount of money is highly suspicious since social and humanitarian work they originally get the money for, is nowhere to be seen.”

The official cited tentative details of certain financial probes, which, at times, were jointly conducted by the security agencies, both military and civilian, and government departments like Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), argue that the several charities here were working as the offshore companies of the UK-based suspicious or banned organisations.

Source:  paktribune

European counterterrorism agencies carried out anti-terror raids across Western Europe, rounding up dozens of suspects amid fears of attacks by IS jihadists.

According to CNN, as many as 20 sleeper cells of between 120 and 180 people could be ready to strike in France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, a Western intelligence source said. The source said that an ‘imminent threat’ to Belgium, and possibly to the Netherlands had been identified by the European Union and Middle East intelligence agencies.

The report quoted the source as saying that there was a ‘tremendous amount of concern’ over sleeper cells in Europe.The official said that it was believed that the Islamic State (IS) commanders had ordered Western jihadists to return to Europe to carry out attacks there in retaliation to air strikes against the terror group in Iraq and Syria.

The report further added that the authorities made 17 arrests related to the Belgium threat – 13 in Belgium and four at two locations in France.

Jordanians have played a central role in al-Nusra Front since its inception. After the “jihadist divorce” between al-Nusra and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Jordanian emigrants have enjoyed the lion’s share of power in the group’s chain of command.

The Syrian war has been a fertile breeding ground for new jihadists, as well as a popular stomping ground for old ones. Jordanians have had a prominent presence among these fighters from early on in the Syrian war.

This is both a result of “Jordan’s long jihadist history” (veteran jihadists), and the long border between Syria and Jordan (375 kilometers, over 233 miles), which has allowed many new jihadists to get into Syria, as well as the “religious guidance” of influential jihadist figures who reside in the Hashemite Kingdom.

Jordan and al-Nusra Front
Al-Nusra Front was one of the first jihadist organizations to emerge publicly on the Syrian scene as a kind of “al-Qaeda emissary.” The discord between ISIS and al-Qaeda had yet to surface, at this point. Both parties nurtured the newborn, and it was natural for Jordanians to play a central role, given their prominence within al-Qaeda.

From the early stages of “underground activity” — when Abu Mohammed al-Joulani, al-Nusra Front’s emir, began operating in Syria — Jordanian Salafi jihadism played a key role in mobilizing “emigrants” and recruiting them for al-Nusra. This was around the same time that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi dispatched key Jordanian jihadist figures to their native country to “organize volunteers and work on recruiting Jordanian emigrants.”

They included Mustafa Saleh Abdel Latif (Abu Anas al-Sahaba) and Iyad al-Toubasi (Abu Julaibib). A jihadist source told Al-Akhbar that “the first organized mobilization within the ranks of al-Nusra consisted of the Jordanian emigrant brothers.” The source said that “the first wave of Jordanian emigrants began to arrive around July 2011. Some brothers had already arrived on an individual basis, but the organized mobilization began around that time.”

According to several jihadist sources, the city of Zarqa (from which Abu Musab al-Zarqawi reportedly hailed) was like a major artery pumping new blood into al-Nusra. One source told Al-Akhbar, that “the emigrants did not differentiate between al-Nusra and al-Qaeda. They headed to Syria knowing they were going to fight within the ranks of al-Qaeda in support of the Syrian people.”

In addition to the leaders sent by Baghdadi, a number of Salafi clerics living in Zarqa played a central role in “mobilizing the mujahideen and training them in Islamic law. One of those clerics is Sheikh Munif Samara.” Another figure who played an eminent role in this context is a senior Jordanian leader of the Islamic Action Front, Abu Seif al-Urduni (Ahmed Harbi al-Obeidi), who died recently under torture at a detention center that belongs to al-Nusra Front itself. Obeidi’s death prompted jihadist sources to reveal the role he played in “mobilizing hundreds of Jordanian fighters more than three years ago and bringing them into Daraa.”

Emirs in military and Islamic law
 The most influential Jordanian among al-Nusra’s founding generation was “general military emir” Abu Samir al-Urduni (some jihadists claim he is Abu Anas al-Sahaba, while other jihadist sources maintain that the two are separate individuals).

A view common among ranks opposed to al-Nusra Front asserts that “the actual al-Nusra leadership has been in the hands of Jordanian emirs since the group’s inception, and Julani serves as a front to avoid angering the Syrian mujahideen.” Another crucial figure is al-Nusra’s spiritual leader, Dr. Sami al-Aridi, who has been an important player in the group since its inception. More information has come about him since he appeared in one of al-Nusra’s publications as its top theologian.

Strong presence in Daraa and Ghouta
Jordanians constitute the backbone of al-Nusra Front in Daraa and the surrounding areas, where Abu al-Miqdad al-Urduni emerged as one of the prominent military leaders. Among the new emirs who have emerged since is Abu Umair al-Urduni, who was recently declared “emir of al-Nusra Front in Daraa.”

Jordanians also enjoy a strong presence in the Ghouta area, where rising star al-Walid is al-Nusra’s emir, who is accused by jihadist sources opposed to al-Nusra of being “a former Jordanian intelligence officer.” Other leading figures are Abu Khadija al-Urduni, the general judge in Ghouta; Abu al-Baraa, the emir of Western Ghouta; and Abu Abdallah al-Urduni, the religious leader of Western Ghouta.

In Aleppo, Mutaz al-Sukhna has emerged as the field commander; opponents accuse him of being “the son of a general in the Jordanian army.” Then there is Abu al-Miqdad, the military leader of Idlib, who was the emir of Idlib and Abu Akrama. A few days ago, Abu Qudama al-Urduni — emir of Harim and Salqin — was declared dead during the recent attack on the villages of Nubl and al-Zahraa in the Aleppo countryside.

High-ranking religious authorities
Al-Nusra Front’s most prominent religious authorities also come from Jordan or reside in the kingdom. Such figures include Abu Mohammed al-Atawi, Abu Mohammed al-Maqdisi, Abu Qatada and Abu Sayyaf (Mohammed al-Shalabi), who has told jihadist and media sources that he “actively participated in establishing al-Nusra Front.”

The influence of al-Nusra’s Jordanian ground contingent grew with the increased media activity of religious authorities in Jordan, at the height of the “jihadist civil war” between al-Nusra and ISIS. This led to the Jordanian emirs’ domination of al-Nusra. (Abu Mohammed al-Maqdisi issued messages and edicts from inside Jordanian prisons. Some believe that the Jordanian authorities made a deal with Maqdisi and other clerics, granting them certain privileges in the hope of guiding al-Nusra in a way that agrees with Jordanian interests.)

Martyrdom is more honorable than imprisonment
A jihadist source told Al-Akhbar that “most Jordanian emigrants with previous experience received primary training before their mobilization.” According to another source, “the Jordanian emir, Abu Harith al-Hiyari, who was one of the first military emirs in Jordan, refused to accept people who had not received training.”
There is no doubt that volunteers attended jihadist training camps inside Jordan. Some sources argue that “the official role was limited to turning a blind eye to them,” while other sources confirm that they were established in the first place “under indirect official supervision through members and officers.”

Jordanian authorities have arrested fighters returning from Syria and charged them with crimes, whose sentences range from three to seven years. Paradoxically, the most common charge against fighters returning from Syria lately has been “disturbing relations with a friendly nation,” usually punishable by a five-year prison sentence. This prompts many Jordanians to stay in Syria, even if they die in battle, because “martyrdom is more honorable than imprisonment by unbelievers,” as a jihadist source told Al-Akhbar.

Source:  al-akhbar.com

Ilya Rogachev, who heads the Department of challenges in the ministry, said that some of the Russians are from the territory of Chechnya and other regions in the North Caucasus region 
.
Rogachev noted in an interview with “Ekho Moskvy” Radio to the difficulty of determining the number of Russians involved in the ranks of the militant group 
.
He attributed that to the fact that some of them are Chechen refugees who have moved to Europe, as well as some of Chechnya from Georgia

Source: shafaaq.com

Houthi gunmen abducted Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak, embattled President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi’s chief of staff, in Sana’a on Saturday in a move that demonstrates the widening division between the presidency and the Shi’ite militia.

“An armed group set up a checkpoint in Hada [southern district of Sana’a] and captured Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak with his companions,” an official from the national dialogue secretariat told Agence France-Presse.
The group reportedly abducted Mubarak in order to stop him from attending a meeting with prominent Yemeni political and regional factions to discuss a new constitution. The Houthis subsequently pulled out of the meeting amid escalating divisions over the constitution and federalization plans.

Mubarak is secretary general of Yemen’s National Dialogue Conference which was established to oversee the political transition in the country following the resignation of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2012. The outcomes of the National Dialogue include drafting a new constitution and federalization.

However, leaks of the draft constitution this week indicate that the government is supporting a plan to federalize Yemen into six regions, something that both the Houthis and southern separatist Hirak movement reject.

Yemen’s President Hadi has warned that federalizing Yemen into two regions could threaten the fragmentation of the country.

While former president Saleh’s General People’s Congress has also rejected Hadi’s federalization plans, walking out of Saturday’s meeting on the draft constitution, sources told the Associated Press. The General People’s Congress is calling for Yemen to be divided into much smaller governorates in order to protect national unity.

Saleh and the General People’s Congress have been accused of implicitly backing the Houthis against Hadi. The General People’s Congress, Yemen’s ruling party, sacked Hadi last year over accusations that he solicited UN sanctions against former president Saleh.

The situation in Yemen is becoming increasingly chaotic with the Shi’ite Houthi movement advancing into central and western parts of the country, the southern separatist Hirak movement demanding southern secession and the Peace and National Partnership agreement appearing ineffective.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) have also exploited the Houthi advance to boost recruitment and operations, with dozens of people having already been killed in 2015 in clashes between the Houthis and Sunni militant tribal fighters.

Source:  aawsat.net

Tens of thousands of people rallied in the capital of Chad on Saturday in support of the authorities’ decision to send troops to fight Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamists.

Prime Minister Kalzeube Pahimi Deubet led the demonstrators as they marched from city hall in the capital N’Djamena to the Place de Nation square, carrying Chadian flags and chanting in French and Arabic: “Kick the forces of evil out of our territory.”

A large banner read: “We support our army. The people of Chad support their Cameroonian and Nigerian brothers in the fight against terrorism.”

“Today’s march is a strong signal, a warning to Boko Haram and above all a march for peace to protect our vital interests, to protect our economy, to protect Chad’s security,” Deubet said.

“The country is seriously threatened by Boko Haram,” said Ouchar Tourguidi, head of the main party in parliament, calling the rally “important for boosting morale of our troops who are going to the front.”

Dozens of Chadian tanks headed out of the capital Friday south towards Cameroon after Chad’s parliament approved the deployment.

Chad’s plunge into the war against Boko Haram came after a large-scale attack by the militants in Baga, the Nigerian town on the shores of Lake Chad were as many as 2,000 people were massacred by the militants in a raid on January 7 described by US Secretary of State John Kerry as a “crime against humanity”.

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya had announced Thursday that his Chadian counterpart Idriss Deby had agreed to send “a substantial contingent” of troops to help Cameroonian armed forces, who have faced repeated attacks from Boko Haram.

The Russian ambassador to the country also pledged to supply Cameroon with more modern weapons to combat the Islamist insurgents.

Berlin is planning to send up to 100 soldiers to the Kurdistan region Capital, Erbil to help train Kurdish Peshmerga forces fighting against Islamic State militants and last December the German cabinet approved the plan.

She called on European Union to do more to provide more support for Kurdish forces and take serious steps towards helping Peshmerga forces, which has been engaged in fighting against the Jihadi group for more than six months in both northern Iraq as well as in Syrian Kurdistan.

“The International community should understand the reality about the Kurds and everyone should support them”, she said in front of German Parliament.

“Last week I was in Erbil and saw the real situation closely and people around the world were saying I’m Charlie as a show of support for Charlie Hebdo [French Magazine attacked earlier this month], but we have to say we are Kurds, we are Yazidis,” Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday.

Amid the deadly attacks in Paris last week and the raids in Belgium on Thursday, European counterterrorism agencies are scrambling to identify and thwart potential threats, officials said.

What is the nature of the threat?

Are there concerns about any other groups?

Are ISIS and al Qaeda working together in Europe?

Are the Belgian raids connected to the Paris attacks?

How big is the challenge facing security agencies?

Chad’s parliament voted Friday to send armed forces to Cameroon and Nigeria to fight Boko Haram a day after President Idriss Deby Itno announced his intention to join the fight against the Islamists.

Chad’s parliament in N’Djamena voted 150 to 0 to send an unspecified number of “Chadian armed troops and security forces to assist Cameroonian and Nigerian soldiers waging war against the terrorists in Cameroon and Nigeria,” a parliament statement said after the vote to join what is now a regional effort defeat Boko Haram.

Secret official documents about the searching of three trucks belonging to Turkey’s national intelligence service (MIT) have been leaked online, once again corroborating suspicions that Ankara has not been playing a clean game in Syria. According to the authenticated documents, the trucks were found to be transporting missiles, mortars and anti-aircraft ammunition.

The Gendarmerie General Command, which authored the reports, alleged, “The trucks were carrying weapons and supplies to the al-Qaeda terror organization.” But Turkish readers could not see the documents in the news bulletins and newspapers that shared them, because the government immediately obtained a court injunction banning all reporting about the affair.

When President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was prime minister, he had said, “You cannot stop the MIT truck. You cannot search it. You don’t have the authority. These trucks were taking humanitarian assistance to Turkmens.”

Since then, Erdogan and his hand-picked new Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu have repeated at every opportunity that the trucks were carrying assistance to Turkmens. Public prosecutor Aziz Takci, who had ordered the trucks to be searched, was removed from his post and 13 soldiers involved in the search were taken to court on charges of espionage. Their indictments call for prison terms of up to 20 years.

In scores of documents leaked by a group of hackers, the Gendarmerie Command notes that rocket warheads were found in the trucks’ cargo.

According to the documents that circulated on the Internet before the ban came into effect, this was the summary of the incident:

-On Jan. 19, 2014, after receiving a tip that three trucks were carrying weapons and explosives to al-Qaeda in Syria, the Adana Provincial Gendarmerie Command obtained search warrants.

-The Adana prosecutor called for the search and seizure of all evidence.

-Security forces stropped the trucks at the Ceyhan toll gates, where MIT personnel tried to prevent the search.-While the trucks were being escorted to Seyhan Gendarmerie Command for an extensive search, MIT personnel accompanying the trucks in an Audi vehicle blocked the road to stop the trucks. When MIT personnel seized the keys from the trucks’ ignitions, an altercation ensued. MIT personnel instructed the truck drivers to pretend their trucks had malfunctioned and committed physical violence against gendarmerie personnel.-The search was carried out and videotaped despite the efforts of the governor and MIT personnel to prevent it.

-Six metallic containers were found in the three trucks. In the first container, 25-30 missiles or rockets and 10-15 crates loaded with ammunition were found. In the second container, 20-25 missiles or rockets, 20-25 crates of mortar ammunition and Douchka anti-aircraft ammunition in five or six sacks were discovered. The boxes had markings in the Cyrillic alphabet.

-It was noted that the MIT personnel swore at the prosecutor and denigrated the gendarmerie soldiers doing the search, saying, “Look at those idiots. They are looking for ammunition with picks and shovels. Let someone who knows how to do it. Trucks are full of bombs that might explode.”

-The governor of Adana Huseyin Avni Cos arrived at the scene and declared, “The trucks are moving with the prime minister’s orders” and vowed not to let them be interfered with no matter what.

-With a letter of guarantee sent by the regional director of MIT, co-signed by the governor, the trucks were handed back to MIT.

-Driver Murat Kislakci said in his deposition, “This cargo was loaded into our trucks from a foreign airplane at Ankara Esenboga Airport. We are taking them to Reyhanli [on the Syrian border]. Two men [MIT personnel] in the Audi are accompanying us. At Reyhanli, we hand over the trucks to two people in the Audi. They check us into a hotel. The trucks move to cross the border. We carried similar loads several times before. We were working for the state. In Ankara, we were leaving our trucks at an MIT location. They used to tell us to come back at 7 a.m. I know the cargo belongs to MIT. We were at ease; this was an affair of state. This was the first time we collected cargo from the airport and for the first time we were allowed to stand by our trucks during the loading.”

-After accusations of espionage by the government and pro-government media, the chief of general staff ordered the military prosecutor to investigate,. On July 21, the military prosecutor declared the operation was not espionage. The same prosecutor said this incident was a military affair and should be investigated not by the public prosecutor, but the military. The civilian court did not retract its decision.

The government cover-up
Though the scandal is tearing the country apart, the government opted for its favorite tactic of covering it up. A court in Adana banned written, visual and Internet media outlets from any reporting and commenting on the stopping of the trucks and the search. All online content about the incident has been deleted.

The court case against the 13 gendarmerie elements accused of espionage has also been controversial. The public prosecutor, who in his indictment said the accused were involved in a plot to have Turkey tried at International Criminal Court, veered off course. Without citing any evidence, the indictment charged that there was collusion between the Syrian government, al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS). The prosecutor deviated from the case at hand and charged that the killing by IS of three people at Nigde last year was actually carried out by the Syrian state.

At the moment, a total blackout prevails over revelations, which are bound to have serious international repercussions.

Source:  ekurd.net