Three women, including one shot during police raid, charged with preparing terrorist attack and conspiracy to murder

Three women, including one who was shot during a police raid in London and her mother, were charged on Wednesday with preparing a terrorist attack and conspiracy to murder, The Guardian reports.

Rizlaine Boular, 21, and her 43-year-old mother, Mina Dich, as well as 20-year-old Khawla Barghouthi are to appear at Westminster magistrates court, central London, on Thursday morning, according to the report.

Boular is accused of planning to carry out the attack, while the other two women are accused of helping her. All three have been charged with conspiracy to murder.

Boular was shot by officers at an address in north-west London during the raid, which took place in late April. Three men, aged 21, 16, and 28, and a 28-year-old woman were arrested in connection with the investigation, but have since been released, according to The Guardian.

The April 28 raid took place hours after a terrorist was arrested near Parliament before he was able to carry out an attack.

The two incidents came a month after a terrorist, Khalid Masood, attacked pedestrians in Westminster, running down several with a rented SUV before stabbing several others. The attack left five dead and nearly 50 injured.

Man convicted of ‘murder as a terrorism offence’ and jailed for life after reportedly boasting of shooting troops in Homs region

A Syrian refugee has been jailed for life in Austria for killing 20 wounded government soldiers in his home country, like reported by theguardian.com.

A jury in the western city of Innsbruck found the 27-year-old guilty of 20 charges of “murder as a terrorism offence”.

The man was arrested at a refugee shelter in Tyrol state last June after being denounced by a fellow Syrian.

According to Austrian media, the accused had boasted to other asylum seekers of belonging to a rebel unit and shooting unarmed or injured troops loyal to the Syrian president, Bashar-al Assad, in the western region of Homs in 2013 and 2014.

After his arrest, the man initially admitted to the killings but later retracted his confession, saying his testimony had been badly translated.

The translator rejected this in court, saying: “The defendant told me he had shot badly wounded soldiers. I asked him to repeat his claim and he did.”

The man, who was not named, was tried for war crimes under Austrian law. It is thought to be the first time that a case involving war crimes in Syria has been tried in Austria. Killing injured soldiers is prohibited under the Geneva convention.

According to Der Standard, the man is of Palestinian origin and grew up in a refugee camp in Homs.

Italian police say they have found links between Islamic militants and a Somali-run migrant trafficking and money transfer ring that was busted in overnight raids in southern Italy, like reported by breitbart.com.

Police said the leader of the Bari-based ring had been in telephone contact with a Somali man arrested in Italy in July on suspicion of having helped two Islamic State foreign fighters enter Italy via Malta.

A police statement said other members of the ring frequented websites linked to Al-Shabab, Somalia’s homegrown Islamic extremist rebels linked to al-Qaida.

The dozen Somalis targeted in the raids Wednesday are accused of transporting migrants to northern Europe, including with false documents, and running a money transfer network.

Bari prosecutor Giuseppe Volpe says the “hawala” transfer network “is the same used to finance international terrorism.”

German police have carried out anti-terrorism raids in four states, targeting suspected members and supporters of so-called Islamic State, like reported by bbc.com.

Homes and properties were searched in Bavaria, Berlin, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt during the pre-dawn operation, federal prosecutors say.

Police were looking for three suspects – two of them are believed to be IS members and the third a supporter of the jihadist group.

No arrests have been made.

After suffering a series of deadly attacks last year, Germany has been in fear of further violence.

On Tuesday, the authorities made an arrest linked to an alleged plot to murder a senior public figure.

German authorities say they have arrested two Islamic extremists, one of whom administered the strategically important dam in eastern Syria for ISIS, like reported by ekurd.net.

Federal prosecutors say the two Syrian nationals were arrested last week in Berlin and the nearby state of Saxony-Anhalt.

The men were identified only as 30-year-old Abdulmalk A. and 23-year-old Mousa H. A., in line with German privacy rules.

Prosecutors said in a statement Tuesday that both men joined the Nusra Front in 2012 to fight against the Syrian government.

Abdulmalk A. allegedly commanded a unit in eastern Syria and committed a war crime by killing a captured government soldier in 2013.

Prosecutors say Abdulmalk A. joined the Islamic State group in mid-2013 and was put in charge of the Euphrates dam near the city of Tabqa.

Two men were arrested for suspected offences related to Islamic terrorism.

One Algerian national and one Moroccan national, aged in their 30s and 40s, were arrested in the Dublin area by members of the gardaí’s counter terrorism international unit.

They are both being detained at Blackrock Garda Station under the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984.

A number of searches were carried out in Swords, Stepaside, South Circular Road and Trim.

TheJournal.ie reported that members of the garda special detective unit are carrying out a number of surveillance operations on over 20 people they believe to be a potential threat to Ireland.

Most of those under investigation live on the south side of Dublin and in the capital’s inner city areas.

Many of those who are being watched are known to be Islamic State sympathisers while some are suspected of laundering money through a number of legitimate looking businesses.

The Spanish and Moroccan authorities are coordinating with a view to finding and dismantling Daesh “terrorist cells”, like reported by aa.com.tr.

“These cells are linked to fighters now operating in Syria and Iraq within the context of recruiting and sending volunteers to fight for Daesh,” the statement read.

It went on to note that Spanish and Moroccan intelligence agencies on Monday had successfully broken up one such cell composed of three Daesh members, one of whom had been arrested in the Moroccan city of Tangier.

“In tandem with the security operation [in Tangier], two of the suspect’s associates were detained the same day in Spain,” the ministry statement added.

The ministry did not say where exactly in Spain the arrests had taken place. Nor did it provide the suspects’ nationalities.

According to the Moroccan authorities, almost 200 active Daesh cells were dismantled throughout the North African country in 2016.

The appalling terrorist assaults perpetrated by ISIS in Europe have led to significant changes in Europe’s state of mind, prompting rudimentary initiatives to secure borders and increase counter-terror cooperation among EU states

The terrorist assaults perpetrated by ISIS in France, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, and Sweden did not surprise the EU security authorities. They have often noted the threat that at least some of the thousands of Muslim youngsters who left Europe to fight for ISIS might perform acts of terror upon their return. They are also well aware that military intervention against ISIS increases the risk of terror attacks on European soil. The torrent of uncontrolled numbers of refugees from the Middle East has sharpened the warnings issued by the security authorities as well as by the media. The terror attacks have had significant repercussions, and have had an impact on EU-Israel relations.

The wave of terror has produced changes in the state of mind of many Europeans. In the past, though there were occasional terror attacks (such as in London in July 2005), Europeans felt relatively safe – so much so that they did not introduce basic security measures, such as checking bags and suitcases at train stations. The recent wave of attacks, however, has produced feelings of insecurity. Citizens of EU member states are now less hostile to security measures that had been perceived in the past as breaching their civil liberties.

The attacks exposed the vulnerability of EU state borders resulting from the Schengen Agreement, which opened borders among member states. In Brussels and Paris, the perpetrators of the November 2015 attacks crossed borders with impunity.
The EU did, in fact, take a major decision in November 2015 to strengthen control over its external borders in order to protect them from smugglers of firearms and illegal immigrants. It increased cooperation and coordination among EU member states, taking measures such as a Passengers Name Record (PNR) – not only for air travel, but for sea and train travel as well as hotel room and car rentals.

In addition, EU member state authorities took measures like decreeing a state of emergency (in France) and increasing security forces.

Another significant step was the launch in January 2016 of a new European counter-terrorism center, the ECTC, following the November 2015 decision of the Justice and Home Affairs ministers. The ECTC was designated as an enhanced central information hub through which member states can increase information sharing, bolster operational coordination, track terror financing, and detect online radicalization.

In October 2016, the EU also launched a New European Border and Coast Guard Agency (built on the EU Frontex) with extended staff, means, and regulation in order to better secure Europe’s external borders.

The creation of the ECTC engendered some skepticism regarding the ability of EU member states to implement effective counter-terrorism cooperation. Critics cited the differences in organizational culture among the various security agencies as well as their traditional reluctance to exchange valuable operational data for fear of leaks. They also noted the problem of differing laws regarding civil liberties. For instance, Belgian security forces admitted that they had missed Salah Abdeslam, one of the main perpetrators of the Paris Black Fridayattack of November 2015, because of a law that forbids raids on private houses from 9:00 pm to 5:00 am.

Another significant impact of the terrorist attacks has been the rise in popularity of far-right parties leading anti-Muslim and anti-migrant campaigns. For instance, Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Front party in France, was chosen during the first tour as one of the two leading candidates in the current presidential elections. (She stepped down from the NF’s presidency immediately following the first tour, but remains leader of the party.) Le Pen calls, inter alia, for the abolishing of the Schengen Agreement and even recommends that France follow the British “Brexit” and leave the EU. Other far-right parties in Europe, such as The Alternative for Germany (AFD) and the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, have exploited growing anti-Muslim and anti-immigration sentiments to increase their influence. Far-right parties have also increased their representation in the EU parliament, forming a unified faction of 37 parliament members of seven state members.

The terror assaults in Europe have been followed by calls by the political authorities as well as by the media to learn from the Israeli model of counter-terrorism. They have stressed Israel’s experience, methods, and technical means in its continuous fight against radical Islamist terrorists.

Indeed, there exists a discreet defense cooperation between Israel and EU member states in the field of dealing with terrorist threats, including the procurement of Israeli counter-terrorism technological innovations. For instance, Israel cooperates with EU member states in securing their airports. Several EU states have procured from an Israeli company a technology that swiftly filters a large amount of camera footage, enabling investigators to focus on suspicious persons and activities. In addition, Europe is interested in Israeli experience in field medicine and in civil emergency systems designed to handle terror attacks.

The EU has also expressed interest in Israeli cyber technologies that spot online communications of organized terrorists, as well as potential “lone wolf” terrorists who have no organizational contacts. The latter represents a complex challenge, as internet companies often refuse to cooperate in the monitoring of their platforms’ content.

The things Europe can learn from Israel are not limited to military and technological know-how in the fight against terror. Europe can also learn from the resilient way Israel’s citizens cope with terror, as well as from Israel’s experience of maintaining democratic core values despite the incessant terror threat and chaotic, unstable neighborhood.

The discreet cooperation in the counter-terrorism field has unfortunately not yet matured into a more balanced position on the part of EU member states regarding the security measures Israel takes to deal with Palestinian terrorism and incitement. The moral double standard of the EU regarding this issue might undermine its own fight against Islamist terrorism.

Around 350 ISIS fighters have returned to the UK from Syria, creating a nightmare for security services, it emerged today, like reported by dailymail.co.uk.

MI5 has previously said around 850 extremists from Britain travelled to the Middle East as the terror group took control of Syria and parts of Iraq.

But with ISIS now being pushed out, jihadists with British passports are fleeing back to the UK, where authorities fear they may unleash a new wave of attacks.

Many of those returning have been trained in the use of explosives and firearms as they took part in ISIS’s bloody rampage, The Times reports today.

The flood of new jihadists is stretching the UK’s security security services to breaking point, with up to 30 officers required to provide 24-hour monitoring of just one suspect.

It comes after a British defector from the group told how up to 300 British members of ISIS remain in the Syrian warzone.

Experts believe they may be in communication with those who have returned, raising the threat of further plots.

Olivier Guitta, managing director at risk consultants GlobalStrat, told the Daily Telegraph this week: ‘Many who joined Isil have returned to the UK and they could be awaiting instructions. It is very likely that there is communication.’

MI5 have previously said around 3,000 violent Islamist extremists are operating in the UK.

British anti-terror police have stepped up arrests since Muslim convert Khalid Masood killed four pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before stabbing a police officer to death outside Parliament in March.

Masood is understood to have travelled to Saudi Arabia before the attack, but it is not believed he ever visited ISIS-held territory.

A series of other terror plots whose perpetrators have travelled to the warzone have been thwarted, including that of so-called ‘Surgeon’ Tarik Hassane, who wanted to attack police.

ISIS is currently facing multiple offensives in both Iraq and Syria, with US-led airstrikes, Russian and Syrian forces as well as Kurdish and other forces pushing them back.

Iraqi forces said on Tuesday that they had retaken full control one of the city of Mosul’s largest neighbourhoods.

Syrian forces have meanwhile entered Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIS’s so-called ‘caliphate’.

The European Union wants China to help prevent migrants and refugees using Chinese-made inflatable boats to get into the bloc by stopping the boats reaching them, the European Commissioner for Migration said on Thursday, like reported by reuters.com.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, speaking to reporters in Beijing after meeting Chinese Minister for Public Security Guo Shengkun, said the rubber boats used by people smugglers were made in China.

“The rubber boats used by the smuggler networks in the Mediterranean are fabricated somewhere in China, they are exported to the countries in Asia and they are used by them,” Avramopoulos said.

“So I requested the support and cooperation from the Chinese authorities in order to track down this business and dismantle it, because what they produce is not serving the common good of the country. It is a very dangerous tool in the hands of ruthless smugglers.”

He gave no further details, but said he and Guo had not discussed the possibility of China taking any of the refugees or migrants.

More than a million people sought asylum in Europe’s rich north in 2015, mostly in Germany but also in large numbers in Sweden, straining the capacity of countries to cope.

A contentious deal with Turkey to stop Syrian refugees from reaching Greece and the overland route to Germany, in return for EU funds, has reduced flows to a trickle, though thousands of migrants still try to reach Europe from Libya via sea routes.