A group of terrorists attacked a security checkpoint at Al-Naqb in southwestern Egypt’s New Valley Governorate, 70 km from Kharga city, killing eight police officials and injuring three others, like reported by outlookindia.com.

The attack took place on Monday night in which two of the attackers were killed during the gunbattle between security forces and the terrorists, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The forces have launched a hunt for the remaining attackers who managed to escape after the attack, it said.

No terror group has claimed responsibility of the attack so far.

Egypt has witnessed many violent attacks by militants in the last few years and since the January 2011 revolution that toppled the ex-president Hosni Mubarak.

The attacks targeting police and military increased after the ouster of Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by military following massive protests against his rule.

Forces loyal to Marshal Khalifa Haftar retook a district in Libya’s Benghazi from jihadis after fighting that killed nine soldiers in two days, a military source said to japantimes.co.jp.

“We now control the district of Abu Sneib” in the southwest of the city, said a commanding officer in the army headed by Haftar, who backs the parliament in the country’s east.

“Our forces now completely surround the Qanfuda area” nearby, the same source said.

The source said 52 troops had died in fighting since Jan. 1 in and around Benghazi.

Haftar has managed to retake a large part of the eastern coastal city from jihadis since Benghazi came under their control in 2014.

But jihadis still control the central districts of Al-Saberi and Souq al-Hout.

These jihadi groups include the Revolutionary Shura Council of Benghazi, an alliance of Islamist militias that includes the al-Qaida-linked Ansar Al-Sharia.

On Dec. 8, 2016, a social media account supporting the Libyan National Army — one of two main forces battling for control of war-torn Libya — published footage of an unused, Chinese-made Type 84 remotely-delivered anti-vehicle landmine along with a Type 122-15 ATML rocket, according to warisboring.com .

The rocket was apparently found in the Ganfouda district of Benghazi, in a neighborhood that the Tobruk-based LNA had seized from the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council, an Islamist militia.

The footage apparently marks the first appearance of the Chinese mine in Libya since 2011 — and, more importantly, the first evidence that a Libyan Islamic group has gotten its hands on the munition.

The Type 84 mine is an air-dispersed landmine with an explosively-formed penetrator warhead that can penetrate up to 110 millimeters of rolled homogeneous armor.

The Type 122-15 ATML rocket — the export version of China’s GBL212 122- millimeter rocket — includes an ejection charge, a main body containing six scatterable mines and a nose cone. The type is launched from BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket systems.

The GLD220 variant of the Type 84 disarms itself after 72 hours — and also features a self-destruct function that can trigger between four and 72 hours after deployment. Once the rocket launches, a time fuse activates at a predetermined distance. The rocket’s head bursts, ejecting the mines, which then descend under parachutes.

During the descent, the three legs at the feet of the mines open downward to form a tip that pierces the ground. The mine is then armed.

The Type 84 is not a cluster munition, unlike the Type 81 which can deliver explosive submunitions. Hezbollah used Type 81s during the 2006 conflict in south Lebanon.

Still, “the Type 84 mine is extremely dangerous and should not be handled or disturbed, as it is equipped with a sensitive magnetic influence fuse that also functions as an inherent anti-disturbance feature,” wrote Mark Hiznay, a researcher in the arms division of Human Rights Watch.

“The magnetic influence fuse explodes the mine when it detects a change in its immediate magnetic environment. That change can result from a vehicle passing over the mine or a person approaching it while wearing or carrying a sufficient amount of ferrous metal, such as military equipment or even a camera.

“Additionally, given the sensitivity of the fuse, any change in orientation or movement of the mine may cause the fuse to function.”

The first use of the Type 84 landmine in Libya was reported by C.J. Chiversof The New York Times and confirmed by Human Rights Watch. The rockets were launched on May 5, 2011 in the port area of the city of Misrata by forces loyal to then-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Two guards patrolling the port in a truck ran over two of the mines. One guard was seriously wounded in the blast. An international deminer was killed in Dafniya in March 2012 and two injured in November 2011 when they tried to defuse a Type 84 submunition.

The LNA Air Force is known to have used cluster munitionssince at least 2015 in its attacks on Islamist militia in Derna and Benghazi.

Since the current round of fighting broke out in Libya in 2014, civilians in eastern Libya have found themselves trapped between the LNA’s cluster bombs, indiscriminate Emirati air strikes and the Islamists’ dispersed landmines launched by Islamist militia fighters.

A Russian-backed Libyan warlord could start a “civil war” in Libya, increasing refugee flows to the EU, Malta has warned according to euobserver.com.

The danger comes as the Libyan commander, Khalifa Haftar, advances on Tripoli, the seat of the UN-recognised government, Malta’s foreign minister, George Vella, told press in Valletta on Friday (13 January).

“Haftar with his army is moving gradually, slowly from the east to the west … and possibly, eventually linking up with his colleagues from the west, from Zintane, and advancing in a pincer movement on the region of Bani Walid, Misrata, and Tripoli”, Vella said.

“That would be disastrous because it would create civil war and it would create more refugees running away from Libya”, he said.

Vella also raised the alarm on Haftar’s contacts with Russia.

He said Russia had so far respected a UN embargo on weapons transfers to Libya, even though Haftar had been “going to Moscow asking for arms”.

But he added that Russia, which has funded Haftar, had a strategic interest in establishing a foothold in the central Mediterranean.

“It’s very difficult to predict what’s going to happen”, Vella said.

“I’m not comfortable. We all know the Russians’ dreams have always been to have [military] bases in the Mediterranean”, he said.

Haftar, on Thursday, toured Russia’s aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, as it was sailing from Syria.

He also held a video call with Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu, in which they discussed “urgent issues in the fight against international terrorist groups in the Middle East”, a Russian statement said.

Collapsing state

The EU, with the Maltese presidency at its helm for the next six months, is keen to strike a deal with the Libyan government in Tripoli, the GNA, on reducing the flow of migrants to Europe.

Libya became the primary route for asylum seekers after the EU closed the Western Balkan corridor, with the refugee crisis high on the political agenda in France and Germany.

Even without the Haftar problem, the EU was finding it hard to make headway.

Another warlord, Khalifa Ghwell, tried to stage an anti-GNA coup in Tripoli on Thursday, highlighting the fragility of the country.

“At the moment, things are not happy in Tripoli,” Malta’s Vella said on Friday.

“Libya is on the brink of becoming a failed state. Let’s hope we won’t go that far”, he said.

He aded that the GNA and Italy had held talks on a potential migrant deal, but that they were “far, far apart” in their positions.

Russia and Syria

Valla spoke with the GNA prime minister, Fayez Sarraj, on Thursday.

EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels for the first time in 2017 aim to speak mainly about the war in Syria and the Middle East Peace Process.

An EU diplomat said “there will be a debate about Russia’s role in the Syrian conflict … but no specific debate on Russia itself”. He said Libya “should be” discussed in February.

Russia has been accused of war crimes for targeting civilians and hospitals in Syria.

It is fighting on the side of the Syrian regime, which has allowed it to expand its naval base in the country.

Russia’s Syria campaign has also drawn accusations that it was trying to influence French and German politics by increasing refugee flows to Europe via Turkey.

Speaking in Brussels on Friday, the departing US ambassador to the EU, Anthony Gardner, said Russian president Vladimir Putin was not a partner for the West.

“To think that Russia is somehow seeking to promote our shared agenda is folly”, he said.

He added that it would be “inconceivable and shameful if we would consider lightening sanctions on Russia”, referring to EU and US economic sanctions, which were imposed over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Trump card

The incoming US president, Donald Trump, is a wild card in Russia relations, however.

He has praised Russia, but his nominees for US security chiefs have condemned its actions.

Another EU priority is to see where Trump stands on the Middle East peace process.

Trump has said he might move the US embassy from Tel Aviv, Israel’s internationally-recognised capital, to Jerusalem, which it claimed by conquest from Palestine.

“If he does all the threats he said he would, he will not just violate EU policy, but also international order”, a senior EU diplomat said.

Russia are set to imminently sign a military cooperation deal with Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar according to reports from Radio France International this week, according to alaraby.co.uk.

Following meetings between Haftar and a Russian military delegation in Tobruk last Wednesday, Moscow is preparing to send military experts to train forces loyal to Haftar – who call themseleves the Libyan National Army (LNA) – at a number of bases such as Tobruk and Benghazi in the east of the country, the French radio station reported, citing informed sources.

Additional training of pro-Haftar troops, RFI reported, will take place at sea aboard Russian military vessels.

Haftar previously visited Moscow in November and met with Russian Foreign Secretary Sergey Lavrov who has recently praised Libya’s military role in countering terrorism in the country.

At that time sources close to Haftar leaked information that the Libyan army chief was seeking to persuade Moscow to supply arms and military equipment through a third party in order to bypass a UN Security Council arms embargo on Libya. However, at that time Moscow abided with the UN Security Council ruling.

Libya has been mired by in-fighting since the 2011 revolution that overthrew dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

The country was split between two competing governments, while myriad rival militias also looked at carving up influence in the country.

The Tobruk government has received backing from neighbouring Egypt as well as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

But the Tripoli-based government has the backing of the UN with six western states recently renewing their support.

Haftar, once an ally of Gaddafi who studied in Russia and spent time in exile in the United States, has allied his forces to authorities in Tobruk.

He has been accused by opponents of committing war crimes and in one noticeable power play in September 2016 his forces seized control of most of Libya’s oil installations and for the last two years of battled Islamist groups including from the Islamic State group for control of the second city of Benghazi.

A fighter jet from Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s forces was shot down over Libya’s Benghazi on Sunday as it carried out raids on jihadist positions, a military source said to thepeninsulaqatar.com.

The MiG-23 went down after being targeted by “extremist militias”, said a commanding officer with Haftar’s forces.

The pilot ejected himself and survived unharmed, he said.

A source at the Benghazi airbase told the LANA news agency loyal to the parliament in Libya’s east backed by Haftar that a “heat-seeking missile” had hit the plane.

Haftar has managed to retake a large part of the eastern coastal city of Benghazi from jihadists since it came under their control in 2014.

But violent clashes have been ongoing for several weeks between his forces and jihadists surrounded in their last bastions, especially in the area of Qanfuda southwest of the city.

These jihadist groups include the Revolutionary Shura Council of Benghazi, an alliance of Islamist militias that includes the Al-Qaeda-linked Ansar Al-Sharia.

Egypt’s Interior Ministry announced that 10 militants linked to ISIS had been killed during a raid on one of their hideouts in the Sinai Peninsula, like reported by aawsat.com.

According to the ministry’s statement, members of the group opened fire on security forces while they approached their hideout in an abandoned house in the city of El-Arish, North Sinai.

The ministry also said that the gunmen were linked to a militant leader of the Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis group who formed groups with the purpose of attacking security forces. Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis is the name that the group used before it pledged allegiance to ISIS in November 2014.

The ministry pointed out that that these attacks on security forces include a car bombing that took place on Monday at a checkpoint near El-Arish, killing eight policemen and a civilian. The group also assassinated two policemen and kidnapped and killed an engineer.

ISIS claimed responsibility for an attack on a police checkpoint on Tuesday during which the Interior Ministry said that police shot dead the five attackers.

Militants have killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen since President Mohamed Morsi was overthrown in 2013, and most of the attacks have taken place in the north of the Sinai Peninsula which borders Israel and the Gaza Strip. Attacks have also targeted Cairo.

The ministry said in a statement that it posted on its Facebook page they it has identified six of the dead who were involved in attacks on policemen, the army and civilians. It also added that police found eight automatic rifles, a machine gun and rifles in their possession. They also found a pistol that a policeman who was killed in October was carrying.

In a separate statement, a spokesman for the Egyptian army said that third field army forces, in cooperation with air forces, managed to “discover and destroy a very dangerous terrorist hotbed that protects terrorists in the governorate of North Sinai”.

US republican senator Ted Cruz, along with two other senators, reportedly filed a bill last week to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation, according to dailynewsegypt.com.

The bill demands the US secretary of state to designate the group as a terrorist organisation, arguing that they fulfil the criteria. The bill is meant to protect the US from the threats of radical Islam.

Another bill filed by the senators demanded the designation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation as well.

According to CNN, Cruz said that the danger of radical Islam has significantly increased during the administration of current president Barack Obama due to his cooperation with the Brotherhood and his neglect of the acts carried out by the IRGC.

Bilateral relations between Egypt and the US have strained over the past few years following the ouster of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi by the armed forces after mass protests.

The Obama administration supported what they described as the “legitimate president,” calling Morsi’s ouster a “military coup”.

However, it is believed that these relations will thrive under the administration of president-elect Donald Trump as his view on the Brotherhood is more in-line with that of the Egyptian state.

On Jan. 8, 2017 a Palestinian Arab named Fadi Ahmad Hamdan Qunbor used his truck to intentionally run over 21 Israelis in Jerusalem, murdering four and injuring 17 others. The terror attack was halted when Israeli authorities shot and killed Qunbor, who reportedly put his vehicle into reverse in order to repeatedly run over his victims, like reported by camera.org .

It didn’t take long for some Palestinians and their leaders to celebrate the murders.

Fathi Hammad, a top Hamas leader, told Reuters, “The message of our Islamic party Hamas is a message of encouragement and support for every jihadi who carries out an attack that puts an end to the acts of the Zionist enemy.” As an Oct. 5, 2016 CAMERA Op-Ed in The Washington Examiner noted, Hammad is the head of Hamas’ propaganda arm, which oversees, among other things, al-Aqsa TV. As CAMERA pointed out, some news outlets and organizations, such as the Newseum, a Washington D.C.-based museum, treat al-Aqsa TV as a credible news source instead of the terrorist entity that the U.S. government officially considers it.

Shortly after the most recent terror attack, footage appeared of Palestinians taking to the streets and passing out candy and other sweets in celebration (see here and here, for examples). The Twitter hashtag “TruckIntifada” even briefly trended.

Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), a non-profit organization that monitors Arab media in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), the Gaza Strip, and eastern Jerusalem, noted official Palestinian Authority media praised the “car ramming operation.” PMW pointed out that, “according to its fundamental policy of supporting all Palestinian terror, the PA will reward the terrorist’s wife with a lifetime monthly allowance. According to PA law, the family of a Shahid [martyr] receives a base payment of 1400 shekels per month.”

Fatah, the movement that dominates the PA and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), has previously encouraged Palestinians to commit vehicular attacks.

Despite such evidence, many Western news media outlets often omit the incitement to anti-Jewish violence that precedes and frequently follows Palestinian terrorist attacks.

For example, The Washington Post’s report on the January 8 attack, while noting Hamas’ praise, nonetheless failed to report Fatah’s encouragement of vehicular homicides (“Palestinian rams truck into Israeli troops, kills 4,” Jan. 9, 2017). Similarly, the large-scale Palestinian street celebrations were also not mentioned.

USA Today managed to do even worse. In a noticeable omission, the paper—in contrast to its reporting of Islamist vehicular attacks in France and Germany—failed to offer any print coverage of the attack.

A terrorist commits a mass casualty terror attack in Israel—and “thousands” in Palestinian society celebrate his deed. Where’s the coverage?