Morocco has tightened control of its borders, especially with Algeria, to ward off infiltration of terrorists from Libya, local media reported on Thursday.

Citing security sources, Moroccan daily Al Massae said that the measures came following the launch of the U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS) militants in Libya and concerns over attempts of its fighters to infiltrate into Morocco.

The sources said the measures were also driven by the fact that many IS fighters are Moroccan nationals.

Morocco is facing a growing threat from the IS.

Last month, the Moroccan interior ministry revealed that since 2002, 159 terrorist cells have been dismantled, which had close ties with terrorist groups that are active in Iraq and Syria, including the IS.

xinhuanet.com

President Barack Obama is assessing what’s working and what’s not in the fight against the Islamic State group as the U.S. military ramps up its engagement in Libya.

After meeting Thursday with military and national security advisers at the Pentagon, Obama plans to take questions during a news conference.

The session comes as the U.S. is bombing targets in and around the Libyan city of Sirte, a notable expansion of the U.S.-led coalition’s military mission against IS. At the urging of the Pentagon, Obama authorized the strikes that started this week and include precision strikes against IS tanks, rocket launchers and fighting positions.

Obama typically convenes meetings of the National Security Council at the White House, but over the past year he has occasionally held them at other agencies like the State Department and the CIA. The goal of the road show at the Pentagon is to illustrate the multifaceted U.S. approach to defeating IS.

Mired in chaos following the ouster of strongman Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, Libya became a target for IS extremists hoping to build a safe haven outside its initial territory in Iraq and Syria. Though the number of IS fighters in Libya has dwindled, the U.S. is hoping to help Libya’s fledgling, U.N.-backed unity government finish the job.

Obama also plans to use the meeting at the Pentagon to tout recent gains by the U.S. and its partners against IS in Syria and Iraq. With significant U.S. help, Iraq’s government is preparing a major offensive to reclaim the key northern city of Mosul, controlled by IS since June 2014.

ap.org

A video purportedly by Egypt’s Islamic State affiliate has delivered a threat to Israel, saying the Jewish state will soon “pay a high price.”

The 35-minute video, posted on social media this week, also purports to show footage of alleged attacks by IS militants against Egyptian security forces in the Sinai Peninsula.

It ends with footage depicting what is said to be the killing of two Egyptian policemen, each shot in the head.

Egypt’s branch of the Islamic State group is spearheading an insurgency in northern Sinai that had simmered for years but grew stronger and deadlier after the 2013 ouster of an Islamist president.

The video’s authenticity could not immediately be verified but its contents and production style mirrored previous IS propaganda material.

ap.org

Morocco has decided to support Niger militarily in the fight against Boko Haram, a terrorist organization based in Nigeria, Cameron and Chad

According to a Moroccan government official quoted by Le Monde, King Mohammed VI has authorized the provision of military equipment and supplies- except for lethal munitions- to Niger, in hope that giving military assistance to Morocco’s traditional ally will help to fight the recurrent incursions by Boko Haram in neighboring countries of Nigeria.

“Discussions are still underway to decide the exact nature of the military equipment and terms and delivery’s procedures to the [Nigerian] authorities.” The government’s official was quoted by Le Monde as saying.

The decision to support Niger came after King Mohammed VI formally requested to return to the African Union (AU) via a message to the AU summit in Rwanda two weeks ago.

This decision is regarded as an unprecedented initiative from Morocco to supply the military apparatus to help sub-Saharan countries to combat terrorism.

Last June, Boko Haram committed a bombing attack that killed at least 11 people in a mosque in Cameroon.

In the same month, Medicins Sans Frontieres reported that almost 200 Nigerian refugees who escaped from Boko Haram have died from starvation and malnutrition in the Bama refugee camp, Nigeria.

Boko Haram recently joined ISIS and now calls itself the “ISIS of West Africa” and claims that Western education is a sin.

moroccoworldnews.com

At least 18 people have died in a suicide bomb blast targeting soldiers in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, BBC News reports.

The explosion struck the al-Guwarsha area west of the city. The BBC was told at least a dozen people were injured.

The area has been the focus of fighting between Islamist militias and troops loyal to Libya’s eastern government.

News agencies said an Islamist group, the Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries, said it was behind the explosion.

A security source in Benghazi has confirmed to the BBC that the bombing targeted the headquarters of the 146th Brigade, a security force that has been engaged in fighting against Islamist militias in the city.

According to BBC, it was the fourth vehicle bombing in the city in a week, although the number of people killed from Tuesday, August 2’s explosion was far higher than in previous attacks.

A witness told Reuters news agency the powerful explosion on Tuesday had reduced a three-storey building to rubble, and that 10 vehicles had been destroyed.

Four field commanders were reported among the dead and the bodies of some soldiers were reported to be trapped under the rubble.

The government began an offensive against the group named Islamic State (IS) in Sirte in May and said recently that it had made its largest gains to date.

Western officials say the number of IS militants in Libya, previously estimated at 6,000, is declining in the face of concerted government action and pressure from other militia.

Libya has become increasingly divided since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, with competing governments and rival militias seeking to gain territory and influence.

The chaos had left Libya vulnerable to an influx of IS fighters, many from Syria.

The US has voiced strong backing for the unity government, or Government of National Accord, which began operating from the capital, Tripoli, in April.

panarmenian.net

The army retaliated to shelling from Daesh on the border with Syria after destroying a post for al-Nusra Front in the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal, state-run National News Agency reported.

“Army posts in Ras Baalbek have come under mortar fire from the militants of the IS group who are stationed in the eastern outskirts and the army has responded forcefully,” NNA said.

Al-Jadeed television said the army was using heavy artillery in its bombardment.

Earlier in the day, NNA said the army’s Fifth Intervention Regiment had destroyed a Nusra Front post in the Dahr al-Safa area in Arsal’s outskirts.

Militants from Daesh and Nusra Front are entrenched in rugged areas along the undemarcated Lebanese-Syrian border and the army regularly shells their posts while Hezbollah and the Syrian army have engaged in clashes with them on the Syrian side of the border.

The two groups briefly overran the town of Arsal in August 2014 before being ousted by the army after days of deadly battles.

The retreating militants abducted more than 30 troops and policemen of whom four have been executed and nine remain in the captivity of Daesh.

albawaba.com

The United States has carried out air strikes on positions of so-called Islamic State in Libya, following a request by the UN-backed government there, the Pentagon says.

The strikes targeted positions in the port city of Sirte, an IS stronghold.

Libyan PM Fayez al-Sarraj, in a televised address, said the strikes caused “heavy losses”.

Western powers have become increasingly concerned at Islamic State’s growing presence in Libya.

The air strikes are the first such US military intervention co-ordinated with the Libyan unity government.

bbc.com

The Lebanese Armed Forces shelled with heavy artillery armed militants on the move in the outskirts of Arsal, NNA correspondent reported on Monday.

The LAF is also patrolling inside said town.

nna-leb.gov.lb/

Libyan forces loyal to general Haftar have wrestled back control of a Benghazi neighbourhood from jihadists, following months of fighting to drive the Islamists from the country’s second city.

General Khalifa Haftar’s troops took the al-Gwarcha district of Benghazi, which has been marred by unrest since his fighters launched a campaign to drive extremists out of the city earlier this year.

“We dealt them a firm blow, it’s a major victory,” Khalifa al-Obeidi, head of press for Haftar’s Libyan National Army, said on Thursday.

“We are presently pursuing terrorists who are entrenched one kilometre east.”

Six of Haftar’s fighters died in clashes this week in al-Gwarcha district, including four special forces killed by a landmine explosion.

Haftar’s forces have regained several districts of Benghazi in recent months but have yet to retake the whole city.

The divisive leader refuses to recognise the joint military command set by the UN-backed Government of National Unity [GNA] in Tripoli, saying he still takes orders from a rival administration based in the far eastern city of Tobruk.

France, Britain and the United States also recognise the GNA as the legitimate government of Libya.

Benghazi, 1,000 kilometres east of Tripoli, has for the past two years been the scene of clashes between Islamic militants and forces loyal to the government based in eastern Libya.

Militants such as the Islamic State group took root in Libya in late 2014, taking advantage of the chaos and power struggles that followed the fall of Moammar Gaddafi’s regime in a 2011 revolution.

alaraby.co.uk

Senior Muslim figures in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh received a pledge from extremist Islamic groups that there will be no attempts to shake the stability in the camp or other Lebanese regions, the Kuwaiti al-Rai daily reported on Friday.

“Muslim figures in Ain el-Hilweh managed to get a clear commitment from the hardline Islamic groups, that support the ideology of the Islamic State group and al-Nusra Front, of not taking any security action that could harm the stability of the camps mainly Ain el-Hilweh or other Lebanese regions,” Palestinian sources told the daily.

“The Jihadi Islamist Movement, led by Sheikh Jamal Khattab and the Osbat al-Ansar group represented by Sheikh Abou Tarek al-Saadi and Abou Sharif Akl, has played a major role in communicating with the militant groups and the Muslim youth which resulted in declaring a clear position that there was no intention to carry out security operations that harm the camps or other regions,” the Palestinian source added.

Some reports that emerged lately said that the army obtained information that a dangerous emir of the IS in Ain el-Hilweh, Imad Yassine, has received orders from the IS foreign operations chief Abou Khaled al-Iraqi to stage major Iraq-like bombings across Lebanon.

Reports have added that terrorist groups are also seeking to “create major chaos, destruction and terror in the various Lebanese regions, especially in Beirut and its southern suburbs, through targeting gatherings and densely-populated areas.”

By long-standing convention, the army does not enter the twelve Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, leaving the Palestinian factions themselves to handle security.

That has created lawless areas in many camps, and Ain el-Hilweh has gained notoriety as a refuge for extremists and fugitives.

But the camp is also home to more than 54,000 registered Palestinian refugees who have been joined in recent years by thousands of Palestinians fleeing the fighting in Syria.

More than 450,000 Palestinians are registered in Lebanon with the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA. Most live in squalid conditions in 12 official refugee camps and face a variety of legal restrictions, including on their employment.

naharnet.com