Tunisia’s security services have detained a terrorist from among the leaders of the Al-Qaeda terror group, the country’s interior ministry said on Thursday.

“As part of a nationwide effort to combat terrorism and prevent terrorist attacks … a dangerous terrorist, one of the leaders of Al-Qaeda in Tunisia, has been detained,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement released on Thursday.

According to the statement, the detained militant “previously carried out leadership tasks with the same organization in one of the flashpoints of tension and was linked to the elements of the so-called Uqba Ibn Nafi brigade holed up in the Tunisian mountains.”

Earlier in December, Tunisian President Kais Said extended the state of emergency in the country for six months in connection with terrorist threats.

The state of emergency was introduced in Tunisia in 2015 after a series of terrorist attacks, since then it has been regularly extended.

In June 2015, a terrorist attack took place in the resort of El Kantaoui in Sousse province, which killed 40 people. In November of the same year, a suicide bomber attacked the presidential guard in the capital. In the aftermath of these events, the authorities have strengthened security measures, which have allowed it, in particular, to restore the flow of foreign tourists to the North African country.

A UN-backed tribunal will on Friday sentence a Hezbollah member convicted of the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri, with prosecutors demanding a life term, like reported by toi.com.

Salim Ayyash, 57, was found guilty in absentia of murder on August 18 by the Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon over the suicide bombing that killed the Sunni billionaire politician and 21 other people.

Ayyash remains on the run, with Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Shiite terror group Hezbollah, refusing to hand him over, alongside three other defendants who were eventually acquitted.

Prosecutors in a hearing in November said a life term was the “only just and proportionate sentence” for Ayyash, given that it was the “most serious terrorist attack that has occurred on Lebanese soil.”

They have also demanded the seizure of Ayyash’s assets.

Hariri served as Lebanon’s prime minister until he resigned in October 2004.

He was killed in February 2005 when a suicide bomber detonated a van filled with explosives as his armored convoy drove past. As well as those killed, another 226 were wounded in the blast.

In their long-awaited ruling in August, judges said there was sufficient evidence to show that Ayyash was at the centre of a network of mobile phone users who scoped out Hariri’s movements for months before his assassination.

‘Culture of impunity’
But there was not enough evidence to convict Ayyash’s co-defendants Assad Sabra, Hussein Oneissi and Hassan Habib Merhi, they said.

The judges added that there was no proof to tie Hezbollah’s leadership or its allies in Damascus to the attack.

Legal experts said the sentencing was still important, even without Ayyash in the dock.

“In absentia trials are of course not the ideal way of dispensing international justice,” Christophe Paulussen, senior researcher at the Asser Institute in The Hague, told AFP.

International tribunals were like “a giant without arms and legs” since they relied on states to arrest suspects and could not enforce orders themselves.

“But even with this handicap, the STL has now at least established a very authoritative judicial record about what happened 15 years ago, thus assisting the Lebanese society in moving away from a culture of impunity towards one of accountability,” said Paulussen.

The UN Security Council agreed in 2007 to establish the court, billed as the world’s first international tribunal set up to probe terrorist crimes.

It opened its doors in 2009, although the Hariri trial itself did not formally start until 2014.

The court has cost at least $600 million to operate and has so far heard only four cases, two of them for contempt of court about news reports with information about confidential witnesses.

Ayyash faces a separate case at the tribunal over three other deadly attacks on Lebanese politicians in 2004 and 2005.

The Egyptian military has reportedly killed dozens of Islamist fighters on the Sinai Peninsula since September, like reported by al-monitor.com.

Egyptian forces killed at least 40 of the fighters since Sept. 1, in addition to destroying 440 hideouts and arms storage areas. They also destroyed 38 vehicles, dismantled 160 explosives, found weapons and arrested more than 20 suspected fighters, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.

Various Islamist groups have been fighting the Egyptian state in the Sinai insurgency since 2011. The Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda are among the groups operating in the strategic territory that links the Middle East to Africa.

There have been numerous incidents in Sinai recently. In November, IS claimed an attack on an Egyptian gas pipeline to Israel in the northern part of the peninsula. Egypt said it conducted successful attacks on IS in Sinai in September.

Egyptian security forces have also clashed with Islamist fighters in the greater Cairo area this year.

Egypt has one of the most powerful militaries in the region, in part because of decades of US military aid. Egypt has a peace treaty with Israel, which is located on the other side of Sinai.

Also this week, French President Emmanuel Macron said France would continue to sell weapons to Egypt, despite human rights concerns about President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s rule.

Turkey has stepped up its military involvement in Libya and will resume sending mercenaries to Libya, like reported by aawsat.com.

Reliable sources informed the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) that Ankara intends to send a new batch of Syrian fighters to Libya in the next few days, despite the ongoing negotiations for a political solution after the agreement on the ceasefire between Libyan parties.

The Observatory reported that the return of Turkish-backed Syrian mercenaries has been suspended for over 20 days, since the latest batch arrived in Syria in mid-November.

SOHR reported that about 18,000 Syrian mercenaries arrived in Libya, including 350 children under the age of 18, of whom 10,750 returned to Syria after completing the duration of their contracts and receiving their salaries.

The number of extremists transported from Syria to Libya has reached 10,000, including 2,500 Tunisians, to support the Government of National Accord (GNA) headed by Fayez al-Sarraj.

The Observatory indicated that 496 Syrians have been killed in Libya.

Meanwhile, GNA considered the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on security and military cooperation signed with Turkey on November 27, 2019, “legitimate and in compliance with international laws.”

GNA Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Mohammed el-Geblawi told Anadolu Agency that the MoU is not similar to the support Libyan National Army chief Khalifa Haftar receives from many countries.

Geblawi was referring to the recent statement of UN Acting Special Representative Stephanie Williams on foreign presence in the country.

During the third virtual meeting of the second round of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF), Williams said that the foreigners are not guests, but are now “occupying” the country, adding that the 20,000 foreign fighters and mercenaries are causing a “serious crisis.”

“That is a shocking violation of Libyan sovereignty … a blatant violation of the arms embargo.”

Geblawi said the remarks are not acceptable and should be supported by infallible evidence.

On mercenaries and the flow of weapons, he asserted that Haftar was the first to take such illegal actions that violate UN Security Council resolutions.

Geblawi reiterated that agreements and MoUs with friendly countries, such as the one signed with Turkey, are a legitimate Libyan matter.

Libyan forces said they arrested seven terrorists affiliated with Al Qaeda in the country’s south-west. The arrests were made during a security operation in the Chareb and Targhin areas of Ubari city, Maj Gen Ahmed Al Mismari, spokesman for the Libyan National Army, said on Facebook according to thenationalnews.com.

He said the forces seized large quantities of ammunition, weapons and documents from the terrorists, who were of various nationalities.

Maj Gen Al Mismari said the dawn sweeps by the Tariq bin Ziyad Brigade and the 116 Infantry Brigade were part of the LNA’s operations to pursue and eliminate extremist terrorist cells and maintain national security.

Last week Al Qaeda’s North African branch, known as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, announced the appointment of a new leader while confirming the death of its former chief, Abdelmalek Droukdel, in June.

Yazid Mubarak, an Algerian also known as Abu Ubaida Yusuf Al Annabi, was named to succeed Droukdel, who was killed in Mali by French forces.

Morocco’s Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations (BCIJ) dismantled a three-member terror cell on Monday. The terrorists were active in the cities of Inezgane and Ait Melloul, near Agadir in southern Morocco, like reported by moroccoworldnews.com.

The members, aged between 26 and 28, have alleged links with ISIS, the BCIJ said in a statement.

According to preliminary investigations, the leader of the cell and his accomplices pledged allegiance to the self-proclaimed caliph of ISIS before planning to execute terror operations that seek to undermine Morocco’s security and stability.

The members of the terror cell also sought to obtain firearms and materials used in the manufacture of explosive devices.

The suspects were also advocating the terrorist operations of ISIS in several foreign countries.

The BCIJ seized large and medium-sized knives, electronic devices, and extremist documents during searches.

The operation is part of Morocco’s approach against terrorism amid the increase of terror theats as well as the “persistence of individuals steeped in extremist ideology to serve the destructive agendas of various terrorist organizations.”

BCIJ said that the suspects are now in custody for further investigation.

The operation followed a similar raid last month, when the BCIJ dismantled a four-member terror cell in Tangier on October 5.

Morocco’s security services and government continue to strengthen the country’s approach to battle terrorism.

On September 10, the head of the BCIJ Abdelhak El Khiame said Morocco is among the countries targeted by ISIS extremism and violent ideology.

Following an operation to dismantle an ISIS cell in September, BCIJ said Morocco avoided a “bloodbath.”

He said that the members of the cell dismantled on September 1 planned to attack sensitive areas in the North African country.

One of the suspects attempted to blow himself up with a gas cylinder during the arrest.

The leader of the terror cell also murdered an employee at the Tiflet prison on October 27.

Al Qaeda’s North African branch said it appointed a new leader after confirming the death of its former chief, who was killed in June by French forces, like reported by thenationalnews.com.

According to the Washington-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist sites, the appointment of Algerian Yazid Mubarak, also known as Abu Ubaida Yusuf Al Annabi, was announced in a video published on Saturday.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, known as AQIM, also showed the dead body of its former leader, Abdelmalek Droukdel, for the first time.

Droukdel was killed in Mali by French forces who had been hunting him in the sub-Sahara region for years.

AQIM also confirmed the death of Swiss missionary Beatrice Stockly, who was captured in January 2016 in Mali’s northern city of Timbuktu. The group attributed her death to a failed attempt by “French crusaders” to free her, and also held the Swiss government responsible for “delaying the issue and making futile efforts”, according to SITE.

Al Qaeda’s North Africa branch has made millions of dollars from abducting foreigners for ransom over the years and has made large parts of West Africa too dangerous for aid groups to access.

Rita Katz, SITE director, said that Mubarak’s appointment as AQIM’s new leader was not surprising given that he featured in the group’s propaganda over the past few years and was involved in its core operations.

Mubarak is a major ideologue in Al Qaeda’s global network, and has been on the American international terrorist blacklist since September 2015, according to the Counter Extremism Project.

He has regularly appeared in the group’s propaganda videos, and in 2013 famously demanded that Muslims retaliate against France’s intervention in Mali.

The Shin Bet revealed on Monday that it has found that Hamas has been recruiting minors to carry out terrorist attacks in the West Bank, like reported by jpost.com.

Two Palestinian minors, one of whom was only 16-years-old, were arrested by the Shin Bet in the West Bank after which it was discovered that they had been recruited over the internet by Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip to promote terror attacks.

The two minors were expecting to receive weapons, ammunition, uniforms and money in order to carry out attacks in the West Bank and were asked by Hamas to carry out a number of missions in the West Bank, including collecting information and even carrying out a shooting attack.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that seven of the Syrian mercenaries who were transported by Turkey to fight in Libya, died drowning while trying to reach Europe, after they used Libya as an excuse for their crossing to Europe.

The observatory indicated that many pro-Turkish fighters are continuing their efforts to reach Europe, similar to the dozens who preceded them as they reached Italy and from there to Europe.

The observatory noted in a previous report that a group of 550 mercenaries had returned from Libya in late October after receiving information about arguments between them due to the fact that they did not receive their monthly dues from the leaders of some groups, bringing the number of those who returned so far to 9,850 fighters.

More than a dozen civilians, including women and children, were killed in Egypt’s restive northern Sinai Peninsula over the past two weeks from explosive devices laid down in their homes by terrorists, security and medical officials said according to toi.com.

Islamic State jihadists in July attacked several villages in the town of Bir al-Abd, forcing people to flee their homes. The military secured the villages in August and allowed residents to return to their homes a few weeks later, the officials said.

The terrorists, however, had laid booby traps in several houses that they took over. The explosive have killed at least 14 people, including six from the same family late on Saturday, officials said. The casualties included women and children.

At least ten others have been wounded since October 12 and were taken to the town’s hospital for treatment, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Bir al-Abd was the site of a horrific extremist attack on a mosque in 2017 that killed over 300 worshipers, some of them fathers praying with their young sons. The tribes of North Sinai have been heavily targeted by Islamists who view their veneration of Muslim saints and shrines as heretical, forcing a mass exodus of residents from the impoverished area that has long been underdeveloped by the government.

Violence and instability there intensified after the military overthrew the country’s Islamist president in 2013 amid nationwide protests against the Muslim Brotherhood group’s divisive rule. Extremist militants have since carried out scores of attacks, mainly targeting security forces and minority Christians.

The conflict has largely taken place out of public view, with journalists and outside observers barred from the area. The conflict has so far not expanded into the southern end of the peninsula where popular Red Sea tourist resorts are located.

In February 2018, the military launched a massive operation in Sinai that also encompassed parts of the Nile Delta and deserts along the country’s western border with Libya. Since then, the pace of Islamic State attacks in Sinai’s north has diminished.