The security situation in the southern Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh is worrisome after reports said that groups from the militant organization of Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis is receiving military training inside the camp, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Tuesday also according to naharnet.com .

The daily said there is a clear concern on the part of several regional and international parties about the situation in the camp after receiving information that there are groups of the said brigades– that carry out terrorist operations in northern Sinai and are fought back by the Egyptian army on a daily basis– receiving training in the camp.

In addition, sources from within the United Nations organizations have raised concerns about the fact that a well-known international humanitarian organization is in the process of evacuating residents from Ain el-Hilweh camp, added the daily.

Sources following up on the issue, said the takfiri groups’ control has expanded within the camp.

From the Lebanese security point of view, the situation continues to be under control despite the unsolvable crisis of terrorists wanted by the Lebanese state taking refuge in the camp.

The Palestinian factions have vowed on numerous occasions to hand over the fugitive to Lebanese authorities but fail because of their inability to conclude the matter, according to the daily.

A Beirut-based diplomat reviewing the situation in the camp with Lebanese authorities said the actual number of terrorists in the camp are 42 not 100 as circulated. The terrorists must be extradited because they pose danger not only to Ain el-Hilweh and Lebanon, but also to the security of more than one regional and foreign state, said the daily.

These terrorists are being followed by Lebanese security services and various Arab and international security organizations because they have links to “symbols” of al-Qaida and Islamic State and other extremist groups operating in several countries.

The Hamas movement has launched a new campaign against suspected Israeli collaborators a day after deputy politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh issued a threat that killers of prominent leader Mazen al-Faqha will not escape punishment, like reported by aawsat.com.

Haniyeh asserted that Hamas is supporting the security authorities in their open-ended conflict with the Israeli occupation.

The Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry in Gaza announced that it will undertake “increased measures” against “Israeli agents in the coming hours and days as a part of its investigation into the assassination of Faqha.” The campaign seems to be preparing for a series of new executions and judicial sentences.

“Hamas appreciates and supports the national and responsible efforts the Interior Ministry is carrying out… in pursuit of traitors and agents, especially after the Zionist enemy and its collaborators assassinated Mazen Faqha,” Hamas said in an official statement on Sunday.

Informed resources expected that the movement will begin carrying out sentences soon, intensify penalties against others and arresting suspects.

Hamas said that Faqha’s killers are tools for Israel even though Tel Aviv did not claim responsibility for the assassination. Israel’s Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman had refuted accusations by Hamas that Israel was behind the killing.

Lieberman said that Israel is not looking for “adventures”, stressing that it runs its security “responsibly and with determination.”

“Hamas is known for its internal assassinations, settling scores — let them look there,” Lieberman said on Sunday.

Faqha, who used to direct some of the Palestinian resistance movement’s activities in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was shot dead by assailants at the entrance of his home in Gaza City in March with four bullets to the head from close range.

Following the assassination, Hamas temporarily closed the crossing point from Gaza into Israel, in an apparent attempt to capture the assassins.

Hamas is launching its major “revenge” campaign against “agents” after years of refraining from such a move. The last time it did so, it garnered great local and international criticism after it executed agents on the streets. One of the most prominent incidents was the campaign it launched in the wake of the 2014 war.

It is still unknown whether the ministry will carry out executions in public or in prisons.

Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum said that the movement stresses that the “Israeli occupation is fully responsible for the latest crime of assassinating Mazen Faqha and all the possible consequences resulting from it.”

Barhoum added that Hamas demands imposing the maximum punishment against occupation agents, taking the necessary measures to preserve the security of the society and protecting the resistance.

Following the assassination of Faqha, the hashtag “Retribution against collaborators” went viral on the local social media in support of any security measures by the Ministry of Interior against agents in the Gaza Strip.

Military spokesman of al-Qassam Brigades Abu Obeida held Israel responsible for Faqha’s assassination, vowing to respond to the crime.

He reiterated that only the “Zionist enemy is responsible for the assassination,” stressing that “its attempts to escape responsibility will not succeed.”

The spokesman added that “Lieberman’s statements in which he is trying to escape responsibility bear witness to the fear of senior Israeli officials, whose hands are stained with Faqha’s blood.”

UK military trainers will be sent to Jordan to help the nation’s air force in the fight against Islamic State, the Prime Minister is to announce later during a visit to the Middle East, like reported by forces.net .

After the Westminster terror attack, Theresa May will say the threat posed by the jihadi group shows how allies must come together to face it down.

Arriving in Amman on Monday, she will set out a package of measures to bolster co-operation between British forces and the Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) and to tackle violent extremism in the region.

Jordan has stepped up its air strikes against IS, also known as Daesh, in recent months and boosting military links with the nation will help keep Britain safe, the PM will say.

Training will be carried out in Jordan and the UK to help the RJAF improve its capability to strike IS targets.

During talks with King Abdullah a month after they met in Downing Street, the premier will also discuss support for the state as it deals with the fall-out from the conflict in neighbouring Syria, which has forced hundreds of thousands of refugees to flee over the border.

The Prime Minister is also heading to Saudi Arabia during the three-day trip, which will focus on strengthening trade and security ties as Britain prepares to quit the European Union.

Ahead of the visit, she said:

“As the United Kingdom leaves the EU, we are determined to forge a bold, confident future for ourselves in the world.

“We must look at the challenges that we, and future generations, will face and build stronger partnerships with countries that will be vital to both our security and our prosperity.

“It is clearly in the UK’s security and prosperity interests to support Jordan and Saudi Arabia in tackling regional challenges to create a more stable region, and in delivering their ambitious reform programmes to ensure their own stability.

“An even deeper partnership with these countries, and greater knowledge and understanding of one another, will increase our ability to address the issues that concern us, including the promotion of international standards and norms.

“To tackle the threats we face from terrorism and from geopolitical instability, we must meet them at their source.

“Jordan is on the frontline of multiple regional crises and I’m clear that by working with them, we are helping keep British people safe.

“Likewise in Saudi Arabia: we must never forget that intelligence we have received in the past from that country has saved potentially hundreds of lives in the UK.

“And there is so much we can do together on trade, with immense potential for Saudi investment to provide a boost to the British economy.

“So I hope my visit will herald a further intensification in relations between our countries and deepen true strategic partnerships, enabling us to seize the opportunities ahead and ensure the security and prosperity of our people for decades to come.”

 

A leader in Islamic State’s Egyptian affiliate was killed in an air raid last month, the Egyptian military said on Sunday, like reported by ynetnews.com.

“Following the results of the air raid on March 18… and upon the security apparatus’s investigation, it was revealed that Salem Salmy al-Hamadeen, Aka Abu Anas al-Ansari, was killed,” the military spokesman said in a statement.

Hamadeen was one of the founders of the group which was formerly called Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, now called Egypt’s Sinai Province, and was responsible for arming and training militants. He died after being wounded in the air raid, the statement said.

While Hamas’s terror tunnels and its reportedly refilled and upgraded rocket arsenal garner attention, the Israeli Navy is keeping a watchful eye on the terror group’s growing maritime capabilities and is investing its resources in preventing attacks “at sea and from the sea,” a naval officer said.

Since the 50-day war in 2014, Hamas has developed both its tactics and weaponry for sea-based warfare, training “endlessly” to carry out attacks with them, according to Maj. Irad Shtatar. A 20-year veteran of the navy, Shtatar commands the Ashdod Observation Company, a unit of mostly female soldiers who monitor optical cameras and radar arrays.

“We see rearming on every level on the sea-front — systems, weapons and trainings. Hamas sees the sea as an option to achieve its aggressive, operational ambitions,” he said in his office at the Ashdod Naval Base.

Though weakened by regular military losses, Algeria’s armed Islamist groups are waiting to take advantage of any future political instability, like reported by middleeasteye.net

In a new blow for the Islamic State (IS) group in Algeria, the Ministry of Defence last Sunday announced that it had killed “two dangerous terrorists,” one of whom led a local affiliate in the country.

Noureddine Laouira, aka Naoura aka Abu al-Hammam – not to be confused with Yahia Abou al-Hammam, the emir of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in the Sahel – was the leader of the el-Ghoraba (Constantine and its surroundings) militia, which affiliated itself to IS after splitting from AQIM in July 2015.

Originally centred in Faubourg Lamy, a working-class neighbourhood in Constantine, IS has benefited from the eradication of the area’s shanty town and the exodus of its population towards the new town of Ali Mendjeli, about 15 km out of Constantine, an inland city in northeast Algeria, where the group has now also began to extend its influence.

According to information collected by Middle East Eye, both men killed at the weekend were previously identified and followed because of intelligence received by the Algerian security forces.

These forces preferred to wait until the militants were isolated in the Djebel El Ouahch district, which overlooks the town of Constantine, so as to minimise any collateral damage or risk of escape.

The authorities claim to have found on Abu al-Hammam the exact weapon, a Beretta 92, which was used to shoot Amar Boukaabour, a policeman killed by three gunshots in October in Constantine, a shooting later claimed by IS.

“The murder was attributed to Abu al-Hammam, who is suspected of also having plotted the aborted attack against the Constantine police station on 26 February, claimed by IS. Even if the suicide bomber came from Jijel [which is outside the IS base in Constantine], it is known that the el-Ghoraba militia organised the plot,” an Algerian security source told MEE.

Three groups, barely a hundred men

Despite its notorious beginnings – with the kidnapping and killing of French hiker Herve Gourdel in September 2014 and the defection of a number of leading figures from AQIM – IS has not managed to develop its Wilaya al-Djazair (or Algeria province) – the name given by IS to all of its dormant urban cells and active armed divisions in the Algerian hills.

According to security sources, its current manpower is estimated to be just 80 men, spread across three groups.

“In the east, there is the el-Ghoraba militia [in the Constantine area], and the al-Itissam militia [in the Skikda area], also known under its new name of Ansar al-Khilafa. Alone, these two count around 50 or so men.” There are also “former soldiers from the GIA [an armed organisation from the 1990s], whose role is mostly linked to coordination and logistics,” a military source said.

The Ansar al-Khilafa group emerged from the Katiba of Shuhada (martyrs) of AQIM. The Katiba of Shuhada had settled in the difficult-to-reach and wooded region around Skikda, on the Gulf of Stora, northeast of Constantine, at the beginning of the 2000s in the wake of the decision by many Skikda, Jijel and Berber groups to abandon militancy for the Peace and National Reconciliation Charter, which provided amnesty for all armed Islamist fighters who chose to give up fighting.

This group, which is still active, is reportedly led by Amar Lemloum, aka Zakaria al-Djidjeli. Since the summer of 2015, the army has placed pressure on the region by deploying over 4,000 men, in operations which have seen many killed.

“At the centre, in the triangle of Bouira-Boumerdes-Bejaia [Kabylie], was the group named Jund al-Khilafa [Caliphate Soldiers]. Since its presumed leader, Othmane al-Acimi, was killed in May 2015, the identity of its emir is unknown,” the military source said.

“We do not know who the emir is who leads all of the groups. The name of Abu al-Hammam has been put forward, but we know this not the case.”

Losses which are not compensated for by recruitment

It is considered unlikely Abu al-Hammam that had been the overall IS leader in Algeria, firstly because he only became a militant in 2008 and had previously been only a fairly junior member of AQIM.

“He is therefore considered as ‘new’ and cannot, in this capacity, claim such a responsibility,” said the military source.

“A further clue lies in the fact that he was killed when travelling with his deputy. However, if he was emir, there would be at least four or five militants around him,” the source said.

The emir of the Wilaya al-Djazair also does not, according to him, personally take part in any direct action in the city, such as that of the assassination of the policeman in Constantine.

“Finally, the most influential group affiliated to IS is that of Jund al-Khilafa, as shown by the most significant operations led by the Algerian army since 2014 in the Bibans mountain range. In an operation in February, to the northeast of Boura, 14 terrorists and nine soldiers were killed. It is therefore impossible that, whilst the largest force of IS is in this area, the emir would be located in Constantine” – around 300km to the east.

With an average of 200 men (across all groups) killed each year by the army, armed groups in Algeria are today facing major difficulties, suffering losses for which new recruitment cannot compensate.

This is to such an extent that, according to an Algerian security source contacted by MEE, local IS leaders had asked for men from cells in Tunisia and Libya to join.

“If we look closely at the profile of terrorists eliminated in recent years, we can note that they joined the militancy before 2010,” a leading figure in the fight against terrorism told MEE.

“This shows that they are struggling to recruit. Algerians are either eliminated during military operations, or they want to benefit from the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation. This is why newcomers are primarily foreigners from Mali, Morocco, Niger, Tunisia and Libya.”

However, this optimism is not shared in the intelligence services.

“It is true that they have been weakened and, for some, extremely isolated. However, it should not be forgotten that for a terrorist, the greatest victory is to remain alive,” one anti-terror expert said.

“They know that they have everything to gain in staying hidden whilst awaiting a more favourable situation, such as for instance political instability. In this instance, overnight, they can once more recruit and become operational. Complete eradication is impossible and this is where the risk lies.”

AQIM have the advantage over IS

Meanwhile, the emir of AQIM seems to have had a lot more success than his IS counterparts.

Abdelmalek Droukdel, who is almost 50 years old, has become very isolated over the years. From the mountains of Kabylie in the north of the country, where he is presumed to be hiding, he has seen his organisation develop over the years, and steadily gain influence in the Sahel region, although his original central ground has weakened.

He remained a spectator of the most recent significant last movement when the merger was announced in a video by the group led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar (al-Mourabitoune) with the group led by the Malian Touareg Iyad Ag-Ghali (Ansar Dine) and that of Djamel Okacha, aka Yahia Abou al-Hammam (Emirate of Sahara, a branch of AQIM).

The new movement, called “Islam and Muslim Support Group,” has sworn allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri, the present leader of al-Qaeda. “Emails have been intercepted by the Western security services in November and December 2016 between Ayman al-Zawahiri, Iyad ag-Ghali and Djamel Okacha,” said an Algerian security source.

“The Emir of al-Qaeda asked the jihadist chiefs in northern Mali to unite under the same commander in order to present the activities in northern Mali as a legitimate resistance against the French occupation,” he said.

In a statement on Saturday, the group claimed responsibility for an attack on 29 March that killed three members of Mali’s security forces near the border with Burkina Faso.

The attack was the second operation claimed by the group after it said it had been responsible for killing 11 soldiers in the same area on 5 March.

While AQIM has also lost a lot of men, according to the intelligence services, the organisation still has around 500 members. Above all, it has shown, over time, a remarkable ability to adapt.

“It has faced the desertion of a large portion of its directors to IS” but “it has rectified its fighting and communication tactics so as to minimise its losses,” a military source said.

“AQIM’s advantage over IS, beyond the number of people, is that it has vast knowledge of the field and expertise related to its number of years in terrorism. And, above all, it has the best casemates [shelters] to hide.”

Confronted with this, Islamic State is seeking to survive while awaiting a possible return of IS fighters from Syria or Libya.

“The expression ‘residual terrorism’ used by the authorities is realistic. However, in the case of IS as in that of AQIM, it is important not to underestimate the threat,” the expert said. “Overnight, in a favourable context, they could regenerate.”

Israeli police say they have shot dead a Palestinian who stabbed three people in the old city of Jerusalem, like reported by ap.org.

Spokeswoman Luba Samri says the man stabbed two Jewish youths Saturday before fleeing, with police forces giving chase. He then stabbed one of the policemen before he was shot and killed. Samri says the victims suffered light to moderate injuries.

It was the latest incident in a wave of Palestinian attacks on civilians and security forces that erupted in September 2015.

Palestinians have killed 41 Israelis and two visiting Americans since, mainly in stabbings. Israeli forces have killed at least 241 Palestinians during this time, most identified by Israel as attackers.

Israel says the violence is fueled by Palestinian incitement. Palestinians say it stems from anger over 50 years of occupation.

Spokeswoman Luba Samri says the man stabbed two Jewish youths Saturday before fleeing, with police forces giving chase. He then stabbed one of the policemen before he was shot and killed. Samri says the victims suffered light to moderate injuries.

It was the latest incident in a wave of Palestinian attacks on civilians and security forces that erupted in September 2015.

Palestinians have killed 41 Israelis and two visiting Americans since, mainly in stabbings. Israeli forces have killed at least 241 Palestinians during this time, most identified by Israel as attackers.

Israel says the violence is fueled by Palestinian incitement. Palestinians say it stems from anger over 50 years of occupation.

.

Spokeswoman Luba Samri says the man stabbed two Jewish youths Saturday before fleeing, with police forces giving chase. He then stabbed one of the policemen before he was shot and killed. Samri says the victims suffered light to moderate injuries.

It was the latest incident in a wave of Palestinian attacks on civilians and security forces that erupted in September 2015.

Palestinians have killed 41 Israelis and two visiting Americans since, mainly in stabbings. Israeli forces have killed at least 241 Palestinians during this time, most identified by Israel as attackers.

Israel says the violence is fueled by Palestinian incitement. Palestinians say it stems from anger over 50 years of occupation.

 

Algerian counterterrorism forces have killed a dangerous armed terrorist in northern Algeria, Defense Ministry said in a statement according to xinhuanet.com.

The terrorist, nicknamed Okba, was killed in the woods of Tipaza province on Wednesday overnight, 50 km west of Algiers.

The counterterrorism unit stormed his hiding place near the locality of Gouraya, in the west of Tipaza, said the source.

The troops retrieved a Kalashnikov submachine gun, a loaded magazine, a homemade grenade, a pair of binoculars and four mobile phones, noted the source, adding that this operation is still underway.

The killed terrorist is a senior official at the Islamic State (IS) affiliated group Jund al-Khilafa, according to Ennahar TV.

Earlier on Tuesday, counterterrorism troops deployed in the southeast border captured alive a terrorist near the border with Libya.

Earlier this week, an IS chief in Algeria and his assistant were killed in the eastern province of Constantine in an ambush.

Located in a region plagued by unprecedented security and political instability, Algeria faces ongoing terrorist threats, experts said.

A few militants affiliated to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and recently established IS affiliate groups are still taking refuge in the dense woods in the north, and remote desert areas near the troubled Libya and Mali.

Between a collection of concrete buildings with Arabic graffiti that are designed to simulate a typical Lebanese village, dozens of Israeli officers are gearing up for their next battle with Hezbollah guerrillas, like reported by ap.org.

It’s a mission the Israeli military has focused on intensely in the decade since it fought an inconclusive month-long war with the Iranian-backed group. But this drill at a base in northern Israel takes on added significance in the wake of rising tensions between the old adversaries. The friction includes a rare clash along the Syrian border this month in which Israel shot down an anti-aircraft missile fired at its planes as they were carrying out an airstrike on a suspected Hezbollah weapons convoy from Syria to Lebanon.

In the past month alone, Hezbollah’s chief Hassan Nasrallah has also threatened to strike Israel’s nuclear facilities if Israel were to attack, and Israel has detailed a contingency plan to evacuate up to a quarter-million civilians from border communities to protect them from attacks from Hamas, Hezbollah or other Islamic militant groups. In another sign of the escalating feud, Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, revealed intelligence that Hezbollah’s top military commander was killed in Syria in May 2016 by rivals within the group – perhaps even on orders from Nasrallah himself.

Though officers taking part in the drill insisted their training was business as usual, the backdrop clearly offered a reminder of what could await.

“We are trying to give the commanders and the soldiers the environment that looks like the real war so that they can have the feeling, when they will have to go to war, they will feel that they did it before. This is the purpose of the training – to prepare for the real thing,” said Col. Kobi Valer, commander of the Elyakim Military Base in northern Israel. “The forces need to know that this could be their last training before the war.”

Hezbollah fired more than 4,000 rockets on Israeli communities in the 2006 war, while Israel bombarded targets in southern Lebanon. The month of fighting killed an estimated 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians, as well as 44 Israeli civilians and 121 Israeli soldiers.

The Israeli airstrikes caused massive destruction to residential areas in south Lebanon and south of Beirut – areas where Hezbollah maintains a presence and has large support among the predominantly Shiite population. They also flattened entire blocs of residential apartments and destroyed roads, bridges, ports and power plants across the country.

Despite its military superiority, Israel ended the monthlong war with a feeling that it had not delivered the crushing blow it had sought. A commission of inquiry found the military to be inadequately prepared for the battle, which broke out after Hezbollah carried out a surprise cross-border attack and captured two Israeli soldiers, and many troops acknowledged that they had underestimated Hezbollah’s capabilities.

Still, the war was credited with re-establishing Israel’s deterrence and ensuring more than a decade of calm on the northern front.

In recent years, Hezbollah has been bogged down in Syria’s civil war fighting in support of President Bashar Assad, where the group has suffered heavy casualties.

Although Nasrallah appears to be in no rush to resume hostilities with Israel, his group has gained valuable battle experience that has worried Israel, which says Hezbollah has significantly built up its weapons stockpile since 2006 and upgraded its arsenal to about 150,000 missiles, including longer range and guided systems capable of striking anywhere in Israel.

Israel has repeatedly stated it will act to prevent Hezbollah getting advanced munitions and is widely believed to have carried out several airstrikes in recent years on weapons convoys destined for the militant group. Just recently, it made a rare admission of such a strike after Syria fired missiles at its jets. Still, Israel fears some advanced weapons like surface-to-sea weapons or anti-aircraft missiles might already have reached Hezbollah.

Israel, meanwhile, has been building up its missile defenses. A system called “David’s Sling” to intercept medium-range missiles from Hezbollah is due to become operational in early April. That would mark the completion of a multilayer missile defense system that includes “Iron Dome” for short range rockets and “Arrow,” designed to intercept long-range ballistic missiles high in the stratosphere.

Israeli intelligence does not believe Hezbollah is interested in sparking war this year, but an unplanned escalation as a result of all the developments could happen.

In the mock village in Elyakim, the reserve officers focused on the type of urban warfare that their comrades struggled with in 2006.

Using paintball pellets to simulate battle, they raided structures featuring colorful murals of Nasrallah and other top Hezbollah figures and opened fire at fellow officers playing the roles of guerrillas. Moving in swift formations, commanders hollered orders as the troops ascended the various structures firing yellow paint pellets toward their supposed adversaries.

“All of this facility is meant to give us a more realistic feeling,” said Capt. Ofek Sinai, a 26-year-old reserve platoon commander. “Undoubtedly, doing this a few weeks every year makes people more confident about fighting in a real war.”