Hamad Sulaiman specialized in roadside bomb attacks against army and police forces, officials say

A top member of the Islamic State in Sinai has been killed in an Egyptian army operation in the center of the peninsula, Sky News Arabia reported Saturday, quoting Egyptian security sources.

Hamad Salim Sulaiman, the news network reported, was a roadside bomb specialist involved in numerous bomb attacks and armed assaults against Egyptian army and police forces in Sinai.

There were no details on the nature of the operation that killed Sulaiman.

Earlier this month IS in Sinai claimed it executed five men it accused of working for the army.

Jihadists have killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen since the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 unleashed a bloody crackdown on his supporters.

The crackdown decimated the Islamist movement and killed hundreds of his followers, and set off a jihadist insurgency that has killed hundreds of security personnel.

Most of the attacks have taken place in the Sinai Peninsula, which borders Israel and the Gaza Strip, but attacks have also been carried out in other areas including Cairo.

Hamas has arrested owners of tunnels along the Egyptian border on suspicion of having allowed jihadists to cross into Egypt, jihadi sources in Gaza told Breitbart Jerusalem.

The detainees were the owners of privately owned tunnels that operate independently of the tunnel network that serves Hamas in their efforts to smuggle weapons into the Strip. The owners of the private tunnels collect customs and pay a fee to Hamas, the sources said.

Hamas’ special border force gathered the owners of the private tunnels and warned them that attempts to smuggle jihadists would result in arrests and fines and the seizure of their tunnels, the sources said.

Hamas’ unusual step came in the wake of a landmark visit to Egypt by a Hamas delegation last month.

As part of tighter cooperation with Egypt, Hamas has beefed up the deployment of troops along the border.

The Arab media reported this week that Israel recalled its ambassador to Egypt a few weeks ago, apparently for security reasons. However, several Arab and Palestinian outlets claimed that it was to protest Egypt’s rapprochement with Hamas.

Contacted by Breitbart Jerusalem, the spokesperson of the Egyptian embassy in Tel Aviv declined to comment on the issue.

The nine terrorists eliminated in Bouira on Friday 17 February 2017 during a combing operation carried out by the combined detachments of the People’s National Army ANP, have been identified, said the Ministry of National Defence in a statement reported by aps.dz.

“Nine of the fourteen terrorists eliminated during the quality operation conducted by combined detachments of the Army near the commune of El Adjiba, in the province of Bouira (1^st Military Region) have been identified as:

– M. Mustapha (alias Abou Abdellah), who joined terrorist groups in 1994

– Abderrahmane (alias Soraka), who joined terrorist groups in 2001

– G. Adda (alias Abou Mayssara), who joined terrorist groups in 2005

– A. Djamel (alias Chouaib), who joined terrorist groups in 2006

– C. Mohamed (alias Mossaab), who joined terrorist groups in 2006

– Z. Antar (alias Abou Hamza), who joined terrorist groups in 2010

– M. Yacine (alias Abou Doudjana)

– K. Mohamed Tahar (alias Abou El-Yakin)

– H. Abdelghani (alias Bilel),” said the Ministry’s statement.

The quality operation, which is still ongoing, has resulted so far in the elimination of 14 terrorists and the recovery of 13 weapons, a quantity of ammunition and other objects, said the statement.

The fleet of privately-run aid vessels rescuing migrants off the Libyan coast and bringing them to Italy is “of interest” to Italian investigators, a Sicilian prosecutor told AFP like reported by libyanexpress.com.

Catania prosecutor Carmelo Zuccaro said the boats were not currently suspected of illegal activity but had drawn attention for their sophisticated and expensive operations.

Reports have recently begun to appear again in the Lebanese press regarding military activity by Hizbullah south of the Litani River, on the Lebanon-Israel border, in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, and on the organization’s increasing strength in the last few years, especially due to its military involvement in the Syria war, like reported by memri.org.

The Lebanese press reported, inter alia, that Hizbullah has tunnels on the Israeli border and that it possesses advanced weapons provided by Iran and Syria that disrupt the balance of power vis-à-vis Israel. It has also been reported that Hizbullah is cooperating with Hamas’s military wing, the ‘Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades.

The reports on Hizbullah’s military activity in South Lebanon are corroborated by the organization’s own statement, from January 17, 2017, that its operatives had found the wreckage of an Israeli drone that had crashed near the border two days earlier and were examining it “in a safe location.”

The following are excerpts from the reports on Hizbullah’s activity in south Lebanon:

Ibrahim Al-Amin, board chairman of the pro-Hizbullah Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, wrote in a January 24, 2017 editorial that Hizbullah’s military, security and intelligence capabilities have grown in the recent years. This, he said, is manifest in the organization’s ability to lay down the rules of the confrontation with Israel; in the extensive and varied arsenal of weapons it possesses, provided by Syria and Iran, which includes ‘game-changing’ weapons; in its presence not only on the Lebanon-Israel border but on the Syria-Israel border; in its transformation into a major player in Syria, Iraq and Yemen which also has considerable influence in other locations and sensitive arenas in the Arab and Muslim world, and in its ongoing cooperation with Hamas’s military wing. Amin implied that the Israeli assessment that Hizbullah is capable of firing 1,500 missiles a day underestimates the organization’s true capabilities.

He wrote: “Reexamining the arena of direct confrontation [between Israel] and Hizbullah, we notice something that greatly worries the enemy’s leadership: [that] the enemy has failed in his vigorous efforts to change the rules of the confrontation with the resistance [i.e., Hizbullah] along the border front. [Israel’s] targeted killings of senior resistance operatives compelled Hizbullah’s leadership to [present a] scale of increasingly harsh retaliatory measures, up to and including readiness to enter an all-out confrontation. This forced the enemy to avoid direct military action on Lebanese soil, including localized operations.

“The enemy [then] decided to shift [its attention] to the Syrian arena and exploit the crisis there to target the capabilities of the resistance, since [the enemy] quickly realized that Hizbullah’s involvement in the Syrian crisis laid [both] the Syrian and the Lebanese border [with Israel], as well as the Syrian army’s weapons [arsenal], wide open to Hizbullah. This allowed a vast supply of advanced, state-of-the art weapons of various kinds, including weapons provided by Iran, to flow into Hizbullah’s depots. The enemy decided to bomb military convoys or [arms] depots inside Syria that allegedly belonged to the resistance. [But the number of] airstrikes, both those that were reported and those that were not, never exceeded an average of five strikes per year since 2011, and the enemy knows that dozens if not hundreds of convoys managed to [get through and] bring the necessary [weapons] to the resistance bases in Lebanon…

“In practice, Israel reads the map and realizes that Hizbullah’s weapons arsenal has steadily grown, and is now several times larger than it was in 2006, and that the kind of weapons that the enemy tried and is still trying to prevent the resistance from acquiring – namely, what Israel calls ‘game-changing’ weapons – is available to it in great amounts. Moreover, the enemy sees that Hizbullah, whose activity was once confined to the front along the Lebanese border, is now present along the [entire] northern front of occupied Palestine [i.e., also along the Syrian border], and has more room to maneuver than it had before. This, in addition to the extraordinary abilities it acquired in the course of the Syria war… In the security confrontation with the takfiri streams, the resistance apparatuses acquired considerable skills in the domain of intelligence, including abilities it did not have 10 years ago, [and] this in addition to the development of the resistance’s military intelligence [apparatus] – [all of which] which increases the enemy’s apprehension.

“The enemy now feels that Hizbullah’s role in the region has grown, after it became a major player in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, with vast influence in other parts of the Arab and Muslim world [as well]. Hizbullah can influence sensitive arenas that have great [importance] for the rival axis, [an axis] which includes Arab, Israeli and Western elements. Moreover, none of the manifestations of sectarian strife [between Sunnis and Shi’ites] have harmed Hizbullah’s ability to cooperate with the resistance forces in Palestine, including the ‘Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing…

“Will [the enemy] once again flee towards an all-out war [with Hizbullah]? In this context, it is pertinent to draw the attention of friend and foe alike [to the fact that] that Israel works hard to estimate the extent of Hizbullah’s rocket capabilities, but after every confrontation the results prove to be the opposite [of what it predicted]. In the July 2006 war, the resistance fired 4,300 rockets at Israel in 33 days. Now the Israelis say that [in the next confrontation], Hizbullah will fire about 1,500 rockets a day. These are the enemy’s estimates, and they are surely wrong!”

Al-Mustaqbal Daily: Hizbullah Has Forward Positions On Border With Israel, Including Tunnels

Another report on Hizbullah’s preparations for a confrontation with Israel appeared several days earlier, on January 18, 2017, in the Lebanese daily Al-Mustaqbal, owned by Lebanese Prime Minister Sa’d Al-Hariri, a prominent political rival of Hizbullah. This report indicates that Hizbullah operates south of the Litani River, in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which prohibits this. It says: “Hizbullah has concealed forward positions on the international border [between Lebanon and Israel], including tunnels it dug over 10 years ago, especially in the Al-Labouna area, south of Al-Naqoura. [This area] overlooks the Palestinian coast and the [Israeli] towns of Shlomi and Nahariya.”

Al-Safir Daily: Hizbullah Operatives Work Day and Night Along The Israeli Border, Conducting Observations And Digging Tunnels

These reports on Hizbullah’s activity in South Lebanon and its digging of tunnels join earlier reports on this in the Lebanese press that were mentioned in MEMRI reports. For example, on May 25, 2016, the pro-Hizbullah daily Al-Safir reported, in a main article marking the 16^th anniversary of Israel’s withdrawal from South Lebanon, that Hizbullah operatives work day and night along the Israeli border, “conducting observations, preparing, and digging tunnels that cause the settlers and enemy soldiers to lose sleep.” The article also noted that, in the course of its fighting in Syria, Hizbullah encountered an enemy that excavates tunnels, after becoming accustomed to being the only one digging them, and that Hizbullah had taught other resistance fighters, particularly Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the tunnel doctrine.

On October 8, 2014, the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, which is close to Hizbullah, reported that the organization had resumed operations south of the Litani and that its activity there resembled its activity in the region in 2000-2006.

Tunisia has extended for another three months a state of emergency in place since a 2015 militant attack, the president’s office announced, according to gulftoday.ae.

President Beji Caid Essebsi has decided “to extend the state of emergency for three months from 16 February,” his office said.

The state of emergency has been in place since a November 2015 militant bombing in Tunis that killed 12 presidential guards on a bus.

The Daesh militant group claimed the attack as well as bombings earlier in 2015 at the Bardo National Museum and at a beach resort that killed 59 foreign tourists and a Tunisian guard.

They were part of an ongoing insurgency since a 2011 revolution toppled long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

The government has repeatedly renewed the state of emergency despite its assurances that security has improved in the North African state.

The state of emergency grants emergency powers to the police and in theory grants authorities the right to prohibit strikes and meetings likely to provoke “disorder.”

It also allows measures “to ensure control of the press.”

Prime Minister Youssef Chahed told local radio station Mosaique FM on Wednesday that the state of emergency would be “definitively lifted in three months.”

Defence Minister Farhat Horchani added that there had been a “major improvement” in the security situation.

“But as long as our situation is linked to Libya and as long as Libya does not have a government that is in control of the situation the threat exists,” he said.

Tunisia shares a 500km border with Libya, a country plagued by chaos since the 2011 fall of its longtime ruler Muammar Qadhafi.

Militant groups including Daesh have taken advantage to set up operations in ungoverned areas of the country.

A Moroccan court sentenced 26 people to up to 7 years in jail in Islamic terrorism-related cases, like reported by xinhuanet.com .

In the first case involving 14 people, the main defendant was sentenced to seven years in prison, while another received a six-year jail sentence and the remaining 12 got four-year jail sentences.

The culprits were sued for “forming a gang to commit terrorist attacks within the framework of a collective plot to seriously undermine public order, and praising terrorist acts”.

In other cases, the defendants, including a minor, were sentenced in prison ranging from two to six years, for “forming a gang to commit terrorist attacks, praising terrorist acts and failing to report a terrorist crime.”

According to official figures, Morocco busted 19 terrorist cells and arrested 273 suspects in 2016.

Lebanon’s military prosecutor charged 10 Lebanese and Palestinians Thursday with belonging to Daesh and planning attacks and assassinations in the country, the National News Agency said according to albawaba.com .

It said that seven of the 10 were still at large. Military prosecutor Judge Saqr Saqr referred the case and the detainees to military investigators.

A security crackdown on members of Syria-based militant groups have netted scores of suspects in Lebanon over the past year. Daesh and al-Qaeda-linked groups have launched several deadly attacks in Lebanon since the Syrian war broke out nearly six years ago.

Libya’s U.N.-backed government has sent the NATO military alliance a formal request for help to train and develop the country’s armed forces, which are depleted from years of conflict and are fighting Islamist militants, like reported by reuters.com.

“This request … we received yesterday, so we have just started to look into what kind of support we could offer,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference.

“The request is about help for building security and defence institutions.”

Lebanese authorities have started building a wall around the most crowded Palestinian camp south of Beirut, Ain Al-Hilweh.

Palestinian sources say that about 100,000 people live in the camp, while UNRWA puts the number of Palestinians registered in the camp at 54,000.

The news was reported by Munir Miqdah, deputy commander of Palestinian security forces in Lebanon and high-ranking member of Fatah, the party under Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.

In response to questions from Beirut daily An-Nahar, Miqdah announced his resignation from head of the joint security committee in Palestinian camps in Lebanon to protest the decision to go forward with plans to build the wall, like reported by ansamed.info .

Ain Al-Hilweh is near Sidon, 40 kilometers south of Beirut.