Human rights group says hundreds of skeletons found exposed or buried just below ground during research into killings of civilians
Hundreds of bodies could have been buried at a mass grave discovered in Egypt’s Sinai province by human rights campaigners.
Bodies lying on the surface and others buried barely 30cm below were found at a burial site near a military outpost by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights.
Continue reading...Mohammad A, 16, given 18-month suspended sentence for helping plan foiled attack in Vienna
A Berlin court has convicted a Syrian teenager of contributing to an Islamic State-inspired plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna.
Three dates in the US pop star’s record-breaking Eras tour were cancelled last summer after authorities learned of the plot.
Continue reading...Islamic State affiliate group have claimed responsibility, though Russian investigators have sought to blame Ukraine
Nineteen people, among them the four suspected gunmen, went on trial in Moscow on Monday over a concert hall attack that claimed 149 lives, one of the worst terrorist attacks in modern Russia.
Four armed men from the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan allegedly stormed the Crocus City Hall on the outskirts of Moscow on 22 March last year, opening fire and then setting the building alight, injuring hundreds of people.
Continue reading...Thousands have been displaced and conservation work halted as series of killings jeopardises decades of work in Niassa, one of Africa’s biggest protected areas
One of Africa’s largest protected areas has been shaken by a series of attacks by Islamic State-linked extremists, which have left at least 10 people dead.
Conservationists in Niassa reserve, Mozambique, say decades of work to rebuild populations of lions, elephants and other keystone species are being jeopardised, as conservation operations grind to a halt.
Continue reading...Manufacturer says city has not taken up its offer to inspect – and, if necessary, repair – blockade at no cost
After the deadly truck ramming attack on New Orleans’s Bourbon Street early on New Year’s Day, local police said they had intentionally left down a hydraulic barrier meant to prevent such violence because it had a history of malfunctioning – prompting the blockade’s manufacturer to contact the city with an urgent offer of free inspection and maintenance, according to recently obtained emails.
“We would like to bring out a technician for no charge in order to inspect all the Delta Scientific barriers in New Orleans and ensure they are functional and offer any solutions for maintenance or repairs needed,” Dianne Kennedy, the company’s assistant to general counsel and manager of contracts, wrote to the office of the New Orleans mayor, LaToya Cantrell.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Home Affairs tells the Guardian consular assistance is ‘severely limited’ in Syria, where Mustafa Hajj-Obeid remains in custody
The Australian government should repatriate, monitor and investigate any crimes committed by a member of Islamic State who was wounded in the extremist group’s final battle, according to multiple security and international law experts.
Last week, the Guardian revealed an Australian man whose fate was not publicly known was alive and in custody in a prison in north-eastern Syria, run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
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Continue reading...Villach mayor praises Alaaeddin al-Halabi, who intervened in knife attack that killed 14-year-old and injured five others
A Syrian migrant living in Austria has been hailed as a hero after he rammed his car into an attacker, bringing down a radicalised assailant who had killed one teenager and left five others injured.
The stabbing, described by Austria’s interior minister as having been carried out by a Syrian man who was legally living in the country and who had become radicalised by the Islamic State group, happened on Saturday in the southern Austrian city of Villach.
Continue reading...Figures who backed rights of religious minorities in Trump’s first term fall silent as vital work halted on the ground
During the first Trump administration, Mike Pence, the vice-president, pledged hundreds of millions of dollars, mostly through USAid and the state department, to help Christians and other religious minorities who were persecuted by Islamic State and – in the case of the Yazidis – suffered a genocide.
But under the second Trump administration, the same figures who championed the rights of religious minorities have fallen silent or actively participated in the destruction of USAid, cutting crucial aid to support the same communities they once helped – who now feel abandoned by the US.
Continue reading...Prediction by ex M16 counter-terror director comes as security paused around two main detention facilities
Donald Trump has thrown into doubt the security and administration of the main two detention facilities in north-east Syria that hold thousands of Islamic State fighters, the former counter-terrorism director of M16 Richard Barrett says.
The state of limbo has been caused in the short term by the US president unexpectedly suspending all USAid funding for 90 days, and by long-term uncertainty over his willingness to retain troops in Syria.
Continue reading...Hamas, Hezbollah and other militia are enfeebled – but Palestine is likely to stay at forefront of global politics
The ceasefire due to come into force on Sunday, barring a major last-minute problem, will cement massive and rapid changes across the Middle East and may seal a significant defeat for the Islamist militant groups that have been powerful actors in the region for years.
Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and assorted Shia Muslim militia in Iraq and Syria will all emerge from the conflict considerably weakened. Only the Houthis in Yemen are stronger – though this may not last. The Islamic State remains a shadow of its former self.
Continue reading...Authorities piece together timeline of radicalization of Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the US army veteran behind the attack
Before plowing a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans and killing 14 people, the man who carried out the Islamic State group-inspired attack had researched how to access a balcony on the city’s famed Bourbon Street and looked up information about a similar attack at a Christmas market in Germany, the FBI said.
Nearly two weeks after Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s rampage, the FBI continues to uncover new information detailing the extensive planning by the 42-year-old US army veteran who scouted out the area multiple times in the months leading up to the attack. Authorities have also been piecing together a timeline of his radicalization.
Continue reading...Availability of manuals and instructions on less moderated apps and forums is making extremist content accessible
A spate of recent vigilante and extremist attacks in the US have highlighted how the booming availability of internet resources is a growing national security concern.
Experts and world governments have been sounding the alarm on digital radicalization as accessibility to materials such as assassination manuals, files for 3D printed guns, or something as simple as ChatGPT grows.
Continue reading...Exclusive: SDF leader says removal of 2,000-strong force would leave door open for Islamic State resurgence
The leader of the Kurdish forces that control north-eastern Syria has called on Donald Trump to maintain a US military presence in the region, warning that a retreat would risk a resurgence of Islamic State in the country.
Gen Mazloum Abdi, the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said IS had increased its strength in the desert after seizing arms from the collapsed Assad regime, while the Kurdish forces were coming under increased pressure from Turkey and its Syrian proxies.
Continue reading...Sebastian Gorka says letting people in prison camps return to Britain would benefit the ‘special relationship’ with US
British nationals being held in Syrian prison camps for fighting on behalf of Islamic State should be allowed to return to the UK, Donald Trump’s incoming counter-terrorism chief has said.
Any country that wants to be a “serious ally” to the United States should commit to the international fight against the extremist group by repatriating its citizens, according to Sebastian Gorka.
Continue reading...Islamic State has urged followers to attack the US, and the attorney general has called the group a top security concern
The Islamic State (IS) threat on the US homeland has caused renewed concern as more details emerge about the man allegedly behind what the FBI is calling an “act of terrorism” in New Orleans on New Year’s Day that killed 14 and injured scores more.
US citizen and army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, was killed in the attack after driving into partygoers on Bourbon Street and engaging police in a gunfight. Found inside his rental truck was the infamous black flag of IS; it was later revealed he had pledged allegiance to the group in a series of videos posted to Facebook mere hours beforehand.
Continue reading...The terrorist group has been looking to be active this holiday season, with online chatter about attacks increasing
Amid a presidential campaign with foreign policy discussions more focused on the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Lebanon, the Islamic State stayed under the radar while calling on supporters and operatives to attack Americans on election day.
The FBI thwarted a serious plot in Oklahoma City only weeks before the vote, prompting a similar public reaction to news involving the terror group that has become customary of late: is the Islamic State a renewed threat?
Continue reading...Internet chatter and Oklahoma arrest of alleged would-be IS attacker indicate terror group’s planning
After the FBI arrested an Afghan man in Oklahoma planning an election day shooting on behalf of the Islamic State, the terrorist organization re-entered what has become one of the most chaotic news cycles leading up to a November vote.
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, of Oklahoma City admitted to investigators he and a co-conspirator expected to die as IS martyrs as they opened fire on crowds on election day, according to charging documents.
Continue reading...Judge says offending by Aran Sherani, who pledged allegiance to terrorist organisation, ‘must be denounced’
A convicted terrorist has been jailed for eight years after he filmed himself pledging allegiance to Islamic State.
A supreme court jury in 2023 found Aran Sherani, 22, guilty of preparing for a terrorist act over the 2021 video.
Continue reading...Officials say US, Israel, Jordan and Iraq involved in rescue of 21-year-old who had been captured in Iraq
A 21-year-old woman kidnapped by Islamic State militants in Iraq more than a decade ago has been freed from Gaza in an operation led by the US.
The operation this week also involved Israel, Jordan and Iraq, according to officials.
Continue reading...Polish PM calls for urgent consultations with European neighbours over controls he says will break European law
The Polish government is accusing Germany of acting unilaterally and unfairly over its “unacceptable” plans to introduce temporary controls into in the passport-free Schengen zone at all the country’s nine land borders, in what Warsaw says is a contravention of European law.
Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, said Germany had introduced a “de facto suspension of the Schengen agreement on a large scale” after the interior minister, Nancy Faeser, announced Berlin’s decision to confront what she called “irregular migration” by introducing spot controls along Germany’s 2,300-mile (3,700km) frontier after a recent spate of suspected Islamist attacks.
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