At least two people killed and seven wounded, officials say after attack in capital claimed by Islamic State
Gunmen have stormed a Sikh temple in the Afghan capital, killing at least two people and wounding seven more, officials say.
The interior ministry said the attacker used at least one grenade during the attack on Saturday, setting off a blaze in the complex. Minutes later, a car bomb was detonated in the area but caused no casualties, it added.
Continue reading...Interior ministry believes Iswap was behind attack in Ondo state on Sunday that killed 40 people
Nigerian security officials suspect extremists from Islamic State’s affiliate in west Africa were behind an attack on a Catholic church last weekend that killed dozens.
Forty people are now thought to have died after gunmen stormed St Francis Catholic church in Owo, Ondo State, on Sunday, and 61 survivors are still being treated in hospital, according to local authorities. The total is double an earlier estimate.
Continue reading...Foreign Office warns against all travel to the country where Islamic State is still a threat
Up to 30 Kurdish asylum seekers are facing deportation to Iraq in the first Home Office flight of its kind for a decade.
Iraq is deemed to be so dangerous that the Foreign Office warns against all travel there, warning of “a high threat of kidnapping throughout the country including from both Daesh [Islamic State] and other terrorist and militia groups”.
Continue reading...The South African government sent Anton Hammerl’s passport to his widow in 2016 but has refused to say how it came to have it
The widow of a British-based photographer who was murdered by Col Gaddafi’s forces in Libya in 2011 has accused South Africa of withholding crucial information about her husband’s death that could help in efforts to locate his body.
Anton Hammerl was killed in an incident in May 2011 that saw other journalists, including James Foley – who was later kidnapped and beheaded by Islamic State in Syria – taken prisoner.
Continue reading...Saber Lahmar has been charged with encouraging jihadists to fight for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria
An Algerian preacher who spent eight years in the US-run Guantánamo Bay prison has gone on trial in France for allegedly encouraging several young men to join the Islamic State group.
Saber Lahmar, a 52-year-old Algerian released by the US in 2008 and taken in afterwards by France, has been charged with encouraging jihadists to head to Iraq and Syria to fight for the extremist group in 2015.
Continue reading...Alexanda Kotey of the so-called ‘Beatles’ terror cell given a life sentence for each of the eight counts he pleaded guilty to
A member of an Islamic State group that beheaded western hostages in Iraq and Syria, nicknamed “the Beatles” for their British accents, has been sentenced to life in prison in the US.
Alexanda Kotey, 38, originally from Paddington, London, stood motionless as Judge Thomas Selby Ellis delivered his verdict at a district court in Alexandria, Virginia, while members of his victims’ families watched.
Continue reading...Explosion in Afghan capital is latest in string of attacks on civilians during Ramadan
A powerful explosion has killed more than 50 worshippers after Friday prayers at a Kabul mosque, the latest of a series of attacks on civilian targets in Afghanistan during Ramadan.
The blast hit the Khalifa Sahib mosque in the west of the capital in the early afternoon, according to Besmullah Habib, the deputy spokesperson for the interior ministry.
Continue reading...Attack claimed by Islamic State triggered fierce gun battle in Kogi state on Saturday
Three policemen have been killed in central Nigeria’s Kogi state after gunmen stormed a police station in an attack claimed by Islamic State.
State police spokesperson William Ovye Aya said a fierce gun battle took place after “hoodlums” entered the station in Adavi town on Saturday.
Continue reading...Mother is unlikely to survive without medical intervention, leaving her young son orphaned, say doctors
MPs and a human rights group have called on the UK government to repatriate a young British boy and his gravely ill mother from a detention camp in Syria, after doctors said she was at risk of dying and leaving the child orphaned.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said it was reviewing the case of Zaid* and his mother, Maryam* – who was injured in an explosion in Syria in 2019 and left with shrapnel in her head – “as a matter of priority”.
Continue reading...Peter Kassig, who was later killed, described paralysis and hope and offered words of comfort to his family
An American hostage’s harrowing story about captivity at the hands of the Islamic State militants who would kill him was recounted in court in Virginia on Wednesday.
A letter from the late Peter Kassig was read aloud during the terrorism trial of El Shafee Elsheikh, a 33-year-old former British citizen and alleged member of a kidnap-and-murder cell known to captives as the “Beatles” because of their British accents.
Continue reading...Foley’s brother and mother testify at Virginia court trial of El Shafee Elsheikh, accused of kidnap and murder of US journalist
The Islamic State terrorists who kidnapped American journalist James Foley never made serious attempts to negotiate a ransom before brutally executing him, family members have told a court.
Foley’s brother and mother took the witness stand at US district court in Alexandria at the terror trial of El Shafee Elsheikh, a Briton accused of playing a leading role in a hostage-taking scheme that resulted in the deaths of Foley and three other Americans – Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.
Continue reading...As a Virginia jury hears horrific allegations, experts say the trial of El Shafee Elsheikh sets an important precedent
As the trial against the accused Islamic State fighter El Shafee Elsheikh began this week on American soil, jurors in a northern Virginia courtroom were quickly exposed to accounts of unimaginable brutality.
Elsheikh, prosecutors alleged, carried out terrorist acts that involved the grisly deaths of four Americans – the journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as the aid workers Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig.
Continue reading...Security cabinet in emergency talks ahead of Ramadan, Passover and Easter celebrations
Israel’s prime minister has called on citizens with gun licences to arm themselves after the bloodiest attack in years in greater Tel Aviv, which marked the third such killings spree in the Jewish state in a week.
“What is expected of you, Israeli citizens? Vigilance and responsibility,” the country’s far-right leader, Naftali Bennett, said in a video statement on Wednesday evening. “Whoever has a gun licence, this is the time to carry it.”
Continue reading...Police say two terrorists were shot dead after they began firing at police in city of Hadera, as Israel hosts envoys from four Arab states
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack in which two Israeli police were killed in the northern city of Hadera on Sunday. The claim was made in a statement posted on its Telegram account.
Police said that “two terrorists arrived at Herbert Samuel Street in Hadera, and began shooting at a police force there,” resulting in two deaths.
Continue reading...Bethany Haines says she will plead with El Shafee Elsheikh to reveal where remains of her father and other western hostages lie
The daughter of a British man murdered by Islamic State will demand to know the whereabouts of his remains when one of his alleged kidnappers goes on trial in the US this week.
Bethany Haines, 24, will fly from her home in Perthshire, Scotland, to Virginia to confront El Shafee Elsheikh in person, nearly eight years after her father, David Haines, was killed.
Continue reading...Audio message names Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi as new leader in first admission of former head’s death
Islamic State has named a new leader after confirming that its previous head was killed by the US in north-western Syria over a month ago.
In an audio message released on Thursday, an IS spokesman, Abu Omar al-Muhajer, confirmed the death of the group’s leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, as well as that of its former spokesman, Abu Hamza al-Qurayshi, in the US raid.
Continue reading...Telecoms group’s admission comes days after revelations about alleged bribes given to Islamic State
The Swedish telecoms group Ericsson broke a formal agreement with US prosecutors by withholding evidence about its involvement in corruption, the firm has announced.
The US Department of Justice had notified Ericsson that the firm has failed, as required, to hand over details of alleged corruption in Iraq to DoJ prosecutors.
Continue reading...Telecoms giant’s internal investigators uncover allegations it was involved in corruption in at least 10 countries
Confidential documents have revealed how the telecoms giant Ericsson is alleged to have helped pay bribes to the Islamic State terrorist group in order to continue selling its services after the militants seized control of large parts of Iraq.
The leak of internal investigations at Ericsson, which also found that the firm had put its contractors at risk and allowed them to be kidnapped by the militants, is potentially damaging for the multinational.
Continue reading...Parliamentary report finds ‘compelling evidence’ of trafficking and highlights missed opportunities to protect vulnerable people later stripped of citizenship
There is “compelling evidence” that British women and children currently detained in camps in north-east Syria were trafficked to the country against their will, according to a new parliamentary report.
After a six-month inquiry by the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on trafficked Britons in Syria, the report published on Thursday highlights how systemic failures by UK public bodies enabled Islamic State (IS) trafficking of vulnerable women and children as young as 12.
Continue reading...Exclusive: first reported case of attempted international recruitment to IS since US left Afghanistan
Two suspected Islamic State recruits, one of them carrying a British passport, were seized by the Taliban when they tried to slip into Afghanistan last autumn through its northern border, the Guardian can reveal.
The men, who were carrying more than £10,000 in cash, military fatigues and night-vision goggles in their bags, were arrested after a tipoff from Uzbekistan, according to a Taliban source with knowledge of the operation.
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