The Eve of Ramadan is Upon US and Britain, Europe and North America Need to Be Ready
The Eve of Ramadan is Upon US and Britain, Europe and North America Need to Be Ready
We are on the eve of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month and the British National Health Service has warned 27 trauma centers in the United Kingdom to be prepared for terrorist attacks on the Monday holiday.
The good-news in the investigation of the Manchester suicide bombing is that British police have reportedly found and seized copious amounts of bomb-making material. The bad-news is that it is believed that at least one more bomb is in play, and has been passed to another member of the Libyan centered Islamic State in the Levant (ISIS) attack cell operating in the United Kingdom. As well, it is believed that the bomb-maker has fled to Europe. Worse still is the revelation that the suicide bomb carried by Salman Abedi is believed to have had a back-up system so that an observer accomplice could detonate the weapon if Abedi failed to. By all accounts Abedi detonated the weapon on his own, but this means that the bombs were made by a very experienced bomb-maker and at the very least there is another potential bomber out there. A Canadian connection has now emerged in the Manchester bombing investigation. Salman Abedi is believed to have come under the influence of an extremist Libyan-Canadian imam from Ottawa Abdu Albasset Egwilla/ Abdul Baset Ghwela whom Canadian officials warned was “promoting violent jihad” in Libya.
The casualty figures remain unchanged with 22 dead, and 64 wounded, including 20 in critical condition. Abedi’s brother, Ismail Abedi, is under arrest in the United Kingdom, and his younger brother, Hashem Abedi, and father Ramadan Abedi, are under arrest in Libya. Nine other Manchester men of Libyan origin have been arrested by security forces. The alert status in the United Kingdom remains at critical, Operation Temperer is underway with a thousand British soldiers backing up British police and security forces. Sadly, there are fears that Britain could face bombings and other attacks over the next month. Following US President, Donald Trump’s apology to British Prime Minister, Theresa May, for leaks from the US Intelligence community about the British investigation to American media outlets, it was announced that the US and Britain had returned to intelligence sharing halted earlier in the day.
Meanwhile, while ISIS faces military defeat in Iraq and Syria, and its War Minister has reportedly been killed, its cancer of influence and extremists have spread around the world. Earlier this week the Philippine’s affiliate of ISIS, The Maute, seized the City of Marawi on Mindanao Island and beheaded the city’s police chief as they attempted to set up a “caliphate” on the troubled island, and to rescue their imprisoned Emir Isnilon Hapilon, leader of Abu Sayyaf. The Maute is a fierce, but little-known group that has been blamed for a bombing in President Duterte's home city of Davao in September last year, which killed 14 people and wounded dozens of others. Foreign fighters from Indonesia, Malaya and Singapore were among other foreign militants fighting the Philippine army in Marawi. The Philippine army has deployed attack helicopters and special forces to drive The Maute out of the besieged city, with 11 soldiers and 31 militants killed so far in fighting.
On Wednesday suicide bombers attack a bus station in Jakarta Indonesia three policemen were killed, while several other officers and civilians were injured in the assault at the Kampung Melayu terminal. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack through its affiliate Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), which has carried out several recent attacks.
Today, terrorists attacked a bus carrying Coptic Christians south of the Alexandria Egypt, killing at least 28 people, including children, and wounding 25. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which came on the eve of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan but it is believed to have been carried out by the Egyptian ISIS group.
