UK Facing Large and Sophisticated Terror Threat Prepares to Fortify Christmas Markets
UK Facing Large and Sophisticated Terror Threat Prepares to Fortify Christmas Markets
In North America, a US federal jury has convicted a man of planting two bombs on New York City streets, that injured 31 people when it detonated. On Monday 29-year-old Afghani-American Ahmad Khan Rahimi was found guilty of all charges, including counts of using a weapon of mass destruction and bombing a public place using the 'al-Qaeda playbook.'
In Europe, Britain’s MI5 Director-General, Andrew Parker, has warned of a "dramatic" jump in the scale and pace of the Islamic terror threat facing the UK. He said 20 plots had been thwarted in the last four years and seven plots had been stopped in the last seven months. The terror operations were both UK-based and directed from overseas, including bombing, vehicle, and stabbing attacks. It was revealed that local British authorities have made plans to fortify the areas around Christmas markets to avoid Islamic State (ISIS)-style Berlin vehicle attacks. As well, ISIS has flooded social media with threatening images of a jihadi and ISIS flag outside the FIFA World Cup Stadium in Volgograd, Russia. The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be played across 11 cities in Russia from 14 June to 15 July, with the final match played at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.
In Africa, The ISIS-linked Boko Haram terror group has renewed fresh threats to target Nigeria. On Friday, Boko Haram attacked an army outpost in Marte near the Nigerian Border with Lake Chad seizing weapons and killing one soldier and wounding nine others. The al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab terror group car bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Sunday has killed over 300 people and wounded hundreds more. About a dozen IISIS militants robbed a bank and attacked Egyptian forces guarding an unused Coptic Christian church in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Monday, killing seven people. In the Middle East, US military said on Monday that it killed dozens of ISIS fighters at the group's training camps in Bayda province, in central Yemen.
In the Syrian Civil War, fighting is heating up in the Syrian region of Deir ez-Zor, where the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and forces loyal to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad are competing for ISIS territory. In the Badia region, which connects Syria with Iraq, Hezbollah is playing a prominent role alongside regime forces. A lethal Explosively Formed Penetrator (EFP) bomb generally associated with Iran and its proxies including the Mahdi Army has reemerged in Iraq after a six-year period, killing an American soldier. The EFP was used in a roadside attack that occurred in Salah ad-Din province on October 1st. US-backed Kurdish-led forces battling ISIS in Syria have seized control of Raqqa ISIS Syrian capital and stronghold.
In Southwest Asia, a US drone strike has killed five people in an attack on a compound in Kurram Agency on Monday near the Afghan border. At least four missiles were fired during the strike in the Kurram Agency just days after the Pakistan Army said that it had recovered "safe and sound" the Boyle family of foreign hostages held by terrorists for five years. It is believed that the target was Abu Bakar, Commander of the Haqqani network. Taliban militants struck government targets in many provinces of Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing at least 69 people, including a senior police commander. Two Taliban suicide car bombers assaulted the Police Training Center and Headquarters in Gardez, Paktia Province, followed by a raid and shooting rampage. At least 21 police officers were killed, including the Paktia Provincial Police Chief, and wounded 48 others. The attack also killed 20 civilians and wounded 110 more.
Elsewhere in Asia, on Monday, Philippine security forces killed two ISIS leaders in Southeast Asia, Isnilon Hapilon and Omarkhayam during a fierce battle to reclaim Marawi from ISIS-linked Maute militants who have held city for five months. Security forces are now hunting down Malaysian Mahmud Ahmad, a former university lecturer who helped lead and finance the assault on Marawi, and at least eight other foreign fighters from Malaysia and Indonesia. Mahmud, trained at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, is believed to have taken the leadership ISIS in Southeast Asia.
