Terrorism

The Balkans has not been the primary focus of the United States’ foreign policy since 1990s. The coal-rich region is firmly in the Western geopolitical orbit, although regional and global powers such as Turkey, Russia and China struggle to exert a certain influence in Balkan countries that are still out …

Unknown gunmen attacked a United Nations convoy on the outskirts of Afghanistan’s capital on Thursday, killing five Afghan security force members who were escorting the international agency’s vehicles, the UN and officials said. The attack took place near Kabul, according to an Afghan interior ministry official, adding they believed the …

Nine people died after al Qaeda-linked Islamist insurgents stormed a hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu, battling security forces until the early hours of Monday, a police spokesman said. A suicide car bombing on Sunday evening was followed by a shootout between al Shabaab militants and security forces at the …

At least five people were killed and scores wounded when a car bomb detonated in the northern Syrian town of Afrin on Saturday, the Turkish defence ministry and local civil defence said. The ministry said in a statement the bomb attack took place in an industrial site at the center …

A small blast near the Israeli embassy in New Delhi on Friday was caused by a “very low intensity improvised device” a police spokesman said, adding that there were no injuries. The explosion damaged the window panes of three nearby parked cars, a Delhi police spokesman said in a statement. …

Pakistan’s government on Friday appealed to the Supreme Court to review its decision to free an Islamist convicted of kidnapping and beheading U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl, a day after the United States expressed “deep concerns” over the ruling. A panel of three judges of the court on Thursday acquitted British-born …

Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the release of an Islamist convicted of beheading U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl, a decision that has left his family in “complete shock”, lawyers said. Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was the main suspect in the 2002 kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter …

Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack in a crowded Baghdad market on Thursday, killing at least 32 people in Iraq’s first big suicide bombing for three years, authorities said, describing it as a possible sign of the reactivation of Islamic State. Islamic State claimed early on Friday that two …

The death toll in a new tribal conflict in Sudan rose to 130 on Monday as clashes in West Darfur spread south. At least 47 people were killed in South Darfur after 83 died and tens of thousands were displaced in West Darfur in the previous two days. It was …

Unidentified gunmen killed two female judges from Afghanistan’s Supreme Court on Sunday morning, police said, adding to a wave of assassinations in Kabul and other cities while government and Taliban representatives have been holding peace talks in Qatar. The two judges, who have not yet been named, were killed and …

The family of Libyan Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the only person found guilty of the 1988 Lockerbie plane bombing which killed 270, have failed to overturn his conviction after losing a posthumous appeal in a Scottish court on Friday. Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer who died in 2012, was jailed for …

Five judges at Scotland’s highest court of criminal appeal are on Friday expected to rule on a posthumous challenge by the family of the only man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. The family of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet Al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer, have battled for years to bring …

The United States on Wednesday blacklisted two Iranian foundations controlled by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and their subsidies, saying the institutions enabled Iran’s elite to sustain a “corrupt” system of ownership over large parts of the economy. The designations announced by the U.S. Treasury Department target Execution of Imam …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to use newly declassified U.S. intelligence on Tuesday to publicly accuse Iran of ties to al Qaeda, two people familiar with the matter said, as part of his last-minute offensive against Tehran before handing over to the incoming Biden administration. With just eight …

By the time social media companies took action against users and groups spurring on the siege of Capitol Hill this week, culminating in the suspension of US President Donald Trump’s accounts, it was too little too late. For weeks, content on Big Tech platforms Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and Alphabet …

Claims that Turkish police routinely strip search women detainees have sparked a war of words between the government and opposition MPs. Pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party MP Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu recently said that female suspects and detainees had been subjected to humiliating strip searches by police in provinces across Turkey. Recently …

Tech giants including Microsoft and Google on Monday joined Facebook’s legal battle against hacking company NSO, filing an amicus brief in federal court that warned that the Israeli firm’s tools were “powerful, and dangerous.” The brief, filed before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, opens up a …

The United States on Monday unsealed criminal charges against a third alleged conspirator in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people, mostly Americans. The suspect, Abu Agila Mohammad Masud Kheir Al-Marimi, a former senior Libyan intelligence official, was charged with two criminal …

The United States on Monday formally removed Sudan’s state sponsor of terrorism designation, 27 years after putting the country on its blacklist, the US embassy in Khartoum announced. “The congressional notification period of 45 days has lapsed and the Secretary of State has signed a notification stating rescission of Sudan’s …

Austrian police seized a huge cache of automatic weapons, explosives and hand grenades intended to arm right-wing extremist groups in Germany, Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said on Saturday. Five people were arrested following a series of house searches, Nehammer told a press conference in Vienna. “We have struck a massive …

Iran is unlikely to retaliate over the assassination of a prominent nuclear scientist before the inauguration of Joe Biden in case it jeopardizes any future sanctions relief, the top U.S. envoy on Iran told Reuters on Thursday. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who had little public profile in Iran but had been named …

A car bombing in the Afghanistan’s central province of Ghazni killed at least 30 Afghan security force members on Sunday, officials said, and casualties could increase given the intensity and location of the blast. Baz Mohammad Hemat, director of the provincial hospital in Ghazni, said 30 bodies and 24 injured …

A Turkish court on Tuesday added new defendants to the case against Saudi officials charged over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, state media reported, in a trial that Ankara says is needed to reveal the full truth behind the killing. Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin …

A former ISIS prisoner and Nobel prize winner has called on world leaders to condemn the language used by the founder of Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) who referred to “devil worshippers” when talking about the Yazidi faith. Dr Hany El Banna, who is also chairman of the UK’s Muslim Charities …

Islamic State claimed responsibility on Thursday for an attack on a non-Muslim cemetery in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah which wounded several people, although it did not provide any evidence to back up its claim. In a statement issued through its official channel on Telegram, the group said …

A blast at a World War One remembrance ceremony in Jeddah wounded several people on Wednesday, France said, urging its citizens living in Saudi Arabia to exercise maximum vigilance following what it called an attack using an explosive device. The explosion was the second security incident to take place in …

In recent weeks, President Hassan Rouhani has come under intense fire as Iran’s new hardline Parliament takes steps to undermine him. Rouhani is facing strong criticism for failing to salvage Iran’s economy which is suffering from US-led sanctions and the COVID-19 pandemic. By resisting calls for his dismissal and holding …

At least one “Islamist terrorist” was responsible for attacks across central Vienna, in which at least five people were killed and several others injured, Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said on Tuesday. A massive search operation has been launched for other attackers, with at least 1,000 police officers fanning out …

The Italian government was in no way to blame for allowing a Tunisian migrant accused of killing three people in a church in neighbouring France to enter Europe, the interior minister said on Friday. The suspect in Thursday’s attack in Nice, Brahim Aouissaoui, reached the Italian island of Lampedusa on …

A Saudi man was arrested in the Red Sea city of Jeddah after attacking and wounding a security guard with a “sharp tool” at the French consulate on Thursday, local police said. A statement from the Mecca region’s police said the guard suffered “minor injuries” and that “legal action” was …

Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq said on Monday they had foiled a plan to attack foreign diplomats in their autonomous regional capital of Erbil, more than a year after the killing of a Turkish consular official there. In a statement, the Kurdistan regional government’s top security agency said the attack …

A global dirty money watchdog decided on Friday to keep Pakistan on its “grey list”, despite progress by Islamabad on meeting international anti-terrorism financing norms. In a statement, the Financial Action Task Force urged Pakistan to complete an internationally agreed action plan by February 2021. FATF said Pakistan had now …

President Donald Trump announced on Monday the United States would remove Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism as soon as Khartoum sets aside the $335 million it has agreed to pay to American victims of militant attacks and their families. The deal could also set in motion …

A White House official traveled to Damascus earlier this year for secret meetings with the Syrian government seeking the release of at least two U.S. citizens thought to be held there, a Trump administration official said on Sunday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, named the official as …

In 2017, Emmy-winning actor and activist Riz Ahmed gave a speech in Parliament about diversity on screen. “Representation is not an added thrill [because] what people are looking for is a message that they belong,” he said. Soon after, the Riz test – the equivalent of the Bechdel test for the representation of Muslims in …

Iran’s president warned on Wednesday that fighting between Azeri and ethnic Armenian forces in the South Caucasus could trigger a regional war as the death toll rose on the 11th day of hostilities. More than 300 have now died in the renewed fighting in and around the mountain enclave of …

Attackers set off a truck bomb in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province on Saturday, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens, according to provincial officials, as violence continues in the war-torn nation despite peace talks taking place in Qatar. Attaullah Khugyani, a spokesman for the provincial government, said the number …

A suicide bomber drove an explosive-laden truck into a checkpoint in Afghanistan late on Wednesday killing 11 people, as peace talks between the government and Taliban militants in Qatar seemed to have no bearing on the violence at home. No group claimed responsibility for the attack in the southern province …

Two members of the Lebanese Security Forces were killed in an exchange of gunfire with militants in the north of the country late on Saturday, the army said. They were killed when militants opened fire on an army checkpoint in the northwest area of Araman, the army said on Sunday. …

Bahrain said Monday it broke up a plot by militants backed by Iran earlier this year to launch attacks on diplomats and foreigners in the island nation home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet. The announcement came hours after Saudi state television and a Bahraini local newspaper implied the plot …

Hezbollah has stored chemicals that can be used to make explosives in several European countries, a senior State Department official said Thursday as he appealed to countries in Europe and elsewhere to impose bans on the organization. Hezbollah operatives have moved ammonium nitrate from Belgium to France, Greece, Italy, Spain …

Under pressure of the United States, Serbia announced last week it will designate Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization. This unexpected decision came after Serbia and Kosovo, under the US President Donald Trump’s auspices, signed a controversial ‘historic deal‘ on economic normalization in Washington. By Nikola Mikovic On …

Three people were killed and several others were injured on Monday in two separate explosions in the United Arab Emirates’ capital Abu Dhabi and its tourism hub Dubai, the police and local media said. The Abu Dhabi government media office said two people were killed in the blast in the …

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during a visit to Khartoum on Tuesday that Sudan’s democratic transition was a “once in a generation opportunity”. In a tweet, Pompeo also said that he looked forward to discussing “how to deepen the U.S.-Sudan relationship”. The Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said …