Terrorism

A Lebanese man accused of financing Hezbollah was freed from jail in the United States last month as a result of indirect contacts between Tehran and Washington that are expected to yield more releases, three senior Middle East officials said. Kassim Tajideen was released on June 11, according to the …

The English town of Reading held a minute’s silence on Monday for the victims of a stabbing that killed three people including an American in the latest terrorism-linked attack. Three people were also hospitalised after a man wielding a five-inch knife went on the rampage in a park on Saturday, …

The FBI cracked the iPhone encryption of the Royal Saudi Air Force trainee who killed three American sailors in a December attack at a naval base in Florida, and found evidence linking him to al Qaeda, Attorney General William Barr said on Monday. The shooter, Second Lieutenant Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, …

Turkish authorities have detained 38 people including the local head of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in relation to an armed attack which killed two people in the eastern province of Van, governor’s office said on Friday. The attack on Thursday targeted two municipality personnel and a civilian returning …

Human Rights Watch on Monday called for an investigation into a spectacular gorge in northern Syria that has been used as a dumping site for dead bodies over several years. The 50-metre-deep hole in a desert area of Raqa province was once controlled by the Islamic State group, when it …

Egypt’s military said on Sunday that 15 of its men had died or been wounded in operations in the Sinai Peninsula recently, and that 126 suspected militants had been killed. The military publishes updates on its operations in Sinai every few months, without giving a specific time frame. The statement …

Militants suspected of planning attacks on Egypt’s Coptic Christian community were killed in a firefight with security forces in Cairo, the Interior Ministry said. One police officer was killed and three agents injured. The exchange took place in the al-Amiyira district, the public prosecutor said in a statement. The ministry …

At least one militant on a motorbike blew himself up outside the U.S. embassy in Tunisia on Friday, wounding police officers, witnesses said, in the country’s most serious attack in months. The explosion took place near the embassy’s main gate, where a Reuters journalist saw a scorched, damaged motorbike and …

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani rejected on Sunday a Taliban demand for the release of 5,000 prisoners as a condition for talks with the Afghan government and civilians, included in a deal between the United States and the Islamist militants. His remarks come against the backdrop of the difficulties U.S. negotiators …

German police detained 12 men on Friday suspected of setting up a far-right organization with the goal of carrying out attacks against politicians, asylum seekers and Muslims, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (GBA) said. Prosecutors said four of the suspects had set up a “terrorist organization” in September 2019 and regularly …

Sudan has agreed to compensate the families of sailors killed in an al Qaeda attack on the USS Cole warship 20 years ago, state news agency SUNA said on Thursday, part of government efforts to remove the country from a list of state sponsors of terrorism. The report said the …

A bomb detonated on a truck containing diesel-filled barrels and killed eight civilians and wounded seven more, including children, in northwestern Syria’s Idlib region on Monday, the Turkish Defense Ministry said. The ministry said on its Twitter account that the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which Turkey designates as a terrorist …

An audio recording purporting to be from the Islamist militant group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) claimed responsibility on Sunday for a fatal shooting in December at a U.S. naval base in Pensacola, Florida, but provided no evidence. “We congratulate our Muslim nation and embrace the operation of …

Syrian insurgents carried out two suicide car bomb attacks in an assault on pro-government forces in Aleppo on Saturday and opened a new front northeast of the city, an attempted fightback after territorial gains for President Bashar al-Assad. Backed by Russian air power, Syrian government forces had made a significant …

A man accused of killing two police officers while acting as the leader of an al Qaeda group in the Iraqi city of Fallujah was arrested in Phoenix, Arizona, federal officials said on Friday. Ali Yousif Ahmed Al-Nouri, 42, is wanted in Iraq on charges of premeditated murder of the …

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Monday he hoped the United States would have the “good sense” not to withdraw its support for French military operations in West Africa, where al Qaeda and Islamic State-linked groups are expanding their foothold. France has about 4,500 troops operating in the …

A car bomb targeting a group of Turkish contractors exploded on Saturday in Afgoye, northwest of the Somali capital Mogadishu, wounding at least six people, police said. It was not known who carried out the attack but residents and police said al Shabaab fighters had tried to attack Afgoye, about …

The Pentagon announced on Friday new restrictions on international military students’ access to guns on U.S. bases, as well as other measures, after a Saudi officer killed three U.S. sailors at a Florida naval base last month. “Getting back to work does not mean getting back to business as usual. …

More than a dozen Saudi servicemen who are training at U.S. military bases will be expelled from the United States in the aftermath of a Pentagon review prompted by the deadly Dec. 6 shooting by a Saudi Air Force officer at an American naval base in Florida, CNN reported on …

A Turkish military cargo plane landed in the Somali capital on Sunday to evacuate people badly wounded in a devastating truck bombing in the city a day earlier that killed at least 90 people including two Turkish nationals. The plane also brought emergency medical staff and supplies, according to a …

At least 90 people were killed in a truck bombing in Mogadishu on Saturday, according to a report from an international organization working in Somalia. The death toll from the blast had earlier been reported as 61. Source: Reuters

Saudi security forces killed two “terrorists” on Wednesday after a shooting in a residential neighborhood in the eastern city of Dammam, state television al-Ekhbariya reported. “Two wanted terrorists were killed after exchanging fire with security forces,” al-Ekhbariya TV said, without giving further details. Calm was restored to the residential neighborhood …

U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Sunday discussed last week’s Florida naval base shooting and vowed to work together on the investigation of the attack, which left three people dead and injured eight others. “The Crown Prince reiterated Saudi Arabia’s commitment to working with …

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Saturday that he was not prepared at this point to label as “terrorism” the attack a day earlier at a U.S. Navy base in Florida, where a Saudi airman is accused of killing three people. “No, I can’t say it’s terrorism at this …

A Saudi Air Force second lieutenant killed four people and wounded eight others on Friday in an unexplained shooting rampage at a U.S. Navy base in Florida where he was training, U.S. officials told Reuters. Sheriff’s deputies responding to the early-morning incident shot and killed the gunman, who was armed …

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Thursday dismissed French President Emmanuel Macron’s criticism of Turkey’s offensive in Syria against the Kurdish YPG militia, saying the French leader sponsors terrorism. “He is already the sponsor of the terrorist organization and constantly hosts them at the Elysee. If he says his ally …

The United States no longer has an adversarial relationship with the Sudanese government and is working with its counterparts on the possibility of removing it from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, a senior State Department official said on Friday. But Tibor Nagy, assistant secretary for African affairs, cautioned …

Ethnically and racially driven terrorism rose alarmingly in 2018 both worldwide and in the United States, and groups have often mimicked the tactics of armed Islamist militants to radicalize and recruit people, the U.S. State Department said on Friday. “Similar to Islamist terrorism this breed of terrorism is inspired by …

Hundreds of Kurdish fighters remain near to Syria’s northeast border despite a U.S.-brokered truce demanding their withdrawal and Turkey could resume its offensive in the area when the ceasefire expires, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said. The five-day truce in Turkey’s cross-border offensive to allow the withdrawal of Kurdish YPG fighters …

A senior Iranian official said on Thursday that Tehran had foiled a plot by Israeli and Arab agencies to assassinate Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force. State media quoted Hossein Taeb, the Revolutionary Guards security chief, as telling a conference that the plotters had planned to buy …

Hamas said on Wednesday that explosions that killed three police officers in Gaza on Tuesday were carried out by two suicide bombers and that an investigation was underway to discover who sent them. Such attacks on Hamas, which has the most powerful armed apparatus in the Palestinian enclave, are rare …

A car bomb killed one member of a security force and wounded two others in the Kurdish-controlled city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria on Sunday, the security force said. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack which it said had killed six members of a Kurdish militant group. The car …

Nineteen people died and 30 were injured in an explosion resulting from a car crash in central Cairo, Egypt’s health ministry said early on Monday. There was no official statement indicating that the explosion was an attack. The blast happened when a car driving against traffic on Cairo’s Nile corniche …

At least three people were killed and four wounded when three mortar bombs hit the northern Iraqi town of Shirqat on Tuesday, police officials and hospital sources said. Police officials in the area said Islamic State militants were involved in the attack and the mortars were fired from a nearby …

Officials from the UAE and Kyrgyzstan met here on Friday for the second meeting of the Political Consultations Committee to discuss ways of enhancing bilateral cooperation and review the latest regional and global developments. Co-chaired by Khalifa Shaheen Al Marar, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for Political …

A bomb blast at a Shi’ite Muslim mosque in eastern Baghdad wounded at least seven people on Friday, security sources said, correcting earlier reports of seven killed. Police sources said on Friday a suicide belt or improvised explosive device had been used in the attack in the Baladiyat neighbourhood, for …

U.S. forces have quietly sent at least 30 suspected foreign Islamic State fighters captured in Syria last year and in late 2017 to stand trial in Iraq, interviews with the men, Iraqi sources and court documents show. FILE PHOTO: Islamic state fighters and their families walk as they surrender in …

Egyptian security forces have killed 12 suspected Islamist militants in Cairo, the Interior Ministry said on Monday, a day after an explosion targeting a tourist bus injured at least 12 people. A rudimentary device containing nails and pieces of metal detonated on the perimeter of the Grand Egyptian Museum near …

Syrian air defenses in the Hmeimim air base thwarted projectiles and drones fired by militant groups, Syrian state TV said on Saturday. Militant groups fired projectiles at the Hmeimim air base in the Jableh area and at the Al Qardahah area near the Syrian coastal city of Latakia, killing one …

A blast rocked Baghdad’s northeastern Sadr City district on Thursday, but there were differing accounts on whether it caused any casualties. Police Colonel Jamal Hameed told Reuters a parcel had been found on the side of the road near a market and detonated in a controlled explosion, hurting no one. …

A 19-year-old man who authorities said gave himself up to police shortly after carrying out a deadly shooting in a Southern California synagogue filled with Sabbath worshippers is also under investigation in connection with an unsolved mosque arson. The gunman walked into the suburban San Diego synagogue late Saturday morning, …

As the Islamic call to prayer echoed through the subdued streets of Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo, crowds of Muslims were greeted with an unusual sight: their golden-domed Mosque flanked by soldiers armed with assault rifles. Security has ballooned in the seaside capital since a series of coordinated suicide attacks at …

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has asked the police chief and defense secretary to quit following the Easter Sunday suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels that killed 359 people, two sources close to the president said on Wednesday. The sources declined to be named due to the sensitivity …

Senior officials deliberately withheld intelligence about possible attacks on Sri Lanka, where a rash of suicide bombings on Easter Sunday killed at least 359 people, the leader of parliament said on Wednesday. “Some top intelligence officials hid the intelligence information purposefully. Information was there, but the top brass security officials …