Dieudonne Duranthabo, a civil society coordinator in Komanda, in the Ituri province, told The Associated Press that the attackers stormed the church in Komanda town at around 1 a.m. Several houses and shops were also burnt.

“The bodies of the victims are still at the scene of the tragedy, and volunteers are preparing how to bury them in a mass grave that we are preparing in a compound of the Catholic church,” Duranthabo said.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://apnews.com/article/congo-church-attack-islamic-state-deaths-da83ab694e991abfcc8166245a836d86

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The Federal Prison Service said that four inmates took eight prison guards and four inmates hostage. It said they stabbed four of the guards, three of whom died on the spot and the fourth one later died at a hospital. The agency said three other guards were hospitalized with injuries.

Russia’s National Guard said its snipers “neutralized” all four attackers, freeing all the hostages, while the Federal Prison Service also claimed credit for killing the assailants.

The discrepancy couldn’t be immediately explained. Details of the violence at the prison in Surovkino in the Volgograd region, 860 kilometers (535 miles) southeast of Moscow, were sparse and it was not clear how the inmates had taken hostages several hours earlier.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://apnews.com/article/russia-prison-hostages-islamic-state-surovkino-8abca132d2c6e18030adced504bf40c5

The post Snipers kill 4 hostage-takers at Russian prison who claimed allegiance to Islamic State group first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Unnamed teenagers ages 15, 15, and 16-years-old were arrested by police executing a warrant issued at Easter in the Dusseldorf of the North Rhine-Westphalia region. Two of those arrested are girls, and one a boy.

The security services said they had detected the group using an instant messenger group chat to discuss plans to launch attacks against targets including people in churches and police stations. Germany’s Die Welt reports the weapons involved could have been knives or firebombs, and the cities considered for the alleged strike were Dortmund, Düsseldorf and Cologne. Acquiring firearms had allegedly been discussed.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2024/04/12/three-teens-arrested-on-suspicion-of-islamist-church-attack-plot-in-germany/

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No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the regional affiliate of the Islamic State group — known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province — has increased its attacks since the Taliban takeover in 2021. Targets have included Taliban patrols and members of Afghanistan’s Shiite minority.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2023/01/01/taliban-kabul-checkpoint-bomb-blast-kills-wounds-several.html

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The post Taliban: Kabul Checkpoint Bomb Blast Kills, Wounds Several first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Taliban authorities and hospital sources in Afghanistan said Wednesday that a powerful bomb blast ripped through a packed mosque in the capital, Kabul, during evening prayers, causing dozens of casualties.

Khalid Zadran, a city police spokesman, told VOA that “there are casualties and fatalities” but he would not give further details. Intelligence teams and investigators had arrived at the blast site and investigations were underway, he added.

Multiple sources reported that at least 20 worshippers were killed and many more were wounded in what reportedly was a suicide blast. Maulvi Amir Mohammad Kabuli, a renowned Afghan scholar and preacher of Sufi Islam, was said to be among the dead.

An eyewitness and police officers were quoted as confirming to The Associated Press the deaths of at least 10 people, including Kabuli. Taliban officials did not comment on the casualties.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.voanews.com/a/afghan-mosque-bombing-causes-dozens-of-casualties-/6705821.html

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These clashes come as a part of regime forces’ attempts to put an end to activities by ISIS which have stepped up its operations with the aim to deplete regime forces in the region.

On the other hand, Russian fighter jets have executed nearly 40 airstrikes on ISIS positions throughout the Syrian desert since last night.

Yesterday, Observatory activists monitored a squadron of Russian fighter jets flying over the Syrian desert since the early hours of Sunday morning, along with executing intensive strikes on ISIS positions in Aleppo-Hama-Al-Raqqah triangle. The Russian airstrikes coincide with fierce clashes and exchange of shelling in the same region between ISIS members on one hand, and regime forces and their proxy militias on the other. It is worth noting that the Russian jets carried out over 70 airstrikes on the Syrian desert in the previous 24 hours.

Meanwhile, SOHR activists documented new human losses in the intensive bombardment and violent clashes in 24 hours, as seven regime soldiers and loyalists were killed, while ISIS lost 15 members. The death toll is expected to rise further as there are several combatants injured, some seriously. There are also unconfirmed reports of more casualties.

Since the 24th of March 2019, SOHR has documented the killing of at least 1,066 regime soldiers and loyalists of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities, including at least two Russians, and 144 Iranian-backed militiamen of non-Syrian nationalities. All were killed in attacks, bombings, and ambushes by the “Islamic State”, west of Euphrates in the deserts of Deir Ezzor, Homs, and Al-Suwaidaa.

Also, four civilians working in gas fields, 11 shepherds, and four other people were killed and documented by SOHR in the same period, from late March 2019 until today. They were killed in attacks by ISIS cells. While 601 ISIS members were also killed in attacks and bombardment in the same period.

Source: https://www.syriahr.com/en/195945/

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In 2015, at the start of the wave of migrants who hit European shores over the next few years, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that migration and asylum would “preoccupy Europe much, much more than the issue of Greece and the stability of the euro”—the major concern following the 2007-2008 global financial crisis. Four years later, few would argue with her statement. In 2016, British citizens voted to leave the European Union, in part over fears of migration. Across the continent, far-right extremism—likewise fueled by xenophobia—has risen. Worries about Islamist terrorism, meanwhile, have grown. Yet the continent not only lacks a coordinated, humane, and comprehensive policy on immigration, which is only going to become more pressing in the months and years to come but also seems unable to agree on even short-term measures.

During a short visit I took to Istanbul, the delegation I traveled with witnessed a group of several hundred refugees who were apparently locked up in a park next to the bus station as the authorities dragged their feet, unsure of what to do with those new arrivals and unwilling to let them move on to the Turkish borders to attempt to make their next move into Europe.

Following months of confusion, uncertainty, and hyperbole, it was to Turkey that the European Union turned to offer a financial deal in March 2016 to keep the refugees and migrants in that country, believing that it would prevent unchecked arrivals into Europe. The deal was unpopular on the left. Aid groups highlighted the issues with sending refugees back to Turkey, in particular, the legal issues associated with the 1951 Refugee Convention. Meanwhile, with a sudden increase in support for right-wing parties, including in Hungary, Austria, and France, there was a growing view that the new arrivals posed a threat to both security and the identity of Europe itself.

The polarized debate persists.

Despite the recent outing of Italy’s anti-immigrant interior minister, Matteo Salvini, whose closed-harbor policy effectively banned refugees and migrants from entering Italy, the right’s position—hard borders and limits on integration and resettlement initiatives—generally holds sway. Those on the left of the debate continue to call for open borders, pointing to some evidence that the migrants could bring economic benefits. In Armenia, for example, the government has accepted refugees from the Armenian diaspora. After being integrated, this policy has proved successful in bringing in people with new skills and helping grow businesses across the country.

As the debate continues, real people are suffering. In Libya, the United Nations has described the situation inside detention camps where migrants are held as they attempt to cross the Mediterranean into Europe as “appalling.” In 2017, European Council President Donald Tusk announced that he would close the Central Mediterranean migration route, which in practice has meant that those refugees and migrants seeking to enter Europe via Libya have been stuck in the detention centers. Libyan coast guard boats have intercepted European-bound boats and sent them back to the Libyan detention centers, where refugees and migrants have been denied sufficient food and medical care. Hundreds of those who have tried to cross from the camps to Europe died trying to make the crossing this past year.

Meanwhile, there has been a steady rise in the number of refugees and migrants arriving in Greece. The latest figures indicate that 44,000 asylum-seekers traveled across the Aegean Sea between January and November, an increase of one-third over the 32,500 through all of 2018. Tens of thousands of them live in horrific circumstances in Greek camps. In late October, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatovic, said that the camps are “on the edge of catastrophe” and “explosive.” She estimated that there are 100,000 migrants and refugees living in bad conditions in the country, with a long delay in processing asylum applications.

At the end of October, though, the newly elected Greek government enacted tighter asylum laws, which means people caught in the system will stay there longer. And on Nov. 19, Alkiviadis Stefanis, the Greek deputy defense minister, announced that Athens was shutting the Moria camp on Lesbos to process asylum claims the 15,000 asylum-seekers there. The previous week, Greek police discovered 41 migrants in a refrigerated truck in the country’s north. The incidents are a reminder that for many migrants, the risks are worth the chance to start a new life.

And in the coming months and years, Europe could see even more refugees attempting to get to its borders. Along with the ongoing conflicts in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, there is a growing realization that climate migration will result in a large influx of people from newly uninhabitable places all seeking to rebuild their lives.

The post The European Union Needs to Prepare for the Next Wave of Migrants first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Around 10,000 Daesh detainees and their families in nearby camps in northeastern Syria present a big security risk, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday, even though the US-allied Syrian Kurdish militia was fully capable of keeping them secure, reports Reuters.

“It’s not a particularly secure situation,” the official told reporters in a conference call. “It’s a ticking time bomb to simply have the better part of 10,000 detainees, many of them foreign fighters,” he said and repeated Washington’s stance that they should be repatriated to their countries.

Daesh leader Abu Bakr Baghdadi killed himself during a US military operation in Syria – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

Daesh has lost almost all of its territory in Iraq and Syria. Its former leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a US raid last month. World leaders welcomed his death, but they and security experts warned that the group, which carried out atrocities against religious minorities and horrified most Muslims, remained a security threat in Syria and beyond.

OPINION: Baghdadi is dead, but what about Daesh?

Allies have been worried that Daesh militants could escape as a result of Turkey’s assault against Syrian Kurdish militia who have been holding thousands of the group’s fighters and tens of thousands of their family members.

“We are very confident about the ability of SDF to secure all of the detention facilities that they are holding people in and to manage al-Hol camp, but again, we don’t want to put any of this under any risk for any kind of humanitarian, counter-terrorism and other reasons,” the official said.

READ: Turkey starts repatriation of foreign Daesh fighters in Syria

Source: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20191113-thousands-of-daesh-detainees-in-syria-a-ticking-time-bomb/

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Something’s stirring in Central Asia. Nearly a year ago, we wrote an article about the threat of Islamist radicalism in the region. Central Asia has long been vulnerable to such destabilizing movements, in part because of events that have unfolded over several years. In Afghanistan, the U.S. has effectively given up on trying to rid the country of jihadists and is now looking for a way to leave without sacrificing any more blood or treasure. In Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, Islamic State fighters are returning home, experienced, motivated and facing uncertain futures. But a number of more recent developments have forced us to take a harder look at the region and examine whether it’s now reaching a turning point.

The most recent event that caught our eye was a riot on May 19 in a Tajik prison where Islamic State militants are being held. According to the Ministry of Justice, the rebellion, which killed three guards and 29 prisoners, started late Sunday in the city of Vahdat, located 10 kilometers from the capital. The ministry claims that the riot was organized by 35 Islamic State fighters, including Behruz Gulmurod, a former military leader for IS and the son of the former commander of the Tajik special forces.

Similar incidents have happened before. In November 2018, 21 prisoners and two officers were killed in a prison riot in the northern city of Khujand. The Islamic State took responsibility for that incident as well, but thus far, the group hasn’t carried out attacks in Tajikistan outside of prisons – but it might be only a matter of time before it does. Last week, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon called on the international community to increase efforts to fight IS in Afghanistan, noting that members of the group have been transferred to Afghanistan for a specific purpose. Having gained combat experience in Syria and Iraq, they can now use that experience to help destabilize the region.

According to Tajikistan’s border guard, there are roughly 16,000 militants (including some from the Islamic State) in northern Afghanistan near the Tajik border, 6,000 of whom are foreign fighters. But the reliability of these figures and the general level of the terrorist threat in this part of the world is still unclear. Tajikistan has every reason to play up the threat, hoping to win support for any counterterrorism operations it might launch in the future. The country has relatively few resources at its disposal, and it needs to encourage outside actors – whether Russia or the United States or even China – to help keep Islamic extremist threats at bay. Russia and China, in particular, may have an interest in helping Tajikistan, as they themselves may become the next target for extremist groups that gain a foothold in Central Asia. Indeed, the destabilization of Tajikistan would affect many nearby countries that are much larger than Tajikistan and therefore more attractive targets. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia and China could all see a flood of Tajik refugees as well as a larger IS presence on their own soil. Even if the figures are accurate, the militants may be scattered, making it difficult for them to coordinate, plan attacks and grow into anything resembling what IS managed to establish in Syria and Iraq.

But there is a ring of truth in Rahmon’s comments. If the militants are able to establish a more permanent presence in the region, the threat to Central Asian countries will increase. Many of these fighters are looking for the kinds of power vacuums that Islamic extremists have taken advantage of in the past. Central Asia’s brittle, post-Soviet republics are a tempting target, and Rahmon knows it.

Indeed, Rahmon isn’t the only significant figure to call attention to this issue. On Tuesday, the director of Russia’s Federal Security Services said there were about 5,000 Islamic militants who had fought in Syria now in northern Afghanistan. And last week, a senior Russian general warned of the worsening security situation in Central Asia. He said the number of Islamic State militants in Afghanistan has tripled since 2016, when they numbered roughly 1,900, and that the situation could reach crisis levels by next year. The overall number is fairly small, but the speed at which it’s growing and the experience of the newest recruits should not be underestimated.

Uzbekistan, one of Central Asia’s most powerful and politically dynamic countries, is also worried about the situation in Afghanistan. On May 14, Uzbekistan held snap drills in Surkhandarya region, near the Afghan border, and military units there were put on the highest level of combat readiness. Uzbekistan, the region’s most populous country, is in the midst of a major political transition and is also hoping to attract foreign investment. To do so, it has considered loosening government control by, for example, easing internet censorship and offering cautious support to religious education institutions to give observant Muslims an alternative to the religious ideology offered by the Islamic State.

None of the recent developments suggest that Central Asia has reached a breaking point. And it’s important not to treat Central Asian countries as a monolith – a country like Uzbekistan has more resources at its disposal to hold back extremist groups than a country like Tajikistan, which needs all the help it can get from not just Russia but even regional heavyweights like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Moreover, this is one issue that ironically may boost cooperation among Central Asian states, just as it did in the Middle East, where the rise of the Islamic State forced countries like the U.S. and Iran, or Israel and Saudi Arabia to work together – even if temporarily.

Still, the threat is growing, and Central Asian countries are worried that a peace deal between the U.S. and the Taliban could only make things worse. China also must keep a watchful eye on these developments, as Central Asia is a linchpin in its Belt and Road Initiative. For China, jailing and brainwashing Uighurs is one way to make sure its borders are well protected. In the meantime, the Islamic jihadists in Central Asia are gathering strength and biding their time.

Source: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/chinas-navy-growing-so-fast-its-running-out-names-its-warships-58692

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