“Five
U.S. Special Operations troops, fighting alongside their Afghan
counterparts, were wounded recently while battling Islamic State
militants in Afghanistan’s Nangahar province, the top U.S. general there
said Thursday. Speaking to reporters from Kabul, U.S. Army Gen. John W.
Nicholson Jr. said that the troops had been wounded from small-arms
fire and shrapnel in the past week. He did not specify when exactly the
injuries occurred. Two of the service members have already returned to
their unit, while the three others had been evacuated out of
Afghanistan, though their injuries are not life-threatening, Nicholson
said. The troops came under fire during what Nicholson called ‘clearing
operations’ as U.S. and Afghan troops pushed into southern Nangahar
following a series of airstrikes.”
“Syrian
jihadist group Jabhat al Nusra has announced it is severing ties with
al Qaeda and changing its name to Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham, according to a
video statement from leader Abu Mohammad al-Golani. Though Golani, in
his first video appearance, said the new group will have ‘no affiliation
to any external entity,’ U.S. officials quickly dismissed the
rebranding as a public relations ploy. The supposed breakup comes less
than two weeks after Secretary of State John Kerry said the United
States and Russia had agreed to cooperate in Syria against al Nusra in
an effort to ‘restore the cessation of hostilities, significantly reduce
the violence and help create the space for a genuine and credible
political transition’ in the war-ravaged country.”
“On
July 3, 292 Iraqis were killed during ISIS’ deadliest attack thus far.
In a crowded street in Baghdad’s Karrada neighborhood, a vehicle-borne
improvised explosive device, or VBIED, detonated after midnight, causing
nearby dwellings to be engulfed in flames. Many residents were trapped
inside the inferno — it was estimated that 20 to 30 people died from the
initial explosion. But investigators at the scene are now concerned
with another potential threat: The terrorist group may have developed
and used a new type of bomb.”
“U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry’s attempt to elicit Russian military
cooperation in the fight against Islamic State in Syria suffered two
potentially crippling blows on Thursday. First, the Syrian army said it
had cut off all supply routes into the eastern part of the city of
Aleppo — Syria’s most important opposition stronghold — and President
Bashar al-Assad’s government asked residents to leave the city. That
move, U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity said on
Thursday, appeared to be an effort to pre-empt a U.S. demand that Russia
and Syria reopen a major road into the divided northern city before
talks could begin on creating a joint intelligence center to coordinate
air attacks against Islamic State.”
“The
relentless series of mass killings across the globe poses a challenge
for experts trying to analyze them without lapsing into faulty
generalizations. Terms like contagion and copycat killing apply in some
cases, not in others, they say, and in certain instances perpetrators’
terrorist ideology intersects with psychological instability.”
“The
mushrooming of small-scale terror attacks in Europe has allowed Islamic
State and its adherents to keep people here on edge without having to
train and equip teams to pull off highly sophisticated operations.
Indeed, some U.S. officials say they believe some of the simpler attacks
on softer targets of the type seen recently will prove to have been
directed by Islamic State, not just inspired by the group. ‘We know
there is a command and control structure behind some of these attacks,’
said a U.S. official. ‘Islamic State has filled up the pipeline with
militants in Europe.’ According to U.S. officials the smaller attacks
may be designed to overwhelm law-enforcement and intelligence
services — helping operatives planning a bigger attack to move around
undetected.”
“The
Obama administration has revamped a program designed to lure foreign
fighters away from extremist groups like the Islamic State, focusing on a
series of new advertisements and social media posts that seek to appeal
to emotion rather than logic. Money for the program, which is managed
by the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, tripled this year,
to $16 million, after administration officials concluded that past
efforts that had attempted to scare potential militants away from the
extremist groups were not working.”
“Islamic
State, pushed off more than half the Iraqi territory it seized in 2014,
has suffered a near collapse in revenue from oil smuggling, officials
say, forcing it to cut fighters’ pay, levy new taxes and raise fines for
breaking its religious code. The jihadist group has lost control of a
series of oil fields, and is having to sell what production that remains
at steep discounts to persuade truck drivers to collect it and run the
gauntlet of U.S.-led air strikes. Alongside taxes, ransoms and
antiquities trading, oil has been a major fundraiser for Islamic State
operations. At one point it made millions of dollars a month in sales to
neighboring Syria and Iran, or to makeshift local refineries.”
“As
a rebel faction of Turkey’s military began a violent attempt to topple
the elected government, the country’s top officer, Gen. Hulusi Akar, was
held at gunpoint in his office in the capital and told for the first
time about what was happening. Now, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
wages a widespread purge, jailing and suspending tens of thousands of
state employees, the military that has long served as a unifying force
for the country is deeply divided, diminished and discredited. Nearly
half of the top generals and admirals have been jailed or dismissed and
thousands of foot soldiers charged. More than 1,500 officers were
dishonorably discharged this week in advance of a meeting of the Supreme
Military Council in Ankara on Thursday, where leaders were expected to
consider a broader restructuring of the military.”
“A
multinational task force battling Boko Haram said on Thursday it had
recaptured the only town in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state that was
still held by the Islamist militant group. Boko Haram, which formed in
Borno, has waged an insurgency since 2009 to carve out a state based on
sharia (Islamic law) in the northeast of Africa’s most populous country.
More than 15,000 people have been killed and some 2.4 million
displaced. Damasak, captured by Boko Haram in October 2014, was part of
an area around the size of Belgium that the jihadist group controlled in
northeast Nigeria by the end of 2009. Its attacks have spread to
neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, which prompted those nations to
combine troops to form the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF).”
“It
has been another bloody year on the battlefield for Afghan soldiers and
police officers, who have experienced a surge in casualties over last
year, according to the top U.S. general in the region. The number of
those killed so far this year is about 20 percent higher than during the
same period last year, Gen. John Nicholson said Thursday without
disclosing exact figures. In all of 2015, there were 20,000 casualties
among Afghan Security Forces, he added. The Taliban militants opposing
the government forces have fought steadily through 2016, including over
the winter, officials said. The fledgling democracy has also been
tormented by rival terror group ISIS.”
United States
“US
intelligence agents are studying files captured from ISIS in a bid to
identify potential terrorists returning to the west. The cache includes
some 10,000 documents and 4.5 terabytes of information containing the
identities and countries of origin of the terror group’s fighters. Also
contained in the intelligence files are details of the routes used to
smuggle terrorists in and out of the warzone. The information was
captured in Manbij in Northern Syria after the terror group was pushed
back from the city. Intelligence agents hope the information will help
them identify ISIS terrorist cells while also providing details of the
group’s finances and might even lead to military strikes against senior
terror leaders. It is estimated that almost 43,000 terrorists from 12
countries have at least attempted to go to Iraq and Syria.”
“Battlefield
success against ISIS may produce more terrorism for the West, FBI
Director James Comey warned this week. Speaking to a cybersecurity
conference at Fordham University Wednesday, Comey predicted that
eventually crushing ISIS in its self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and
Iraq will likely result in dispersing terrorists elsewhere. ‘At some
point there is going to be a terrorist diaspora out of Syria like we’ve
never seen before,’ Comey said. ‘Not all of the Islamic State killers
are going to die on the battlefield.’ The FBI director’s warning that
the collapse of the caliphate will mean increased attacks in Western
Europe and the United States mirrors a consensus among intelligence
officials.”
Syria
“People
allowed to flee besieged areas of the Syrian city of Aleppo using new
humanitarian corridors must be given protection, the Red Cross says. Aid
workers must also be allowed access to civilians and ensure that
families who choose to leave are kept together, the agency added.
Russia, Syria’s ally, says three routes will be open for civilians and
unarmed rebels and a fourth for armed rebels. Meanwhile the US says it
is assessing if a coalition strike killed civilians. Unverified, graphic
images from a village near Manbij, northern Syria, have been posted on
social media.”
“Syrian
and Russian forces are to open humanitarian corridors for people to
flee the besieged city of Aleppo, officials in both countries said
Thursday, the day after Syria’s army announced it had encircled the city
and cut off rebel supply routes. In a ‘large-scale humanitarian
operation,’ three relief corridors would be set up to distribute food
and medical aid to civilians, and provide them — along with rebels who
chose to surrender — the opportunity to leave the city, Russia’s
Ministry of Defense said. A fourth corridor would be established in
northern Aleppo to allow for the withdrawal of armed insurgents, the
statement said, calling it an exceptional attempt to spare civilians from violence.”
Iraq
“Fourteen
civilians were killed and another was injured in six U.S. air strikes
against al Qaeda and Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria between
July 28 last year and April 29 this year, the U.S. military said on
Thursday. ‘We deeply regret the unintentional loss of life and injuries
resulting from our airstrikes and express our sympathies to those
affected,’ said a statement from U.S. Central Command, which oversees
U.S. military operations in the Middle East. The strikes took place
against Khorasan Group, an al Qaeda offshoot in Syria, and Islamic State
facilities and vehicles in Iraq, the military said.”
Turkey
“As
the Turkish government continues a widespread purge of its countrymen
following last week’s coup attempt, precise numbers of those implicated
are becoming clearer. In the wake of the failed coup, Ankara has
launched an unprecedented crackdown on those they claim were involved.
In moves that many note appear to be well-scripted enough to have been
planned in advance, approximately 1,684 military personnel have been
dishonorably discharged, and tens of thousands of civil servants have
been fired. On Wednesday, the Turkish military provided a statement to
Turkey’s NTV television and said it believes 8,651 soldiers took part in
the coup, roughly 1.5% of Turkey’s forces. The statement also provided
figures for military hardware used.”
“Turkey’s
purge of its military after a failed coup attempt is hindering
cooperation in the U.S.-led fight against Islamic State, James Clapper,
the U.S. director of national intelligence, said on Thursday. The purge
has swept aside many Turkish officers who dealt with the United States
and landed some of them in jail, Clapper and head of U.S. Central
Command General Joseph Votel said while both were speaking at the Aspen
Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado. Turkey launched a major overhaul of
NATO’s second-biggest military after the abortive coup, in which Turkish
President Tayyip Erdogan narrowly escaped capture and possible death.
Nearly 1,700 military personnel received dishonorable discharges over
their alleged role in the July 15–16 putsch, including around 40 percent
of Turkey’s admirals and generals.”
“Turkey’s
top military commander, who was held hostage during an attempted coup,
kept his post Thursday, while the general who served as acting chief of
staff was promoted following a purge in the military following the
failed putsch. Hulusi Akar, a four-star general, retained his position
as chief of staff, the presidency announced after a meeting of the
Supreme Military Council, representing the commanders of NATO’s second
largest army. The decisions came after Turkey discharged nearly 1,700
officers, including 149 generals and admirals, suspected of involvement
in the July 15 attempted coup. A senior Turkish official described the
actions as ‘dishonorable discharges.’”
“The
Turkish authorities have announced the closure of 131 media
organisations, as a crackdown continues following the failed coup on 15
July. Three news agencies, 16 TV channels, 23 radio stations, 45 papers,
15 magazines and 29 publishers will be shut. One of them, Zaman, once
one of Turkey’s biggest newspapers, was put under state control in
March. Arrest warrants have been issued for 47 staff. Many of the media
outlets are linked to the US-based cleric Fetullah Gulen. The government
says Mr Gulen was behind the army-led attempted coup, a claim he
denies. Separately, the government announced on Wednesday that nearly
1,700 members of the armed forces, including 149 generals and admirals
had been discharged. At least 246 people died during the coup, and more
than 2,000 people were injured.”
Afghanistan
“The
Afghan government lost control or influence of nearly 5 percent of its
territory between January and May, the U.S government’s top watchdog on
Afghanistan said in a report on Friday, an indication of the challenges
its forces are facing. Fifteen years after the United States invaded
Afghanistan to topple the Taliban rulers who had harbored al Qaeda
militants who attacked the United States, the Taliban have made major
gains and are estimated to control more territory than at any time since
2001. Washington has been training and equipping Afghan security forces
in order to withdraw America troops from the country, but the Afghans
remain short of personnel and hardware.”
“Afghanistan
has been hollowed out as its citizens have fled poverty and war, many
seeking work in Pakistan, Iran or Persian Gulf nations, or risking the
perilous trail to Europe. But this specific emigration pattern — of
thousands of young men flowing into neighboring Iran and then on to
fight alongside the Syrian government and its allies — has provoked
extraordinary anguish for families here and for Afghanistan’s
government, particularly over the past year. Leaving a country racked by
decades of war, the young Afghans who choose the path to Syria then
fall into peril on the bloody front lines of Aleppo, Homs or other
battlegrounds. Iranian state news media and some Afghan officials
suggest that hundreds have been killed in battles over the past year.”
Yemen
“Yemen’s
Shiite rebels on Thursday announced a formal alliance with the
country’s ousted president and his onetime ruling party by forming a new
political council to rule the country, which analysts warn could add a
wrinkle to peace talks with the current government. The rebels, known as
Houthis or Ansar Allah, signed a deal with the General People’s
Congress, led by the ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh, agreeing to
form a council of 10 members, five from each party. The two sides said
they would work together to confront the Saudi-led military coalition,
which supports the internationally-recognized government months after it
fled the country. The Houthis have controlled the capital, Sanaa, since
2014.”
“Yemen’s
dominant Houthi group and its allies in ex-president Ali Abdullah
Saleh’s party said on Thursday they would establish a governing council
to run the country, in a move the United Nations said threatens peace
talks in Kuwait. Senior officials in President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s
government said the move undermined diplomatic efforts to end a
devastating civil war that has drawn in a Saudi-led Arab coalition and
caused a humanitarian crisis. The announcement by the Iranian-allied
Houthis and Saleh’s General Peoples’ Congress Party (GPC) could unravel
an already shaky ceasefire that took effect in April and had reduced the
intensity of the conflict.”
Egypt
“Egypt’s
former top auditor, who was sacked after alleging government
corruption, has been given a prison sentence for spreading ‘false news’.
Hisham Geneina was fired in March by President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi
after estimating corruption had cost Egypt $67.6bn (£51.3bn) over four
years. He was sentenced to a year in jail and fined $2,200 but told he
could avoid prison if he paid an additional $1,100, judicial sources
said. His lawyer said he would appeal. Lawyer Ali Taha said prosecutors
had failed to prove their accusations and said the case for the defence
had not been examined. Reporters were not allowed to attend the
sentencing at a Cairo court.”
“A
doctor who carried out female genital mutilation (FGM) on a 13-year-old
girl who later died from her injuries has been jailed in Egypt, an
unprecedented step in a country with one of the highest rates of the
practice in the world. In January 2015, Raslan Fadl became the first
person to be convicted of performing FGM in Egypt following the death of
his patient, Souheir al-Batea, in the country’s northeast Daqahlia
governorate. Last week, he turned himself into a police station, around
18 months after his conviction. According to Reda Eldanbouki, executive
director of the Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance in Egypt
and a lawyer who successfully prosecuted al-Batea’s case with the help
of Equality Now, an international human rights organization, Fadl
continued to practice medicine freely after his conviction.”
Middle East
“Touring
communities in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip Thursday, Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu proclaimed that Israel’s 2014 war against Hamas had
produced ‘the two quietest years in a long time.’ Netanyahu said Hamas
was dealt a hard and ‘unprecedented’ blow during the war, touting a
policy of ‘responding decisively to any violation of the calm’ as
crucial to maintaining deterrence two summers later. ‘Quiet here equals
quiet in Gaza,’ while ‘an attack on us will lead to destruction and
devastation on the other side of the fence,’ added the prime minister,
who in recent days has faced withering criticism from political rivals
and bereaved parents over the degree of Israel’s preparedness for the
war.”
Nigeria
“The
United Nations has accused the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram of
‘almost unimaginable’ violence and brutality in Nigeria. Stephen
O’Brien, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator, said the militant group’s
actions had forced thousands to flee and left unprecedented numbers in
need. The UN estimates that more than nine million people in the region
need humanitarian assistance. Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to the
so-called Islamic State. Mr O’Brien told the UN Security Council that
Nigeria was bearing ‘the brunt of the crisis’, with Nigerians accounting
for seven of the nine million people in need.
“Boko
Haram Islamic extremists ambushed a humanitarian convoy escorted by
troops in northeast Nigeria on Thursday, wounding three civilians
including a U.N. worker, and two soldiers, the army and UNICEF said. The
attack comes as aid agencies are warning that children are dying of
starvation daily among more than 500,000 people in need of urgent help
in recently liberated areas that still are dangerous to reach. An
employee of the U.N. Children’s Fund and a contractor for the
International Organization for Migration were among those wounded in the
ambush on the road from the city of Bama to Maiduguri, the regional
capital and headquarters of the military’s campaign against the Islamic
insurgency that is 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) to the northwest.”
United Kingdom
“Five
books regarded as ‘extremist’ by the Prison Service remained in jail
libraries in England and Wales for seven months after a review called
for their removal, the BBC has learnt. Two of the authors are seen as
having inspired jihadists in the Arab world. Extremism academic Dr
Chetan Bhatt said the presence of these books within prison libraries
was ‘worrying’. The government said the texts had been identified as
part of the Acheson review into extremism in prisons. The BBC
understands that Ian Acheson’s inspection team first alerted the
Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to the presence of the books in November 2015.
One or more of the texts had been found in chaplaincy rooms at nine of
the 11 prisons visited by the review team.”
“The
United Kingdom threat level from international terrorism is currently
set at ‘severe.’ This means that the security and intelligence agencies
believe that ‘an attack is highly likely.’ It has been at this level
since August 2014 when it was raised in response to developments in Iraq
and Syria including the increased number of foreign fighters travelling
to the Middle East from Britain and Europe. Since then we have seen the
extremist threats in Europe mature and become more acute, while the
U.K. has so far been spared an attack. It is difficult to know why that
is the case. It could be thanks to effective efforts by security and
intelligence agencies, or it could be because the Islamic State militant
group (ISIS), Al-Qaeda or other groups do not currently have the
capacity to launch an attack on British soil.”
Germany
“Around
400 German police conducted raids at a mosque and eight apartments in a
‘hotbed’ of radical Islam near Hannover. It came as police near
Stuttgart arrested a 15-year-old who they believe was planning a mass
shooting. The raids took place in Hildesheim, a town which Lower Saxony
Interior Minister Boris Pistorius described as ‘a hotbed of radical
Salafist’ activity. He said that up to 400 police and special forces
took part in the operations, though no figures were released regarding
how many arrests were made.”
France
“In
the past 18 months France has suffered seven deadly Islamist attacks.
The murder of an 84-year-old priest in a church near the northern city
of Rouen on Tuesday, was the latest tragedy to hit a nation which is
already overwhelmed with grief and fear. This incident came less than
two weeks after an attacker ploughed a truck into Bastille Day revelers
in Nice, killing 84 people. These were the latest in the recent spate of
attacks that have collectively claimed the lives of 230 people.
Historically, French security services have dealt successfully with
Islamic extremism, particularly in the middle of the civil war that
rocked its former colony Algeria in the 1990s. But they became
complacent while countries such as the U.K. dealt with a greater threat
after 9/11, says Jason Burke, the author of the acclaimed book on this
subject The New Threat From Islamic Militancy.”
“The
French authorities on Thursday identified a second man who stormed a
church in Normandy and killed an 85-year-old priest as he celebrated
Mass. The Paris prosecutor’s office identified the man as Abdel-Malik
Nabil Petitjean, 19. It was not clear how he knew the other killer, Adel
Kermiche, also 19, who lived near the church, the Église St.-Étienne,
in St.-Étienne-du-Rouvray, a working-class suburb of Rouen. Both were of
Algerian ancestry. They were shot dead by the police after the assault
on the church on Tuesday, which also left an 86-year-old parishioner
severely wounded; he is in stable condition.”
“France’s
anti-terror measures are under intense scrutiny again, because both of
the Islamists who attacked a church in Normandy were known to the
security services as potential threats and one of them was wearing an
electronic surveillance tag. After last year’s jihadist atrocities in
Paris, claimed by so-called Islamic State (IS), it emerged that many of
the killers had also been on French anti-terror watch lists. There is a
database called the S list (S standing for ‘state security’) containing
20,000 names, of whom 10,500 are suspected jihadists. Not all of them
are under electronic surveillance. Besides jihadists there are also
other political extremists and even hooligans, France’s Le Figaro
newspaper reports. The suspects are given various threat levels.”
Europe
“As
Islamic State militants continue to lose seized territory in Syria and
Iraq, the group has claimed a number of deadly terror attacks in
countries around the world over the past two months. There have been at
least 14 attacks outside of Syria and Iraq since early June, when ISIS
ramped up its campaign of killings during the Muslim holy month of
Ramadan. But whether the killings have been directed (like the Paris
attacks) or largely solitary acts (including the killing of 49 people at
gay nightclub in Orlando), ISIS touts them as evidence of its ability
to carry out global attacks. The rising frequency of these plots has led
to security fears in a number of countries, as some analysts point
toward a trend of ISIS increasingly attempting attacks abroad to
compensate for its losses closer to home.”
“The
scale of violence in western Europe to date this summer has shocked
Europeans and the world alike. But when put in a global and historical
context, the figures and headlines quickly give us a different
perspective on the global proliferation of terrorism and its victims.
Figures from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) show that since 2012
there has been a dramatic rise in the number of deaths from terrorist
attacks across the world. In western Europe, however, the figure has
decreased since the early 1990s. David Miller, professor of sociology at
the University of Bath, says: ‘The figures would tend to suggest that
there is much less of a threat from terrorism overall now than there was
then.’”
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário