GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – At least 21 people were killed in two separate attacks on Christian church services Sunday 29 April, in northern Nigeria.
In a first attack at a university campus in Kano, Nigeria’s second largest city, gunmen killed at least 16 worshippers congregating at a lecture hall, using explosives and gunfire, as people attempted to flee. A chapel in the city of Maiduguri was later attacked, and five people, including the pastor, were killed.
No one claimed responsibility for the attacks but the attacks resembled others carried out by the Boko Haram sect, which has used bombs and guns in previous attacks in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north and in the country’s capital, Abuja. Earlier victims have included Christians, Muslims and government officials.
Officials claim the group has links with Al-Qaeda sympathizers including Islamist insurgents in northern Mali. In March Tuareg and islamists took control of northern Mali.
Links to other sources: The Guardian, CNN, Reuters, AP
THE HAGUE – The International Criminal Court in The Hague has asked Interpol to issue Red Notices for three Libyan leaders for whom arrest warrants were issued in June: Muammar Qaddafi, Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi and Abdullah Al-Senussi. The three are wanted on charges of suspected crimes against humanity, murder and torture.
The ICC’s prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo announced the measure 8 September, saying that arresting Qaddafi “is a matter of time”.
An Interpol Red Notice seeks the provisional arrest of a wanted person with a view to extradition or surrender to an international court based on an arrest warrant or court decision, the ICC notes in a statement. Interpol, which has in the past year taken a number of steps to increase the effectiveness of the Red Notice system, says “Red Notices, issued at the request of any of the organization’s 188 member countries or an international tribunal for wanted international fugitives, are the most famous of Interpol’s series of colour-coded notices since their creation by Interpol in 1946. Red Notices are not international arrest warrants; they are aimed at circulating internationally a national arrest warrant or judicial decision concerning a wanted fugitive.”
Some 5,000 Red Notices are issued annually.
They have been used to help track down terrorists since 2005 when the Interpol-United Nations Security Council Special Notice was created following the passage of a UN Security Council resolution, to help the UN Security Council’s 1267 Committee carry out its mandate covering the freezing of assets, travel bans and arms embargos aimed at individuals and entities associated or belonging to al Qaeda and the Taliban.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Twenty-five people are reported dead following two suicide bomb attacks in the southern Pakistan city of Quetta Wednesday 7 September. The Taliban are calling them strike in revenge for the arrest of an al Qaeda leader. Reuters notes that “Al Qaeda has been weakened by the killing of Osama bin Laden by US special forces in Pakistan on May 2 and other setbacks including the capture of Mauritani, analysts say. But Wednesday’s attack illustrates how al Qaeda can turn to close allies like the Taliban to help it wage holy war during difficult times.”
Scores of people have died in a several such attacks in Pakistan since the start of 2011.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, Los Angeles Times, Reuters
PAKISTAN – A US drone strike in Pakistan killed up to 21 Afghan Al Qaeda fighters, say press agencies in the region.
The group has been blamed for some of the deadliest anti-American attacks in Afghanistan, including a suicide attack at a US base in 2009 that killed seven CIA operatives.
US officials have accused Pakistani intelligence of playing a double game with extremists, including the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network. It is believed that all the people killed in the strike were members of the latter.
Links to: Xinhua, Agence France Press
Update 11:15 US President Barack Obama announced in the early hours of Monday 2 May, Swiss time, that Western nemesis and terrorist leader Osama bin Laden was killed in an attack in Pakistan. He was killed in a US raid on the luxury residence near a Pakistani military base where he was staying in Abbottabad, about 150km north of Islamabad.
Reaction in US and the international media has been swift, starting with crowds gathering outside the White House to celebrate the end to a 10-year search for bin Laden. Al Jazeera’s correspondents in Pakistan and Afghanistan say that reaction there has so far been muted, and while the news agency reports US media are saying the body was taken to Afghanistan and dumped at sea, that “having the body may help convince any doubters that bin Laden is really dead.” The White House has not yet confirmed the news, which is being attributed widely to “a US official”.
The Economist notes that “Pakistani officials were not informed of the mission ahead of time, a detail that is likely to exacerbate tensions with the country. While it is not surprising that Mr bin Laden was found in Pakistan, most believed he was hiding out somewhere in the remote tribal areas. That he was found in a relatively large city raises troubling questions about what Pakistan’s spooks actually knew about his location.”
Pakistan’s Nation underscored that Obama had telephoned Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari. The Globe & Mail in Canada in a long report reviews the history of al-Qaeda and bin Laden since 11 September 2001 when terrorism took centre stage in the US. The Guardian details the 40-minute firefight that took bin Laden’s life, where three other people were also killed. They reportedly included a son of bin Laden and his most trusted courier.
National Public Radio in the US carries a biography of bin Laden, reminding readers that the 54-year-old Saudi Arabian citizen was the 17th child of 57 of a millionaire construction company owner, and the son spent his youth playing soccer and riding horses, before discovering radical Islamist ideas at university.
Links to other sites: Aljazeera, Economist, Fox News, Nation, Pakistan, The Globe & Mail, Canada, Guardian, UK, NPR
White House video (9 minutes) of Obama announcement of bin Laden death and press briefing transcript at the White House
A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd of mostly young men outside a police station in Tikrit, Iraq as they were waiting to submit applications for jobs in the security forces 18 January. Raied al-Ani, director of the local hospital, was quoted by the Atlanta Journal Constitution as saying 150 people were wounded in the attack. Many of these were transferred to nearby hospitals because of the limited facilities in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Coptic Christian communities in Australia, Canada and France fear attacks similar to the deadly suicide bombing at a church in Alexandria, Egypt at a New Year’s celebration that claimed 22 lives. Copts in Canada are asking police to step up security ahead of this week’s Christmas celebrations, and in Australia ceremonies have been cancelled amid threats against Coptic churches.
Shenouda III, the head of the Coptic Christian church in Egypt, appealed to his followers for calm on public television 3 January as enraged Copts clashed with riot police in various Egyptian cities for the third day leaving several people injured. He asked the government to address the issues affecting the Coptic community.
Copts make up 10 percent of the population of Egypt and say they are increasingly discriminated against in majority-Muslim Egypt. It is the largest non-Muslim religious minority in the Middle East. Al-Qaeda in Iraq announced last year that Christians were legitimate targets in the Middle East and attacked a Chaldean Christian church in Baghdad 31 October and massacred 54 people.
Links to other sites: ABC, Bloomberg, Globe & Mail, NPR
Germany says it has strong evidence of alleged Islamist militants were planning attacks in the next two weeks.
Authorities ordered security at potential targets such as train stations and airports to be tightened.
Germany has long viewed itself as a potential target because it has nearly 5,000 military personnel stationed in Afghanistan, the third largest contingent of the 150,000-strong international force fighting the Taliban-led insurgency.
Additional details: Euronews, Al Jazeera English
Jurors in New York City, USA, convicted Ahmed Ghailani of conspiracy to blow up US government buildings.
The charges were related to the Al Qaeda attacks of two US embassies in 1998.
Ghailani was acquitted on more than 280 other charges.
He is the only detainee transferred from Guantanamo Bay for trial since the US began filling the military prison in Cuba eight years ago.
Further details: Associated Press
French Immigration Minister Eric Besson defended his government’s acceptance of 35 Iraqi Christians who survived a deadly attack on the church they were worshipping in Baghdad 31 October. Our concern “is not to make all the Christians of the Middle East and of Iraq come here”, he said 11 November on a visit to the reception centre where the Iraqis are staying. “France’s aim is to strengthen the protection of Christians in the Middle East and in Iraq to preserve communities which have been home to multiple faiths for centuries”, he said. Besson also said he expects another 100 Iraqis to come in the “next days or weeks” and that if they applied for asylum they would receive it.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, visiting the site of the murderous attack this past Tuesday 9 November, said “The countries that have welcomed the victims… of this attack have done a noble thing, but that should not encourage emigration”, without naming France.
Some in France have pointed out the apparent hypocrisy in the French government’s expulsion of hundreds of Rom to Romania this summer. Others decry (Fre) a policy of “choosing your victims” and the dangers of playing into al-Qaeda’s hands (Fre) by singling out ethnic or religious minorities for special treatment. Al Qaeda in Iraq said after the attack on the church that Christians in Iraq were “legitimate targets” in its campaign.
Osama bin Laden is living in relative comfort in a house not far from his deputy in northwest Pakistan, says a senior Nato official familiar with sensitive intelligence in the war in Afghanistan, as reported by CNN 18 October. Interceptions of Taliban and al Qaeda communications indicate that the US cross-border drone attacks on militants have pushed their leaders from vulnerable border areas into more populated towns and even cities, where the risk of collateral damage limits potential attacks.
The Pakistani ambassador to the USA says that the accusation is ludicrous. “Anybody who thinks that … is smoking something they shouldn’t be”, Husain Haqqani was quoted as saying.
Some elements of the Pakistani government and intelligence services are suspected of being sympathetic to the Taliban and al Qaeda, which they see as useful allies against India.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Four new names have been added and as many deleted from the Swiss federal government’s black list for people with suspected Al Qaeda links. Assets belonging to anyone on the list are frozen and people with any knowledge of fiinancial transactions linked to those on the blacklist must by law report them.
The black list is part of the larger list Switzerland maintains, of economic sanctions against people from 18 countries.
An alleged high-ranking Al Qaeda leader has been killed in Iraq. According to the Iraqi military the unidentified man was killed during a joint operation Iraq-US operation.
Other links: Associated Press
Canadian holiday flights to the US have been chaotic thanks to the sudden implementation of stricter security measures after a Nigerian man was arrested for attempting to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit 25 December. No carry-on luggage is allowed on flights from Canada to the US, although the airlines are issuing lists of exceptions, including medications. Al Qaeda claims it was behind the failed Northwest flight attack.
Links to other sites: Air Canada, The Globe & Mail,
US and UK authorities are scrambling to check on possible terrorist links Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab might have to Al Qaeda, particularly in Yemen. He is the man who tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet with 300 people aboard 25 December, Christmas Day. Details about his background are gradually surfacing, after it became known that his father, a top banker in Nigeria, warned the US a month ago that he was concerned about his son’s extremist views. The plane he tried to explode was flying from Amsterdam, The Netherlands to Detroit, Michigan in the US.
A blast in the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu, killed three cabinet ministers and at least 18 other people Thursday 3 December, although AllAfrica, picking up the story from a UN humanitarian newsletter which cites a hospital source, puts the figure at 50 dead. The authors of the crime remain a mystery. A bomb exploded during a medical school graduation ceremony and suspicion quickly fell on an Islamist group, al Shabaab, but the group has denied it was involved. The extremist group has been locked in a power struggle with the Western-backed government, which the extremists accused of masterminding the blast, pointing out that the government itself has deep rifts. The US has called al Shabaab a proxy for al Qaeda in the region and Reuters reports that “Western security agencies say Somalia has become a safe haven for militants, including foreign jihadists, who are using it to plot attacks across the impoverished region and beyond.”
Update 17:05 Afghan election officials have announced that Hamid Karzai is the elected president of Afghanistan and cancelled the second round of the election, scheduled for 7 November. They expressed fears for security and the cost of going ahead with an election without a challenger, who withdrew.
Afghan election officials were to announce this week whether to hold the second round of presidential elections due Saturday 7 November, after challenger Abdullah Abdullah announced his decision to withdraw from the race Sunday, 1 Novmber. Abdullah had asked for the head of the election commission to resign as a condition for his participation. The first round of the election was widely seen to be compromised by massive fraud in favour of President Hamid Karzai.
Western countries had insisted on the run-off, in order to provide Karzai with a semblance of legitimacy, ahead of important decisions by the USA, Afghanistan’s main backer in the war against the Taliban militants and the remnants of al-Qaeda in the country. US President Barack Obama is to announce a major new US strategy in coming days, and the US administration has said it needed a “credible partner” in Kabul. BBC, CNN, New York Times
Pakistani army troops are slowly advancing deeper into South Waziristan, in northwest Pakistan from three directions to fight an estimated 10,000 battle-hardened Pakistani Taliban fighters on their own ground, close to the border with Afghanistan. Official reports say over 60 militants and six soldiers have died since the operation began Saturday 17 October but claims by either side cannot be verified. The Pakistan Taliban militants are backed by up to 1,000 Uzbek fighters loyal to al-Qaeda.
The hostilities have caused almost 24,000 civilians from the area to flee in the past few days, and almost 100,000 since May according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In anticipation, the UNHCR has set up four reception camps for displaced people. By Sunday, over 21,000 people had been registered, according to a UN official. The government has sent almost 29,000 troops supported by helicopter gunships and jet fighters into an area of 6,600 km2, about the combined size of the cantons of Bern and Solothurn.
Pakistan has suffered several bomb attacks around the country in the past week that have left over 170 dead. General David Petraeus, head of US Central Command, which covers Afghanistan, Paksistan and Iraq, is meeting Pakistani generals in Islamabad, Pakistan on Monday 19 October. BBC, Christian Science Monitor, Reuters
The UN Security Council voted unanimously 8 October to extend for an extra year the legal mandate it gives to Nato to deploy troops that provide assistance to the civilian government in Afghanistan. Nato currently has about 35,000 troops in the country. The US has more than 65,000, and the top US general in Afghanistan, Stanley McCrystal, has asked for 40,000 more US troops “in order to prevail.” The Obama administration is deliberating whether to increase the US presence in Afghanistan or to cut back and try to bring “reconcileable” Taliban forces into the political process, and concentrate military force on Al Qaeda on the border with Pakistan. BBC, CNN, Reuters
Indonesian anti-terror units killed four people and arrested a woman in a raid on a house in Solo City, central Java in Indonesia early 17 September, after a nine-hour siege. Police indicated that they were “90 percent sure” that one of the dead was Noordin Mohammed Top, Indonesia’s most wanted terrorist, believed responsible for suicide attacks on two hotels in the capital Jakarta in July. Noordin leads a radical splinter group called al Qaeda in the Malay Archipelago, an offshoot of Islamist group Jemaah Islamiyah. He was earlier believed to have been killed in a shoot-out with police in August, but police later identified the dead person as a florist who was giving the group information. AFP, CNN
A military raid on a car carrying suspected Islamist militants in southern Somalia has likely killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan-born man officials say was a senior member of al-Qaeda in Eastern Africa. Nabhan is believed to be responsible for a bomb attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya in 2002 which killed 15 people, and an attempt to shoot down an Israeli passenger plane flying out of Mombasa later that year. He may also have been involved in the US embassy bombings in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania in 1998.
Witnesses say six helicopters flew into the Barawe district in southern Somalia, 250km south of the capital Mogadishu, which is controlled by Al-Shabaab rebels fighting for supremacy in Somalia. Two fired missiles on the car. At least four bodies were removed and two wounded people were taken away by the helicopters’ crew. Al-Jazeera, AllAfrica, BBC, GaroweOnline
The New York Times takes an in-depth look at young men from Minnesota who left Somalia as small children and became refugees in the US, but who are now returning to their homeland to answer calls for a new Jihad. The newspaper says the reasons behind their departure are a mix of frustration, political awakening and faith, but they have joined Shabaab, a militant Islamist group with links to Al Qaeda and “the students are among more than 20 young Americans who are the focus of what may be the most significant domestic terrorism investigation since September 11.” Minnpost ran an article in March about the mosque in Minneapolis which had become a focus of attention for the Federal Bureau of Investigations, among other governent agencies.
Update 23:10 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Werner Greiner, a lawyer from Zurich, has been released in the north of Mali by the captors who have held him since January, the Swiss Foreign Affairs Department confirmed Sunday. Greiner was part of a group of six tourists taken hostage on a road from Mali to Niger where they were traveling after attending a music festival.
Image ©2008 E Hockstein/UNHCR, on flickr.com
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Over 204,000 people have fled their homes in the northern suburbs of Mogadishu, Somalia to escape fighting since Islamist militants began their campaign eight weeks ago to gain control of the city, according to Geneva-based UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). Local groups working with the UN agency say that fighting has claimed 105 lives and 380 wounded in the past week.
Somalia’s already difficult security situation is under more pressure after a suicide bomber killed the country’s security chief, Omar Hashi Aden, and 10 other people including Somali diplomats, at a hotel in Beledweyne, 400 km north of Mogadishu, near the border with Ethiopia. Al Shabab, presumed to have links to Al Qaeda, claimed the attack. They are one of several militant groups fighting the fragile government, which has United Nations support. Aid agencies say one-third of the population is unable to feed itself and needs outside help, reports the BBC. All Africa
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – British tourist Edwin Dyer was reportedly murdered in Mali Sunday 31 May by the North African affiliate of Al Qaeda (AQIM), according to the UK and Swiss governments. A Swiss, Werner Greiner, remains captive, prompting the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) to strongly condemn the action, saying it is “dismayed at the blow dealt by this barbaric act.” It calls for Greiner’s release.
Dyer and several other people were kidnapped 22 January on the Niger-Mali border by nomads who later sold them to Al Qaeda militants.
Four men have been arrested in New York, USA, after they agreed to buy missiles in an undercover operation. The men are being charged with conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction against the United States. The FBI (US Federal Bureau of Investigation) says the men were plotting to leave a bomb at the Riverdale Synagogue in the Bronx, then travel 85 km north of New York City to aim missiles at military planes. One of the men is the son of immigrants from Afghanistan. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement that their arrest shows that “homeland security threats against New York City [are] sadly all too real”. Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN, New York Times, Xinhua
In related FBI news a Canadian citizen, originally from Somalia and resident in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the US, pleaded guilty to charges of providing material support to Al Qaeda.
US President Barack Obama released classified government information on the use of torture as an interrogation technique on al-Qaeda suspects and Tuesday former Vice-President Dick Cheney replied saying that the CIA should release memos showing waterboarding works. BBC Obama told CIA employees that he released legal memos because the contents had already been publicly acknowledged. “Now, I have put an end to the interrogation techniques described in those OLC memos, and I want to be very clear and very blunt. I’ve done so for a simple reason: because I believe that our nation is stronger and more secure when we deploy the full measure of both our power and the power of our values.” The documents include memos from the Justice Department in 2002 and 2005 approving the use of waterboarding which simulates the sensation of drowning. Obama has banned the use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques that were legal under George W Bush. Related: Al Jazeera, Obama speech to CIA employees
US President Barack Obama made a gesture to improve relations with the Muslim world Monday 6 April in a speech to the Turkish parliament. “Our partnership with the Muslim world is critical in rolling back a fringe ideology that people of all faiths reject,” Obama said. Obama assured that the US supports the goals of both Palestine and Israel and wishes to see peace and security in the region. Reuters, Al Jazeera
A top US intelligence offical has told the NY Times that a former Yemeni detaine at Guantanamo Bay was released to Saudi Arabia, put through a rehabilitation programme – and he has has now surfaced as part of a Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda. Saudi Arabia disagrees.
