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Thread: The Trials and Affairs of Terrorists in the non DP World

  1. #201
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Kosovo, home to many ISIS recruits, is struggling to stamp out its homegrown terrorism problem

    By A.J. Naddaff
    The Washington Post

    PRISTINA, Kosovo — For all the attention paid to the emergence of homegrown Islamist terrorists in Belgium, France and other European countries, one of the continent’s biggest radicalization problems is taking place on its fringes.

    Kosovo, the tiny Muslim-majority Balkan nation of just 1.8 million, has produced more foreign fighters per capita than any other Western nation since the Islamic State declared its now-defunct caliphate in 2014. Some 413 Kosovo citizens, including women and children, have joined that group and other Islamist extremist factions since the war in Syria began in 2012.

    As it attempts to join the European Union, Kosovo has been under pressure to stamp out its radicalization problem — and authorities say they have succeeded. Since 2013, Kosovar police say they have indicted more than 120 terrorism suspects and arrested many more, including well-known conservative imams suspected of recruiting people to fight abroad.

    “Now we don’t see terrorism as a threat,” said Kujtim Bytyqi, one of the government’s senior security policy analysts and the head of Kosovo’s strategy to counter violent extremism. “There is total silence. All imams, even if they want to say something, are afraid of the government.”

    But many of those suspected terrorists, convicted under an older counterterrorism law in which prison sentences averaged between three and five years, are now being freed. And some say attempts to rehabilitate them have come up short.

    “We are growing stronger and getting smarter,” said Fitim Lladrovci, 28, a former Islamic State fighter and inmate, referring to extremists. “Terrorists will not be reintegrated, and there may be attacks here.”

    Anne Speckhard, who directs the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism, said that Lladrovci’s contempt for rehabilitation and strengthened radical beliefs probably are emblematic of “some other returning militant jihadis well beyond Kosovo.” The trend, she said, “bodes ill for all of us.”

    It’s a potentially ominous development for deradicalization efforts across the continent. “We have to provide a deradicalization model for the whole of Europe,” said Garentina Kraja, a senior external researcher for the Kosovo Center for Security Studies. “We’re a Muslim-majority society but we’re secular Europeans. So it feels like if there’s an example to be found somewhere, this is where we can provide a response.”

    Kosovo may also be an entry point into the European Union to launch attacks, said Daniel Koehler, the director of the German Institute on Radicalization and De-radicalization Studies. In early June, Kosovo authorities arrested a couple suspected of planning attacks on NATO troops in Kosovo as well as on public places in France and Belgium.

    Since April, the U.S. Justice Department has helped implement rehabilitation programs in Kosovo’s prisons for suspects facing terrorism charges. Before then, however, the country had no comprehensive program for rehabilitating returned fighters, according to the 2018 Kosovo European Commission report.

    “Most European countries have much more stable programs in place. In Germany, the U.K. and France, there is a long history of social welfare and prison infrastructure much stronger than in Kosovo,” Koehler said. “Kosovo is still recovering from its 1998-99 war against Serbia, and suffers corruption in the public sector and problems with rule of law.”

    The new U.S.-run program sends government psychologists, sociologists, social workers and moderate imams from the Islamic Community of Kosovo to work with inmates jailed on terrorism charges.

    That strategy — rehabilitating extremists through Islamic reeducation — has been tested in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries before, Koehler said, “but the method rarely works.” Lladrovci, who was released from prison three months ago after serving a little more than three years, scoffed at the idea of sending moderate imams vetted by the intelligence services. Returnees, he said, won’t accept those imams “because they are not real Muslims.”

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.aa0f656106be
    In the Shadow of Your Wings
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  2. #202
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    Amsterdam: 'Terrorist motive' alleged in attack on Americans

    By MIKE CORDER
    The Associated Press

    AMSTERDAM — A 19-year-old Afghan citizen had a "terrorist motive" for allegedly stabbing two Americans at the main train station in Amsterdam, city authorities in the Dutch capital said Saturday.

    Amsterdam police shot and wounded the suspect after the double stabbing Friday at Central Station. The local government said hours later that it appeared the victims weren't targeted for a specific reason, but added that investigators were not excluding any possibilities.

    After the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands on Saturday identified the people injured as American tourists, Amsterdam City Hall gave an update.

    "Based on the suspect's first statements, he had a terrorist motive," the city administration said in a statement that did not elaborate on what the statements were or how they showed intent.

    The wounded Americans were recovering in a hospital from what police termed serious but not life-threatening injuries. Their identities have not been released. The suspect, who was identified only as Jawed S. in line with privacy rules in the Netherlands, also remains hospitalized.

    Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte confirmed on Twitter that the investigation was focused Saturday on extremist ideology.

    W. had a residency permit from Germany. German authorities searched his home and seized data storage devices that would be analyzed as part of the investigation, the city government statement said.

    He was scheduled to be arraigned during a closed-door hearing with an investigating judge on Monday. Dutch officials did not disclose the charges he could face.

    A statement issued late Friday by Amsterdam's city council said the Americans did not appear to have been victims of a targeted attack. Amsterdam authorities also said Friday that it appeared from initial inquiries that the victims weren't chosen for a clear reason.

    The local government said Saturday it had no immediate plans to beef up security in the city, saying the swift action by police "shows that Amsterdam is prepared for this kind of incident."

    A passerby's dramatic photo showed two police officers pointing guns at a man in blue jeans and sneakers lying on the ground inside a train station tunnel.

    Earlier Saturday, the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands confirmed that the two people injured Friday were Americans visiting the Netherlands when they were stabbed at the station.

    Ambassador Pete Hoekstra issued a written statement saying U.S. Embassy officials had been in touch with the victims or their families.

    "We wish them a speedy recovery and are working closely with the City of Amsterdam to provide assistance to them and their families," Hoekstra said.

    Central Station is a busy entry and exit point for visitors to Amsterdam, with regular trains linking it to the city's Schiphol Airport. Friday is one of the busiest days of the week for train travel as tourists arrive for the weekend.

    The station is patrolled by armed police and other security staff.

    https://kutv.com/news/nation-world/a...k-on-americans
    In the Shadow of Your Wings
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  3. #203
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    One year later, mystery of Las Vegas massacre remains

    By Mark Berman
    The Washington Post

    When the first bullets cracked through the air over a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip last year, many concertgoers thought they were hearing fireworks. It took a moment to realize it was gunfire, a barrage of bullets that seemed endless, they recalled afterward.

    I remember my husband saying, 'Get down - get down,'" a 33-year-old woman from California who came to Las Vegas to attend the festival would later tell police. She was then hit in the upper left thigh: "It was within a few seconds of being on the floor I got shot instantly."

    She was one of 22,000 people at the Route 91 Harvest festival, a three-day country music concert, when a gunman perched in a 32nd-floor suite at the nearby Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino opened fire. He killed 58 people - the youngest was 20, the oldest was 67 - before taking his own life as police closed in. Another 869 people were injured, nearly half of them by gunfire or shrapnel, on top of countless others carrying the mental anguish that comes from living through the harrowing carnage and the confusion that came with the attack.

    The Las Vegas massacre is the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, a tragedy without clear comparison to the other recent shooting rampages that have cut down people in schools and movie theaters, churches and offices. Each rampage is its own nightmare, spurring an outpouring of sorrow, anger and grief affecting students in Parkland, Florida, churchgoers in Sutherland Springs, Texas, club patrons in Orlando and a church group in Charleston, South Carolina, among others.

    In Las Vegas, gunman Stephen Paddock fired for more than 10 minutes, police said, shooting more than 1,000 rounds at the concert venue, nearby airport fuel tanks and in his hotel hallway before turning a gun on himself.

    "It seemed to last forever and ever and ever and ever," one man who was shot in the upper shoulder at the concert told detectives.

    The nightmare of Oct. 1 gave the world stories of unimaginable horror and heroism, tales of people confronted with mortal, terrifying danger and risking life and limb to save one another. First responders and civilians alike rushed into the fray, tearing off shirts to use as tourniquets, taking the wounded into their cars, comforting strangers, throwing their bodies on top of others to shield them.

    "It was incredible," a woman who was shot in the chest later told police in an interview at the hospital. Men she didn't know put pressure on her wound, dragged her to safety, put her on a board and carried her out, getting her into a white pickup truck, she said.

    Among the enduring, painful legacies of that night has been what remains frustratingly out of reach. After mass killings, authorities often seek to provide some answers about the "why" - what could have motivated the attacker, fueled their rage, spurred them to kill unsuspecting bystanders. A year after the Las Vegas massacre, no answers have been forthcoming. The Las Vegas police, in their final investigative report on the shooting, said they were unable to determine what motivated the attack.

    "This report was authored to provide the reader with more information about who, what, when, and where," authorities wrote in the document, which was released in August. "Regretfully, this report will not be able to address the why."

    The report passed with relatively little notice in a world that shifted its attention from the Las Vegas massacre to the gunfire at a church in Texas and a high school in South Florida and a school in Texas, but it provided a grim reality.

    In many cases, mass violence has been preceded by warning signs visible to the people in the attackers' lives. In a study released this year, the FBI examined dozens of active shooters who opened fire between 2000 and 2013 and found that on average, they had displayed several "concerning behaviors." These warning signs, which become glaring red flags in hindsight, have a way of focusing the public pain and attention after a tragedy, as questions arise over what could or should have been done to prevent the violence and what, if anything, could be done to avert such horrors in the future.

    Sometimes the warning signs are glaring and ignored. After the Parkland, Florida, massacre in February, authorities acknowledged failing to act on repeated warnings that the confessed attacker posed a threat. After Las Vegas, though, authorities said what they found failed to add up to a clear answer.

    Investigators said the gunman was described by people who knew him as "a narcissist [who] only cared about himself." Relatives said he had mental-health issues, while his doctor said he might have had bipolar disorder and that he accepted prescriptions for anxiety medication but declined anti-depressants. His wealth had declined considerably before the shooting; officials found that he had paid off his gambling debts before the attack and, with one of his last checks, paid the Internal Revenue Service more than $13,000. Authorities said he spent significant time preparing for the attack as he stockpiled weapons and ammunition. They also said he sought to "undermine" the investigation and left no note or manifesto.

    In response to questions about the shooting and the attacker's motive, an FBI spokeswoman would only say that the bureau's Behavioral Analysis Unit plans to release a report by the end of the year.

    For some victims, the mystery was part of the pain that is left behind. Megan Greene, who survived the Las Vegas attack and struggled with anxiety afterward, said knowing the motivation could have aided with the healing process.

    "It would help us understand and wrap our brains around the situation," Greene said in an interview earlier this year. "It would be easier for me to understand more of why this happened to me. . . . It's just a puzzle to all of us."

    Greene said she spent months searching for new information on the case but gave up on that around Christmas.

    "I didn't want to feel miserable anymore," she said.

    https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/ar...e-13272864.php
    In the Shadow of Your Wings
    1 A Prayer of David. Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!

  4. #204
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    My province

    Ontario bill aims to strip returning terrorists of provincial privileges

    By Bryan Passifiume
    The Sun

    With a quarter of the nearly 200 Canadian members of overseas terrorist groups returning home and at least a dozen more held in Syrian detentions camps, an impending private-members bill will ensure they’re not entitled to benefits enjoyed by law-abiding Ontarians, the Sun has learned.

    Set to be tabled at Queen’s Park next week, the Terrorist Activity Sanctions Act targets those who’ve carried out terrorist acts abroad and excludes them from such privileges as holding an Ontario driver’s licence or accessing provincial health coverage.

    “It’s my strong belief that somebody who’s committed a criminal act as a terrorist outside of Canada, when they come back to Ontario, they should not have more privileges than somebody who lives in Ontario,” said Peterborough—Kawartha MPP Dave Smith, the bill’s sponsor.

    “Since the Federal Government doesn’t seem to take this seriously, I felt obligated to take action and send a message that there are consequences for leaving Ontario to commit indefensible crimes.”

    These crimes are referenced in Section 83 of the Criminal Code and include such acts as hijacking, jeopardizing the safety of civil aviation, hostage-taking and financing terrorist acts, as well as violations of international treaties, including maritime navigation and unlawful importation of nuclear material.

    Under the bill, offenders would find themselves stripped of their Ontario drivers licence and hunting and fishing licences, as well as access to OHIP, grants and loans for post-secondary education, disability income and housing support, rent-geared-to-income under the Housing Services Act, and WSIB coverage.

    Dependent children would also be considered ‘in need of protection’ as defined by the Child, Youth and Family Services Act.

    “These are privileges that, under different circumstances, we take away from people right now if they commit various crimes,” Smith said.

    “The Federal Government is sitting on their hands as terrorists sit in foreign jails waiting to return to our beautiful province.”

    Intelligence numbers obtained by the Sun say as many as 200 Canadians are still active members in overseas terrorist groups like ISIS. Of those, over a quarter have already returned to Canada — with few facing criminal repercussions for their activities abroad.

    About a dozen Canadians are being held by anti-ISIS forces in Syria, while an unknown number of others were either killed in battle, executed by ISIS or managed to slip away undetected.

    At issue is what to do with Canadian citizens who leave home to join terror organizations abroad.

    This week, the Trudeau Liberals faced harsh questions in the house over a Global News report concerning dialogue between Canadian consular officials and Jack Letts, a British-Canadian ISIS member being held by Kurdish forces.

    Letts, dubbed ‘Jihadi Jack’ by the British media, converted to Islam before leaving England in 2014 to allegedly join ISIS’s atrocity-laden quest to create an Islamic caliphate in Syria.

    Transcripts obtained by Global reveal Letts responding enthusiastically to overtures from officials of either returning to Great Britain, or relocating to Canada.

    The U.K. government has expressed no interest in assisting Letts.

    Meanwhile, Smith hopes his bill will send a message that will resonate beyond provincial borders.

    “I have had numerous people come up to me with concerns, they want to know that a convicted terrorist cannot walk around freely without real consequences,” he said. “If they are not in a jail cell, they do not deserve the same privileges of every Ontarian.”

    “Some acts are unforgivable,” Smith said.

    https://torontosun.com/news/provinci...box=1539995227
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  5. #205
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    Melbourne attacker also planned to set off explosion

    CBS News

    SYDNEY — An attacker who fatally stabbed one person and injured two others in central Melbourne had also planned to set off an explosion, Australian police said. Hassain Khalif Shire Ali, 30, had his passport canceled in 2015 after it was learned he planned to travel to Syria, police said.

    The attack occurred on Friday when Shire Ali got out of a pickup vehicle, which he then set on fire, and stabbed three men, one of whom died at the scene. The attack horrified hundreds of onlookers during the afternoon rush hour in Australia's second-biggest city.

    Victoria state Police Commissioner Graham Ashton said Shire Ali, who was shot by police and died in a hospital, had also made an "unsophisticated" plan for his vehicle to explode to cause many more fatalities. He had placed several barbecue gas canisters in the back of his pickup, with the outlet valves open, but they had failed to ignite.

    "It looks like he's attempted to ignite a fire in the car, we believe at this stage with a view to igniting those canisters with some sort of explosion, but that didn't eventuate," Ashton told reporters.

    Shire Ali, who moved to Australia with his family from Somalia in the 1990s, was known to police and the federal intelligence authority ASIO. He had a criminal history for cannabis use, theft and driving offences, Ashton said.

    Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Ian McCartney told a media briefing on Saturday it was believed the attack was inspired by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), though it was thought Shire Ali had no direct links to the organization.

    "It's fair to say he was inspired. He was radicalized, with the rise of the caliphate and the propaganda that was put out on the internet. We're not saying there was direct contact. We're saying it was more from an inspirational perspective," McCartney said.

    McCartney said the incident was a "reality check" for security agencies that "even with the fall of the (ISIS) caliphate ... the threat continues to be real."

    Prime Minister Scott Morrison said "radical, violent, extremist Islam" poses the greatest threat to Australia's national security.

    "Here in Australia, we would be kidding ourselves if we did not call out the fact that the greatest threat of religious extremism in this country is the radical and dangerous ideology of extremist Islam," he said.

    Morrison said he had long-standing relationships with the Muslim community and it was them who had raised with him concerns about radicalism in recent years.

    Shire Ali had family and associates who were also known to police. His brother Ali Khalif Shire Ali is currently on remand awaiting trial next year for allegedly planning an attack, Ashton said.

    ISIS claimed responsibility for Friday's attack but provided no evidence. It said the man was an ISIS fighter and had responded to the group's calls for attacks in countries that are part of the international coalition fighting the militants in Syria and Iraq.

    Police and civilians had tried unsuccessfully to subdue Shire Ali before he was shot in the chest by a police officer, who Ashton said only graduated from the police academy three months ago.

    A man aged 74, who had been stabbed in the face, died at the scene. Two other men, aged 26 and 58, are in a hospital with what police describe as non-life threatening injuries.

    Ashton also said police had searched two Melbourne properties on Saturday in relation to the attack, but that police did not believe there were any ongoing threats to the public. It's the second time in four years Australia has witnessed militant violence.

    In December 2014, a 17-hour siege in which a gunman took 18 people hostage in a Sydney cafe ended with two hostages dead and the assailant killed by police. Though the erratic gunman demanded that police deliver him an Islamic State flag at the outset of the crisis, there was no evidence he had established contact with the militant group. However, at a later inquest, the coroner of New South Wales state said the gunman's actions fell "within the accepted definition of terrorism."

    Melbourne was also the scene of two fatal car-ramming incidents last year, but neither was linked by police to terrorism.

    Ashton said there is no suggestion Shire Ali was inspired by James "Dimitrious" Gargasoulas, who faced court this week on six charges of murder over the first ramming attack, in January 2017.

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/melbour...off-explosion/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  6. #206
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    Strasbourg shooting: France hunts gunman as alert level raised

    France has issued a maximum level of alert as police hunt a gunman who opened fire at a Christmas market in the eastern city of Strasbourg.

    Three people were killed and 13 wounded, eight of them seriously.

    The gunman, 29, known to authorities as having been radicalised in prison, escaped after reportedly being injured.

    Some 350 officers are involved in the search for the gunman. The deputy interior minister has acknowledged he may no longer be in France.

    Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said the country had issued an "urgence attentat" (emergency attack) alert, expanding police powers and creating the highest degree of vigilance.

    He added that border controls had been strengthened and security at all Christmas markets would be stepped up.

    The mayor of Strasbourg, Roland Ries, has said the Christmas market will be closed on Wednesday and flags lowered to half-mast at the local town hall.

    Protests have also been banned in the city - which is the seat of the European parliament - but not in the rest of France, Reuters news agency said. The country is in the midst of a wave of protests highlighting the economic frustration and political distrust of poorer working families.

    What happened?

    The attack unfolded at around 20:00 local time (19:00 GMT) on Tuesday close to Strasbourg's famed Christmas market near one of the central squares, Place Kléber, which attracts thousands of visitors at this time of year.

    A woman called Audrey told France's BFM TV how she came face to face with the killer.

    "He came out from the porch of a building armed with a pistol in his hand, his arm outstretched. He headed towards a gentleman walking in front of me and he immediately fired a bullet at his head," she said.

    The gunman then opened fire for a second time, and another man fell to ground.

    Her friends began to run to safety, but Audrey was frozen to the spot. The gunman turned, and faced her - but then he too ran.

    "Why didn't he shoot at me?" she told the TV channel. "I don't know. I think I was extremely lucky. As everyone was screaming he fled."

    At some point in the moments that followed, the gunman exchanged fire with officers who were patrolling the area as part of anti-terror measures.

    It is thought he was injured. According to Mr Castaner, the man "fought twice with our security forces".

    How did he escape?

    According to France's BFM TV, he managed to reach a taxi which drove him away from the scene and dropped him in the vicinity of the police station in Neudorf, the area where he is understood to live which sits on the border between Germany and France.

    It was the taxi driver who told police the man was wounded in his left leg.

    Residents in Neudorf have been urged to stay indoors.

    What do we know about the gunman?

    A picture is beginning to emerge of the suspected attacker, although a motive is still not known.

    He has not been officially named, but French media are referring to him as Chérif Chekatt.

    According to police, he was born in Strasbourg and was already known to the security services as a possible terrorist threat. He was the subject of a "fiche S", the same system under which Amedy Coulibaly - who attacked a supermarket in 2015 - was flagged.

    He is understood to have served prison sentences in both France and Germany, while BFM TV described him as a "repeat offender" and "delinquent".

    However, while Deputy Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez confirmed he had served several sentences, he said his crimes had never been terrorism-related.

    But, Mr Nuñez added, it was during one period in prison that he was indentified as having become radicalised.

    "The fact he was a 'fiche S' did not pre-judge his level of dangerousness," Mr Nuñez told France Inter.

    Stephane Morisse, from the FGP police union, said the man's flat in the Neudorf district of the city had been searched by police in connection with a robbery on Tuesday morning, but he was not there.

    Grenades were found during the search, according to BFM TV.

    What about the victims?

    There has been some confusion over the number killed in the attack. At one point, the figure was revised down to two by officials, but has since gone back to three.

    Thai media have named Anupong Suebsamarn, 45, as one of he dead. He is believed to have been on holiday with his wife.

    Not much else is known yet, apart from the fact no children were hurt, and one soldier was slightly injured by a ricocheting shot.

    Why is Strasbourg a target?

    Strasbourg has been the target of jihadist plots in the past.

    Not only does it have one of France's oldest Christmas markets, but it is the official seat of the European Parliament. That parliament was in session at the time of Tuesday evening's attack.

    In 2000, the Christmas market was at the centre of a failed al-Qaeda plot. Ten Islamist militants were jailed four years later for their part in the planned New Year's Eve attack.

    Security has been tight there ever since the 2015 Paris attacks.

    However, MEPs were determined to carry on the morning after the attack, with German MEP Jo Leinen posting a picture of singing and Christmas lights in the European Parliament.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46535552
    In the Shadow of Your Wings
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  7. #207
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    Canadian national among accused in terror attack that killed 21 at Nairobi hotel

    By Christopher Tochia
    Global News

    A Canadian national and four other people suspected of helping extremist gunmen stage a deadly attack in the Kenyan capital this week appeared in court on Friday as prosecutors investigated them for suspected terror offences.

    A judge ordered the five suspects held for 30 days while authorities look into the assault on the dusitD2 hotel complex. The al-Shabab group, which is linked to al-Qaida and based in neighbouring Somalia, claimed responsibility. Kenyan authorities say 21 people, including one police officer, were killed by the attackers, one of whom blew himself up beside a restaurant. Another four gunmen died.

    Prosecutors suspect the alleged accomplices, including two taxi drivers and an agent for a mobile phone-based money service, of “aiding and betting” the attackers who stormed the Nairobi complex on Tuesday afternoon and were killed by Wednesday morning, according to a court document. Prosecutors said they were pursuing more suspects in and outside Kenya.

    The suspects who appeared in court were identified as Joel Nganga Wainaina, Oliver Kanyango Muthee, Gladys Kaari Justus, Guleid Abdihakim and Osman Ibrahim. Abdihakim is a Canadian national, according to prosecutors.

    “The investigations into this matter are complex and transnational and would therefore require sufficient time and resources to uncover the entire criminal syndicate,” said Noordin Haji, director of public prosecutions. He said he has appointed a team of prosecutors to help ensure that the investigations are “meticulous and fast-tracked.”

    Police earlier identified a Kenyan military officer as the father of a suspect in the assault. The son, Ali Salim Gichunge, as well as Violet Kemunto Omwoyo, were named as attackers in court documents.

    “The attackers were in constant communications with several phone numbers which are located in Somalia,” prosecutors said.

    Gichunge’s father, who is not believed to have been involved in the attack, was summoned for questioning about when he last saw his son and other details, a senior police official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

    The official said a total of 11 people were detained as part of the investigation.

    The attack was denounced on Friday in Eastleigh, a Nairobi neighbourhood that is home to many ethnic Somalis and has been targeted in massive police operations against suspected extremist cells. Shop owners temporarily closed businesses to protest against extremism, and crowds gathered.

    Al-Shabab also carried out the 2013 attack at Nairobi’s nearby Westgate Mall that killed 67 people, and an assault on Kenya’s Garissa University in 2015 that claimed 147 lives, mostly students. While U.S. airstrikes and a multinational African Union force in Somalia have reduced the Islamic extremists’ ability to operate, al-Shabab is still capable of carrying out spectacular acts of violence in retaliation for the Kenyan military’s presence in Somalia.

    The attackers who stormed the hotel complex opened fire and set off grenades, sending panicked people running for cover as security forces converged. Security camera footage released later showed a suicide bomber blowing himself up in a grassy area.

    A hotel employee, seen in the footage walking past the bomber just before the explosion, described in an interview with Kenya’s K24 television how he heard the man talking on a mobile phone.

    “Where are you guys?” the agitated bomber said at least a couple of times, according to Abdullahi Ogelo, the employee. Ogelo, who later concluded the bomber had been talking to his accomplices, said the man was also moving his hand over his chest.

    Seconds later, the bomber detonated in a flash and billowing smoke.

    In the television interview, Ogelo said God saved him and gave him a “second chance.”

    https://globalnews.ca/news/4862881/c...terror-attack/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    New Zealand Mosque Shooting Kills Six, Wounds Others

    Police in Christchurch, New Zealand are frantically searching for two or more men who shot dead six people at the Christchurch Mosque on Deans Avenue in Christchurch City.

    They said the gunmen, who were in a car, opened fire at worshippers gathered for Friday Prayers outside the Christchurch Mosque near Hagley Park. A witness leaving near the church said a lot of of people were praying at the mosque at the time of the shooting, according to the New Zealand news website Stuff.

    A witness said he saw a car chasing the people along Deans Avenue and the people in the car started shooting at them. Another witness said he heard multiple gunshots.

    "I heard 20 or more gunshots I thought something happened and the people were running on the other side of Deans Avenue and now I can see so many police,” he said.

    Mohammed Jama, former president of the Muslim Association of Canterbury, said a man with a gun entered the mosque about 1.40 pm on Friday (8:40 p.m. ET Thursday). He saw four people injured and two people on the ground. He didn’t know if these persons were alive or dead.

    Another witness said he saw three seriously injured people on the doorstep of the mosque.

    Police have cleared Cathedral Square, where thousands of children gathered at a rally to protest climate change. They urged anyone in central Christchurch to stay indoors and report any suspicious behavior immediately to 111.

    A person at the scene said armed police are searching for someone in North Hagley Park. Another saw police on the corner of Lester Lane and Deans Avenue.

    Lisa Davies, a resident of Christchurch, told ABC, “It's just a continuous stream of sirens".

    "We've probably seen 10 ambulances,” she said. “I've lost count of the number of police cars, but obviously all the police on these cordons are heavily armed and trying to keep the public out of the scene, keep them safe until they know exactly what's happened here, and that they've managed to apprehended the alleged gunman.”

    https://www.ibtimes.com/new-zealand-...others-2775613
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  9. #209
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Attorneys seek 25 years for man in Michigan airport stabbing

    By CBC News

    Update: Montreal resident Amor Ftouhi has been sentenced to life after being convicted of stabbing a police officer at an airport in Flint, Michigan, in 2017.

    Lawyers for a Montreal man convicted of stabbing a police officer at an airport in Flint, Michigan, have asked the judge to sentence him to 25 years in prison.

    Amor Ftouhi was convicted in November on several charges in the June 2017 attack, including committing an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries. Witnesses said Ftouhi, who is Muslim, yelled "Allahu akbar" — or "God is great" — while attacking Lt. Jeff Neville, who survived being stabbed in the neck.

    Ftouhi could get a life sentence. But in a memorandum filed Thursday in federal court in Flint, his attorneys asked that he be sentenced to 25 years and that he should spend that time in solitary confinement.

    They wrote that Ftouhi was depressed about debt and an inability to properly support his wife and children after moving them from Tunisia to Montreal. They have said he expected to be killed by other officers.

    The attorneys declined to comment about the filing when reached by phone.

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/winds...bing-1.5093932
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  10. #210
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Sri Lanka explosions: what we know so far

    Officials say 207 people have been killed in the Easter Sunday attacks

    The Guardian

    A series of explosions has rocked Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. Here is what we know so far:

    The government has imposed a curfew with immediate effect. It also shut down social media and messaging services.

    At least 207 people have been killed and 450 more injured in a series of explosions targeting churches holding Easter services and hotels in Sri Lanka.

    Most of the dead are believed to have been Sri Lankans, with officials saying about 30 people from other countries have lost their lives. The Guardian understands that British tourists are believed to be among those killed.

    No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks but Sri Lanka’s defence minister, Ruwan Wijewardene, said the culprits had been identified and were religious extremists. He said suicide bombers were responsible for the majority of the morning’s bombings and that the wave of attacks was the work of a single group.

    Police say they have arrested three people so far. The government earlier put the figure at seven, but police say several others have been arrested but not questioned.

    There were six initial blasts, at three hotels and three churches, before two more explosions some time later, at a guest house and housing scheme, with two people reported to have been killed at the former.

    Harsha de Silva, a government minister, said the last two blasts appeared to have been carried out by the culprits as they fled from police.

    The prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, condemned the “cowardly” attacks and urged people to remain “united and strong”. He convened Sri Lanka’s top military officials at an emergency meeting of the national security council.

    The archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, called it “a very sad day” and urged the government to identify the attackers and “punish them mercilessly because only animals can behave like that”.

    World leaders including Narendra Modi, Imran Khan, Theresa May, Donald Tusk, Jean-Claude Juncker and Vladimir Putin condemned the attacks and expressed their sympathies to the victims. May called the violence “truly appalling” and said that “no one should ever have to practise their faith in fear”.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/21/sri-lanka-explosions-what-we-know-so-far
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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