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Tag: Iraq

  • New Trump Travel Ban Order Will Exclude Iraq And Current Visa Holders, US Officials Say

    New Trump Travel Ban Order Will Exclude Iraq And Current Visa Holders, US Officials Say

    President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban order will exclude Iraq, but continue to impose restrictions on the other six Muslim-majority nations that were included in the original order, US officials said.

    The new executive order is expected to be signed on Wednesday (1 March) that will temporarily prohibit people travelling from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the US.

    Four officials reportedly told the Associated Press on Tuesday (28 March) that the change was made following pressure from the Pentagon and State Department, who urged the White House to consider Iraq’s leading role in fighting Isis and rethink their decision on imposing travel restrictions on the ally.

    The revised travel ban order will replace the earlier version that was blocked by a federal court on multiple legal grounds. The new order was reportedly drafted to eliminate the legal hitches.

    The initial order that came at the end of January led to mass protests in the country and abroad after many people were left stranded at airports waiting to reunite with family members. In the initial days of implementation of the order, even the green card holders and visa holders from the seven nations were barred from entering the country.

    According to the Washington Post, which cited “people familiar with the matter”, the new version will exempt current visa holders from the travel ban and remove an exception to the refugee prohibition for religious minorities.

    Justice Department lawyers reportedly hope the new version was more likely to pass legal hurdles and will also not leave any travellers detained at US airports. The paper also wrote that learning from the previous experience, the White House administration could implement the order at a date later than the signing date.

    Meanwhile, CNN’s White House reporter tweeted that Trump may not sign the revised executive order on Wednesday as was being expected. The signing has been pushed to next week following positive reviews of Trump’s address to the joint Congress session on Tuesday.

    Amid positive reviews of speech, WH officials have scrapped plans for Trump to sign new travel ban EO tomorrow, per a senior admin official.

    Source: IBTimes

  • Al-Qaeda Chief Denounces Islamic State Liars

    Al-Qaeda Chief Denounces Islamic State Liars

    WASHINGTON — Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has denounced what he said was a dishonest propaganda campaign by rival jihadist group the Islamic State against his organisation, in an audio message released Thursday (Jan 5).

    In the message found and translated by US-based watchdog the SITE Intelligence Group, the Egyptian extremist accuses IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of slandering his group.

    Al-Qaeda, founded by the late Osama Bin Laden, is locked in a battle with the so-called Islamic State — which sprang from its Iraqi faction — for the leadership of a global jihad.

    In his message, the 65-year-old Zawahiri complained that Al-Baghdadi had alleged that Al-Qaeda opposes sectarian attacks on Shiites and was prepared to work with Christian leaders.

    “The liars insist upon their falsehood, to the extent that they claimed we do not denounce Shiites,” Zawahiri said, according to the translation of the message, which was released by Al-Qaeda’s media arm.

    Zawahiri denied he had said that Christians could be partners in the governance of a future Islamic caliphate, having only said that they could go about their affairs within it.

    “What I have said is that they are partners in the land, such as agriculture, trade, and money, and we keep their privacy in it, in accordance with the laws of our Sharia,” he said.

    And he insisted he had not called for Shiite Muslims to be spared, but had suggested focusing attacks on Shiite-led Iraqi forces and not on random atrocities against civilians.

    “I had told them several times to stop explosions in markets, husseiniyats and mosques, and to concentrate on military, security and police forces and Shiite militiamen,” he said.

    A husseiniyat is a Shiite place of worship and the Iraqi security forces, in their battle against the Islamic State group, are backed by Shiite religious militias.

    The Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda have both carried out hundreds of attacks on civilian targets, but some Al-Qaeda propaganda has called for less indiscriminate tactics.

    Zawahiri also denied Al-Baghdadi’s charge that Al-Qaeda had supported ousted former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist who attempted to rule through the ballot box.

    The Al-Qaeda leader, who took charge after Bin Laden was killed by US commandos in 2011, is thought to be somewhere in Pakistan’s unruly border region hiding from a global manhunt.

    He communicates with the group’s remaining supporters through semi-regular video lectures, reiterating — as in his latest message — the need to target the United States.

    But Thursday’s message did not include any footage of Zawahiri speaking.

    The audio message restated the urgency of this goal — “Tell America, to other than Allah we do not kneel” — but also argued for a dialogue on tactics with other jihadists.

    “We are not infallible, but we are human beings and we hit and we miss. We must listen to advice,” he admitted, while rejecting Al-Baghdadi’s criticism.

    “What we want is to manage a conversation between those who are working for Islam — and the people of jihad at their forefront — around the best method and wisest techniques to bring victory to the religion,” he said, according to SITE. AFP

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

  • Indonesian Militants Planned Machete-Attack On New Year

    Indonesian Militants Planned Machete-Attack On New Year

    JAKARTA — Indonesian militants supporting Islamic State (IS) planned to attack a police post on New Year’s eve with machetes and knives, the authorities said on Monday, as the country’s elite anti-terror squad foiled yet another attack.

    The latest incident has underlined how the militants are determined to carry out attacks over the festive season, despite a massive nationwide security crackdown.

    National police spokesperson Rikwanto said four militants were preparing to attack a police post in Purwakarta, a city in West Java on New Year’s eve.

    “They had surveyed a few places and in the end they chose the police post as their target … because it has only a few security personnel as compared to the police station and police base,” said Mr Rikwanto, who goes by one name.

    The plot was foiled as Indonesia’s Special Counter-Terrorism Detachment 88, also known as Densus 88, arrested two of the would be attackers (only identified as Ivan and Rizal) on Sunday morning who led them to their hideout.

    Several hours later, police shot dead their two co-conspirators (identified as Abu Sofi and Abu Faiz), after they tried to attack officers.

    “They were told to surrender, but they refused and tried to attack officers with machetes, so we fired warning shots. When they still approached, we shot them,” said Awi Setiyono, another national police spokesman.

    The pair which was arrested on Sunday were taken to a police hospital in Jakarta.

    Mr Rikwanto said that the group is part of the Jamaah Anshor Daulah, an offshoot of the IS in Indonesia. However, he could not confirm the group’s link with Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian from Central Java who is now believed to be fighting for the IS in Syria.

    “We’re still investigating the group’s link with Bahrun Naim. However, they are affiliated with the IS,” he said yesterday (MON).

    Mr Rikwanto said the authorities seized several machetes and documents from the suspects’ house, including a will in which they stated that they had pledged their allegiance to the IS and wished to take part in suicide attacks.

    The latest incident came amid a security crackdown in several cities on Java after police arrested a would-be suicide bomber and other suspected Islamic militants who were allegedly planning a holiday season suicide bombing earlier this month.

    The government has stepped up security across the country, deploying 150,000 security personnel to safeguard churches, airports and other public places.

    Three suspected militants who were allegedly planning a New Year’s Eve suicide bombing were killed in a gunbattle last week on the outskirts of Jakarta.

    Police said the holiday season plot was uncovered during the interrogation of militants arrested on Dec 10 who were planning a suicide bomb attack on a guard-changing ceremony at the presidential palace in Jakarta the next day.

    Police have said the foiled plot planned to take place on Dec 11, in which a woman — who had worked in Singapore as a nanny — was to be the suicide bomber, was orchestrated by Naim.

    Naim is believed to have masterminded several terror plots, including a terror attack in Jakarta in January and a rocket attack against Singapore.

    On Christmas day, the authorities detained three Indonesian nationals deported from Syria for allegedly joining militants in the war-torn country.

    The three men were identified as Tomi Gunawan, 18, a resident of Pekanbaru in Riau; Jang Johana, 25, from Bandung, West Java; and Irfan, 21, from Jakarta.

    On the same day, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry noted that  since Jan last year, there have been 220 Indonesian citizens deported by the Turkish government for being suspected of crossing the border to join IS.

    Those deported from Turkey were brought to the Densus 88 headquarters for investigation upon entering Indonesia.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com

  • Indonesia Police Chief Warns Of Growing Role Of Women In Terrorism

    Indonesia Police Chief Warns Of Growing Role Of Women In Terrorism

    National Police Chief Gen. Tito Karnavian said Friday that terrorist groups have developed a new trend of recruiting women to launch attacks in the country.

    “Using women to carry out acts of terror is becoming increasingly more popular with terror groups because women are seen as less suspicious,” Tito told the press on the sidelines of a ceremony at the National Police headquarters in South Jakarta, adding that recruiting women for terrorism was not new in other parts of the world.

    The National Police have arrested three women that have been implicated in a foiled plot to bomb the State Palace. The women include Dian Yulia Novi, Tutin, alias Ummu Abza, and Arinda Putri. They are suspects for their roles in planning and preparing for the thwarted attack.

    The three women are affiliated with the Surakarta terrorist cell, which was reportedly planning to attack the State Palace under the guidance of Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian jihadist who is currently fighting for the Islamic State in Syria.

    National Police Spokesperson Insp. Gen. Boy Rafli Amar said that the police had anticipated involvement of women in terrorist groups in the the country but did not expect that women would take on direct and core roles in planning attacks.

    “Terrorist groups here are recruiting women to avoid suspicion when carrying out attacks. It’s a new strategy to deceive the targets,” Boy said.

     

    Source:www.thejakartapost.com

  • Arrested ISIS-Linked Cell Members Planning Attacks On Government Buildings, Myanmar Embassy

    Arrested ISIS-Linked Cell Members Planning Attacks On Government Buildings, Myanmar Embassy

    Arrested members of an ISIS-linked cell in Indonesia were planning attacks on government buildings, TV stations, and the Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta, police said, adding that the scale of the attack might have been even bigger than 2002 Bali bombing.

    “They were helping plan a bomb attack against parliament, the national police headquarters, the embassy of Myanmar and several television stations,” national police spokesman Rikwanto said, as cited by AFP.

    He added that the attack planned by Islamic State-linked (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) militants could have been even worse that the 2002 Bali bombings.

    The attack on the Indonesian resort island of Bali killed 202 people and injured 200 more, mostly foreigners. Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian militant Islamist terrorist group, linked to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, was reportedly responsible for the attack. Several of the group’s members were convicted on terrorism charges.

    Earlier this week, police arrested Rio Priatna Wibawa, 23, at his home in Majalengka regency, West Java province. Officers discovered large amount of bomb-making material which he allegedly planned to use in the attacks. The bombings were reportedly planned to take place in December, though police failed to find out when exactly.

    Police also found a black flag, rounds of bullets, and several weapons, including an air rifle and a machete, police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said, as cited by Reuters. He described the suspect as a “self-taught bomb-maker.”

    His two alleged accomplices, all members of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah, a domestic cell affiliated with Islamic State, were arrested on Saturday and Sunday. Jamaah Ansharut Daulah is a splinter cell of the Jemaah Islamiyah group.

    Those arrested were identified as Bahrain Agam and Saiful Bahri, AFP quoted Rikwanto as saying. They reportedly donated money to buy explosives and even helped Wibawa set up a home bomb-making laboratory.

    In January, Indonesia was rocked by terrorist attacks staged by Islamic State sympathizers. At least four people were killed and 23 others, including foreigners, were injured after militants set off multiple explosions and fired guns near a shopping mall in central Jakarta. The attack took place near a UN information center, luxury hotels, and foreign embassies.

     

    Source: www.rt.com