Islamic Terrorism in the West ( Mega thread)

[jollyjacktar]

Another terrorist attack in Paris.

Deadly hostage-taking in France likely terrorist act, president says

Assailant had requested release of sole surviving assailant from 2015 Paris attacks

An armed man took hostages in a supermarket in southern France on Friday, killing three people and injuring about a dozen others before being shot to death when French police stormed the market, authorities said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said all evidence suggested that it was a terrorist attack — the first one since he became president in May.

It's unclear how many victims there are overall, said Yves Lefebvre, secretary general of SGP Police-FO police union.

The attacker first fired six shots at police officers on their way back from jogging near the city of Carcassonne on Friday morning, Lefebvre said. The police were not in uniform but were wearing athletic clothes with police insignia. One police officer was shot in the shoulder, but the injury was not serious, Lefebvre said.

The suspect then went to a Super U supermarket in the nearby small town of Trebes, 100 kilometres southeast of Toulouse, taking an unknown number of people hostage.

In an hours-long standoff, special police units converged on the scene and authorities blocked roads and urged residents to stay away. Police then stormed the supermarket.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb confirmed that the attacker had been shot dead and three other people were killed. Collomb went to Trebes after talking with Macron, who was at an EU summit in Brussels.

The Paris prosecutor's office said counterterrorism investigators were taking over the probe but did not explain why. Unconfirmed media reports say the assailant claimed connections to Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).


Collomb identified the suspect as Redouane Lakdim, 26, a petty criminal and small-time drug dealer who he said was radicalized and under police surveillance. Collomb said that during the standoff, Lakdim requested the release of the sole surviving assailant of Nov. 13, 2015, attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead.

Rita Katz, director of Site Intelligence Group, said on Twitter that the ISIS-linked Aamaq News Agency had claimed Lakdim as one of its "soldiers." She said the statement was consistent with others made by the militant group in the wake of previous ISIS-inspired violence.

France has been on high alert since a string of Islamic extremist attacks in 2015 and 2016 that killed more than 200 people. The shootings occurred in a normally quiet part of France, where the main tourist attraction is the treasured old city of Carcassonne, its medieval walls and its summertime festivals.

Macron said he will be back in Paris within hours. The attack poses a new challenge to his leadership as he also faces nationwide strikes and criticism of his reforms.

With files from CBC News
© The Associated Press, 2018

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/police-officer-shot-france-suspect-hostages-1.4589404

 

[AbdullahD]

I hope this link works. It is a Imam speaking out against Sharia law in the UK. Posting here because I think narratives or opinions like this from imam's will help fight terrorism.

https://www.facebook.com/ShAbdulHameedIsmail/posts/1793250687426053

Abdullah

Ps I like the guy too, practices mma, has a nice bike.. basically a "western" culture with an Islamic religion.

 

[Cdn Blackshirt]

I wish for a world in which AbdullahD's view of Islam becomes the dominant form of the religion.  The world would be a much happier and peaceful place if that were the case.

 

[jollyjacktar]

Hear, hear.

 

[jollyjacktar]

The Police Col. who volunteered to swap places with a hostage in the Paris supermarket, has died from his wounds.
A true hero. 

Policeman who took the place of hostage in France standoff dies of gunshot wounds
Arnaud Beltrame ‘fell as a hero,’ French President Emmanuel Macron says
Thomson Reuters

A gendarme who was shot three times after voluntarily taking the place of a hostage during a supermarket siege in southwestern France on Friday has died, French authorities announced on Saturday.

Arnaud Beltrame, who once served in Iraq, had been raced to hospital fighting for his life after the siege in which he took the place of a female hostage at the Super U store in the town of Trebes, near the Pyrenees mountains.

"He fell as a hero, giving up his life to halt the murderous outfit of a jihadist terrorist," President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement shortly before dawn on Saturday.

Friday's attacker was identified by authorities as Redouane Lakdim, a 25-year-old Moroccan-born French national from the city of Carcassonne, not far from Trebes, a tranquil town of about 5,000 people where he struck on Friday afternoon.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/world/france-policeman-hostage-dies-gunshot-wounds-1.4591497

 

[AbdullahD]

The Police Col. who volunteered to swap places with a hostage in the Paris supermarket, has died from his wounds.
A true hero. 

May he rest in peace

Abdullah

Ps thanks guys, I really don't know what to say. But Its not just my Islam this is what I have been taught and learnt. (Sorry I took so long to respond I just didn't know what to say or if I should say anything, sorry I am a shy guy in ways lol)

 

[Cloud Cover]

This is not terrorism but certainly oppression (unless you are one of the wives of a man of fighting age from Syria, then its fear and oppression) Is Sweden a great country or what, eh?  “we can learn so much better things” from them. Hmmmm:  https://youtu.be/384gCR7I9Pk

 

[jollyjacktar]

German Police foil knife attack on Sunday's 1/2 Marathon in Berlin, 8 Apr 2018.

German police foil knife attack on Sunday's half-marathon in Berlin - 24 hours after driver mowed down and killed two diners then shot himself dead
By Khaleda Rahman For Mailonline

Police have foiled a knife attack on Sunday's half-marathon in Berlin.

Special police forces detained four men in connection with the sporting event, German daily Die Welt reports.

They said the main suspect was planning to kill participants and spectators with knives.

According to Die Welt, the main suspect knew Anis Amri, the Tunisian attacker who killed 12 people and injured dozens when he drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin in December 2016.

Full story and photos here.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5591525/German-police-foil-knife-attack-Sundays-half-marathon-Berlin.html

 

[George Wallace]

Militants in UN disguise explode car bombs, rockets at Mali Bases
Reuters
World News
April 14, 2018 / 6:09 PM / Updated 3 hours ago

BAMAKO (Reuters) - Militants disguised as U.N. peacekeepers exploded two suicide car bombs and fired dozens of rockets at the French and United Nations bases in Mali’s northern city of Timbuktu on Saturday, killing one and wounding many, Malian authorities said.

The U.N. mission confirmed that the complex attack had killed a U.N. peacekeeper. The Malian government said in addition that 10 French soldiers had been wounded, but the French mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Terrorists wearing blue helmets aboard two cars laden with explosives, including one in the colours of the Malian army and another with a ‘UN’ written in it, attempted to infiltrate these camps,” the Malian government statement said.

“The situation is now under control.”


U.N. peacekeeping and French military forces stationed in northern Mali have been under near-constant attack over the past year by determined and well-armed jihadist groups seen as the gravest threat to security across Africa’s Sahel region.

But even by the standards of Mali’s increasingly emboldened Islamist fighters, Saturday’s attempted breach of two foreign bases at once was ambitious.

“MINUSMA confirms a significant complex attack on its camp in Timbuktu mortars, exchange of fire, vehicle suicide bomb attack,” the mission tweeted. “One blue helmet was killed in the exchange of fire.”


The United Nations last month said 162 people deployed in Mali have been killed since 2013, making it the world’s deadliest peacekeeping operation to date.

A 2015 peace deal signed by Mali’s government and separatist groups has failed to end violence in northern Mali by Islamists, who have also staged assaults on high-profile targets in the capital, Bamako, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.

French forces intervened in 2013 to drive back Islamist fighters who had hijacked a Tuareg uprising a year earlier, and some 4,000 French troops remain. The U.N. Security Council then deployed peacekeepers to the country, but they have been targets of a concerted guerrilla campaign.



Reporting by Souleymane Ag Anara; writing by Tim Cocks; editing by Jonathan Oatis

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mali-security/militants-in-u-n-disguise-explode-car-bombs-rockets-at-mali-bases-idUSKBN1HL1BX?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FworldNews+%28Reuters+World+News%29

 

[jollyjacktar]

I'll throw it here.  Another terrorist attack in Paris, yesterday.  A Chechen, this time.

Paris attacker born in Chechnya, in database as having links to radicalism

Man who killed 1, injured 4 'just kept walking around with his knife in his bloodied hands'

The man behind a deadly knife attack in central Paris was born in Chechnya and had been on police radar for radicalism, and his parents have been detained for questioning, French authorities said Sunday.

Counterterrorism investigators are working to determine whether the man who stabbed five people in a busy neighborhood in the heart of the French capital Saturday night had any help. The attacker killed a 29-year-old man and wounded four others before being shot by police.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/paris-knife-attack-1.4661010

 

[jollyjacktar]

I'll grant this isn't the west but it's Islamic terrorism against Christians and something new l have not seen elsewhere before.

Full story and photos at link below.

Family of suicide bombers hits Indonesian churches; 11 dead, 41 injured

ISIS-inspired group carried out attacks, spokesperson for country's intelligence agency says

A family of six suicide bombers that included two young children carried out deadly attacks on three churches in Indonesia's second-largest city on Sunday, police said, as the world's most populous Muslim nation recoiled in horror at one of the worst attacks on its Christian minority.

At least seven people plus the six bombers died in the attacks in Surabaya, according to police. At least 41 people were injured in the attacks, which Indonesia's president condemned as "barbaric."

The bombings were the worst to target churches in Indonesia since a series of attacks on Christmas Eve in 2000 killed 15 people and wounded nearly 100. Religious minorities in Indonesia, especially Christians, have been repeatedly targeted by militants.

National police chief Tito Karnavian said that the father exploded a car bomb, two sons aged 18 and 16 used a motorcycle for their attack, and the mother was with daughters aged 12 and 9 for her attack.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/indonesia-churches-suicide-bombers-1.4661005

 

[dogger1936]

I'll grant this isn't the west but it's Islamic terrorism against Christians and something new l have not seen elsewhere before.

A few months ago they cracked down on the Transgender community using barbaric tactics even for an Islamic country.It appears to be a growing trend in the country. https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/29/asia/indonesian-forcibly-shaved-transgender-women-intl/index.html

 

[Jarnhamar]

Belgian law enforcement officials are investigating a shooting that happened on Tuesday as a terrorist attack after a gunman killed three people while reportedly yelling "Allahu Akbar."

The attacker had been in prison since 2003 and was released on Monday on a two-day leave before allegedly carrying out the attack in the Belgian city of Liege, The Washington Postreported.

The gunman, who reportedly yelled "Allahu Akbar" during the attack, ran up behind two female police officers and attacked them with a knife before stealing one of their handguns and shooting them both to death. The attacker also shot and killed a 22-year-old male bystander who was in the area.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/31199/breaking-multiple-dead-after-gunman-goes-rampage-ryan-saavedra?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=062316-news&utm_campaign=benshapiro

 

[Jarnhamar]

Islamic Man At New Mexico Compound Trained Kids To Commit School Shootings, Court Documents Say


An Islamic man who was arrested last week at a New Mexico compound where 11 children were abused was training the children to commit school shootings, according to newly-released court documents.

The court filings say that "Siraj Ibn Wahhaj was conducting weapons training with assault rifles at the compound near the Colorado border where 11 hungry children were found in filthy conditions," the Associated Press reported.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/34241/islamic-man-new-mexico-compound-trained-kids-ryan-saavedra?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=062316-news&utm_campaign=benshapiro

 

[Journeyman]

The US has released their latest "National Strategy for Counterterrorism."   LINK

I posted it here because there is only one small paragraph, at the end of "The Terrorist Adversary" chapter, that accepts there is any form of violent extremism beyond Islamist.  Even that paragraph simply lumps together "racially motivated extremism, animal rights extremism, environmental extremism, sovereign citizen extremism, and militia extremism" as almost a throw-away line, without any further consideration. 

Islam gets 26 mentions, notwithstanding right-wing extremists having killed 86 people in the US since September 11 (only 17 less than proclaimed jihadists).  I can only guess that such an imbalanced focus follows naturally from there being "some very fine people" amongst some violent radicals.... if their point of view is similar to your own. 

The main problem therefore, is one of Situating the Estimate.  Assessment becomes problematic if there is a partisan interest in labelling a conflict to meet a pre-conceived government or personal aim.  Such a polemicized view cannot help but lead to costly, ill-informed decisions, interventions with poorly-devised strategies, and making enemies where none may have existed.  Much like the default Cold War mindset painting many low-intensity conflicts as Communist revolutions, many now see a jihadist behind every violent act, regardless of any contrary evidence.

Mind you, the document itself reads more like some shallow, platitude-filled campaign speech than anything that could realistically be called a "strategy,"  so I'm not sure how seriously it should be taken -- other than providing insight into the thinking of those who produced it.

 

[brihard]

Indeed. My last three national security referrals have decidedly *not* been islamist inspired. Radicalization is far from monopolized by that particular threat vector.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Latest from New Jersey's Dep't of Homeland  Security - examples local, but also includes a bit of broader analysis ...

Background

    ISIS—also referred to as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the Islamic State, or Daesh—is a Salafi-jihadist militant group that split from al-Qa’ida in June 2014 to establish its self-proclaimed caliphate.

    ISIS has 13 official affiliates throughout Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, and claims responsibility for operations on behalf of these affiliates in an attempt to highlight a global reach. ISIS’s official media outlet that produces propaganda, al-Hayat Media Center, releases weekly updates detailing the casualties and equipment losses of its enemies.

    Since ISIS’s territorial peak in 2015, the group has lost approximately 99 percent of its land holdings in Iraq and Syria, including Raqqa, its self-proclaimed capital, and Mosul, its largest conquered city. Due to this loss of territory, ISIS is now primarily operating in the Euphrates River Valley along the Iraq and Syria border and reverting to insurgent tactics.

Threat to New Jersey: Moderate

The terror threat from ISIS to New Jersey is moderate due to the group’s ability to inspire homegrown violent extremists (HVEs) to conduct attacks in the State and surrounding region on behalf of the organization ...

Full one-pager attached.

 

[The Bread Guy]

A couple of American reports out ...

National Counterterrorism Center Report: Envisioning the Emergence of Shia Homegrown Violent Extremist Plotters in the US

We assess that a Shia homegrown violent extremist (HVE) attack in the US is highly unlikely absent a catalyzing event that could galvanize some US-based Shia to engage independently in violence. Given sustained bilateral US-Iran tensions, the occurrence of such a catalyst could prompt Shia HVE activity relatively quickly, underscoring the benefits of early engagement with Shia communities about indicators of HVE radicalization. Potential triggering events for such Shia HVE violence include US military action against Iran and Lebanese Hizballah, Shia leadership or senior clerics sanctioning violence in the US, prominent Sunni government attacks on Shia, or high-profile anti-Shia activity in the US, judging from the results of a structured NCTC brainstorming exercise.

There are no confirmed cases of Shia HVEs who plotted attacks in the US, probably because support for fundamentalist ideology is less prevalent among US Shia than US Sunnis, the hierarchical nature of Shiism, and the absence of a violent triggering event against Shia overseas or in the US. Even if Shia HVE plotting were to emerge, the pool of Shia HVEs would be smaller than that of Sunni HVEs, limiting the scale of the potential threat.

We identified three key enablers that would probably increase the likelihood of Shia HVEs mobilizing to violence in the wake of a catalyzing event: the emergence of charismatic US-based Shia extremist voices, a persistent online Shia extremist cohort advocating violence in the US, and anti-US rhetoric from Shia media calling for violence in the US ...

More @ link here.

National Counterterrorism Center Guide: Sunni Extremist Attacks and Plots in the US Before 9/11 *

NCTC assesses that the Sunni extremist threat to the US before 9/11 was characterized by diverse extremist organizations and lone actors motivated by multiple ideological narratives and other factors, including Salafi jihadism, Palestinian nationalism, theological disputes within Islam, anti-Semitism, and anti-Hindu sentiments. We have identified a dozen successful attacks, four disrupted plots, and one attempt to set up an extremist training camp in the US between 1973 and 2001, underscoring the persistent threat from al-Qa‘ida–associated extremists, Palestinian terrorist groups, and Sunni extremist lone actors in the decades leading up to 9/11. These extremists chose a wide array of targets, with the majority of their attacks before 1993 focused on Hindu, Jewish, or Muslim individuals or institutions. Most attacks after that date were against civilian or US Government targets, because of al-Qa‘ida–associated extremists’ focus on indiscriminate mass casualty attacks. In some cases, we lack clear insight into the attackers’ motivations because of information gaps, and FBI disagrees about the motivations underlying two of these attacks ...

More @ link here

* - For some extra "after" data, here's a July 2017 report, "National Counterterrorism Center Guide: Sunni Violent Extremist Attacks in the US Since 9/11"

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

Just a small point here: Iran is mostly a Shia muslim country, whereof Saudi Arabia is mostly Sunni and of the Salafist school. The former teaches that jihad is an internal struggle to God, while the former teaches that jihad is an actual fight in the physical world against all non-believers.

Question: By associating with the Saudis as opposed to Iran, is the West backing the wrong horse?

 

[Journeyman]

Question: By associating with the Saudis as opposed to Iran, is the West backing the wrong horse?

Hand-wringing over religious-based terrorism only lasts until one gets to the oil reserve metric;  KSA has 267M barrels, and Iran has 158M.  We can only sustain so much angst at the occasional chopped-up journalist and war crimes in Yemen.  :