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Tag: islamist militants
Roadside Bomb Kills 6 Egyptian Police Officers In The Sinai Peninsula

Roadside Bomb Kills 6 Egyptian Police Officers In The Sinai Peninsula

By Laura King, Los Angeles Times

CAIRO — Six policemen were killed Tuesday when a bomb blast tore through their armored vehicle in the Sinai Peninsula, security officials said — the second such deadly attack this month.

Egyptian security forces have recently stepped up their offensive against armed Islamist groups in the Sinai, raiding hideouts and targeting militant leaders, and the insurgents have fought back with powerful roadside bombs.

The explosion occurred near the town of Rafah, on the border with the Gaza Strip. In addition to the six killed, two police were injured, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The vehicle was traveling in a convoy made up of police and soldiers, it said.

Security forces immediately launched a search for those who planted the buried bomb, the ministry said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but the militant group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, or Partisans of Jerusalem, has claimed responsibility for a similar attack on Sept. 2, which killed 11 members of the security forces.

The Sinai conflict remains relatively small in scope, but has escalated in ferocity. A recent militant tactic has been the beheading of accused spies.

The Egyptian military said on Monday that raids staged over the past two weeks had killed more than 50 insurgents and netted caches of weapons and explosives. An Egyptian news website, Aswat Masriya, reported that five other militants were killed Tuesday.

The Egyptian military offensive in the Sinai was launched after last summer’s deposing of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. The government says Morsi allowed militant groups in the rugged peninsula to flourish during his year in office.

The offensive has coincided with a broad crackdown, now in its second year, on Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood. The ex-president is behind bars and on trial for a variety of capital offenses. Thousands of his supporters are jailed as well, and more than 1,500 have been killed in clashes with security forces.

AFP Photo

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Al-Qaida Sets Up New Branch In Indian Subcontinent

Al-Qaida Sets Up New Branch In Indian Subcontinent

By Siddhartha Kumar, dpa

NEW DELHI — Terrorist group al-Qaida has set up a branch in South Asia, prompting Indian authorities to issue a nationwide alert Thursday, media reports and officials said.

Al-Qaida head Ayman al-Zawahiri announced the plan in a 55-minute video message posted on the internet Wednesday that Indian officials said appeared to be authentic.

Al-Zawahiri called on Muslims to “wage jihad against its enemies, to liberate its land, to restore its sovereignty, and to revive its caliphate.”

“Al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent” will be led by Asim Umar, chief of al-Qaida’s Sharia Committee in Pakistan, it said.

Al-Zawahiri said the new outfit would be good for Muslims suffering injustice and oppression in Myanmar, Bangladesh, and parts of India with large Muslim populations, including Kashmir, Gujarat, and Assam.

Predominantly Hindu India has a substantial Muslim minority.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh met with top security officials to discuss the threat, a spokesman said.

Police in all states were on high alert and were stepping up intelligence-gathering on possible targets or recruitment drives, broadcaster CNN-IBN reported.

Gujarat, the home-state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is considered a target for Islamist militants because of the sectarian clashes with Hindus during his term as a chief minister of the state in 2002. More than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed.

In the video, the al-Qaida leader also reaffirmed his loyalty to Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

Anti-terrorism specialists said that al-Qaida may be competing for followers with the extremist group Islamic State that controls northern swathes of Syria and Iraq.

“There is despair in al-Qaida ranks that they have gotten increasingly marginalized due to the rise of the Islamic State,” said Sandeep Patil of the Mumbai-based think-tank Gateway House.

The government said it was adequately prepared to meet the security threat.

“Islamic militants have been reorganizing and consolidating in the region over past years and we have experienced several attacks including the Mumbai 2008 strike,” said P Chandra Shekhar Rao, convenor of the security cell of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

“If their (al Qaida’s) intention is to spread disorder and violence in India, then they should know that they will get a befitting reply,” BJP spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters.

A total of 166 people were killed when gunmen attacked several public buildings in Mumbai in 2008, in an attack attributed to Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.

But analysts warned that little has been done to improve security since the Mumbai attacks, despite promises by the new government to improve policing and intelligence.

“Al-Qaida presents a significant threat as because of its linkages with Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and other groups that already operate in India,” Patil said.

AFP Photo

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Bomb Attack Kills 11 In Ambush Of Egyptian Security Forces

Bomb Attack Kills 11 In Ambush Of Egyptian Security Forces

By Laura King, Los Angeles Times

Egypt’s battle against Islamic militants in the Sinai Peninsula heated up Tuesday when a security convoy was ambushed, killing 11 members of the nation’s security forces and wounding four more, the state news agency reported.

The attack came two days after Egyptian forces raided a village in the northern Sinai, with officials claiming afterward that six militants were killed and 10 others arrested.

Egypt has waged a more than yearlong campaign against Islamist groups that took root in the peninsula during the yearlong tenure of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who was ejected from office last summer in a coup led by Egypt’s current president, Abdel Fattah Sisi.

In Tuesday’s attack, near the border with the Gaza Strip, two members of the security forces were reported to have been killed in an initial bomb blast, with the remainder dying in a hail of gunfire that followed.

The Sinai conflict has remained at relatively low intensity with occasional spasms of more serious violence. Last month, at least half a dozen decapitated bodies were found in the northern Sinai, and a militant group based in the peninsula claimed that the beheaded men had been executed as spies.

Egypt’s army has deployed helicopters and ground troops to attack militant strongholds, and the outgunned insurgents have fought back with roadside bombs and surprise attacks on isolated outposts or traveling convoys. Several hundred police officers and soldiers have been killed in the last year.

The fighting has harmed tourism in the peninsula, although most foreign visitors head to Red Sea resorts at Sinai’s southern tip, which has been largely unaffected.

AFP Photo

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Pakistan Moves For Major Ground Assault On Taliban After Evacuations

Pakistan Moves For Major Ground Assault On Taliban After Evacuations

By Zia Khan

ISLAMABAD — Pakistani forces were preparing for a major ground offensive against Islamist militants in the Taliban stronghold of North Waziristan, officials said Monday after nearly all civilians had fled the north-western region along the Afghan border.

Nearly half a million people have evacuated the battleground tribal district since a military offensive was launched there June 15, a military official said.

Fighter jets and helicopter gunships have killed about 300 insurgents since then, according to the military.

“Troops are ready to go for a kill anytime,” one official said after the military said fresh airstrikes and gun battles killed 25 militants Monday.

Two troops were also killed in clashes with militants, a military statement said.

“The plan is to storm and clear their hideouts within this week … before Ramadan,” said the official, who asked not to be named.

The Muslim fasting month is expected to begin this coming weekend.

Another military official predicted that ground troops were unlikely to meet any significant resistance because the “targets had been softened by airstrikes and artillery fire in recent weeks.”

Both the officials said ground troops surrounding militant hideouts were waiting for civilians to flee the area and might be pushing ahead in a day or two.

“They will have air power backing their advance,” one official said.

The military relaxed a curfew that had kept civilians indoors so they could travel to safer areas and expects most remaining residents to have left the combat zone by late Monday.

The offensive in North Waziristan was launched after years of international pressure on Pakistan to launch a military campaign there. It began a week after militants attacked Karachi’s airport, killing about 40 people.

The Taliban and its allies have used North Waziristan as a base to train fighters and attack international forces in Afghanistan.

Information about casualties and military operations there are hard to verify because the area is not accessible to journalists.

Meanwhile, security remained tight in all major Pakistani cities, including Islamabad, with police guards searching vehicles at entry points and army troops patrolling streets.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ordered the military to eliminate terrorists after months of efforts to engage Islamist militants in a peace process ended without making any headway.

AFP Photo/Rizwan Tabassum