Tag: attacks

London attack accused hoped to kill Corbyn

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — A man accused of deliberately driving a van into a group of London Muslims told his trial on Tuesday that he wanted to kill the British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn. Darren Osborne said killing the leftist Labour leader would have been “one less terrorist off our streets,” while killing Labour London Mayor Sadiq Khan as well “would have been like winning the lottery.” Osborne is accused of murdering 51-year-old Makram Ali and […]

UK man ‘obsessed’ with Muslims hit group with van: court

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — A British man “obsessed” with Muslims deliberately drove into a group outside a mosque in an act of terrorism intended to kill as many as possible, a court heard Monday. Darren Osborne is accused of murdering 51-year-old Makram Ali and trying to kill others in the Finsbury Park area of north London in June last year, after growing angry at recent terror attacks and child sexual exploitation scandals involving gangs of mainly […]

French police scuffle with striking guards at Europe’s largest jail

FLEURY-MEROGIS, France (AFP) — French police fired tear gas to break up a picket line of striking prison guards outside Europe’s biggest prison on Friday as unions pressed the fourth day of strikes across France over security concerns. The scuffles took place outside the Fleury-Merogis facility just south of Paris as prison guards protested after a string of brutal attacks that have focused a spotlight on security problems and radicalisation inside often overcrowded French facilities. […]

IS claims Saint Petersburg supermarket bombing

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Friday for the bomb attack days earlier that tore through a Saint Petersburg supermarket and wounded 14 people. “The attack that targeted a shopping centre in Saint Petersburg the day before yesterday (Wednesday) was carried out by an Islamic State-linked group,” IS said in a statement via its propaganda agency Amaq. On Wednesday evening, a homemade bomb placed in a locker at the supermarket in northwestern […]

US must ‘tell truth’ on alleged Cuba attacks: foreign minister

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Cuba’s foreign minister on Thursday accused anyone claiming attacks took place against US diplomats in Havana of “deliberately lying,” echoing comments he made last week in an ongoing dispute. “It is time the United States tells the truth or presents evidence,” Bruno Rodriguez insisted during a press conference in Washington, referring to incidents which affected the health of at least 24 US embassy officials in Havana, according to the State Department. “Those […]

Brother of French Jewish school shooter gets 20 years for terrorism

by Pierre Rochiccioli and Clare Byrne © Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — The brother of a French jihadist who shot dead seven people, including three Jewish schoolchildren, in 2012, received a 20-year jail term Thursday for terrorism in the first trial arising out of a wave of attacks by homegrown radicals. Abdelkader Merah, the older brother of infamous Toulouse “scooter killer” Mohamed Merah, was convicted of being part of a terrorist conspiracy but cleared of having […]

Three dead in Colorado Walmart store shooting: police

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Three people were fatally shot at a Walmart store in Colorado on Wednesday evening, police said, in a country that is struggling with frequent deadly gun violence. There are “(3) confirmed dead,” the Thornton Police Department said on Twitter, raising an earlier toll after a woman whom it earlier announced was transported from the scene died. “There is currently NO one in custody,” said the department, appealing for “anyone with […]

Anger wells in NY suspect’s shocked Jersey town

by Thomas Urbain Agence France-Presse United States (AFP) — The largely Muslim neighborhood where the New York terrorist suspect lived for little over a year seethed with anger Wednesday, furious that the Uzbek had besmirched their hard-working immigrant community. “They should hang him!” snapped the manager of a launderette near the two-storey brick building where Sayfullo Saipov lived with his wife and children in the New Jersey town of Paterson. “If you come to the US, it’s […]

Philippines: NY ‘plotter’ was allegedly doctor to pro-IS gunmen

MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — A Filipino doctor wanted over a foiled jihadist plot targeting New York’s subway and Times Square previously treated pro-Islamic State (IS) group militants in the mountains of southern Philippines, the military said on Monday. Russell Salic, 37, had links to the Maute group, which since May had been occupying parts of the Philippines’ most important Islamic city of Marawi in a bid to establish an IS caliphate in Southeast Asia, Philippine […]

3 charged over makeshift gas canister bomb in Paris

  PARIS, France (AFP) — French prosecutors have charged three men in connection with a makeshift explosive device made of gas canisters placed inside an apartment block in western Paris, a judicial source told AFP on Saturday. The three, identified as Amine A, his cousin Sami B, and Aymen B., were charged late Friday with “attempted murder in an organised group in connection with a terrorist enterprise” and placed in pre-trial detention, the source said. All three were […]

Terror threat raised after London bomb attack

by Alexandra del Peral Agance France-Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Britain raised its threat level to maximum on Friday and announced troops would be deployed to key sites after a bomb detonated on a packed London Underground train, injuring at least 29 people in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group. The explosion — Britain’s fifth terror attack in six months — sparked a “wall of fire” that left passengers with burns and caused a stampede […]

Alleged Barcelona killer was ‘a normal factory worker’

by Laurence Boutreux Agence France Presse RIPOLL, Spain (AFP) — The alleged Barcelona attacker who was killed Monday grew up in a small Catalan town where he seemed “nicely integrated” like his younger brother who also died as part of the same terror cell, residents said. Younes Abouyaaqoub, a 22-year-old Moroccan, was shot by police not far from Barcelona in northeastern Spain after a four-day manhunt for the man who allegedly drove a van through […]