Tag: IS

Suicide bomber kills at least 55 at Shiite mosque in Afghanistan

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan (AFP) — A suicide bomb attack on worshippers at a Shiite mosque in the Afghan city of Kunduz has killed at least 55 people in the bloodiest assault since US forces left the country in August. Scores more victims from the minority community were wounded in Friday’s blast, which was claimed by the Islamic State group and appeared designed to further destabilise Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban takeover. The regional branch […]

US strikes IS target in Afghanistan, pushes airlift into final stage

  by David FOX Agence France Presse KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) — The US conducted a drone strike against an Islamic State target in Afghanistan on Saturday, as the airlift of those desperate to flee moved into its fraught final stages with fresh terror attack warnings and encroaching Taliban forces primed to take over Kabul airport. US forces overseeing the evacuation have been forced into closer security cooperation with the Taliban to prevent any repeat of […]

JUST IN: US drone strike targets IS ‘planner’ in Afghanistan: Pentagon

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US military said Friday it had carried out a drone strike against a “planner” of the Islamic State-Khorasan, the group which claimed credit for the deadly suicide bombing at Kabul airport. “The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangahar Province of Afghanistan. Initial indications are that we killed the target,” said Captain Bill Urban of the Central Command. “We know of no civilian casualties,” he added in a statement. © […]

Islamic State claims deadly bomb attack at Kabul airport: SITE monitoring

  The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide attack at the airport in Kabul on Thursday during the US-led evacuation from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, the SITE monitoring agency said. The bomber “was able today to penetrate all the security fortifications” and get within “five meters (16 feet)” of US forces before detonating his explosives belt, the jihadist group’s propaganda arm Amaq said, according to a translation by SITE. The statement only appeared to […]

IS-linked militants kill four farmers in Indonesia

PALU, Indonesia (AFP) –Islamic State-linked extremists have killed four farmers in a remote village on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, police confirmed Wednesday, with one of the victims reportedly beheaded. Five sword-wielding attackers ambushed a group of farmers who were harvesting their coffee plantation in Kalimago village in Poso regency on Tuesday morning, Central Sulawesi police spokesperson Didik Supranoto said. The police blamed the attack on the Sulawesi-based East Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT), one of dozens […]

IS-linked militants kill four in Indonesia: police

  PALU, Indonesia (AFP) — Islamic State-linked extremists killed four people in a remote Christian community on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, authorities said Saturday, with one victim beheaded and another burned to death. The group of sword-and-gun wielding attackers ambushed Lembantongoa village in Central Sulawesi province Friday morning, killing several residents and torching half a dozen homes, including one used for regular prayers and services, police said. No arrests had yet been made and […]

Turkey says, it captured sister of dead IS leader

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — Turkish forces in northern Syria have detained a sister of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State group who was killed in a US raid, a senior Turkish official said Tuesday. “Turkey has captured Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s sister” in a raid near the town of Azaz, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP. He named the woman as Rasmiya Awad, and said she was born in 1954. […]

IS spokesman killed in fresh north Syria raid: SDF official

AIN AL-BAYDAH, Syria (AFP) — The Islamic State group’s spokesman was killed Sunday in northern Syria, a top Kurdish official said, hours after the jihadists’ leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was announced dead. The official with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces — who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak on the issue — said IS spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir had been killed after SDF chief Mazloum Abdi said he had […]

Suspected IS radical stabs Indonesian security minister

  JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — An attacker allegedly “exposed to IS radicalism” stabbed Indonesian security minister Wiranto as he was stepping into a vehicle Thursday, leaving two deep wounds, police said. “Someone approached and attacked him. The local police chief and Pak (Mr) Wiranto were injured,” National Police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said of the attack in Pandeglang on Java island, adding that a man and a woman had been arrested. Television images showed security officers […]

Three French IS members sentenced to death in Iraq

An Iraqi court on Sunday sentenced three French citizens to death after they were found guilty of joining the Islamic State group, the first IS members from France to be handed capital punishment, a court official said. Captured in Syria by a US-backed force fighting the jihadists, Kevin Gonot, Leonard Lopez and Salim Machou were transferred to Iraq for trial. They have 30 days to appeal. Iraq has taken custody of thousands of jihadists repatriated […]

IS chief refers to Syria defeat in first video in five years

by Ali Choukeir and Maya Gebeily BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — The Islamic State group’s elusive supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made his first purported appearance in five years in a propaganda video released Monday, acknowledging IS’s defeat in the Syrian town of Baghouz while threatening “revenge” attacks. The world’s most wanted man was last seen in Mosul in 2014, announcing the birth of IS’s much-feared “caliphate” across swathes of Iraq and Syria, and appears to have […]

The last days of the IS ‘caliphate’

  by Tony Gamal-Gabriel Agence France Presse BAGHOUZ, Syria (AFP) — Suicide bombers, snipers, rockets — Islamic State group fighters did everything they could to defend their last scrap of territory in eastern Syria, but their diminished resources were not enough. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces on Saturday declared victory over the jihadists in the remote village of Baghouz, after reducing their once terrifying proto-state to a ghostly riverside camp. From the top of an […]