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by Maya Gebeily Agence France Presse BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — Syrian troops backed by Russian jets completed the recapture of the historic city of Palmyra from the Islamic State group Thursday, the Kremlin and the army said, in another blow to the jihadists. Bolstered by air strikes and ground troops from their ally Moscow, Syrian forces battled through the desert for weeks to reach Palmyra. The oasis city has traded hands several times during Syria’s […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump is pledging to work with Muslim countries to fulfill his campaign pledge to defeat the Islamic State group. According to excerpts from a planned speech to a joint session of Congress, Trump will dismiss the jihadist group as “a network of lawless savages that have slaughtered Muslims and Christians, and men, women and children of all faiths and beliefs.” “We will work with our allies, including our […]
OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — Canada will resettle 1,200 Yezidi refugees who faced persecution by the Islamic State group, the immigration minister said Tuesday. Some 400 have already been airlifted to this country. “Our operation is under way and individual survivors of Daesh have been arriving in Canada for resettlement in the last number of months and this began on October 25, 2016,” Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen, using an Arabic name for the Islamic State. “Our […]
SEHWAN, Pakistan (AFP) — At least 70 people were killed and hundreds wounded Thursday when a bomb ripped through a revered Sufi shrine in southern Pakistan, officials said, after a series of attacks which have shaken optimism over recent improvements in security. The Islamic State group (IS) claimed the attack, the deadliest to hit Pakistan so far in 2017, in the town of Sehwan in Sindh province, some 200 kilometres (124 miles) northeast of the […]
PALMYRA, Syria (Reuters) — Islamic State militants have destroyed one of the most famous monuments in the ancient city of Palmyra, the Tetrapylon, and the facade of its Roman Theater, Syrian antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim told Reuters on Friday (January 20). The Syrian government lost control of Palmyra to Islamic State in December, the second time the jihadist group had overrun the UNESCO world heritage site in the six-year-long Syrian conflict. The Tetrapylon, marking a […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — 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 organization, in an audio message released Thursday. 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 […]
MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — Philippine security forces killed Thursday the leader of a Muslim militant group that has carried out deadly attacks on civilians to win support from Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria, authorities said. Mohammad Jaafar Maguid, founder and leader of Ansarul Khilafa Philippines, was tracked down and shot at a beach resort on the southern island of Mindanao shortly after midnight, while three “cohorts” were arrested, a police report said. Ansarul […]
by Stuart WILLIAMS and Raziye AKKOC in Ankara ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) — Islamic State jihadists Monday claimed the shooting rampage at a glamorous Istanbul nightclub that killed 39 on New Year’s night, while police arrested eight suspects but the attacker remained on the run. The statement by the extremist group — which Turkey is fighting in neighbouring Syria — was the first undisputed claim it has made for an attack in Turkey despite being blamed […]
KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait (AFP) — A Kuwaiti court on Monday sentenced a Filipino woman to 10 years in jail after convicting her of joining the Islamic State jihadist group and plotting attacks. The ruling, which is not final, also calls for deporting the 32-year old after serving her term. The woman was arrested in August, two months after arriving in the oil-rich Gulf state to work as a domestic helper. At the time, the interior […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — At least 88 civilians have been killed in 24 hours of Turkish air strikes on an Islamic State group bastion in northern Syria, a monitoring group said Friday. A barrage of raids hit Al-Bab on Thursday, killing 72 civilians including 21 children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Bombardment continued on Friday, leaving another 16 civilians dead, including three children. “Eighty-eight civilians have been killed in 24 hours,” Observatory […]
by Michel Moutot Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Even the best-laid security plans cannot protect an open-air event against the lethal potency of a truck attack like those carried out in Berlin and Nice, experts say. The sheer scope of places, demonstrations and public gatherings needing protection is such that the risk of someone using a moving vehicle as a weapon of terror — as called for by the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The threat from the Islamic State group will likely endure for years to come, even if it loses all the territory it once held under its so-called “caliphate,” experts warned Monday. In a report, 20 experts on the Middle East and jihadism also described how organizations such as Al-Qaeda and the group formerly known as the Al-Nusra Front are adapting methods and continuing to expand. A US-led coalition has since […]
