A man lights candles to mourn the victims from the Army Public School in Peshawar, which was attack by Taliban gunmen, in Karachi, December 16, 2014. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro
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Showing posts with label Terrorism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Terrorism. Show all posts
A man lights candles to mourn the victims from the Army Public School in Peshawar, which was attack by Taliban gunmen, in Karachi, December 16, 2014. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro
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Police have released pictures of two Kenyan men accused of masterminding terrorist attacks in the country.
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The Boston FBI agent who fatally shot a Chechen friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev in Florida last year had a brief and troubled past at the Oakland Police Department in California. In four years, Officer #8313 took the Fifth at a police corruption trial and was the subject of two police brutality lawsuits and four internal affairs investigations. He retired from the department in 2004 at age 31.
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Al Amin Kimathi, the Executive Director of Muslim for Human Rights Forum, has said his life is in danger.
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| Vocal Human Rights Activist Al Amin Kimathi |
Speaking in a press conference on Thursday, Kimathi, who was held in solitary confinement in Kampala's Luzira Maximum Security Prison in 2010 after terror attacks in Kampala, said officials from human rights organizations told him he is on the “next to be killed” order after
Sheikh Abubakar Shariff Alias Makaburi.
He also quoted an Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) official
based at Pangani who said Al Amin Kimathi will be the next high profile person the
death squad will be looking for.
“During a chat at the police station, at some point (he)
(the ATPU officer) started talking about Mombasa and Makaburi. Then he
commented that the next high profile person they will be looking for is Al Amin
Kimathi,” he said.
“I am not worried because I must die one day and if it is
to die for my ideals and the position I have adopted in my work, I will gladly
do so,” Kimathi said.
Last week, Kimathi was publicly heard calling for revenge
for Makaburi’s killers.
“We can no longer tolerate what is going in this country
you must defend your rights even if it means paying the ultimate price,” he
said.
Security has been
scaled up at key Government installations across the country as war against
terror enters fever pitch.
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| Al Shabaab fighters in a training routine |
The Government of
President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy, William Ruto, has also assigned more
bodyguards and extra chase cars to top State officials, their spouses and
children as part of efforts to avert terror attacks after it emerged the top
Government officials and prominent figures could be the one targeted by
Al-Shabaab terrorists.
Before leaving for Belgium last week, President Uhuru Kenyatta directed his Deputy and
top security details to instruct top Government officials and prominent figures
to limit their movements especially at night because they are targets.
Among those who the
Al-Shabaab have targeted and whose bodyguards, those of their spouse and
children have been increased include;
1. Uhuru Kenyatta (President)
2. William Ruto (Deputy President)
3. Joseph Ole Lenku (CS Interior)
4. Anne Wiguru (CS Devolution)
5. Henry Rotich (CS Treasury)
6. Raychael Omamo (CS Defence)
7. Willy Mutunga (Chief Justice)
8. Aden Duale (Majority Leader National
Assembly)
9. Kithure Kindiki (Majority Leader Senate)
10. Justin Muturi (Speaker National Assembly)
11. Ekwee Ethuro (Speaker Senate)
Jubilee
Majority Leader in the Parliament and vocal Garissa Township MP Aden Bare Duale is
a besieged man. This was after remarks that the Jubilee stalwart and close ally
to both the president and his deputy made unequivocal remarks on the ongoing
swoop in Eastleigh aimed at rooting out Al Shabaab cells and their associates.
| Embattled Garissa Township MP and Majority Leader in the National Assembly Aden Duale |
Speaking on
Tuesday, URP Chairman Francis Ole Kaparo distanced the URP party from Duale’s
remarks, saying his move to defend terrorists was personal and does not
represent the views of the URP party. Mr. Kaparo noted that William Ruto’s URP
supports the crackdown on terrorists by the Jubilee Government 100% because it
is Government policy and will not tolerate anyone opposed to it.
However, Duale
who has been on the forefront of speaking about radicalization of youth and
apparent non-tolerance teachings that have been adopted by some Muslim
preachers, has vehemently denied being a supporter or a sympathizer of any
terrorist organization or any terrorist act. He maintains that the terrorist
elements regardless of their purported religious affiliation or their heritage
should be rooted out.
But the
majority leader maintains that the operation should be carried out in a systematic
order and not appear to be targeting a specific community namely Somalis. His comments
seem to have been blown out of proportion by media and fueled by some political
powerbrokers who want to keep him in check. Some powerful and dominant
political quarters seem to have been rattled by Duale’s increased popularity
and charisma.
Importantly,
they not that the Garissa Township MP, who hails from a minority community in
Kenya is growing ever more powerful and his intimate closeness to President
Uhuru and DP William Ruto is giving them sleepless nights. In terms of power,
Mr. Duale is seen as third in line after the president and his deputy.
As a
proof that indeed Mr. Duale is not a terrorism sympathizer, watch the video
below.
Another radical Muslim cleric has taken over the mantle of
leadership at the infamous Masjid Shuhadaa Mosque replacing the late Sheikh
Abubakar Sharif, aka Makaburi, who was murdered in cold blood last week.
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| The troubled Masjid Shuhadaa also known as Masjid Musa during a police carried out a raid recently |
The Imam only identified as Sheikh Amir, alias Mahboob,
was named the de facto leader of Masjid Shuhadaa and installed last Friday
before the supporters of Makaburi who had flocked the mosque after prayers
ready to riot.
Sheikh Mahboob immediately declared war against non-Muslims,
telling radical Muslims who were ready to demonstrate to calm down as he will
organize a bigger and better revenge against non-Muslims for killing Makaburi
and Rogo. He also called for killing of any Muslim shying away from killing
non-Muslims, terming such Muslims as ‘kaffirs’.
The fiery cleric moved to prove to his followers that he
would live to ideologies of the late Makaburi and Aboud Rogo and renewed the
wave of radicalization teaching in full glare of police forces and journalists
amid applause from flowers who shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is Great).
Mahboob enjoys support from majority of radical Muslims
youths and is quoted several times in the past praising terrorist attacks in
Kenya. This has run a pang of shock amongst Muslim leaders in Kenya as they
deem such utterances as evils that will perpetually taint Islam with permanence.
The police in Mombasa led by Commissioner Nelson Marwa
said they are still profiling the fiery cleric before they can take action. Marwa
confirmed that they got the recording of the Friday’s sermon by the radical
cleric and are analyzing it before they can decide the next course of action.
Sheikh Mahboob’s call of annihilation and disemboweling of
non-Muslims can be heard in the video below.
It is finally emerging that slain Islamic cleric, Sheikh
Abubakar Shariff Ahmed alias Makaburi was not assassinated by the
Government as many Kenyans had been forced to believe.
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| Police pick the body of slain fiery Muslim cleric Sheikh Makaburi outside Mombasa Shanzu Law Courts |
According to intelligence reports from Kenyan, British and
American detectives, Makaburi was a victim of a power struggle within the Al
Shabaab.
The report which was published in the Mirror , a UK based
newspaper o Saturday, said it was Samantha Lewthwaite (the white widow) who
ordered the killing of the radical Islamic cleric.
The information comes a day after top Muslim leaders and
clerics accused the Jubilee Government of being behind the killing of the fiery
cleric who advocated for the killing of Christians (/Kafirs/) at the coastal city
of Mombasa.
The London based paper says Makaburi was killed due to his
refusal of becoming a senior Al Shababab leader in Kenya and Uganda.
Sources say Samantha, who is hiding in a remote village in
an Al Shabaab controlled region in Somalia, ordered the killing of Makaburi terming
him a “betrayer of Muslims”
This may be cemented by news that those who shot Makaburi
on Tuesday evening were men wearing white robes (Kanzus) and Muslim caps.
Officers overlook six pipe-bombs, guns, detonators, ammunition in Somali suspected terror plotter’s Toyota four-wheel-drive
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| Kenyan Defence Forces inside Somalia in 'Operation Linda Nchi' |
Kenyan police failed to realize that a car that they impounded from a Somali
man and stored outside their anti-terror unit offices for a week was packed
full of explosives already attached to a Nokia detonator.
The blue Toyota four-wheel-drive was only thoroughly checked when foreign
counter-terror officers believed to be from the FBI saw the vehicle and recognized it was on an international alert list.
Six separate pipe bombs made up of a total of 130lb of plastic explosive were
welded into the vehicle’s rear seats, enough to collapse a multi-storey
building, according to Kenyan police.
An AK-47, 250 rounds of ammunition, detonators and grenades were also found
when a full search was eventually carried out and completed on Tuesday.
The vehicle was impounded in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa on March 11, and
the driver, a Somali, and his passenger, a Kenyan of Somali origin, were
arrested and charged with illegally importing a vehicle.
Fresh charges linked to international terrorism will now be drawn up,
prosecutors in Mombasa said.
Security sources in the city said initial investigations suggested one of the men had called telephone numbers also contacted by suspected terrorists linked to Kenya’s Westgate attack in September, but this could not be confirmed.
“This is a continuous investigation process and it is not correct to give details before everything is known,” Robert Kitur, Mombasa police chief told the media.
The amount of explosives were enough to cause “mass destruction”, but the potential target was not yet known, another senior official, Nelson Marwa, Mombasa county commissioner, said.
The vehicle was a collection of parts from different cars, he added.
"It is a Toyota ... the chassis does not belong to that vehicle, the engine does not belong to that vehicle, the number plate does not belong to that vehicle," Mr Marwa said.
Islamic extremists in Somalia have vowed to continue attacks on Kenya, following the Westgate siege in September, when 67 civilians died after four gunmen took over the upscale mall in the capital, Nairobi.
They were sent by al-Shabaab, Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked militia, which on Monday carried out a suicide bombing of a hotel in southern Somalia where African Union soldiers had gathered. Eight were killed.
Separately, Uganda’s intelligence services have warned that al-Shabaab cells may be planning to hijack petrol transport lorries and use them as improvised truck bombs.
Security sources in the city said initial investigations suggested one of the men had called telephone numbers also contacted by suspected terrorists linked to Kenya’s Westgate attack in September, but this could not be confirmed.
“This is a continuous investigation process and it is not correct to give details before everything is known,” Robert Kitur, Mombasa police chief told the media.
The amount of explosives were enough to cause “mass destruction”, but the potential target was not yet known, another senior official, Nelson Marwa, Mombasa county commissioner, said.
The vehicle was a collection of parts from different cars, he added.
"It is a Toyota ... the chassis does not belong to that vehicle, the engine does not belong to that vehicle, the number plate does not belong to that vehicle," Mr Marwa said.
Islamic extremists in Somalia have vowed to continue attacks on Kenya, following the Westgate siege in September, when 67 civilians died after four gunmen took over the upscale mall in the capital, Nairobi.
They were sent by al-Shabaab, Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked militia, which on Monday carried out a suicide bombing of a hotel in southern Somalia where African Union soldiers had gathered. Eight were killed.
Separately, Uganda’s intelligence services have warned that al-Shabaab cells may be planning to hijack petrol transport lorries and use them as improvised truck bombs.
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| Kenyan soldiers serving with the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) during their patrol in Kismayu, Somalia in this file picture. Somali government forces backed by African Union troops captured a sixth settlement in the latest advance in their renewed offensive against Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab fighters, a spokesman said Friday. |
Somali government forces backed by African Union troops captured a sixth settlement in the latest advance in their renewed offensive against Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab fighters, a spokesman said Friday.
Shabaab gunmen are reported to have fled ahead of the assault on Thursday on the small town of Buloburte, in the southern Hiran region bordering Ethiopia, Ali Houmed said, spokesman of the African Union’s Amisom force.
“There was some fighting at the entrance to the town as the Shabaab tried to ambush and attack our forces, but they did not last long,” Houmed told AFP.
“Their forces disappeared as we advanced to secure the town,” he added.
Hiran deputy governor for security, Mohamed Ibrahim Ali, said: “The fanatical militants fled Buloburte town as Amisom and Somali National Army forces approached late in the afternoon.”
Fixed positions
“They have gone to the hills and bushes around Shabelle River that passes through the district,” he added.
“They have gone to the hills and bushes around Shabelle River that passes through the district,” he added.
Hardline Shabaab insurgents once controlled most of southern and central Somalia but withdrew from fixed positions in Mogadishu two years ago.
However, guerrilla units stage regular deadly attacks in the capital Mogadishu, and claimed responsibility for last year’s deadly attack in neighbouring Kenya, when commandos stormed the upmarket Westgate mall, shooting shoppers and hurling grenades.
Government and AU troops have also come under repeated hit-and-run attacks in rural areas surrounding the settlements they capture.
Amisom chief Mahamat Saleh Annadif boasted that the capture of Buloburte was “a major victory”, in a statement released late Thursday, calling the dusty settlement a “supply nerve centre” for the Shabaab.
After a series of sweeping victories in 2012, Amisom had remained largely static, hampered by limited troops and air power to advance again.
But the UN-mandated force launched a new offensive earlier this month against the Islamist fighters, after Ethiopian soldiers joined to push troop numbers to some 22,000.
The UN reports that thousands of civilians are fleeing expected fighting, warning that the offensive is expected to “directly affect scores of districts and regions” where some three million people live.
Reports say Al-Shabaab loyalists fleeing towns and villages are urging civilians to leave or be considered supporters of the approaching pro-government forces.
The Somali Government’s regional officials condemned Al-Shabaab tactics of inculcating fear in the civilians.
“We call upon the innocent civilians who were misled by the Islamists to return. It is safe for all peace-loving people to live here,” said the deputy governor.
“Humanitarian access due to the volatile security situation remains a major challenge,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.
UN envoy to Somalia Nicholas Kay this week told the Security Council the offensive would be “the most significant and geographically extensive military advance” since Amisom started operations in 2007.
Targeted key areas
But Kay also warned the security situation in the capital Mogadishu had “deteriorated” in the last three months.
But Kay also warned the security situation in the capital Mogadishu had “deteriorated” in the last three months.
Recent Shabaab attacks in the capital have targeted key areas of government or the security forces, in an apparent bid to discredit claims by the authorities that they are winning the war against them.
“Times are tough, and in the short term, may get tougher,” Kay warned. (AFP)
Last month, a huge car bomb exploded at the gate of Somalia’s presidential palace in Mogadishu.
Last month, a huge car bomb exploded at the gate of Somalia’s presidential palace in Mogadishu.
At least two senior officials and nine attackers are said to have died during the attack, which Al-Shabaab claimed to have carried out.
The heavily-guarded complex is home to President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the prime minister, speaker of parliament and some ministers.
Credit: AFP and Abdulkadir Khalif
| The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Kidd and USS Pinckney are seen en transit in the Pacific Ocean in this U.S. Navy picture taken May 18, 2011. Kidd and Pinkney have been searching for the missing Malaysian airliner and are being re-deployed to the Strait of Malacca of Malaysia's west coast as new search areas are opened in the Indian Ocean, according to officials on March 13, 2014. |
Military radar data suggests a Malaysia Airlines jetliner missing for nearly a week was deliberately flown hundreds of miles off course, heightening suspicions of foul play among investigators, sources told Reuters on Friday.
Analysis of the Malaysia data suggests the plane, with 239 people on board, diverted from its intended northeast route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and flew west instead, using airline flight corridors normally employed for routes to the Middle East and Europe, said sources familiar with investigations into the Boeing 777's disappearance.
Two sources said an unidentified aircraft that investigators believe was Flight MH370 was following a route between navigational waypoints when it was last plotted on military radar off the country's northwest coast.
This indicates that it was either being flown by the pilots or someone with knowledge of those waypoints, the sources said.
The last plot on the military radar's tracking suggested the plane was flying toward India's Andaman Islands, a chain of isles between the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal, they said.
Waypoints are geographic locations, worked out by calculating longitude and latitude, that help pilots navigate along established air corridors.
A third source familiar with the investigation said inquiries were focusing increasingly on the theory that someone who knew how to fly a plane deliberately diverted the flight.
POSSIBLE SABOTAGE OR HIJACK
"What we can say is we are looking at sabotage, with hijack still on the cards," said that source, a senior Malaysian police official.
All three sources declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media and due to the sensitivity of the investigation.
Officials at Malaysia's Ministry of Transport, the official point of contact for information on the investigation, did not return calls seeking comment.
Malaysian police have previously said they were investigating whether any passengers or crew had personal or psychological problems that might shed light on the mystery, along with the possibility of a hijacking, sabotage or mechanical failure.
As a result of the new evidence, the sources said, multinational search efforts were being stepped up in the Andaman Sea and also the Indian Ocean.
LAST SIGHTING
In one of the most baffling mysteries in modern aviation, no trace of the plane nor any sign of wreckage has been found despite a search by the navies and military aircraft of more than a dozen countries.
The last sighting of the aircraft on civilian radar screens came shortly before 1:30 a.m. Malaysian time last Saturday (1730 GMT Friday), less than an hour after it took off from Kuala Lumpur, as the plane flew northeast across the mouth of the Gulf of Thailand. That put the plane on Malaysia's east coast.
Malaysia's air force chief said on Wednesday an aircraft that could have been the missing plane was plotted on military radar at 2:15 a.m., 200 miles northwest of Penang Island off Malaysia's west coast.
This position marks the limit of Malaysia's military radar in that part of the country, a fourth source familiar with the investigation told Reuters.
When asked about the range of military radar at a news conference on Thursday, Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said it was "a sensitive issue" that he was not going to reveal.
"Even if it doesn't extend beyond that, we can get the co-operation of the neighboring countries," he said.
The fact that the aircraft - if it was MH370 - had lost contact with air traffic control and was invisible to civilian radar suggested someone on board had turned off its communication systems, the first two sources said.
They also gave new details on the direction in which the unidentified aircraft was heading - following aviation corridors identified on maps used by pilots as N571 and P628. These routes are taken by commercial planes flying from Southeast Asia to the Middle East or Europe and can be found in public documents issued by regional aviation authorities.
In a far more detailed description of the military radar plotting than has been publicly revealed, the first two sources said the last confirmed position of MH370 was at 35,000 feet about 90 miles off the east coast of Malaysia, heading towards Vietnam, near a navigational waypoint called "Igari". The time was 1:21 a.m..
The military track suggests it then turned sharply westwards, heading towards a waypoint called "Vampi", northeast of Indonesia's Aceh province and a navigational point used for planes following route N571 to the Middle East.
From there, the plot indicates the plane flew towards a waypoint called "Gival", south of the Thai island of Phuket, and was last plotted heading northwest towards another waypoint called "Igrex", on route P628 that would take it over the Andaman Islands and which carriers use to fly towards Europe.
The time was then 2:15 a.m. That is the same time given by the air force chief on Wednesday, who gave no information on that plane's possible direction.
The sources said Malaysia was requesting raw radar data from neighbours Thailand, Indonesia and India, which has a naval base in the Andaman Islands.
Credit:CREDIT: REUTERS/US NAVY/SEAMAN APPRENTICE CARLA OCAMPO/HANDOUT
