The Nation Newspaper

Tag: ISIS

  • Paris attack suspect to be extradited to France ‘in few weeks’ – lawyer

    Salah Abdeslam, a key suspect in November’s Paris attacks, would be extradited to France from Belgium in a few weeks to allow for additional questioning by Belgian investigators, his lawyer said on Thursday.

    The Lawyer, Sven Mary said Abdeslam, who returned from Paris hours after the IS attacks in which his brother blew himself up, hid from police for four months until he was captured in a raid on a house in district of Molenbeek on March 18.

    His finger prints were found three days earlier in an apartment in the southern Brussels borough of Forest after a gun battle during which an Islamist gunman was shot dead and four police officers were injured.

    “Prosecutors want to question him about that incident.

    “There is a hearing, which will take place regarding the attempted murder of several police officers during the home search in Forest,’’ Mary told newsmen.
    Abdeslam, who previously said that he wanted to be extradited to France, was not present at a court hearing in Brussels.

    “As I said, he wishes to go to France and that is the reason that things need to proceed and why we hope that it will be over in a few weeks,’’ Mary added.
    The shooting and bombing rampage by IS militants killed 130 people in Paris on Nov. 13.

     

  • Brussels attack: suicide bomber works as a cleaner

    Brussels attack: suicide bomber works as a cleaner

    Reports have disclosed that one of the ISIS bombers who executed the Brussels attacks  was a worker at the European Parliament as a cleaner.

    The Sun reports that suicide bomber Laachraoui had been employed by a cleaning company contracted by the European Parliament, and took on the role as a summer job while he was a student.

    The 24 -year- old bomber worked in EU parliament between 2009 and 2010.

    According to European Parliament spokesman, Jaume Duch Guillot,  “the European Parliament confirms that seven and six years ago, one of the perpetrators of the Brussels terrorist attacks worked for a period of one month for a cleaning company which was contracted by the European Parliament at the time.

    “As a student, he held a summer holiday job cleaning at the Parliament for one month in 2009 and one month in 2010. Those were the only instances he worked at the Parliament.

    “As required by the contract, the cleaning firm submitted proof of the absence of a criminal record to the European Parliament,” Guillot said.

    Guillot reiterated further that the bomber did not have a criminal record at the time and provided proof of this before taking on the job.

     

  • US kills ISIS second-in-command in raid

    The Pentagon said Friday that it had killed ISIS’ No. 2 leader, Abd al-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli.

    Defense Secretary Ash Carter told reporters that the US was ” systematically eliminating ISIL’s cabinet,”  and added that Qaduli was “the second senior ISIL leader we’ve successfully targeted this month.”

    CNN reported that al-Qaduli was involved in overseeing the terrorist group’s finances.

    The Iraqi Defense Ministry had first claimed in July that a coalition air strike had killed Qaduli in Tal Afar in northern Iraq.

    At the time U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the region, debunked the claim, saying it had “no information to corroborate” that ISIS’ second-in-command had been killed.

    The U.S. Treasury labeled al-Qaduli “a specially designated global terrorist” in 2014. He also goes by 12 aliases including, Hajji Iman, according to the Treasury.

    The U.S. State Department had offered a $7 million reward for information on al-Qaduli — the highest for any ISIS leader apart from al-Baghdadi, who is valued at $10 million.

    The bounty unty makes al-Qaduli the sixth-most-wanted terrorist in the world, ranking only behind the likes of the heads of al Qaeda, ISIS and the Taliban’s Haqqani network.

    Al-Qaduli was born in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, in either 1957 or 1959.

    He initially joined Al-Qaeda in Iraq – the group that would evolve into ISIS — in 2004, serving as a top deputy to then-leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and emir of the group’s Mosul branch.

    He was captured and jailed by Iraqi authorities but was released in 2012, at which point he rejoined the terror group in Syria, according to the U.S. State Department.

     

  • ISIS makes half Nigerian four-year-old execute prisoners

    ISIS makes half Nigerian four-year-old execute prisoners

    A four-year-old British boy dubbed “Junior Jihadi” has once again been used in a revolting ISIS propaganda video, this time showing him detonating explosives in a car with three captives strapped inside.

    Isa Dare, who was taken to Syria by his Nigeria born mom, Grace “Khadija” Dare, is seen with a young man who addressed the UK with a scarf covering his face.

    “You will never fight us except behind fortified fortresses or behind walls,” he said, the Independent of the UK reported.

    He then mentions spies sent to Syria and the killing of “our brothers” in the West.

    “So, today, we’re going to kill your spies the same way they helped you kill our brothers,” he said. “So prepare your army and gather your nations, for we too are preparing our army.”

    The three doomed captives, wearing the familiar orange jumpsuits, first offer their “confessions” before being cuffed inside the vehicle.

    Little Isa, clad in combat fatigues, makes an “OK” sign, presses a detonator to blow up the car and yells “Allahu akbar!” (God is great!).

    British Prime Minister David Cameron’s spokeswoman said officials were studying the vile video – insisting it was proof that ISIS is losing ground in Syria and Iraq.

    “As we’ve said before, releasing such propaganda is an example of a terrorist group feeling under pressure,” she said.

    The exploitative video is believed to have been shot in Raqqa, ISIS’ de facto capital in Syria.

    Last month, Isa was seen gesturing toward what appeared to be the same car in another execution video.

  • ISIS’ four-year-old boy execute prisoners

    A four-year-old British boy dubbed “Junior Jihadi” has once again been used in a revolting Islamic State propaganda video — this time showing him detonating explosives in a car with three captives strapped inside.

    Isa Dare, who was taken to Syria by his Nigeria born mom, Grace “Khadija” Dare, is seen with a young man who addressed the United Kingdom with a scarf covering his face.

    “You will never fight us except behind fortified fortresses or behind walls,” he said.

    He then mentions spies sent to Syria and the killing of “our brothers” in the West, the Independent of the UK reported.

    “So today, we’re going to kill your spies the same way they helped you kill our brothers,” he said. “So prepare your army and gather your nations, for we too are preparing our army.”

    The three doomed captives, wearing the familiar orange jumpsuits, first offer their “confessions” before being cuffed inside the vehicle.

    Little Isa, clad in combat fatigues, makes an “OK” sign, presses a detonator to blow up the car and yells “Allahu akbar!” — “God is great.”

    British Prime Minister, David Cameron’s spokeswoman said officials were studying the vile video — insisting it was proof that ISIS is losing ground in Syria and Iraq.

    “As we’ve said before, releasing such propaganda is an example of a terrorist group feeling under pressure,” she said.

    The exploitative video is believed to have been shot in Raqqa, ISIS’ de facto capital in Syria.

     

  • ISIS recruiter a weak student – FUT Minna

    The suspected recruiter for the Islamic State (ISIS), Abdussalam Enesi Yunusa, who was arrested by the Department of State Security (DSS) on Monday, has been described as weak and unserious student by the Federal University of Technology, Minna.

    The institution’s Chief Information Officer, Mrs. Lydia Legbo, on Wednesday said Yunusa registered for the 2010/2011 academic session, but absconded after the first semester in the 2014/2015 academic session.

    “The said Abdussalam Yunusa was admitted into FUT Minna in 2010/2011 academic session. He was a weak student who last registered in the 2014/2015 academic session but absconded after the first semester.

    “From our records, he is in 300- level student and did not register for the current academic session (2015/2016). His course mates graduated in 2014/2015 and are currently being mobilized for National Youth Service,” Legbo stated.

    She commended the security agencies in their efforts to rid the society of deviants.

     

  • ISIS fighter executes mother for ‘apostasy’ in Syria

    An Islamic State fighter has executed his own mother before a public audience, a Syrian rights group said.

    The 20-year-old killed his mother in the Syrian city of Raqqa, ISIS’ de facto capital, as hundreds looked on near the post office where she worked, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

    ISIS had accused her of apostasy after her son turned her in, the activists said.

    She allegedly had been “inciting her son to leave the ISIS.

    “She wanted to escape with him and told him that the coalition will kill all members of the organization.”

    The observatory reported that the victim was in her 40s.

  • Boy in recent ISIS video, my grandson – Nigerian

    Boy in recent ISIS video, my grandson – Nigerian


    Nigerian-born United Kingdom immigrant, Henry (also Sunday) Dare has identified the four year old boy in the latest ISIS video as Isa, his grandson.

    In the video, which showed a group of ISIS militants executing five supposed British spies, Isa was heard calling in Allah’s name, for the execution of the individuals.

    Speaking with the correspondence of a UK based media organization on the development, Sunday Dare, the boy’s grandfather acknowledged the boy saying: “He’s my grandson. I can’t disown him. I know him very well.

    “The Islamic State is just using a small boy. He doesn’t know anything. He’s a small boy. They are just using him as a shield.

    Isa appeared at the end of the 11-minute video that surfaced on Sunday. He was wearing military fatigues and warned in English: “We are going to go kill the kafir (non-believers) over there.”

    The boy's grandfather, Dare is a Christian Nigerian who migrated to the UK with his daughter, Grace “Khadijah” Dare.

    Khadijah was radicalized while at university in London and joined the Islamic State in 2012. She had reportedly praised the beheading of an American journalist, James Foley, and said she wanted to be the first woman to behead a hostage.

    Khadijah Dare, who was christened Grace by her parents, grew up in Lewisham to Nigerian Christian parents, but converted to Islam as a teenager before leaving for Syria.

    In 2014, she posted a photograph on her personal Twitter account of her then four-year-old son Isa, meaning Jesus in Arabic, smiling with an AK-47 rifle.

    All her social media account, or those linked to her, are known for posting pro-ISIS messages, encouraging other young women to make the journey to the war zone and she is one of the first known western women to have travelled to Syria.

    Dare said he recently spoke to his daughter ‘weeks ago, when she called me’. “I keep on ignoring her calls because she has brought shame to our family and to herself,” he said.

    The boy was born in 2010 and has been named by some news outlets. The British press has also nicknamed him ‘Jihadi Junior’.

    [news_box style="2" display="tag" link_target="_blank" tag="ISIS" count="6" show_more="on" show_more_type="link"]

  • ISIS figures on Boko Haram attacks, killings a hoax – FG

    ISIS figures on Boko Haram attacks, killings a hoax – FG

    The Federal Government on Monday reacted to claims made by the Islamic State on attacks number of deaths caused by Boko Haram in the last two months.

    In a statement issued in Abuja on Monday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, described the claims as a hoax,  saying  the imaginary figures were part of ISIS strategy to shore up the morale of its dispersed and defeated fellow terrorists in Nigeria.

    He said ”Apart from these fake figures, we are aware of the planned release of old videos of Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria through the terrorists’ preferred channel to give the impression that they have continued to carry out spectacular attacks. Those videos are neither recent nor genuine.

    ”The ISIS/Boko Haram propaganda is being deliberately timed to coincide with the December 31, 2015 deadline issued to the military by the President to decimate the terrorists, and is also aimed at distracting the military and striking at its all-time high morale.

    ”But the truth of the matter is that the capability of the military has improved drastically, and there is a higher level of awareness among Nigerians concerning the war against terrorism, which has led them (Nigerians) to increase their support for the troops on the frontline and to also win the war.

    ”Therefore, the figures being pushed out by ISIS on behalf of Boko Haram represent nothing but a figment of the terrorists’ imagination. We recently visited Bama, from where they once ran their phony Caliphate, but all we saw were gallant troops holding sway. We even shared a delicious lunch of ‘balango’ (a kind of suya) and soft drinks with the troops.

    ”We therefore wonder where the terrorists have been carrying out their so-called spectacular attacks, as indicated by ISIS, when indeed the capability of the shameless cowards has been so degraded that all they can do now is to target innocent women and children, using equally innocent children and women as their bomb carriers.”

  • U.S. issues global travel warning on Boko Haram, ISIS

    U.S. issues global travel warning on Boko Haram, ISIS

    The U.S. State Department yesterday in Washington issued a global travel warning amid possible increased terrorist threats.

    The travel alert, which is in effect until February 24, said current information suggested that militants with ISIS, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and other militant groups continued to plan attacks in several regions around the world.

    The release did not provide specifics of any planned attacks or threats, and mentioned no specific regions, except to note attacks this year in France, Nigeria, Denmark, Turkey and Mali.

    The department noted that the current information suggested that the Islamic State movement, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and other terrorist groups are planning more terrorist attacks in multiple regions.

    “U.S. citizens should exercise vigilance when in public places or using transportation.

    “Be aware of immediate surroundings and avoid large crowds or crowded places,’’ it said.

    The State Department said the U.S. was exchanging information with allies about threats of international terrorism.