The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Islamists

  • Trump says ready to apologise for retweeting UK right-wing group’s videos

    Trump says ready to apologise for retweeting UK right-wing group’s videos

    U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview with the UK ITV broadcaster, partially released on Friday, that he was prepared to apologise for his retweets of UK right-wing group’s anti-Muslim videos.

    In November, Trump retweeted several unverified videos, originally posted on Twitter by Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of the far-right Britain First movement, which claimed to show violent acts committed by what the group considered Islamists.

    “If you’re telling me they’re horrible racist people, I would certainly apologise if you would like me to do that. I knew nothing about that,” Trump said, referring to Britain First.

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    Trump emphasised that he was a great supporter of the UK, adding that he did not want to cause any difficulty for the country.

    The U.S. president explained that he had retweeted the videos because he is a “big believer in fighting radical Islamic terror,” which was depicted on those videos.

    Trump’s retweets of Britain First’s videos provoked criticism by many UK and U.S. politicians and public figures.

    Particularly, UK Prime Minister Theresa May called Trump’s move to retweet the videos the wrong thing to do.

    NAN

  • Egypt army hits Sinai militants

    The Egyptian army said yesterday it had killed 16 Islamists in Sinai, and a new group said it carried out a bomb attack on police in Cairo, underscoring the widening scope of militant violence since the army removed Mohamed Mursi from power.

    The army said its aircraft hit radical Islamists near Sinai’s border with the Gaza Strip on Friday evening. A statement described them as belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, which denies government accusations it has turned to violence.

    The army has been trying to wrestle control of North Sinai from armed Islamists who have turned their focus from Israel to the government since Mursi, a Brotherhood member, was deposed in July following mass protests against his rule.

    The state has declared the Brotherhood a terrorist group. The Brotherhood says it is committed to peaceful activism.

    The army said yesterday a roadside bomb planted to target military personnel had been defused in Sinai.

  • UK attack: Authorities ‘probing possible link’ to Nigeria

    UK attack: Authorities ‘probing possible link’ to Nigeria

    British authorities are investigating possible involvement of Islamists from Nigeria in Wednesday’s attack on a soldier in South-east London.

    Two sources familiar with the investigation told Reuters authorities were investigating a possible link to Nigeria.

    The British soldier was hacked to death by suspected Islamists, while two men remain under arrest in hospital.

    BBC says the soldier’s family had been informed.

    Prime Minister David Cameron convened an emergency meeting of his intelligence chiefs on Thursday to look at the incident.

    A dramatic clip filmed by an onlooker just minutes after Wednesday’s killing showed a man with hands covered in blood shouting Islamic slogans and promising revenge on Britain for its participation in wars in the Muslim world.

    “We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day,” the black man in his 20s or 30s, wearing a wool jacket and jeans and speaking with a local accent, shouted in the footage obtained by Britain’s ITV news channel.

    “This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

    The attack, just a month after the bomb attacks on the Boston Marathon and the first apparent Islamist killing in London since suicide bombers struck in July 2005, revived fears of so-called “lone wolves” who might have had no direct contact with al Qaeda.

    Chilling images of a blood-soaked killer urging Britons to overthrow their government or risk having their children face a fate similar to a dead soldier lying just yards away were splashed across the front pages of newspapers.

    Police shot the two suspects while trying to arrest them, and the wounded men were taken into custody.

     

  • Mali conflict dominates AU summit

    Mali conflict dominates AU summit

    African Union leaders are meeting to discuss the conflict in Mali, as members move to deploy troops to help the French-led operation there.

    African states have pledged 7,700 troops to support French and Malian forces in their campaign against Islamist militants in northern Mali.

    BBC says only a small part of the African force has so far been deployed.

    French-led troops have retaken several towns since France intervened two weeks ago, and on Saturday advanced on Gao.

    The French defence ministry said troops gained control of the city – northern Mali’s most populous – after securing the airport and a strategic bridge to the south.

    However, French and Malian officials later told the Associated Press news agency that only parts of Gao were under their control, and that the operation there was ongoing.

    French officials said troops from neighbouring Niger and Chad would move into Gao to help secure it.

    Gao’s mayor, who had been ousted when Islamists seized control of northern Mali last year, returned to the town on Saturday.

    The other major northern cities, Kidal and Timbuktu, remain in Islamist hands.

    French forces are now reported to be targeting Timbuktu and Lere, to the west.

     

  • Egypt sentences 14 to death over Sinai attacks

    Egypt sentences 14 to death over Sinai attacks

    An Egyptian court on Monday sentenced 14 militant Islamists to death by hanging and four to life imprisonment over attacks on army and police forces in the Sinai Peninsula last year.

    The men, members of a militant group called Tawheed and Jihad, were charged by the prosecutor with killing three police officers, an army officer and a civilian in attacks carried out in June and July, 2011.

    Eight of the 14 death sentences were in absentia, court sources told Reuters.

    The verdicts were met with cries from the accused against President Mohamed Mursi, the Islamist head of state elected this year and who the defendants blamed for the court’s decision.

    “Mursi is an infidel and those who follow him are infidels,” shouted one defendant.

    Others cried “God is Great” as they listened to the judge from inside the metal cage in which they stood during trial sessions.

    Egypt’s Sinai has suffered from faltering security since President Hosni Mubarak was swept from power in a popular uprising in February 2011.

    Egypt’s army and police launched a sweep after a raid that killed 16 Egyptian border guards in August.