Turkey yesterday went back on claims that a child bomber linked to Islamic State (IS) jihadists carried out a deadly suicide bombing close to Syria, saying it had no clue who was behind the attack. 
 
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Ankara could not confirm who was the perpetrator of the attack on a Kurdish wedding in the city of Gaziantep which left 54 dead, apparently contradicting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who had said it was a child bomber acting on IS orders. 
 
&quot;We do not have a clue about who the perpetrators behind the attack were. Early information on who did the attack, in what organisation&#39;s name, is unfortunately not right,&quot; Yildirim told reporters in Ankara. 
 
His comments were in stark contract with those by Erdogan who said on Sunday that the bomber was a child aged between 12-14 acting on orders of IS jihadists. Yildirim described as &quot;rumours&quot; whether the attack was conducted by a child or an adult, while insisting security agencies would continue their work to find out who was responsible. 
 
&quot;Those who were behind the attack will be revealed, there is no doubt about this.&quot; 
 
The Hurriyet daily said DNA tests were under way to ascertain the bomber&#39;s identity, nationality and gender. 
 
&#39;Strikes on IS, PYD&#39; 
 
Earlier Turkish press reports said security forces believed the attack had been timed as retaliation by jihadists for offensives both by Kurdish militias and pro-Ankara Syrian opposition forces against IS in Syria. 
 
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, hundreds of rebel fighters were preparing inside Turkish territory to launch an offensive on the IS-held Syrian town of Jarablus. 
 
Without explicitly confirming the rebel offensive, foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey backed anyone fighting against IS and would itself fight the group &quot;to the end&quot;. 
 
&quot;Our border must be completely cleansed from Daesh,&quot; he said in televised remarks, using an Arabic acronym for the IS group. 
 
CNN-Turk and NTV channels later reported that Turkish armed forces launched artillery strikes on separate targets of IS jihadists and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) Kurdish militia in northern Syria. 
 
Turkish army howitzers stationed inside Turkey fired on IS targets in the town of Jarablus and PYD targets around the area of Manbij, the reports said. 
 
Dead mainly under 18 
 
Media said the majority of those killed were children or teenagers, with 29 of the 44 victims identified so far aged under 18. The death toll rose to 54 after three more died in hospital in the early morning, the Dogan news agency reported. 
 
Sixty-six people were still in hospital, 14 of them in a serious condition. Television pictures showed fire brigade workers hosing down the area of the attack with water in a clean-up. 
 
The leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples&#39; Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas said in a statement that &quot;all of those killed were Kurds&quot;. The bride and groom - a couple from the strongly Kurdish region of Siirt to the southeast - were rushed to hospital but not seriously wounded. 
 
The attack followed a string of strikes blamed on IS and Kurdish militants in recent months but if IS launched the attack, it would be the first significant jihadist action in Turkey since a failed July 15 coup. 
 
Hurriyet said the type of bomb used - stuffed with 2-3 centimetre shards of iron and detonated with C-4 explosives - was similar to that used in previous suicide bombings against pro-Kurdish gatherings blamed on IS in the border town of Suruc and at Ankara train station last year. The authorities were also looking for two individuals said to have accompanied the suspected suicide bomber into the wedding party but who then left the scene. 
 
All 44 victims identified so far were laid to rest in harrowing ceremonies in Gaziantep on Sunday, with relatives throwing themselves on the coffins in grief, an AFP correspondent said. 
 
The hillside graveyard was pock-marked before the ceremony with the holes of dozens of freshly dug graves for the victims. 
 
One mother, Emine Ayhan, lost four of her five children in the bombing while her husband is in intensive care, the Yeni Safak daily said. 
 
According to the list of victims in Turkish media, the youngest - named as Gurbet Akcan and Muhammet Yagiz - were both aged four. 
 
(AFP)

Turkish PM said Ankara could not confirm who was the perpetrator of the attack after President Erdogan said it was a child bomber

Turkey yesterday went back on claims that a child bomber linked to Islamic State (IS) jihadists carried out a deadly suicide bombing close to Syria, saying it had no clue who was behind the attack. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Ankara could not confirm who was the perpetrator of the attack on a Kurdish wedding in the city of Gaziantep which left 54 dead, apparently contradicting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who had said it was a child bomber acting on IS orders. "We do not have a clue about who the perpetrators behind the attack were. Early information on who did the attack, in what organisation's name, is unfortunately not right," Yildirim told reporters in Ankara. His comments were in stark contract with those by Erdogan who said on Sunday that the bomber was a child aged between 12-14 acting on orders of IS jihadists. Yildirim described as "rumours" whether the attack was conducted by a child or an adult, while insisting security agencies would continue their work to find out who was responsible. "Those who were behind the attack will be revealed, there is no doubt about this." The Hurriyet daily said DNA tests were under way to ascertain the bomber's identity, nationality and gender. 'Strikes on IS, PYD' Earlier Turkish press reports said security forces believed the attack had been timed as retaliation by jihadists for offensives both by Kurdish militias and pro-Ankara Syrian opposition forces against IS in Syria. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, hundreds of rebel fighters were preparing inside Turkish territory to launch an offensive on the IS-held Syrian town of Jarablus. Without explicitly confirming the rebel offensive, foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey backed anyone fighting against IS and would itself fight the group "to the end". "Our border must be completely cleansed from Daesh," he said in televised remarks, using an Arabic acronym for the IS group. CNN-Turk and NTV channels later reported that Turkish armed forces launched artillery strikes on separate targets of IS jihadists and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) Kurdish militia in northern Syria. Turkish army howitzers stationed inside Turkey fired on IS targets in the town of Jarablus and PYD targets around the area of Manbij, the reports said. Dead mainly under 18 Media said the majority of those killed were children or teenagers, with 29 of the 44 victims identified so far aged under 18. The death toll rose to 54 after three more died in hospital in the early morning, the Dogan news agency reported. Sixty-six people were still in hospital, 14 of them in a serious condition. Television pictures showed fire brigade workers hosing down the area of the attack with water in a clean-up. The leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas said in a statement that "all of those killed were Kurds". The bride and groom - a couple from the strongly Kurdish region of Siirt to the southeast - were rushed to hospital but not seriously wounded. The attack followed a string of strikes blamed on IS and Kurdish militants in recent months but if IS launched the attack, it would be the first significant jihadist action in Turkey since a failed July 15 coup. Hurriyet said the type of bomb used - stuffed with 2-3 centimetre shards of iron and detonated with C-4 explosives - was similar to that used in previous suicide bombings against pro-Kurdish gatherings blamed on IS in the border town of Suruc and at Ankara train station last year. The authorities were also looking for two individuals said to have accompanied the suspected suicide bomber into the wedding party but who then left the scene. All 44 victims identified so far were laid to rest in harrowing ceremonies in Gaziantep on Sunday, with relatives throwing themselves on the coffins in grief, an AFP correspondent said. The hillside graveyard was pock-marked before the ceremony with the holes of dozens of freshly dug graves for the victims. One mother, Emine Ayhan, lost four of her five children in the bombing while her husband is in intensive care, the Yeni Safak daily said. According to the list of victims in Turkish media, the youngest - named as Gurbet Akcan and Muhammet Yagiz - were both aged four. (AFP)

Turkey backtracks on 'IS child bomber' claims, PM says 'no clue' about attacker

Syrian rebels are preparing to launch an attack to seize a town from Islamic State on the border with Turkey, a senior rebel said on Sunday, in a move that would frustrate Kurdish hopes to expand in the area.&nbsp; 
 
The rebels, Turkish-backed groups fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), are expected to assault Jarablus from inside Turkey in the next few days, said the rebel official, who is familiar with the plans but declined to be identified.&nbsp; 
 
&quot;The factions are gathering in an area near the border (inside Turkey),&quot; the rebel said. 
 
Another rebel source said they were gathering at a Turkish military camp near the town of Qarqamish just opposite Jarablus. 
 
&quot;Every day there are groups of fighters entering from inside Syria across a secret crossing to a Turkish base where they are gathering in preparation of the assault on Jarablus,&quot; the source said. 
 
Fighters mostly drawn from Failaq al Sham, Sultan Murad, Ahrar al-Sham and Jabha al Shamiya groups were coming from Syria`s northwestern rebel-held Idlib province and also from the town of Azaz. 
 
Another source, in Ahrar al-Sham, expected the assault on Jarablus to begin in the next few days. 
 
Jarablus, on the western bank of the Euphrates river, is the last significant town held by the militant Islamist group on Syria`s border with Turkey.&nbsp; 
 
It is 34 miles (54 km) east of al-Rai, a border town FSA rebel groups recently took from Islamic State.&nbsp; 
 
Rivalry with Kurds 
 
By taking Jarablus themselves, the rebel groups would preclude an assault on the town by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group of Kurdish-dominated militias who on August 6 took the city of Manbij, 20 miles (30 km) to the south, from IS.&nbsp; 
 
A group allied to the SDF and calling itself the Jarablus military council issued a statement on Sunday accusing Turkey of supporting radical jihadist groups and calling on the US-led coalition to back the council. 
 
The US-led coalition has helped the SDF to make significant gains against Islamic State militants in northern Syria since it was established last year. 
 
Turkey, an important supporter of the FSA groups, is worried that Kurds are using the SDF&#39;s westwards expansion against IS to extend their influence across northern Syria. The SDF already holds the eastern bank of the Euphrates opposite Jarablus. 
 
On Saturday, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that Ankara would play a more active role in addressing the conflict in Syria in the coming six months to stop it being torn along ethnic lines. 
 
The rebel source from Ahrar al Sham said Turkish artillery had since Friday been pounding several Islamic State positions in villages on the outskirts of Jarablus near the border strip. 
 
The mainly Sunni Arab rebel groups are now aiming to regain control of the strategic towns of Tal Rifaat and Marea in the northern Aleppo countryside, currently in the hands of the YPG, the powerful Kurdish militia. 
 
Islamic State has pulled personnel out of Jarablus in recent days, the rebel leader said.&nbsp;On Friday, families of IS fighters were evacuated from Jarablus and another city nearby, al-Bab, to the group`s stronghold of Raqqa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. 
 
The rebel operation aimed to effectively end Islamic State`s presence on the Turkish border, the official said.&nbsp; 
 
&quot;There will certainly be resistance. They will have mined it heavily,&quot; he said. &quot;The operation of entering Jarablus will not be easy.&quot; 
 
(Reuters)

The onslaught will also dent Kurdish hopes of expansion along the Syria-Turkey border area

Syrian rebels are preparing to launch an attack to seize a town from Islamic State on the border with Turkey, a senior rebel said on Sunday, in a move that would frustrate Kurdish hopes to expand in the area. The rebels, Turkish-backed groups fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), are expected to assault Jarablus from inside Turkey in the next few days, said the rebel official, who is familiar with the plans but declined to be identified. "The factions are gathering in an area near the border (inside Turkey)," the rebel said. Another rebel source said they were gathering at a Turkish military camp near the town of Qarqamish just opposite Jarablus. "Every day there are groups of fighters entering from inside Syria across a secret crossing to a Turkish base where they are gathering in preparation of the assault on Jarablus," the source said. Fighters mostly drawn from Failaq al Sham, Sultan Murad, Ahrar al-Sham and Jabha al Shamiya groups were coming from Syria`s northwestern rebel-held Idlib province and also from the town of Azaz. Another source, in Ahrar al-Sham, expected the assault on Jarablus to begin in the next few days. Jarablus, on the western bank of the Euphrates river, is the last significant town held by the militant Islamist group on Syria`s border with Turkey. It is 34 miles (54 km) east of al-Rai, a border town FSA rebel groups recently took from Islamic State. Rivalry with Kurds By taking Jarablus themselves, the rebel groups would preclude an assault on the town by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group of Kurdish-dominated militias who on August 6 took the city of Manbij, 20 miles (30 km) to the south, from IS. A group allied to the SDF and calling itself the Jarablus military council issued a statement on Sunday accusing Turkey of supporting radical jihadist groups and calling on the US-led coalition to back the council. The US-led coalition has helped the SDF to make significant gains against Islamic State militants in northern Syria since it was established last year. Turkey, an important supporter of the FSA groups, is worried that Kurds are using the SDF's westwards expansion against IS to extend their influence across northern Syria. The SDF already holds the eastern bank of the Euphrates opposite Jarablus. On Saturday, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that Ankara would play a more active role in addressing the conflict in Syria in the coming six months to stop it being torn along ethnic lines. The rebel source from Ahrar al Sham said Turkish artillery had since Friday been pounding several Islamic State positions in villages on the outskirts of Jarablus near the border strip. The mainly Sunni Arab rebel groups are now aiming to regain control of the strategic towns of Tal Rifaat and Marea in the northern Aleppo countryside, currently in the hands of the YPG, the powerful Kurdish militia. Islamic State has pulled personnel out of Jarablus in recent days, the rebel leader said. On Friday, families of IS fighters were evacuated from Jarablus and another city nearby, al-Bab, to the group`s stronghold of Raqqa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The rebel operation aimed to effectively end Islamic State`s presence on the Turkish border, the official said. "There will certainly be resistance. They will have mined it heavily," he said. "The operation of entering Jarablus will not be easy." (Reuters)

Syrian rebels prepare to seize IS town from inside Turkey

At least 51&nbsp;people were killed in a southeastern Turkish city close to Syria when a suspected suicide bomber linked to Islamic State jihadists attacked a wedding thronged with guests, officials said Sunday. 
 
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters the death toll has risen from 50 to 51 with 94 hurt in the attack. 
 
Erdogan said the IS extremist group was the &quot;likely perpetrator&quot; of the bomb attack, the deadliest in 2016, in Gaziantep late Saturday that targeted a celebration attended by many Kurds. 
 
The remains of a suicide vest were found at the scene, the chief prosecutor&#39;s office said in a statement on Sunday, broadcaster CNN-Turk reported. 
 
The explosion was the latest attack to rock the key NATO member in a horrific year that has seen strikes blamed on Kurdish and Islamist militants as well as a bloody July 15 botched coup.

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<h5>Gaziantep governor Ali Yerlikaya said in a statement that 50 people had been killed, raising a previous toll of 30. He had previously said 94 were wounded in what he described as an &#39;abhorrent terror bomb attack on a wedding</h5>
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<div class="share-blockquote"><a a="" abhorrent="" attack="" bomb="" class="twitter popup" href="http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Gaziantep governor Ali Yerlikaya said in a statement that 50 people had been killed, raising a previous toll of 30. He had previously said 94 were wounded in what he described as an " on="" terror="" wedding="">&nbsp;</a></div>
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Erdogan said in a statement there was &quot;no difference&quot; between the group of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen whom he blames for the failed coup bid, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) &quot;and Daesh (IS), the likely perpetrator of the attack in Gaziantep&quot;.&nbsp; 
 
&quot;Our country and our nation have again only one message to those who attack us - you will not succeed!&quot; he said.

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<div class="share-blockquote">World leaders quickly condemned the attack including French President Francois Hollande who denounced the &quot;vile&quot; incident. 
 
&quot;France stands with all who fight against the scourge of terrorism,&quot; the presidency said in a statement. 
 
The US ambassador to Turkey John Bass condemned the &quot;barbaric attack on innocent civilians&quot;, adding that Washington would &quot;continue to work closely together to defeat the common threat of terrorism&quot; in a statement shared on the official US embassy in Turkey Twitter account. 
 
Kurds targeted 
 
Reports said the wedding had a strong Kurdish presence. 
 
The Dogan news agency said the bride and groom were from the mainly Kurdish region of Siirt further to the east and had themselves been uprooted. 
 
Mehmet Erdogan, a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker for Gaziantep said it was not clear who was responsible for the explosion but there was a &#39;high possibility&#39; it was a suicide attack.? 
 
The pro-Kurdish Peoples&#39; Democratic Party (HDP) said its members had been present at the wedding which was also attended by many women and children.&nbsp; 
 
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The Hurriyet daily said the bride and groom - Besna and Nurettin Akdogan - were in hospital but their lives were not in danger.
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The Hurriyet daily said the bride and groom - Besna and Nurettin Akdogan - were in hospital but their lives were not in danger. 
 
Erdogan said the aim of such attacks was to sow division between different groups in Turkey including Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen and to &quot;spread incitement along ethnic and religious lines&quot;. 
 
Many jihadists see Kurds as one of their main enemies, with Kurdish militias playing a significant role in the fight against IS on the ground in Syria. 
 
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Gaziantep would show the same spirit it had shown in 1921, when it defeated French forces in Turkey&#39;s Independence War which led to the word Gazi (war hero) being added to its original name of Antep. 
 
&quot;Our grief is great, but be sure our unity and togetherness will defeat all these diabolic attacks,&quot; he said. 
 
&#39;Happiest day poisoned&#39; 
 
Mehmet Erdogan, a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker for Gaziantep said there was a &quot;high possibility&quot; it was a suicide attack, comments echoed by Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek. 
 
Dogan news agency said the suicide bomber had mixed in with the guests before detonating the charge. Security forces are now searching for two individuals who entered the celebration with the suspected bomber and then fled, it added. 
 
Gulser Ates, who was wounded in the attack, told Hurriyet the attack took place as the party was breaking up. 
 
&quot;We were sitting on chairs, having a chat with one of our neighbours. 
 
&quot;During the explosion, the neighbour died on top of me. I remember being underneath. If my neighbour hadn&#39;t fallen on top of me, I would have died,&quot; she said. 
 
&quot;The bride and groom&#39;s happiest day was poisoned.&quot; 
 
Another resident in Gaziantep told Dogan that when he arrived, he saw many dead bodies and body parts including a &quot;head, arm, hand scattered on the ground&quot;. 
 
Meanwhile, images on broadcaster CNN-Turk showed rows of coffins covered in white sheets for the funerals of some of those killed. 
 
Crowds of mourners gathered to pray, and chants of Allahu Akbar (&quot;God is greatest&quot;) could be heard. 
 
Hub for Syrians 
 
A major city lying just 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of the Syrian border, Gaziantep has become a hub for Syrians fleeing the civil war in their country. 
 
But as well as refugees and opposition activists, there have long been fears it was home to a significant jihadist presence. 
 
Images from the scene showed bodies covered in white sheets while distraught relatives of the victims were comforted in the street. 
 
As has been the case in previous attacks, Turkey&#39;s broadcasting regulator RTUK banned broadcast of footage from the scene of the attack. 
 
IS suicide bombers have carried out attacks in Istanbul several times this year, while Kurdish militants have hit targets in both Ankara and Istanbul. 
 
On Thursday, 12 people were killed in three bombings blamed on the PKK, who Erdogan said had killed 70 members of the security forces in the last month alone. 
 
The blast in Gaziantep came just hours after Yildirim said Ankara would in the next six months play a &quot;more active&quot; role in efforts to solve the Syrian civil war. 
 
Turkey was long accused of turning a blind eye to or even abetting the rise of IS in Syria, claims it vehemently denies. But Ankara has taken a tougher line since the start of jihadist attacks on its soil. 
 
(AFP)</div>
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There were a number of Kurds -- whom many jihadists see as one of their main enemies -- at the wedding in the southeastern city of Gaziantep

At least 51 people were killed in a southeastern Turkish city close to Syria when a suspected suicide bomber linked to Islamic State jihadists attacked a wedding thronged with guests, officials said Sunday. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters the death toll has risen from 50 to 51 with 94 hurt in the attack. Erdogan said the IS extremist group was the "likely perpetrator" of the bomb attack, the deadliest in 2016, in Gaziantep late Saturday that targeted a celebration attended by many Kurds. The remains of a suicide vest were found at the scene, the chief prosecutor's office said in a statement on Sunday, broadcaster CNN-Turk reported. The explosion was the latest attack to rock the key NATO member in a horrific year that has seen strikes blamed on Kurdish and Islamist militants as well as a bloody July 15 botched coup. Gaziantep governor Ali Yerlikaya said in a statement that 50 people had been killed, raising a previous toll of 30. He had previously said 94 were wounded in what he described as an 'abhorrent terror bomb attack on a wedding Erdogan said in a statement there was "no difference" between the group of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen whom he blames for the failed coup bid, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) "and Daesh (IS), the likely perpetrator of the attack in Gaziantep". "Our country and our nation have again only one message to those who attack us - you will not succeed!" he said. World leaders quickly condemned the attack including French President Francois Hollande who denounced the "vile" incident. "France stands with all who fight against the scourge of terrorism," the presidency said in a statement. The US ambassador to Turkey John Bass condemned the "barbaric attack on innocent civilians", adding that Washington would "continue to work closely together to defeat the common threat of terrorism" in a statement shared on the official US embassy in Turkey Twitter account. Kurds targeted Reports said the wedding had a strong Kurdish presence. The Dogan news agency said the bride and groom were from the mainly Kurdish region of Siirt further to the east and had themselves been uprooted. Mehmet Erdogan, a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker for Gaziantep said it was not clear who was responsible for the explosion but there was a 'high possibility' it was a suicide attack.? The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said its members had been present at the wedding which was also attended by many women and children. The Hurriyet daily said the bride and groom - Besna and Nurettin Akdogan - were in hospital but their lives were not in danger. The Hurriyet daily said the bride and groom - Besna and Nurettin Akdogan - were in hospital but their lives were not in danger. Erdogan said the aim of such attacks was to sow division between different groups in Turkey including Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen and to "spread incitement along ethnic and religious lines". Many jihadists see Kurds as one of their main enemies, with Kurdish militias playing a significant role in the fight against IS on the ground in Syria. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Gaziantep would show the same spirit it had shown in 1921, when it defeated French forces in Turkey's Independence War which led to the word Gazi (war hero) being added to its original name of Antep. "Our grief is great, but be sure our unity and togetherness will defeat all these diabolic attacks," he said. 'Happiest day poisoned' Mehmet Erdogan, a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker for Gaziantep said there was a "high possibility" it was a suicide attack, comments echoed by Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek. Dogan news agency said the suicide bomber had mixed in with the guests before detonating the charge. Security forces are now searching for two individuals who entered the celebration with the suspected bomber and then fled, it added. Gulser Ates, who was wounded in the attack, told Hurriyet the attack took place as the party was breaking up. "We were sitting on chairs, having a chat with one of our neighbours. "During the explosion, the neighbour died on top of me. I remember being underneath. If my neighbour hadn't fallen on top of me, I would have died," she said. "The bride and groom's happiest day was poisoned." Another resident in Gaziantep told Dogan that when he arrived, he saw many dead bodies and body parts including a "head, arm, hand scattered on the ground". Meanwhile, images on broadcaster CNN-Turk showed rows of coffins covered in white sheets for the funerals of some of those killed. Crowds of mourners gathered to pray, and chants of Allahu Akbar ("God is greatest") could be heard. Hub for Syrians A major city lying just 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of the Syrian border, Gaziantep has become a hub for Syrians fleeing the civil war in their country. But as well as refugees and opposition activists, there have long been fears it was home to a significant jihadist presence. Images from the scene showed bodies covered in white sheets while distraught relatives of the victims were comforted in the street. As has been the case in previous attacks, Turkey's broadcasting regulator RTUK banned broadcast of footage from the scene of the attack. IS suicide bombers have carried out attacks in Istanbul several times this year, while Kurdish militants have hit targets in both Ankara and Istanbul. On Thursday, 12 people were killed in three bombings blamed on the PKK, who Erdogan said had killed 70 members of the security forces in the last month alone. The blast in Gaziantep came just hours after Yildirim said Ankara would in the next six months play a "more active" role in efforts to solve the Syrian civil war. Turkey was long accused of turning a blind eye to or even abetting the rise of IS in Syria, claims it vehemently denies. But Ankara has taken a tougher line since the start of jihadist attacks on its soil. (AFP)

Suspected IS suicide bomber kills 51 at Turkey wedding

Iraq on Sunday hanged 36 men convicted over the 2014 massacre by Sunni jihadists and allied militants of hundreds of military recruits, officials said. 
 
They had been found guilty of involvement in the &quot;Speicher&quot; massacre, named after a base near Tikrit where up to 1,700 recruits were kidnapped before being executed in a massacre claimed by the Islamic State group. 
 
&quot;The executions of 36 convicted over the Speicher crime were carried out this morning in Nasiriyah prison,&quot; a spokesman for the governor&#39;s office in Dhiqar, the province of which Nasiriyah is the capital, said. 
 
&quot;The governor of Dhiqar, Yahya al-Nasseri and justice minister Haidar al-Zamili were present to oversee the executions,&quot; Abdelhassan Dawood said. 
 
&quot;They were transferred to Nasiriyah last week after the president approved the executions,&quot; he said, referring to the necessary green light from Fuad Masum. 
 
Following the death of more than 300 people in the worst ever single bomb attack to strike Baghdad last month, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had said he wanted to expedite the execution of inmates sentenced to death in terrorism cases. 
 
The Dhiqar governor confirmed that the executions were carried out by hanging. 
 
His spokesman said that around 400 of the Speicher massacre victims were from the Dhiqar province, which is predominantly Shiite and located in Iraq&#39;s south. 
 
(AFP)

Up to 1,700 military recruits were kidnapped and executed by the Islamic State on Camp Speicher in Tikrit

Iraq on Sunday hanged 36 men convicted over the 2014 massacre by Sunni jihadists and allied militants of hundreds of military recruits, officials said. They had been found guilty of involvement in the "Speicher" massacre, named after a base near Tikrit where up to 1,700 recruits were kidnapped before being executed in a massacre claimed by the Islamic State group. "The executions of 36 convicted over the Speicher crime were carried out this morning in Nasiriyah prison," a spokesman for the governor's office in Dhiqar, the province of which Nasiriyah is the capital, said. "The governor of Dhiqar, Yahya al-Nasseri and justice minister Haidar al-Zamili were present to oversee the executions," Abdelhassan Dawood said. "They were transferred to Nasiriyah last week after the president approved the executions," he said, referring to the necessary green light from Fuad Masum. Following the death of more than 300 people in the worst ever single bomb attack to strike Baghdad last month, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had said he wanted to expedite the execution of inmates sentenced to death in terrorism cases. The Dhiqar governor confirmed that the executions were carried out by hanging. His spokesman said that around 400 of the Speicher massacre victims were from the Dhiqar province, which is predominantly Shiite and located in Iraq's south. (AFP)

Iraq hangs 36 convicted of 2014 Speicher massacre

The outfit is rewarding its warriors by exploiting the exodus of Europe-bound African migrants -- captured women are turned into sex slaves

Enslaved in Libya: One woman's extraordinary escape from Islamic State

Bangladeshi security forces said today they had arrested four women suspected of being members of a home-grown militant group blamed for an attack on a Dhaka cafe last month in which 22 people were killed.&nbsp; 
 
Five young men attacked the upmarket cafe on July 1, an assault claimed by Islamic State.&nbsp; 
 
Three of the attackers were from affluent Dhaka homes who had broken off contact with their families months earlier. Police believe that Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, a banned group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, played a significant role in organising the group.&nbsp; 
 
The four women were arrested in an overnight raid in the capital, based on information from a regional militant leader who was detained last month, said Rapid Action Battalion spokesman Mizanur Rahman Bhuiya.&nbsp; 
 
&quot;Three of them are students of a private university and the other one is working as an intern in the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital,&quot; he told Reuters, adding that jihadi books, audio and video clips of jihadi lectures were seized. More than a dozen suspected JMB militants, including seven women, have been arrested since the cafe attack.&nbsp; 
 
On July 26, police killed nine militants believed to be plotting a similar assault. Al Qaeda and Islamic State have made competing claims for a series of killings of liberals and members of religious minorities in the country over the past year. The government has dismissed the claims and pinned the blame on domestic militant groups. 
 
(Reuters)&nbsp; 
 
 
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The women were arrested in an overnight raid in the capital, based on information from a regional militant leader detained last month

Bangladeshi security forces said today they had arrested four women suspected of being members of a home-grown militant group blamed for an attack on a Dhaka cafe last month in which 22 people were killed. Five young men attacked the upmarket cafe on July 1, an assault claimed by Islamic State. Three of the attackers were from affluent Dhaka homes who had broken off contact with their families months earlier. Police believe that Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, a banned group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, played a significant role in organising the group. The four women were arrested in an overnight raid in the capital, based on information from a regional militant leader who was detained last month, said Rapid Action Battalion spokesman Mizanur Rahman Bhuiya. "Three of them are students of a private university and the other one is working as an intern in the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital," he told Reuters, adding that jihadi books, audio and video clips of jihadi lectures were seized. More than a dozen suspected JMB militants, including seven women, have been arrested since the cafe attack. On July 26, police killed nine militants believed to be plotting a similar assault. Al Qaeda and Islamic State have made competing claims for a series of killings of liberals and members of religious minorities in the country over the past year. The government has dismissed the claims and pinned the blame on domestic militant groups. (Reuters)

Dhaka cafe attack: Bangladesh police arrest 4 women

Libyan pro-government forces pressed an advance against the Islamic State group in the coastal city of Sirte today as they battled jihadists holed up in waterfront residential areas. 
 
In May, forces loyal to the unity government began an offensive to retake the Mediterranean city and home town of slain dictator Moamer Kadhafi, which IS seized in June last year. 
 
The offensive came amid growing concern that jihadists would use Sirte, where they had set up centres to train militants, as a springboard for attacks on European shores hundreds of kilometres (miles) away. 
 
One June 9, pro-government forces entered Sirte and more than two months later pushed the jihadists from key positions including their headquarters at the Ouagadougou conference centre, a sprawling compound near the city centre. 
 
AFP correspondents who toured the city on Saturday said loyalist forces were pressing their advance, buoyed by US air strikes earlier this month that targeted IS holdouts in the city. 
 
The forces fired machineguns mounted on pick-up trucks and light weapons at IS targets in the distance as they tried to advance towards an area known as &quot;residential district three&quot; facing the Mediterranean, the correspondents said. 
 
On Sunday, the spokesman for the forces, General Mohamad Ghassri, told AFP that both residential districts near the waterfront were &quot;currently battle zones&quot;. 
 
Pro-government forces &quot;have entered district number two&quot; which could fall under their control later Sunday, he said. 
 
&quot;IS has only control over one sector, residential district one in the heart of downtown Sirte,&quot; he said. 
 
&quot;From a military point of view, the battle (for Sirte) is over,&quot; he said, adding that &quot;victory&quot; would be announced soon. 
 
Earlier the forces loyal to the UN-backed Government of National Accord said in a statement that their fighters had seized buildings on the outskirts of district two and were chasing the jihadists. 
 
Eyes on Rome 
 
Mustafa al-Faqih, one of the commanders of the loyalist forces, told AFP that the jihadists fled after their headquarters fell on Wednesday. 
 
The &quot;enemy forces collapsed&quot; in the face of the loyalist advance, he said. 
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<h5>We will advance on areas where the enemy is still deployed in the coming days, God willing.&quot;</h5>
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The taking of the Ouagadougou centre, where Kadhafi once hosted Arab and African summits as well as European leaders, was the first in a string of blistering losses sustained by the jihadists this week. 
 
A statement by the loyalist forces on Saturday said they had seized a radio station near the centre which the jihadists used to broadcast propaganda, describing its capture as &quot;important&quot;. 
 
They also drove jihadists out of the university of Sirte which they had used as a key defensive position, they said. 
 
On Sunday, pro-government fighters could be seen removing jihadist graffiti from the walls of the Ouagadougou centre. 
 
&quot;The caliphate will endure and expand,&quot; read one slogan at the centre&#39;s main entrance, before it was removed. 
 
A trail of destruction has hit the once grandiose centre, with windows shattered, ceilings caved in and bullet strikes on its walls. 
 
Outside, a group of pro-government fighters flashed victory signs and pointed to a banner left behind by the jihadists that read: &quot;We are fighting in Libya but our eyes are on Rome.&quot; 
 
Libya&#39;s former colonial power Italy lies a mere 300 kilometres (less than 200 miles) across the Mediterranean from Sirte. 
 
On Thursday, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi faced criticism at home for reportedly sending special forces to Libya to help the anti-IS fight without approval from parliament. 
 
Renzi&#39;s centre-left government has refused to confirm or deny reports that dozens of special forces have been deployed to help with de-mining and training pro-GNA forces. 
 
More than 300 pro-government fighters have been killed and 1,800 wounded since May in the battle for Sirte, medics have said. 
 
The jihadists have not revealed their losses. 
 
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'From a military point of view, the battle is over,' spokesman for the forces said, adding that 'victory' would be announced soon

Libyan pro-government forces pressed an advance against the Islamic State group in the coastal city of Sirte today as they battled jihadists holed up in waterfront residential areas. In May, forces loyal to the unity government began an offensive to retake the Mediterranean city and home town of slain dictator Moamer Kadhafi, which IS seized in June last year. The offensive came amid growing concern that jihadists would use Sirte, where they had set up centres to train militants, as a springboard for attacks on European shores hundreds of kilometres (miles) away. One June 9, pro-government forces entered Sirte and more than two months later pushed the jihadists from key positions including their headquarters at the Ouagadougou conference centre, a sprawling compound near the city centre. AFP correspondents who toured the city on Saturday said loyalist forces were pressing their advance, buoyed by US air strikes earlier this month that targeted IS holdouts in the city. The forces fired machineguns mounted on pick-up trucks and light weapons at IS targets in the distance as they tried to advance towards an area known as "residential district three" facing the Mediterranean, the correspondents said. On Sunday, the spokesman for the forces, General Mohamad Ghassri, told AFP that both residential districts near the waterfront were "currently battle zones". Pro-government forces "have entered district number two" which could fall under their control later Sunday, he said. "IS has only control over one sector, residential district one in the heart of downtown Sirte," he said. "From a military point of view, the battle (for Sirte) is over," he said, adding that "victory" would be announced soon. Earlier the forces loyal to the UN-backed Government of National Accord said in a statement that their fighters had seized buildings on the outskirts of district two and were chasing the jihadists. Eyes on Rome Mustafa al-Faqih, one of the commanders of the loyalist forces, told AFP that the jihadists fled after their headquarters fell on Wednesday. The "enemy forces collapsed" in the face of the loyalist advance, he said. We will advance on areas where the enemy is still deployed in the coming days, God willing." The taking of the Ouagadougou centre, where Kadhafi once hosted Arab and African summits as well as European leaders, was the first in a string of blistering losses sustained by the jihadists this week. A statement by the loyalist forces on Saturday said they had seized a radio station near the centre which the jihadists used to broadcast propaganda, describing its capture as "important". They also drove jihadists out of the university of Sirte which they had used as a key defensive position, they said. On Sunday, pro-government fighters could be seen removing jihadist graffiti from the walls of the Ouagadougou centre. "The caliphate will endure and expand," read one slogan at the centre's main entrance, before it was removed. A trail of destruction has hit the once grandiose centre, with windows shattered, ceilings caved in and bullet strikes on its walls. Outside, a group of pro-government fighters flashed victory signs and pointed to a banner left behind by the jihadists that read: "We are fighting in Libya but our eyes are on Rome." Libya's former colonial power Italy lies a mere 300 kilometres (less than 200 miles) across the Mediterranean from Sirte. On Thursday, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi faced criticism at home for reportedly sending special forces to Libya to help the anti-IS fight without approval from parliament. Renzi's centre-left government has refused to confirm or deny reports that dozens of special forces have been deployed to help with de-mining and training pro-GNA forces. More than 300 pro-government fighters have been killed and 1,800 wounded since May in the battle for Sirte, medics have said. The jihadists have not revealed their losses.

Libya forces press assault on last IS positions in Sirte

Libyan authorities have warned Italy about an Islamic State cell based in the Milan area with links to one of the jihadist group&#39;s battle-hardened veterans, Italian media reported today. 
 
The existence of the network was reportedly revealed by documents seized by Libyan agents after government forces took over an IS headquarters in the city of Sirte earlier this week. 
 
The Italy-based militants were said to be associates of Abu Nassim, 47, a Tunisian who lived in Italy for most of his 20s and subsequently fought in Afghanistan and Syria, before becoming an IS commander in Libya. 
 
The reports came as concerns grow that IS fighters dispersed from Sirte could cross the Mediterranean on migrant boats and mount &quot;lone wolf&quot; terror attacks on Italian territory. 
 
Security services have been put on a state of high alert for the peak holiday season and Interior Minister Angelino Alfano has stepped up expulsions of suspected jihadist sympathisers. 
 
Late on Saturday, Alfano said he had ordered the deportation of Hosni Hachemi Ben Hassem, a Tunisian imam based in a mosque at Andria in Puglia. 
 
The 49-year-old imam had been cleared of charges of recruiting jihadists but Alfano expelled him anyway on the basis of suspected incitement to racial hatred. 
 
The cleric is the ninth imam to be kicked out since the start of 2015 under a &#39;zero tolerance&#39; approach to Islamist militancy which Alfano says has reduced the risk of a terror attack on Italian soil. 
 
The centre-right minister has signed a total of 109 expulsion orders since the start of last year, 43 of them in 2016, he said in a statement. 
 
A veteran extremist 
 
Abu Nassim, whose real name is Moez Ben Abdelkader Fezzani, first arrived in Italy in 1989 to work on building sites. 
 
Suspected of trying to radicalise and recruit other Arab immigrants, he disappeared in 1997 and resurfaced in Pakistan, on his way to join the late Osama bin Laden&#39;s forces in Afghanistan. 
 
He was arrested by US forces in 2001 and held at the Bagram airbase detention facility, which was to become notorious for the torture and killing of inmates. 
 
Abu Nassim was transferred to Italy in 2009 after prosecutors tabled charges of terrorist recruitment related to his previous stay. 
 
He was acquitted in 2012 and deported to Tunisia. He was convicted on appeal the following year, by which time he was already fighting in Syria. 
 
Since 2014, he has commanded IS forces around the Libyan port of Sabratha. 
 
Tunisia issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with the March 2015 Bardo Museum attack in Tunis, in which gunmen killed 21 tourists and a policeman. 
 
 
(AFP)&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

The existence of network was revealed by documents seized by Libyan agents after government forces took over an IS headquarters in Sirte

Libyan authorities have warned Italy about an Islamic State cell based in the Milan area with links to one of the jihadist group's battle-hardened veterans, Italian media reported today. The existence of the network was reportedly revealed by documents seized by Libyan agents after government forces took over an IS headquarters in the city of Sirte earlier this week. The Italy-based militants were said to be associates of Abu Nassim, 47, a Tunisian who lived in Italy for most of his 20s and subsequently fought in Afghanistan and Syria, before becoming an IS commander in Libya. The reports came as concerns grow that IS fighters dispersed from Sirte could cross the Mediterranean on migrant boats and mount "lone wolf" terror attacks on Italian territory. Security services have been put on a state of high alert for the peak holiday season and Interior Minister Angelino Alfano has stepped up expulsions of suspected jihadist sympathisers. Late on Saturday, Alfano said he had ordered the deportation of Hosni Hachemi Ben Hassem, a Tunisian imam based in a mosque at Andria in Puglia. The 49-year-old imam had been cleared of charges of recruiting jihadists but Alfano expelled him anyway on the basis of suspected incitement to racial hatred. The cleric is the ninth imam to be kicked out since the start of 2015 under a 'zero tolerance' approach to Islamist militancy which Alfano says has reduced the risk of a terror attack on Italian soil. The centre-right minister has signed a total of 109 expulsion orders since the start of last year, 43 of them in 2016, he said in a statement. A veteran extremist Abu Nassim, whose real name is Moez Ben Abdelkader Fezzani, first arrived in Italy in 1989 to work on building sites. Suspected of trying to radicalise and recruit other Arab immigrants, he disappeared in 1997 and resurfaced in Pakistan, on his way to join the late Osama bin Laden's forces in Afghanistan. He was arrested by US forces in 2001 and held at the Bagram airbase detention facility, which was to become notorious for the torture and killing of inmates. Abu Nassim was transferred to Italy in 2009 after prosecutors tabled charges of terrorist recruitment related to his previous stay. He was acquitted in 2012 and deported to Tunisia. He was convicted on appeal the following year, by which time he was already fighting in Syria. Since 2014, he has commanded IS forces around the Libyan port of Sabratha. Tunisia issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with the March 2015 Bardo Museum attack in Tunis, in which gunmen killed 21 tourists and a policeman. (AFP)

Libya warns Italy about 'Milan-based' Islamic State cell?

Thousands of displaced residents streamed back into the northern Syrian town of Manbij on Saturday &nbsp;after US-backed fighters ousted the last Islamic State militants from their former stronghold, residents and US allies said.

The US-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on Friday that they had seized full control of the city near the Turkish border after the departure of the last of the militants, who had been using civilians as human shields.

SDF forces were seen dancing out of jubilation after they drove IS militant out of the city. They have been searching for mines, which had been planted in the residential areas and injured many civilians, and the possibility of sleeper cells.

The remaining militants fled to Jarabulus, which is under the control of IS and it is located on the Turkish borders, taking with them around 2,000 civilians by force to avoid the strikes of the international coalition.

However, after the IS members arrived in Jarabulus, a number of civilians managed to return to Manbij.

Smiling civilians in Manbij on Friday and Saturday were making victory gestures and carrying out small acts of defiance, unthinkable under the rigours of Islamic State rule.

One woman trampled on her abaya, the Arab gown, while a girl described life under Islamic State.

&quot;Two of my cousins, one was killed and the other one, thank God, returned but he lost his eye. My brother Zaid died; my brother Zaid passed away. They dressed my aunt in black and everyone got bored of the black including the abaya, gloves and socks, everything and I cannot understand anything and they took her covered into the prison. May God hold them to account. Bread and water are in turn,&quot; Hasnah Abdullah said.

Other civilians could be seen clearly in a state of distress.

The town bustled trucks bringing in supplies and civilian could be seen carrying foodstuffs.

The Manbij operation in which US special forces have played a significant role on the ground marks the most ambitious advance by a group allied to Washington in Syria since the United States launched its military campaign against Islamic State two years ago.

Manbij&#39;s loss to the militants is a big blow as it is of strategic importance, serving as a conduit for transit of foreign jihadists and provisions coming from the Turkish border. 
 
(Reuters)

As displaced people returned to their homes, they were seen carrying out acts of defiance once unthinkable under IS's oppressive rule

Thousands of displaced residents streamed back into the northern Syrian town of Manbij on Saturday after US-backed fighters ousted the last Islamic State militants from their former stronghold, residents and US allies said. The US-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on Friday that they had seized full control of the city near the Turkish border after the departure of the last of the militants, who had been using civilians as human shields. SDF forces were seen dancing out of jubilation after they drove IS militant out of the city. They have been searching for mines, which had been planted in the residential areas and injured many civilians, and the possibility of sleeper cells. The remaining militants fled to Jarabulus, which is under the control of IS and it is located on the Turkish borders, taking with them around 2,000 civilians by force to avoid the strikes of the international coalition. However, after the IS members arrived in Jarabulus, a number of civilians managed to return to Manbij. Smiling civilians in Manbij on Friday and Saturday were making victory gestures and carrying out small acts of defiance, unthinkable under the rigours of Islamic State rule. One woman trampled on her abaya, the Arab gown, while a girl described life under Islamic State. "Two of my cousins, one was killed and the other one, thank God, returned but he lost his eye. My brother Zaid died; my brother Zaid passed away. They dressed my aunt in black and everyone got bored of the black including the abaya, gloves and socks, everything and I cannot understand anything and they took her covered into the prison. May God hold them to account. Bread and water are in turn," Hasnah Abdullah said. Other civilians could be seen clearly in a state of distress. The town bustled trucks bringing in supplies and civilian could be seen carrying foodstuffs. The Manbij operation in which US special forces have played a significant role on the ground marks the most ambitious advance by a group allied to Washington in Syria since the United States launched its military campaign against Islamic State two years ago. Manbij's loss to the militants is a big blow as it is of strategic importance, serving as a conduit for transit of foreign jihadists and provisions coming from the Turkish border. (Reuters)

Hope rebounds in Manbij after IS routed out of Syria town

The killing of the Islamic State group&#39;s leader in Afghanistan and Pakistan has dealt a major blow to the jihadists, but despite a US-backed scorched earth offensive the regional franchise is far from over, observers said today.&nbsp; 
 
Hafiz Saeed Khan was killed in a US airstrike in eastern Nangarhar province last month, the Pentagon announced Friday, as Afghan forces mount an operation against the militants after they claimed the deadliest attack in Kabul for 15 years. 
 
The death of Saeed, the second prominent militant to be killed in a US regional strike in recent months, is a setback to the group&#39;s efforts to expand beyond its heartland of Syria and Iraq into Afghanistan and Pakistan. 
 
&quot;The killing of IS leader Hafiz Saeed in a US airstrike is a major blow to the group, which will struggle to make gains without a strong leadership,&quot; Kabul-based political analyst Haroun Mir told AFP. 
 
&quot;But the IS threat in the region is still far from over.&quot; 
 
The group claimed twin bombings last month that tore through crowds of minority Shiite Hazaras protesters in Kabul, killing 80 people in the deadliest attack in the capital since 2001. 
 
The devastating attack in the capital represented a major escalation for IS, which so far has largely been confined to its stronghold in Nangarhar, where it is notorious for brutality including beheadings. 
 
But officials denied that it marked a turning point for IS in Afghanistan, saying the group has been under heavy pressure from both US air strikes and a ground offensive led by Afghan forces. 
 
The US military says the group&#39;s nascent presence in Afghanistan has dwindled, with fighters largely confined to two or three districts in Nangarhar from around nine in January. 
 
But despite the offensive, residents of Nangarhar say the group is still maintaining its reign of tyranny in the region. 
 
IS-Taliban alliance? 
 
&quot;The offensive is going on and the government says they are winning,&quot; a tribal leader in Hiska Mina, one of the worst-hit districts in Nangarhar, told AFP. 
 
&quot;But Daesh fights every night, and the insecurities have increased, not decreased,&quot; he added, using the Arabic acronym for IS. 
 
Local tribal leaders say the Taliban, a stronger group than IS, has forged an informal alliance with the jihadists after a year of fierce rivalry in order to effectively combat government forces. 
 
&quot;The Daesh and Taliban have stopped fighting each other and are both fighting the government,&quot; said Malek Haseeb, a tribal leader in Kot, a mountainous district from where IS militants were last month flushed out by Afghan troops. 
 
&quot;Once government forces leave, we fear Daesh will return and resume their operations,&quot; he added. 
 
An army commander in Nangarhar confirmed the informal insurgent alliance, but the Taliban have strongly denied joining hands with IS. 
 
The Taliban, who have themselves often been accused of savagery during their 15-year insurgency, have publicly sought to appear as a bulwark against IS&#39;s reign of brutality and as a legitimate group waging an Islamic war. 
 
The NATO-led coalition estimates there are around 1,500 IS militants in Afghanistan -- mostly disaffected Pakistani and Afghan Taliban, as well as Uzbek militants and local residents of Nangarhar. 
 
The group has so far not announced a successor to Saeed. 
 
Afghan authorities erroneously believed Saeed had been killed in another strike in July 2015, when a US drone targeted dozens of IS-linked cadres in Nangarhar, close to the Pakistani border. 
 
News of his death comes after former Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in another US drone strike inside Pakistan in May. 
 
(AFP) 
 
&nbsp;

Hafiz Saeed Khan was killed in a US airstrike in eastern Nangarhar province last month, the Pentagon announced Friday

The killing of the Islamic State group's leader in Afghanistan and Pakistan has dealt a major blow to the jihadists, but despite a US-backed scorched earth offensive the regional franchise is far from over, observers said today. Hafiz Saeed Khan was killed in a US airstrike in eastern Nangarhar province last month, the Pentagon announced Friday, as Afghan forces mount an operation against the militants after they claimed the deadliest attack in Kabul for 15 years. The death of Saeed, the second prominent militant to be killed in a US regional strike in recent months, is a setback to the group's efforts to expand beyond its heartland of Syria and Iraq into Afghanistan and Pakistan. "The killing of IS leader Hafiz Saeed in a US airstrike is a major blow to the group, which will struggle to make gains without a strong leadership," Kabul-based political analyst Haroun Mir told AFP. "But the IS threat in the region is still far from over." The group claimed twin bombings last month that tore through crowds of minority Shiite Hazaras protesters in Kabul, killing 80 people in the deadliest attack in the capital since 2001. The devastating attack in the capital represented a major escalation for IS, which so far has largely been confined to its stronghold in Nangarhar, where it is notorious for brutality including beheadings. But officials denied that it marked a turning point for IS in Afghanistan, saying the group has been under heavy pressure from both US air strikes and a ground offensive led by Afghan forces. The US military says the group's nascent presence in Afghanistan has dwindled, with fighters largely confined to two or three districts in Nangarhar from around nine in January. But despite the offensive, residents of Nangarhar say the group is still maintaining its reign of tyranny in the region. IS-Taliban alliance? "The offensive is going on and the government says they are winning," a tribal leader in Hiska Mina, one of the worst-hit districts in Nangarhar, told AFP. "But Daesh fights every night, and the insecurities have increased, not decreased," he added, using the Arabic acronym for IS. Local tribal leaders say the Taliban, a stronger group than IS, has forged an informal alliance with the jihadists after a year of fierce rivalry in order to effectively combat government forces. "The Daesh and Taliban have stopped fighting each other and are both fighting the government," said Malek Haseeb, a tribal leader in Kot, a mountainous district from where IS militants were last month flushed out by Afghan troops. "Once government forces leave, we fear Daesh will return and resume their operations," he added. An army commander in Nangarhar confirmed the informal insurgent alliance, but the Taliban have strongly denied joining hands with IS. The Taliban, who have themselves often been accused of savagery during their 15-year insurgency, have publicly sought to appear as a bulwark against IS's reign of brutality and as a legitimate group waging an Islamic war. The NATO-led coalition estimates there are around 1,500 IS militants in Afghanistan -- mostly disaffected Pakistani and Afghan Taliban, as well as Uzbek militants and local residents of Nangarhar. The group has so far not announced a successor to Saeed. Afghan authorities erroneously believed Saeed had been killed in another strike in July 2015, when a US drone targeted dozens of IS-linked cadres in Nangarhar, close to the Pakistani border. News of his death comes after former Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in another US drone strike inside Pakistan in May. (AFP)

Islamic State threat in Afghanistan 'far from over' despite leader's death

A Yemeni man accused of murdering a policeman in Saudi Arabia had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, authorities in the kingdom said. 
 
The suspect ran over and stabbed corporal Muthhel al-Saluli on Wednesday after the officer left a mosque in Bisha, in the southwestern Asir region, the interior ministry said in a statement late on Friday. 
 
The assailant, who was arrested the same day, told police &quot;he belongs to Daesh (IS) and has pledged allegiance to the group&quot;, it said, adding that he killed Saluli &quot;because he is a security official&quot;. 
 
Six other Yemenis suspected of links to the incident have been arrested, said the statement, which was carried by the official SPA news agency. 
 
Since late 2014, IS has claimed responsibility for a series of bombings, shootings, and assassinations targeting members of the security forces and the kingdom&#39;s Shiite minority. 
 
Saudi Arabia is part of the US-led coalition that is fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. 
 
Saudi political and religious leaders routinely denounce IS attacks -- at home and abroad -- as violations of Islam. 
 
(AFP)&nbsp;

The assailant, who was arrested on the same day of incident, told police 'he belongs to Daesh (IS) and has pledged allegiance to the group'

A Yemeni man accused of murdering a policeman in Saudi Arabia had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, authorities in the kingdom said. The suspect ran over and stabbed corporal Muthhel al-Saluli on Wednesday after the officer left a mosque in Bisha, in the southwestern Asir region, the interior ministry said in a statement late on Friday. The assailant, who was arrested the same day, told police "he belongs to Daesh (IS) and has pledged allegiance to the group", it said, adding that he killed Saluli "because he is a security official". Six other Yemenis suspected of links to the incident have been arrested, said the statement, which was carried by the official SPA news agency. Since late 2014, IS has claimed responsibility for a series of bombings, shootings, and assassinations targeting members of the security forces and the kingdom's Shiite minority. Saudi Arabia is part of the US-led coalition that is fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. Saudi political and religious leaders routinely denounce IS attacks -- at home and abroad -- as violations of Islam. (AFP)

Suspect in Saudi police murder was Islamic State member, claims ministry?

Islamic State group fighters seized around 2,000 civilians to use as &quot;human shields&quot; on Friday as they fled their stronghold of Manbij in northern Syria, US-backed forces and a monitor said. 
 
The Arab-Kurdish alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) expelled most of the IS fighters from the town last week, but a small number remained. 
 
&quot;While withdrawing from a district of Manbij, Daesh (IS) jihadists abducted around 2,000 civilians from Al-Sirb neighbourhood,&quot; said Sherfan Darwish, spokesman for the Manbij Military Council, a key component of the SDF. 
 
&quot;They used these civilians as human shields as they withdrew to Jarabulus, thus preventing us from targeting them,&quot; he added.&nbsp;Al-Sirb is a district in northern Manbij on the way to the IS-held border town of Jarabulus in Aleppo province near the border with Turkey. 
 
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on sources on the ground to cover the conflict, also reported that IS had abducted around 2,000 civilians as they fled Manbij.&nbsp;It said the civilians were placed in hundreds of cars that then headed for Jarabulus. 
 
Darwish said the civilians who were taken were residents of Al-Sirb and other districts, including a central neighbourhood known as the &quot;security quarter&quot; in the centre of Manbij. 
 
It was not immediately clear how many jihadists fled from the town, but reports last week after the SDF forces took Manbij said that dozens of IS fighters were holed up in the &quot;security quarter&quot;.&nbsp;Darwish said that around 2,500 other civilians &quot;held captive by the jihadists were saved&quot; by the SDF. 
 
The US-backed forces were meanwhile combing Al-Sirb on Friday for jihadists who could still be in the neighbourhood, he added.&nbsp;With air support from the US-led coalition, the SDF began its assault on Manbij on May 31, surging into the town itself three weeks later. 
 
But their offensive was slowed by a massive jihadist fightback using suicide attackers and car bombs, before a major push last week saw the SDF seize 90 per cent of the town. 
 
Tens of thousands of people lived in Manbij before the assault started in May.&nbsp;The United Nations has said that more than 78,000 people have been displaced since then. 
 
Manbij had served as a key transit point along IS&#39;s supply route from the Turkish border to Raqa, the de facto capital of its self-styled Islamic &quot;caliphate&quot;.&nbsp;The Britain-based Observatory says that the battle for Manbij has claimed the lives of at 437 civilians, including 105 children, and killed 299 SDF fighters and 1,019 jihadists. 
 
(AFP)

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the civilians were placed in hundreds of cars that then headed for Jarabulus

Islamic State group fighters seized around 2,000 civilians to use as "human shields" on Friday as they fled their stronghold of Manbij in northern Syria, US-backed forces and a monitor said. The Arab-Kurdish alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) expelled most of the IS fighters from the town last week, but a small number remained. "While withdrawing from a district of Manbij, Daesh (IS) jihadists abducted around 2,000 civilians from Al-Sirb neighbourhood," said Sherfan Darwish, spokesman for the Manbij Military Council, a key component of the SDF. "They used these civilians as human shields as they withdrew to Jarabulus, thus preventing us from targeting them," he added. Al-Sirb is a district in northern Manbij on the way to the IS-held border town of Jarabulus in Aleppo province near the border with Turkey. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on sources on the ground to cover the conflict, also reported that IS had abducted around 2,000 civilians as they fled Manbij. It said the civilians were placed in hundreds of cars that then headed for Jarabulus. Darwish said the civilians who were taken were residents of Al-Sirb and other districts, including a central neighbourhood known as the "security quarter" in the centre of Manbij. It was not immediately clear how many jihadists fled from the town, but reports last week after the SDF forces took Manbij said that dozens of IS fighters were holed up in the "security quarter". Darwish said that around 2,500 other civilians "held captive by the jihadists were saved" by the SDF. The US-backed forces were meanwhile combing Al-Sirb on Friday for jihadists who could still be in the neighbourhood, he added. With air support from the US-led coalition, the SDF began its assault on Manbij on May 31, surging into the town itself three weeks later. But their offensive was slowed by a massive jihadist fightback using suicide attackers and car bombs, before a major push last week saw the SDF seize 90 per cent of the town. Tens of thousands of people lived in Manbij before the assault started in May. The United Nations has said that more than 78,000 people have been displaced since then. Manbij had served as a key transit point along IS's supply route from the Turkish border to Raqa, the de facto capital of its self-styled Islamic "caliphate". The Britain-based Observatory says that the battle for Manbij has claimed the lives of at 437 civilians, including 105 children, and killed 299 SDF fighters and 1,019 jihadists. (AFP)

Islamic State abducts around 2,000 civilians to use as 'human shields'

Islamic State group jihadists have released hundreds of civilians used as human shields while fleeing a crumbling stronghold in northern Syria, but the fate of others remained unknown today. 
 
The last remaining IS fighters abandoned Manbij near the Turkish border yesterday after a rout that the Pentagon said showed the extremists were &quot;on the ropes&quot;. 
 
The retreat from the city, which IS captured in 2014, marked the jihadists&#39; worst defeat yet at the hands of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an Arab-Kurdish alliance supported by US air strikes. 
 
Fleeing jihadists took around 2,000 civilians, including women and children, yesterday to ward off air strikes as they headed to the IS-held frontier town of Jarabulus, according to the SDF. 
 
At least some of the civilians were later released or escaped, the alliance said today, but the whereabouts of the rest was unknown. 
 
&quot;There are no more IS fighters&quot; left in Manbij, an SDF member said. 
 
Kurdish television showed footage of jubilant civilians in Manbij, including smiling mothers who had shed their veils and women embracing Kurdish fighters. 
 
Booby-trapped houses 
 
A woman burned a black robe that the jihadists had forced residents to wear, while men who had lived for weeks under a shaving ban cut their beards with scissors. 
 
&quot;The battle was very hard,&quot; a Kurdish source told AFP. 
 
&quot;And the jihadists had laid mines&quot; in the city. 
 
&quot;One SDF fighter entered a house on Friday and saw a shoe placed on a Koran. When he removed it there was an explosion and he was killed,&quot; this source said. 
 
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitor, reported that several hundred of the civilians taken from the city were no longer being held by IS. 
 
&quot;Among the civilians taken by IS there were people used as human shields but also many who chose voluntarily to leave the town due to fear of reprisals&quot; by the SDF, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said. 
 
The SDF launched an assault in May on Manbij, on a key jihadist supply route between the Turkish border and IS&#39;s de facto Syrian capital Raqa. 
 
The jihadists, who have suffered a string of losses in Syria and Iraq, have often staged mass abductions when they come under pressure to relinquish territory they hold. 
 
IS has also booby-trapped cars and carried out suicide bombings to slow advances by their opponents. 
 
Hundreds killed 
 
SDF forces captured Manbij on August 6 but had continued to battle pockets of jihadists in parts of the town. 
 
According to the Observatory, 437 civilians, including more than 100 children, were killed in the battle for Manbij and surrounding territory. 
 
Around 300 SDF fighters died, along with more than 1,000 jihadists, it said. 
 
Pentagon deputy press secretary Gordon Trowbridge said Friday that IS &quot;is clearly on the ropes&quot;. 
 
&quot;It has lost the centre of Manbij, it has lost control of Manbij,&quot; he said. 
 
Since fighting for Manbij began, US-led strikes have taken out more than 50 of IS&#39;s heavy weapons and destroyed more than 600 fortified fighting positions, Trowbridge said. 
 
But the job of clearing the city will be complicated after the jihadists left behind hundreds of mines and booby traps, he added. 
 
Syria&#39;s conflict erupted in March 2011 and has since killed more than 290,000 people and drawn in world powers on all sides of the war. 
 
Yesterday Russian and Syrian jets pounded rebel positions in and around second city Aleppo. 
 
The raids came despite a pledge by Russia to observe a three-hour daily ceasefire in Aleppo to allow for humanitarian aid deliveries. 
 
(AFP)

Fleeing jihadists took around 2,000 civilians, yesterday to ward off air strikes as they headed to IS-held town of Jarabulus

Islamic State group jihadists have released hundreds of civilians used as human shields while fleeing a crumbling stronghold in northern Syria, but the fate of others remained unknown today. The last remaining IS fighters abandoned Manbij near the Turkish border yesterday after a rout that the Pentagon said showed the extremists were "on the ropes". The retreat from the city, which IS captured in 2014, marked the jihadists' worst defeat yet at the hands of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an Arab-Kurdish alliance supported by US air strikes. Fleeing jihadists took around 2,000 civilians, including women and children, yesterday to ward off air strikes as they headed to the IS-held frontier town of Jarabulus, according to the SDF. At least some of the civilians were later released or escaped, the alliance said today, but the whereabouts of the rest was unknown. "There are no more IS fighters" left in Manbij, an SDF member said. Kurdish television showed footage of jubilant civilians in Manbij, including smiling mothers who had shed their veils and women embracing Kurdish fighters. Booby-trapped houses A woman burned a black robe that the jihadists had forced residents to wear, while men who had lived for weeks under a shaving ban cut their beards with scissors. "The battle was very hard," a Kurdish source told AFP. "And the jihadists had laid mines" in the city. "One SDF fighter entered a house on Friday and saw a shoe placed on a Koran. When he removed it there was an explosion and he was killed," this source said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitor, reported that several hundred of the civilians taken from the city were no longer being held by IS. "Among the civilians taken by IS there were people used as human shields but also many who chose voluntarily to leave the town due to fear of reprisals" by the SDF, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said. The SDF launched an assault in May on Manbij, on a key jihadist supply route between the Turkish border and IS's de facto Syrian capital Raqa. The jihadists, who have suffered a string of losses in Syria and Iraq, have often staged mass abductions when they come under pressure to relinquish territory they hold. IS has also booby-trapped cars and carried out suicide bombings to slow advances by their opponents. Hundreds killed SDF forces captured Manbij on August 6 but had continued to battle pockets of jihadists in parts of the town. According to the Observatory, 437 civilians, including more than 100 children, were killed in the battle for Manbij and surrounding territory. Around 300 SDF fighters died, along with more than 1,000 jihadists, it said. Pentagon deputy press secretary Gordon Trowbridge said Friday that IS "is clearly on the ropes". "It has lost the centre of Manbij, it has lost control of Manbij," he said. Since fighting for Manbij began, US-led strikes have taken out more than 50 of IS's heavy weapons and destroyed more than 600 fortified fighting positions, Trowbridge said. But the job of clearing the city will be complicated after the jihadists left behind hundreds of mines and booby traps, he added. Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011 and has since killed more than 290,000 people and drawn in world powers on all sides of the war. Yesterday Russian and Syrian jets pounded rebel positions in and around second city Aleppo. The raids came despite a pledge by Russia to observe a three-hour daily ceasefire in Aleppo to allow for humanitarian aid deliveries. (AFP)

Islamic State frees hundreds of 'human shields' in Syria

The nephew of the governor of a key province where Iraqi forces are battling the Islamic State group has been gunned down in the country&#39;s north, officials said today. 
 
The shooting in Iraqi Kurdish regional capital Arbil came just hours after Nowfal al-Aqoub, the governor of Nineveh, made controversial remarks about children being fathered by IS fighters in the province. 
 
The killing of Aqoub&#39;s nephew, who was also his personal driver, comes as Iraqi forces prepare for the battle to retake Mosul, the capital of Nineveh and the last city in the country still held by the jihadists. 
 
Sifuk Watban al-Sultan died of a single gunshot to the head yesterday night near the governor&#39;s house in Arbil, the governor&#39;s secretary told AFP, asking that he not be identified by name. 
 
A Nineveh provincial councillor, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed Sultan`s death, saying that Kurdish security forces had subsequently removed surveillance cameras from the house as part of the investigation. 
 
The motive for the killing was not immediately clear, but it came after Aqoub made remarks at a conference in Baghdad earlier yesterday that were criticised by a political rival. 
 
The governor said that IS fighters had fathered children under temporary marriages as part of so-called &quot;sexual jihad&quot;, a practice used by the jihadist group to motivate its militants. 
 
Some of the women involved - including some of those who travelled to the Middle East to support IS - have apparently participated voluntarily, but others may have been coerced. 
 
While Aqoub was apparently criticising IS, the office of former parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi issued a statement accusing him of insulting the women of Mosul. 
 
Iraqi forces have been conducting operations to set the stage for the battle to retake Mosul from IS, which has held it since June 2014, but they still have significant ground to cover as well as logistical preparations to make before a final assault can be launched. 
 
(AFP)

The shooting in Arbil came after the governor made controversial remarks about children being fathered by IS fighters in the province

The nephew of the governor of a key province where Iraqi forces are battling the Islamic State group has been gunned down in the country's north, officials said today. The shooting in Iraqi Kurdish regional capital Arbil came just hours after Nowfal al-Aqoub, the governor of Nineveh, made controversial remarks about children being fathered by IS fighters in the province. The killing of Aqoub's nephew, who was also his personal driver, comes as Iraqi forces prepare for the battle to retake Mosul, the capital of Nineveh and the last city in the country still held by the jihadists. Sifuk Watban al-Sultan died of a single gunshot to the head yesterday night near the governor's house in Arbil, the governor's secretary told AFP, asking that he not be identified by name. A Nineveh provincial councillor, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed Sultan`s death, saying that Kurdish security forces had subsequently removed surveillance cameras from the house as part of the investigation. The motive for the killing was not immediately clear, but it came after Aqoub made remarks at a conference in Baghdad earlier yesterday that were criticised by a political rival. The governor said that IS fighters had fathered children under temporary marriages as part of so-called "sexual jihad", a practice used by the jihadist group to motivate its militants. Some of the women involved - including some of those who travelled to the Middle East to support IS - have apparently participated voluntarily, but others may have been coerced. While Aqoub was apparently criticising IS, the office of former parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi issued a statement accusing him of insulting the women of Mosul. Iraqi forces have been conducting operations to set the stage for the battle to retake Mosul from IS, which has held it since June 2014, but they still have significant ground to cover as well as logistical preparations to make before a final assault can be launched. (AFP)

Iraq governor's nephew gunned down

A Bangladesh court allowed police today to continue holding two men in connection with an attack last month claimed by Islamic State that killed 20 hostages at an upscale cafe in the capital, Dhaka police said. 
 
Police told the court they needed more time to interrogate Hasnat Karim, a dual British and Bangladeshi national, and Tahmid Hasib Khan, a student at Toronto University, in connection with the assault on July 1. The families of both men say they are innocent. Their cases have been marked by confusion. 
 
When the two men were remanded in custody earlier this month, police official Masudur Rahman told reporters they had been arrested &quot;from two different places&quot;. But their families say Karim and Khan were dining, separately, with family and friends when gunmen stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery. Karim, a 47-year-old engineer, was said to be at the cafe to celebrate his daughter&#39;s 13th birthday. 
 
Police confirmed on today that Karim has been formally arrested, while Khan was being held as a suspect. Both appeared before the court, with Karim being remanded for a further eight days and Khan for six. 
 
Rahman said Karim was arrested because police needed &quot;further details&quot; because of information that emerged during his interrogation.&nbsp; 
He told Reuters that video footage during the cafe attack showed Karim appearing to act &quot;calm and normal with the militants.&quot; He declined to give any further information.&nbsp; 
 
Karim&#39;s wife, Sharmina Karim, told Reuters it was not at all clear to her what was happening. 
 
&quot;He is innocent. He went to the cafe along with me and our two daughters,&quot; she said after Karim made his court appearance. &quot;How can it be that he would go there knowing there would be such a massacre? Is this not unusual, unbelievable thinking?&quot; There was no immediate comment from the Khan family.&nbsp; 
 
Karim and Khan were among 32 people rescued by police and taken into custody for questioning after the attack. Police released the others soon after. 
 
During the attack on the cafe, Islamist militants singled out non-Muslims and foreigners, killing Italians, Japanese, an American and an Indian before security forces stormed the eatery to end the 12-hour siege. Two police also died in the operation. 
 
The government has dismissed suggestions that Islamic State has a presence in Bangladesh, even though photographs of attackers posing with assault rifles in front of the group`s black banner were posted on the group&#39;s propaganda outlets.&nbsp; 
 
Neither Karim nor Khan appeared in the photographs.&nbsp; 
 
(Reuters)

Police told they needed more time to interrogate Bangladesh-born Briton Hasnat Karim and Tahmid Hasib Khan, Toronto University student

A Bangladesh court allowed police today to continue holding two men in connection with an attack last month claimed by Islamic State that killed 20 hostages at an upscale cafe in the capital, Dhaka police said. Police told the court they needed more time to interrogate Hasnat Karim, a dual British and Bangladeshi national, and Tahmid Hasib Khan, a student at Toronto University, in connection with the assault on July 1. The families of both men say they are innocent. Their cases have been marked by confusion. When the two men were remanded in custody earlier this month, police official Masudur Rahman told reporters they had been arrested "from two different places". But their families say Karim and Khan were dining, separately, with family and friends when gunmen stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery. Karim, a 47-year-old engineer, was said to be at the cafe to celebrate his daughter's 13th birthday. Police confirmed on today that Karim has been formally arrested, while Khan was being held as a suspect. Both appeared before the court, with Karim being remanded for a further eight days and Khan for six. Rahman said Karim was arrested because police needed "further details" because of information that emerged during his interrogation. He told Reuters that video footage during the cafe attack showed Karim appearing to act "calm and normal with the militants." He declined to give any further information. Karim's wife, Sharmina Karim, told Reuters it was not at all clear to her what was happening. "He is innocent. He went to the cafe along with me and our two daughters," she said after Karim made his court appearance. "How can it be that he would go there knowing there would be such a massacre? Is this not unusual, unbelievable thinking?" There was no immediate comment from the Khan family. Karim and Khan were among 32 people rescued by police and taken into custody for questioning after the attack. Police released the others soon after. During the attack on the cafe, Islamist militants singled out non-Muslims and foreigners, killing Italians, Japanese, an American and an Indian before security forces stormed the eatery to end the 12-hour siege. Two police also died in the operation. The government has dismissed suggestions that Islamic State has a presence in Bangladesh, even though photographs of attackers posing with assault rifles in front of the group`s black banner were posted on the group's propaganda outlets. Neither Karim nor Khan appeared in the photographs. (Reuters)

Bangladesh allows more time to detain two over Dhaka cafe attack

One of three schoolgirls who left London in February of 2015 to join Islamic State has died, her family lawyer told Reuters on Thursday. 
 
Attorney Tasnime Akunjee said the family of Kadiza Sultana learnt of her death in Raqqa a few weeks ago. 
 
The BBC said she was believed to have been killed in an air strike in Syria. 
 
Sultana, 16, along with two other friends, flew from London&#39;s Gatwick Airport to Turkey on February 17, 2015. 
 
The British Home office and British Interior Ministry could not be immediately reached for a comment. 
 
(Reuters)

She had left London with two other girls in February 2015

One of three schoolgirls who left London in February of 2015 to join Islamic State has died, her family lawyer told Reuters on Thursday. Attorney Tasnime Akunjee said the family of Kadiza Sultana learnt of her death in Raqqa a few weeks ago. The BBC said she was believed to have been killed in an air strike in Syria. Sultana, 16, along with two other friends, flew from London's Gatwick Airport to Turkey on February 17, 2015. The British Home office and British Interior Ministry could not be immediately reached for a comment. (Reuters)

London schoolgirl who left to join Islamic State dead

Islamic State leader of Daesh region Hafiz Saeed Khan, has been killed in a joint US-Afghan operation, several media reports claimed today.&nbsp; 
 
&quot;I can confirm that the Daesh leader, Hafiz Saeed Khan, has been killed,&quot; Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Omar Zakhilwal told Pakistani Pashto-language &quot;Mashriq&quot; television in an interview.&nbsp; 
 
&ldquo;At least 23 Dai&rsquo;sh commanders, including the commander of Khurasan faction Hafiz Saeed, were killed in foreign troops&rsquo; drone strikes and their bodies are still there,&rdquo; commander of the 201 Selab Corps Major General Mohammad Zaman Wazir said, according to Tolo TV, a report in Express Tribune further mentioned.&nbsp; 
 
The report, however, underlined that the claims were not verified by the United States and Da&rsquo;ish. &#39;Afghan security officials had previously claimed that Khan was killed in a US drone strike on July 11, 2015, which later proved to be false,&#39; &nbsp;it read.&nbsp; 
 
 
According to the Express Tribune, the group staged a series of attacks under Khan&#39;s leadership including their first ever deadliest attack in Kabul last month, killing about 80 people belonging to the Hazara community. 
 
 
(WION)&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

'At least 23 Dai?sh commanders, including the commander of Khurasan faction Hafiz Saeed, were killed in foreign troops? drone strikes'

Islamic State leader of Daesh region Hafiz Saeed Khan, has been killed in a joint US-Afghan operation, several media reports claimed today. "I can confirm that the Daesh leader, Hafiz Saeed Khan, has been killed," Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Omar Zakhilwal told Pakistani Pashto-language "Mashriq" television in an interview. “At least 23 Dai’sh commanders, including the commander of Khurasan faction Hafiz Saeed, were killed in foreign troops’ drone strikes and their bodies are still there,” commander of the 201 Selab Corps Major General Mohammad Zaman Wazir said, according to Tolo TV, a report in Express Tribune further mentioned. The report, however, underlined that the claims were not verified by the United States and Da’ish. 'Afghan security officials had previously claimed that Khan was killed in a US drone strike on July 11, 2015, which later proved to be false,' it read. According to the Express Tribune, the group staged a series of attacks under Khan's leadership including their first ever deadliest attack in Kabul last month, killing about 80 people belonging to the Hazara community. (WION)

Islamic State leader killed in joint US-Afghan military operations: Reports

Another blast ripped through Pakistan&rsquo;s Quetta outside Al Khair hospital only two days after an Islamic State and Taliban-claimed suicide bombing at the Quetta hospital killed more than 70 on August 8. 
 
So far, 13 have been injured, including four members of security forces, according to Reuters as a loud explosion was heard at Zarghon Road near a private hospital in Pakistan today. 
 
Home minster Safaraz Bugti said, &quot;It was a remote control device with 3-4kgs of explosives. These kinds of cowardly acts will not reduce our morale.&quot; 
&nbsp;
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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Quetta?src=hash">#Quetta</a> 10 people injured in blast outside private hospital <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/QuettaBlast?src=hash">#QuettaBlast</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/pak?src=hash">#pak</a>
&mdash; Mir Behram Baloch (@mirbehramb) <a href="https://twitter.com/mirbehramb/status/763598603176869888">August 11, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Initial reports suggest the injured in today&rsquo;s blast and they have been rushed to the civil hospital. The security establishment has cordoned off the area around the site of the blast.
<div class="twitter-block">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Terrible news from Quetta again. Another blast,targeting police this time. City was still mourning its losses from 8Aug. May God have mercy
&mdash; SenatorSherryRehman (@sherryrehman) <a href="https://twitter.com/sherryrehman/status/763602876665040896">August 11, 2016</a></blockquote>
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The Dawn reports that causalities are feared and several people have also been injured in the blast, which shattered the windows of many buildings nearby. 
 
Rescue teams have reached the scene and the injured are being shifted to a nearby hospital and security forces are on the scene and collecting evidence. 
 
Meanwhile, the police are still trying to confirm the source and nature of the blast. 
 
(Agencies) 
&nbsp;

A suicide blast had hit a Quetta hospital on August 8 claiming more than 70 lives

Another blast ripped through Pakistan’s Quetta outside Al Khair hospital only two days after an Islamic State and Taliban-claimed suicide bombing at the Quetta hospital killed more than 70 on August 8. So far, 13 have been injured, including four members of security forces, according to Reuters as a loud explosion was heard at Zarghon Road near a private hospital in Pakistan today. Home minster Safaraz Bugti said, "It was a remote control device with 3-4kgs of explosives. These kinds of cowardly acts will not reduce our morale." #Quetta 10 people injured in blast outside private hospital #QuettaBlast #pak — Mir Behram Baloch (@mirbehramb) August 11, 2016 Initial reports suggest the injured in today’s blast and they have been rushed to the civil hospital. The security establishment has cordoned off the area around the site of the blast. Terrible news from Quetta again. Another blast,targeting police this time. City was still mourning its losses from 8Aug. May God have mercy — SenatorSherryRehman (@sherryrehman) August 11, 2016 The Dawn reports that causalities are feared and several people have also been injured in the blast, which shattered the windows of many buildings nearby. Rescue teams have reached the scene and the injured are being shifted to a nearby hospital and security forces are on the scene and collecting evidence. Meanwhile, the police are still trying to confirm the source and nature of the blast. (Agencies)

Pakistan's Quetta ripped apart by second blast in 3 days, 13 hurt

Police in southwest France arrested a 21-year-old man in connection with the jihadist killing of a priest in a Normandy church last month, judicial sources said today.&nbsp;The man arrested on Monday in the Toulouse area is the second to be held in connection with the murder of 85-year-old Jacques Hamel, whose throat was slit in front of worshippers while he was celebrating mass in the town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray on July 26. 
 
A police source said he had been in contact with the cleric&#39;s killers, Abdel Malik Petitjean and Adel Kermiche, who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.&nbsp;The pair, both aged 19, were shot dead by police after a hostage drama in which a worshipper was seriously wounded. 
 
The grisly attack, the first committed in the name of IS against a church in the West, came less than two weeks after a Tunisian ploughed a 19-tonne truck into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the Riviera city of Nice, killing 85 people and wounding more than 300. 
 
A cousin of Petitjean named as Farid K was remanded in custody on July 31 on charges of &quot;criminal association in connection with terrorism&quot;.&nbsp;The public prosecutor said the 30-year-old &quot;was fully aware of his cousin&#39;s imminent violent action, even if he did not know the precise place or day&quot;. 
 
Hamel&#39;s killing, which follows a string of attacks in France over the past 18 months, has raised questions about security failures.&nbsp;Kermiche, who lived near the church, wore an electronic tag and was allowed to leave home on weekday mornings under his house arrest terms. 
 
He met Petitjean through the encrypted messaging app Telegram.&nbsp;Investigators have questioned several people over the killers&#39; links with groups recruiting for jihad in Syria.&nbsp;A 20-year-old man has been charged with trying to travel to Syria with Petitjean in June. 
 
(AFP)

A police source said the 21-year-old man had been in contact with the cleric's killers who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State

Police in southwest France arrested a 21-year-old man in connection with the jihadist killing of a priest in a Normandy church last month, judicial sources said today. The man arrested on Monday in the Toulouse area is the second to be held in connection with the murder of 85-year-old Jacques Hamel, whose throat was slit in front of worshippers while he was celebrating mass in the town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray on July 26. A police source said he had been in contact with the cleric's killers, Abdel Malik Petitjean and Adel Kermiche, who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. The pair, both aged 19, were shot dead by police after a hostage drama in which a worshipper was seriously wounded. The grisly attack, the first committed in the name of IS against a church in the West, came less than two weeks after a Tunisian ploughed a 19-tonne truck into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the Riviera city of Nice, killing 85 people and wounding more than 300. A cousin of Petitjean named as Farid K was remanded in custody on July 31 on charges of "criminal association in connection with terrorism". The public prosecutor said the 30-year-old "was fully aware of his cousin's imminent violent action, even if he did not know the precise place or day". Hamel's killing, which follows a string of attacks in France over the past 18 months, has raised questions about security failures. Kermiche, who lived near the church, wore an electronic tag and was allowed to leave home on weekday mornings under his house arrest terms. He met Petitjean through the encrypted messaging app Telegram. Investigators have questioned several people over the killers' links with groups recruiting for jihad in Syria. A 20-year-old man has been charged with trying to travel to Syria with Petitjean in June. (AFP)

Second man arrested over French priest's murder

India does not have real Muslims capable of jihad,&rdquo; Mehdi Masroor Biswas reportedly told a police officer during an interrogation after his arrest in Bengaluru over a year ago. The typical &lsquo;takfiri&rsquo; taunt to incite Indian Muslims is unmistakable in the statement of this young engineer, which belies his court plea against being a key ISIS (also called IS) operative on Twitter. 
 
The former executive of a multinational company, Biswas had been broadcasting the ISIS&rsquo; terror missions and luring recruits to fight in Syrian and other Middle East theatres at the time of his arrest in late December 2014. Some analysts have since cited this statement to claim the growing frustration among most pan-jihadist organisations over their near failure in recruiting terrorists in the country. 
 
 
 
<img alt="" class="img-responsive" src="http://s.wionews.com/photos/er1-20160808093952.jpg" />
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Mehdi Masroor Biswas, former MNC executive, is presently functioning as one of the broadcasters of Islamic State terror mission.
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According to this view, Indian security agencies and the media are overly obsessing the ISIS threat, sometimes at the expense of the clear and present jihadist danger posed by terror groups like Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) and Lashkar-i-Toiba lurking just across the border that have repeatedly conducted some of the deadliest terror attacks on Indian soil. It is even argued that the ISIS is unpopular in the subcontinent because it regards all &lsquo;muqallids&rsquo; (devout adherents of the four orthodox schools of Sunni Islam - Hanafi, Shafai, Malaki and Hanbali) as &lsquo;murtad&rsquo; (apostates fit for execution), which puts most Indian Muslims in that category for the terrorist group. In fact, extremist Salafi-Wahhabi scholars of the ISIS&rsquo; extremist strain regard the Hanafi Maturidis (which includes the Deobandis and Barelvis that constitute majority of Sunni Muslims in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) as non-believers. In addition, the ISIS even regards the Quietist Salafis, like the highly puritanical and strictly apolitical Ahle Hadeeth population in the subcontinent, to be outside the pale. 
 
In fact, this doctrinal clash between Salafi Arabs and South Asian &lsquo;muqallids&rsquo; is nothing new. Its signs can be traced back to the Afghan-Arab war against the Soviets. In his book &lsquo;Call to Global Islamist Resistance&rsquo;, Al-Qaeda&rsquo;s most prolific writer Abu Mus&rsquo;ab Al-Suri notes that most Arab jihadists were derisive of the &lsquo;muqallid&rsquo; doctrinal beliefs of the Taliban in the 1990s and were dismissive of Mullah Omar&rsquo;s claim of the Taliban-held territory being an &ldquo;Islamic emirate&rdquo;. According to Al-Suri, many of the Arab Salafi jihadists considered the Taliban-held areas merely as a &ldquo;safe haven&rdquo; from where they could operate freely and they did not regard the Deobandi Taliban &ldquo;emirate&rdquo; as a suitable starting point for launching their cherished dream of a future Islamic Caliphate. 
 
Thus, in his book (pp.844-45) Al-Suri states: &ldquo;One of the astonishing things &hellip; is a statement made by one of those extremist Salafi-jihadists. He told me in one of our conversations that &lsquo;jihad must be under the Salafist banner; its leadership, program and religious rulings must also be Salafist&hellip;If we should accept that non-Salafists participate with us in jihad, we only do so because we need them. However, they should not have any leadership role at all. We should lead them like a herd of cows to perform their duty of jihad.&rsquo;&rdquo; 
 
Although Al-Qaeda&rsquo;s top leadership (Bin Laden and now Al-Zawahiri) always sought to downplay these doctrinal differences, the emergence of the ISIS brought this internal dissonance to the fore like never before. In fact, the ISIS makes no bones about its dislike of the Deobandi Afghan Taliban and has been weaning away members of the Taliban to its Salafi Jihadist school ever since the death of Mullah Umar. It is also the reason for repeated clashes between the Deobandi JeM and the Salafist factions of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) having ISIS affiliations. Again in a recent propaganda video, the ISIS has declared top leaders of Darul Uloom Deoband in India as apostates. 
 
The doctrinal differences between the two sides are deeply entrenched. Whereas the ISIS strain of Salafism espouses &lsquo;tajsim&rsquo; (the concept that God has a body), all other schools of Sunni and Shiite Islam staunchly oppose the notion and declare it as fundamentally un-Islamic and blasphemous. For their part, Salafists oppose the acceptance of &lsquo;tawassul&rsquo; by all other Sunni schools (seeking God&rsquo;s intercession through reference to prophets and saints) as sacrilegious. With the Indian subcontinent continuing to be the haven of orthodox schools of Islam extant before the rise of Salafi-Wahhabism in the 18th- 19th centuries, the Salafist pan-jihadist resonance does not strike a chord among most Islamic sects in South Asia. 
 
Contrary to the claims of most Islamophobes, ISIS is the most hated of groups among most Muslims around the world for several reasons. ISIS&rsquo; primary mission of targeting the &lsquo;near enemy&rsquo; (Muslim nation states, populations and regimes, most of whom it regards as apostates) to gain territory, its disrespect for all other Islamic sectarian beliefs (even the ideologically akin Salafi extremist schools like the Surooris and parent organisations like Al-Qaeda), its goal of bringing about the so-called prophesised Islamic apocalypse (&lsquo;Al-Malhamal Kubra&rsquo;) as a necessary precondition for achieving the &lsquo;global Caliphate&rsquo; and its insistence that all Muslims recognise its hitherto unknown 44-year-old leader (Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi) as their temporal, military and spiritual Caliph makes it extremely unpopular in the Islamic world. 
 
However, the claim that the ISIS threat is on the wane due to doctrinal or political reasons in the Muslim world is seriously flawed and misleading. Although the group has lost almost half of its previously held territories in Iraq and Syria, and is said to have about 18,000 militants in that region down from the earlier estimate of 33,000, it has at least eight affiliates &mdash; including in Egypt, Libya, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria and now Bangladesh &mdash; that have pledged allegiance to Baghdadi as caliph. These groups have another 20,000 militants fighting under the ISIS&rsquo; banner. The group&rsquo;s terrorist activities across Europe have seen an exponential increase in recent times. 
 
In the Indian subcontinent, the ISIS is said to have developed close ties with Salafi Lashkar-i-Toiba in Pakistan and Jamaatul Mujahideen in Bangladesh. In the 13th issue of the its Dabiq online magazine, the head of the ISIS in Bangladesh Shaykh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif has claimed that the group is currently training fighters in Bangladesh and Pakistan to launch simultaneous attacks from both the western and eastern borders of India to create chaos in our country. The mouthpiece also claims that Kashmir will soon be overrun by the ISIS. Indian jihadi groups like the Indian Mujahideen (IM) have links to the group, with many of their members having joined the ranks of ISIS in Syria and Iraq and some planning their return to India. In fact, the Ansar-ut Tawhid fi Bilad al-Hind (AuT), was formed in 2013 by members of the IM, ISIS and a Taliban faction, and pledged their allegiance to ISIS in September of that year. 
 
Again through its social media campaign, the ISIS is radicalising impressionable minds through the Internet. Clearly, the virulent ideology and lone wolf attacks unleashed by the ISIS in the world will be difficult to contain even after the group is eventually destroyed and defeated. 
 
The writer is Distinguished Research Fellow at the United Service Institution of India and is the author of the book ISIS: Race to Armageddon. 
 
(This article first appeared on DNA)

Contrary to claims of most Islamophobes, Islamic State is the most hated of groups among majority of Muslims, particularly, in South Asia

India does not have real Muslims capable of jihad,” Mehdi Masroor Biswas reportedly told a police officer during an interrogation after his arrest in Bengaluru over a year ago. The typical ‘takfiri’ taunt to incite Indian Muslims is unmistakable in the statement of this young engineer, which belies his court plea against being a key ISIS (also called IS) operative on Twitter. The former executive of a multinational company, Biswas had been broadcasting the ISIS’ terror missions and luring recruits to fight in Syrian and other Middle East theatres at the time of his arrest in late December 2014. Some analysts have since cited this statement to claim the growing frustration among most pan-jihadist organisations over their near failure in recruiting terrorists in the country. Mehdi Masroor Biswas, former MNC executive, is presently functioning as one of the broadcasters of Islamic State terror mission. According to this view, Indian security agencies and the media are overly obsessing the ISIS threat, sometimes at the expense of the clear and present jihadist danger posed by terror groups like Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) and Lashkar-i-Toiba lurking just across the border that have repeatedly conducted some of the deadliest terror attacks on Indian soil. It is even argued that the ISIS is unpopular in the subcontinent because it regards all ‘muqallids’ (devout adherents of the four orthodox schools of Sunni Islam - Hanafi, Shafai, Malaki and Hanbali) as ‘murtad’ (apostates fit for execution), which puts most Indian Muslims in that category for the terrorist group. In fact, extremist Salafi-Wahhabi scholars of the ISIS’ extremist strain regard the Hanafi Maturidis (which includes the Deobandis and Barelvis that constitute majority of Sunni Muslims in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) as non-believers. In addition, the ISIS even regards the Quietist Salafis, like the highly puritanical and strictly apolitical Ahle Hadeeth population in the subcontinent, to be outside the pale. In fact, this doctrinal clash between Salafi Arabs and South Asian ‘muqallids’ is nothing new. Its signs can be traced back to the Afghan-Arab war against the Soviets. In his book ‘Call to Global Islamist Resistance’, Al-Qaeda’s most prolific writer Abu Mus’ab Al-Suri notes that most Arab jihadists were derisive of the ‘muqallid’ doctrinal beliefs of the Taliban in the 1990s and were dismissive of Mullah Omar’s claim of the Taliban-held territory being an “Islamic emirate”. According to Al-Suri, many of the Arab Salafi jihadists considered the Taliban-held areas merely as a “safe haven” from where they could operate freely and they did not regard the Deobandi Taliban “emirate” as a suitable starting point for launching their cherished dream of a future Islamic Caliphate. Thus, in his book (pp.844-45) Al-Suri states: “One of the astonishing things … is a statement made by one of those extremist Salafi-jihadists. He told me in one of our conversations that ‘jihad must be under the Salafist banner; its leadership, program and religious rulings must also be Salafist…If we should accept that non-Salafists participate with us in jihad, we only do so because we need them. However, they should not have any leadership role at all. We should lead them like a herd of cows to perform their duty of jihad.’” Although Al-Qaeda’s top leadership (Bin Laden and now Al-Zawahiri) always sought to downplay these doctrinal differences, the emergence of the ISIS brought this internal dissonance to the fore like never before. In fact, the ISIS makes no bones about its dislike of the Deobandi Afghan Taliban and has been weaning away members of the Taliban to its Salafi Jihadist school ever since the death of Mullah Umar. It is also the reason for repeated clashes between the Deobandi JeM and the Salafist factions of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) having ISIS affiliations. Again in a recent propaganda video, the ISIS has declared top leaders of Darul Uloom Deoband in India as apostates. The doctrinal differences between the two sides are deeply entrenched. Whereas the ISIS strain of Salafism espouses ‘tajsim’ (the concept that God has a body), all other schools of Sunni and Shiite Islam staunchly oppose the notion and declare it as fundamentally un-Islamic and blasphemous. For their part, Salafists oppose the acceptance of ‘tawassul’ by all other Sunni schools (seeking God’s intercession through reference to prophets and saints) as sacrilegious. With the Indian subcontinent continuing to be the haven of orthodox schools of Islam extant before the rise of Salafi-Wahhabism in the 18th- 19th centuries, the Salafist pan-jihadist resonance does not strike a chord among most Islamic sects in South Asia. Contrary to the claims of most Islamophobes, ISIS is the most hated of groups among most Muslims around the world for several reasons. ISIS’ primary mission of targeting the ‘near enemy’ (Muslim nation states, populations and regimes, most of whom it regards as apostates) to gain territory, its disrespect for all other Islamic sectarian beliefs (even the ideologically akin Salafi extremist schools like the Surooris and parent organisations like Al-Qaeda), its goal of bringing about the so-called prophesised Islamic apocalypse (‘Al-Malhamal Kubra’) as a necessary precondition for achieving the ‘global Caliphate’ and its insistence that all Muslims recognise its hitherto unknown 44-year-old leader (Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi) as their temporal, military and spiritual Caliph makes it extremely unpopular in the Islamic world. However, the claim that the ISIS threat is on the wane due to doctrinal or political reasons in the Muslim world is seriously flawed and misleading. Although the group has lost almost half of its previously held territories in Iraq and Syria, and is said to have about 18,000 militants in that region down from the earlier estimate of 33,000, it has at least eight affiliates — including in Egypt, Libya, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria and now Bangladesh — that have pledged allegiance to Baghdadi as caliph. These groups have another 20,000 militants fighting under the ISIS’ banner. The group’s terrorist activities across Europe have seen an exponential increase in recent times. In the Indian subcontinent, the ISIS is said to have developed close ties with Salafi Lashkar-i-Toiba in Pakistan and Jamaatul Mujahideen in Bangladesh. In the 13th issue of the its Dabiq online magazine, the head of the ISIS in Bangladesh Shaykh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif has claimed that the group is currently training fighters in Bangladesh and Pakistan to launch simultaneous attacks from both the western and eastern borders of India to create chaos in our country. The mouthpiece also claims that Kashmir will soon be overrun by the ISIS. Indian jihadi groups like the Indian Mujahideen (IM) have links to the group, with many of their members having joined the ranks of ISIS in Syria and Iraq and some planning their return to India. In fact, the Ansar-ut Tawhid fi Bilad al-Hind (AuT), was formed in 2013 by members of the IM, ISIS and a Taliban faction, and pledged their allegiance to ISIS in September of that year. Again through its social media campaign, the ISIS is radicalising impressionable minds through the Internet. Clearly, the virulent ideology and lone wolf attacks unleashed by the ISIS in the world will be difficult to contain even after the group is eventually destroyed and defeated. The writer is Distinguished Research Fellow at the United Service Institution of India and is the author of the book ISIS: Race to Armageddon. (This article first appeared on DNA)

The Islamic State's doctrinal differences surface in South Asia

Boko Haram&#39;s shadowy leader Abubakar Shekau has appeared in a new video vowing to fight on, shrugging off an apparent split in the hardline jihadist group blamed for thousands of deaths since 2009. 
 
&quot;I... Abubakar Ash-Shakawy (Shekau), the leader of Jama&#39;atu Ahlissunnah Lidda&#39;awati Wal Jihad made it a duty for myself (to fight) Nigeria and the whole world,&quot; Shekau said in the video released on Sunday, using group&#39;s name since it declared allegiance to the so-called Islamic State. 
 
&#39;I&#39;m alive&#39; 
 
Last week, Shekau said in an audio message he was still head of the group despite his purported replacement with Sheikh Abu Musab al-Barnawi, a former Boko Haram spokesman. 
 
&quot;We have no desire to fight our Muslim brethren,&quot; Shekau, who last appeared in March, said in the 24-minute video. 
 
Shekau ridiculed suggestions that he was dead, and looked more composed and energetic than in previous appearances. 
 
&quot;I&#39;m alive by the permission of Allah,&quot; he said in his speech in Arabic and Hausa, adding that he would only die when his time comes. 
 
Shekau labels western countries &#39;tyrants of the United Nonsense&#39;&nbsp; 
 
In the video, he is wearing camouflage gear and holding a machine gun, standing between two Islamist fighters in balaclavas armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers. 
 
He taunted President Muhammadu Buhari&#39;s administration and condemned western countries including the United States, France, Germany and &quot;the tyrants of the United Nonsense (UN)&quot;. 
 
At the end of his speech -- apparently filmed in Boko Haram&#39;s stronghold in the Sambisa forest of northeastern Nigeria -- he fired off rounds of ammunition into the air. 
 
His absence in recent months had sparked speculation about his fate and whether he had been deposed as the head of Boko Haram. 
 
Barnawi&#39;s appointment was contained in a magazine issued by the Islamic State group to which Boko Haram pledged allegiance in March last year. 
 
Shekau dismissed Barnawi as an infidel who condoned living in an un-Islamic society without waging jihad. 
 
Shekau became leader after Nigerian security forces killed the group&#39;s founding chief Mohammed Yusuf in 2009. 
 
Boko Haram has been blamed for some 20,000 deaths and displacing more than 2.6 million people since it launched a brutal insurgency in Nigeria in 2009. 
 
Nigerian forces, with the support of regional troops, have recaptured swathes of territory lost to the jihadists since they launched a military campaign in February 2014. 
 
(AFP)&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

Shekau ridiculed suggestions that he was dead. 'We have no desire to fight our Muslim brethren,' he said

Boko Haram's shadowy leader Abubakar Shekau has appeared in a new video vowing to fight on, shrugging off an apparent split in the hardline jihadist group blamed for thousands of deaths since 2009. "I... Abubakar Ash-Shakawy (Shekau), the leader of Jama'atu Ahlissunnah Lidda'awati Wal Jihad made it a duty for myself (to fight) Nigeria and the whole world," Shekau said in the video released on Sunday, using group's name since it declared allegiance to the so-called Islamic State. 'I'm alive' Last week, Shekau said in an audio message he was still head of the group despite his purported replacement with Sheikh Abu Musab al-Barnawi, a former Boko Haram spokesman. "We have no desire to fight our Muslim brethren," Shekau, who last appeared in March, said in the 24-minute video. Shekau ridiculed suggestions that he was dead, and looked more composed and energetic than in previous appearances. "I'm alive by the permission of Allah," he said in his speech in Arabic and Hausa, adding that he would only die when his time comes. Shekau labels western countries 'tyrants of the United Nonsense' In the video, he is wearing camouflage gear and holding a machine gun, standing between two Islamist fighters in balaclavas armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers. He taunted President Muhammadu Buhari's administration and condemned western countries including the United States, France, Germany and "the tyrants of the United Nonsense (UN)". At the end of his speech -- apparently filmed in Boko Haram's stronghold in the Sambisa forest of northeastern Nigeria -- he fired off rounds of ammunition into the air. His absence in recent months had sparked speculation about his fate and whether he had been deposed as the head of Boko Haram. Barnawi's appointment was contained in a magazine issued by the Islamic State group to which Boko Haram pledged allegiance in March last year. Shekau dismissed Barnawi as an infidel who condoned living in an un-Islamic society without waging jihad. Shekau became leader after Nigerian security forces killed the group's founding chief Mohammed Yusuf in 2009. Boko Haram has been blamed for some 20,000 deaths and displacing more than 2.6 million people since it launched a brutal insurgency in Nigeria in 2009. Nigerian forces, with the support of regional troops, have recaptured swathes of territory lost to the jihadists since they launched a military campaign in February 2014. (AFP)

Boko Haram's shadowy leader Shekau vows to fight in new video, dismisses split rumours

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility today for an attack that wounded two policewomen in the Belgian city of Charleroi, saying the machete-wielding assailant was a &quot;soldier&quot; of the group. 
 
Quoting an unidentified source, the IS-linked Amaq Agency said yesterday&#39;s attack came &quot;in response to calls to target citizens&quot; belonging to countries in a US-led coalition bombing IS in Syria and Iraq. 
 
Police said today he was a 33-year-old Algerian with the initials K B. Belgium today opened a terrorism probe into the attack, the latest in a string of jihadist assaults in Europe. 
 
The&nbsp;Algerian national had &quot;a criminal record but was not known for terrorism,&quot; prosecutors said today. 
 
The incident took place yesterday outside the main police station in the city of Charleroi, around 60 kilometres south of Brussels.&nbsp;The assailant died on yesterday after being shot by officers. 
 
Two searches have been made in the neighbourhood, the prosecutor&#39;s statement said. The local prosecutor in Charleroi handed the case to the federal prosecutor &quot;as there are indications that the attack could have been inspired by terrorist motives,&quot; it said. 
 
&quot;An examining magistrate specialising in terrorism has been named&quot; for the investigation, it said. Belgian investigators said late yesterday the assailant cried &quot;Allahu Akbar&quot; (God is greatest) as he carried out the attack. 
 
&quot;We have been informed by federal prosecutors that an investigation has started for attempted terrorist murder given certain elements (in the case),&quot; Prime Minister Charles Michel told reporters. Michel, who saluted the courage of the police victims, was referring to the attacker&#39;s cry of &quot;Allahu Akbar&quot; (God is greatest) during the assault in front of a police station. 
 
Police spokesman David Quinaux told broadcaster RTL-TVI the assailant had &quot;taken a machete out of a sports bag he was carrying and dealt very violent blows to the faces of the two policewomen&quot;. 
 
Belgium has been on high alert since suicide bombers struck Brussels airport and a metro station near the European Union&#39;s institutions on March 22, killing 32 people. Those attacks were claimed by IS, which controls large areas of territory in Iraq and Syria and has claimed numerous terror strikes in Europe over the past year. 
 
(AFP) 
&nbsp;

Amaq Agency said yesterday's attack came 'in response to calls to target citizens' of countries in the US-led coalition bombing IS

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility today for an attack that wounded two policewomen in the Belgian city of Charleroi, saying the machete-wielding assailant was a "soldier" of the group. Quoting an unidentified source, the IS-linked Amaq Agency said yesterday's attack came "in response to calls to target citizens" belonging to countries in a US-led coalition bombing IS in Syria and Iraq. Police said today he was a 33-year-old Algerian with the initials K B. Belgium today opened a terrorism probe into the attack, the latest in a string of jihadist assaults in Europe. The Algerian national had "a criminal record but was not known for terrorism," prosecutors said today. The incident took place yesterday outside the main police station in the city of Charleroi, around 60 kilometres south of Brussels. The assailant died on yesterday after being shot by officers. Two searches have been made in the neighbourhood, the prosecutor's statement said. The local prosecutor in Charleroi handed the case to the federal prosecutor "as there are indications that the attack could have been inspired by terrorist motives," it said. "An examining magistrate specialising in terrorism has been named" for the investigation, it said. Belgian investigators said late yesterday the assailant cried "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) as he carried out the attack. "We have been informed by federal prosecutors that an investigation has started for attempted terrorist murder given certain elements (in the case)," Prime Minister Charles Michel told reporters. Michel, who saluted the courage of the police victims, was referring to the attacker's cry of "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) during the assault in front of a police station. Police spokesman David Quinaux told broadcaster RTL-TVI the assailant had "taken a machete out of a sports bag he was carrying and dealt very violent blows to the faces of the two policewomen". Belgium has been on high alert since suicide bombers struck Brussels airport and a metro station near the European Union's institutions on March 22, killing 32 people. Those attacks were claimed by IS, which controls large areas of territory in Iraq and Syria and has claimed numerous terror strikes in Europe over the past year. (AFP)

Islamic State claims Belgium machete attack

Syrian insurgents, who broke the siege of rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Saturday in a significant territorial gain, came under intense air attack from pro-government forces on Sunday, who were trying to repel the advance which also cut government-held Aleppo&#39;s main supply route.

Rebels have taken most of a large government military complex southwest of Aleppo city in a major offensive begun on Friday to break a month-long siege, and are now attacking further into government-held territory.

The surprise advance in Ramousah allowed fighters from insurgent areas in western Syria to break through a strip of government-controlled territory on Saturday and connect with fighters in the encircled sector of eastern Aleppo.

But fierce fighting and continuous Russian and Syrian air strikes in and around the Ramousah area mean no safe passage for besieged east Aleppo residents has been established, activists and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Fighters from a coalition of Islamist rebel groups called &quot;Jaish al-Fateh&quot; announced the start of a new phase to liberate the whole of Aleppo, saying it pledged to increased the numbers of fighters for the battle it said will only end by hoisting their flag on the ancient Aleppo citadel in government hands.

Jets believed to be Russian, intensified their bombing of rebel-held Aleppo countryside and also hit opposition-held Idlib city in north western Syria, rebels said.&nbsp;They released video footage that showed huge flames of fire it said was caused by white phosphorus bombs dropped on the city.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad wants to take full control of Aleppo, pre-war Syria&#39;s most populous city, which has been divided between rebel and government-held areas.&nbsp;Assad&#39;s government forces are supported in Syria by Russian air power, Iranian militias and fighters from Lebanon&#39;s Hezbollah group who have sent reinforcements to shore up the army .

Rebel gains this weekend could change the balance of power in Aleppo, after Assad said a siege by the&nbsp;government and allied forces on rebel-held east Aleppo in early July was a prelude to re-taking the city. The loss of Aleppo would be a crushing blow for rebels.

&quot;We have now seized full control of the Ramousah area...We are in our trenches but there are insane air strikes of unprecedented ferociousness. The regime is using cluster and vacuum bombs,&quot; said Abu al Hasanien, a senior commander in Fateh Halab, the coalition of moderate rebel groups inside the city.

Pro-Syrian government news channels have mostly played down the rebel gains and say Syrian army efforts have caused rebels to withdraw from some recently-gained areas.

But Lebanese pro-Syrian government news channel al Mayadeen said late on Saturday the Syrian army had &quot;withdrawn from a number of positions southwest of Aleppo and repositioned itself in new defensive lines&quot;.

The Syrian military was not immediately available for comment.&nbsp;As the insurgents took over parts of the government&#39;s Ramousah military complex, which contains a number of military colleges, they broadcast images of the weaponry and ammunition they were taking possession of.

Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, posted pictures of rows of armoured vehicles, munitions, howitzers, rockets and trucks.

The rebel front line is now pushing northwest into western held Aleppo on the edges of the Hamdaniya neighbourhood and a housing estate called the 3,000 project, rebels and the Observatory said.

North of Hamdaniya in the direction of the rebels&#39; push is another large government military complex, the Assad military engineering academy.

The opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC) congratulated rebels on making &quot;spectacular gains (which send) a clear message to the Assad regime, Iran and Russia that they will not be able to defeat the Syrian people or dictate the terms of a settlement.&quot;

 
Seiges

Fears are growing in government-held western Aleppo that it might become besieged by rebels, as east Aleppo has been by government forces, because the main route south to Damascus for goods transport, the Ramousah road, has been severed.

News of the rebel advance caused food prices to rise by as much as four times in western Aleppo, the Observatory said.

Following the cutting of the main Ramousah road, Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman told Reuters military vehicles can still get in an out of west Aleppo through remaining exit roads to the north, but these are not safe enough for civilians.

In eastern Aleppo, despite some scenes of celebration as fighters broke the siege yesterday, the lack of a safe route out means conditions for residents remain unchanged.&nbsp;Three vans of vegetables crossed into east Aleppo, Abdurrahman said, but this was a symbolic gesture, and the corridor is too dangerous for civilians or significant supplies to pass.

The United Nations and humanitarian agencies have said conditions in isolated rebel-held east Aleppo have become very concerning.

&quot;Most recently I&#39;m hearing that the markets are closed and it&#39;s next to impossible to purchase food. The UN estimates that collectively all aid supplies in east Aleppo&nbsp;will only last about two more&nbsp;weeks,&quot; Christy Delafield, senior communications officer for Mercy Corps, which runs the largest non-governmental aid operation inside Syria, told Reuters.

The multi-sided civil war in Syria, which has been raging since 2011, has drawn in regional and global powers, caused the world&#39;s worst humanitarian emergency and attracted recruits to Islamist militancy from around the world. 
 
(Reuters)

In an offensive begun on Friday, rebels took most of a large government military complex and are attacking the government-held territory

Syrian insurgents, who broke the siege of rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Saturday in a significant territorial gain, came under intense air attack from pro-government forces on Sunday, who were trying to repel the advance which also cut government-held Aleppo's main supply route. Rebels have taken most of a large government military complex southwest of Aleppo city in a major offensive begun on Friday to break a month-long siege, and are now attacking further into government-held territory. The surprise advance in Ramousah allowed fighters from insurgent areas in western Syria to break through a strip of government-controlled territory on Saturday and connect with fighters in the encircled sector of eastern Aleppo. But fierce fighting and continuous Russian and Syrian air strikes in and around the Ramousah area mean no safe passage for besieged east Aleppo residents has been established, activists and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Fighters from a coalition of Islamist rebel groups called "Jaish al-Fateh" announced the start of a new phase to liberate the whole of Aleppo, saying it pledged to increased the numbers of fighters for the battle it said will only end by hoisting their flag on the ancient Aleppo citadel in government hands. Jets believed to be Russian, intensified their bombing of rebel-held Aleppo countryside and also hit opposition-held Idlib city in north western Syria, rebels said. They released video footage that showed huge flames of fire it said was caused by white phosphorus bombs dropped on the city. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad wants to take full control of Aleppo, pre-war Syria's most populous city, which has been divided between rebel and government-held areas. Assad's government forces are supported in Syria by Russian air power, Iranian militias and fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah group who have sent reinforcements to shore up the army . Rebel gains this weekend could change the balance of power in Aleppo, after Assad said a siege by the government and allied forces on rebel-held east Aleppo in early July was a prelude to re-taking the city. The loss of Aleppo would be a crushing blow for rebels. "We have now seized full control of the Ramousah area...We are in our trenches but there are insane air strikes of unprecedented ferociousness. The regime is using cluster and vacuum bombs," said Abu al Hasanien, a senior commander in Fateh Halab, the coalition of moderate rebel groups inside the city. Pro-Syrian government news channels have mostly played down the rebel gains and say Syrian army efforts have caused rebels to withdraw from some recently-gained areas. But Lebanese pro-Syrian government news channel al Mayadeen said late on Saturday the Syrian army had "withdrawn from a number of positions southwest of Aleppo and repositioned itself in new defensive lines". The Syrian military was not immediately available for comment. As the insurgents took over parts of the government's Ramousah military complex, which contains a number of military colleges, they broadcast images of the weaponry and ammunition they were taking possession of. Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly the al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, posted pictures of rows of armoured vehicles, munitions, howitzers, rockets and trucks. The rebel front line is now pushing northwest into western held Aleppo on the edges of the Hamdaniya neighbourhood and a housing estate called the 3,000 project, rebels and the Observatory said. North of Hamdaniya in the direction of the rebels' push is another large government military complex, the Assad military engineering academy. The opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC) congratulated rebels on making "spectacular gains (which send) a clear message to the Assad regime, Iran and Russia that they will not be able to defeat the Syrian people or dictate the terms of a settlement." Seiges Fears are growing in government-held western Aleppo that it might become besieged by rebels, as east Aleppo has been by government forces, because the main route south to Damascus for goods transport, the Ramousah road, has been severed. News of the rebel advance caused food prices to rise by as much as four times in western Aleppo, the Observatory said. Following the cutting of the main Ramousah road, Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman told Reuters military vehicles can still get in an out of west Aleppo through remaining exit roads to the north, but these are not safe enough for civilians. In eastern Aleppo, despite some scenes of celebration as fighters broke the siege yesterday, the lack of a safe route out means conditions for residents remain unchanged. Three vans of vegetables crossed into east Aleppo, Abdurrahman said, but this was a symbolic gesture, and the corridor is too dangerous for civilians or significant supplies to pass. The United Nations and humanitarian agencies have said conditions in isolated rebel-held east Aleppo have become very concerning. "Most recently I'm hearing that the markets are closed and it's next to impossible to purchase food. The UN estimates that collectively all aid supplies in east Aleppo will only last about two more weeks," Christy Delafield, senior communications officer for Mercy Corps, which runs the largest non-governmental aid operation inside Syria, told Reuters. The multi-sided civil war in Syria, which has been raging since 2011, has drawn in regional and global powers, caused the world's worst humanitarian emergency and attracted recruits to Islamist militancy from around the world. (Reuters)

Jets pound rebels after they break month-long Aleppo siege

A United Nations peacekeeper was killed and four others were wounded on Sunday when their vehicle hit a mine in Mali&#39;s restive north, the UN mission (MINUSMA) said.

The attack on the vehicle, which was escorting a logistical convoy, occurred about 11 kilometres&nbsp;(seven&nbsp;miles) south of Aguelhoc in the region of Kidal, where several Islamist militant groups are active, the mission said in a statement.&nbsp;All five peacekeepers were from Chad, a mission spokesman said.

About two hours later, another mine exploded near a UN peacekeeping vehicle two kilometres&nbsp;east of the mission base in Kidal, but only caused material damage, the MINUSMA statement added.&nbsp;MINUSMA did not say who was responsible for the attacks.

In a statement on Sunday, Islamist militant group Ansar Dine claimed responsibility for a mine attack on Friday near Kidal targeting Chadian troops, according to SITE Intelligence Group.&nbsp;That explosion injured one peacekeeper, the spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement on Sunday.

Mali&#39;s government has not had a military presence in Kidal since clashes between the army and Tuareg rebels killed 50 soldiers there in 2014, leaving a heavy security burden on UN troops.

Mali has become the deadliest place to serve UN peacekeepers. The United Nations says more than 100 peacekeepers have been killed since MINUSMA deployed in July 2013. The UN Security Council voted in June to increase the contingent by 2,500 troops, taking the total number of uniformed personnel to more than 15,000.

In May, five Chadian peacekeepers were killed in an ambush near Kidal. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) also claimed responsibility for an attack that month that killed a Chinese peacekeeper and three civilians.

Islamist militant groups, some with links to al-Qaeda, hijacked a Tuareg uprising in 2012 and seized northern Mali until a French-led intervention drove them back a year later.&nbsp;But the region has remained plagued by violence despite a peace accord signed last year between Tuareg fighters and the government. Two days of fighting last month between Tuareg rebels and pro-government militia killed up to 20 people. 
 
(Reuters)

About two hours later, one more mine exploded near a UN peacekeeping vehicle but only caused material damage

A United Nations peacekeeper was killed and four others were wounded on Sunday when their vehicle hit a mine in Mali's restive north, the UN mission (MINUSMA) said. The attack on the vehicle, which was escorting a logistical convoy, occurred about 11 kilometres (seven miles) south of Aguelhoc in the region of Kidal, where several Islamist militant groups are active, the mission said in a statement. All five peacekeepers were from Chad, a mission spokesman said. About two hours later, another mine exploded near a UN peacekeeping vehicle two kilometres east of the mission base in Kidal, but only caused material damage, the MINUSMA statement added. MINUSMA did not say who was responsible for the attacks. In a statement on Sunday, Islamist militant group Ansar Dine claimed responsibility for a mine attack on Friday near Kidal targeting Chadian troops, according to SITE Intelligence Group. That explosion injured one peacekeeper, the spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement on Sunday. Mali's government has not had a military presence in Kidal since clashes between the army and Tuareg rebels killed 50 soldiers there in 2014, leaving a heavy security burden on UN troops. Mali has become the deadliest place to serve UN peacekeepers. The United Nations says more than 100 peacekeepers have been killed since MINUSMA deployed in July 2013. The UN Security Council voted in June to increase the contingent by 2,500 troops, taking the total number of uniformed personnel to more than 15,000. In May, five Chadian peacekeepers were killed in an ambush near Kidal. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) also claimed responsibility for an attack that month that killed a Chinese peacekeeper and three civilians. Islamist militant groups, some with links to al-Qaeda, hijacked a Tuareg uprising in 2012 and seized northern Mali until a French-led intervention drove them back a year later. But the region has remained plagued by violence despite a peace accord signed last year between Tuareg fighters and the government. Two days of fighting last month between Tuareg rebels and pro-government militia killed up to 20 people. (Reuters)

One UN peacekeeper killed, 4 wounded in north Mali mine attack

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