-
Islamic State
Botched cyberattack on Syria group blamed on IS
-
Lebanon
Lebanese increasingly chasing second nationality as backup
-
Egypt
IS threat led to closure of Western embassies in Egypt
-
United Kingdom
Ismail Abdulrahman, Muktar Said Ibrahim, Yassin Omar, and Ramzi Mohammed, who were sentenced to life in prison for an al Qaeda plot to attack London transport on July 21, 2005, two weeks after the deadly July 7 subway bombings, lost their appeals to the European Court of Human Rights. Two men from Luton were arrested by counterterrorism police on suspicion of membership in a banned organization; there are 63 groups currently on the UK’s list of banned groups.
-
United Kingdom
Michael Coe and Simon Keeler, of east London, were charged with trying to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State; Anthony Small, of southeast London, was charged with helping Coe and Keeler with travel plans; and two other east Londoners, Zagum Perviaz and Hamzah Safdar, were charged with assisting Coe and Keeler in obtaining false documents. Coe, Keeler, and Small also face charges of supporting a terror organization. Separate charges were filed against another man, Abdulraouf Eshati; they involved the purchase of ammunition and the hire of a cargo plane for terrorist purposes.
-
United Kingdom
British soldiers told not to shout at, insult terror suspects, report claims
-
Libya
Britain pressing Tobruk to reach agreement with Muslim Brotherhood: Libyan minister
-
Denmark
For Jihadists, Denmark Tries Rehabilitation
-
United Kingdom
Defence Minister Fallon said the UK will send a few hundred troops to Iraq in January to help train Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers; the British deployment will also include a small “force protection” contingent. Fallon claimed that UK forces have flown a “huge” number of combat missions in Iraq against the Islamic State, “five times as many as France.”
-
United Kingdom
Islamic Relief Worldwide, a Birmingham-based charity that received £3.2 million from the British government in 2013, claimed that an audit it commissioned has cleared the charity of allegations it funded terrorism; Israel has accused the charity of diverting funds to Hamas. A recently released US Senate report on post-9/11 CIA interrogations disclosed that information gained from former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg had led to the 2004 capture of al Qaeda’s Dhiren Birot a.k.a. ‘Issa al-Britani’ or ‘al-Hindi,’ who was plotting a dirty bomb attack in London. A British media outlet has exposed the activities of a prominent pro-Islamic State…
-
United Kingdom
Runa Khan, a 35-year-old mother of six from Luton, was sentenced to five years and three months in jail for promoting terrorism on social media. Khan, who had advocated sending jihadists to Syria, had pled guilty in July to charges of disseminating terrorist literature.
-
United Kingdom
Counterterrorism police arrested a man in Luton who is suspected of terrorist fundraising and incitement. Prime Minister Cameron claimed that the UK and Turkey are working closely to stop the movement of British jihadists through Turkey.
-
United Kingdom
Security forces are taking seriously an “anonymous but credible” tip received of a plot to kidnap and kill a West Midlands police officer. In October, five members of a London gang who had allegedly sworn allegiance to the Islamic State were arrested for plotting to kill members of the city’s police force.
-
Al Qaeda
A Sikh Principal, Too English for a Largely Muslim School in Birmingham
-
United Kingdom
Muhammed Saleem, Tayyab Al-Riaz, and Valentina Miu, who were arrested on Dec. 6 by counterterrorism police in London, have been charged with fraud offenses; all three remain in custody. The UK closed its embassy in Cairo, Egypt due to security fears. Plans by the UK to open a naval base in Bahrain were met with protests in that country.
-
Afghanistan
Afghan official says Western troops leaving prematurely
-
United Kingdom
Mohammed Nahin Ahmed and Yusuf Zubair Sarwar, two Birmingham men who fought in Syria for eight months with the Al Nusrah Front’s Kataib al Mujahireen, have been sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison. Mashudur Choudhury, of Portsmouth, was sentenced to four years in prison for traveling to Syria to attend a terrorist training camp; he had returned to Britain after 17 days in Syria.
-
United Kingdom
Counterterrorism police arrested five men in Cardiff and Barry as part of an ongoing investigation in Wales; they are suspected of distributing Islamic State literature in Cardiff. In separate raids, two men were arrested in southeast London on terrorism charges.
-
United Kingdom
Mustafa Gray a.k.a. Stephen Gray, and Abdalraouf Abdallah, both of Moss Side in Manchester, were remanded into custody on Syria-related terrorism charges. Kristen Arne Brekke a.k.a. Kaleem, of Cardiff, and Forhad Rahman, of Cirencester, were remanded into custody on suspicion of aiding Cardiff resident Aseel Muthana travel to Syria to fight for an extremist group. Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, who were convicted of the 2013 murder of British soldier Lee Rigby, each lost appeals against their sentences.
-
Al Nusrah Front
British watchtowers dot a Mideast border again – this time with Islamic State
-
United Kingdom
Police detained five men on suspicion of Syria-related terrorism; three were arrested at Dover and two were arrested in East London. Police also arrested 13 men and one woman at Dover on immigration charges; one of the men was suspected of human trafficking.
-
United Kingdom
Alaa Abdullah Esayed, a 22-year-old woman from south London, was charged with disseminating terrorist literature and encouraging terrorism; she was released on bail. Zakariya Ashiq, 19, of Coventry, was charged with terrorism-related crimes following his arrest upon arrival from Jordan on Nov. 20.
-
United Kingdom
Concern about drones as number of near misses surges in recent months
-
United Kingdom
Two brothers from east London, Hamza Nawaz and Mohommod Nawaz, were each sentenced to less than five years in prison for traveling to Syria to attend a training camp run by the extremist group Junud al Sham. They were arrested in September 2013 as they arrived back in the UK at Dover with rifle ammunition in their car.
-
Shabaab
Failures Preceded British Soldier’s Killing
-
United Kingdom
A government report on the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby found that the one of the murderers, Michael Adebolajo, had been the subject of five MI5 investigations prior to the crime, including one involving an al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) plot against the West in 2011. The report also found that the other murderer, Michael Adebowale, had communicated online with an extremist overseas six months before the crime about his plan to kill a UK soldier. Home Secretary May is seeking to ban universities from hosting extremist speakers. A teenage Kurdish girl from Islington has reportedly gone…
-
Austria
Nations Ponder How to Handle European Fighters Returning From Jihad
-
United Kingdom
Home Secretary May warned that the UK is facing its biggest ever threat of terrorism, and said authorities have foiled some 40 major terrorist plots since the July 2005 subway bombings. She is proposing new antiterrorism legislation, including measures to require schools, colleges, and probation providers help prevent radicalization. A senior antiterrorism official said that half of the British jihadists joining the Islamic State had been radicalized only recently. UK Islamist Siddhartha Dhar a.k.a. Abu Rumaysah claimed that he and his family had escaped Britain to join the Islamic State’s “caliphate.”
-
Iran
Iran Nuclear Talks Extended Until July
-
United Kingdom
Metropolitan police commissioner Hogan-Howe said the police have stopped “four or five” terror attacks already this year, in comparison to one per year in recent years. He estimated that 500 people have left the UK to fight for extremist groups in Iraq and Syria. Khalid Mahmood, a Muslim MP from Birmingham, said 2,000 is a better estimate, and that the growing number of British jihadists is “a huge, huge problem.” Mahmood also warned that the government has not effectively stopped the flow of jihadists in and out of the country. The Muslim Council of Britain said authorities should arresting more…
