By: Shawn Snow - Militarytimes.com WASHINGTON — A U.S. airstrike on a building in the village of Jineh, in Aleppo province, Syria, killed dozens al-Qaida regional leaders and militants and resulted in one civilian casualty, according to Army Brig. Gen Paul Bontrager, deputy director for operations at U.S. Central Command and lead investigator into the March 16 incident. Human rights groups have claimed the airstrike killed dozens of civilians.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based monitoring group, claimed the U.S. military struck a mosque, killing nearly 46 civilians, according to the BBC.U.S. military officials, however, have said that intelligence reports gathered before the strike showed it was not a mosque but a meeting place for al-Qaida militants. The strike was carried out by U.S. F-15s and an armed MQ-9 drone operating under a U.S. Special Operations task force.The formal investigation “found zero credible evidence" to suggest intelligence reports were...

Clarion Project By Meira Svirsky Iraqi Christian survivors of Islamic State’s brutal reign have been coming forward to tell the horrors they experienced as their land becomes liberated by coalition forces, reports Christianity Today.One man, identified only as Esam, related how Islamic State (IS/ISIS/ISIL) jihadis tortured and killed his brother-in-law while his wife and children were forced to watch."My wife's brother was crucified by Daesh [ISIS]," he said. "He was crucified and tortured in front of his wife and children, who were forced to watch. They told him that if he loved Jesus that much, he would die like Jesus."For four hours, militants tortured the man, before crucifying him and cutting open his stomach. He was eventually shot and killed.Esam also reported that two members of his wife’s family, a Christian couple, were kidnapped by ISIS. The wife “now lives with one of the Daesh emirs,” he said and the...

Fox News A hammer-wielding man who attacked a police officer at the world-famous Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, Paris investigators said Wednesday. The unnamed suspect, a 40-year-old man from Algeria, made the declaration of allegiance in a video authorities found in his apartment, France 24 reported.Officials are classifying Tuesday's attack as a "terrorist act" because of "the words he said," French government spokesman Christopher Castaner told RTL radio on Wednesday. The unidentified man cried out "This is for Syria!" before he lunged at officers in front of the Paris monument on Tuesday. He was also carrying two kitchen knives and "other unsophisticated weapons" with him at the time.New surveillance video released to the Associated Press showed the assailant swinging his hammer at several officers before a wounded policeman shot him. Both men were hospitalized.The suspect was a former journalist who had been...

Fox News ISIS claimed responsibility for a pair of Wednesday attacks in Tehran in which suicide bombers and teams of gunmen stormed Iran's parliament and the nearby shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, killing at least 12 and injuring dozens of others.This is the first attack orchestrated by ISIS in the Islamic Republic, SITE Intel Group reported. It wasn't initially clear if the death count, reported by state broadcaster IRIB, included the attackers.In a rare and stunning move, ISIS released video from inside the parliament building while the attack was under way.  The video, circulated online, shows a gunman and a bloody, lifeless body of a man lying on the ground next to a desk. A voice on the video praises God and says in Arabic: "Do you think we will leave? We will remain, God willing." Another voice repeats the same words. The two appeared to be parroting a slogan...

Financial Times by: Anjana AhujaThere must be a deviancy, an insanity even, that afflicts those who are motivated to kill for their beliefs. Such individuals — prepared to bomb a concert packed with children and teenagers or mow down pedestrians on a bridge — must lie somewhere on the spectrum of madness. This tempting rationalisation of terrorism has little basis in scientific evidence, according to psychologists.“It is not true that terrorists share a common psychological profile,” wrote Paul Gill and Emily Corner, from University College London. “No [single] mental health disorder appears to be a predictor of terrorist involvement.”Their analysis of four decades of research appeared in April in an issue of the journal American Psychologist devoted to terrorism and radicalisation.As countries struggle to contain the threat, the field of psychology is coming to painful terms with its own limitations. Despite decades of inquiry, academics are no closer to comprehending...

The Guardian  by Christopher Knaus, Melissa Davey and Australian Associated Press Gunman and another man dead, three police officers injured Police confirm they are treating it as an act of terrorism Melbourne siege: police investigate terrorism links – live updates Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the shooting and hostage situation that left two men dead in Melbourne overnight. The gunman, named by police on Tuesday as Yacqub Khayre, took a woman hostage in an apartment building in Brighton, 11km south-east of Melbourne’s central business district, on Monday night.Police shot him dead after he emerged from the complex with a sawn-off shotgun, shooting at officers. They then discovered the body of another man in the foyer of the apartment block.Three police officers were shot during the siege, although their injuries were not life-threatening. Two police suffered hand injuries and a third was injured in the face and neck area.The hostage...

by CBS 6 Albany LONDON (AP) -- The Latest on the attacks in the London Bridge area (all times local):12:20 p.m.The Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported Tuesday that Youssef Zaghba, the third named London Bridge attacker, had been stopped in Italy while trying to go to Syria in 2016.Zaghba, who was said to be born in Morocco to a Moroccan father and an Italian mother, was stopped at Bologna's Marconi airport on March 15, 2016, while he tried to take a flight to Turkey. He was allegedly on his way to Syria and was carrying only a backpack.The report said that Italy had put him on a watch list and flagged his presence to Moroccan and British authorities. The parents lived for a time in Morocco and when they separated the mother returned to Italy and re-established herself in Bologna.Zaghba was reportedly working in a London restaurant and had...

Just a year ago London maniac Khuram Butt was grandstanding on Channel 4. Now he's the SECOND 'jihadi next door' from that documentary to become a killer, writes RICHARD PENDLEBURY* Terrorist Khuram Shazad Butt featured in Channel 4's The Jihadis Next Door * He and his associates prayed before an ISIS flag in the middle of Regent's Park * Like many modern Islamic terrorists he's devout, tech savvy and misleadingly banal By Richard Pendlebury for - Daily Mail His is the authentic voice of the 21st-century Islamist terrorist: devout, tech savvy and misleadingly banal. ‘Anyone got a smartphone?’ Khuram Shazad Butt asks in a Cockney Asian accent as he is filmed in Regent’s Park, Central London in July 2015.Dressed in an Arabic djellaba — a long robe — Butt is about to pray before the black flag of the Islamic State in the company of eight similarly clad associates, as...

Business Insider by Christopher Woody While geographically distant from the battlegrounds of Iraq and Syria, Spain has still become a focal point for terrorism-related activity because of its history and position between North Africa and Western Europe.In the years since the devastating 2004 train attacks in Madrid — the deadliest attack in Europe so far this century — Spain has intensified efforts to uncover, monitor, and disrupt terrorist activity and plots — though such networks have been resilient.Terrorism is not new in Spain. Starting in 1961, the ETA, a Basque separatist movement, launched hundreds of attacks around the country, killing more than 800 civilians and security personnel. (The ETA announced the end of its armed campaign in 2011.)But prior to the March 2004 train bombings, carried out by Al Qaeda, Spanish authorities gave little attention to Islamist terrorism.Imad Eddin Barakat, one of the founders of Al Qaeda in Spain, was...

Clarion Project By Meira Svirsky One of the three jihadi terrorists responsible for the London attacks Saturday night was actively targeting children – easy prey, whom he hoped to radicalize.In fact, a neighbor of the terrorist, Erica Gasparri, an Italian mother with three children, reported him to the police two years ago after realizing he was “brainwashing” her children.“He was trying to radicalize the children, he would go down to the park and talk to them about Islam. He also came to the houses and gave the kids money and sweets during Ramadan,” Gasparri said, speaking to The Telegraph.Gasparri confronted him after one of her children came home from a local park saying, “Mummy, I want to become a Muslim” after encounters with him.Children are increasingly becoming targets for radicals. Their tactics range from threats, force and intimidation to more subtle methods of brainwashing through the media and school systems.Regardless...

Evening Standardby Tom Powell, Hatty Collier, Francesca Gillett, Jason Collie Seven people have been killed and 21 others critically wounded in the terrorist attack at London Bridge and Borough Market.Three suspects were also shot dead in the horrific attack just after 10pm on Saturday, while two police officers are among the injured.Assistant Met Police Commissioner Mark Rowley revealed the death toll just after 4am on Sunday, as details of the attack began to emerge.Mr Rowley said police were alerted that a vehicle had run down several pedestrians on London bridge at 10.08pm, before it then drove on to Borough Market.At least three attackers then got out and began to stab people, including the on-duty British Transport Police officer who was responding to the initial incident on the bridge.Armed police then confronted and shot the three killers in Borough Market at 10.16pm.The eight armed officers fired an "unprecedented number of shots"...

NBC New York The NYPD has deployed its elite counterterrorism teams to busy areas of the city after multiple people were killed or injured in what British authorities described as terrorist attacks in London. The department said that while there were no specific or credible threats to New York City, it had deployed its Critical Response Command to tourist hot spots and areas with heavy pedestrian traffic, such as Times Square. An NYPD spokesman told NBC 4 New York that the department "is monitoring events in London and officials are in touch with their British counterparts." Gov. Cuomo condemned the attacks in a statement and said he has directed state law enforcement officials to step up security patrols at high-profile locations in the state, including airports, bridges, tunnels and mass transit systems. Mayor de Blasio tweeted Saturday that people in New York shouldn't be alarmed by the increased police presence....

Investvine by Arno Maierbrugger A new report by Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs released on June 1 noted that the terrorism threat to the city state reached the highest level in recent years. The ministry called on the public to be vigilant and be prepared in the event of an attack and urged to help detect and report radicalised individuals as part of a wider community effort against terrorism.“Singapore was specifically targeted in the past year and the regional threat has heightened,” the ministry said in its inaugural Singapore Terrorism Threat Assessment Report.The report, which will be published on a regular basis, said the threat in the region arises mainly from terror group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and its affiliates such as Al Qaeda and the Jemaah Islamiah. The siege of a city by ISIS in Mindanao and the following battle of radicals with the Philippine army...

by AAP 9news.com.au Malcolm Turnbull says the threat of Islamist terrorism is worsening in the Asia-Pacific region. The prime minister, who is in Singapore on Friday for security talks, says fighting in the southern Philippines city of Marawi - where ISIL-trained terrorists are entrenched in several neighbourhoods - is an example of this. "The threat of Islamist terrorism gets worse in our region," Mr Turnbull said. Read more at http://www.9news.com.au/national/2017/06/02/11/58/terrorist-threat-worsening-turnbull#1YfGRYMuKGHVMlqc.99  ...

Express HOTBEDS of extremism have been uncovered across German cities which have already been targets for terror attacks. By Rebecca Flood The number of potential Islamist terrorists has skyrocketed in North Rhine-Westphalia over the past year, with Bonn, Duisburg and Düsseldorf revealed as central hubs of extremism. The security services confirmed the latest figures show the number of potential terrorists in 2015 was 161, increasing a by a third within a year. Bonn and its surrounding areas had seen the highest rise and was particularly alarming, German officials said. The number of radical Salafists doubled from 20 to 40 in just a year, while a confidential report Land Office of Criminal Investigations (LKA) identified 105 persons of interest in North Rhine-Westphalia, including 15 in Bonn. The LKA refused to make an official statement on the statistics in the report.  And several other hubs were identified in addition to Bonn, with...

By Paige Williams - DefenseOne.com WASHINGTON — NATO elected to join the global coalition fighting the Islamic State group at its meeting in Brussels last week, but "this doesn’t mean it will become a NATO mission or that NATO forces will engage in operations in combat,” according to the alliance's deputy secretary general.“Instead it will help as to coordinate better with coalition members and it is a strong symbol of our commitment to the fight against terrorism," Rose Gottemoeller  told NATO's Parliamentary Assembly on Monday in the country of Georgia.Gottemoeller said NATO currently has 13,000 allied and partner troops in Afghanistan that train and assist Afghan forces. Following last week's meeting, NATO will be increasing this effort.NATO will also boost the use of its AWACS surveillance aircraft to facilitate airspace management. She said several allies have offered up airspace for refueling.Gottemoeller emphasized the importance of information sharing and coordination in...

by Kelly Cohen - Washington Examiner More than 700,000 foreign travelers who traveled to the United States legally in 2016 overstayed their visas and remained in the country, according to the Department of Homeland Security. "This report shows that we have a problem with visa overstays in the United States," a senior administration official said in a briefing with reporters on Monday. Roughly 740,000 people remained in the country illegally at the end of 2016, according to the report — though some of them were short-term overstays. A majority of them were long-term overstays, though: Nearly 630,000 were still in the US at year's end, for a rate of 1.25%. DHS said Monday that it is working to review the records of people violating their visas or visa waiver program, and is working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to better deport those in the country illegally. "Identifying overstays is important...

by Ken Stickney U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Port Barre, has introduced two bills as part of a continuing, comprehensive reauthorization of the Department of Homeland Security.A spokesman for the freshman congressman said Higgins introduced House Resolutions 2751 and 2752 late last week to reauthorize the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agencies, both housed under Homeland Security.What was Clay Higgins doing in a Mexican drug tunnel?“ICE and USCIS perform critical missions within the Department of Homeland Security, to secure America’s borders and protect our homeland,” Higgins said in an issued statement. “The threats facing American families are evolving. It’s common sense that we should provide the DHS agencies with the necessary guidance and structure to adapt their mission and use resources more efficiently as they work to keep Americans safe.”Higgins’ bills are part of a broader effort launched by the House Committee on Homeland Security...

DW For Europe, the period of grief following a terrorist attack has become routine. This may help to hide the feeling of helplessness, but DW's Felix Steiner asks whether politicians should do more to prevent such violence.UK Manchester nach dem Anschlag (Reuters/S. Wermuth)Once again, terrorism targets the center of a European city. Another attack on people - people just trying to have fun, people out for a good time. It was another suicide attack. And once again, the so-called "Islamic State" (IS) has claimed responsibility, even before the police made anything public.The choice of venue to attack - the Manchester Arena - seems particularly horrible this time: a pop concert. This means that among the victims are many children and young people. Those who can remember their teenage years, or who have kids this age themselves, know how exciting these kinds of evenings are for young people. They know how...

CNBC by Nyshka Chandran    The world's best intelligence services can't always prevent certain kinds of terror operations, strategists warned in the aftermath of a suicide bombing that has rocked Britain just two weeks before a general election.Authorities simply cannot pick up all terror activities so society must be resilient in the face of what are inevitable attacks, Thomas Sanderson, senior fellow and director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told CNBC.The inevitable onslaughts Sanderson is referring to are lone wolf incidents — terror plots carried out by individuals who lack official assistance from established organizations. These radicalized individuals are often inspired by large networks, such as the Islamic State or ISIS, and conduct violence in support of these groups even without receiving financial assistance or resources.These culprits tend to have a small public footprint and rarely offer hints of attacks unless they speak about it online, Sanderson noted.The...