Newsweek Mass Shooting Spree Comes at Terrifying Time for Schools By Shane Croucher A s children return to the classroom after a year of home learning due to the pandemic, schools will settle back into their old routines; timetables, extracurricular clubs, homework assignments, sports, and—of course—the morbid necessity of active shooter drills.They do so after a run of high-profile mass shootings—generally defined as four or more victims—including during a home welfare check in Boone, North Carolina; in traffic congestion at Shreveport, Louisiana; at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis, Indiana; at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado; and at spas in Atlanta, Georgia, among many others.The past year has also seen record gun sales in the U.S., increasing the access to firearms in the homes of many children. And research shows COVID lockdowns have wreaked an appalling toll on youth mental health. "To say I'm worried about the safety of our...

  Sky News 'Dambusters' Squadron To Join Fight Against Islamic State In Iraq And Syria The RAF's 617 Squadron will be part of a mission designed to prevent IS from "regaining a foothold in Iraq". The renowned "Dambusters" squadron is set to fly stealth fighter jets to support operations against the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria.The RAF's 617 Squadron - famously known for its role in attacking German dams during the Second World War - will be part of a mission designed to prevent IS from "regaining a foothold in Iraq".The Ministry of Defence said the F35B Lightning fast jets will join Operation Shader from the Carrier Strike Group to fight the "remnants" of IS, also known as Daesh.Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston said he was in no doubt "violent extremism and the toxic ideology underpinning it is still rooted" in the region.He added: "We're going to...

Arab News Al-Qaeda Vows ‘War On All Fronts’ Against US LONDON -  Al-Qaeda has vowed to “wage war on all fronts” against the US unless it retreats from the entire Muslim world.Speaking just days ahead of the 10-year anniversary of the assassination of the group’s former leader Osama bin Laden, two of its operatives told CNN that it is planning a comeback in Afghanistan as the US withdraws. “The Americans are now defeated,” said Al-Qaeda.The terrorist group, now led by Ayman Zawahiri, has largely been eclipsed by Daesh in recent years in terms of attacks carried out and media exposure.The presence of US forces in the Middle East has long been seized upon by terrorist groups — including Al-Qaeda, Daesh and Hezbollah — as a rallying cry for their causes.Earlier in April, US President Joe Biden announced that he would withdraw troops from Afghanistan, effectively ending America’s longest-ever war.“Bin Laden...

France 24 Al-Qaeda 'Shadow Of Former Self' Decade After Bin Laden Death Paris (AFP)Ten years after the killing of its founder Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda bears little resemblance to the terror network that struck the US on September 11, 2001, but remains a threat even under a starkly different leadership structure.After his killing in Pakistan by US special forces, Bin Laden was succeeded as Al-Qaeda's chief by the Egyptian jihadist Ayman al-Zawahiri, an ideologue who has cut a far less charismatic presence.Zawahiri has had to lie very low, most likely around the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, amid speculation over whether he is still even alive, while the group has now mutated into something very different."AQ central is a shadow of its former self," Barak Mendelsohn, a terrorism expert at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, told AFP. "Zawahiri's biggest success was to keep Al-Qaeda alive."Mendelsohn said that rather than being a coherent decision-making centre,...

Asia Times Cause To Fear A Taliban Victory In Afghanistan Taliban claims it has won and US has lost the war but the formation of a new Islamic state in Kabul could destabilize the wider region by Salman Rafi Sheikh With a US troop withdrawal set for September and a national peace deal nowhere in sight, Afghanistan’s Taliban is claiming victory in its long war to retake power in Kabul.Taliban leader Haji Hekmat told the BBC soon after US President Joe Biden announced this month that he would bring home all American troops in Afghanistan by September 11 that “we have won the war and America has lost.”  The hardline leader made it clear what a Taliban victory would look like for those who favor the country’s current secular, democratic system. “We want an Islamic government ruled by the sharia. We will continue our jihad until they accept our demands,”...

 The Wall Street Journal French Police Worker Stabbed In Terrorist Attack Near Paris Killing by unidentified assailant, who was then killed by police, follows string of attacks late last year. By Sam SchechnerPARIS—An administrative police worker was stabbed to death in an assault on a police station that investigators were treating as a terrorist attack.An unidentified man Friday surprised a police worker in the entranceway of the police station some 25 miles southwest of Paris as she returned from her car, French officials said. The attacker stabbed the worker in the throat and yelled “Allahu akbar,” Arabic for “God is great,” before police stationed inside shot and killed him, police union officials said on French television.The police worker died of her wounds soon after. She was a mother of two who worked at the reception of the police station, and didn’t carry a gun, one of the union officials said.The...

New York Post ISIS Affiliate Claims Responsibility For Egypt Beheadings By Emily Jacobs Video of a terror group in Egypt with ties to the Islamic State executing one Coptic Christian and two tribesmen is making the rounds online — as the country’s Interior Ministry revealed Monday that it had killed three suspects in the slayings.The 13-minute video, released late Saturday, showed 62-year-old Nabil Habashi Salama being shot in the back of the head with an AK-47 in the middle of what appeared to be the Egyptian desert.Three armed militants with their faces blurred stood behind Habashi Salama, who had helped build the sole Coptic church in the area, as he was murdered.Shortly after, the same three militants took out two tribesmen, whom they accused of fighting with the Egyptian armed forces.The Coptic Orthodox Church represents between 10 and 15 percent of Egypt’s 100 million people.The Christians, along with Egyptian security...

  All Africa East Africa: Fight Against Violent Extremism, And Graft Take Toll On Region By Anthony KitimoAs East Africa struggles to recover from the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic, the region is also fighting extremism, crime and corruption.In this mix is illicit trade that is increasingly rising as the principal financier of extremism, criminal enterprises and breeder of corruption in East Africa and its surrounding regions, says a report by the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) released recently.The region's woes are compounded by the fact that it is surrounded on all sides by potent terror groups, deeply penetrated by domestic and international crime groups and undermined from within by corrupt members of its business, civic and political classes.According to the report, terrorists and international crime groups are increasingly targeting East Africa as a destination market for illicit trade, as well as a transport hub for the mass import and export...

The Wall Street Journal Biden Officials Say World-Wide Concerns And Terrorism Justify Afghanistan Pullout Resources are needed to confront terrorist groups in a variety of countries, officials say By William MauldinShifting U.S. security priorities and a dispersed terrorist threat justify President Biden’s planned pullout this year of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, senior administration officials said Sunday.“The terrorism threat has moved to other places, and we have other very important items on our agenda, including the relationship with China,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on ABC’s “This Week”.In recent days, Mr. Biden and senior officials have sought to defend the troop withdrawal by Sept. 11 of this year, saying Washington will retain the ability to monitor and target militants in Afghanistan and gain greater ability to counter threats around the world.The exit plan runs counter to the recommendations of Mr. Biden’s top military commanders, who feared it could undermine security...

The Telegraph Taliban Attack On US Secret Base Raises Fear Of Pullout Deadline Violence A base hosting military personnel working for the CIA was hit by rockets twice in March and Kandahar airfield was hit earlier this week By Ben Farmer A series of attacks on American bases in Afghanistan, including a secret spy base, have raised fears that the Taliban will step up assaults on US forces ahead of the May 1 deadline to pull out.Rockets twice struck a base used by military personnel working for the CIA in eastern Afghanistan last month, CNN reported, in apparent breach of the US-Taliban withdrawal deal signed last year.Kandahar airfield which is used by US and coalition troops supporting the Afghan forces was then hit earlier this week.The attacks came as Joe Biden is reviewing whether to stick with the Doha deal signed by Donald Trump, under which all US troops should...

Minnesota police, rioters clash after Daunte Wright shooting; dozens arrested Police shot and killed Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop Sunday By David Aaro Minnesota authorities arrested about 40 people after rioters and police clashed for a second night in Brooklyn Center, Minn., authorities said during a news conference early Tuesday.Hundreds gathered outside the Brooklyn Center Police Department Monday and defied curfew. They demanded justice for Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man fatally shot by police during a traffic stop. The crowd chanted "Daunte Wright!" Some shouted obscenities at officers.Authorities fired tear gas, and flash-bang grenades into the crowd after warning them that they were in violation of curfew. Some rioters retaliated by throwing smoke canisters back toward law enforcement, while others launched fireworks at the police lines, according to reports."Move back!" the police chanted. "Hands up! Don't shoot!" the crowd chanted back.Authorities said officers were shelled...

Chicago Sun Times Zion Man Gets More Than 13 Years In Prison For Conspiracy To Support Islamic State, Telling Informant ‘I Want To See Blood Flowing’ U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood called Edward Schimenti the “more culpable” of the two men charged in the case, but she also described the crime as “on the less serious end of a scale that starts at a very serious level.” By Jon Seidel A federal judge on Friday sentenced a Zion man to 13 and a half years in prison for taking part in a conspiracy to support the Islamic State, in part by collecting cellphones he thought could be used as detonators overseas.Edward Schimenti, 39, was originally charged with Joseph D. Jones in 2017. In handing down the sentence Friday, U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood called Schimenti the “more culpable” of the two, having had a “better idea of what he was...

American Military NewsTwo suspected terrorists on FBI, DHS watch lists arrested at US borderby Ryan MorganOn Monday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced that within the last two months, it caught two Yemeni nationals, listed on the FBI’s terrorism watch list, trying to cross through the same border sector.On March 30, at approximately 11:30 p.m., border patrol agents assigned to the El Centro Station arrested a Yemeni man for illegally entering the U.S. The agents caught the man about two miles west of the Calexico Port of Entry and transported him to the El Centro Processing Center for immigration and criminal history screening.Without providing his name, CBP said they performed a records check on the 26-year-old suspect, identifying him as a Yemeni man on the FBI’s Terrorism Watch List and on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) No-Fly list.A similar incident took place two months earlier when, on Janaury...

4 dead, including child, after 'multiple victims' shot in CaliforniaPolice identified the suspect as 44-year-old Aminadab Gaxiola Gonzalez. By Marlene Lenthang and William Mansell At least four people are dead, including a 9-year-old boy, in what authorities are calling a targeted attack in Orange, California.Officers arrived at 202 W. Lincoln Ave around 5:30 p.m. local time Wednesday as shots were being fired. There were "multiple victims at the scene," according to the Orange Police Department.The suspect, identified as Aminadab Gaxiola Gonzalez, 44, from Fullerton, entered the courtyard of the building and started “shooting into the windows,” a law enforcement source told ABC News.Two officers tried to enter the courtyard but could not get through because the suspect locked it and an officer-involved shooting ensued. Officers were able to force entry through the gates and enter the courtyard. Upon entry, officers located the suspect, who was injured, and took him into...

1945 China Has a New Way to Find and Kill U.S. Navy Submarines Caleb Larson A new open-source investigation has revealed that China recently launched their third anti-submarine detection ship at a shipbuilding facility in Wuhan, augmenting Beijing’s ability to detect submarines.The ship is most likely a SWATH design, or Small Waterplane-Area Twin Hull. The twin-hull design is both very stable, even at high speeds or in rough seas, and is also known for being very quiet, a useful quality to have for a ship intended to use sonar and other acoustic listening devices to detect submarines.The Chinese design is likely broadly similar to American SWATH designs, which are noted for having long-range and high endurance.SWATH-type ships track submarines by trailing towed sonar devices behind them on long spools of cable, and can actively detect submarines by shooting “pings” into the ocean and listening to the bounce-back for submarines hiding...

The Independent ISIS Attacks In Africa Rise By Third In A Year As UK And US Warn Of Islamist Insurgency On Continent Jihadi violence recorded in swathe of states including those in the Sahel, with recent attacks on aid workers by Kim Sengupta Attacks by Isis in Africa have gone up by a third over the past year in a relentless rise of Islamist insurgency in the continent, Antony Blinken and Dominic Raab have warned, as they called for a united international strategy to counter the threat. The US secretary of state and the British foreign secretary issued a statement along with ministers from the Global Coalition against Daesh [Isis], highlighting how the group has become lethally active in Africa, as well as showing signs of a resurgence in the Middle East. The ministers pointed to a recent coordinated double suicide attack in Baghdad as evidence that the group has...

1945 America’s Maritime Army: How the U.S. Military Would Fight China?By James Holmes A couple of weeks back the U.S. Army released the latest in the family of strategy documents to issue forth from the armed services, alongside such directives as the U.S. Marines’ Tentative Manual for Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations and the sea services’ Triservice Maritime Strategy. Read the whole thing and hurry on back. Titled Army Multi-Domain Transformation, this “Chief of Staff Paper” from General James McConville makes it official: the army is back in the sea-power business.And nary a moment too soon.Under the multi-domain concept, light army units will deploy as “inside forces” along Asia’s first island chain in stressful times. They will defy China’s access- and area-denial defenses, remaining within the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) weapons-engagement zone and enduring or eluding punishment while meting out heavy blows of their own. Demonstrated resilience and combat capability will...

The New York Times The Original 20 Guantánamo Detainees: A Roster, and Where They Are NowStarting with the Bush administration, the United States has gradually transferred all but two of the first 20 prisoners at the wartime detention facility to other nations. Here’s who, and where, they are.By Carol RosenbergShabidzada Usman Ali, sent to Pakistan in 2003Mr. Ali, a Pakistani citizen, was among the earliest people repatriated from Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, at a time when the main prison facility, Camp Delta, held 680 detainees. The journalist Mark Bowden wrote that he traveled to Pakistan to meet some former Guantánamo prisoners and found Mr. Ali and another detainee, who said they had not been abused in American custody “except for some roughing up immediately after they were captured.” Both were in their 20s, he wrote in a later account, from tiny villages in the mountainous region of Pakistan where Al Qaeda...

DW Indonesia: Several injured in church suicide bombingNewlywed suicide bombers have struck outside a Catholic church in the Indonesian city of Makassar on Palm Sunday, injuring more than a dozen people. President Widodo said he "strongly condemned this act of terror." A Catholic church in Indonesia's South Sulawesi province was rocked by a suicide bombing on Sunday, authorities said.The blast in the city of Makassar wounded at least 14 people including church workers and worshippers.Police chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo said the attackers were members of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), an extremist group also blamed for a deadly church bombing in the Indonesian city of Surabaya in 2018."There were two perpetrators killed, one is a man and another one is a woman," Prabowo said. "They're members of the JAD group." The police said that those who carried out the attack were a newlywed couple that belonged to the local branch of...

  Here's what we know about the Boulder, Colorado, mass shooting suspectBy Ray Sanchez, Paul Murphy, Blake Ellis and Amir Vera, CNN Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa was identified by authorities Tuesday as the gunman who opened fire at a King Soopers grocery store in Colorado, killing 10 people, including a Boulder police officer. The name of the 21-year-old suspect, who is in custody, was released at a news conference by Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold, who did not disclose a possible motive for Monday's bloodshed. A search of the suspect's suburban Denver home turned up other weapons, a senior law enforcement source said Tuesday. The weapon used in the attack was an AR-15-style pistol modified with an arm brace, according to the source.Authorities have said they believe Alissa was the only person involved and that there was no additional threat to the community.The suspect has been charged with 10 counts...