| Africa North | |
| Interview: Salafi Leader Offers To Help Fight Extremism | |
| 2012-08-10 | |
Iyad al-Shami told Ma'an that Salafis were not involved in Sunday's attack on a Sinai police station in which 16 Egyptian officers were killed. He condemned the attack and called for its perpetrators to be punished. He said Salafis were ready to help Egypt in its fight against terrorism by educating the youth against extremism. The main goal of the brazen raid was to destabilize Egyptian relations with Palestinians, al-Shami added. Salafism preaches a moderate approach and forbids killing, al-Shami said, but some Salafis who lack education in the faith have adopted perverted beliefs which accept killing and theft. "These are not Salafis," al-Shami said. Salafi groups emerged in Palestine in the 1980s, spread in mosques by preachers who had studied in the Gulf, but their reach has been limited and most chose Hamas or Islamic Jihad over Salafist groups. They fall into two groups -- the dawa Salafis who spread their beliefs through teaching, and the jihadis, mostly based in Gaza, who use force to defend and spread their faith, including Tawhid wa Jihad, Ansar al-Sunna, Jaysh al-Ummah, and Jund Ansarullah. The shift of the Hamas movement from resistance to politics at a time when al-Qaida was declaring war on "infidels" prompted some Salafis in Palestine to turn from dawa to jihad. The armed clashes between Hamas and Fatah in 2006 brought more recruits to jihadi Salafism. Gradually, the jihadi Salafis formed armed groups in Gaza that have claimed responsibility for attacks against Israel as well as attacks against coffee shops, Internet cafes, women's hairdressers and Christian organizations. These attacks were largely ignored at the height of the fighting between Hamas and Fatah but Hamas has cracked down on militant Salafists since it took control of Gaza in 2007. In 2009, Hamas raided a mosque and killed 28 people after a Salafi imam declared an Islamic emirate in Gaza. | |
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| Africa North |
| I.D. Of Dahab Bomber Released |
| 2006-05-03 |
| Cairo, 3 May (AKI) - Egyptian police have made public the identity of one of the terrorists they suspect took part in the 24 April attacks on the Sinai resort of Dahab, in which 19 people were killed. Pan Arab daily al-Sharq al-Awsat reports that the man, Fayz Ayd Awd Abu Zina, 45, also known as Muhammad Ali Ahmad, is currently on the run. Egyptian police on Tuesday released his photo to all police patrols. Security forces are also hunting other components of the terrorist group Tawhid wa Jihad which the investigators believe is responsible for attacks in the Sinai. On Monday the police killed three wanted men, believed connected to attacks in northern Sinai last week in which several Egyptian policemen were killed. |
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| Africa North |
| Dahab bombers were inspired by al-Qaeda |
| 2006-04-30 |
| Egyptian Security officials and a number of fundamentalists have stated that the recent bombings in the Dahab resort of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on 24 April 2006 were linked to the attacks in Taba 2004, and Sharm Al-Sheikh 2005 carried out by an Islamic group called Al Tawhid wa Jihad (Monotheism and Jihad). Major General Fouad Allam, former director of Egypt's State Security Investigation Department, told Asharq Al-Awsat that there are similarities between the methods used in all three operations, as simultaneous or successive bombings occurred targeting civilians and attempting to undermine tourism. Allam believes that there are perhaps terrorist cells in Sinai that are not known to each other or that a new organization has started operating. He pointed out that the suspects who were detained by the security services and who belong to the so-called Tawhid wa Jihad group are perhaps not directly connected to the Dahab bombers. Allam added that it was Al-Qaeda that introduced the method of simultaneous bombings, which was first used in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi, and Dar al-Salam. Major General Allam stated that limited resources were used in the Dahab bombings, with most of the casualties caused by fragments of glass from the damaged shops and restaurants. The attacks caused 62 injuries in Dahab, a popular diving resort. Egyptian police have detained two men they said drove people suspected of involvement in bomb attacks in the resort of Dahab and north Sinai, the state MENA news agency reported. In a report published late on Friday, MENA quoted security forces as saying they were questioning two drivers whose passengers could have been involved in the blasts. Considering that the Dahab bombings followed closely the Taba and Sharm al-Sheikh bombings, Allam said that he believes this has been caused by negligence and complacence on the part of the security forces, which allowed the culprits to infiltrate the resort. He pointed out that this requires a revision of the country's security plans. He recalled that another unknown group carried out two other attacks on the Red Sea coast during the past two years. Security experts, meanwhile, have played down the likelihood that the groups responsible for the recent attacks are linked to extremist foreign organizations such as Al-Qaeda. They point out, however, that these foreign organizations might be a source of inspiration for local Egyptian groups. Islamists in London said that those who carried out the simultaneous attacks probably embrace Al-Qaeda's ideology and methods. Abdullah Uns, son-in-law of Abdullah Azzam, the spiritual leader of the Arab Afghans, argued that a state of resentment exists because of the events in Iraq and Palestine. He added that although the new groups accept Al-Qaeda's ideology, they use different names. Other fundamentalists also living in London expressed their beliefs that the Dahab attackers are no strangers to the Sinai Peninsula and are probably native to the area where the attacks occurred. Shortly after the Dahab blasts, police said they had formally detained at least 10 people and taken in about 70 local Bedouin for questioning. Egypt has since said the Dahab and north Sinai attacks could be linked. Egyptian Islamist Dr Hani Al-Sibai, director of the London-based Al-Maqrizi Research Center, said that Osama Bin Laden's most recent recorded message had no connection with the attacks in the Dahab resort, as this message may have reached Al-Jazeera, the Arabic news channel that received the video, a long time ago. In addition, he said, a terrorist attack requires much preparation and research in the location's weak points and the most suitable time to carry out the operation. He noted that there is a strong similarity between the Sharm Al-Sheikh bombing for which Tawhid wa Jihad claimed responsibility, and the Dahab attack. He added that Al-Qaeda might be a source of inspiration for the local terrorist organizations. He did not rule out the possibility that Bedouin from the Sinai Peninsula could have been involved in the attack as an act of revenge for the earlier imprisonment of hundreds of Bedouin in the wake of the Taba and Sharm Al-Sheikh bombings. In agreement with General Allam, Al-Sibai said that Al-Qaeda invented the method of simultaneous bombings when it attacked the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar al-Salam in August 1998. The Dahab resort has been the third target to be attacked in the Sinai Peninsula after Sharm Al-Sheikh in July 2005, and Taba in October 2004. Egyptian courts announced earlier that the Islamist group Tawhid wa Jihad was responsible for the Taba attack, which killed 34 people in October 2004, and the Sharm Al-Sheikh operation, which killed 70 people in 2005. Three leading members of the group that carried out the earlier bombings, namely, Nasser Khamis Al-Milahi, Id Salamah Al-Tarawi, and Muhammad Abdallah Jarjar operated within the organization. During interrogation, they confessed that they targeted tourist areas in southern Sinai. In the statement issued after the Sharm Al-Sheikh bombing in July 2005, the group said: "We, Tawhid wa Jihad in Egypt, are continuing our war to expel the Jews and Christians from the land of Islam. Our war has begun by targeting the axis of Zionist evil and immorality in Sinai, where Moses spoke to God, in Taba, Ras Shaytan, and Nuweiba. May God accept our martyrs who fell in this blessed raid." Al-Zayyat, an Egyptian lawyer who usually represents Islamists said, "We appear to be seeing the birth of a new generation of Jihadist Salafism in Egypt. However, it is not true that Gamaat Salafiya Jihadiya is behind this operation." He explained that this generation adopts Al-Qaeda's ideology, which is spreading fast. He pointed out that the recent bombings are linked to what is happening in Palestine and the attempt to pressure Hamas and to remove the movement from power. |
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| Europe |
| EU may freeze more than 90 million in terror backers' assets |
| 2005-09-22 |
| The European Union's second highest court ruled on Wednesday that the bloc can freeze the assets of people on a United Nations list of suspected terrorists, throwing out complaints lodged by alleged al-Qaeda associates whose bank accounts were blocked by the EU. The plaintiffs claimed their human rights had been breached by the UN, who had put their names on the list without allowing them to mount a defence, and had subjected them to inhuman and degrading treatment by leaving them without funds. The Court of First Instance said the EU had the power to freeze terror suspects' assets under its treaties, and, because the bloc was merely implementing a UN directive passed early this summer and enforcing decisions taken by the UN Security Council. "As they are required by the Security Council... these measures fall for the most part outside the scope of judicial review. They do not infringe universally recognised fundamental human rights," the court said. "The freezing of funds constitutes one aspect of the UN's legitimate fight against international terrorism," it stressed. The EU has a list of people whose assets the United Nations has recommended should be frozen for alleged links to al-Qaeda and the Taliban regime, which was believed to have sheltered al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Swedish resident Ahmed Ali Yusf and Yassin Abdullah Kadi, who lives in Saudi Arabia, and the al-Barakaat International Foundation in Holland, all on the EU list, appealed to the court, claiming the 25-member bloc had no right to freeze their assets. Wednesday's ruling which can be appealed at the European Court of Justice within two months - will strengthen the EU's hand in some 15 further cases due to come before the Court of First Instance. Other applicants include the Iranian Mujahadeen, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and a university lecturer from the Netherlands. The decision, coupled with a new information system introduced by the international police agency Interpol, should put some much-needed punch into the EU's anti-terror fight: European police investigators regularly complain how a lack of cross-border communication hampers the detection and arrest of terror and other criminal suspects. Interpol's news computer system includes data on 328 people and 199 groups and is available to all of the UN's 184 member states, including the EU, Ulrich Kersten, Interpol's representative on the Security Council told Interpol's general meeting in Berlin on Wednesday, the German Deutsche Welle radio station reported. According to the UN, the potential frozen assets belonging to people in the database could amount to 90 million dollars worldwide. Last October, the US authorities and the UK's Bank of England authorised their countries' banks to freeze accounts held by the Jordanian al-Qaeda militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Tawhid wa Jihad terror formation. |
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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Al-Watan sez Zarqawi's planning a major attack |
| 2004-09-24 |
| The BBC Worldwide Monitoring reports that an Arabic website, www.al-watan.com, contained a report on September 22 from Paris by Abd-al-Karim Abu-al-Nasr stating that "Al-Zarqawi striving to compete with Bin-Ladin, planning big attack along the lines of 11 September." Reportedly, the Iraqi intelligence agencies have prepared a report on Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, the commander of the Tawhid wa Jihad group. The BBC Monitoring report states: "Al-Watan has learned from informed European diplomatic sources that a prominent European country concerned with the course of events in Iraq received this Iraqi intelligence service report about Jordanian Abu-Mus'ab al-Zarqawi (whose real name is Ahmad al-Khalayilah, age 38). This report contains the following basic information and elements" |
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