Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Africa North

'Terrorist Muslim Brotherhood account of death of man in Minya erroneous': Interior ministry

2023-08-08

An odd little tale. Any idea what lies behind it, dear Reader?

[AlAhram] The Ministry of Interior released a statement on Monday saying that the accounts circulated by satellite TV channels affiliated with the terrorist-designated Moslem Brüderbund of the recent death of a man in Minya governorate in Upper Egypt were erroneous.

On Sunday, some social media accounts and TV channels affiliated with the terrorist-designated Moslem Brüderbund shared a video purportedly showing a verbal confrontation between residents of the village of Shalqam in Bani Mazar province in Minya and police forces following the death of the citizen.

In its statement, the interior ministry said the man, a drug pusher who was facing a sentence of 19 years in jail for eight convictions on dealing narcotics charges, died after a shootout with police.

Sensing an ambush for his arrest by the authorities, the man shot up the police who returned fire, injuring the culprit in his left arm, the statement explained.

The man was transferred to a hospital for treatment but died there, added the statement.

The authorities seized a quantity of Hashish and a firearm found on the man, it said.

The authorities also arrested three other individuals holding a quantity of narcotics purchased from said individual, according to the statement.

The public prosecution has not issued any statements on the incident yet.

Link

Africa North

Mali’s army says it has had killed 203 combatants in an operation in the center of Sahel state

2022-04-03

[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

#Mali’s army says it has had killed 203 combatants in an operation in the center of Sahel state, an apparent uptick in violence in the conflict-torn country.https://t.co/wgnPSbCbII
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) April 2, 2022

The army said the March 23-31 military operation took place in Sahel’s Moura area - which it termed a "terrorist fiefdom."

Soldiers killed 203 krazed killers, arrested 51 people and seized large quantities of weapons, according to the army’s statement.

The announcement comes as numerous social media reports in Mali this week alleged that dozens of people, including civilians, had been killed in Moura.

The country has seen an apparent uptick in violence in recent weeks. The UN said on Friday that thousands of people fleeing fighting in Mali have arrived in Niger.

A day earlier, the peacekeeping mission Minusma said that security had "deteriorated considerably" in the border area with Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
and Niger.

Link

Africa North

50 Detained in East Libya after Prison Escape

2022-03-09

50 Detained in East Libya after Prison Escape #MiddleEast https://t.co/7LK4UxAaqU
— Naharnet (@Naharnet) March 8, 2022

Libya's east-based army rounded up at least 50 people in a coastal city following a prison escape earlier this year, a rights group said Tuesday.

Human Rights Watch said in a statement that an armed group affiliated with the self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces

...Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s outfit, based in Tripoli. He’s definitely an American-style self-starter after all the years he lived and worked there, which can be disconcerting for those accustomed to other ways...

launched the crackdown after five prisoners escaped from a prison in the city of Derna on Jan. 16.

It said the five prisoners were arrested again four days later. But the armed group, Tarek Bin Ziyad Battalion, continued detain others in the city, including relatives of the five and former detainees and their families.

"Once again, unaccountable LAAF forces resort to brutal tactics to instill fear and terror among Derna residents," said Eric Goldstein, deputy regional director at HRW.

Goldstein called fort the release of those arbitrarily detained and reveal the whereabouts of anyone still in detention.
Read the rest at the link

Related from a few years ago with spiffy photos: Marshal Haftar pays visit to the Tarek bin Ziyad combat battalion

Link

Africa North

Egypt sentences 22 terror convicts to death by hanging

2021-11-26

Al Ahram for some reason has nothing on this story.

[IsraelTimes] Suspects found guilty of committing 54 jihadist attacks, including the murder of a police brass hat and attempted killing of former interior minister.

An Egyptian court on Thursday sentenced to death by hanging 22 Islamist jihadists for 54 attacks, including the attempted liquidation of a former interior minister, a judicial source told AFP.

The men were found guilty of committing 54 "terrorist operations" across Egypt, including the murder of a police brass hat and an attempt to kill former interior minister Mohammed Ibrahim.

Executions in Egypt for civilians are carried out by hanging. Those sentenced to death include a former police officer, and the verdicts cannot be appealed.

The 22 convicted were found guilty of being members of the Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis group, which pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group in 2014.

...after which they gave themselves the creative name of ISIS in the Sinai Province.

The Court of Cassation, Egypt’s highest appeals court, also upheld prison sentences of 118 others in the same case, ranging from terms of several years to life imprisonment.

Egypt has for years been fighting a bitter insurgency in North Sinai that escalated after the army’s 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

In February 2018, the army and police launched a nationwide operation against bully boyz focused on North Sinai. Around 1,073 suspected jihadists and dozens of security personnel have been killed since the start of operations, according to official figures.

Earlier this month, Egypt agreed with Israel to boost its troop numbers around the border town of Rafah in order to quell IS fighters.

Ansar Beyt al-Maqdis fighters in Sinai were led by Hisham al-Ashmawy, an ex-special forces officer. Ashmawy —- once dubbed Egypt’s "most wanted man" — split from the jihadists after they switched allegiance from al-Qaeda to the Islamic State group.

In 2018, Ashmawy was captured in the eastern Libya city of Derna, and extradited to Cairo. He had been on trial with the 22 men sentenced on Thursday, but had already been found guilty, and was executed in March 2020.

Egypt, the most populous Arab country, recorded the third most executions in the world — behind China and Iran
Iran

...The nation is noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence...
— according to ~~Amnesia~~ Amnesty International. In 2020, Egyptian authorities executed at least 107 people, Amnesty said.

Link

Africa North

Egyptian court sentences Hisham Ashmawy’s top aide, two others to death

2021-10-26

[AlAhram] An Egyptian court sentenced on Monday terrorist Bahaa Kishk, the right-hand man of Hisham Ashmawy

...also in our archives as Hesham El-Ashmawy and Hisham el-Ashmawi, he was also known as Abu Omar El-Mohager (the immigrant). El-Ashmawy was thrown out of Egyptian special forces in 2011 for extremism. He went on to help found Ansar Bayt Al Maqdis, then the local branch of Al Qaeda, with whom he shared the results of his military training. When they became ISIS in the Sinai, he left for the Western Desert to form the Al Qaeda linked al-Mourabitoun. At some point they wandered off to Libya, where in 2018 the LNA caught him and sent him back. Egypt had convicted Mr. Ashmawy in absentia in 2014 of misbehaving, so when they got him back it was just a matter of executing, in both senses...

who was executed in Egypt last year, and two runaways to death over terrorism charges.

The ruling was issued after the country's top Moslem legal authority consented to the punishment. In July, the court referred preliminary death sentence
...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead...
s against the defendants to the grand mufti, whose opinion is legally required in death penalty

cases but is not binding.

The prosecution charged the defendants with leading al-Qaeda-aligned al-Mourabitoun group along with Ashmawy and financing a terrorist organization with arms, ammunition, and explosives.

Kishk, who was arrested in Libya and extradited to Egypt, was considered the right-hand man of Ashmawy, who was also captured in the eastern Libyan city of Derna in late 2018.

Ashmawy, described as the country's most dangerous terrorist, was handed over to Egypt by forces loyal to Commander Khalifa Haftar
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all. Actually, he is, but slowly...
in May 2019.

Ashmawy was handed two death sentences after being convicted of orchestrating several deadly high-profile attacks against security forces. He was executed by hanging in March 2020.

Monday's verdict is not final and can be appealed.

Link

Africa North

Libyan Army Reshuffles Military Commanders

2021-08-10

[LIBYAREVIEW] On Monday, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, Commander-in-Chief of the Libyan National Army (LNA), reshuffled a number of senior military commanders and heads of military zones, on the occasion of the 81st anniversary of the founding of the National Army on 10 August, in the Abu Rawash area west of the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

According to the decisions, Lieutenant-General Abdullah Al-Thinni, the former Prime Minister of the Libyan Interim Government, was assigned to head the political administration of the armed forces, and Major General Hashem Burqa’a Al-Kazah was assigned as Commander of the Tobruk Military Zone.

Haftar also decided to reorganise the Greater Sirte Operations Room, and assign Major General Ahmed Salem as its Commander. He also promoted Major General Mohamed Al-Manfour to the rank of Lieutenant-General and appointed him as Chief of Staff of the Libyan Air Force.

Major General Ramadan Atallah Al-Barasi was also assigned as Commander of the Al-Bayda Military Zone, and Major General Moftah Shaqlouf was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General and appointed as Commander of Border Guard Forces.

In addition, Major General Saleh Abouda was assigned to take over the training affairs of the Libyan armed forces, Brigadier General Abdullah Omar Al-Zaydi was chosen as Commander of the Al-Jufra operations room and Lieutenant-General Amraja Al-Amami was chosen as commander of the LNA’s ground forces, succeeding Major General Nour Al-Din Al-Hamali.

Finally, Lieutenant-General Saqr Al-Jarushi, was also assigned as Director of the Military Inspection Division.

Link

Africa North

Egyptian court sentences Hisham Ashmawy’s top aide, two others to death

2021-07-28

There are still a few more rounds to go before he is finally hung, or shot, or whatever it is they do to put bad guys out of their misery over there.

[AlAhram] An Egyptian criminal court sentenced terrorist Bahaa Kishk, a top aide to Hisham Ashmawy

who was executed in Egypt last year, and two others to death on Tuesday over terrorism charges.

The court referred the sentences to Egypt's Grand Mufti for a non-binding opinion, and set 25 October to issue its final verdict in the case.

The defendants are charged of leading al-Qaeda-aligned group "Al-Mourabitoun" along with Ashmawy, and financing a terrorist organization with arms, ammunition and explosives.

Kishk, who was arrested in Libya and extradited to Egypt, was considered the right hand of Ashmawy who was also captured in the eastern Libyan city of Derna in late 2018.

Asmawy, described as the country's most dangerous terrorist, was handed over to Egypt by forces loyal to Commander Khalifa Haftar
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all. Actually, he is, but slowly...
in May 2019.

Ashmawy was handed two death sentence

...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead...
s after being convicted of orchestrating several deadly high-profile attacks against security forces. He was executed by hanging in March 2020.

Link

Home Front: WoT

US reveals Saudi mass shooter at naval base was linked to Al-Qaeda

2020-05-19

[ALMASDARNEWS] The American authorities announced on Monday that the Saudi trainee, Mohammed al-Shamrani, who carried out the mass shooting at the Pensacola base in Florida, last year, executed his plans in cooperation with the terrorist organization al-Qaeda.

"We have broken the phone of the attacker and have discovered important information about his relationship with Al Qaeda," U.S. Attorney William Barr said at a news conference.

For his part, Christopher Wray, director of the FBI, stressed during the same presser that "Al-Shamrani was sharing information and plans with the people affiliated with al-Qaeda", during the announcement of new details about the attack carried out by the Saudi trainee inside the base of the U.S. Navy, which resulted in 3 people killed.

An audio recording attributed to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000...
, broadcast in February, grabbed credit for the attack on the Pensacola base in Florida, but it did not provide evidence.

Before the attack, al-Shamrani criticized the American wars and published statements of al-Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden

...... who is now sometimes referred to as Mister Bones......
on social media.

Law enforcement officials killed the shooter during the attack on December 6, 2019.

Al-Shamrani was at the base as part of a naval training program to strengthen ties with foreign allies.

Link

Africa North

Sami Al-Saadi: Combating Coronavirus and the Aggression on Tripoli Are Our Collective Duties

2020-04-03

[ALMARSAD.CO] Former spiritual leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), Sami al-Saadi, who has close ties with the terrorist Shura Councils and Ansar al-Sharia
...a Salafist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends. There are groups of the same name in Libya and Yemen, with the Libyan versions currently most active. Tunisia's Shabaab al-Tawhid started out an Ansar al-Sharia and changed its name in early 2014. It still uses the old name now and then, probably because the stationery's not all used up and the web site hasn't expired yet...
, said that Moslems have duties that they should fulfill simultaneously. He said that medical teams, nurses and other healthcare professionals should work on combating the pandemic, while fighters on the fronts, along with their supporters and those who send them arms, must continue to fight the other pandemic‐namely, "Haftar" (the Commander of the Libyan National Army).

Link

Europe

Norway extradites Kurdish Islamist preacher to Italy

2020-03-27

[Rudaw] Norway announced Thursday that it had extradited a fundamentalist Islamic preacher to Italia, despite the ongoing coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)

coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)

...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
epidemic, where he has been sentenced to jail for leading a jihadist network.

"Krekar is no longer in Norway. Krekar has today been extradited to Italia," Norwegian Justice Minister Monica Maeland told a presser.

The 63-year-old Iraqi Kurd -- known as Mullah Krekar, but named Najumuddin Faraj Ahmad -- was arrested in July 2019 after he was convicted in his absence by an Italian court and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

The Italian court found him guilty of having led a now dismantled jihadist network, Rawti Shax, a Kurdish movement with alleged links to the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group and which is suspected of planning attacks in the West.

Krekar arrived in Norway in 1991 as a refugee.

Norway's Supreme Court authorised the extradition in early February, ending Krekar's legal attempts to avoid deportation.

Considered a threat to national security in Norway, Mullah Krekar had been the subject of deportation proceedings since 2003, when Norway first decided to deport him to Iraq.

However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by...
the decision was never implemented, due to concerns that he might suffer torture and face the death penalty

there.

The deportation to Italia comes at a time when that country is the hardest hit in the world by the new coronavirus pandemic, with more than 7,500 deaths.

"We have been given assurances that he will receive the help he should have and needs," Maeland told the presser when asked whether Krekar risked contracting the potentially deadly COVID-19.

Krekar's lawyer, Brynjar Meling, told AFP the extradition marked "a day of shame" for the Norwegian authorities and constituted a "denial of justice".

According to Meling, Krekar is particularly at risk because he suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure.

Krekar, who founded the radical Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, is designated a terrorist by the UN and the US and has spent several years in Norwegian prisons for issuing threats and calling for murder.

Link

Africa North

Egyptian authorities carry out the death sentence in the former Egyptian army officer Hisham Ashmawi

2020-03-05

[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

The Egyptian authorities carry out the death sentence in the former Egyptian army officer Hisham Ashmawi.
Note his was captured by #LNA scouts units in #Darna fighting with #ISIS then #Alqaida with a explosive vest.
The forces fighting in Darna were funded by the #GNA.#Egypt pic.twitter.com/Fh8Zmtc6zb
— M.LNA (@LNA2019M) March 4, 2020

The Times of Israel adds:

Col. Tamer el-Rifai, a military spokesman, said on his Facebook page that el-Ashmawi was executed Wednesday by hanging. He posted a photo of the militant in a long beard and wearing a bright orange jumpsuit that is usually worn by those sentenced to death.

...also in our archives as Hesham El-Ashmawy and Hisham el-Ashmawi, he took the nom de guerre Abu Omar El-Mohager (the immigrant). El-Ashmawy was thrown out of Egyptian special forces in 2011 for extremism. He went on to help found Ansar Bayt Al Maqdis, then the local branch of Al Qaeda, with whom he shared the results of his military training. When they became ISIS in the Sinai, he left for the Western Desert to form the Al Qaeda-linked al-Mourabitoun. At some point they wandered into Libya, where in 2018 the LNA caught him and sent him back. Egypt had convicted Mr. Ashmawy in absentia in 2014, leaving very little for the courts to do — though they nonetheless did it all over again. And now he is discovering whether or not he was right about what Allah wanted him to do...

Link

Africa North

Egypt court sentences militant leader Ashmawy to death for police killings

2020-03-03

[AlAhram] The court had already referred the preliminary death sentence
...the barbaric practice of sentencing a murderer to be punished for as long as his/her/its victim is dead...
s to the grand mufti

A Cairo criminal court has sentenced terrorist leader Hisham Ashmawy

...also in our archives as Hesham El-Ashmawy and Hisham el-Ashmawi, he was also known as Abu Omar El-Mohager (the immigrant). El-Ashmawy was thrown out of Egyptian special forces in 2011 for extremism. He went on to help found Ansar Bayt Al Maqdis, then the local branch of Al Qaeda, with whom he shared the results of his military training. When they became ISIS in the Sinai, he left for the Western Desert to form the Al Qaeda linked al-Mourabitoun. At some point they wandered off to Libya, where in 2018 the LNA caught him and sent him back. Egypt had convicted Mr. Ashmawy in absentia in 2014, leaving very little for the courts to do now — though they are nonetheless doing it all over again ...

to death, as well as 36 defendants, in the case known in local media as the Ansar Beit al-Maqdis case.

The court convicted the 37 defendants of carrying out 54 liquidations of police and citizens, most notably coppers Mohammed Mabrouk, Mohammed Abu Shakra and Mohammed Said.

The defendants were also convicted of bombing three security directorates, including Cairo Security Directorate in 2014, and vandalising 25 public and private institutions, including police headquarters, churches and mosques.

The court also gave life sentences to 61 defendants, sentencing 21 to ten years in prison and 15 others to 15 years.

The sentences comes a few weeks after the same court referred the preliminary death sentences to the grand mufti for his recommendation, which is a necessary, albeit non-binding, procedure before issuing a death sentence in the Egyptian penal code.

The defendants can still challenge the sentences at Egypt's Court of Cassation.

The process is also a punishment. No doubt by the time he is actually hanged or shot (though given it’s Egyptians, hanging is considerably surer) he will be grateful it’s finally over...

This is the second death sentence given to Ashmawy, a former Egyptian military officer turned krazed killer, in recent months.

One of the most-wanted Egyptian krazed killers, he was apprehended in Libya in October 2018 and handed over to Egypt by forces loyal to Libya’s Khalifa Haftar
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
in May 2019.

In November 2019, an Egyptian military court sentenced Ashmawy to death for his involvement in a number of terrorist attacks, most notably a 2014 ambush that killed 22 Egyptian military border guards near Libya.

Ashmawy led the Sinai-based Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, the military has said. He broke away from the group after they swore allegiance to the Islamist State krazed killer group in late 2014.

The Times of Israel adds:

The men are among more than 200 defendants accused of carrying out more than 50 attacks that included killing high-ranking police officers and bombings that targeted the Egyptian capital’s police headquarters. The charges include a 2013 assassination attempt on the Egyptian interior minister.

The court also sentenced 61 defendants to life in prison, and 85 others got sentences ranging from 15 to 5 years in prison.

Monday’s verdict can be appealed before a higher court.

[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

An Egyptian court sentences Hesham Ashmawy, a former army officer turned extremist militant leader, to death along with 37 others following their conviction on terrorism-related charges.https://t.co/txL9YGC5Tf
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) March 2, 2020

Link

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