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Africa North

Civilian deaths on the rise in Libya

2016-11-02

There was a sharp spike in civilian dead and wounded in Libya during October with UNSMIL recording 29 people killed and 73 injured, up from seven slain and four wounded in September. The victims, largely from shelling and airstrikes, included seven dead children and three dead women. Thirteen children were also injured. The majority of the deaths was in Benghazi where 19 were killed and 64 injured, followed by Zawia, where five civilians have perished in recent fighting. UNSMIL warned that this figure was likely to increase as reports of other fatalities are confirmed. In Tripoli, one of the two dead was a Tawerghan woman in a refugee camp. There were also single killings in Derna, Sorman and Sirte, in the last of which the victim was Dutch photojournalist Jeroen Oerlemans. The Benghazi death toll was boosted by the discovery of ten handcuffed bodies on a rubbish dump at Sheibna near the social security headquarters. As the month closed a car bomb killed four and injured 18 civilians in the city’s Kish Square. Among the slain was anti-corruption activist Mohamed Bughaighis. UNSMIL said that two women and five children died in airstrikes on Benghazi’s Ganfouda district where civilians were trapped because of fighting between the Libyan National Army and the Benghazi Revolutionaries’ Shura Council. It noted “While no one claimed responsibility for the air strikes, information received indicated that the LNA or their allies carried out the airstrikes that caused civilian casualties in Ganfouda and Derna.”.

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Africa North

Dutch journalist killed in Libya's Sirte

2016-10-03

[Libya Observer] A Dutch journalist was killed in the coastal city of Sirte today, spokesperson of Misrata Central Hospital Akram Qliwan confirmed to Libya Observer, as fierce fighting continues to eradicate the radical ISIS group from the city. Gliwan said the journalist was shot in the chest by an ISIS sniper during festivities. He added that the dead journalist works for the daily Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant. The victim was identified as photojournalist Jeroen Oerlemans. Clashes against remnants of ISIS group renewed in Sirte on Sunday. The Libyan Air Force conducted six Arclight airstrikes in the early hours of the day to pave the way for the advance of the infantry in the third residential district. Eight Misrata-led fighters were killed in today festivities, the Field Hospital has reported. ISIS has been defeated from most of Sirte districts while small pockets of bandidos Death Eaters are still resisting in some parts of the third residential district, neighbourhood 600 and sea-view Jiza apartment buildings.

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Africa North

ISIS convoy exterminated in south Sirte

2016-10-03

[Libya Observer] At least 60 ISIS Lions of Islam were killed after a failed attack on Misrata-led forces in Sirte on Sunday. Military sources said an ISIS convoy attacked at dawn a checkpoint for Brigade 166 in south Sirte in a bid to encircle the brigade and lift the siege on their fellow murderous Moslems trapped inside Sirte. "The ISIS convoy came from the desert, all the attackers were foreigners, they were all killed," the sources added. The sources suggested that the ISIS convoy may have fled Sirte at the beginning of the military operation in May. More from the Libyan Herald: Bunyan Marsous (BM) said this evening that as many as 55 terrorists had been killed today in Sirte, for the lost of eight of their own men and 57 wounded, A Dutch photojournalist was also killed reportedly shot through the chest by a Islamic State (IS) sniper. After ten early morning airstrikes by aircraft from Misrata, Bunyan Marsous forces again sought to press forward into the shrinking IS enclave in Sirte’s Third District. Many of the terrorists appear to have died in a breakout or counterattack toward the port. BM also said it forces were searching for another IS group trying to make their escape. The shot Dutch photographer, Jeroen Oerlemans, was taken from the Sirte frontline to Misrata hospital where doctors pronounced him dead. The second journalist to perish in the fight for the town and one of two Dutch journalists there, he was killed in an area supposedly freed of IS forces. In July, TV reporter Abdulgader Fassouk was shot by a sniper as he ran across open ground. Oerlemans was an experienced photographer who was briefly kidnapped by IS in Syria four years ago BM said this evening that it had been told by captured terrorists where civilians were sheltering. It said that its artillery bombardment had avoided houses where families might be.

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Britain

UK Police: New Arrest In Syria Kidnap Inquiry

2013-01-26

[Ynet] British police say they've made another arrest as part of their investigation into the kidnapping of freelance photographers in Syria. John Cantlie and Jeroen Oerlemans say they were captured by Islamist fanatics in Syria and held there between July 17 and July 26. The photographers said that some of their captors spoke with British accents, raising concerns that UK Mohammedans might be slipping into Syria to join hard boyz fighting. Scotland Yard said Thursday that the 31-year-old man taken into custody had previously been incarcerated Book 'im, Mahmoud! earlier this month but had been released without charge.

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Britain

Four arrests over Syrian terrorist activity.

2013-01-11

Four men have been arrested by detectives investigating travel to Syria in support of alleged terrorist activity. A 33-year-old man was arrested at Gatwick airport at 4.17pm yesterday as he attempted to take a flight out of UK. Three other men - an 18-year-old, a 31-year-old and a 22-year-old - were arrested in dawn raids at separate addresses in east London. A Met spokesman said: "They are all in custody at a south London police station where they will be interviewed by officers from the MPS's counter-terrorism command." Searches are continuing at three residential addresses in east London. Jubayer Chowdhury, 24, was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command at Heathrow Airport in November after arriving on a flight from Bahrain and is now facing charges in connection with the alleged plot. Shajul Islam, 26, a trainee NHS doctor, who studied at St Bartholomew's and a University of London Hospital, is also accused of being part of an extremist group which held John Cantlie, who worked for various newspapers including The Sunday Times, and Jeroen Oerlemans for around a week in the war-torn state.

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Europe

Dutch Police Arrest Three Syria-Bound 'Jihadists'

2012-12-01

[An Nahar] Dutch police have set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! three alleged would-be jihadists who were about to leave The Netherlands to go and fight alongside rebels in Syria, the national Prosecutor's Office said Friday. "Detectives arrested three men on Thursday who apparently planned to travel to Syria to participate in a violent international jihad," it said in a statement. The three, aged 22, 23 and 33, are "most probably radicalized Moslems", prosecutors said, after an investigation was opened in October following a tip-off by the Dutch secret service. Police searched two homes and seized knives, a sword and a cross-bow, as well as packed backpacks, farewell letters and a large quantity of jihadist literature. The men -- two of Turkish origin and the other of Iraqi origin -- allegedly collected funds to finance their journey, beginning with flights to Turkey and then heading for the Syrian border. Two of the men had been due to fly out Thursday from Brussels to Turkey, the statement said. The three were to appear on charges of "preparing terrorist activities" before a Rotterdam judge Friday, the statement said. One of the men was married last week "and planned to travel to Syria with her to fight in the jihad." "The man posed in front of his bride in one picture while armed with an AK-47 assault rifle," prosecutors said. He also told his wife on the Internet: "I hope we will die together and go to the paradise." A number of jihadist groups are fighting on the fringes of the Free Syrian Army against the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Horror of Homs... The London-based Quilliam think tank estimated between 1,200 and 1,500 imported muscle are now based in Syria. Dutch photographer Jeroen Oerlemans, who was nabbed ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... in Syria in September and released a week later, said he was held in a camp where none of the jihadists were of Syrian origin.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

British Man Charged over Syria Journalist Kidnappings

2012-10-17

[An Nahar] British police on Tuesday charged a man with kidnapping two Western journalists in Syria, one week after he was tossed in the calaboose Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! at London's Heathrow Airport, Scotland Yard said. Shajul Islam, 26, is alleged to have "unlawfully and injuriously imprisoned" photographers John Cantlie from Britannia, and Jeroen Oerlemans from the Netherlands, between July 17 and 26, it said in a statement. Islam, who is a Brit, acted "together with others," it said. He will appear in court on Wednesday. A 26-year-old woman who was tossed in the calaboose Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! at the same time has been released without charge. She has not been named. The man and the woman were tossed in the calaboose Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! by officers from the counter-terrorism command on October 9 after arriving on a flight from Egypt. Officers also searched two homes in east London. Cantlie and Oerlemans were kidnapped by suspected Islamist cut-throats while covering the fighting between Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad's Leveler of Latakia... regime and rebel fighters. They both suffered gunshot wounds when the Free Syrian Army, the main rebel movement, freed them from their captors. The journalists said that between 10 and 15 of the kidnappers were British while others were from Pakistain and Bangladesh. Cantlie said one of them told him he was a doctor in Britannia. Shortly after his release, Cantlie described how he and his colleague were regularly threatened with death. "It was inferred that we would meet our god," he told the BBC. "We had sowed the seeds of our own destruction. We would be shot or beheaded. "At one point they even started sharpening knives for a beheading. It was pretty frightening. "When you're held captive, you're blindfolded and you have a guy sticking a gun at your head, it's very real," he added. The photographer entered Syria from Turkey, the same route he had used previously, but was tossed in the calaboose Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! after passing through a jihad boy camp. "Their attitude was they were united under the Islamic flag, the wish to follow Sharia law, that they had come to Syria to fight the Assad regime, that Assad himself wasn't a true Moslem, but after that it was about imposing Sharia law on the Syrian people," he said at the time.

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Britain

'NHS doctor quizzed by terror police over Syria kidnap plot'

2012-10-11

A Suspect Islamic fundamentalist thought to have fought in Syria while on sabbatical from his job as an NHS doctor was in custody last night. The man was arrested with his wife at Heathrow Airport on Monday after returning to Britain from Egypt. Counter-terrorism officers suspect he was an AK-47 wielding medic among a gang of kidnappers in war-torn Syria. The fanatics accused the men of working for the CIA before handcuffing and blindfolding them after they were shot when they attempted to escape. The two hostages -- John Cantlie, who had worked for the Sunday Times, and Jeroen Oerlemans -- eventually ran away a week later with the help of the Free Syrian Army. On returning to Britain, Mr Cantlie said a doctor with a strong London accent used a saline drip and other equipment with NHS branding to treat a gunshot wound to his arm. Mr Cantlie said the heavily-bearded AK-47-wielding medic, of Pakistani descent, claimed to have taken a sabbatical from his work in London to treat injured fighters in Syria. He told the prisoners he wanted to wage 'holy war' and that his experiences on the frontline would serve as good training for a career in treating trauma injuries. The man, who said he had a wife and child in Britain and kept his face covered with sunglasses and a scarf, said he held a senior post at a South London A&E department. The photographers were told during their ordeal that two Syrians would be beheaded for spying but they were eventually spared after repenting and promising to follow sharia law. Mr Cantlie will now be asked if he recognises the man. He previously said there were up to 15 British nationals at the terrorist camp where the men were held in northern Syria. On one occasion Mr Cantlie heard the doctor on the phone to his family. 'He was saying, "Hello babes, how's the little 'un? Put him on and let me hear him."' At another point, the man even complained to the hostages about the state of the NHS. Mr Cantlie said: 'I asked for his help as we were both from London but he refused to even send a text to my girlfriend to say we were alive. He said he would be beheaded if he did. 'It wasn't much fun expecting to end up on an execution video at the hands of extremists -- one of whom was treating Londoners like me a few months ago.'

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