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Africa North

Ansar Al-Sharia tightens hold in Derna and formally establishes Islamic Court

2014-10-23

[Libya Herald] Following its declaration of allegiance to the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're 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 the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (or Daesh), Derna's Shoura Council of Islamic Youth (SCIY), part of the local 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 Libyaand 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... structure, has moved to formally institute an Islamic Court in the town. A Yemeni, variously named as Abu Al-Bara Al-Azadi or Abu Taleb Al-Jazrawi, is now said to head the court, housed in the public legal aid building next to the King Idris library. His assistant is said to be from Algeria. Over the weekend, it handed down a sentence of public flogging for a group of young men found guilty of alcohol abuse. The punishment was carried out on Saturday in the courtyard of the town's old mosque. In August, the SCIY carried out two public executions supposedly as a result of a Sharia court trial but illegal under Libyan law. It is meanwhile reported that Jazrawi has met with education authorities in Derna to demand that they stop teaching foreign languages, physics, chemistry and biology. In August, a wall was built across one of the town's university campuses to segregate male and female students. As part of the new Sharia legal system, illuminated Islamic State signs can now be seen around the town. One of the cop shoppes has a new sign up, reading "Islamic Police" in Arabic. Police vehicles too denote themselves as belonging to the Islamic Police. There was an earlier move to set up an Islamic court in Derna. In May, SCIY took over the same building, formerly the Qadaffy regime's People's Committee offices, and announced it would be converted into an Islamic court. However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... a few days later the sign on the building to that effect disappeared and nothing happened. At the time, a local official told the Libya Herald that there were problems because there were no qualified Sharia court judges in the country. They would have to be brought in from outside the country, he said. That issue now seems to have been dealt with.

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Arabia

Yemen Strike Kills Key Al-Qaeda Leader, Foreign Militants

2012-08-09

[Yemen Post] The Yemeni authorities carried out a successful Arclight airstrike on Tuesday killing one of the most Al-Qaeda wanted leaders and six other fighters including foreigners, two days after Al-Qaeda bomber killed and injured scores in Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... province, Saba reported. The Arclight airstrike in the Manasih area, Baidha, targeted Abdullah Awadh Al-Masri, known as Abu Osama Al-Maribi, who was the officer in charge with explosives production and one of the most dangerous leaders of Al-Qaeda in Baidha, it said. The six others gunnies included Abu Jaafar Al-Iraqi, a Bahraini, Abu Al-Bara Al-Sharori, a Saudi, Abu Musab Al-Masri, an Egyptian, Abu Hafsa, a Tunisian and Ibrahim Al-Sakhi, a Yemeni, Saba said. In Abyan where an Al-Qaeda bomber killed about 45 pro-government fighters and injured tens others two days ago, the authorities killed two terrorist suspects and locked away Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! three others. The operations came within an extensive hunt for Al-Qaeda faceless myrmidons who were reported to have planned to regroup and recruit new fighters after their defeat in the south in the past few months. The Yemeni army drove faceless myrmidons out of their strongholds in Abyan and Shabwa provinces in May and has launched a hunt for the remaining myrmidons. In retaliation, Al-Qaeda has carried out deadly attacks in several Yemeni cities including the capital Sanaa targeting military and security leaders, personnel, cadets and offices. More recently there have been reports warning of Al-Qaeda comeback in Yemen coinciding with sporadic raids on villages and camps in some key towns.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Islamists say leader hurt in Gaza raid

2010-02-12

[Ma'an] A Salafi operative was seriously injured when Hamas-led security forces raided his home in Gaza City on Tuesday, prominent Islamist leader Abu Al-Bara' Al-Masri said on Thursday. Uh-oh. Sounds like they got both feet... What? Hamas doesn't agree with Salafist ideology??? News to me! Salafist probably equals Al Qaeda. Hamas wouldn't want the competition. In a statement, Al-Masri said that Mahmoud Taleb, who is known as Abu Al-Mu'tasem Al-Maqdisi, was hurt when forces loyal to Hamas' de facto government raided a hideout west of Gaza City. "The statements of the deposed security forces that they arrested Abu Al-Mu'tasem were the first of their kind, indicating the security departments' intentions to kill this leader, who is wanted by the Israeli army," Al-Masri said. "This is the second time in which Al-Maqdisi was injured by deposed government fire: he was injured by former [Palestinian Authority] security forces years ago, and injured by the Israeli army four times during assassinations and clashes on the battlefield," he added. Previously on "Nobody Likes Abu"... "The participation of the Al-Qassam Brigades [Hamas' military wing] in the break-in operation was a move that confirms its goal is to assassinate Abu Al-Mu'tasem despite all the support he offered them during the last Israeli offensive, blaming him for internal events that happened in Gaza despite that the security know exactly who is behind these explosions, claimed by various factions," Al-Masri said. The Islamist leader said the Hamas-led was responsible for the incident and an operation last August in which the military wing of Hamas wiped out a cell of Islamists who had taken over a mosque in Rafah, an operation Al-Masri termed a "grand crime." Fringe Islamists in Gaza have been blamed for several explosions in recent weeks, many of which targeted coffee shops and Internet cafes. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said last month the string of unexplained attacks pointed to a general sense of "security chaos" in the coastal enclave, and called on the de facto government to step up investigations and prosecute the perpetrators.

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Africa North

Al-Para sentenced to death in Batna

2008-05-25

The criminal court in Batna eastern province, has sentenced to death yesterday the terrorist named Chebah Rachid, and nicknamed Abu Al-Bara, after charging him of killing 2 people by cutting their throats including a policeman, and taking part in more than 20 terrorist attacks killing 156 people, Army troops, and communal Guards. In the meantime, Batna court has issued the same sentence against another chief terrorist named Amari Saifi, and nicknamed Abderezak al-Para, even though the defendant told the court that when he was arrested by the end of 2004, at a grocery store when he was about to surrender. This dangerous terrorist has denied participating in the killings reported by the court’s referral order, but he has acknowledged serving as a guide for terrorists. Furthermore, the joint security forces in Tizi Ouzou central province have broken up a terrorists support group made up of 10 people living eastern the province, after a probe initiated last week after eliminating a terrorist at Moussa Kedad place downtown Tizi Ouzou, while the number of this support group’s members is expected to increase, however the probe continues.

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Africa: North

Al-Qaeda threatens Libya

2005-06-03

An Al Qaeda cell in Libya has threatened an attack on the north-east coastal city of Darna if one of the cell leaders was not released from prison immediately. The statement, posted on the internet, was picked up by the Arab newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi. Besides attacking the town, which is located between Bengazi and the capital, Tripoli, the group also wrote about a list of targets it had drawn up, including Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The newspaper reported that the statement was signed by the head of the local terror group, Abu Al Bara Al Libi. Whether or not Al Qaida has the means to cooridinate such attacks on a large scale is unknown.

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