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Archive for the 'Terrorism' Category

Oct 27th, 2019

Summary: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the founder and leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), was killed in a U.S. special forces operation in northwest Syria near the Turkish border, President Donald Trump announced.


Jun 12th, 2016

Summary: Largest U.S. mass killings since 9/11 … After pledging allegiance to ISIS, Omar Saddiqui Mateen opened fire in Orlando’s gay Pulse nightclub, killing 49 people and wounding 53 in the deadliest shooting spree in U.S. history before dying in a hail of police gunfire.


Nov 14th, 2015

Summary: On Friday night, November 13, 2015, eight militants wearing explosive belts and armed with assault rifles, shotguns, and hand grenades attacked six sites in Paris, killing at least 129 people and wounding more than 350, including about 100 seriously injured. The dead include many French citizens, three Chileans, two Belgians, two Mexicans, two Spaniards, two Portuguese, an American, and a Briton. ISIS has claimed responsibility for this mass-casualty commando-style terrorist swarm attack. Swarm attacks are high-risk, coordinated assaults sometimes directed against multiple targets or building complexes, using mobile groups to circumvent security measures, allowing attackers to inflict casualties, garner news coverage, and inflict considerable damage prior to the neutralization of the assailants.



Summary: In an intercepted electronic communication, al-Qaida’s two top leaders — Ayman al-Zawahiri, head of al-Qaida Central, and Nasir al-Wahishi, leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula — agreed they wanted to do “something big” on the Muslim holiday Laylat al-Qadr, the 27th night of Ramadan, which in 2013 fell on the weekend of August 3-4.



Summary: Video and photos of two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, released by the FBI at a press briefing held April 18, 2013 at the Sheraton Hotel, 39 Dalton Street, Boston. In attendance were Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston Field Office Richard DesLauriers, United States Attorney Carmen Ortiz, and FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force law enforcement partners.



Summary: Deputy al-Qaida leader Abu Yahya al-Libi has been killed in a U.S. drone strike in North Waziristan, Pakistan. Al-Libi, who escaped from a U.S. military prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan in 2005, was one of al-Qaida’s most influential propagandists and one of its most able leaders.



Summary: Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born Muslim cleric who played a significant operational role in al-Qaida, plotting and inspiring terrorist attacks on the United States, has been killed in a drone missile strike in Yemen. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on October 2, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the U.S. State Department, responding to credible al-Qaida threats, issued a travel alert urging American citizens to be vigilant if they planned to travel in Europe. Officials did not identify specific targets, but thought terrorists might launch Mumbai-style “swarm attacks.”



Summary: The terrorist attack by Norwegian Christian fundamentalist Anders Behring Breivik in Oslo and at the youth camp on Utoya Island raises the specter of violent right-wing domestic extremism in Europe and echoes glimmers of an equivalent trend in the United States. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 24, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Rep. Michele Bachmann said if Republicans win control of the House of Representatives in the November 2010 midterm election, “all we should do is issue subpoenas and have one hearing after another” to “expose all the nonsense that is going on.”


Jun 5th, 2011

Summary: Ilyas Kashmiri, a top al-Qaida commander and possible replacement for Osama bin Laden, has been killed in an American drone-fired missile strike in Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal region, close to the Afghan border. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on June 5, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that an estimated 200 people attended a Tea Party rally at Lake George in St. Cloud, Minn., organized by the local Republican Party. It featured Republican office holders, including Rep. Michele Bachmann, state and local Republican candidates, and rightwing bloggers.



Summary: The death of Osama bin Laden was more than just a national moment of relief and closure. It was also a measure of payback, a settling of a score for a pair of deaths, the details of which have remained secret for 13 years — CIA operatives Tom Shah and Molly Huckaby Hardy, who were among the 44 U.S. Embassy employees killed when a truck bomb exploded outside the embassy compound in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1998. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on May 29, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Marine Cpl. Jacob C. Leicht, 24, of College Station, Texas, became the 1,000th U.S. service member killed in Afghanistan when he stepped on an explosive device May 27, 2010 in Helmand province.