US citizen held in California on charges of trying to join Islamic State

An American citizen from California who was radicalised by online propaganda travelled overseas to try to join a branch of the Islamic State group in Libya, US prosecutors have said.
A few days before he left in 2016, Bernard Augustine texted an unidentified relative, "If I ever get lucky enough to live in the khilafah, I'll burn my own passport, lol," according to a criminal complaint.
He made it as far as Tunisia but was detained by authorities there before he could carry out his plan, the complaint said.
Augustine, 21, is from the town of Keyes in California's Central Valley. He was jailed without bail yesterday during an initial court appearance in federal court in Brooklyn.

His lawyer, Samuel Jacobson, declined comment.
An examination of Augustine's laptop turned up evidence that he had been viewing Islamic State group material on the Internet, including a video showing the beheadings of Ethiopian Christians who were kidnapped in Libya, the court papers said.
He also searched for "jihadology" and "how to safely join isis," it said.

Love jihad case: Want to stay Muslim and be with husband, Hadiya tells SC

A Kerala-based woman, who is alleged to be a victim of 'love jihad', has told the Supreme Court that she had willingly converted to Islam and wants to remain a Muslim.
In an affidavit filed before the top court, 25-year-old Hadiya also said that she had married Shafin Jahan on her own and sought the court's permission to "live as his wife".

She has also claimed that her husband was wrongly portrayed as a terrorist by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and he has nothing to do with the Middle East-based terror group ISIS.
The matter had come to fore when Jahan had challenged the Kerala High Court's order annulling his marriage with Hadiya and sending her to her parents' custody.

Russia-Pak friendship new, Moscow has no influence in Islamabad: US

Amid increased bonhomie between Russia and Pakistan, the White House believes that Moscow does not have a great influence on Islamabad, a senior Trump Administration official has said.

"I don't particularly believe that there is a great deal of influence that Russia is asserting (over Pakistan) even though I do acknowledge they have a better relationship than they had five years ago," a senior administration official has said.

The official was responding to questions on the recent increase in relationship between Russia and Pakistan and how much influence it has over Islamabad.

"But Russia as of now does not have a great deal of influence over Pakistan, with which its ties is relatively new," the official said who on condition of anonymity.

"I think the Russia-Pakistan relationship is still something relatively new," the senior administration official said noting that Pakistan, being an independent country is making its own assessment and doing what it considers is in its own interests.

However, the official said that the Russian thinking that the Taliban can help fight ISIS is a flawed approach.

Most of the US soldiers who perished last year were in operations against ISIS in Afghanistan.
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Egypt mosque attack: Toll in firing by gunmen waving IS flags climbs to 305

The death toll in a terrorist attack on a mosque on Friday in Egypt's North Sinai has risen to 305 killed, including 27 children, and 128 others were wounded, state news agency MENA reported on Saturday.

"The attackers of the mosque were carrying the Islamic State flag," MENA quoted the statement of the country's general prosecutor as saying.

"Some 25-30 militants have gunned down the worshippers while performing the Friday prayer," it added.

The attack took place after the mosque's preacher started his speech, when the terrorists threw bombs from the windows and doors of the mosque, besieging the worshippers inside, the statement said.

Later, some masked men, carrying black flags reading "There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet," broke into the mosque with automatic weapons, it added.

Long queues of the victims' relatives were laid on the ground, some covered with blankets, outside the Suez Canal Hospital in Ismailia.

"My 23-years old nephew, Amir, who was working as a nurse has passed away in the attack," said Samy Mohammed, who came from Delta Menoufia province to get the license of burying Amir said.

The father of Amir, Magdy, a 45 year-old teacher has also wounded in the attack by three bullets, two in his leg and one in his right arm, Mohammed told Xinhua.
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Have dealt ISIS one crushing defeat after another, says Trump

More than 10 months after coming to power, President Donald Trump said that the US has "dealt Islamic State one crushing defeat after another."

Earlier this year in Saudi Arabia, Trump said he spoke to the leaders of more than 50 Arab and Muslim nations about his strategy to defeat terrorists by stripping them of finance, territory, and ideological support.

"I urged the leaders to drive out the terrorists and extremists from their societies. Since that time, we have dealt Islamic State (ISIS) one crushing defeat after another," Trump said on Wednesday in a televised address to the nation, a day after he returned from a nearly two-week Asia trip.

Early this year, in Israel, he reaffirmed the unbreakable bond between America and the Jewish State, and he met with leaders of the Palestinian Authority and initiated an effort to facilitate lasting peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Trump said when he came into office, America was faced with a series of growing dangers.

"These threats included rogue regimes pursuing deadly weapons, foreign powers challenging America's influence, the spread of the murderous terror group ISIS, and years of unfair trade practices that had dangerously depleted our manufacturing base and wiped out millions and millions of middle-class jobs," he said.

In September, at the UN General Assembly in New York, Trump urged the nations of the world to join in confronting rogue regimes that threaten humanity and laid out a model for international cooperation grounded in respect for sovereignty and the responsibilities that come with it.
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ISIS executed 741 civilians during Mosul battle: UN

The Islamic State group executed 741 civilians in the battle for the Iraqi city of Mosul, the UN said today, accusing the jihadists of perpetrating "international crimes" during the nine-month military campaign.

A total of 2,521 civilians were killed, mostly by IS attacks, during the fight between IS and the internationally- backed Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) that ended in July, the UN rights office said in a report.

"Those responsible must answer for their heinous crimes", the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, said in a statement.

Mosul, Iraq's second city, was captured by IS in 2014 and became the capital of the group's self-styled "caliphate" in the country.

Following IS's defeat in the city, the rights office said it had compiled witness testimony documenting "mass abductions of civilians, the use of thousands as human shields, the intentional shelling of civilian residences, and indiscriminate targeting of civilians trying to flee the city".

More than 800,000 people were displaced by the fighting, the report said.

The rights office also called for investigations into alleged violations committed by the ISF and their allies, including militia groups.

The report "recorded 461 civilian deaths as a result of airstrikes during the most intensive phase of the ISF-led offensive from 19 February", the UN said in a statement, noting that it was impossible to establish responsibility for the strikes "in almost all cases".
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'He's laughing, very happy': Lone wolf planned New York attack for weeks

The Uzbek immigrant accused of killing eight people and injuring nearly a dozen others after he ploughed a pickup truck down a crowded bicycle path in New York executed the act "in the name of ISIS" and planned it for weeks, police said.

In the deadliest terror attack in New York post 9/11, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, 29, on Wednesday mowed down pedestrians and cyclists at high speed down a bike path in lower Manhattan.

Saipov, who came to the US legally in 2010, was shot in the stomach by a police officer before being arrested.

Unabashed, he lies in the hospital bed, bragging about the attack, multiple media reports said yesterday.

"He's talking. He's laughing. He's very happy with what he did. He feels accomplished," an unnamed source told New York Daily News.

The New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner for Counterterrorism John Miller told reporters at a news conference that it appeared that Saipov had been planning this "for a number of weeks".

Saipov did this "in the name of ISIS," he said.

Bolstering his alleged ISIS-link are the handwritten notes in Arabic recovered from the scene. The gist of the note was that the Islamic State would endure forever, the officer said.

"The gist of the note was that the Islamic State would endure forever," Miller said. Saipov also reportedly yelled "Allahu akbar" ("God is greatest") during the attack.
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New York attack: Donald Trump vows 'extreme vetting' of foreign travellers

In the aftermath of the first deadly attack in New York blamed on terror since the September 11, 2001 carnage in the city, President Donald Trump said today he had ordered more robust "extreme vetting" of travellers coming into the United States.

At least eight people were killed and 11 other injured in Lower Manhattan today after a gunman in a truck plowed through a busy bike path, an incident the US termed as an "act of terrorism".

The suspect, 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov said to be from Uzbekistan, was shot in the stomach before being arrested.

"I have just ordered Homeland Security to step up our already Extreme Vetting Program. Being politically correct is fine, but not for this!" Trump tweeted.

His administration announced last week that it would resume accepting refugees after a 120-day ban, though arrivals from 11 "high-risk" countries, most of them home to Muslim majorities, will still be blocked.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of today's terrorist attack in New York City and their families," Trump had said in a statement after the attack.
Earlier, the US president took to Twitter to decry the attack, saying "we must not allow ISIS to return".READ MORE

American who joined and escaped Islamic State gets 20 years imprisonment

The only American citizen to be convicted in a US jury trial of successfully joining the Islamic State overseas has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Twenty-seven-year-old Mohamad Khweis of Alexandria, Virginia, was sentenced today in federal court in Virginia after being convicted on terrorism charges earlier this year.

Khweis traveled to Islamic State-controlled territory in Iraq and Syria in December 2015, even obtaining an official membership card. But he found life there distasteful and escaped after a few months.

The 20-year sentence was halfway between the 35-year sentence sought by prosecutors and the five-year term requested the defense. Khweis' lawyers argued that a harsh sentence would deter other Americans who joined the Islamic State from quitting.
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Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to ISIS militants: Have patience, step up your attack

The leader of the Islamic State group urged followers to burn their enemies everywhere and target "media centers of the infidels," according to an audio recording released Thursday that the extremists said was by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The reclusive leader of Islamic State, who has only appeared in public once, also vowed to continue fighting and lavished praise on his jihadis for their valor in the battlefield — despite the militants' loss of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in July.

The recording was released by the Islamic State-run al-Furqan outlet, which has in the past released messages from al-Baghdadi and other top figures of the extremist group. The voice in the over 46-minute-long audio sounded much like previous recordings of al-Baghdadi. His last previous purported message was released in November, also in an audio recording.

"You soldiers of the caliphate, heroes of Islam and carriers of banners: light a fire against your enemies," said al-Baghdadi, a shadowy cleric who has been surrounded by controversy since the Sunni terror group emerged from al-Qaida in Iraq, its forerunner.

Russian officials said in June there was a "high probability" that al-Baghdadi had died in a Russian airstrike on the outskirts of the Syrian city of Raqqa, the group's de facto capital. US officials later said they believed he was still alive.

Al-Baghdadi's whereabouts are unknown but he is believed to be in Islamic State' dwindling territory in eastern Syria. The Islamic State-held cities of Raqqa and Deir el-Zour are under siege and likely too dangerous for him to hide in. Some Islamic State leadership is believed to have gone to the nearby town of Mayadeen, and the group still holds a stretch of the Euphrates River from Deir el-Zour to the Iraqi border, as well as remote desert areas along the border.
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Iraq army kills more than 2,000 IS militants in battle to reclaim Tal Afar

The Iraqi forces killed over 2,000 Islamic State (IS) militants and more than 50 suicide bombers during a major offensive to free Tal Afar area in west of Mosul, officials said.

"The IS total casualties in the blitzkrieg during the period from August 20 to 31 were more than 2,000 terrorists and over 50 suicide bombers, along with destroying and detonating of 77 car bombs, 71 booby-trapped buildings and 990 roadside bombs," Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Yarallah from the Joint Operations Command (JOC) said at a televised press conference on Saturday, Xinhua news agency reported.

More than 40,000 Iraqi fighters from the Iraqi army, federal police and its commandos known as Rapid Response forces and Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) forces, in addition to ten brigades of the paramilitary Hashd Shaabi fighters, participated in the offensive, which was supported by Iraqi and international coalition aircraft, Yarallah said.

Yarallah also said that the Iraqi forces sustained 115 martyrs and 679 wounded during the 12-day battles to liberate Tal Afar and its surrounding areas, including the towns of Mahalabiyah and Ayadhiyah.
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ISIS leader al-Baghdadi probably still alive, says top US army commander

Islamic State (IS) group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appears to be still alive, a top US military commander has said, contradicting Russia's claims that it probably killed the top counter-terror target months ago.

"Do I believe he's alive? Yes," said Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, who commands the coalition forces fighting IS in Iraq and Syria, referring to al-Baghdadi.

At first, Townsend said his belief stemmed from a lack of evidence he had seen "rumour or otherwise" that al-Baghdadi was dead. But, he then added: "There are also some indicators in intelligence channels that he's alive." Townsend did not elaborate on the intelligence.

Russian officials said in June there was a "high probability" that al-Baghdadi died in a Russian airstrike on the outskirts of Raqqa, Syria, a month earlier.

Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon from his headquarters in Baghdad yesterday, Townsend said the US and coalition forces are actively searching for al-Baghdadi. If they find him, they probably will kill him rather than capture him, he said.
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How Islamic State is luring women with false sense of 'empowerment': Report

The dreaded Islamic State terror group is luring foreign women recruits with a false sense of "empowerment", according to a new report by a UK think tank.

The report compiled by the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) said the reasons that drove hundreds of women to journey from Europe to ISIS territories were "complex".

"We talked to women who hadn't been radicalised but could understand why some of these girls might have gone to Syria and Iraq so they could live as 'good Muslims'," said Emily Winterbotham, the report's co-author.

She said the use of the term "jihadi bride" to describe all female ISIS members was not truly representative.

"ISIS has been successful at selling that image to women. It's not just about the naive vulnerable jihadi bride, it's women saying: 'This is in line with my religion, my political beliefs, the fact I want to live how I want'," Winterbotham told 'The Independent'.

Possible draws were found to include "a rejection of Western feminism, online contact with recruiters who offer marriage and adventure, peer or family influence, adherence to ISIS ideology, naivety and romantic optimism, and the chance to be part of something new, exciting and illicit", she said.
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Freed from ISIS, Yazidi women return in 'severe shock'

The 16-year-old lies on her side on a mattress on the floor, unable to hold up her head. Her uncle props her up to drink water, but she can barely swallow. Her voice is so weak, he places his ear directly over her mouth to hear her.

The girl, Souhayla, walked out of the most destroyed section of Mosul this month, freed after three years of captivity and serial rape when her Islamic State captor was killed in an airstrike. Her uncle described her condition as “shock.” He had invited reporters to Souhayla’s bedside so they could document what the terror group’s system of sexual abuse had done to his niece.

“This is what they have done to our people,” said Khalid Taalo, her uncle.

Since the operation to take back Mosul began last year, approximately 180 women, girls and children from the Yazidi ethnic minority who were captured in 2014 by the Islamic State, or ISIS, have been liberated, according to Iraq’s Bureau for the Rescue of Abductees.

Women rescued in the first two years after ISIS overran their ancestral homeland came home with infections, broken limbs and suicidal thoughts. But now, after three years of captivity, women like Souhayla and two others seen last week by reporters, are far more damaged, displaying extraordinary signs of psychological injury.

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Russia signs deal to use Syria air base for 49 years

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a protocol to an agreement with Syria to deploy a Russian Air Force group at a Syrian military base.

The protocol was signed into law on Wednesday and ratifies the agreement signed by Russia and Syria which allows the Russian air group to use Syria's Hmeymim air base free of charge for 49 years with possible extension for another 25-year period, Xinhua news agency reported.

The document was posted on the Russian government's legal information portal.

The protocol to the 2015 Russian-Syrian agreement "aimed at establishing the international legal framework governing the conditions for the location of the Russian air force group" was signed in Damascus on January 18, 2017.

Prior to being signed into law by Putin, the protocol was ratified by both chambers of the Russian Parliament.

The Russian air group was deployed at Hmeymim from the end of September 2015 to help Syria fight the Islamic State (IS) and other terrorist groups at the request of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
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Islamic State is on its knees, but its legacy will long haunt Middle East

After three years of violence, Islamic State has encountered a major defeat that could mean that its end is near. On July 10 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi, after a successful nine-month military offensive to “liberate” the northern city of Mosul, declared “total victory” over IS in Iraq.

He categorically said: “I announce from here the end and the failure and the collapse of the terrorist state of falsehood and terrorism which the terrorist Daesh announced from Mosul”, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS or ISIL.

Almost exactly three years ago, on June 29 2014, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the group’s self-styled caliph, proclaimed a cross-border caliphate stretching over vast swathes of northwestern Iraq and eastern Syria.


Today, the Iraqi half of that territory has been almost totally eliminated (the northwestern Iraqi city of Tel Afar, close to the Syrian border, being an exception) while the Syrian half, based in the city of Raqqa, is facing imminent collapse under powerful US-backed Kurdish-led military offensives.

It’s a major turning point.

In the summer of 2014, an ISIL blitzkrieg swiftly defeated Iraqi defence forces across northwestern Iraq, capturing some 40% of Iraqi territories.

Prior to this rapid conquest, ISIL fighters had captured the Syrian province of Raqqa in January 2014, taking advantage of the bloody civil war let loose by pro-democracy movements.
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'You'll be held accountable, Trump,' pro-IS hackers write on US govt sites

Several government websites in the US state of Ohio were apparently hacked to broadcast an anti-government and pro-Islamic State (IS) message, the media reported.

"You will be held accountable Trump, you and all your people for every drop of blood flowing in Muslim countries," said the message on Sunday, which was left by "Team System Dz", Xinhua news agency reported

The affected websites included Ohio Governor John Kasich's office, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, the Ohio Casino Control Commission, the Ohio Office of Workforce Transformation, the Ohio Office of Health Transformation, the Ohio Inspector General and the Ohio Department of Medicaid.

The affected sites' homepages were replaced with the same black background accompanied by music. By noon (1 pm), all of the affected sites appeared to no longer be online.

"As soon as we were notified of the situation, we immediately began to correct it and will continue to monitor until fully resolved," said a spokesperson for the Governor's office in a statement issued on Sunday afternoon.

"We are investigating how these hackers were able to deface these websites. We also are working with law enforcement to better understand what happened," said the Ohio Department of Administrative Services in another statement.

USA Today reported that "Team System Dz" is actually a group of "anti-Israeli Arab teenagers". It has hacked numerous random websites such as the University of New Brunswick's student union site and a Canadian food truck's sandwich site.
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Iraqi forces capture border crossing to Syria from IS

Iraqi forces captured today a border crossing point to Syria from the Islamic State group, increasing pressure on the extremists and getting closer to meeting up with Syrian troops and their allies who reached the border earlier this month for the first time in years.

Tribal forces and border police, supported by Iraqi and US-led coalition aircraft, took part in the operation to take the al-Waleed crossing, the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said in a statement.

Al-Waleed, in the far west of Iraq, fell to the Islamic State group in 2015, giving the militants full control of the Iraq-Syria border, which they vowed to erase as part of their ambition to build their caliphate.

Today's push by Iraqi troops came nearly three weeks after Iraq's paramilitary forces mostly Shiite fighters with close ties to Iran referred to as the Popular Mobilisation Forces reached the Syrian border in northeastern Iraq.

In recent months the militants have been coming under increasing pressure in Iraq and Syria where they have lost vast parts of the land they declared as a caliphate in Syria and Iraq in June 2014.

US troops and Syrian opposition fighters control the Tanf area on the other side from al-Waleed. Earlier this month, Iranian-sponsored pro-Syrian government forces outflanked US advisers and rebels holding the Tanf border crossing to establish their own link to Iraq for the first time in years. The Iraqi side is still held by IS.

Syrian troops in the area are preparing to march on Islamic State positions to the north, in the Euphrates River Valley.

The push by Iraqi forces came as the Syrian military announced today the cessation of all combat operations in the southern city of Daraa for 48 hours in support of national reconciliation efforts after days of violence in the area.
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39 Indians abducted by ISIS in 2014 still alive: Govt

India is in touch with all the countries which can help in locating 39 Indians, believed to have been abducted by terrorist outfit ISIS in Iraq in 2014, the government said today.

Responding to a question on the issue, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said Sushma Swaraj had met representatives and families of these 39 Indians early this month.

"We are in touch with all nations who are helping us or who can help us. All possible steps are being taken. As of now we have the information that the people are alive. We have no such information to suggest that they are not alive," Baglay said.

The families said they had last heard from the men on June 14, 2014, when they all called home to say they were being taken away by ISIS fighters.
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After Tehran attacks, Iran hunts down and kills ISIS suspects

Iran has tracked down and killed several suspected jihadists, including the alleged mastermind of the twin attacks in Tehran last week, a security official and a minister have said.

Dozens of suspects have been arrested since the attacks on Wednesday killed 17 people in the first assault in Iran to be claimed by Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.

Late on Sunday, police killed four IS suspects in the southern province of Hormozgan, the ISNA news agency reported police chief Azizollah Maleki as saying on Monday.

"Two of the killed criminals were foreign nationals... while the identity of other members is being investigated," Maleki said, adding that weapons and an IS flag were seized during the raid.

Iran has said five Iranians, who had joined IS and travelled to its Iraq and Syria bastions, carried out Wednesday's attacks on the parliament and the shrine of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Late Saturday, Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi said the alleged mastermind behind the attacks had been tracked down and killed outside the country.

"The mastermind who controlled the team... Who had fled outside the country... Paid the price for his crimes, with the cooperation of intelligence services of allied countries," Alavi told state television, without providing further details.

At least 41 IS suspects have been arrested since the attacks, according to Alavi, who said Iran has dismantled suspected jihadist cells with increasing frequency in recent months.

In the entire year to March 2017 "we dismantled 45 cells, while in the past two-and-a-half months alone we have dismantled more than 25 terrorist cells," he said.

Officials have reported the arrests of suspected IS members in and around Tehran, as well as in the country's centre, southern governorates, and western provinces near the Iraqi border.
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