Σάββατο 21 Δεκεμβρίου 2013
Boko Haram attacks another base in Borno
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Posted: 20 Dec 2013 12:25 PM PST
Boko Haram, a Nigerian terrorist group with ties to al Qaeda, has launched another attack on a military barracks in Borno state, Nigeria. The attack occurred today in Bama, about 65 kilometers from Maiduguri, where earlier this month Boko Haram dramatically attacked a military facility, and refuted government claims that the group is on the run.
In the early hours of this morning, Boko Haram militants attacked a base belonging to the 202 Tank Battalion, killing an unknown number of soldiers, as well as their families who lived with them at the barracks.
Witnesses have said that "dozens, or perhaps even hundreds, of insurgents swarmed the barracks in a convoy of 4X4 trucks, armed with assault rifles, explosives and rocket-propelled-grenades," according to Agence France Presse. The use of improvised explosive devices(IEDs) and petrol-bombs has also been confirmed.
The attack lasted until 7 a.m., at which time the military deployed fighter jets from Maiduguri, forcing Boko Haram to flee.
It is thought that Boko Haram insurgents massed near or on the Cameroonian side of the border, and attacked the base from the east. Nigeria has said that it needs Cameroon's help in order to "silence" Boko Haram, and Cameroon claims to have already stepped up security along the Nigerian border. However, Borno officials have accused Cameroonian authorities of habitually refusing to arrest or chase Boko Haram militants fleeing across the border after attacks in Nigeria.
More violence in the area
This is the latest of many Boko Haram attacks in Bama this year. In May, some 200 heavily armed Boko Haram militants launched coordinated attacks, killing 22 policemen, 14 prison officials, two soldiers, and four civilians, and freed more than 100 prison inmates. Arriving in buses and pickup trucks and dressed in army uniforms, the militants attacked an army barracks and a police station and then raided the town prison; 13 militants were killed in the operation.
On Aug. 5, Boko Haram again attacked a police station, which resulted in the deaths of one policeman and 17 Boko Haram fighters. Authorities recovered AK-47 assault rifles, bombs, and RPG equipment after the attack. Later that month, on Aug. 27, 18 people were killed when Boko Haram militants dressed in Nigerian military gear opened fire on members of the civilian JTF, a vigilante group helping the army fight against Boko Haram.
Earlier this month, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau appeared in a video, warning of more attacks to come: "By Allah, we will never stop. Don't think we will stop in Maiduguri."
Clearly, Boko Haram has not.
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Posted: 20 Dec 2013 11:51 AM PST
A Nigerian Federal High Court has sentenced a member of Boko Haram's shura council to life imprisonment.
Kabiru Umar, also known as Kabiru Sokoto, was found guilty of planning the 2011 Christmas Day bombing in Niger state. He was also found guilty of having prior knowledge of the attack, and failing to notify the authorities.
His trial has come amidst a Human Rights Commission investigation into rights abuses and illegal detention centers used by the government to imprison suspected Boko Haram members, who some believe are held arbitrarily and in violation of the law.
According to one witness, himself a captive, Kabiru Umar was the highest-ranking Boko Haram member in Sokoto state and provided logistical help and materiel for an attack on a police station.
Umar was initially arrested on Jan. 14, 2012, but caused an uproar in Nigeria when he escaped from police custody, and a bounty of $310,000 was offered for information leading to his recapture.
The suspicious nature of his escape - a police vehicle came under fire while escorting him from their headquarters to his house outside Abuja to conduct a search - led to the dismissal of the head of Nigeria's police force, Hafiz Ringim, and six of his deputies. Umar was recaptured on March 10, 2012, in Taraba state, near Nigeria's border with Chad.
Between 2007 and 2012, Umar was involved in terrorism acts in Sokoto, including planting bombs at police headquarters and other government institutions throughout the state.
In 2011, at least 37 people were killed during morning Mass at the Saint Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, near Abuja, when a car laden with explosives rammed into the gates of the church. At least three other people died in four separate bomb attacks in Nigeria that day.
Umar was also found guilty of training over 500 men in the manufacture and use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), with the stated aim of attacking government facilities in Sokoto. For this offense, Umar received an additional 10 years, to be served in addition to his life sentence.
According to the judge, Umar showed no remorse throughout the trial.
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Posted: 20 Dec 2013 10:12 AM PST
In a newly released video, the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan eulogized Qari Hussain, a top commander of the group who trained suicide bombers and plotted operations against the West, including the failed Times Square bombing in May 2010. Qari Hussain trained suicide bombers for numerous attacks and once described them as "the atomic weapons of Muslims."
The Taliban emailed the over 60-minute video celebrating the death of Qari Hussain to The Long War Journal today. The video was produced by Umar Media, the Movement of the Taliban's official media outlet, and emailed by the group's official email account.
The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan and Umar Media did not respond to the The Long War Journal's request to confirm the date and location of Qari Hussain's death, or how he was killed.
On numerous occasions, Pakistani officials have rumored that Qari Hussain had been killed in US drone strikes and Pakistani military operations. The last report of his death was on Jan. 12, 2012; he was said to have been killed in a US drone strike in a village near Miramshah in North Waziristan. Hakeemullah Mehsud, then the emir of Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, was also rumored to have been killed in that attack. Hakeemullah was not killed, but later died in a US drone strike nearly two years later, on Nov. 1, 2013.
The Taliban have referred to Qari Hussain as a "martyr" several times in the past but had not released a statement officially announcing his death. For instance, in a statement released in November that announced the appointment of Sheikh Khalid Haqqani to serve as the deputy emir of the group, Qari Hussain was described as "the martyr Qari Hussain."
Qari Hussain's martyrdom video features interviews with Qari Hussain and other Taliban commanders. Also included is footage of Faisal Shahzad, the operative who came close to detonating a car bomb in Times Square in the heart of New York City on May 1, 2010. Qari Hussain claimed credit for the plot in a video that was first released to The Long War Journal. [See LWJ report, Exclusive: Tapes show Hakeemullah Mehsud is alive and threatens attacks in the US.]
In the video claiming credit for Times Square, Qari Hussain said Faisal Shahzad was sent to attack the US for a drone strike that killed Baitullah Mehsud, the founder of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, and for a US and Iraqi military operation that killed both Abu Omar al Baghdadi, the founder of the Islamic State of Iraq, and Abu Ayyub al Masri, al Qaeda in Iraq's military chief. Qari Hussain also accused the US of unfairly jailing "Lady al Qaeda" Aafia Siddiqui, and said the US pushed the Pakistani military to attack the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, a radical madrassa in Islamabad whose clerics openly supported the Taliban and al Qaeda. [For more on the Pakistani Taliban's role in the Times Square plot, see LWJ reports, Pakistani Taliban claim credit for failed NYC Times Square car bombing, US sees Pakistani Taliban involvement in Times Square attack after downplaying links.]
Qari Hussain also played a role in training Abu Dujanah al Khurasani [Humam Khalil Muhammed Abu Mulal al Balawi], the Jordanian whodeceived the CIA into believing he was providing intelligence on al Qaeda's operations in Pakistan. Khurasani killed seven CIA officials and bodyguards, and a Jordanian intelligence officer, in the Dec. 30, 2009 suicide attack against the CIA at Combat Outpost Chapman in Khost province, Afghanistan. Khurasani had lured the officials by promising to have detailed intelligence on the location of Ayman al Zawahiri.
The US added Qari Hussain to its list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists in January 2011 for his involvement in the Times Square plot, the attack on COP Chapman, and numerous attacks in Pakistan.
In the designation, the State Department described him as "the deadliest of all TTP's commanders." [See LWJ report, US adds Qari Hussain Mehsud to list of designated terrorists].
Background on Qari Hussain Mehsud
Based out of South Waziristan until the military operations in the Mehsud tribal areas in the fall of 2009, Qari Hussain had relocated to the Mir Ali region in North Waziristan. He had long been a close ally of al Qaeda.
He served in the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, a radical anti-Shia terror group that serves as muscle for al Qaeda, and in the Harkat-ul-Jihad-i-Islam, under the command of Ilyas Kashmiri, who later served as a military chief for al Qaeda. Qari Hussain also served as a senior leader in the Fadayeen-i-Islam, a terror outfit that conducted numerous attacks against the Pakistani government.
Qari Hussain was known as Ustad-i-Fedayeen, or the teacher of suicide bombers. Prior to the Pakistani Army offensive in South Waziristan in October 2009, Qari Hussain ran camps in the tribal agency where children were trained to become suicide bombers. Children as young as seven years of age were indoctrinated to wage jihad in Pakistan and Afghanistan, a video taken at one of his camps in Spinkai showed.
The Pakistani military first demolished Qari Hussain's suicide nursery during an earlier, shorter offensive against the Taliban in Spinkai in January 2008. The military launched the short operation after Taliban forces commanded by Baitullah Mehsud overran two military outposts and conducted attacks against other forts and military convoys in the tribal agency.
The military seized numerous documents and training materials in the demolished camp. In May 2008, a senior Pakistani general described the previous camp as a suicide "factory" for children. Sometime in the spring or summer of 2008, however, Qari Hussain rebuilt his child training camps in South Waziristan.
In November 2009, the Pakistani government placed a $600,000 bounty out for information leading to the death or capture of Qari Hussain. He was among the top three most wanted leaders of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, along with Hakeemullah and Waliur Rehman Mehsud, who, like Hakeemullah, was killed in a US drone strike in 2013.
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South Sudan's permanent war: the longest conflict in Africa
Sudan's civil war, which raged from the 1980s until a peace deal was brokered in the early 2000s, marks the longest war ever to take place on the African continent. Dr. Hassan al-Turabi, who served as intellectual mentor of the Sudanese regime for much of the war, states that "We have never known slavery," although many in the south claimed that the north launched regular slave raids into their territory. "There were times when the situation seemed quite hopeless," remarks Nhial Deng, former SPLM Secretary of Foreign Affairs, on the fitful negotiations that finally led to a peace treaty in 2005.
Darfur may dominate the headlines but in Southern Sudan, the story is more positive. After a 21 year civil war, peace seems to be returning to the region and refugees are coming home.
The peace deal agreed between the SPLA and government gives the South greater autonomy. Now, millions of displaced people are returning. "They're our people. They have a right to be here," reasons Vice President of Southern Sudan, Dr Machar. But tensions between the North and South still abound. According to the agreement, the South was supposed to receive 50% of all oil revenues. But some claim this is not happening. "We have received very little revenue", states Machar. Militias, allegedly armed by the government, are still creating terror in the South. Despite this, people like Martha are optimistic. "I'm very happy because I've come home."
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