Philippines/Insurgency: Four persons killed in attack on bus in Lanao del Norte

Media reported on Thursday that two police officers and two civilians had been killed when unidentified gunmen attacked a passenger bus in Kapatagan, Lanao del Norte province.

Senior Superintendent Agrimero Cruz stated that the gunmen stopped the bus, ordered passengers to go out and then shot dead two police officers serving as security marshals, the driver and his assistant. After the shooting, the attackers set the bus on fire and then fled.

According to witnesses, the gunmen were allegedly angry at the management of the bus.

It is worth mentioning that in the past, Maoist and Moro Islamic Liberation Front terrorists have attacked passengers buses in southern Philippines when their owners refused to pay protection money.

Democratic Republic of Congo/Insurgency: Civil Society official kidnapped in North Kivu

Media reported on Thursday that Sylvestre Bwira, an official of the Civil Society in North Kivu, a consortium of NGOs operating in the area of Masisi, had been kidnapped in Sake on Tuesday.

Reportedly, Bwira had been receiving death threats after the publication of a rapport denouncing the state of insecurity in the Masisi territory and the parallel administration established by the former rebel National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP).

It is worth mentioning that this incident comes as several armed groups are active in North Kivu and are regularly accused of carrying kidnappings and attacks against both security forces and civilians.

Mexico/Organized Crime: Investigation in Tamaulipas mass grave victims points towards illegal immigrants

Media reported on Wednesday that the ongoing investigation on the mass grave that had been discovered recently in a San Fernando ranch, Tamaulipas state, revealed that the victims might be illegal immigrants coming from Central and South America.

Reportedly, the discovery followed the statements of a survivor who had alarmed the security forces about being attacked by an armed gang on that ranch.

The man, of Ecuadorian nationality, stated that the group of illegal immigrants had been intercepted by armed men and asked to work for them and that in the circumstances of a refusal, have been killed.

Canada/Terrorism: Two persons arrested in Ottawa on suspicion of plotting terrorist attacks

Media reported that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) had dismantled an alleged terrorist cell suspected of having links to Al-Qaeda and made two arrests in separate locations in Ottawa on Wednesday.

Reportedly, the men arrested during the counter-terrorism operation dubbed “Project Samosa” are suspected of preparing terrorist attacks in the country, while first reports signalized that the ringleader had attended training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Police is currently carrying further searches in the area and more arrests related to “terrorist offences” are allegedly to be made.

Somalia/Terrorism: Four MPs identified amongst the deaths of the Mogadishu hotel blast

Somali Officials released on Wednesday the names of the Members of the Parliament who had been killed in the attack carried by Al-Shabaab terrorists at the Muna Hotel in Mogadishu on Tuesday.

Despite earlier reports stating that six from the total number of 33 people killed in the attack were MPs, the authorities have indicated that only four of them had actually lost their lives then and identified them as Mohamed Hassan M. Nur, Geddi Abdi Gadid, Bulle Hassan Mo'allim and Idiris Muse Elmi.

As a reminder, the casualties occurred as a suicide bomber and three gunmen disguised as government soldiers had stormed the Muna Hotel near the presidential palace in the Somali capital on Tuesday.

Iraq/Terrorism: Six people killed in attack on Sunni Awakening Councils

Media reported on Thursday that six people were killed in an attack carried against members of the anti-Al-Qaeda Sunni Awakening Councils (Sahwa) near Moukdadia in the province of Diyala, some 80 kilometers away from Baghdad.

Reportedly, terrorists first killed two guards of their facilities and after shot dead other four persons in their sleep.

Meanwhile, another attack staged against another group of the Sahwa was thwarted in the same province.

Afghanistan/Terrorism: Eight killed in Taleban attack on police post

Media reported that eight police officers had been killed in Kunduz in northern Afghanistan when Taleban terrorists attacked their post on Thursday.

Reportedly, only one officer from those who were at the post at the moment of the attack survived, but he was also injured.

It is worth mentioning that according to police reports, the attack occurred in a city where terrorist groups had been quasi-absent until 2 years ago.

Algeria/Terrorism: AQIM executes a customs officer

Media reported on Wednesday that an Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) cell headed by Abdelkrim Taleb had executed an Algerian Customs Officer who had been held hostage since June. 

The customs officer had been captured by the terrorists following an attack carried at the border between Mali and Algeria, when 11 other Algerian officers had been killed.

As a reminder, this comes as Algeria expressed its rage concerning the ransom that the Spanish government had paid to AQIM for the release of the two Spanish hostages held in northern Mali.

Germany/Terrorism: Three charged with supporting Al-Qaeda-linked groups

Germany’s Federal Prosecutor Office announced on Wednesday that three German citizens - including the wife of Fritz Gelowicz who had been convicted in March for a thwarted car bomb plot - were charged with supporting extremist groups linked to Al-Qaeda.

Reportedly, the three persons are accused of supplying cash to the terrorist organizations “German Taleban Mujahideen” (DTM) and the “Islamic Jihad Union” (IJU) and of campaigning for Jihad on the internet.

Two of them are in custody, while a third one is still searched by the police.

It is worth mentioning that Gelowicz, a member of an IJU cell in the Sauerland region was involved in a plot to kill US soldiers and citizens in Germany through a series of car bombings.

Mexico/Organized Crime: 72 bodies discovered on a farm in Tamaulipas

Media reported on Wednesday that 72 bodies had been discovered on a farm in San Fernando in the north-eastern state of Tamaulipas after an exchange of fire erupted between security forces and suspected members of a drug cartel during a raid conducted in the area.

Reportedly, one soldier and three of the suspects were killed in the shooting.

No further details have been released so far regarding the drug cartel to which the hideout belonged, but it is worth mentioning that the state is the scene of a struggle for territory between former allies Los Zetas and the Gulf cartel.

Lebanon/Security: Hezbollah senior official killed in clashes between supporters of a Shi’ite and a Sunni political party

Media reported on Wednesday that three people, including Mohamed Fawaz - a Hezbollah senior official, were killed on Tuesday evening in violent clashes that erupted in the Burj Abi Haidar neighborhood in the western sector of the capital Beirut between supporters of the Shi’ite party and those of Al-Ahbash, a Sunni splinter group.

Reportedly, four other members of Hezbollah have been injured in the violence.

It is worth mentioning that the tension has been very high in Lebanon in recent weeks as the United Nations special court examines a possible involvement of Hezbollah in the assassination of Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in 2005.

Iraq/Terrorism: New deadly suicide bomb explosions indicate a series of coordinated attacks

Media reported on Wednesday that another suicide bomb attack was carried in the southern city of Kut on a police station, killing at least 26 police officers and wounding 87 others.

This comes as apparently coordinated suicide bomb attacks have been launched against Iraqi security forces in Baghdad and across the country, namely in Kirkuk, Buhriz, Kerbala and in other locations of the Diyala and Anbar provinces.

Therefore, the death toll raised to over 50 following the attacks, while more than 200 people were reported injured.

As ESISC had already reported, 11 people were killed and 38 others wounded in a car-bomb explosion outside a police station in the Al-Qahira area in north-western Baghdad earlier in the day.

Afghanistan/Civil Unrest: Protesters try to storm a NATO base in Badghis province

Media reported that thousands of protesters tried to storm and set fire to one part of a NATO-led base in Qalay-e Naw, capital of the north-western province of Badghis on Wednesday.

Reportedly, at least 18 protesters were wounded when troops inside the base fired on them.

It is worth mentioning that the outburst of violence followed allegations that a member of the foreign force had shot and killed an Afghan soldier.

Reports concerning the earlier incident showed that one Afghan policeman was indeed killed by the security forces, but only as a response after he had killed two Spanish officers and an interpreter of Spanish nationality during a weapons training exercise at the respective military base.

Nigeria/Insurgency: Former gang leader gunned down in Port Harcourt

Media reported on Wednesday that Soboma George, a former Niger Delta gang leader had been gunned down by three armed men suspected to belong to a rival group in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State.

Reportedly, George had been killed in the shootout, but as his body was taken away by the assailants, police could not confirm his death.

Following the attack, police officers were mobilized in the area, as authorities fear that retaliation actions could be carried out by supporters of the former gang leader.

It is worth mentioning that George had been activating in the past within the “Outlaws Gang”, which is affiliated to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and last year accepted to enter into the federal government’s amnesty program.

Iraq/Terrorism: Car-bomb blast kills 11, wounds 38 in Baghdad

Media reported that at least 11 people were killed and 38 others injured in a car-bomb explosion outside a police station in north-eastern Baghdad on Wednesday.

According to sources of the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, the blast occurred in the Al-Qahira neighborhood and severely damaged the targeted police station and the surrounding buildings.

Another blast occurred in the centre of the Iraqi capital, when an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was detonated, wounding 10 persons.

Separately, one person was killed and eight others wounded in a bomb attack in Kirkuk.

Mexico/Organized Crime: At least 19 bodies found near Mexico City

Media reported that at least 19 bodies had been found in an abandoned mine in Hidalgo, near the capital Mexico City, following the tip-offs of two members of Los Zetas cartel who had been arrested on Friday.

Reportedly, at least four other locations in the area where allegedly more bodies had been dumped were indicated by those arrested.

Moreover, information regarding the ties of nine police officers with the drug cartel has emerged during their questioning.

Somalia/Terrorism: Al-Shabaab claims responsibility for a deadly bomb attack in Mogadishu hotel

Media reported on Tuesday that a suicide bomber and three gunmen disguised as government soldiers had stormed the Muna Hotel near the presidential palace in the Somali capital Mogadishu, killing at least 31 people, including six members of the parliament and five government security personnel.

Reportedly, two of the gunmen were killed by security forces in the hotel, while another one managed to flee the scene and is currently being searched by security forces.

Later in the day, Al-Shabaab’s spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that their fighters had managed to kill government officers, MPs, intelligence officers and civil servants.

Philippines/Insurgency: Five soldiers killed in Maoist rebel attack in the south

Media reported on Tuesday that five soldiers had been killed and one other wounded when about 30 fighters of the Maoist New People’s Army (NPA) attacked an army post outside the Veruela Township in Agusan del Sur province.

Reportedly, troops from a nearby military camp reinforced the besieged outpost, but the armed men managed to flee the scene. Therefore, an operation is currently being carried in the area in order to capture the attackers.

It is worth mentioning that this attack came only three days after eight soldiers had been killed in a similar ambush outside Catarman Township in the central province of Northern Samar.

Yemen/Insurgency: At least seven killed during clashes between rebels and tribesmen in the north

Media reported that at least seven people had been killed in new violence that erupted between Shi’ite rebels and pro-government tribesmen in the northern Yemeni town of Huth, about 100 kilometers away from the capital Sana’a on Monday.

Reportedly, the fighting broke as government-allied tribesmen tried to search houses for weapons believed to have been smuggled in by rebel supporters.

It is worth mentioning that this recent incident occurred as the delegations of the two sides involved in the conflict are carrying talks to shore up a fragile truce with the help of Qatari mediation in Doha, the capital of Qatar.

Iraq/Terrorism: Security measures around oil pipelines reinforced

Media reported late on Monday that Iraq had reinforced security measures around its oil infrastructure and facilities because of fears of terrorist attacks.

Reportedly, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki ordered the measures after information received from the intelligence services indicated that Al-Qaeda had planned to carry attacks against some of these strategic sites.

Earlier on Monday, Iraqi police announced that an Al-Qaeda cell that had been carrying attacks against traffic police in Baghdad was dismantled.
 
Sources of the Interior Ministry stated that 11 persons have been arrested and confessed to be involved in the killings that claimed the life of about 20 traffic policemen since the beginning of this month.