United States
Reuters: U.S. Says It Thwarted Drone Attack On Its Troops In Iraq
“The U.S. military thwarted an attack targeting its forces in Iraq early on Wednesday, intercepting two drones before they could strike, two U.S. officials said after the first such attack on U.S. forces in Iraq in more than a year. The officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, declined to say who was suspected of the attack but Washington is on heightened alert for activity by Iran-backed groups amid soaring tension in the region over the Israel-Hamas war. Last week, Iraqi armed groups aligned with Iran threatened to target U.S. interests with missiles and drones if Washington intervened to support Israel's conflict with Hamas in Gaza. The one-way attack drones were intercepted as they attempted to strike Iraq's al Asad air base, which hosts American troops, the officials said. The attack came hours after a strike on a Gaza hospital killed hundreds of Palestinians, raising the stakes for U.S. President Joe Biden as he flies to Israel on Wednesday to signal support for its war against Hamas. Israel blamed the blast at Al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital on a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, which denied responsibility. Palestinian officials said an Israeli air strike hit the hospital, with the Palestinian Authority's health minister accusing Israel of causing a "massacre". In Iraq, tension over the war in Gaza had already been high. Its top Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, last week condemned Israel and called on the world to stand up to the "terrible brutality" in Gaza.”
Associated Press: Former Brooklyn Resident Sentenced To Life In Prison For Aiding Islamic State Group As Sniper
“A former New York stock broker who fled his job and family to fight alongside Islamic State militants in Syria, then maintained his allegiance to the extremist group throughout his trial, was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday. Ruslan Maratovich Asainov, who served as a sniper and instructor for the Islamic militant group at the height of its power, sat grinning in the Brooklyn courtroom, flashing a thumbs-up and stroking his bushy beard as a judge read out the sentencing. His own court-appointed attorney, Susan Kellman, declined to ask for a lighter sentence, noting her client was not interested in distancing himself from the Islamic State fighters in exchange for leniency. “It’s rare that I start my remarks at sentencing by saying I agree with the government,” Kellman said. “This is who he is. This is what he believes, fervently.” Asainov, a 47-year-old U.S. citizen originally born in Kazakhstan, was living in Brooklyn in late 2013 when he abandoned his young daughter and wife to fight alongside the Islamic State group in Syria. After receiving training as a sniper, he participated in pivotal battles that allowed the militant group to seize territory and establish its self-proclaimed caliphate based on a fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law. He rose to a rank of “emir,” or chief, then taught more than 100 aspiring snipers, acting as a “force multiplier” for the Islamic State group’s “bloody, brutal campaign,” according to prosecutors.”
Bloomberg: Lawmakers Press Biden On Plans To Prevent Use Of Crypto In The ‘Financing Of Terrorism’
“Eighty-six members of Congress representing both Democrats and Republicans pressed the Biden administration for details on how it plans to prevent militant organizations from using crypto in the “financing of terrorism.” In an Oct. 17 letter, led by senators Elizabeth Warren and Roger Marshall, along with representative Sean Casten, to the US Treasury Department and the National Security Council, the lawmakers noted that militant Islamist groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) raised millions of dollars in crypto in the months leading up to Hamas’ attack on Israel. Between August 2021 and this June, the groups raised over $130 million in crypto, with PIJ sending more than $12 million in crypto to Hezbollah since 2023, according to the letter, which cited a Wall Street Journal report. On Oct. 7, Hamas militants in Gaza launched an invasion of southern Israel, killing more than 1,300 people and taking dozens of hostages. Palestinian officials say Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 2,650 people in Gaza since then. “That the deadly attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians comes as the group has become ‘one of the most sophisticated crypto users in the terror-finance domain’ clarifies the national security threat crypto poses to the U.S., and our allies,” the lawmakers wrote.”
Lebanon
Associated Press: 5 Hezbollah Fighters Are Killed As Tensions Flare Along The Border Between Lebanon And Israel
“Clashes erupted Tuesday along the Lebanon-Israel border that left five Hezbollah fighters dead, marking the largest number of casualties for the militant group in a single day as tensions with Israel escalate. Israeli forces and armed groups in Lebanon have engaged in a series of low-level skirmishes since the outbreak of the latest war in Gaza between the Israeli military and the Hamas militant group. Hezbollah has announced the death of 10 militants since skirmishes began. Israeli military Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi threatened that Israel would retaliate aggressively should Hezbollah escalate. “This is a war on the home,” Halevi said after meeting with Israeli troops near the northern border with Lebanon. “If Hezbollah makes a mistake, it will be annihilated.” The escalation comes amid fears that the war could spread into Lebanon, where Hezbollah has expressed strong support to the militant Palestinian group Hamas. Israel considers the heavily-armed group in Lebanon an even bigger threat than Hamas. So far, artillery exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel have been limited to several towns along the border. Israel has threatened that if Hezbollah opens a new front, all of Lebanon will suffer the consequences. Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in 2006 that ended in a draw. Since then, apart from limited clashes and escalated rhetoric, Hezbollah’s military caliber has significantly increased, and became a key military actor in Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere in the region.”
Middle East
The Guardian: ‘It Will Be Worse Than Hamas’: Order To Evacuate Strikes Fear Into North Israel
“Amid the spectacular scenery of northern Israel, where the mountains roll away into views of Lebanon and Syria, it is deceptively quiet. At this time of year, the area is normally full of the last of the Jewish high holiday season’s tourists, making the most of the cooler weather to hike and go apple picking. Instead, on Monday, the Israeli defence ministry gave an unprecedented order for residents of 28 villages and kibbutzim within 2km (1.25 miles) of the blue line that separates the country from Lebanon to evacuate south. The state is gearing up for the possible outbreak of hostilities with Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese militia backed by Iran, at the same time as the new war with Hamas in the blockaded Gaza Strip. The northern front, like the southern one before it, is emptying, after repeated rocket and missile attacks and border skirmishes in recent days with Hezbollah and Palestinian factions active in Lebanon. The mood across Israel is frantic, trust in the army and the state diminished. For the communities living here, the evacuation order is not just about history repeating itself, or the occasional volley of rockets that set off air raid sirens. It is also frightening for its novelty. The odds of escalation with Hezbollah, Palestinian factions in the occupied West Bank – or even a head-on collision with Iran, after years of “shadow war” across the region – are higher than they have ever been.”
Haaretz: Israeli Hospital Refuses To Treat Hamas Terrorist, Sources Cite ‘National Feelings’
“Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem refused to treat a captured Hamas terrorist on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday, it said in a statement. According to the hospital, security officials tried to admit the man, who was captured after the Hamas attacks on Israel’s south, during the night but were refused. A source at the hospital said the decision was made because treatment would “offend national feelings.” “The hospital feels that it would be wrong to treat Hamas terrorists right now,” a source at Hadassah said. “It would offend national feelings. We are still treating more than 130 wounded from the south, entire families, in every ward.” In a statement, the hospital said that it had not and would not provide any treatment to any terrorists involved in the war. Hadassah’s announcement followed Health Minister Moshe Arbel’s announcement last week of a policy by which public hospitals would not admit terrorists, who would be treated by solely at facilities operated by the military or national prison service. Arbel informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Wednesday that he had given this order to public hospitals. “In these difficult times, the health care system needs to focus solely on caring for the victims of the despicable massacre and IDF soldiers and on preparing for whatever comes next,” Arbel said. “The task of securing and treating these vile terrorists in the public health care system significantly harms these efforts.””
Mali
Associated Press: U.N. Peacekeepers In Mali Withdraw From Two Bases In The North As Fighting Intensifies
“United Nations peacekeepers started departing from two bases in northern Mali Monday as part of a forced withdrawal from the country amid increasing insecurity and a rise in attacks by Islamic extremists. The U.N. mission said it wanted to complete its departure quickly from two camps in the Kidal region, Tessalit and Aguelhok. Attacks in northern Mali have more than doubled since the peacekeepers completed the first phase of their withdrawal in August. “In view of the rapidly deteriorating security conditions for the lives of hundreds of peacekeepers ... the mission is doing its utmost to complete this process as soon as possible, including if necessary, accelerating its withdrawal from the Kidal camp, originally scheduled for mid-November,” a UN statement said. Earlier this year, Mali’s military junta ordered the U.N. mission to leave the country, which has struggled to contain an Islamic extremist insurgency since 2012. The operation in Mali became one of the most dangerous in the world, with more than 150 peacekeepers killed since it began operations in 2013. Violence is spiking between ethnic Tuareg rebels, known as the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP-PSD) and Mali’s military. Analysts say the uptick signals the breakdown of a 2015 peace agreement signed between the government and the rebels who once drove security forces out of northern Mali as they sought to create the state of Azawad.”
Europe
AFP: Deadly Attacks Put Response Of Europe’s Spies Under Spotlight
“…Hans-Jakob Schindler, director of the Counter Extremism Project NGO, pointed out that violence online can lead to violence on the streets. He said Sweden was the focus of an online campaign by Islamists that was intensifying risks for the Nordic country. The German authorities arrested two brothers from Syria in April, the eldest of whom had allegedly planned to “carry out an attack on a church in Sweden where many people (were) assembled”. “This demonstrates that this ongoing Islamist online campaign against Sweden has effects and motivates individuals towards violence,” he said, pointing out that the Israel-Hamas conflict could have a similar effect.”
Associated Press: How Quran Burnings In Sweden Have Increased Threats From Islamic Militants
“The killing of two Swedish citizens in an attack ahead of a soccer match in Brussels has shocked the Scandinavian country, although the government has been warning for months that Swedes were at greater risk since a recent string of public desecrations of the Quran holy book by a handful of anti-Islam activists. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Tuesday noted that the government and the security service in August had raised the terror alert to the second-highest level following threats against Sweden by Islamic extremists. “Now we know with chilling clarity that there were grounds for those concerns,” he said. The desecrations, primarily by an Iraqi refugee living in Sweden, have sparked angry reactions in Muslim countries. In June, demonstrators in Iraq stormed the Swedish Embassy and the Iraqi government cut off diplomatic relations with Sweden. The desecrations have raised questions -– including in Sweden -– about why such acts are allowed. Swedish officials have repeatedly condemned the desecrations while saying they are allowed under freedom of speech. The government is investigating whether to give police greater authority to stop such acts on security grounds. “Not everything that is legal is appropriate,” Kristersson said Tuesday. “What you do in Sweden can have consequences elsewhere.””
China
Reuters: Taliban Representative Arrives In Beijing To Attend Belt And Road Forum
“The Taliban's acting commerce minister Haji Nooruddin Azizi arrived in Beijing on Tuesday to attend the Belt and Road Forum, the Afghan embassy said, which is among the highest-profile summits it has been invited to since taking power in 2021. Beijing has sought to grow its official ties with the Taliban administration ever since U.S. and other foreign forces withdrew from the country two years ago, despite its lack of formal recognition by any government. The impoverished country could offer a wealth of coveted mineral resources.”
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