CEP Mentions

“'Terrorist organisations are being given more breathing space because since 2019 we've reduced our military engagement in these areas.' Counter terrorism expert, Dr Hans-Jakob Schindler, shares his analysis of recent terror attacks and attempts.”

BBC News: Yemen Weapons Dealers Selling Machine-Guns On X

“...The traders operate in the capital Sana’a and other areas under control of the Houthis, a rebel group backed by Iran and proscribed as terrorists by the US and Australian governments.

"It is inconceivable that they [the weapons dealers] are not operating on the Houthis’ behalf," said the former British Ambassador to Yemen, Edmund Fitton-Brown, who now works for the Counter Extremism Project. "Purely private dealers who tried to profit from supplying, [for example] the government of Yemen, would be quickly shut down."

Daily Mail: Why DID Pavel Durov Fly To France Knowing He Faced Arrest? Mystery Surrounds Telegram Founder's Visit As Russia Demands Access To Billionaire Amid Brewing Diplomatic Row

“…The campaigning organisation Counter Extremism Project said Telegram has taken some action to reduce the use of its platform by terrorists but commented on its website 'it is clear that more can and should be done.'”

Syria

Reuters: US Military Says It Killed Leader Of Al Qaeda-Aligned Group In Syria

“The U.S. military said it carried out a strike in Syria on Friday that killed a senior leader of an Al Qaeda aligned group. The strike targeted Abu-’Abd al-Rahman al-Makki, a senior leader of the Al Qaeda-aligned Hurras al-Din, the U.S. Central Command said in a post on X.”

Iran

Reuters: Iran Doesn't Seek To Raise Regional Tensions, Foreign Minister Tells Italian Counterpart

“Iran does not seek to increase Middle East tensions, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told his Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani, adding that its response to the killing of the Hamas chief in Tehran would be "definite and calculated". Iran blames Israel for the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on July 31, which Araqchi was quoted by Iran's state media as saying was "an unforgivable violation of Iran's security and sovereignty". Israel has neither claimed nor denied responsibility for Haniyeh's death in the Iranian capital. "Iran does not seek to increase tensions. However it is not afraid of it," Araqchi told his Italian counterpart on the phone, according to a statement about the phone call published on Monday by Iran's foreign ministry. Araqchi said that Iran's response would be "definite, calculated and accurate", according to the statement.”

Israel

Reuters: Israel And Hezbollah In Major Missile Exchange As Escalation Fears Grow

“Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel early on Sunday, as Israel's military said it struck Lebanon with around 100 jets to thwart a larger attack, in one of the biggest clashes in more than 10 months of border warfare. Missiles were visible curling up through the dawn sky, dark vapour trails behind them, as an air raid siren sounded in Israel and a distant blast lit the horizon, while smoke rose over houses in Khiam in southern Lebanon. On Sunday evening, sirens sounded in Rishon Letsiyon, central Israel, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said, and added that one projectile had been identified crossing from the southern Gaza Strip and falling in an open area. The armed wing of Hamas said it had fired an "M90" rocket at Tel Aviv. Any major spillover in the fighting, which began in parallel with the war in Gaza, risks morphing into a regional conflagration drawing in Hezbollah's backer Iran and Israel's main ally the United States.”

Turkey

Associated Press: Turkey And Russia Resume Joint Patrols In Northern Syria As Ankara Seeks To Mend Ties With Assad

“Turkey and Russia have resumed joint military patrols in northern Syria after nearly a year’s break, the Turkish Defense Ministry announced Saturday. Combined patrols began in the Operation Peace Spring area, the statement said, referring to a 30-kilometer (19-mile) -deep strip of land on the Syrian side of the Turkey-Syria border between Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn. The territory was captured from Kurdish fighters by Turkish and allied Syrian forces in 2019. The renewed Turkish-Russian patrols come as Ankara is trying to repair its relations with Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose regime draws support from Moscow. Assad has said he will only meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the withdrawal of Turkish troops from Syria and an end to Ankara’s support for Syrian fighters that Damascus considers terrorists.”

Afghanistan

Associated Press: Taliban Vice And Virtue Laws Provide ‘Distressing Vision’ For Afghanistan, Warns UN Envoy

“The Taliban’s new vice and virtue laws that include a ban on women’s voices and bare faces in public provide a “distressing vision” for Afghanistan’s future, a top U.N. official warned Sunday. Roza Otunbayeva, who heads the U.N. mission in the country, said the laws extend the “ already intolerable restrictions ” on the rights of women and girls, with “even the sound of a female voice” outside the home apparently deemed a moral violation. Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers last Wednesday issued the country’s first set of laws to prevent vice and promote virtue. They include a requirement for a woman to conceal her face, body and voice outside the home. The laws empower the Vice and Virtue Ministry to be at the front line of regulating personal conduct and administering punishments like warnings or arrest if its enforcers allege that Afghans have broken the laws.”

Pakistan

BBC: At Least 22 Killed After Having IDs Checked In Pakistan

“According to Najibullah Kakar, a senior local official, around 30 to 40 militants were involved. "They stopped 22 vehicles," he told AFP news agency. "Vehicles traveling to and from Punjab were inspected, and individuals from Punjab were identified and shot." The BLA has said it was targeting military personnel travelling in civilian clothes, according to news agency Reuters. Before the attack, the BLA warned the Baloch public to stay away from the highway, adding that their "fight is against the occupying Pakistani military". "We have taken full control of all major highways across Balochistan, blocking them completely," it added. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed "deep grief and condemnation over the terrorist attack" in a statement issued by his office. Balochistan is Pakistan's largest province but, although it has more resources than other provinces, it is the least developed.”

Associated Press: Gunmen Kill 31 People In 2 Separate Attacks In Southwestern Pakistan; 12 Insurgents Also Killed

“Gunmen in southwestern Pakistan killed at least 31 people in two separate attacks on Monday and security forces killed 12 insurgents, officials said, in one of the deadliest days of violence in the restive Baluchistan province, with reports of other shootings and destruction in the area.Twenty-three people were fatally shot after being identified and taken from buses, vehicles and trucks in Musakhail, a district in Baluchistan, senior police official Ayub Achakzai said. The attackers burned at least 10 vehicles before fleeing. In a separate attack, gunmen killed at least nine people, including four police officers and five passersby, in Qalat district also in Baluchistan, authorities said. Insurgents blew up a railway track in Bolan, attacked a police station in Mastung and attacked and burned vehicles in Gwadar, all districts in Baluchistan. No casualties were reported in those attacks.”

Yemen

Associated Press: At Least 13 People Have Died After A Boat Carrying Migrants Sunk Off Yemen’s Coast, UN Says

“A boat carrying migrants sank off the coast of Yemen, leaving more than two dozen people dead or missing, the U.N. migration agency said Sunday, the latest in a string of shipwrecks that have left scores dead. Despite a nearly decade-long civil war, Yemen — which borders Saudi Arabia to the north and Oman to the northeast — remains a major route for migrants from East Africa trying to reach wealthy Gulf countries for work. The vessel was carrying 25 Ethiopian migrants and the boat captain and his assistant, both Yemeni, when it capsized Tuesday off the province of Taiz, the International Organization for Migration said in a statement. The bodies of 11 men and two women were recovered along the shore of Bab el-Mandeb Strait that links the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea, while the 14 others — including the two Yemenis — remain missing.”

Associated Press: Fires Break Out On Abandoned Greek-Flagged Oil Tanker Sounion That Yemen Rebels Attacked In Red Sea

“Fires broke out Friday on a Greek-flagged oil tanker previously attacked by Yemen’s Houthi rebels this week, with the vessel now appearing to be adrift in the Red Sea, authorities said. It wasn’t immediately clear what had happened to the oil tanker Sounion, which had been abandoned by its crew on Thursday and reportedly anchored in place. The Houthis didn’t immediately acknowledge the fire. The rebels are suspected to have gone back and attacked at least one other vessel that later sank as part of their monthslong campaign against shipping in the Red Sea over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. The attacks have disrupted a trade route that typically sees $1 trillion in goods pass through it annually. The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center reported the fires in a note to mariners on Friday night.”

Middle East

Reuters: Families Flee After New Israeli Evacuation Orders In Gaza As Ceasefire Hopes Dim

“Israel issued new evacuation orders for Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip late on Sunday, forcing more families to flee, saying forces intended to act against militant group Hamas and others operating in the area. In recent days, Israel has issued several evacuation orders across Gaza, the most since the beginning of the 10-month war, prompting an outcry from Palestinians, the United Nations and relief officials over the reduction of humanitarian zones and the absence of safe areas. The Deir Al-Balah municipality says Israeli evacuation orders have so far displaced 250,000 people. Israeli military strikes killed at least seven Palestinians on Monday, medics said. Two were killed in Deir Al-Balah, where around a million people were sheltering, two at a school in the Al-Nuseirat camp and three in the southern city of Rafah, near the border with Egypt.”

Associated Press; Israel-Hamas War Latest: Israel Launches More Strikes On Lebanon, State Media And Witnesses Say

“After a short-lived calm following a heavy exchange of strikes between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, fighting resumed Monday. State media and witnesses reported that Israeli strikes targeted the Lebanese border village of Tair Harfa and in the area of the coastal city of Sidon on Monday afternoon. A car was hit in the latter strike. It was not immediately clear whether there were casualties. On Sunday, Israel launched dozens of strikes on southern Lebanon that it described as a preemptive operation, saying it had averted a major attack planned by Hezbollah in retaliation for the killing of one of its top commanders, Fouad Shukur, in an Israeli strike in Beirut last month. Shortly afterward, Hezbollah launched a barrage of hundreds of drones and rockets, which it said was in retaliation for the killing of Shukur.”

Associated Press: Israel-Hamas War Latest: Israel Launches More Strikes On Lebanon, State Media And Witnesses Say

Egypt

Reuters: Egypt Warns Visiting US General On Lebanon Risk

“Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned America's top general during a meeting on Sunday of the dangers of a major conflict in Lebanon. U.S. Air Force General C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Egypt hours after a significant missile exchange between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah. Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel and Israel said it struck Lebanon with about 100 jets to thwart a bigger attack, in one of the largest clashes in more than 10 months of border warfare. In a statement, Sisi's office said the Egyptian leader told Brown that the international community needed to "exert all efforts and intensify pressures to defuse tension and stop the state of escalation that threatens the security and stability of the entire region."”

Associated Press: Israeli Airstrikes Kill Dozens In Gaza On The Eve Of High-Level Cease-Fire Talks In Egypt

“Israeli airstrikes killed at least three dozen Palestinians in southern Gaza, health workers said Saturday, as officials including a Hamas delegation gathered for high-level cease-fire talks in neighboring Egypt. Eleven members of a family, including two children, were among the dead after an airstrike hit their home in Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital, which received a total of 33 bodies from three strikes in and around the city that also hit tuk-tuks and passersby. Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said it received three bodies from another strike. The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports. First responders also recovered 16 bodies from the Hamad City area of Khan Younis after a partial pullout of Israeli forces, 10 bodies from a residential building west of Khan Younis and two farther south in Rafah.”

Nigeria

Voice Of America: Pro-Iran Militants Kill 2 Nigerian Police Officers

“An attack Sunday by an outlawed pro-Iran Nigerian Shiite group killed at least two law enforcement officers, police said, with three more found unconscious in the capital Abuja. The capital's police force confirmed "an unprovoked attack by the proscribed Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN)... on some personnel of the Nigeria Police Force," said a statement by police spokesperson Josephine Adeh. During the attack on a police checkpoint, "two police personnel were killed, three [were] left unconscious in the hospital, and three police patrol vehicles [were] set ablaze," Adeh added. Inspired by the Islamic Revolution in Iran in the late 1970s, the IMN still maintains close ties with Tehran. It has long been at loggerheads with Nigeria's secular authorities and was banned in 2019.”

Mali

Reuters: Mali Drone Strikes Kill At Least 21 In Northern Town, Rebels Say

“At least 21 people, including 11 children, were killed by drone strikes on Sunday on the town of Tinzaouaten in north Mali, near where the army suffered a heavy blow last month, Tuareg rebels said. Mali had already carried out airstrikes on insurgent targets in and around Tinzaouaten shortly after Tuareg and Islamist fighters killed a large number of Malian soldiers and Russian Wagner mercenaries near the town in July. The town, located near the Algerian border, came under drone attack again on Sunday, a spokesperson for a rebel coalition known as the Strategic Framework for the Defence of the People of Azawad (CSP-DPA) said in a statement. The strikes targeted a pharmacy and gatherings of people, causing a provisional death toll of 21 civilians, including 11 children and the pharmacy manager. Dozens more were injured and there was severe material damage.”

France

The Washington Post: French Police Arrest Suspect In Arson Attack On Synagogue

“Police in France have arrested a suspect in an early-morning arson attack on a synagogue in the country’s south, the interior minister said late Saturday. Gérald Darmanin announced the arrest on X and said the suspect had fired at police seeking to apprehend him, but offered few other details. Earlier Saturday, authorities opened a terrorism investigation into the attack, which saw two cars explode outside a synagogue in La Grande-Motte, near Montpellier, as well as two fires lit at the door of the building. The vehicles, parked outside the Beth Yaacov synagogue, were set alight around 8 a.m., the Associated Press reported, citing a statement from the National Anti-terrorism Prosecutor’s Office. Four people and a rabbi were present at the time of the attack but were not harmed, officials said, though a police officer was injured after a propane gas tank inside one the cars detonated.”

Russia

Associated Press: Snipers Kill 4 Hostage-Takers At Russian Prison Who Claimed Allegiance To Islamic State Group

“Snipers from Russia’s National Guard on Friday killed four inmates who had stabbed four prison guards to death and briefly held others as hostages while declaring allegiance to the Islamic State group. The Federal Prison Service said that four inmates took eight prison guards and four inmates hostage. It said they stabbed four of the guards, three of whom died on the spot and the fourth one later died at a hospital. The agency said three other guards were hospitalized with injuries. Russia’s National Guard said its snipers “neutralized” all four attackers, freeing all the hostages, while the Federal Prison Service also claimed credit for killing the assailants. The discrepancy couldn’t be immediately explained. Details of the violence at the prison in Surovkino in the Volgograd region, 860 kilometers (535 miles) southeast of Moscow, were sparse and it was not clear how the inmates had taken hostages several hours earlier.”

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