Iraqi militia groups condemn Brussels terrorist attack

[Bleipriester]

The PMU condemns the attack in Brussels and calls for support in the war on ISIS.

PMU statement about Brussel

 

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Bomb maker killed, people mourn...

Officials: Paris bombmaker among dead in Brussels attack
Mar 23,`16 -- The suspected bombmaker in the Paris attacks in November was one of two suicide bombers who targeted the Brussels airport, officials said Wednesday, in a new sign that both attacks are linked to the same cell of the Islamic State group.

The revelation that Najim Laachraoui was among the bombers came as Belgians began three days of mourning for the victims of the Brussels airport and subway bombings. The country remained on high alert as authorities hunted for one of the suspected attackers seen on surveillance video with Laachraoui and one other suicide bomber. Turkish authorities, meanwhile, said they had caught one of the suicide bombers near the Turkish-Syrian border in July and sent him back to the Netherlands, warning both that country and Belgium that he was a "foreign terrorist fighter." But a Turkish official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly said the bomber was allowed to go free because Belgian authorities could not establish any ties to extremism.

People mourn for the victims of the bombings at the Place de la Bourse in the center of Brussels, Wednesday, March 23, 2016. Bombs exploded yesterday at the Brussels airport and one of the city's metro stations Tuesday, killing and wounding scores of people, as a European capital was again locked down amid heightened security threats.​

Belgian authorities had been looking for Laachraoui since last week, suspecting him of being an accomplice of top Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam, who was arrested on Friday. Two officials told The Associated Press that Laachraoui's DNA was verified as that of one of the suicide bombers Tuesday, after samples were taken from remains found at the blast site at Brussels airport. One European official and one French police official spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to divulge details of the Belgian investigation. Both officials were briefed on the investigation.

Laachraoui is believed to have made the suicide vests used in the Paris attacks, a French police official told The Associated Press, adding that Laachraoui's DNA was found on all of the vests as well as in a Brussels apartment where they were made. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation. Several people who may be linked to the attacks were still on the loose and the country's threat alert remained at its highest level, meaning there was danger of an imminent attack, said Paul Van Tigchelt, head of Belgium's terrorism threat body. The attacks killed 31 people, not including three suicide bombers, and injured 270 others, authorities said.

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Tributes pour in for victims
Tuesday, Mar. 22, 2016 - Mourners write messages and light candles to pay respects to at least 31 victims and scores of injured in three bomb attacks in Brussels. The Islamic State terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attacks in Brussels airport and a metro station.

People light candles at the Place de la Bourse following attacks in Brussels, Belgium.​

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Don't panic: the Brussels attacks show Isil is losing its war on terror in the West
Wednesday 23 March 2016 - Despite Tuesday's carnage, the feared "lone wolfers" are proving to be lambs

This may not seem like a good time to argue that Isil's terror campaign in the West has been a failure. As of this morning, 34 people are dead and hundreds more injured after Tuesday's bombs in Brussels, and there are fears that more terrorists are about to strike. The Belgian capital's authorities, meanwhile, has advised the world to avoid "non-essential travel" to their city, a level of caution normally only applied to places like Baghdad.

Yet if we consider the situation in perspective - something I accept may be hard if you were in Brussels airport on Tuesday - many of the signs are that Isil's campaign to bring slaughter to Europe is already on the wane. Tuesday's attackers were not some entirely new outfit, but part of the same network that carried out the Paris attacks, and which was gradually being taken down by police until last week.

The carnage at the airport came just four days after one of their main players - Paris attacks "fixer" Salah Abdeslam - was arrested in Brussels, since when he has co-operated with police, according to his lawyer. Which means his accomplices probably felt they had to act quickly before they too were tracked down. Yet since Drummer Rigby's murder three years ago, the number of lone wolf attacks has actually been vanishingly small. Yes, there have been gun attacks and knifings here and there - such the one at Leytonstone Tube last December. But given the millions of Muslims that Isil is trying to reach out to in America and Europe, the take-up rate is not very high.

Remember, also, that Isil has been at the absolute height of its powers for most of the last two years, riding high on its creation of the "Caliphate" after seizing Mosul in June 2014. If it can't inspire people to act in great numbers now, it probably never will. And besides, with every passing week, its bubble is bursting, as coalition airstrikes dent its sense of military invincibility, and as Isil defectors speak of the disappointing realities on the ground. Ah, but what about when all those Isil supporters with British passports return home? Won't there be havoc from so-called "blowback"? A degree of that, yes, is a near-inevitability - but it may be nowhere near as bad as feared.

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[Bleipriester]

Bomb maker killed, people mourn...

Officials: Paris bombmaker among dead in Brussels attack
Mar 23,`16 -- The suspected bombmaker in the Paris attacks in November was one of two suicide bombers who targeted the Brussels airport, officials said Wednesday, in a new sign that both attacks are linked to the same cell of the Islamic State group.

The revelation that Najim Laachraoui was among the bombers came as Belgians began three days of mourning for the victims of the Brussels airport and subway bombings. The country remained on high alert as authorities hunted for one of the suspected attackers seen on surveillance video with Laachraoui and one other suicide bomber. Turkish authorities, meanwhile, said they had caught one of the suicide bombers near the Turkish-Syrian border in July and sent him back to the Netherlands, warning both that country and Belgium that he was a "foreign terrorist fighter." But a Turkish official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly said the bomber was allowed to go free because Belgian authorities could not establish any ties to extremism.

People mourn for the victims of the bombings at the Place de la Bourse in the center of Brussels, Wednesday, March 23, 2016. Bombs exploded yesterday at the Brussels airport and one of the city's metro stations Tuesday, killing and wounding scores of people, as a European capital was again locked down amid heightened security threats.​

Belgian authorities had been looking for Laachraoui since last week, suspecting him of being an accomplice of top Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam, who was arrested on Friday. Two officials told The Associated Press that Laachraoui's DNA was verified as that of one of the suicide bombers Tuesday, after samples were taken from remains found at the blast site at Brussels airport. One European official and one French police official spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to divulge details of the Belgian investigation. Both officials were briefed on the investigation.

Laachraoui is believed to have made the suicide vests used in the Paris attacks, a French police official told The Associated Press, adding that Laachraoui's DNA was found on all of the vests as well as in a Brussels apartment where they were made. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation. Several people who may be linked to the attacks were still on the loose and the country's threat alert remained at its highest level, meaning there was danger of an imminent attack, said Paul Van Tigchelt, head of Belgium's terrorism threat body. The attacks killed 31 people, not including three suicide bombers, and injured 270 others, authorities said.

MORE

See also:

Tributes pour in for victims
Tuesday, Mar. 22, 2016 - Mourners write messages and light candles to pay respects to at least 31 victims and scores of injured in three bomb attacks in Brussels. The Islamic State terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attacks in Brussels airport and a metro station.

People light candles at the Place de la Bourse following attacks in Brussels, Belgium.​

MORE

Related:

Don't panic: the Brussels attacks show Isil is losing its war on terror in the West
Wednesday 23 March 2016 - Despite Tuesday's carnage, the feared "lone wolfers" are proving to be lambs

This may not seem like a good time to argue that Isil's terror campaign in the West has been a failure. As of this morning, 34 people are dead and hundreds more injured after Tuesday's bombs in Brussels, and there are fears that more terrorists are about to strike. The Belgian capital's authorities, meanwhile, has advised the world to avoid "non-essential travel" to their city, a level of caution normally only applied to places like Baghdad.

Yet if we consider the situation in perspective - something I accept may be hard if you were in Brussels airport on Tuesday - many of the signs are that Isil's campaign to bring slaughter to Europe is already on the wane. Tuesday's attackers were not some entirely new outfit, but part of the same network that carried out the Paris attacks, and which was gradually being taken down by police until last week.

The carnage at the airport came just four days after one of their main players - Paris attacks "fixer" Salah Abdeslam - was arrested in Brussels, since when he has co-operated with police, according to his lawyer. Which means his accomplices probably felt they had to act quickly before they too were tracked down. Yet since Drummer Rigby's murder three years ago, the number of lone wolf attacks has actually been vanishingly small. Yes, there have been gun attacks and knifings here and there - such the one at Leytonstone Tube last December. But given the millions of Muslims that Isil is trying to reach out to in America and Europe, the take-up rate is not very high.

Remember, also, that Isil has been at the absolute height of its powers for most of the last two years, riding high on its creation of the "Caliphate" after seizing Mosul in June 2014. If it can't inspire people to act in great numbers now, it probably never will. And besides, with every passing week, its bubble is bursting, as coalition airstrikes dent its sense of military invincibility, and as Isil defectors speak of the disappointing realities on the ground. Ah, but what about when all those Isil supporters with British passports return home? Won't there be havoc from so-called "blowback"? A degree of that, yes, is a near-inevitability - but it may be nowhere near as bad as feared.

MORE

Apparently, we should be careful, no matter what this articles say. ISIS has thousands of supporters worldwide and it is obvious that - particularly in Europe, where people enter even without ID check - an ISIS bomb can explode at any time in almost any place.


"A former fighter of the Islamic State calling himself ‘Abu Hamed’ has contacted the British journalist Stuart Ramsey from Sky News with stolen ISIS documents based of a memory stick which covers extensive information regarding 22.000 ISIS supporters from over 50 different countries. The memory stick has since been passed on to the British police.

Abu Hamed, who initially fought with the Free Syrian Army but since switched to the Islamic State had become upset with the latter’s leadership which in turn caused him to turn his back on Abu al-Baghdadi and his self-proclaimed caliphate. Apparently, the memory stick was stolen from the head of the ISIS’ internal security force."
ISIS declares war on UAE

 

[waltky]

More jihadis to come...

IS Trains 400 Fighters to Attack Europe in Wave of Bloodshed
Mar 24, 2016 | The Islamic State group has trained at least 400 fighters to target Europe in deadly waves of attacks, deploying interlocking terror cells like the ones that struck Brussels and Paris with orders to choose the time, place and method for maximum chaos, officials have told The Associated Press.

The network of agile and semiautonomous cells shows the reach of the extremist group in Europe even as it loses ground in Syria and Iraq. The officials, including European and Iraqi intelligence officials and a French lawmaker who follows the jihadi networks, described camps in Syria, Iraq and possibly the former Soviet bloc where attackers are trained to target the West. Before being killed in a police raid, the ringleader of the Nov. 13 Paris attacks claimed he had entered Europe in a multinational group of 90 fighters, who scattered "more or less everywhere."

But the biggest break yet in the Paris attacks investigation -- the arrest on Friday of fugitive Salah Abdeslam -- did not thwart the multipronged attack just four days later on the Belgian capital's airport and subway system that left 31 people dead and an estimated 270 wounded. Three suicide bombers also died. Just as in Paris, Belgian authorities were searching for at least one fugitive in Tuesday's attacks -- this time for a man wearing a white jacket who was seen on airport security footage with the two suicide attackers. The fear is that the man, whose identity Belgian officials say is not known, will follow Abdeslam's path.

http://images.military.com/media/people/brussels-suspects-804-ts600.jpg[/img]
A screengrab of the airport CCTV camera shows suspects from the attacks at Brussels Airport pushing a trolley with suitcases​

After fleeing Paris immediately after the November attacks, Abdeslam forged a new network back in his childhood neighborhood of Molenbeek, long known as a haven for jihadis, and renewed plotting, according to Belgian officials. "Not only did he drop out of sight, but he did so to organize another attack, with accomplices everywhere. With suicide belts. Two attacks organized just like in Paris. And his arrest, since they knew he was going to talk, it was a response: 'So what if he was arrested? We'll show you that it doesn't change a thing,'" said French Senator Nathalie Goulet, co-head of a commission tracking jihadi networks.

Estimates range from 400 to 600 Islamic State fighters trained specifically for external attacks, according to the officials, including Goulet. Some 5,000 Europeans have gone to Syria. "The reality is that if we knew exactly how many there were, it wouldn't be happening," she said. More than four sources with access to tallies of fighters tasked with Europe attacks independently corroborated the numbers of fighters who trained for specific attacks in Europe, including some who have spoken to fighters directly. Others have cross checked information regarding fighters leaving or returning.

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Iraq Says It's Launched Offensive to Recapture IS-Held Mosul
Mar 24, 2016 | The Iraqi military backed by U.S.-led coalition aircraft on Thursday launched a long-awaited operation to recapture the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State militants, a military spokesman said.

In the push, Iraqi forces retook several villages on the outskirts of the town of Makhmour, east of Mosul, early in the morning on Thursday and hoisted the Iraqi flag there, according to the spokesman for the Joint Military Command, Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool. It was not immediately clear how long such a complex and taxing offensive would take. Only recently, Iraqi and U.S. officials refrained to give a specific time on when the Mosul operation could begin, saying it would take many months to prepare Iraq's still struggling military for the long-anticipated task of retaking the key city. Some U.S. and Iraqi officials have said it may not even be possible to retake it this year, despite repeated vows by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

Shiite militiamen head to the front line to fight Islamic State group militants in the Samarra desert, on the border between Anbar and Salahuddin provinces, Iraq​

Iraqi state-run TV interrupted its morning program Thursday with a series of news alerts announcing the operation and broadcasting patriotic songs and flag-waving video clips. Rasool told The Associated Press that the U.S.-led international coalition was providing air support but would not divulge more details on the offensive, which he said was dubbed "Operation Conquest." According to an official at the military's provincial Nineveh Operations Command, the aim of the first phase of the Mosul offensive was to clear the areas between Makmour and the adjacent Qayara area to the east of the Tigris River, and to cut one of the supply lines to the nearby Shirqat area. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Mosul -- Iraq's second-largest city -- fell to the Islamic State group during the militants' June 2014 onslaught that captured large swaths of northern and western Iraq and also neighboring Syria. Mosul, about 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad, became also the largest city in the Islamic State group's self-declared caliphate on the territories the militants control. Rasool's declaration came only few days after the United States announced that it has set up a small Marine artillery outpost in northern Iraq to protect a nearby Iraqi military base in Makhmour -- the likely staging ground for a Mosul assault, located 40 miles (67 kilometers) southeast of the city. On Saturday, the militants fired two rockets at the base, killing a U.S. Marine and wounding several others.

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