Tag: Al-Qaeda

Turkish Police Foil Al-Qaeda US Embassy Plot

Turkish police have uncovered and foiled an alleged plot by Al-Qaeda to bomb the United States embassy in Ankara, as well as a synagogue and other targets in Istanbul, Turkish media reported on Friday.

As a result of a February raid in Istanbul and the northeastern city of Corlu, police had arrested 12 people, including eight Turks, two Azeris and two Chechens, and seized 22 kilograms of explosives, CNNTurk reported.

Police also found documents that allegedly revealed plans by the group, which they described as a Turkish cell of Al-Qaeda, to attack a synagogue and a museum in Istanbul.

The embassy in Ankara was the target of a suicide bombing on February 1, which killed a Turkish security guard. That attack was claimed by a radical Marxist and anti-US armed group, The Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front (DHKP-C), blacklisted by the United States and the European Union as a terrorist organization.

via Turkish Police Foil Al-Qaeda US Embassy Plot – Middle East – News – Israel National News.

April 13, 2013
U.S. Embassy in Ankara, synagogue in Istanbul alleged al-Qaida targets

ISTANBUL, Turkey, April 12 (UPI) — The U.S. Embassy in Ankara was targeted to be bombed by an alleged Turkish al-Qaida cell whose members were trained in Afghanistan, Turkish police said.

Police seized nearly 50 pounds of plastic explosives with detonation systems attached, along with 10 rifles and guns, six laptop computers and other evidence, police said.

Twelve people — two Chechens, two Azerbaijanis and eight Turks — were arrested in two raids, police said.

The raids — which occurred in February but were only now reported — occurred in the northwestern city of Tekirdag and Istanbul, police said.

All 12 people were believed to be members of al-Qaida terrorist cells, the Dogan News Agency said.

The U.S. Embassy issued a travel warning at the time but said police had provided no specific threat information about the targets.

It had no immediate comment Friday.

The U.S. Embassy was the target of a suicide bomb attack in February that killed a Turkish security guard and severely injured a local resident. But that attack was attributed to an extreme left-wing organization, not Islamic militants.

The arrested alleged attackers also planned to bomb an Istanbul synagogue and the private Rahmi M. Koc Museum, police said. They additionally intended to attack Turkish TV personality-actor Acun Ilicali and author Adnan Oktar, also known as Harun Yahya, an Islamic creationist who speaks against evolution, the news agency said.

via U.S. Embassy in Ankara, synagogue in Istanbul alleged al-Qaida targets – UPI.com.

April 13, 2013
Report: Istanbul US Consulate Plans Found in Terror Raid

By LEE FERRAN (@leeferran)

Feb. 28, 2013

Turkish news outlets reported today that local security forces found sketches of the U.S. consulate in Istanbul along with explosives during a multi-city raid against suspected terrorists.

The private Dogan News Agency, as well as the English-language Today’s Zaman, reported 11 alleged members of al Qaeda were arrested in a counter-terror operation Wednesday in Istanbul and the northwestern city of Tekirdag.

Today’s Zaman said the suspects were arrested “after reportedly planning to stage terrorist attacks on targets in Istanbul, including the U.S. Consulate, a synagogue and a church.” Dogan reported 25 kg of explosives were seized “along with some sketches of the U.S. General Consulate of Istanbul.” Several firearms were also reportedly confiscated.

Police in Istanbul and Tekirdag declined to comment on Dogan’s report to The Associated Press. A U.S. State Department Diplomatic Security official told ABC News the department was aware of the reports but declined to comment further.

via Report: Istanbul US Consulate Plans Found in Terror Raid – ABC News.

March 1, 2013
Damascus letter accuses Turkey of harboring al-Qaeda terrorists

By Al Arabiya with agencies

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad (L) meets with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Damascus August 9, 2011. Assad had said his forces would continue to pursue “terrorist groups” (Reuters)

A letter attacking Turkey’s “destructive” role in the Syrian conflict has been sent from President Bashar al-Assad’s regime to the United Nations on Friday, according to Syrian state media.

The Syrian foreign ministry’s letter accuses Turkey of harboring “terrorists from Al-Qaeda’s network”, the SANA news agency said.

The ministry also accused Ankara of taking “increasingly hostile stances towards Syria, by blockin. measures taken by Damascus for a political solution to the crisis” that the U.N. says has left some 70,000 people dead.

The letter, published by SANA, also criticizes Turkey for “pressuring Syrian opposition members to refuse a political plan” proposed in a speech Assad on January 9.

Assad in the rare speech offered negotiations to end the conflict but only to opposition groups with no links to rebels the regime considers to be “terrorists.”

The proposal was rejected by Western and Arab countries, as well as by Turkey and the Syrian opposition, including dissident groups tolerated by Assad’s regime.

“Turkey supports and publicly justifies terrorist, destructive acts” against Syria, said the ministry in letters addressed to the U.N. Security Council and to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

“Turkey has turned its territory into camps used to house, train, finance and infiltrate armed terrorist groups, chief among them the Al-Qaeda network and the Al-Nusra Front,” said the letter.

Strike back

Earlier on Friday, Turkish artillery struck back after a shell fired from neighboring Syria ploughed into Turkish territory without causing any casualties, the state-run news agency reported.

The shell fell near the town of Yayladag in Hatay province near the border with Syria and Turkish forces retaliated immediately, Anatolia said.

Since Syrian fire killed five Turks on October 3, Turkey has systematically retaliated to every cross-border shelling.

Key opposition backer Turkey early in the revolt against Assad broke ties with Damascus and has led international calls for his ouster.

Some 200,000 Syrian refugees have fled the conflict in their country for Turkey, many of them living in insalubrious camps.

Assad’s regime views dissidents and insurgents as foreign-backed “terrorists” whose aim is to destroy Syria.

Al-Nusra Front, which the United States says has links to Al-Qaeda, has been listed by Washington as a “terrorist” organization.

Its jihadists have claimed responsibility for most suicide bombings that have shaken Syria in the spiraling conflict.

Violence continues

Syria’s rebels captured a military airbase in the northern province of Aleppo on Friday and geared for a major battle against loyalist forces for control of two nearby strategic airports, a watchdog said.

The rebels, from the Islamist Al-Nusra Front and the Muhajireen battalion, overran the base in Sfeira, east of Aleppo international airport, and captured a large stockpile of ammunition, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based watchdog also reported intermittent clashes around Aleppo international airport itself as well as around Nayrab airbase and another military complex, as the two sides squared up for a major fight.

“The army shelled the area around Aleppo international airport and Nayrab air base on Friday morning, while rebels used home-made rockets to shell Nayrab,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

“The army is preparing a large-scale operation to take back control of Base 80,” he added of a military complex tasked with managing both Nayrab and Aleppo airports.

Rebels seized the base on Wednesday after a battle that left at least 150 dead from both sides, among them senior army officers, said the Observatory.

Insurgents fighting President Bashar al-Assad’s regime “are trying to take control of Nayrab and to destroy the runways at Aleppo international airport, which the army is using for military purposes,” Abdel Rahman said.

Activists in Aleppo have said the rebel Free Syrian Army shifted its focus weeks ago from the city to airbases in the province.

Insurgents see the capture of airports such as Al-Jarrah, also in Aleppo province, on Tuesday as a way of seizing large amounts of ammunition and to put out of action warplanes used by the regime to bombard rebel-held areas.

Regime tanks, meanwhile, shelled the town of Khan Sheikhun in the province of Idlib, killing at least 11 civilians, said the Observatory.

In Damascus, the army shelled the eastern district of Jobar, where rebels have set up enclaves, the Britain-based group said.

See here what is left of Assad’s regime: The Lion’s Den

via Damascus letter accuses Turkey of harboring al-Qaeda terrorists.

February 16, 2013
Islamic extremism: The languages of jihad

Islamic extremism

The languages of jihad

Islamic extremists are an increasingly multilingual bunch, especially online

Feb 16th 2013 |From the print edition

Aussi disponible en français

ARABIC was for long the unchallenged language of Islamic extremism. Its speakers far outnumber any other linguistic group. Arab lands are the most fruitful recruiting grounds. Without Arabic, tyros may struggle at training camps and on the battlefield. And fluency implies piety: the language of the Koran also connotes learning and wisdom.

But the once monoglot world of jihad is increasingly multilingual. Al-Qaeda has long advocated the creation of self-starting, independent terrorist cells. Materials are being produced in the language of any part of the world that has a Muslim minority and thus potential sympathisers, says Thomas Hegghammer, an expert on violent extremism. Translations are appearing in the languages of countries where jihadist leaders want to see further activity.

In his 1,600-page opus, “The Call to Global Islamic Resistance”, released in 2005, Abu Musab al-Suri, an al-Qaeda strategist, called for jihadi materials to be released in other tongues, including English. Over the past ten years grassroots activists who connect with each other online have published ever more on the internet in an ever greater variety of languages, says Aaron Zelin, a research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who runs a website called Jihadology.

Groups such as Fursan al-Balagh Media and Al Qadisiyah Media (which specialises in Asian languages such as Bengali, Hindi and Urdu) translate jihadi propaganda. In one document Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud, leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, warns Western powers considering action in Mali: “If you want it [sic] a war then we will meet your desire and the Great Sahara will be the grave of your soldiers and an annihilation for your money, Allah willing.” Organisations such as the Global Islamic Media Front, a virtual entity, then vet such stuff and distribute it. The international version of Ansar al-Mujahidin, a big online forum, is a clamour of different languages. English is foremost, but publications are also available in Albanian, Bosnian, Filipino, French, German, Italian, Pushtu, Spanish, Urdu and Uighur.

Militant groups need to reach enemies as well as possible friends. Threats lose their impact if the infidels do not understand the scolding. On the Ansar forum an al-Qaeda statement condemns the intervention in Mali of “crusader France” and threatens retribution—in French as well as English.

Effective public-relations campaigns require not only English, but also the use of social media. Hence the eagerness of the al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab militia that controls most of south Somalia to tweet in English. Fewer than 5,000 people follow its Arabic Twitter feed (and under 500 follow the Somali one). But more than 20,000 subscribed to the English tweets by the time Twitter closed the account in January (it had carried threats to kill two Kenyan hostages if the Kenyan government did not respond to the group’s demands). A new account set up this month gained 2,000 followers in a week. Its tweets have lost none of the old menace. “Arm yourself,” urges one, “a #Mujahid would loathe to fight the unarmed.”

From the print edition: International

via Islamic extremism: The languages of jihad | The Economist.

February 16, 2013
Turkey-US Tension Develops Over Al-Qaeda Member

By: Deniz Zeyrek Translated from Radikal.

The media coverage of U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone’s meeting with journalists this week focused mostly on the DHKP-C suicide attack [at the U.S. embassy in Ankara], his criticism of the judiciary and Kurdish problems. But the picture the ambassador painted shows that the current state of bilateral ties is not very promising, let alone human rights violations in Turkey. The two countries are deeply divided on Iraq, Syria, Israel and Iran. Now they have also a crisis over al-Qaeda.

About This Article

Summary :Recent remarks by the U.S. ambassador to Turkey suggest that bilateral ties between the two states are waning, with Turkey’s stance toward al-Qaeda member Suleiman Abu Ghaith being a point of contention, writes Deniz Zeyrek.Publisher: Radikal (Turkey)
Original Title:
Turkey-US Tension Over Ghaith
Author: Deniz Zeyrek
First Published: February 7, 2013
Posted on: February 8 2013
Translated by: Sibel Utku Bila

Washington has already complained of Turkey’s failure to take a clear stance against al-Qaeda militants fighting Assad in Syria and its reluctance to fully join the global alliance against the financing of terrorism, especially of al-Qaeda. Nowadays Washington is irked that Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a prominent al-Qaeda figure, is treated as an ordinary asylum seeker in Ankara.

‘Outside actors’ in Syria

The U.S. ambassador may argue that Turkey and the United States have similar approaches on Syria, but the situation on the ground is quite different. In Ankara’s view, the clout of al-Qaeda affiliated groups in Syria and the risk of a sectarian conflict are being exaggerated, but those groups will grow stronger if Assad’s departure is further delayed.

Ankara denies that jihadists are being allowed to use Turkish territory. The United States agrees that foreign groups will become stronger if the transition process is protracted, but is already alarmed over their presence in Syria. Commenting on the issue, Ricciardone said: “It is a complicated question with no easy answers. We are concerned about outside actors. We are worried that they are obstructing and high-jacking the struggle of the Syrian people. That is a very serious worry! The reason why we are so cautious [on Syria] is that we want to make sure of whom we are supporting.”

Terrorist or ordinary asylum seeker?

Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan often accuses Westerners, especially Europeans, of tolerating terrorists active in Turkey. However, the picture that Ricciardone paints indicates that Turkey itself differentiates between “my terrorists and the terrorists of others” when it comes to issues of “terrorism” that Westerners focus on. The ambassador argues that the problem stems from Turkey’s failure to straighten its legislation on terrorism and points to the controversy in Turkey over the draft law on money laundering and terror financing.

A fresh problem that erupted ten days ago has fuelled the debate on double standards. It emerged that Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a senior aide of Bin Laden, had entered Turkey from Iran and settled in a hotel in Ankara. He was detained at the bequest of the United States, but was soon released on grounds he had committed no crime in Turkey. The authorities continue to hold him as “a guest” because he does not have a passport.

Washington has asked to interrogate Ghaith and take him to the United States under an agreement on the extradition of criminals. However, it has not been allowed to do so, with Ankara digging in its heels and asking for some papers. What irks the Americans most is the prospect of Ghaith being deported to Iran or another country of his choice instead of being handed over to them. Tough bargaining over Ghaith is currently under way between Washington and Ankara.

Concerns over a Kurdish state

The United States and Israel both believe that the emergence of a Kurdish state in the north of Iraq will be at odds with their regional strategies. They believe that such a development would divert energy supply routes to the Strait of Hormuz, which is controlled by Iran. The issue has led to disagreements between Ankara and Washington.

Ricciardone’s comments on the topic are extremely delicate but amount to a virtual lesson of foreign policy. Iraq’s territorial integrity, which used to be a “red line” for Turkey back in 2003, is today an indispensable condition for Israel and the United States, who worry that Iraq’s break-up would produce a second large Shiite state alongside Iran and result in full Iranian control over the Persian Gulf.

When Ricciardone says that Turkey should “have access to and become a route for not only 20% of the oil and gas in Iraq but 100%, and that high-quality Turkish goods should be sold not only in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, but also in Basra and Baghdad,” he is in fact criticizing Turkey’s regional vision. He implies that Ankara is failing to see the forest for the trees.

Turkey-Israel tensions

The United States sees good relations between Turkey and Israel as a “must” for its regional strategies and wants Turkey to end the heavy sanctions it is imposing on Israel. Turkey, however, is not only refusing to move an inch back but is adding new sanctions. Most recently, Turkey on Jan. 23 vetoed Israel’s membership in the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), ignoring insistent U.S. advice to the contrary.

The Turkish media had reported that the first foreign trip of new U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry would be to Turkey, and that Prime Minister Erdogan would visit Washington in February. It turns out, however, that foreign ministry undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu’s recent visit to Washington has resulted in a conclusion that it is too early for Kerry to come to Ankara, and for Erdogan to go to Washington. In response to a question on the issue, Ricciardone said the new U.S. secretary of state had a very busy schedule, that no date had been fixed, and that he would visit when mutual schedules permit. With respect to Erdogan’s prospective visit to Washington, Ricciardone said that “it seems possible this year,” which is a noteworthy expression.

February 9, 2013