Terrorism

Subterms

    More stories

    • 175 Shares189 Views

      in Elections

      Man Plotted to Kill Jews in New York on Oct. 7 Anniversary, U.S. Says

      by

      A 20-year-old Pakistani citizen was arrested in Canada after plotting to carry out a mass shooting at a Jewish center in New York, according to the Justice Department.A Pakistani citizen was arrested in Quebec this week and accused of plotting to kill “as many Jewish civilians as possible” in New York City on or near the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israelis, according to a Justice Department complaint unsealed Friday.Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, who lived in Canada, tried to cross the border with the intention of traveling to New York, where he planned to carry out a mass shooting at a Jewish center in Brooklyn, in support of the Islamic State, prosecutors said.“New york is perfect to target jews,” he wrote to an associate, according to the filing, adding, “We could rack up easily a lot of jews.”He also boasted that his plan would be “the largest Attack on US soil since 9/11,” the filing said.Mr. Khan was taken into custody by Canadian authorities on Wednesday after trying to enter the United States from Ormstown about 12 miles north of the New York State border. He changed vehicles three times en route to the border, perhaps to evade detection, prosecutors said.The complaint, filed in the Southern District of New York, also mentions an unnamed associate, but it was unclear whether that person was in custody, at large or an informant.Mr. Khan is charged with one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, ISIS, and faces up to 20 years in prison.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares199 Views

      in Elections

      Criticizing Trump, Harris Says Arlington Is ‘Not a Place for Politics’

      by

      Donald J. Trump’s campaign filmed him at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, which led to a confrontation between one of his political aides and a cemetery official. Vice President Kamala Harris excoriated former President Donald J. Trump on Saturday for his visit on Monday to Arlington National Cemetery, where his campaign’s filming of him in a heavily restricted area caused a confrontation between one of his political aides and a cemetery official. In her first public comments on the situation, Ms. Harris said that Mr. Trump had desecrated a solemn place that should be free of politics when he appeared there for a wreath-laying ceremony for 13 service members who were killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan during the withdrawal of U.S. troops three years ago. “Let me be clear: the former president disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt,” Ms. Harris wrote on X. Ms. Harris wrote that she had visited Arlington National Cemetery several times as vice president and that she would never attempt to use that setting for activities related to the campaign. “It’s not a place for politics,” she wrote. Mr. Trump, in recent days, has hit back hard at critics of his visit to the cemetery, saying that families of some of the fallen service members had asked him to take photos with them there. Soldiers at the Tomb of the Unknowns during former President Donald J. Trump’s visit, on Monday in Arlington, Va.Doug Mills/The New York TimesRepresentatives for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday, but his allies rushed to his defense, including his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio.“President Trump was there at the invitation of families whose loved ones died because of your incompetence,” Mr. Vance wrote on X, responding directly to Ms. Harris. “Why don’t you get off social media and go launch an investigation into their unnecessary deaths?”The Trump campaign has repeatedly criticized the chaotic withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan in 2021 during the Biden-Harris administration, which the former president has sought to cast as weak and dysfunctional. President Biden made the final decision to end America’s nearly 20-year military occupation in Afghanistan. But it was Mr. Trump who clinched a deal with the Afghan Taliban, setting a timeline for the U.S. exit.At a campaign event on Thursday in Potterville, Mich., Mr. Trump said that he was honored to take photos with the family members of some of the fallen service members at the cemetery and that Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris had “killed their children” with their “incompetence.” More

    • 113 Shares189 Views

      in Elections

      Major Israeli-Palestinian Clashes in the West Bank: A Timeline

      by

      Since Hamas’s surprise Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people, more than 580 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, according to the United Nations, as Israel has ramped up military raids there and violence by extremist Jewish settlers has increased.Many Palestinians have died in Jenin or its refugee camp, long strongholds of the armed groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad; in Tulkarm, a West Bank city near the Israeli border; and in the nearby Nur Shams neighborhood. On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it had begun a raid focusing on Jenin and Tulkarm, and that nine people it described as militants had been killed.Here are some of the notable recent Israeli military operations in the territory:July 3-5, 2023: Israel launched its largest military operation in years against armed groups in the West Bank, a raid meant to curb attacks by armed Palestinians on Israelis. Israel carried out deadly airstrikes, which had not happened there in about two decades.Twelve Palestinians were killed during the operation, which involved about 1,000 Israeli soldiers. Militant groups claimed at least nine of them as members. One Israeli soldier was also killed, possibly mistakenly by a fellow soldier. Thousands of people fled their homes and Israel detained and interrogated many others. Here are pictures of the raid.Oct. 19, 2023: At least 13 Palestinians and one Israeli officer were killed in clashes, less than two weeks after the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel. At least five of the 13 Palestinians were children.The worst clashes were in Nur Shams. Israel’s military said that it was “thwarting terrorist infrastructure and confiscating weapons” in the operation — and that Palestinians had fought back, shooting and throwing improvised bombs.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 100 Shares149 Views

      in Elections

      Solingen, Germany, Becomes Reluctant Symbol of Migration Battles

      by

      After a stabbing attack that prosecutors say was committed by a Syrian who was rejected for asylum, the city of Solingen finds itself at the center of a longstanding debate.Two days after a deadly knife attack in the German city of Solingen, the youth wing of the far-right AfD party put out a call for supporters to stage a protest demanding the government do more to deport migrants denied asylum.The authorities had identified the suspect in the stabbing spree that killed three people and wounded eight others as a Syrian man who was in the country despite having been denied asylum and who prosecutors suspected had joined the Islamic State. The attack tore at the fabric of the ethnically diverse, working-class city in the country’s west.But even before the right-wing protests had begun on Sunday, scores of counterprotesters had gathered in front of the group home that housed the suspect and other refugees. They carried banners that read, “Welcome to refugees” and “Fascism is not an opinion, but a crime,” and railed against those who would use the attack to further inflame an already fraught national debate over immigration and refugees.The dueling protests — not unlike those recently in Britain — are emblematic of Germany’s longstanding tug of war over how to deal with a large influx of asylum seekers in recent years. The country needs immigration to bolster its work force, but the government often finds itself on the defensive against an increasingly powerful AfD.The party and its supporters are attempting to use the stabbing attack to bolster their broader anti-immigrant message, with some blaming the assault on “uncontrolled migration” even before the nationality of the suspect was known.“They are trying to use this tragedy to foment fear,” said Matthias Marsch, 67, a Solingen resident who was at Sunday’s counterprotest and worries about a rightward drift in society. “I’m here to stand against that.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      At Least 38 Killed in Attacks in Southwestern Pakistan

      by

      At least 38 people have been killed in several assaults across Baluchistan Province since Sunday in what appears to be part of a campaign by armed separatists in the region.The violence began with blasts that ripped through a military camp in Pakistan’s Baluchistan Province late Sunday night, killing at least one soldier. Around the same time, armed men stormed into at least four police stations in the province, spraying bullets at officers and setting police vehicles on fire, local officials said.By daybreak, militants had destroyed a bridge, bringing the major railway that runs across it to a halt. Then early Monday morning, the violence hit its apex when gunmen held up traffic on a major highway, shooting and killing nearly two dozen people.Over a 24-hour period, the new wave of violence carried out by an armed separatist group has seized Baluchistan Province in southwestern Pakistan and left at least 38 people dead, worsening the country’s already deteriorating security situation.The spate of coordinated attacks in Baluchistan began on Sunday, as the group, the Baluch Liberation Army, or B.L.A., announced that it was starting a new operation across the province. The B.L.A. is one of several insurgent groups that has demanded the province’s independence from the central government in Islamabad.The deadliest single attack in the campaign so far unfolded in Musakhel, a district in Baluchistan, officials said, when armed men stopped traffic on a highway and demanded that passengers on buses and trucks show them their identity cards, officials said.The gunmen forced some of the passengers out of the vehicles, and then shot and killed them, officials said. Nearly all of the victims were from Punjab Province, officials said, and the gunmen set at least 10 buses and trucks ablaze before fleeing the area.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 113 Shares199 Views

      in Elections

      Telegram’s Top Executive Pavel Durov Reportedly Detained in France

      by

      The founder of Telegram, an app with more than 900 million users, was taken into custody by the authorities, French media reported.The French authorities on Saturday detained Pavel Durov, the top executive of the online communications platform Telegram, on charges related to the spread of illicit material on the service, according to French news reports.Mr. Durov, 39, a Russian-born entrepreneur, was reportedly arrested at Le Bourget Airport near Paris after landing from Azerbaijan. His detention could not immediately be confirmed.The Russian Embassy in France said in a statement on Sunday that it had asked the French authorities for clarification on news of the arrest.Representatives of the French police and Interior Ministry declined to comment and redirected questions to the Paris prosecutor’s office. The Paris prosecutor’s office, citing an open investigation, also declined to comment.Telegram did not respond to requests for comment.In an interview on Telegram, George Lobushkin, a former press secretary for Mr. Durov who remains close to him, wrote, “This is a monstrous attack on freedom of speech worldwide.”Telegram, with more than 900 million users, has long been on the radar of law enforcement agencies around the world because terrorist organizations, drug runners, weapons dealers and far-right extremist groups have used it for communicating, recruiting and organizing.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 75 Shares159 Views

      in Elections

      Suspect Arrested in French Synagogue Blast

      by

      Antiterrorism prosecutors said officers had taken a man into custody in connection with a blast outside a synagogue.French authorities announced Sunday shortly after midnight that they had detained a suspect in connection with Saturday morning’s attack on a synagogue in southern France, which is being investigated as a terrorist act.As law enforcement officers were trying to arrest the suspect around 11:30 p.m. Saturday, he opened fire, the antiterrorism prosecutor’s office said in a statement, adding that the officers had returned fire. In the process, the man was wounded in the face, the statement said. The extent of his injuries and whether the arresting officers were injured were not immediately clear.Two other people were also taken into custody, the statement said, referring to them as members of the suspect’s “entourage” without providing further details.The suspect was arrested in Nîmes, a city about 24 miles from La Grande Motte, the resort town on the southern coast where the attack took place. Two vehicles exploded outside a synagogue. The doors to the building were also set on fire, the antiterrorism prosecutor’s office said.French authorities have publicly condemned the attack, which comes during a time of mounting fears about antisemitism in the country. In the first three months of 2024, France recorded more than 360 antisemitic episodes. That is an average of four a day — and an increase of 300 percent over the same period in 2023, the government said.“To attack a French person because he is Jewish is to attack all French people,” Gabriel Attal, the prime minister, wrote on the social media platform X before the arrest, adding that nearly 200 law enforcement officers had been mobilized to find the suspect.The attack has sharpened anxiety and reopened painful memories for Jews across France, which has the largest Jewish population in Western Europe and a history of deadly, antisemitic attacks and messaging.The war in Gaza has only heightened tensions and debates about antisemitism in France, where antisemitism and support for Israel emerged as prominent themes in the recent national elections.The far-right National Rally party, once known for antisemitism and tinged with Nazi nostalgia, emphatically expressed its support for Israel. The left, by contrast, tends to be pro-Palestinian in policies and statements. The attack on the synagogue in La Grande Motte could have been far worse. Five people, including the rabbi, were inside when the vehicles exploded. No one was killed, but one police officer responding to the explosions was hurt when a gas bottle near one of the vehicles exploded, the antiterrorism unit said.National antiterrorism prosecutors are investigating the episode as a terrorism-motivated assassination attempt, among other charges.“We probably avoided an absolute tragedy,” Mr. Attal, the prime minister, wrote on X.Aurelien Breeden More

    • 125 Shares119 Views

      in Elections

      German Prosecutors Say They Suspect Terrorist Link in Festival Stabbings

      by

      The police say they have arrested a man they believe killed three people and wounded eight others at a festival in the town of Solingen, in western Germany.An attack on a crowd by a man armed with a large knife at a festival that left three dead and eight wounded in the city of Solingen, in western Germany, is being treated as terrorism, the federal prosecutor’s office said on Sunday.The suspect is a 26-year-old man from Syria who was living in a refugee residence only a few hundred meters from where the attack took place, the police said on Sunday. The man, wearing bloodstained clothes, approached a police car and gave himself up after 11 p.m. Saturday, the police said.In the attack on Friday night, the assailant aimed for his victims’ necks to inflict as much damage as possible, the police said.Besides planning to bring murder and attempted murder charges in the case against the man, the federal prosecutor is looking into whether he was a member of a foreign terrorist organization, Ines Peterson, a spokeswoman for the office, said on Sunday in an emailed statement.The Islamic State extremist group praised the attacker as a “soldier of the Islamic state,” but it was unclear whether the group had any connection to this particular attack.The far-right Alternative for Germany party, which has campaigned largely on an anti-foreigner platform and is poised to make significant gains in three state elections next month, jumped on the news. Even before the identity of the attacker was confirmed by the police, one of its leaders called for changes to “migration and security policy.”The authorities had earlier arrested two people who were later determined unlikely to have been the actual attackers, Herbert Reul, the state interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, where Solingen is, said in an interview on Saturday with a German broadcaster, ARD.A 15-year-old boy, who was arrested early Saturday, is being investigated for not having alerted the police when he learned about imminent plans to attack, prosecutors said. A man arrested by a heavily armed police unit on Saturday evening in the refugee housing facility where the main suspect also lived is being treated as a witness, the police and Mr. Reul said.On Saturday, Solingen’s mayor, the state governor and other political leaders gathered on a downtown square several hundred yards from where the attack took place to mourn the victims. It was an eerie repeat of a similar impromptu service held in Mannheim, another town in western Germany, where only three months ago an Afghan refugee attacked an anti-immigrant rally with a knife and killed a police officer trying to intervene.On Sunday, which was supposed to be the final day of a festival celebrating a city best known for making knives and scissors, a group of mourners met at a service held in a church next to the site of the attack. More