Terrorism

With the evolution and proliferation of drone technology, ordnance disposal units are now facing a new and worrisome threat, the Flying IED.

The upper chamber of the Russian parliament has unanimously given a formal consent to President Putin to use the nation’s military in Syria to fight terrorism at a request from the Syrian President Bashar Assad. Consent was necessary for deployment of troops for foreign combat missions under the Russian constitution.

A suicide attacker drove a vehicle loaded with explosives into the gate of the Jazeera Palace Hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia, earlier today, killing 13 people. The car bomb exploded at the hotel's main gate. The bomb destroyed part of the hotel and caused damage to nearby structures.

Turkish fighter jets have struck Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Islamic State (ISIS) targets in Syria and Iraq yesterday. This action was followed by the detention of hundreds of suspected Kurdish militants, in a coordinated crackdown, as Ankara deployed military force for the first time against the terrorist group, in retaliation to ISIS suicide attacks and assassination of Turkish policemen, attributed to the PKK.

An explosion ripped through a rally Monday in the Turkish border town of Suruc, leaving at least 27 people dead and wounding 100 others Authorities blamed the attack was a terrorist attack but did not specify which terror group was behind it, the country's Interior Ministry said. The explosion occurred at midday at the Amara Cultural Park in Suruc, where a group had gathered Suruc is across the border from that Syrian city, which was the scene of intense fighting between Syrian rebels and Kurdish forces and ISIS.

A series of blasts rocked the Gaza district of Sheikh Radwan, a Hamas stronghold. The blasts wounded two people and destroyed at least five cars belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants. The blasts come amid a power struggle between Hamas and Islamist extremist groups in Gaza. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The French police interrupted plans of four Frenchmen who plotted to attack Fort Béar a French naval commando base near Port-Vendres. The perpetrators planned to capture and behead a military officer at the base. The team planned their attack after viewing Islamic State (IS) videos on the web and contacting an ISIS fighter in Syria.

The U.S. military is launching 'Operation Jade Helm 15' today, a large scale exercise taking place over several states. The Special Operations Command (USASOC) will supply the vast majority of the roughly 1,200 personnel participating in the joint exercise, along with units from the Navy, Marines and the Air Force. The exercise will span over two months, from July 15 through September 15.

Missile defense systems have reportedly been installed on Israeli commercial flights servicing the southern city of Eilat. The system, developed by Elbit Systems has been approved for service on commercial airliners last year and has been selectively deployed on international flights to destinations deemed 'high risk' by Israel's security services.

Saudi-led air strikes killed at least 16 people in Yemen on Friday, the country's dominant Houthi militia said. Elsewhere on Yemen's battlefields, a drone(likely operated by the US) targeted an army base held by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in southeastern Yemen in the early hours, killing four suspected militants, witnesses said. The base is near Mukalla, the Hadramout provincial capital which had been the target of several drones attacks in recent weeks including one that killed AQAP leader Nasser al-Wuhayshi.

A video recently aired on YouTube shows an alarming situation happening in Iraq, where heavy equipment delivered by the U.S. To the Iraqi Army reaches extremist groups in the country - some are jihadists fighting against the government (ISIS and its supporters) and others are Iranian backed extremist groups presently supporting the Iraqi Forces. The convo shown in this video...

An explosives-laden Pakistani trawler blew itself up late on December 31 night after being intercepted by the Indian Coast Guard in the Arabian Sea off Porbandar, Gujarat.

As the Western US lead coalition allies are dragging their feet trying to curb ISIS operations in the Middle East, it seems that the coveted "boots on the ground" could eventually come from the east - where China faces a growing ISIS-inspired subversive activity in the strategic Xinjiang province.

As the Islamic State continues its armed campaign in Iraq and Syria, its ideology is drawing fans and fighters from as far as Southern Asia and China. While the attack in Australia drew the world attention to the threat from 'lone wolf' attacks by ISIS volunteers returning home, elsewhere in Asia insurgency is more organized - four new terrorist organizations are already aiming to establish an Islamic Caliphate in the Far East region called Daulah Islamiah Nusantara that is to comprise Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, southern Thailand and southern Philippines.