News – January 2025


  • Pakistan: Militants loot, torch several buildings in brazen attack on Khuzdar

    January 9, 2025

    Armed gunmen launched a brazen attack on the main bazaar in tehsil Zehri of Khuzdar district on Wednesday morning, setting fire to multiple government build­­ings, including a Levies Force station, Nadra and municipal committee offices and a bank, after seizing control of the area. According to officials, around 80 militants entered the area at about 11pm ...

  • UK: Car blown up by police in bomb scare in London ‘was left with charger plugged in for week’

    January 9, 2025

    A car destroyed by police during a central London bomb scare had reportedly raised suspicions after being left for a week with a charging cable plugged into its dashboard. A wrecked black Audi A1 Sportback S Line remains abandoned outside an upmarket Italian restaurant near Regent Street. Traffic wardens continue to slap further parking tickets on the ...

  • Chad: Attack on presidential palace leaves 19 dead

    January 9, 2025

    An attack on Chad’s presidential palace left 18 assailants dead and six in custody, with one soldier killed and three wounded, state media reported Thursday. The attack on Wednesday night occurred while Chadian President Mahamat Deby Itno was inside the palace, but authorities said the situation was quickly brought under control. “The situation is completely under ...

  • Israel: IDF continues targeting Syrian military capabilities in fresh attacks

    January 9, 2025

    The IDF on Thursday made a surprising announcement that it is continuing some attack missions against Syrian military capabilities and not merely holding onto buffer zones, which it seized in early December when the Assad regime suddenly fell. In early December, the IDF announced it had massively attacked Syria’s chemical weapons, air force, long-range missiles, navy, ...

  • Ukraine: Couple who made explosives for Dnipro 14 December attack detained

    January 9, 2025

    The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) and the National Police have detained two more suspects involved in the terrorist attack in Dnipro on 14 December 2024 which killed one and injured four people, including two police officers. The SSU reports that two Russian agents who worked independently of the main perpetrator and were tasked with manufacturing ...

  • Cambodia sees spike in landmine, ERW casualties in 2024

    January 9, 2025

    Cambodia recorded 49 landmines and explosive remnant of war (ERW) casualties in 2024, up 53 percent from 32 in the year before, a spokesperson said on Wednesday. “Twelve people were killed, 29 injured, and eight amputated due to landmine and ERW explosions last year,” Lang Kosal, a spokesperson for the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance ...

  • Iraq builds 400km concrete wall along Syria border

    January 8, 2025

    Iraq has completed the construction of 400 kilometres of a 615-kilometre concrete wall along its border with Syria, the head of the country’s Security Media Cell, Tahsin Al-Khafaji, said yesterday. Speaking to the Iraqi News Agency (INA), Al-Khafaji explained that the Ministries of the Interior and Defence, along with the Joint Operations Command and the Popular ...

  • Ukraine: 35,000 sq km of land demined in just under three years

    January 8, 2025

    Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, mine clearance experts have demined 35,000 sq km of Ukrainian territory, with 17,000 sq km cleared in 2024. Yuliia Svyrydenko, Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy said: “As of the end of 2024, 35,000 sq km of Ukrainian land has been checked and cleared ...

  • Iceland: Bomb defused in Eyjafjörður at dawn

    January 8, 2025

    The torpedo bomb that got caught in the fishing gear of a trawler was pulled out into Eyjafjörður this evening and placed in a place where it will be destroyed by publication. This is stated in a statement by the Icelandic Coast Guard. The Icelandic Coast Guard’s special operations unit was called out to the case ...

  • UK: Controlled explosion carried out after ‘suspicious item’ found in house in Manchester

    January 8, 2025

    Police have carried out a controlled explosion after a “suspicious item” was found at a house in south Manchester. Officers made the discovery after raiding a property in Fencot Drive, Longsight, at about 7.50am today (Wednesday). A bomb disposal unit was pictured on the street while several surrounding roads were reportedly taped off by police, including ...

  • UAE places 19 individuals, entities on its Local Terrorist List

    January 8, 2025

    The UAE has decided to add 19 individuals and entities to its Local Terrorist List for their links to the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood organisation. This decision has been made under Resolution No. (1) of 2025 issued by the UAE Cabinet, which approved the inclusion of 11 individuals and 8 entities in the approved list of ...

  • Finland sends CBRN protective equipment, detector to Ukraine

    January 8, 2025

    Finland has for the first time delivered assistance from an EU-fun​ded rescEU stockpile to a country that has requested assistance, said an official government press release. This week, a truckload of personal protective equipment and chemical detectors was delivered to Ukraine to respond to the needs of the country’s rescue services. The delivery from the rescEU ...

  • Japanese Yakuza Leader Pleads Guilty to Nuclear Materials Trafficking, Narcotics, and Weapons Charges

    January 8, 2025

    Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, of Japan, pleaded guilty in Manhattan, New York, today to conspiring with a network of associates to traffic nuclear materials, including uranium and weapons-grade plutonium, from Burma to other countries, as well as to international narcotics trafficking and weapons charges. “Today’s plea should serve as a stark reminder to those who imperil our ...

  • Micronesia: Palau is littered with WWII munitions 80 years after the war

    January 8, 2025

    Palauan Sharla Paules surveys the contaminated ground of her lush tropical home island of Peleliu, still littered with WWII munitions 80 years after its liberation from the Japanese. She recalls as a child her grandmother warning the land was poisoned by unexploded bombs, disrupting almost every aspect of traditional life on the island. “They said after ...

  • Israel: Police sappers remove rocket remnants from Kfar Saba school

    January 7, 2025

    Police sappers (bomb disposal personnel) removed the remnants of an old rocket discovered at a school in Kfar Saba, the police announced Tuesday. An initial investigation revealed that while students were playing in the school’s sandlot, they began digging and uncovered its head. Read more… Source: The Jerusalem Post Sign up for Counter-IED Report Newsletter Related:  

  • Nevada: Cybertruck driver used ChatGPT to plan Las Vegas attack

    January 7, 2025

    Police found a six-page manifesto on Matthew Livelsberger’s phone and said he used ChatGPT to plan his New Year’s Day bombing at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. A few of the entries posted in the application included “How much Tannerite is equivalent to 1 pound of TNT?” and “What pistol could set it ...

  • Sweden: Three arrested after explosion in Malmö

    January 7, 2025

    Three people in their 20s have been arrested after an explosion at a property near Valdemarsro in Malmö’s outskirts. Someone has placed some kind of homemade bomb, says Thomas Paulsson, officer on duty. No one was in the residence, a house in a cottage area, when the explosion occurred and caused damage to an outer door. ...

  • 11 Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo Bay transferred to Oman

    January 7, 2025

    Eleven Yemeni detainees at Guantanamo Bay have been transferred to Oman, marking yet another detainee transfer from the military prison in the final days of the Biden administration. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin notified Congress in September 2023 of his intent to transfer the detainees to Oman, the Pentagon said in a news release Monday. The detainees ...

  • Iceland joins in funding Danish model for Ukrainian weapons production

    January 7, 2025

    Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has expressed gratitude to Iceland for its recent contribution to producing Ukrainian weapons under the Danish model. Icelandic Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday, 7 January. During their meeting, Sybiha thanked her for Iceland’s support in producing Ukrainian weapons based on the Danish model. Sybiha also expressed ...

  • Norwegian People’s Aid Vietnam commences Quality Management Training

    January 6, 2025

    Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) Vietnam has kicked off the new year with a focused Quality Management Refresher Training for its teams in Quang Tri Province. Conducted over two days from January 2-3, 2025, this training marked the formal resumption of work after the holiday break. Led by NPA Vietnam’s Quality Management Coordinator, Le Hoai Niem, the ...

  • Pakistan Taliban threatens military-run businesses amid rising violence

    January 6, 2025

    The outlawed armed group Pakistan Taliban, known by the acronym TTP, has issued a warning to the Pakistani army, stating that it will continue targeting security personnel and expand its attacks to the military’s business interests. In a statement issued on Sunday, the TTP pledged to go after various commercial enterprises run by the Pakistani military. ...

  • Netherlands: Police “frustrated and desperate” about firework violence

    January 6, 2025

    A growing number of police officers have had enough of the way they become targets during the New Year festivities and are accusing the government of failing to act to end the chaos, the AD reported on Monday afternoon. They also want an immediate ban on consumer fireworks. The claim is made in an internal police ...

  • Syria: Dozens of pro-Turkey and Kurdish forces killed in fighting in Aleppo Governorate

    January 5, 2025

    At least 101 fighters have been killed in northern Syria over the past two days amid fighting between Turkish-backed forces and Syrian Kurdish fighters, according to a war monitor. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Sunday that 85 Turkey-backed fighters and 16 fighters from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were killed in ...

  • Mali’s army claims arrest of an Islamic State group leader

    January 5, 2025

    Mali’s army said Saturday its forces had arrested two men, one of them a leading figure in the Sahel branch of the Islamic State group. The army announced they had also killed several of the group’s fighters during an operation in the north of the country. A statement from the army said they had arrested “Mahamad ...