The threat posed by the terrorist group ISIL remains dynamic and diverse, with Africa currently experiencing the highest level of activity worldwide.
While multiple ISIL leaders have perished in the past few years, “the group has managed to retain its operational capacity”, Vladimir Voronkov, head of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) told the Security Council Wednesday. ISIL makes use of regional and domestic affiliates and continues to receive substantial global donations, operating through regional hubs and cross-border financial networks. The threat the extremist group poses is notably exacerbated in Africa’s Sahel region, where ISIL affiliates such as Islamic State West Africa Province have emerged as prolific producers of terrorist propaganda, which continues to attract foreign recruits.
Read more…
Source: UN Office of Counter-Terrorism
Sign up for the Counter-IED Report Newsletters
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Four killed, several injured in Borno suicide attack
December 29, 2017
At least four people have been reported dead and several injured in a suicide bomb attack on Thursday at Amarwa community of Konduga Local Government Area of Borno State. It was gathered that the incident occurred at about 2 p.m. when a male suicide bomber infiltrated the village and detonated an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) strapped ...
- Uighurs fighting in Syria take aim at China
December 23, 2017
Since 2013, thousands of Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority from western China, have traveled to Syria to train with the Uighur militant group Turkistan Islamic Party and fight alongside al-Qaida, playing key roles in several battles. Syrian President Bashar Assad’s troops are now clashing with Uighur fighters as the six-year conflict nears its endgame. But ...
- Fire as a Weapon: High-Rise Structures
December 20, 2017
Pyro-terrorism, the purposeful ignition of fire with the intention of causing harm, can make firefighting so complex that it eventually stretches the resources of a firefighting department to the limit. The need to preempt terrorist attacks on buildings has forced fire departments to create counter-terrorism units on an unprecedented scale. This thesis seeks to answer two ...
- Bomb squad called as terror police swoop in Sheffield and Chesterfield
December 19, 2017
A police bomb squad has been called to a property in Chesterfield following early morning raids in which four men were arrested. Anti-terror police targeted three properties in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire in a move to foil a planned terror attack in the UK, Sky News can confirm. Four men were detained and have been taken to ...
- Car bomber attacks NATO convoy in Afghanistan
December 17, 2017
A car bomber attacked a NATO convoy in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Sunday, killing one civilian and wounding four others but without causing casualties among international forces, officials said. Qudratullah Khushbakht, a spokesman for the Kandahar governor, said the attack happened on the airport road, killing a woman and wounding four other people. Read ...
- Russia’s FSB detains ISIS cell members planning attacks in St. Petersburg
December 15, 2017
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained seven people suspected of being members of a terrorist cell linked to Islamic State, the agency reported. A series of bombings was planned for Saturday, it said. The attacks were planned to involve “a suicide bomber blowing up inside a religious facility and the murder of civilians ...
- How ISIS Produced Its Cruel Arsenal on an Industrial Scale
December 11, 2017
Late this spring, Iraqi forces fighting the Islamic State in Mosul discovered three unfired rocket-propelled grenades with an unusual feature — a heavy liquid sloshing inside their warheads. Tests later found that the warheads contained a crude blister agent resembling sulfur mustard, a banned chemical weapon intended to burn a victim’s skin and respiratory tract. The ...
- New York Port Authority attack: Man held after Manhattan blast
December 11, 2017
A man is being held after an attempted terror attack at New York City’s main bus terminal. “Terrorists won’t win,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said after a blast at the Port Authority terminal in Manhattan during the morning rush hour on Monday. The suspect, Akayed Ullah, a 27-year-old Bangladeshi immigrant, was injured by a “low-tech explosive device” ...
- Deadly attacks at TV station and football stadium in Afghan city of Jalalabad
December 3, 2017
A suicide bomber has killed at least six people in Jalalabad, a day after the Afghan city was rocked by multiple blasts which claimed two lives. Eight were wounded in Sunday’s bombing which occurred outside a football stadium shortly after the end of a rally in support of President Ashraf Ghani. A woman and child were among ...
- German Christmas market evacuated after improvised nail bomb is found
December 1, 2017
A Christmas market in the German city of Potsdam has been evacuated after an explosive device, believed to be a nail bomb, was delivered to a pharmacy nearby. Police have now defused the device after having cordoned-off the area. It was first delivered to a pharmacy but was reported as suspicious by an employee who opened it and found ...
- One killed after relief food truck runs over IED in Garissa, Kenya
December 1, 2017
Garissa IED attack. One person was killed and several others injured after lorry ran over an IED. One person was killed and four others injured after their vehicle ran over an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) at Sabenal area, Hulugho Sub County in Garissa County. Hulugho Sub County Commissioner Tom Siele, who confirmed the incident, said the ...
- Egypt mosque attack: Hundreds killed in bomb and gun assault
November 24, 2017
At least 235 people have been killed and dozens more injured after a suspected Islamic State bomb and gun attack on a mosque in Egypt. The country’s government has declared three days of mourning following the assault on al-Rawdah mosque on Friday afternoon – one of the deadliest attacks in Egypt’s modern history – which has ...
- Germany Arrests 6 Syrian Migrants Suspected of ISIS Links
November 21, 2017
The police in Germany arrested six Syrian migrants on Tuesday, suspected of plotting an attack and having links to the Islamic State, fanning fears that extremists posing as refugees were targeting Europe. Millions of refugees, buffeted by conflict and civil war, have streamed into Europe in recent years, including an estimated one million who came to ...
- Suicide Bomber in Kabul Kills at Least 8 Afghan Officers
November 16, 2017
At least eight police officers, including a commander, and three civilians were killed when a suicide bomber tried to enter a wedding hall in central Kabul on Thursday, Afghan officials said. Police officers spotted the bomber at the gate of the compound, said a police spokesman, Basir Mujahed. The commander, Lt. Sayed Basam Pacha, threw his ...
- Yemen suicide bomb: Car packed with explosives kills at least six in city of Aden
November 14, 2017
Two suicide bombers detonated a car packed with explosives in Yemen’s southern city of Aden on Tuesday, killing at least six people, witnesses said. Dozens of other people, including civilians, were wounded in the attack, which occurred outside a camp used by a local security force organised by the Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Witnesses described a huge explosion that shook the al-Mansoura ...