Washington:

A senior ISIS official was killed in a US airstrike in Syria on Sunday, the US Central Command said in a statement on Wednesday (local time). The senior ISIS official and facilitator have been identified as Usamah Jamal Muhammad Ibrahim al-Janabi.

The US Central Command said that his death would disrupt ISIS’s ability to conduct terror attacks.

In a statement shared on X, US Central Command stated, “US Central Command Airstrike in Syria Kills Senior ISIS Official On June 16, US Central Command conducted an airstrike in Syria, killing Usamah Jamal Muhammad Ibrahim al-Janabi, a senior ISIS official and facilitator.”

“His death will disrupt ISIS’s ability to resource and conduct terror attacks. CENTCOM, alongside allies and partners in the region, will continue to execute operations to degrade ISIS’s operational capabilities and ensure its enduring defeat. There is no indication any civilians were harmed in this strike,” it added.

The US military continues to target ISIS officials in Africa and the Middle East, CNN reported. Nearly three weeks back, an airstrike conducted in a remote area near Dhaardaar in Somalia was assessed to have killed three ISIS terrorists, CNN reported, citing US Africa Command.

From January to March, CENTCOM and its partners killed seven ISIS operatives and detained 27 others in Syria. During the same time period, 11 operatives were killed and 36 people were detained in Iraq, the report said.

Earlier in April, CENTCOM commander General Erik Kurilla said, “We are committed to the enduring defeat of ISIS because of the threat they pose both regionally and globally,” CNN reported.

General Kurilla further said, “We continue to focus our efforts on specifically targeting those members of ISIS who are seeking to conduct external operations outside of Iraq and Syria and those ISIS members attempting to break out ISIS members in detention in an attempt to reconstitute their forces.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Moscow:

Two prison guards at a jail in southern Russia have been freed without harm after they were taken hostage by Islamic State inmates, with the assailants “liquidated”, the country’s prison service said Sunday.

“During a special operation… the criminals were liquidated and the employees taken hostage were freed and were not wounded,” the service said in a statement.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Four ISIS terrorists were arrested in Ahmedabad yesterday, days after the city airport received a bomb threat. The terrorists – believed to be Sri Lankan nationals – were arrested by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad after a tip-off.

Giving details of the operation to arrest the four ISIS terrorists, police said multiple teams were formed after the officials received the information that the suspects were planning to travel to Ahmedabad to carry out terror attacks in India.

Vikash Sahay, Director General of Police, Gujarat, said these four terrorists had boarded an IndiGo flight bound for Ahmedabad from Chennai yesterday. “The arrests were made after checking the list of passengers coming from the Southern region and getting their identities confirmed by officials in Colombo,” he said.

Police said the four men “had been in touch with a man named Abu in Pakistan through social media”.

“Abu encouraged them to carry out a terror attack in India. They were so radicalised that they also agreed to suicide bombing. Pakistani resident Abu also gave them Rs 4 lakh in Sri Lankan currency,” Mr Sahay said.

Police said after scanning their mobile phones, they found photographs of some weapons and location data of Nanachiloda near Ahmedabad.

“The ATS later recovered three Pakistani pistols and 20 cartridges, as indicated in the photographs, from Nanachiloda area,” officials said.

The weapons were arranged by their Pakistani handler, they said.

They were also communicating with the ISIS leaders through Proton Mail, an end-to-end encrypted email service, officials said.

Officials said the suspects – Mohammad Nusrat (33), Mohammad Farish (35), Mohammad Nafran (27) and Mohammad Rashdeen (43) – wanted to “teach a lesson” to Jews, Christians and the members of the BJP and RSS.

“Evidence showing their commitment to join ISIS and follow the path shown by former ISIS Chief Abu Bakr Baghdadi,” they said.

The Ahmedabad airport on May 12 received a bomb threat email which turned out to be a hoax after security personnel searched the airport complex, but nothing suspicious was found.

Baghdad:

An army officer and four soldiers were killed in an attack on their post in Iraq’s central province of Salaheddin on Monday, officials said.

Iraq’s ministry of defence said that an officer and several members of his regiment were killed “while thwarting a terrorist attack”.

“Daesh terrorists launched an attack” on an army post in the village of Mtebija “killing four soldiers and the regiment commander,” said a security source, using an alternate name for the Islamic State group.

The jihadist group overran large swathes of Iraq and neighbouring Syria in 2014, proclaiming its “caliphate” and launching a reign of terror.

It was defeated in Iraq in 2017 by Iraqi forces backed by a US-led military coalition, and in 2019 lost the last territory it held in Syria to US-backed Kurdish forces.

But its remnants continue to carry out deadly hit-and-run attacks and ambushes, particularly from remote areas and desert hideouts.

In a report published in January, the United Nations said IS has “between 3,000 and 5,000 fighters” across Iraq and Syria.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

A special NIA court here convicted an operative of banned global terror group ISIS and sentenced him to seven years in jail, an official said on Tuesday. Adnan Hassan, who was arrested on January 29, 2016, over his affiliation with ISIS, was convicted by the special court in Delhi on Monday, a spokesperson of the federal agency said.

He was handed over the jail sentence along with a fine of Rs 4,000 under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The official said Hassan was found guilty in the case related to the ISIS Abu Dhabi module. The case pertains to the criminal conspiracy involving Indian nationals Sheikh Azhar Al Islam Sattar Sheikh, Mohammed Farhan Mohammed Rafiq Shaikh and Adnan Hassan.

“These individuals are members of the proscribed terrorist organization, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), along with other yet unidentified associates. Their conspiracy aimed at identifying, motivating, radicalizing, recruiting, and training susceptible youths for planning and execution of terrorist attacks,” the spokesperson said.

The NIA had registered a case on January 28, 2016, under relevant sections of IPC and UA(P)A as on the orders of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

“The investigation has revealed that Hassan used a variety of online platforms and methods, including posts, news articles, comments, videos, images, and the commentary of Islamic scholars, to motivate individuals to join ISIS. He also provided financial support to the accused Abdullah Basith and other associates,” the spokesperson said.

On the basis of evidence, a chargesheet was filed against Hassan in the special court on July 25, 2016. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Ranil Wickremesinghe. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Dismissing the possibility of an international probe into the 2019 Easter terror attacks, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has reiterated that such an investigation into the incident was not permissible under the country’s law.

Responding to Sunday’s editorial in the Catholic Church’s Messenger newspaper titled “An international investigation team is needed for an independent, transparent, and thorough investigation and monitoring”, the President’s Media Division (PMD) said, “We cannot endorse the idea of international investigations into Sri Lanka’s internal matters.” “The Constitution of Sri Lanka and all other existing laws do not provide for conducting international investigations. Consequently, carrying out such investigations would be in violation of the law,” a press release by the PMD said on October 6.

Nine suicide bombers belonging to the local Islamist extremist group National Thawheed Jamaat (NTJ) linked to ISIS carried out a series of devastating blasts that tore through three Catholic churches and as many luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on April 21, 2019, killing nearly 270 people, including 11 Indians, and injuring more than 500.

The issue of the Easter attacks and its political undertone resurfaced in early September when the U.K.’s Channel 4 television station aired a documentary titled ‘Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings – Dispatches’, alleging the involvement and complicity of certain government officials, including intelligence service chief Major General Suresh Sallay, in orchestrating the 2019 Easter suicide bombings.

It called the attacks a “crafted act” aimed at forcing a political change in favour of the then-powerful Rajapaksa brothers.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced his candidature three days after the attacks and was elected President seven months later. His elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa was also the country’s former President and Prime Minister. Both Rajapaksa brothers were forced to resign last year amidst the unprecedented economic crisis in the island nation.

“The Minister of Public Security, Tiran Alles, spoke to the Catholic Bishops Conference on Thursday and was informed that the Rev. Father Harold Anthony was in the process of studying a voluminous presidential commission report on the Easter attack investigation that had been delivered to him in April,” the press release said. It added that Mr. Wickremesinghe would meet the Catholic Bishops conference after they study the report.

During a fiery interview with the German state-owned broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) against the backdrop of Channel 4’s allegations last week, Mr. Wickremesinghe dismissed the Channel 4 revelations and said that Sri Lanka will not have any international inquiry into the Easter blasts. “It is out,” he said.

“The Sri Lankan government does not have international investigations. Full stop. Few people may want (it), but the Parliament doesn’t,” he said.

A prime panel headed by retired Supreme Court Justice SI Imam was appointed by Mr. Wickremesinghe to investigate the British channel’s allegations. The Opposition, however, blames the President for going back on his earlier pledge to let Scotland Yard investigate the 2019 attacks.

They claim that Mr. Wickremesinghe is reliant on the support of the Rajapaksas to remain the President and, therefore, would not initiate an inquiry which could expose those behind the attacks. The attacks led to a significant political change in Sri Lanka. It has emerged that the then authorities had ignored prior intelligence on the attack by Indian intelligence agencies.