Free Republic

US Special Operations Forces killed an Islamic State military and financial leader and captured his wife during a raid in eastern Syria last night, the US military confirmed today. The operation, which included airstrikes followed by an air assault conducted by special operations troops, was designed to capture Abu Sayyaf, a senior leader in the Islamic State, and his wife, Umm Sayyaf. The raid took place “in al-Amr,” or the Al Omar oil field in Deir al Zour province in eastern Syria, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said in a statement released by the US military. The oil field is...

U.S. commandos mounted a rare raid into eastern Syria overnight, killing a senior Islamic State commander in a firefight, capturing his wife and rescuing a Yazidi woman held as a slave, the Pentagon said Saturday. Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the raid, identifying the militant as Abu Sayyaf. He said no U.S. forces were killed or injured in the operation. A U.S.-led coalition has been striking Islamic State militants in Syria since last year, but this is only the second time troops have carried out a ground raid. A previous operation was aimed at rescuing Americans held hostage by the...

Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Saturday that U.S. special operations forces conducted a raid in Syria that aimed to capture a senior leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, and his wife. The senior leader, known as Abu Sayyaf, was killed in the overnight operation, Carter said in a statement issued Saturday morning. His wife, Umm Sayyaf, was captured. No U.S. forces were killed or injured during the operation, Carter said. Carter said Abu Sayyaf was involved in ISIS' military and financial operations. Umm Sayyaf is a suspected member of ISIS and "played an important role"...

U.S. Special Operations forces killed a senior ISIS commander during a raid intended to capture him in eastern Syria overnight Friday to Saturday, sources familiar with what happened on the ground in Syria told CNN. The ISIS commander, Abu Sayyaf, who was in charge of ISIS' oil and gas operations and directly and increasingly involved in ISIS command and control, fought capture and was killed in the raid, the sources said.

Saddam, the ATM of Al Qaeda By Christopher S. Carson FrontPageMagazine.com | November 15, 2004 The Report of the 9/11 Commission has been digested, and the news media outlets have seized upon it as confirmation of their view that al Qaeda is a kind of purely stateless entity that never had "operational links" with rogue states like Iraq. Somehow, goes the thrust of the Report, Osama bin Laden was for years able to finance, train and supply an international terrorist corporation that had ongoing jihad operations in fifty countries - by himself, on no more than a $30 million personal...

In November 2014, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) took a bold and unprecedented step for a Muslim nation by designating 85 radical Islamic organizations as terrorist organizations. The UAE’s designation is the most audacious and significant classification of terrorist organizations worldwide, and is superior to the lists developed by the United States, the European Union, the Russian Federation and the United Nations. As to why it is unrivalled, here are a number of reasons: First: The UAE addressed the roots of the problem, in the sense that terrorist ideology paves the way for terrorist acts; hence, the list included organizations...

Swiss escapes from Abu Sayyaf captors • Hostage hacks bandit as military pounds lair of terror group in Sulu MANILA, Philippines — A Swiss hostage escaped on Saturday from Abu Sayyaf extremists after hacking a militant commander and getting shot as he dashed to freedom, ending more than two years of jungle captivity in Sulu province, according to military officials. Lorenzo Vinciguerra, 49, made his daring escape after government forces fired artillery rounds in the jungle camp where he was being held near the mountainous Patikul town in Sulu. He hacked an Abu Sayyaf commander and ran away but was...

BERLIN: Germany said today it would not withdraw support for US action against jihadists in Iraq and Syria following a reported ultimatum from Philippine Islamist militants reportedly threatening to kill a German hostage. A foreign ministry spokeswoman said the German government had “heard about the report” but stressed that “threats are not an appropriate way to influence our policy in Syria and Iraq”. “There will be no change to our Syria and Iraq policy,” she added. A terrorism monitoring group reported yesterday that the extremists said they would kill one of two German hostages unless a 250 million pesos (US$5.62...

Philippine Leader Proposes Autonomous Muslim State To End Rebellion By CAROL J. WILLIAMS Philippine President Benigno Aquino III on Wednesday urged lawmakers to swiftly enact a law granting autonomy to the Muslim region of Mindanao to quell more than 40 years of rebellion that has killed at least 150,000 people. The proposed law is modeled on one that pacified a similar Muslim insurgency in neighboring Indonesia's Aceh province in 2005. Philippines Muslim rebellion Philippine President Benigno Aquino III applauds the presentation Wednesday of a bill to create an autonomous Muslim state within the predominantly Roman Catholic country. (Jay Directo /...

Philippine marines killed at least 6 Muslim extremists and captured one of their jungle lairs in fighting in the south, military officials said Monday. Backed by village militias, the marines launched an assault over the weekend after several Abu Sayyaf militants were monitored in their jungle lair near Talipao town on Jolo Island, marine brigade commander Col. Jose Cenabre said. …

The Defense Department came under fire Thursday for a U.S. Army Reserve presentation that classified Catholics and Evangelical Protestants as “extremist” religious groups alongside al Qaeda and the Ku Klux Klan. The presentation detailed a number of extremist threats within the U.S. military, including white supremacist groups, street gangs, and religious sects. The presentation identified seventeen religious organizations in a slide titled “religious extremism.” They include al Qaeda, Hamas, the Filipino separatist group Abu Sayyaf, and the Ku Klux Klan, which the slide identifies as a Christian organization. “Religious extremism is not limited to any single religion, ethnic group, or...

SNIPPET: "Social media is no longer simply a fun way to share updates on the harmless idiosyncrasies of our lives. It can undermine national security, and there ought to be a more robust discussion between the Bay Area technology world and Washington on what to do about it. Cyber-terrorism, especially the potential for electronic tampering with U.S. industrial or military installations, is a paramount national security threat that Washington is working to forestall. We're all working to protect our accounts from hackers. But the cyber-threat getting far less public attention involves the social media networks we use every day and the...

MANILA, Philippines - Day-long clashes that erupted between elite government troops and Abu Sayyaf bandits in Sumisip, Basilan killed over 20 people, military officials said Thursday.. Troops from the 32nd Infantry Battalion sent to secure the detachment were also ambushed. At least four soldiers were killed in the clash while another one was wounded, Caber said. Just recently, armed men believed to be ASG bandits also attacked rubber tappers in Basilan, killing six.

The Philippine military says it has killed three senior militants from al-Qaeda-linked groups in a raid in the south of the country. The air raid took place on Thursday in an area known as a militant stronghold. Officials said two Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leaders and one Abu Sayyaf leader were among a total of 15 people killed. Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir, or Marwan, who was on the US FBI's most wanted list with a $5m (£3.2m) reward offered for his capture, was reported killed. According to the military, the militants were killed in the town of Parang on Jolo island,...

A 14-year-old American boy who was abducted with his mother and cousin by suspected Muslim militants in the southern Philippines was released Saturday from five months of jungle captivity, the Philippine military said.

SNIPPET: "ZAMBOANGA CITY (2nd update, 1:56 p.m.) -- A powerful blast killed at least 3 people and wounded 27 others in a budget hotel packed with wedding guests in the southern Philippines, officials said Monday. The explosion, suspected to have been caused by a bomb, ignited a fire that gutted the two-story Atilano Pension House in downtown Zamboanga city late Sunday." SNIPPET: "Zamboanga city, a predominantly Christian trading hub 540 miles (860 kilometers) south of Manila, is located in a volatile region long troubled by a decades-long Muslim insurgency, extortion gangs and kidnap for ransom syndicates."

SNIPPET: "They say they police intelligence unit arrested Asdatul Sahirun on Sunday at a shopping mall in the capital's Malate tourist district."

<p>A blast at a Christmas Day Mass injured at least 10 people in southern Philippines, including the priest officiating the service, authorities said.</p> <p>An improvised explosive device tore off the right side of the chapel's roof, police said.</p>

MANILA (Reuters) - A crude bomb exploded on Saturday in the roof of a Roman Catholic church at a police base on a Muslim-dominated southern island in the Philippines wounding six people, an army spokesman said.

June 29, 2002, 12:07AM 28 Nabbed by Feds at Fort Worth site Some may have ties to extremist group By DEANNA BOYD Copyright 2002 Fort Worth Star-Telegram FORT WORTH -- Federal agents raided an aviation repair facility at Fort Worth Meacham Airport on Friday morning, arresting 28 workers on immigration violations. Some of them, sources said, may be affiliated with a Muslim extremist group responsible for a string of kidnappings in the southern Philippines. Kathy Colvin, a spokeswoman with the U.S. attorney's office for Northern Texas, said federal felony charges will be filed Monday against some of the detained mechanics,...