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On April 22, two Orthodox bishops of Aleppo, Syria, were kidnapped by U.S.-supported Islamist fighters. Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim and Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Boulos Yaziji were kidnapped as they were returning from an attempt to obtain the release of two priests previously kidnapped. The priests, Father Michel Kayyal, an Armenian Catholic, and Father Maher Mahfouz, a Greek Orthodox, were kidnapped in February and still remain in the hands of the Islamist fighters the Western media refer to as “rebels.” In a Huffington Post article, Orthodox priest Peter-Michael Preble said of the two kidnapped bishops: “They were on a mission...

Two years ago today, SEAL Team Six sent Osama bin Laden on his way to Davy Jones’ Locker — but his Islamist terror machine is anything but sinking to the depths. It remains a vicious, global threat. Since Osama’s demise, the terror group’s strength has ebbed in some areas, but flowed strongly in others. Indeed, one current estimate concludes that al Qaeda affiliates and associates (i.e., groups, cells or operatives) are active in more than 30 countries (of some 190) on four continents. Including our continent. While we don’t yet know the whole story behind the Boston bombing, just last...

As the fallout from the Boston bombing continues, Americans are coming to terms with the realities of the terrorist threats we are facing in our country. Part of this is adopting a prepared mindset to meet the threats where they occur. The Chechens are here. So are Muslims from Dagestan, Albania, and Bosnia. Much has been made in the press about the more Caucasian look of the Tsarnaev brothers. But what sets the radicalized segments of these ethnic groups apart from their Middle Eastern counterparts, is not so much the racial aspects of their ethnicities, but the way they fight....

Ali Tepsurkaev was at work on a construction site in Nantucket when his boss approached him to deliver the news: the two prime suspects had been identified as ethnic Chechens “I was so upset, I couldn’t work,” said Mr. Tepsurkaev, Until a few days ago, most Chechens in the United States lived largely anonymous lives. Few Americans even knew what and where Chechnya was. Now, two Chechen brothers are at the center of one of the most serious terrorist attacks on the United States since Sept. 11, 2001. While the motivations behind the bombings are still unknown, the attack has...

A website prominently used by Russia’s North Caucasus rebels on Sunday denied any connection to the Boston Marathon bombings that have been blamed on two ethnic-Chechen suspects. “The command of the Vilayat Dagestan mujaheddin… declares that the Caucasus fighters are not waging any military activities against the United States of America. We are only fighting Russia,” the Kavkacenter.com website said in an official statement. The main suspects in the Boston bombings were Tsarnaev brothers, and police is still investigation any possible connections with known rebel and terrorist groups. Police and FBI are still conducting an investigation if the brothers acted...

North Caucasus rebels deny link to Boston attack By Dmitry Zaks (AFP) – 1 hour ago MOSCOW, Russia — A prominent rebel group from Russia's North Caucasus on Sunday denied any link to the deadly Boston Marathon bombings that have been blamed on two ethnic-Chechen suspects.

Chechen Group Behind Beslan Claims Attack Kadyrov Vows To Wipe Out Islamic Militants June 29, 2009 MOSCOW (Reuters) -- The Chechen rebel group behind the 2004 Beslan school massacre has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing last week that badly wounded the president of Russia's southern region of Ingushetia.

(CNSNews.com) – Although no group has claimed responsibility for Monday’s deadly bomb blasts at the Boston Marathon, a leading al-Qaeda ideologue last year recommended that jihadists in America include sporting events in their list of prospective terror targets.

Chechnya's Russian-backed president has hit out at America for killing one of the suspected Boston Marathon bombers and blamed the US for moulding them into terrorists. Chechen-born Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died from gunshot wounds and possible blast injuries after a fierce gun battle rocked the Watertown area of Boston hours after a police officer was shot dead at the nearby MIT campus. His 19-year-old brother, Dzhokha, fled the shoot out and is on the run, reportedly having strapped explosives to his body. But President Ramzan Kadyrov, a former Chechen rebel himself, told US authorities that 'any attempt to draw a...

U.S. security officials are investigating a recent intelligence report that a group of 25 Chechen terrorists illegally entered the United States from Mexico in July. The Chechen group is suspected of having links to Islamist terrorists seeking to separate the southern enclave of Chechnya from Russia, according to officials familiar with intelligence reports. Members of the group, said to be wearing backpacks, secretly traveled to northern Mexico and crossed into a mountainous part of Arizona that is difficult for U.S. border security agents to monitor, said officials speaking on the condition of anonymity. The intelligence report was supplied to the...

The attack came as the bus sat outside Terminal 2 at the airport, according to Frankfurt police spokesman Manfred Fuellhardt. The bus driver and a passenger were killed, and one person suffered serious wounds and another light injuries, he said. A source tells Fox News that the shooter yelled "Allah Akbar" when opening fire on the U.S. military personnel. He then dropped his gun at the scene, ran into the terminal and was subdued. U.S. Air Force Europe spokeswoman Maj. Beverly Mock said all four victims were airmen. They were all based at the Lakenheath military base in Britain. A...

Russian security services warned in December that there were two attack teams primed to carry out attacks, sparking fears there could still be terrorists at large who were prepared to carry out another attack. Intelligence sources said that one of the squads was likely to have established a base, at a house in Moscow, where the suicide belts to be used in attacks were assembled. Russian security sources said yesterday that a male and female suicide bomber from the Black Widow brigades had carried out the bombing together. The attack had been closely supervised by three accomplices, who had watched...

‘MK’ was in the terrorists’ lair to find out why the New Year’s Eve attack failed A terrorist attack on Moscow had been planned since the beginning of November, security service sources told ‘MK’. A blast was planned for the night of December 31st-January 1st, at the scene of the most popular New Year’s Eve celebrations, but the blast took place early, within a few hours of the festive midnight. According to one theory it was by shear luck: Spam – A Happy New Year greeting from the phone company - was sent to the suicide bomber’s cell phone. The...

NOTE The following text is a quote: Travel Alert U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Bureau of Consular Affairs Europe October 3, 2010 The State Department alerts U.S. citizens to the potential for terrorist attacks in Europe. Current information suggests that al-Qa’ida and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks. European governments have taken action to guard against a terrorist attack and some have spoken publicly about the heightened threat conditions. Terrorists may elect to use a variety of means and weapons and target both official and private interests. U.S. citizens are reminded of the potential for terrorists to attack public transportation...

Many women in Russia's volatile Chechnya region said on Friday they had been harassed and some physically harmed by bands of men for not wearing head scarves during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Against the backdrop of a spreading Islamist insurgency, many fear that growing interest in radical Islam could fuel separatism in the volatile North Caucasus, where the Kremlin watches uneasily as sharia law eclipses Russian. Residents and witnesses told Reuters that bearded men in traditional Islamic dress have been roaming the streets both on foot and in cars since Ramadan started on Aug. 11, demanding bare-headed women...

A pilotless U.S. drone aircraft fired missiles into Pakistan's North Waziristan, an al Qaeda and Taliban sanctuary on the Afghan border, killing at least 12 militants on Saturday, intelligence officials said. The United States has intensified missile strikes by drone aircraft in Pakistan's lawless Pashtun tribal lands in an effort to curb violence in Afghanistan, much of which U.S. officials say comes from militant sanctuaries on the Pakistani side. Most of the missile attacks this year were carried out on militant targets in North Waziristan region. In the latest strike, the missiles hit a house used by militants as a...

The 17-year-old bride of an Islamist militant was named today as one of the “Black Widow” suicide bombers who killed 39 people in the Moscow Metro. Investigators believe that Dzhennet Abdurakhmanova blew herself up at the Lubyanka station, close to the headquarters of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), in revenge for the killing of her husband, Kommersant newspaper reported. It published a photograph of the teenager exuding childish defiance as she brandished a pistol in black Islamic dress next to her husband, Umalat Magomedov. He was killed on New Year’s Eve in a shoot-out with police in his native Dagestan....

Monday's attacks on Moscow's subways provide an odious reminder of the Russian empire's post-Cold War instability and the Russian government's severe internal challenges. As this column goes to press, no organization has claimed responsibility for the attacks that left 39 dead and scores wounded, though Russian commentators and international analysts suspect Islamist-inspired separatists in the northern Caucasus region planned and executed the terror strikes. Russian security forces are fighting guerrilla and terrorist cells based in troubled Caucasus political fragments like Dagestan, Ingushetia and Chechnya. Islamist separatist groups from these areas have used "the woman-delivered weapon" in previous attacks on Russian...

Two female suicide bombers have blown themselves up aboard packed underground trains at the height of the rush hour in Moscow this morning, killing 38 people and leaving an estimated 65 injured, according to the Russian security service. President Dimitri Medvedev is due to reassure the nation in a television address later today, pledging no let up in the war against terrorism and promising a security crackdown on public transport. The first blast came at the Lubyanka station in central Moscow at around 8am (0400 GMT), killing 24 people. The station is deep below the headquarters of Russia's Federal Security...