Free Republic

A refugee living in the United States from Iraq has been arrested and charged with making two bombs in Las Vegas, Nevada and allegedly teaching undercover FBI investigators how to make and detonate the explosive devices. Ahmad Suhad Ahmad, a 30-year-old Iraqi refugee living in Tuscon, Arizona was busted by the FBI after the agency spent nearly two years operating an undercover sting where they say Ahmad built bombs and taught undercover agents how to do the same. According to the FBI, the Iraqi refugee built two bombs in a Las Vegas condo. Both of those bombs, investigators say, were...

MINYA, Egypt (AP) -- Hundreds of Egyptian Christians attended a funeral service Saturday after seven people were killed in an ambush by Islamic State militants of buses carrying pilgrims to a remote desert monastery. 【Related】IS attack on Christian pilgrims in Egypt kills 7 【Related】Japan, Egypt to work to bring stability to Middle East 【Related】Egypt governor: Remove Disney figures from kindergartens The service at Prince Tadros church in the central city of Minya was held amid tight security. Minya's top cleric, Anba Makarios, led prayers over a row of six white coffins, all victims from the same family. A separate funeral...

In Minya, Egypt, Coptic Christians were terrorized in another attack targeting the minority group on Friday. Islamic militants opened gunfire on two buses carrying Coptic Christians en route to an ancient monastery in Upper Egypt, killing seven and injuring more than eleven. Friday’s attack is one in a series of attacks on Egypt’s ancient Christian community, which currently makes up between 10 and 15 percent of Egypt’s population. Minya has the largest population of Christians in the country — 35 percent of residents are Christians — and experiences a lion’s share of the sectarian attacks. According to Open Doors USA’s...

At least seven people were killed and at least 19 others were injured in an attack on several buses carrying Coptic Christians near a monastery in Egypt on Friday, according to a spokesperson for Egypt's Coptic Church. Gunmen attacked two buses and a microbus on a road near the Monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor, in Minya, south of Cairo, the spokesperson said. One of the buses was carrying 28 members of a family that had traveled to the monastery for the baptism of one of its children, six of whom were injured, according to the spokesman. At least seven...

CAIRO – Islamic militants on Friday ambushed two buses carrying Christian pilgrims on their way to a remote desert monastery south of the Egyptian capital of Cairo, killing seven and wounding up to 16, according to the Interior Ministry and security officials. Coptic Orthodox Church spokesman Boulos Halim said the death toll was likely to rise. Local church officials in Minya province where the attack took place put the death toll at 10, but the higher figure could not be confirmed. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which bore the hallmarks of Islamic militants who have for years...

European leaders are opening the door to possible sanctions on Iran in the wake of terror plots across the continent -- even as they criticize the Trump administration for reimposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic’s oil exports and financial dealings. Denmark’s intelligence agency on Tuesday said that it had foiled an Iranian plot to kill an opposition activist, and had arrested a Norwegian of Iranian descent. The suspect has denied the allegations and is being held in custody. Iran’s Foreign Ministry has denied any involvement and has issued a “strong protest” to the Danish government. The Wall Street Journal reported...

Former fighter pilot Lang Sias, the Republican pick for Colorado lieutenant governor, called out Jared Polis Friday over a televised misstatement about the National Guard. On KUSA-9News’ Next with Kyle Clark program Thursday, the Democratic nominee for governor said he wouldn’t give President Trump access to Colorado Army National Guard troops to send to the U.S.-Mexico border if he thinks it’s politically motivated. “You could use the same rational to not allow someone to fight in Afghanistan or Iraq,” Clark said to Polis. “Is that dangerous?” Polis replied: “Well, it wouldn’t be Colorado National Guard units going to Afghanistan or...

Iranian officials, in a first, have admitted to facilitating the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. by secretly aiding the free travel of al Qaeda operatives who eventually went on to fly commercial airliners into the Twin Towers in New York City, according to new remarks from a senior Iranian official. Mohammad-Javad Larijani, an international affairs assistant in the Iran's judiciary, disclosed in Farsi-language remarks broadcast on Iran's state-controlled television that Iranian intelligence officials secretly helped provide the al Qaeda attackers with passage and gave them refuge in the Islamic Republic, according to an English translation published by Al Arabiya.

An Iraqi terrorist, who had a reputation for being a bomb expert, died on Monday when a bomb that he was constructing blew up. Abu Moaaz, a bomb maker for ISIS, was manufacturing explosives in central Iraq, about 15 miles north of Baqubah when the explosion took place, The Daily Mail reported. He had recently supplied ISIS numerous explosive devices that were used to kill many people, including law enforcement.

Although some pundits, mostly on the left, have denounced criticism of left-wing billionaire George Soros as anti-Semitic, it is important to note that Israel has officially stated that criticism of Soros is legitimate because he "continuously" seeks to undermine the Israeli government and he funds organizations "that defame the Jewish state." These same Soros-funded groups also seek to prevent Israel from defending itself, according to the Israeli government. In July 2017, Israel's ambassador to Hungary criticized a government-funded billboard campaign that showed a photo of Soros and stated, "Let's not allow Soros to have the last laugh." The campaign was...

KABUL, Afghanistan — Five members of the Afghan Taliban who were freed from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in exchange for captured American Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl have joined the insurgent group’s political office in Qatar, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Tuesday. They will now be among Taliban representatives negotiating for peace in Afghanistan, a sign some negotiators in Kabul say indicates the Taliban’s desire for a peace pact. Others fear the five, all of whom were close to the insurgent group's founder and hard-line leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, bring with them the same ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam...

In a highly unusual plea, Mohammed al-Issa, an ally of the kingdom’s reformist crown prince, says mission could help ‘provide fertile ground to find solutions’ The head of the Saudi-based Muslim World League has called for a Muslim-Christian-Jewish interfaith delegation to travel to Jerusalem to promote the cause of peace by finding common ground between religions. Dr. Mohammed bin Abdul Karim al-Issa, who is an ally of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, told Fox News in an interview Thursday: “We should send a peace convoy that is representative of all three Abrahamic religions. They should be Muslim, Christian and Jewish...

The leaders of Turkey, Russia, France, and Germany have reiterated calls for a UN-backed political process to end the war in Syria that has killed hundreds of thousands of people.German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after a summit in Istanbul on October 27 that "the meeting demonstrated there is common determination to solve the problem."A joint solution can be achieved, not through military means, but only through political effort under the UN aegis," she added.Along with Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and French President Emmanuel Macron gathered for the talks in search of an end to...

"The Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, exercising its sovereign rights guaranteed by the international law, and protecting national security from the dangers of terrorism and extremism, decided to sever diplomatic and consular relations with the State of Qatar," the statement read.

"This explains a great deal, for it is not only true that “these gifts and contracts, in some instances, are intended to influence students’ and faculty experts’ views on the kingdom”; it is also true that these gifts and contracts are intended to influence students’ and faculty experts’ views on Islam, jihad and Sharia."

This November will mark 40 years since the founding of an organization that has gained greater geopolitical prominence than most non-state actors ever will. Millions of Kurds— the world’s largest nation without a state, oppressed by the autocratic states that occupy their lands— support it and consider it their political representation on the world stage. In the struggle against occupation and denial of Kurdish identity, it has evolved an ideology based on direct democracy, ecology, pluralism, and women’s liberation that poses answers to questions asked by political movements around the world for generations. This is the PKK— Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan...

Is history going to repeat itself in the worst possible way? It took the election of Donald Trump to the Presidency to finally begin the process of systematically dismantling the stranglehold that the Islamic State (aka ISIS, aka ISIL) had on the ancient region around Mesopotamia. After murdering and torturing tens of thousands of innocents, razing countless world heritage sites, and destroying innumerable priceless artifacts, their reign of Islamic terror is finally coming to an end. At least we hope so. Given the developments in a certain Middle Eastern neighbor of Europe, which we will detail shortly, it will be...

This past fall The New York Times began publishing a powerful, ongoing series revealing the U.S. militaryÂ’s mistreatment of soldiers who were exposed to decades-old chemical weapons during Operation Iraqi Freedom. According to The Times, between 2004 and 2011 U.S. troops stumbled across about 5,000 Iraqi chemical munitions of various types, and at least 17 American personnel, mostly bomb disposal experts, were wounded by them. All of the ordnance was manufactured by Iraq prior to the 1991 Gulf War, during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s.Much of the conservative media has seized on the Times articles as long-awaited, sweet vindication...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — High above Yemen’s rebel-held city of Hodeida, a drone controlled by Emirati forces hovered as an SUV carrying a top Shiite Houthi rebel official turned onto a small street and stopped, waiting for another vehicle in its convoy to catch up. Seconds later, the SUV exploded in flames, killing Saleh al-Samad, a top political figure. The drone that fired that missile in April was not one of the many American aircraft that have been buzzing across the skies of Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan since Sept. 11, 2001. It was Chinese.. Across the Middle East,...

Violence on Friday included incident where four Palestinians were shot dead after breaching security fence Israeli forces have shot dead six Palestinians, including four in a single incident, in one of the deadliest days in months of mass protests along the security fence separating Gaza and Israel, Gaza’s health ministry said. The ministry said four were killed in one location, where the Israeli military said it opened fire on Palestinians who breached the fence and approached an army post. No Israeli troops were harmed, the army added. At least 140 Palestinians were wounded by live bullets, the ministry said. The...