Month: August 2017

A year ago, analysts were expressing confidence during a major conference in London that southern Europe would avoid the kind of large-scale Islamic terror attacks seen in northern European cities like Paris and Brussels. At a conference at King’s College, London, to explore the jihadist threat to Europe, analysts drawn from across the continent highlighted the fact that neither Spain — nor Italy, for that matter, which has also been on the receiving end of vocal Islamic State threats — had seen many volunteers join IS to fight in Syria or Iraq. They noted neither southern European country has large …

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Recruiting for Jihad is a Norwegian expose on the practices extremist Jihadists follow to recruit young men to fight for ISIS. During filming, Adel Khan Farooq, one of the two filmmakers, had unprecedented access to a radicalized network of Islamists in Europe. He met them through Norwegian-born Ubaydullah Hussain, a notorious recruiter, currently serving a nine-year sentence in a Norwegian prison.   “In the beginning, he was very charming,” Farooq told VOA, describing Hussain. “He was easy to talk with, and I never felt like he was a threat directly against me or anybody else for that matter, but when …

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A stabbing attack carried out Friday by an 18-year-old Moroccan migrant in Finland is being investigated by Finnish authorities as “a likely terrorist act,” officials said. Speaking Saturday with reporters, Pekka Hiltunen, a spokeswoman for the Finnish Security Intelligence Service, told reporters the agency was investigating the suspect’s ties to the Islamic State group, as IS “has previously encouraged this kind of behavior.” Police have not released the name of the suspect in the stabbing attack. On Friday, the asylum-seeker stabbed nine people in the small city of Turku, leaving two of the victims dead. He apparently was targeting women, …

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‘Recruiting for Jihad’ is a Norwegian expose on the practices extremist Jihadists follow to recruit young men to fight for ISIS.  During filming, Adel Khan Farook, one of the two filmmakers, had unprecedented access to a radicalized network of Islamists in Europe. Farrook and his partner Ulrick Rolfsen spoke to VOA’S Penelope Poulou on the growth of Islamist organizations in Europe. …

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Russian authorities say “A man was moving along the main streets stabbing people” in the Siberian city of Surgut. Officials say eight people were injured in the attack Saturday. The Russian law enforcement committee said in a statement that “the attacker has been killed,” without providing additional details. Russia’s Tass new agency reports the man likely had a psychiatric disorder.     …

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Police in Spain say the driver of the van that mowed down pedestrians on a Barcelona street Thursday may still be at large, contradicting earlier reports that the driver was among those killed after a similar attack hours later in a nearby town. Younes Abouyaaqoub, a 22-year-old Moroccan-born man sought by police is now seen as the possible ring leader of the group that carried out the attack in Barcelona and another in Cambrils, about 120 kilometers south of Barcelona along the Spanish coast. A total of 14 people were killed in the twin terror attacks — 13 in Barcelona …

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A Russian court has banned the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ translation of the Bible following a drawn-out legal battle, another blow to followers of the pacifist Christian sect who have been branded extremists and driven to practicing their faith underground, as in Soviet times. The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ parent organization in Russia and 395 regional branches were formally placed on the Justice Ministry’s list of extremist groups Aug. 17, a procedural move following the Supreme Court’s decision to ban the group’s activities and seize its property earlier this year. In a separate case that same day, a court in the northwestern border town of Vyborg banned …

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With no safe, legal passage to Europe, more than 100,000 migrants and refugees have nevertheless crossed the Mediterranean Sea this year, many setting off from Libya, which has become a trafficking hub. In recent months, the Libyan coast guard has expanded its operations beyond its territorial waters, threatening rescue ships and making it more difficult for humanitarians to assist those fleeing. From the United Nations, VOA’s Margaret Besheer has more. …

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Ahmad Alkhald, a Syrian national from Aleppo who played a key role in the Islamic State (IS) terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, has been identified as a specially designated global terrorist by the United States, the U.S. State Department said. The designation Thursday — which also included an Iraqi national who has provided close protection to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the IS leader in Iraq and Syria — imposed “strict sanctions” on the individuals and prohibited any dealings with them. Alkhald is an IS bomb maker and the terror group’s explosives chief who helped carry out the November 2015 attacks …

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