“The leaders of nine southern European Union countries and Jordan are meeting in Cyprus on Friday to come up with ways to de-escalate the crisis in the Middle East that is threatening to engulf Lebanon and trigger a wider humanitarian crisis. Jordan’s King Abdullah will join the leaders of the so-called MED9 — including Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Slovenia, Portugal and Croatia — as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to brainstorm initiatives aimed at protecting Lebanese civilians caught in the crossfire between Israel and Hezbollah. The leaders will also focus on helping clinch a ceasefire deal between Israeli forces and Hamas in the Gaza strip in line with a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted unanimously in June. Cyprus’ government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said Thursday the Jordanian monarch’s presence at the meeting lends additional weight to the proceedings given his country’s role in helping peace efforts in the region.”
Reuters: Unidentified Gunmen Kill At Least 21 Coal Miners In Pakistan
“Unidentified gunmen attacked a cluster of small private coal mines in southwestern Pakistan early on Friday, shooting some miners as they slept and lining up others before opening fire, killing 21 in the restive region, police said. The attack by 40 armed men days before Pakistan hosts a summit of the Shanghai Co-operation Organization grouping is the worst in weeks in the mineral-rich province of Balochistan bordering Afghanistan and Iran. "The armed terrorists remained for around 1-1/2 hours in the mining area," regional police official Asif Shafi told Reuters. "They fired rockets and hurled grenades at the mines and miners' quarters." There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on the mines of the Junaid Coal Co in the Duki area, which injured six. Among the dead were four Afghan nationals and another four were injured. Businesses and shops were shut in Duki as hundreds of people gathered along with the bodies of the dead in a protest to demand the arrest of the attackers, police said.”
“Reviving England’s warrior culture” by posing as a sports club. That is what a far-right group linked to a violent white supremacist collective is doing, which has been recruiting young people to achieve that goal, according to a BBC investigation. […] Alexander Ritzmann, a researcher at the international organisation The Counter Extremism Project and an advisor to the European Commission's Radicalisation Awareness Network, says he has “never seen a far-right network grow so fast”. He described Active Club as a “sophisticated operation” and warned that if it was allowed to “continue to operate and multiply, the likelihood of targeted political violence would increase.” He added that his aim was to “build a kind of militia hidden behind the image of a sports club, but which in reality is preparing for organised violence.”
“Authorities believe Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, became radicalized after he arrived in the U.S. Sept. 9, 2021, weeks after the American troops pulled out of Afghanistan, a senior Biden administration official said. He entered the U.S. on a special immigrant visa (SIV) and is on parole status pending adjudication of his immigration proceedings, the Department of Homeland Security said this week. Those facts were disputed by the State Department. Officials have since clarified that Tawhedi came to the U.S. via humanitarian parole and later applied for SIV status. Humanitarian parole is a process by which Tawhedi would have been held in a third country for screening and vetting and then flown to the U.S. After moving to the U.S. in 2021, he applied for special immigrant status, a pathway for a green card, and was approved. He hadn't finalized his status, which is why the State Department denied a DHS claim made this week that Tawhedi arrived with an SIV.”
“Militants opened fire on a police vehicle and killed two officers on Thursday in restive northwest Pakistan before fleeing the scene, police said, a sign of increasing violence ahead of a summit of an Asian security grouping in the capital, Islamabad. Hours later, the military said it killed four militants in North Waziristan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. The latest attack on police happened in the city of Tank, also in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, local police official Sher Afzal said. No group has claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, who often target security forces.”
Associated Press: Yemen’s Houthi Rebels Attack A Liberian-Flagged Ship In The Red Sea
“Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacked a Liberian-flagged chemical tanker on Thursday in the Red Sea, authorities said. The attack comes as the rebels continue to threaten ships moving through the Red Sea, a waterway that once saw $1 trillion in goods move through it a year, over the ongoing conflicts in the Mideast stemming from the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. The Olympic Spirit tanker in the Red Sea had been skirting the coast of East Africa when it found itself struck first by a projectile that damaged the vessel, but sparked no fire and caused no injuries, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. At least three more projectiles later fell in the waters around the vessel, which was a distance away from Hodeida, the Houthi-controlled port from which many of the rebels’ attacks have been launched.”
Reuters: Hezbollah Forges New Command For Crucial Ground War After Heavy Israeli Blows
“Hezbollah is preparing for a long war of attrition in south Lebanon, after Israel wiped out its top leadership, with a new military command directing rocket fire and the ground conflict, two sources familiar with its operations said. Hezbollah has been diminished by three weeks of devastating Israeli blows - most notably the killing of its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Friends and foes alike are now watching how effectively it resists Israeli troops that have crossed into Lebanon with the stated aim of driving it away from the border. The Iran-backed group still has a considerable stockpile of weapons, including its most powerful precision missiles which it has yet to use, four sources familiar with its operations said, despite waves of airstrikes that Israel says has severely depleted its arsenal.”
Reuters: Israeli Forces Fire At UN Position In Lebanon, 22 Killed In Beirut Strike
“Israeli forces fired at a watchtower used by U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon on Friday, injuring two, a U.N. source said, the third day in a row peacekeepers have reported Israeli fire at their positions as Israel wages war on Hezbollah. An Israeli strike late on Thursday in the heart of Beirut killed 22 people and injured more than 100, Lebanese authorities said. The target was a senior Hezbollah official - Wafiq Safa - who survived, according to three security sources. In northern Israel, a Thai worker was killed when Hezbollah fired an anti-tank missile at a farming area, the national ambulance service said. The Israeli airforce killed a Hezbollah commander responsible for attacks with anti-tank missiles into the area of Ramot Naftali in northern Israel, the military said. Hezbollah issued no immediate comment on that claim.The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted one year ago when the Iranian-backed group opened fire in support of Palestinian militant group Hamas at the start of the Gaza war.”
“Israel’s bombardment of central and northern Gaza has killed dozens of people and trapped thousands in their homes, Palestinian officials said Wednesday, as the death toll in the yearlong war passed 42,000. Gaza’s Health Ministry said it recovered 40 bodies from Jabaliya from Sunday until Tuesday, and another 14 from communities farther north. The toll is likely higher as there are bodies buried under the rubble and in areas that can’t be accessed, it said. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the military spokesperson, said that Israeli forces were operating in Jabaliya to prevent Hamas from regrouping and had killed about 100 militants, without providing evidence. Israel says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it fights in residential areas. A year ago, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed into army bases and farming communities, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250.”
The Jerusalem Post: Police Prevent Tel Aviv Terror Attack With Arrest Of Five ISIS-Linked Suspects
“Police arrested five Israeli citizens from Taybeh who had pledged allegiance to ISIS on Thursday, thwarting a planned terror attack at the Azrieli Mall in Tel Aviv. The five, who were previously unknown to the police, were arrested by special units officers, who found them with a Carl Gustav rifle and other materials. The planned attack involved a car bomb and shooting at Azrieli Mall. Police said the suspects, aged 20-30, pledged allegiance to ISIS and consumed ideological material from the radical Islamist group.”
Associated Press: Somalia Says It Welcomes Egypt’s Offer To Deploy Peacekeepers There
“Somalia says Egypt has offered to deploy peacekeeping troops to the Horn of Africa nation in a security partnership that is emerging as the mandate of a long-time group of African Union peacekeepers winds down. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi on Thursday attended a summit in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, where he and the leaders of Somalia and Eritrea pledged strong cooperation in regional security. Somali authorities said in a statement at the end of the summit that they welcomed Egypt’s offer to deploy troops in Somalia as part of a stabilization force when the present African Union force disbands in December. The statement said the leaders welcomed the African Union Peace and Security Council’s decision to launch the African Union Mission to Support Stabilization in Somalia, or AUSSOM, under whose mandate the Egyptians or others would be deployed.”
Politico: The EU Is Helping Turkey Forcibly Deport Migrants To Syria And Afghanistan
“One of the last things Sami saw before Turkey deported him was the flag of the European Union. This spring, the 26-year-old Syrian was beaten unconscious at the gates of an EU-funded detention site in southern Turkey, stuffed into a bus and sent back to the war zone he had escaped from years earlier. In the detention center, where he spent three miserable months, “the EU flag is everywhere,” said Sami, who asked to use a pseudonym due to fear of reprisal. “On doors, windows, soap bags, even on mattresses and pillows.” In the wake of Europe’s 2015 refugee crisis, the EU has poured more than €11 billion into Turkey to help the country support, shelter and manage almost 4 million people who had fled northward to escape Syria’s devastating civil war. These funds represent the largest humanitarian effort in EU history, but its purpose is far from altruistic — aiming to minimize asylum-seeker arrivals in the bloc by ensuring they stay in Turkey.”
Associated Press: A New Mayor Takes Office In Southern Mexico After His Predecessor Was Beheaded
“A new mayor was sworn in Thursday in a city in southern Mexico where his predecessor was killed and beheaded less than a week after taking office. The new mayor, Gustavo Alarcón, a doctor, had been elected as an alternate on the same ticket as deceased Mayor Alejandro Arcos in the June election. Arcos took office on Oct. 1 in the violence-wracked city of Chilpancingo, the capital of the southern state of Guerrero. But his beheaded body was found in a pickup truck Sunday; his head had been placed on the vehicle’s roof. Two rival drug gangs are fighting to control the city. Alarcón took the oath of office with a minimal security detail of a handful of police officers Thursday. He pledged to “work for the good of all” and fight the violence that has gripped Chilpancingo for years.”
Extremists: Their Words. Their Actions.
Fact:
On October 7, 2023, Hamas invaded southern Israel where, in the space of eight hours, hundreds of armed terrorists perpetrated mass crimes of brutality, rape, and torture against men, women and children. In the biggest attack on Jewish life in a single day since the Holocaust, 1,200 were killed, and 251 were taken hostage into Gaza—where 101 remain. One year on, antisemitic incidents have increased by record numbers.
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