Featured News: Syrian Islamist rebel eats opponent's heart on video

Every conflict has an image that comes to symbolize it. Syria's civil war may now have that very picture; a video showing a rebel fighter taking a bite from the heart of a dead government soldier.

The video conveys so much of what Syria's conflict has become: not only in its brutality, but also in its sectarianism; in the video, the cannibalistic rebel leader calls on others to follow his example and terrorize Syria's Alawites. The identity of the rebel also says much about the civil war: he is Abu Sakkar, a famous leader of a group called the Independent Omar al-Farouq Brigade. This is an offshoot -and close ally -of the Farouq Brigades, one of the largest units of the Free Syrian Army. The Independent Brigade has previously been accused of imposing the jizyah (tax on non-Muslims), expelling Christians from the city of Homs, and Abu Sakkar himself has been filmed firing rockets into Shia areas of Lebanon and posing with dead Hezbollah soldiers. The neighbourhood in which the video seems to have been taken is also telling of the conflict as a whole: Baba Amr in west Homs was an early centre of opposition to the al-Assad regime, but was subject to a brutal government counteroffensive earlier this year.

Most worryingly, this heart-eating leader is essentially in charge of the rebel forces struggling to control Homs -one of the most significant battles in the conflict. As a consequence, the rebel National Coalition's half-hearted promise to put Abu Sakkar on trial will likely ring hollow. They are unlikely to ever gain the will or means to carry it out.


Read more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22519770

Featured News: Boko Haram plans to kidnap women and children

Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shekau has announced that his group has started kidnapping women and children, purportedly in retaliation for government arrests of the wives and children of his group's members. Shekau added that anyone thusly taken by his forces could then become a "servant".

While no such confirmed kidnappings have yet been carried out by Boko Haram, this is a chilling turn taken by Nigeria's leading violent jihadi group. Kidnappings for ransom and for execution are a staple tactic of jihadis across the world, but these have usually targeted foreigners or wealthy individuals, and the victims have been predominantly adult (and usually male) in most cases. For a jihadi group to specifically target ordinary women and children for kidnapping is therefore an innovation, and one which likely rules out both ransom or execution-on-video as motivations. The victims are unlikely to be wealthy enough for ransom, nor (as locals) perceived as 'significant' enough to warrant execution for the purpose of creating videos meant to 'go viral' on the internet. This means the welfare of the kidnapping victims will depend on how benevolent the jihadis' interpretation of "servant" is -or whether this is simply a cover for yet more murders by Boko Haram.

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http://news.yahoo.com/nigeria-extremists-kidnap-women-children-171112245.html

Featured News: Egypt arrests al Qaeda suspects targeting "Western embassy"

Nasr City is a district of Cairo known for its Dubai-style shopping malls, and as the home of the new premises of the renowned al-Azhar University. But last year, it came to the headlines when the so-called "Nasr city terror cell", with suspected links to al Qaeda, was broken up. Back then, it was plotting to assassinate Egyptian public figures.

Now, it seems individuals with links to this former group have been arrested with ingredients for explosives, and a plan to target a "Western embassy" in Cairo. After the attack on the US embassy in Benghazi last year, the French embassy there last month, and an apparently politically-motivated stabbing attack outside the US embassy in Cairo last week, Western embassies are emerging as the target-of-choice for would-be jihadis in North Africa.

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http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-arrests-3-suspected-al-qaida-militants-145633761.html;_ylt=AvDLQDGnDWYgKMIzzmJH_HVvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTNma2dpMnY0BG1pdAMEcGtnAzdjN2Y0MDhmLTc5ZjAtMzQyZC04NGFmLWRmNjZmNjI4YTRkYgRwb3MDMwRzZWMDbG5fTWlkRWFzdF9nYWwEdmVyA2Y5ZGEwNzAwLWJhNTgtMTFlMi05ZDU4LTlmYzMxNDAxOWI2Ng--;_ylg=X3oDMTBhYWM1a2sxBGxhbmcDZW4tVVM-;_ylv=3

Featured News: Pakistanis vote amidst jihadi attacks

As millions of Pakistanis voted today, jihadis with suspected links to the Pakistani Taliban targeted the democratic process. In Karachi, ten people died in a bomb blast outside an office of the Pashtun nationalist Awami National Party (ANP), while a roadside bomb in the same city targeted a bus carrying ANP supporters, killing one. Earlier this week, bombings targeted the rallies of Islamist parties, killing many.

These actions make it increasingly clear that Pakistan's jihadis view anyone at all, even Islamists, who engage in the democratic process as their enemies.

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http://news.yahoo.com/pakistanis-polls-22-killed-attacks-142534713.html;_ylt=AnQVHi2Z3QMHVfcL.Vf5i7BvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTNjOWQ1NDZlBG1pdAMEcGtnA2FjZmVhNzk4LTI1OTctM2EyYS05YjljLTRhM2RjZjk1MGU0YwRwb3MDMwRzZWMDbG5fQXNpYV9nYWwEdmVyA2NmODc4YjYwLWJhNDYtMTFlMi1hM2ZmLTc4Yjg4NDViZWIwNg--;_ylg=X3oDMTBhYWM1a2sxBGxhbmcDZW4tVVM-;_ylv=3

Featured News: Malian jihadis carry out two more suicide bombings

Less than a week after their last suicide attack near Gao, another tow simultaneous attacks were carried out by five bombers in the towns of Gossi and and Menaka. The targets were Malian and Nigerien troops, and although the only casualties (besides the bombers themselves) were two wounded soldiers, the frequency with which these attacks are occurring is testimony to the enduring capacity of Mali's jihadis.

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http://news.yahoo.com/suicide-bombers-launch-attacks-2-mali-towns-124309450.html;_ylt=Ao3De1F5r90prwnmiNED0vxvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTNlajRtcWc2BG1pdAMEcGtnA2UzMDIyM2ZiLTZjMjEtM2ExYy04MzljLTRlNmIwYzI1NzczYwRwb3MDNgRzZWMDbG5fQWZyaWNhX2dhbAR2ZXIDM2ZmYmM4NjAtYjk5NC0xMWUyLTk2ZmYtZWFkNjIwZjEyODc0;_ylg=X3oDMTBhYWM1a2sxBGxhbmcDZW4tVVM-;_ylv=3

Featured News: Car bombs kill 40 in Turkish town near Syrian border

Car bombs have killed around forty people today in the Turkish town of Rehanlı, just across the border from Syria.

While the perpetrators of this attack remain unconfirmed, the composition and current state of the town may give clues as to their identity. Rehanlı is located in Turkey's Hatay Province, which is historically linked to Syria, and before the present Syrian civil war was evenly divided in population between Alwites and Sunni Muslims. However, Rehanlı has always been proportionately more Sunni than the rest of the province, and since the outbreak of the civil war it has become an entry point for Syria refugees into Turkey. The bombs appear to have targeted the town hall and post office.

These demographic insights make it an unlikely target for jihadis linked to Syria's opposition. The al-Assad regime has always had deep links to its own jihadi and other terrorist groups which it uses as proxies, and the  Turkish government has already accused Syrian intelligence agencies of being involved. Syrian agencies have been suspected of being involved in terrorist-style bombings in the past.

It is also possible that this bombing is the work of sectarian-minded terrorists or jihadis acting independently of the Syrian government, but nevertheless anti-Sunni and anti-opposition. It is notable that after today's attacks, the members of the local Turkish population in Rehanlı attacked Syrian refugees and vehicles with Syrian number-plates.

With significant Alawite, Turkish Sunni and Syrian refugee populations throughout its southern border regions, Turkey has good reasons to fear that the sectarian conflict that has engulfed Syria, and is already spreading into Lebanon, could bleed through into Turkey as well.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22494128

Featured News: Boko Haram jail break frees 105 -and kills 55

Boko Haram continues to use its twin tactics of jail-breaks to free its members, and coordinated attacks by gunmen to destroy government targets. Both have the effect of further frustrating government attempts to suppress this organisation.

Militant jihadism is alive in the Sahel, even as French troops stymie it further north in the Sahara.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22444417