Institute for counter terrorism (ICT) Database Report: February 2013
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The following is a summary and analysis of the terrorist attacks and counter-terrorism operations that occurred during the month of February 2013, researched and recorded by the ICT database team. Important events this month included the following:
Afghanistan
Taliban militants disguised as policemen killed 17 Afghan police officers at a base in Ghazni province during an overnight attack where they infiltrated the base, poisoned the dinner food of the other officers and then proceeded to shoot the officers at close range. Authorities said the militants then stole their weapons and fled after setting a police vehicle on fire.
Bahrain
A bomb, containing 2kg of explosives, wires and a mobile phone, was discovered on the Saudi-Bahraini causeway. Authorities believe the intended target was tourists from Saudi Arabia. Bahrain’s Interior Minister announced eight people had been arrested suspected of being part of a militant cell that was linked to Iran, Iraq and Lebanon. They did not confirm if the two cases were linked.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria’s Interior Minister implicated Hizballah as being responsible for the Burgas bombing attack on 18 July 2012.
Cameroon
A French family of seven, including four children, were kidnapped near Dabanga. Several days later, Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the kidnapping in a video released on YouTube. The hostages are still being held despite diplomatic efforts to free them.
France
Four suspected militants were arrested near Paris, as part of an investigation into the recruitment of fighters for Al-Qaeda-linked forces in Africa’s Sahel.
India
A twin bombing in Hyderabad killed 17 people and injured 119 others. Authorities blamed the Indian Mujahedeen.
Iraq
A suicide car bombing at the provincial police headquarters in Kirkuk killed 36 people and injured 105 others, including the chief of police.
Five car bombs killed 39 people in Shi’ite areas of Iraq. Two car bombs killed 17 and injured 45 others at a bird market in Baghdad. Two similar attacks killed 16 people and wounded 44 others in Shomali, 70 km south of Hilla. An explosion outside Karbala killed 5 people and injured 16 others, while an Iraqi soldier was wounded by sniper fire in Fallujah.
A series of car bombs in Baghdad killed 37 people and injured 100 others when a series of car bombs exploded in Baghdad.
Israel and the West Bank
Israeli authorities announced, after a gag order was released, that they foiled a plot by a Palestinian militant cell to kidnap for ransom an Israeli civilian or soldier. Four cell members were arrested whilst in a car near Kfar Saba in December 2012. Israeli authorities said the suspects were acting upon instructions from two Islamic Jihad operatives, one of whom is a prisoner in an Israeli jail.
A Grad rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed on the outskirts of Ashkelon. There were no casualties; however, this was the first rocket from Gaza to hit Israel in the three months since a cease-fire agreement ended Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012.
Malaysia
A Malaysian court charged two people with inciting terrorism in Syria, after Amnesty International urged authorities to try releasing them instead of detaining them under a new security law, known as the Security Offences Special Measures Act (SOSMA).
Mali
A suicide bomber detonated his explosives in Gao, the first suicide attack since French-led troops began their operation on Islamist militants in January 2013.
Nigeria
Gunmen from the militant group Ansuru kidnapped seven foreign construction workers in Jama’are, Bauchi State. It was reported that the hostages were later killed.
Nigeria’s State Security Service (SSS) announced that they arrested an alleged Iranian-backed terrorist cell targeting US and Israeli targets in Lagos.
Norway
Police arrested a man in Oslo for threatening to attack government buildings in the city.
Pakistan
Taliban militants armed with heavy machine guns attacked an army checkpoint in Serai Naurang, killing 35 people. Authorities said 12 militants were killed in the attack, some of them suicide bombers. Eight people were wounded.
A suicide bomber killed 26 people and injured 56 others at the Masjid Purdil mosque and the Masjid Faizullah mosque in Hangu. Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack.
A bomb attached to a vehicle exploded outside a vegetable market in Quetta killing 84 people and wounding 200 others. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the attack.
Philippines
Ramel Vela and Roland Letriro, two Filipino members of a TV crew kidnapped by Abu Sayaff militants in June 2012 were released by their captors.
Arnold Mayo, a member of the Special Action Force (SAF) was arrested for his alleged involvement in a bus bombing in Makati City on 25 January 2011, where four people were killed and 11 others were wounded.
Spain
Mohamed Echaabi was arrested in Valencia on suspicion he was planning terror attacks in Spain and elsewhere in Europe.
Somalia
Ahmed Abdi Godane “Abu Zubeir”, the leader of Al-Shabaab Al-Mujihdeen, was sentence to death in absentia for his role in masterminding the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Hajji Abdirahman in Bosasso in December 2012
Syria
A car bomb exploded next to the Ba’ath Party offices in Damascus killing 83 people and injuring 200 others.
Thailand
A car bomb detonated on a road in Yala Province as a truck carrying six soldiers passed by. The militants then opened fire on the soldiers, killing five of them.
Armed gunmen stormed a military base in Yala. No military casualties were reported and authorities said 16 of the attackers were killed.
Turkey
A suicide bomber killed a security guard at the US embassy in Ankara and injured a journalist. The Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in response to NATO’s recent deployment of MIM-104 Patriot missiles along the Turkish-Syrian border.
Turkish police arrested 11 people suspected of links to Al-Qaeda and seized 25 kilograms of plastic explosives. Authorities also found diagrams and photographs of the US Consulate, a synagogue and a church in Istanbul.
UK
Noel Noonan and Thomas McMahont were arrested after police seized rocket launchers and explosives during an investigation into dissident republican terrorism in County Tipperary, Northern Ireland.
On 21 February, Irfan Naseer, 31; Irfan Khalid, 27; and Ashik Ali, 27, from Birmingham, were found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court, London of being the ringleaders of an Al-Qaeda backed cell.
USA
Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, pleaded guilty to attempting to detonate what he believed was a 453- kilogram bomb at the New York Federal Reserve Bank in lower Manhattan. The bomb was a fake supplied by the FBI.
Four Somali immigrants were convicted in San Diego, California of conspiring to channel money to Al-Shabaab Al-Mujahedin in Somalia.
As a result of an FBI sting operation, Matthew Aaron Llaneza was arrested as he attempted to detonate, what he believed was a car bomb outside a branch of the Bank of America in Oakland, California. He was charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction
The US Department of State labelled the following as Specially Designated Global Terrorists. The Commander Nazir Group (CNG) and its sub-commander Malang Wazir whom since 2006, has run training camps, dispatched suicide bombers, provided safe haven for Al-Qa’eda fighters, and conducted cross-border operations in Afghanistan against the United States and its allies. It also designated Iyad ag Ghali, leader of Ansar al-Dine (AAD), an organization operating in Mali which cooperates closely with Al-Qa’eda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
