home Security Counter Terror ICT Report: Monthly Terrorist Activities – September 2013

ICT Report: Monthly Terrorist Activities – September 2013

Dec 4, 2013

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Terror attack in Iraq. Illustration photo (Wikimedia Commons)

The following is a summary and analysis of the terrorist attacks and counter-terrorism operations that occurred during September 2013, as researched and recorded by the ICT Database Team. Among the most important events occurring this September:

A team of Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen gunmen attacked the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, killing 68 people and wounding 200 others. The attackers held hostages and engaged in gun battles with Kenyan security forces. Al-Shabab Al- Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attack.
Ten people were injured when a bomb exploded in Cairo, Egypt, targeting the convoy of Egypt’s interim Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim. Egyptian officials said Ibrahim escaped unhurt. Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis, a militant group based in the Sinai Peninsula, claimed responsibility for the attack.
A coordinated suicide and car bomb attack on security services headquarters killed six people and wounded 36 others in Irbil, Iraq. This was the first time a suicide attack had occurred in the city since 2007.
Three attacks targeted Peshawar, Pakistan. In the first attack, twin suicide bombers killed 81 people and injured 120 others, many of them children, outside the All Saints Church in the old quarter of the city. Jundallah claimed responsibility for the attack. In the second incident, a bomb exploded in a bus carrying government employees, killing 19 people and wounding 46 others. The attack took place as the bus was traveling through the outskirts of Peshawar. In the third attack, a car bomb exploded on a crowded street in Peshawar’s oldest bazaar, killing 40 people and wounding 90 others. No group claimed responsibility for the second or third attacks.
Two suspected Ansar Al-Sharia militants were killed and two others, Mohammed al- Awadi and Mohamed Aouadiare, both senior leaders of the group, were arrested on the outskirts of Tunis, Tunisia.
A Hamas plot to bomb the Mamilla open air shopping mall in Jerusalem, Israel during the Jewish High Holidays was foiled by Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet). Ahmad Rishak, 23, and Ismail Abu Mfalfal, 27, were charged with conspiracy to aid the enemy during wartime and the attempted manufacture of a weapon. Hamdi Romana, 22, was also arrested for accused of recruiting the two and masterminding the plot.
Nedal Amar, 42, a Palestinian West Bank resident lured Israeli Air Force Sergeant Tomer Hazan, 20, to a deserted spot near Qalqiliya, West Bank, and murdering him using a blunt weapon. He then hid the body in a well. The suspect, who was detained by police, admitted committing the murder, reportedly to secure the release of his brother, who had been imprisoned in Israel for his role in a 2003 suicide bombing.
Lawal Babafemi, 33, a suspected Nigerian terrorist, pleaded not guilty to charges in a US court that he was paid nearly $9,000 between January 2010 and February 2011 to recruit militants and improve training campaigns for Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).