ICT World Terror Database Report: January 2013

ICT World Terror Database Report: January 2013

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By the ICT Database Team

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ICT Database ReportThe following is a summary and analysis of the terrorist attacks and counter-terrorism operations that occurred during the month of January 2013, researched and recorded by the ICT database team. Important events this month included the following:

 

Afghanistan: Six Taliban suicide bombers attacked the compound of Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security, killing one commando and wounding 33 civilians in Kabul.
Ten police officers, including the local counter-terrorism chief and the head of traffic police, were killed in a suicide bombing in Kunduz.
Algeria: Al-Qaeda-linked militants took approximately 800 people hostage at the Tigantourine gas facility near In Amanas. This led to a four-day siege by Algerian security forces which resulted in the death of 37 hostages and 29 militants. An unknown group, Signed-in-Blood Battalion under the command of Mokhtar Belmokhtar claimed responsibility for the attack.
Brazil: Joseba Gotzon Visan González, a suspected member of ETA, was arrested in Rio de Janeiro, under a European arrest warrant issued by Spain’s National Court. He was wanted in connected with three ETA terror attacks that took place in 1988.
Ethiopia: Ten people went on trial and were convicted of having ties to Al-Qaeda. The sentences ranged from three years to 20 years, and several of the militants also received large fines.
France: Two people were arrested in Toulouse in connection with the March 2012 attacks that occurred in the city and surrounding areas.
Germany: Emrah Erdogan, 24, was indicted by a court in Berlin on suspicion of being a member of Al-Qaeda and Al-Mujahedeen.
Yusuf Ocak and Maqsood Lodin were convicted of membership in Al-Qaeda. Ocak was sentenced in court in Berlin to nine years in prison and Lodin to six years nine months. The pair met in Pakistan and had been recruited by Al-Qaeda to recruit new members and collect money to fund terror attacks in Europe.
Iraq: A bomb killed 28 Shia Muslim pilgrims and injured 50 others in Musayyib, Iraq. No group claimed responsibility for the attack but authorities blamed Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
A series of attacks occurred in Baghdad and Northern Iraq including a car bomb that exploded in a crowded market in Baghdad, a car bomb that exploded near an army checkpoint, and a suicide bombing during a funeral service at the Sayid al-Shuhada mosque in Tuz Khurmatu.
Finance Minister Rafa al-Essawi escaped an assassination attempt when a roadside bomb exploded near his convoy west of Baghdad as he left a meeting. His car was not hit but two of his guards were wounded. Following this attack, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives next to MP Ayfan Saadun al-Essawi, killing him and six others near Fallujah.
A suicide bomber detonated explosives outside the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Kirkuk killing 50 people and wounding 180 others.
Israel and West Bank: The Judea Military Court charged Ahmed Moussa, 26, with masterminding a bus bombing in central Tel Aviv on 21 November 2012.
Jack Teitel, an Israeli-American citizen, was convicted in Jerusalem of murdering two Palestinians and two attempted murders.
Six men from Beit Fajar, West Bank were indicted in a military court for carrying out a shooting attack in Gush Etzion in November 2012 and planning further attacks. The suspects were charged with attempting first degree murder and membership to a banned organization.
Mahmoud Abu Kuyder, 25, and Samech Abu Kuyder, 21, were detained on suspicion of preparing a series of terrorist attacks in Israel.
Mali: French forces launched air strikes on the southern fringe of the Sahara desert, in an attempt to prevent Al-Qaeda-linked militants move towards Mali’s capital, Bamako.
Nigeria: The convoy of Alhaji Ado Bayero, the Emir of Kano, was attacked in Kano; he escaped unhurt. No group claimed responsibility for the attack but authorities blamed Boko Haram.
Suspected Boko Haram militants killed 18 civilians selling bush meat in Damboa and then in a separate attack killed five other civilians in Kano.
North America: Tahawwur Rana, was sentenced in Chicago, Illinois to 14 years in prison for supporting a terrorist plot in Denmark and providing material support to Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). He was acquitted of his role in the Mumbai 2008 terror attacks in India. David Coleman Headley, 52, who was chief witness in Rana’s trial, was convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison in Chicago, Illinois for his role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks in India. He was also involved in the Danish plot. He had faced the death sentence and extradition to Pakistan, India, and Denmark; he did not receive this due to his assisting the authorities in Rana’s case.
Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 21, a Somali-American man, was convicted of attempting to detonate a bomb during a Thanksgiving holiday tree-lighting ceremony in Portland, Oregon on 26 November 2010. He is due to be sentenced in May 2013 and faces life in prison.
Pakistan: Four people were killed and 50 others injured when a motorcycle bomb exploded close to headquarters of the Mutthaida Qaumi Movement Party, which had just finished holding a political rally.
Mullah Nazir and five other militants were killed in a suspected US drone missile attack in South Waziristan.
A series of bombings in Quetta killed approximately 100 people and injured many others. The United Baloch Army claimed responsibility for one of the bombings but the other attacks were unclaimed.
Paraguay: Authorities in Paraguay suspected Wassim el Abd Fadel, 31, who was detained in the Tacumbu prison in Asunciun on human-trafficking, money-laundering and narco-trafficking charges, for using money generated from these crimes to finance Hizballah.
Philippines: Authorities in Kidapawan foiled a bomb attack targeting local police. The bomb contained 60mm mortar rounds wired to a battery and a cell phone and was planted near the gate of the main police station in the city.
Somalia: The French military attempted but failed to rescue Denis Allex, a French intelligence officer held in Bulo Marer by Al-Shabab Al-Mujahedeen since 2009. Following the raid, the militants released a statement saying that Allex had been executed.
Six people were killed, when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives amongst a group of security officials outside the Somali Prime Minister’s office in Mogadishu.
South Africa: Henry Okah, leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), was convicted in South Africa of 13 charges of terrorism
Syria: Two explosions occurred at the University Of Aleppo killing 83 people and wounding 160 others. No group claimed responsibility for the attack.
Tunisia: A group of suspected militants were arrested in Medenin and authorities seized a large arms cache including Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
United Kingdom: Abid Naseer, 26, was extradited from the UK to the US where he was wanted in connection with alleged terrorism offenses that included providing material support to Al-Qaeda and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction
Three British men aged 18, 31, and 21, were arrested at separate addresses in east London by counter-terrorism officers investigating the kidnapping of a British photographer in Syria