Reading terror attacker handed whole-life sentence for park murders

January 11, 2021 Article

The Reading terror attacker who murdered three men in a park in a “swift, ruthless and brutal” knife attack has been handed a whole-life sentence.

Khairi Saadallah, 26, shouted “Allahu akhbar” as he fatally stabbed friends James Furlong, 36, Dr David Wails, 49, and Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, on June 20 last year.

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Categories: James Furlong, Khairi Saadallah, News, Reading terror attacker, Whole life sentence

Terrorist stabbed three people to death in less than a minute, court told

January 5, 2021 Article

Three men were “executed” in a Reading park by a “ruthlessly efficient” terrorist in less than one minute, a court has heard.

Khairi Saadallah, 26, shouted “Allahu akhbar” during the violent spree which left teacher James Furlong, 36, scientist David Wails, 49, and US citizen Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, dead.

Three other people – Stephen Young, Patrick Edwards and Nishit Nisudan – were also injured before Saadallah threw away the knife and ran off, pursued by an off-duty police officer.

The failed Libyan asylum seeker had launched the attacks in Forbury Gardens, Reading, as the victims were enjoying a summer evening on June 20 last year after the first lockdown restrictions in England were relaxed.

Roger Smith, who was among the victims’ group, saw Mr Ritchie-Bennett “just going over sideways, like a tree being felled” as he was stabbed in the neck.

He said it “all happened really quickly” and was like a “weird dream”.

Another eyewitness, Andrew Cafe, said: “I saw him holding the knife and as he was charging towards us he shouted ‘Allah Akbar’.”

As Saadallah was detained, a Muslim member of the public told him: “You have nothing to do with Islam, bastard,” adding: “I am just livid.”

Following his arrest, Saadallah initially said he wanted to plead guilty to the “jihad that I done” but later feigned mental illness in police interviews.

Saadallah, of Basingstoke Road, Reading, pleaded guilty to three murders and three attempted murders and appeared at the Old Bailey on Tuesday for the start of his sentencing.

Prosecutor Alison Morgan QC said Saadallah aimed to kill as many people as possible in the name of violent jihad.

She said: “In just half a minute, the defendant was able to inflict catastrophic injuries to three people and serious injuries to three others.

“The prosecution’s case was that this was not an accident. This was not a frenzied attack by someone wielding a knife in a random, uncontrolled manner.

“The defendant was aiming to inflict the maximum amount of damage in the shortest possible time to allow him to kill as many people as possible.

“In effect, the killings of Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, David Wails and James Furlong were highly effective executions.”

Mr Ritchie-Bennett and Mr Furlong both suffered single stab wounds to the neck, and Mr Wails was stabbed once to the back.

Ms Morgan said the defendant was “ruthlessly efficient” in his actions, having planned and executed the attack with “determination and precision”.

The court heard that Saadallah, who arrived in Britain in 2012, had previously been involved with militias who had been part of the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi and was pictured handling weapons, including firearms.

Since living in Britain he had been repeatedly arrested and convicted of various offences, including theft and assault, between 2013 and last year.

He developed an emotionally unstable and anti-social personality disorder, with his behaviour worsened by alcohol and cannabis misuse, the court was told.

In 2017, the “impressionable and volatile” defendant associated at HMP Bullingdon with prominent radical preacher Omar Brooks, who is associated with the banned terrorist organisation Al-Muhajiroun.

An examination of his mobile phone revealed his interest in extremist material, including the flag of the so-called Islamic State and Jihadi John.

The court was told Saadallah was released from HMP Bullingdon on June 5, just days before the attack.

He then researched the location for his attack online and carried out reconnaissance on June 17, the court heard.

On June 18, he was in contact with his probation officer who alerted his mental health team over concern about comments Saadallah had made about “magic”.

Saadallah contacted the crisis team himself, but when they visited him on June 19, he did not open the door.

Police visited him the same day, prompted by concerns from his brother, but Saadallah insisted he was “alright”, while standing near a knife he had bought from Morrisons supermarket.

The court heard that a psychiatrist had since concluded that the events of June 20 were “unrelated to the effects of either mental disorder or substance misuse”.

Mr Justice Sweeney adjourned the hearing until Wednesday and said the sentencing would conclude on Monday.

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Categories: Islamist attack, Khairi Saadallah, Knife Attack, News, Reading attack, Sentencing

Arrests made after mob demolishes Hindu temple in Pakistan

December 31, 2020 Article

A mob led by members of Pakistan’s radical Islamist party demolished a Hindu temple after setting it on fire in a deeply conservative northwestern town, a senior police official said.

The incident in the town of Karak drew condemnation from human rights activists and Pakistan’s minister for human rights, Shireen Mazari.

Ms Mazari went on Twitter to condemn the burning of the temple and urged police to ensure the arrest of those involved.

District police chief Irfan Ullah said police detained several people over their involvement in the attack on the temple.

Witnesses said the mob, led by activists and local leaders of the radical Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, attacked the temple after local Hindus received permission from authorities to renovate it.

The incident comes weeks after the government allowed minority Hindus to build a new temple in Islamabad on the recommendation of a council of clerics.

Although Muslims and Hindus generally live peacefully together in Pakistan, there have been other attacks on Hindu temples in recent years.

Most of the Pakistan’s minority Hindus migrated to India in 1947 when India was divided by Britain’s government.

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Categories: Attack, Hindu Temple, Hindus, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, News, Pakistan

Boko Haram claims responsibility for abduction of Nigerian pupils

December 15, 2020 Article

Nigeria’s Boko Haram jihadist rebels have claimed responsibility for the abduction of hundreds of pupils in an attack on a boys’ school in northern Katsina state, according to a Nigerian online newspaper.

More than 330 children are missing from the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara after gunmen with assault rifles attacked their school on Friday night.

The Daily Nigerian said it received an audio message from Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau saying his group abducted the schoolboys because Western education is against the tenets of Islam.

“What happened in Katsina was done to promote Islam and discourage un-Islamic practices as Western education is not the type of education permitted by Allah and his Holy Prophet,” the paper quoted Mr Shekau as saying.

There has been no independent verification of the audio message but Mr Shekau has in the past released video and audio messages on Boko Haram’s behalf.

Nigerian presidential spokesman Garba Shehu said in a statement on Monday that “the kidnappers had made contact and discussions were already on, pertaining to the safety and return” of the children to their homes.

Mr Shehu said nothing about the identity of the abductors.

Several armed groups operate in north-western Nigeria, where Katsina state is located.

It was originally believed the attackers were bandits, who sometimes work with Boko Haram.

The government said a joint rescue operation was launched on Saturday by Nigeria’s police, air force and army after the military engaged in gunfights with bandits after locating their hideout in the Zango/Paula forest.

Many of the more than 600 male pupils were able to escape during the attack while police engaged in a gunfight, according to Katsina state police spokesman Gambo Isah.

Boko Haram has in the past abducted pupils from schools.

The most serious school attack took place in April 2014, when more than 270 schoolgirls were abducted from their dormitory at the Government Secondary School in Chibok in north-eastern Borno State.

About 100 of the girls are still missing.

Boko Haram said at the time it wanted to stop women from attending schools.

The recent incident at the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara is the worst attack on a boys’ school since February 2014, when 59 were killed during a Boko Haram attack on the Federal Government College Buni Yadi in Yobe State.

Boko Haram and the breakaway faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province, are fighting to impose strict Islamic Shariah rule in Nigeria.

Thousands have been killed in the more than 10-year-old insurgency and more than a million people displaced.

Video of Chibok girls puts pressure on Nigeria’s Buhari

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Categories: Boko Haram, Jihadist rebels, Katsina State, News, Nigeria

Austrian officials seize weapons destined for Germany’s far-right

December 13, 2020 Article

Austrian authorities have seized a large cache of weapons and ammunition that were intended to be sold to far-right extremists in Germany.

Police raids in recent days led to the seizure of 70 automatic and semi-automatic firearms, more than 100,000 rounds of ammunition and explosives, officials said.

The main suspect is a 53-year-old Austrian, interior minister Karl Nehammer said.

Mr Nehammer said the police operations had uncovered “a network that shows links between the area of right-wing extremism and organised crime”.

He said that some of those belonged to “the neo-Nazi scene that have sadly also been known in Austria for a while”.

The firearms were allegedly bought with the proceeds from the sale of drugs.

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Categories: Austria, Austrian far right, German far right, Neo-Nazi, News

One dead as IS targets Kabul with mortar shells

December 12, 2020 Article

The so-called Islamic State terror group has attacked the Afghan capital with a barrage of mortar shells, killing at least one civilian and wounding a second.

The extremist group said it was behind the violence on its affiliated Amaq News website, saying it fired 10 Katyusha rockets towards Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport.

Three shells hit the airport early on Saturday morning, slightly damaging a Kam Air aircraft.

Kam Air, which provides domestic and international flights, was Afghanistan’s first privately-owned airline when it began operating in 2003.

A window of one of the aircraft parked at the airport was damaged by a ricocheting piece of a shell, according to an airport official. No-one was hurt and the aircraft was empty at the time.

The 10 shells were fired from a vehicle parked on the northern edge of the capital, with several rounds landing in residential areas of the city.

Afghanistan’s Islamic State affiliate has carried out similar attacks in the past, including last month when it claimed credit for firing two dozen mortar rounds that killed eight civilians and wounded 31.

It also claimed the killing earlier this week of Afghan journalist Malala Maiwand in eastern Nangrahar province.

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Categories: Afghanistan, Attack on Kabul, Hamid Karzai, Islamic State, Mortar attack, News

Bomber’s brother appeared to be ‘sympathetic to ideals of Isis’, inquiry told

December 8, 2020 Article

Images recovered from the home of the older brother of Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi indicated he was “sympathetic to the ideals of Isis”, a police chief has told a public inquiry.

Ismail Abedi, 27, was arrested the morning after the explosion which killed 22 people and injured hundreds at the end of an Ariana Grande concert on May 22 2017.

A search of his home recovered a disk drive containing a number of images that could be “considered supportive of an extremist mindset”, said Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Barraclough, the senior investigating officer into the attack.

He said images of burnt bodies and one depicting an Isis flag with the words “I Pledge Allegiance” were on the device.

Other images showed Ismail and a young Salman Abedi holding weapons – assessed to have been taken outside of the UK – and a video lecture from the late preacher and senior al Qaida recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki, the inquiry heard.

Another drive seized contained images of an armed Salman Abedi in camouflage clothing and a video file of his younger brother and other males firing weapons.

Paul Greaney QC, counsel to the inquiry, asked Mr Barraclough: “Your view in your statement was ‘there are indications that Ismail Abedi may have been aware of the radicalisation or changing opinions of Salman Abedi’?”

“Yes,” said the detective.

Mr Greaney went on: “And you added ‘in some respects it also appears that Ismail was sympathetic to the ideals of Isis as evidenced by the material discovered on his devices which were seized from his home address when he was arrested’?”

Mr Barraclough confirmed: “Yes.”

Mr Greaney said Ismail Abedi would be called to give evidence and would have the chance to offer explanations, although when the inquiry was opened it was said he had declined to answer questions on the basis it may tend to incriminate him.

The inquiry into the bombing heard Ismail Abedi was held in custody until June 5 2017 on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism and was interviewed on 25 occasions.

The inquiry heard he told police he had concerns about Salman Abedi and their younger brother, Hashem – jailed for life this year for his part in the bomb plot – over them dropping out of their studies, had suspicions they were involved in fraud and members of the community had told him Hashem was taking drugs.

He raised those issues with their parents, Ramadan and Samia, who live in Libya, which caused “friction” with his brothers who he said changed phone numbers frequently and when he did contact them they would hang up, the inquiry heard.

Ismail Abedi went on to provide a prepared statement in which he denied any knowledge or involvement in his brother’s actions or in the radicalisation or assistance of Salman Abedi in relation to the attack, Manchester Manchester Magistrates’ Court was told.

Mr Barraclough confirmed Ismail Abedi was released without charge but he added: “You must understand that the investigation continues in relation to this and there will be further attempts by the investigation team to speak to Ismail Abedi in due course.”

Salman Abedi travelled to Libya during the 2011 revolution and obtained a job “locating Gaddafi supporters”, the inquiry heard.

His cousin, Abdurrahman Forjani, told police that Abedi had been “involved in raids during that period” and explained he had shown him photographs of military vehicles, weapons and rocket launchers.

When Abedi returned to the UK about nine months later in 2012, his cousin said he was told by his parents to stay away from him.

The inquiry also heard about Abedi’s link to a counter-terror investigation into a woman who was stopped from flying out of the UK from Heathrow Airport in February 2017.

Her home was searched and among photographs found on a device was one of a male with a strong resemblance to Abedi carrying a rifle and an insignia of Libyan Islamist militia group the February 17th Martyrs Brigade behind him on a wall. The likeness, established after the Arena attack, was said to be “startling” and the image was uploaded in August 2011 when Abedi was aged 16.

Images of Salman Abedi and his younger brother, Hashem, in military uniform, also taken in 2011, were found at their home in Fallowfield following the bombing.

Mr Barraclough said it indicated the two brothers did receive some level of military training and he also it was “not unreasonable” to suggest that Salman Abedi may have either fought with the February 17th Martyrs Brigade during the Libyan uprising or attended a training camp, or both.

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Categories: Islamic State, Manchester Arena Bombings, News, Salman Abedi, Sympathetic

Indonesian police kill six supporters of firebrand cleric

December 7, 2020 Article

Indonesian police have shot dead six followers of a firebrand cleric who returned last month from a three-year exile in Saudi Arabia after criminal charges against him were dropped.

Jakarta Police Chief Muhammad Fadil Imran said officers were following a car carrying 10 supporters of Rizieq Shihab, the leader of the Islamic Defenders Front, early on Monday morning. He said the followers attacked the police with guns and swords, threatening the officers’ safety.

“The officers then took firm and measured action so that six died from the group of 10 people,” he said at a news conference. He did not give further details of the violence.

An official of the Islamic Defenders Front, Ahmad Shabri Lubis, gave a different account, saying that Mr Shihab and his family were heading to a place to deliver a sermon and that guards travelling with them had been shot.

“On their way to the sermon location, the group was intercepted by unknown people that we strongly believed were part of an operational group to stalk and harm him. Those unknown people stopped and did the shooting of the family guards,” Mr Lubis said.

Mr Imran said police had been scheduled to interrogate Mr Shihab on Monday morning over an alleged violation of coronavirus health regulations during his daughter’s wedding reception on November 14, and they had received information about plans for a mass mobilisation of his supporters at Jakarta police headquarters during his questioning.

As of Monday evening, Mr Shihab had not appeared for the questioning, his second police summons after an earlier one last Tuesday.

Mr Shihab was welcomed by tens of thousands of followers when he returned to Indonesia from exile on November 10. He had left Indonesia in 2017 to go on an umrah, or minor pilgrimage, to Mecca shortly after police charged him in a pornography case and with allegedly insulting the official state ideology, Pancasila.

Police dropped both charges last year due to weak evidence, but authorities in Saudi Arabia had banned him from leaving the country without any explanation.

His return comes as Islamist forces are gaining political strength in Indonesia.

The Islamic Defenders Front was once on the political fringes and has a long record of vandalising nightspots, hurling stones at Western embassies and attacking rival religious groups. It wants Islamic Shariah law to apply to Indonesia’s 230 million Muslims.

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Categories: Firebrand cleric, Indonesia, Islamic Defenders Front, News, Police, Rizieq Shihab

Arena bomber’s friend was ‘wholly committed to terrorist purposes’, court heard

November 27, 2020 Article

Abdalraouf Abdallah is a man “wholly committed to terrorist purposes”, a court heard.

His own father, Nagah Abdallah, as the father of Salman Abedi had done, came to the UK in 1993 as a refugee from the brutal regime of Colonel Gaddafi with his wife Samira Lalouche, a refugee from political oppression.

Abdallah’s uncle was among 1,300 people murdered by the dictator in a mass killing of political prisoners in 1996.

Although his parents are Libyan, Abdalraouf Abdallah was born in Pakistan but holds dual British and Libyan nationality.

The family, along with his elder brother Mohammed Abdallah, who was born in Algeria, lived at Westerling Way in south Manchester, home to a large Libyan community.

Abdallah became “at the centre of a jihadist network facilitating foreign fighters”, said Max Hill QC, who prosecuted him at his terror trial in 2016.

In 2010 the then student travelled to Libya for a gap year and was living there with relatives when the first of the Arab Spring protests engulfed neighbouring Tunisia.

As demonstrations spread to Libya’s capital Tripoli, he joined thousands calling for Gaddafi’s fall as the country descended into civil war.

Abdallah and his brother joined one of the most important rebel Islamist groups – the February 17th Martyrs Brigade.

Some of its members were considered to be potential enemies of the UK because of their former links to al Qaida.

Abdallah was shot, seriously wounded and left wheelchair-bound and paralysed from the waist down.

He was sent back to the UK in August 2011, rejoining family in Manchester where he became friends with Salman Abedi and began to help others carry out jihad.

His disabilities helped prosecutors in understanding his role in the events that related to his brother and others joining the so-called Islamic State jihadists in Syria.

In 2014 Abdallah’s brother Mohammed decided to travel to Syria to engage in the violence of the jihadists, travelling with a man named Nezar Khalifa and joining up with Islamic State fighters in July of that year, the court heard.

They intended to meet with two others, Raymond Matimba and Stephen Gray, the court heard.

Matimba was successful and eventually caught up with the elder Abdallah and Khalifa, all the while communicating with Abdalraouf Abdallah who arranged contacts, money, go-betweens and weapons, his trial heard.

While in Syria, Mohammed Abdallah was wired £2,000 in funds by his sibling, leaving Syria to collect the cash in Istanbul, the court heard.

Abdallah was in constant contact with his brother and his friends through social media apps.

On May 11 2016 Abdalraouf Abdallah was sentenced to an extended determinate sentence of nine years and six months, made up of a custodial element of five and a half years and an extended licence period of four years.

Stephen Mustafa Gray, of Whitnall Street, Moss Side, a former RAF serviceman and Iraq war veteran, who converted to Islam and tried to get to Syria, was jailed for five years for terror offences.

Raymond Matimba, of Bold Street, Moss Side, travelled with Gray to Syria but unlike him, was able to cross the border.

He reportedly became an IS sniper and appeared in footage with the so-called Beatles terror cell alongside “Jihadi John”.

Despite reports he was killed in combat his death has never been confirmed.

The current whereabouts of Khalifa are not known.

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Categories: Abdalraouf Abdallah, Feb 17th Martyrs Brigade, Islamic State, Islamic State Jihadists, News

Islamist extremism referrals up for first time since 2016

November 26, 2020 Article

The number of people flagged up to authorities for concerns over extremism rose 10% last year, with the first increase in Islamist radicalisation referrals since 2016, figures show.

There were a total of 6,287 referrals to the Government’s Prevent programme between April 2019 and March 2020 – up 10% from a record low of 5,737 the previous year.

Of these, 1,487 were for concerns over Islamist extremism – a 6% rise from 1,404 in the year to March 2019 and the first increase since the year ending March 2016.

The number of Prevent referrals for concerns over right-wing extremism dropped slightly in the latest year, to 1,387 from 1,388 in the 12 months to March 2019.

A further 3,203 people were flagged over a “mixed, unstable or unclear ideology”, while 210 were referred over other concerns like international and left-wing radicalisation.

With an annual budget of around £40 million, the Prevent scheme aims to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.

It was launched after public bodies were placed under a statutory duty in 2015 to stop people being drawn into terrorism.

Anyone concerned that someone they know might be at risk can refer them.

When authorities decide there is a risk that the person referred to Prevent could be drawn into terrorism, they are then assessed as part of a scheme known as Channel and potentially taken on as a case. Engagement with the scheme is voluntary and it is not a criminal sanction.

Of the 1,424 cases examined by Channel last year, 697 were taken on as a case – the highest recorded.

Some 43% (302) of the cases taken on by Channel were cases referred over concerns relating to right-wing extremism, with 30% (210) for Islamist radicalisation.

The figures show most referrals came from the police and education bodies.

More than half of all those flagged up to authorities – 3,423 or 54% – were aged 20 or under.

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Categories: News, Prevent, Referrals, violent extremism