attack Archives

knife attack near Paris: 2 people killed, 1 seriously injured

August 23, 2018 by administrator

Two people have been killed and one seriously injured after a man, reportedly wielding a knife, carried out an attack in a Paris suburb. Security forces have “neutralized” the attacker.

Police killed the assailant on Thursday morning after he attacked people in the street in the Trappes commune, not far from Versailles. Local media said the attacker – a man born in 1982 – was armed with a knife and barricaded inside a pavilion shouting: “Allahu akbar, if you enter I will blast you all.”

The attacker was previously known to security services and was listed on the national security threat list, known as Fiche S, for incitement to terrorism, according to local media reports.

Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack through its propaganda mouthpiece Amaq. The statement did not provide any evidence.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported citing an interior ministry source that the two victims are believed to be the assailant’s mother and sister, suggesting the attack might have been a family quarrel.

French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb expressed his condolences to the victims and their families on Twitter and stated that the investigation into the incident is ongoing.

Syria gas attack false flag organized by UK spy services: Russia

April 17, 2018 by administrator

Syria gas attack false flag

Russia says it has “irrefutable” evidence that a recent suspected chemical attack in the Damascus suburb town of Douma, which was used as a pretext for missile strikes against Syria, was a “false flag” operation orchestrated by British spy services.

Russia’s Representative at the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Alexander Shulgin made the remarks during a meeting of the organization’s executive council in The Hague on Monday.

“We have not just a ‘high level of confidence,’ as our Western partners uniformly put it; we have irrefutable proof that there was no chemical attack in Douma on April 7,” Shulgin said, describing the incident as a “pre-planned false flag attack by the British security services, which could have also been aided by their allies in Washington.”

The Western countries rushed to blame the Douma incident on the Syrian government, but Damascus strongly rejected the accusation as fabrications meant to halt the advanced made by pro-government forces against terrorists.

Syria has rejected any involvement in the suspected attack. It surrendered its chemical stockpile in 2013 to a mission led by the OPCW and the UN.

On April 14, the US, Britain and France launched a coordinated missile attack against sites and research facilities near Damascus and Homs with the purported goal of paralyzing the Syrian government’s capability to produce chemicals.

Syrian air defenses shot down a significant number of the more than 100 missiles fired at the country in violation of international law and the UN Charter.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Russian official accused Washington of playing “first fiddle” in the Douma incident based on a “pre-written scenario.”

The alleged chemical attack in Douma was staged by “pseudo-humanitarian NGOs,” which are under the patronage of the Syrian government’s foreign adversaries, he added.

Shulgin also stressed that Russian military specialists had found “not a single piece of evidence” substantiating the Western claims about the Douma incident.

The Syrian government had absolutely no reason to conduct a gas attack on Douma when the city was already almost liberated from the grip of militants, and thus the anti-Damascus accusations look “absurd,” he added.

The Russian official further denounced the tripartite April 14 “military aggression” on Syria, saying “this crime can be by no means justified.”

Washington, London and Paris “are playing the hypocrite as they pretend to be the defenders of the international law. In fact, however, no one except for their allies… has any doubts that the major threat to the world comes from these ‘leaders’ of the Western [political] camp,” he pointed out.

“In fact, if they say they bombed a storehouse with chemical weapons and there are no traces of chemical contamination, that proves the fact that their version of secret chemical stockpiles in hands of the Syrian governmental forces has been obviously made up,” Shulgin said.

He also concluded that the US and its allies are not interested in a real investigation into the alleged Douma gas attack.

Patients have ‘no symptoms of chemical poisoning’

Meanwhile, an intern medic at a Douma hospital stressed that no symptoms of chemical poisoning were found in the patients brought in after the alleged attack.

Marwan Jaber said that following the Douma incident, a group of unidentified people came to the hospital and started to spread panic about a chemical attack.

“Some injured people and unidentified personnel stormed in, spreading message of a chemical attack. People were terrified and a panic was triggered. We diagnosed them, there were no related symptoms,” he said.

OPCW rejects Iran-Russia motion on Douma probe

Additionally on Monday, the OPCW refused to vote for a draft resolution, initiated by Russia and Iran, which called for an investigation into the Douma incident.

Shulgin denounced the Western countries’ objection to “the consensus document,” saying, “It was funny to see how the representative of the United States was trying to find a single slightest excuse to reject our draft.”

The draft resolution underlined “the necessity of finding all the facts” regarding the Douma incident, called on all OPCW member states to provide proper security conditions for the watchdog’s experts on the ground, and tasked the head of the OPCW’s technical committee with playing an active role in ensuring successful work of the mission.

Azerbaijani troops fire towards Armenian positions from Nakhijevan

April 9, 2018 by administrator

The Azerbaijani armed forces on April 7 and the night through the next day violated the ceasefire for several times from Nakhijevan and opened fire towards the Armenian positions.

The Azeri troops mainly employed firearms, Armenian defense ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan said in a Facebook post.

The Armenian side took retaliatory measures to silence the rivals.

“The Armenian defense ministry calls on Azerbaijani units to refrain from further provocations and warns that nothing will remain unaddressed,” Hovhannisyan said.

The border situation near Nakhijevan is relatively calm, armed incidents are rare there.

Related links:

Artsrun Hovhannisyan’s Facebook post

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Yazidi Survived Islamic State will they Survive Erdogan Attack? Yazidi shrines have already burned in Afrin

March 27, 2018 by administrator

by Fazel Hawramy

KHANASOOR, Iraq — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said March 25 that Turkey had begun operations against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the Sinjar region in northern Iraq. “We said we would go into Sinjar. Now operations have begun there. The fight is internal and external,” Erdogan said before a crowd in Turkey’s Trabzon province.

Two days prior to Erdogan’s statement, PKK fighters began withdrawing from Sinjar in order to avoid the targeting of civilians in the area.

For Dezhwar, a young Yazidi fighter in the Sinjar area, the silence of the international coalition against the Islamic State (IS) regarding the all-out Turkish attack on the city of Afrin, home to a sizable Yazidi community, was a bitter reminder that in the game of realpolitik between states, minorities such as the Yazidis have no one to turn to.

Despite the Turkish president’s threats, Iraq’s Joint Operations Command said late March 25 that no foreign forces had crossed the border into Iraq and there were no reports of unusual military activity.

The news from Afrin is gloomy for many Yazidis in Sinjar who survived IS attacks in the summer of 2014. Reports say that their shrines are being burned in Afrin and that some Yazidi civilians who stayed behind in the area have been forced to convert to Islam by extremist elements of the Free Syrian Army backed and armed by the Turkish government.

Yazidi civilians in Sinjar fear that they are the next target of the mighty US-supplied F-16s of the Turkish state, as Erdogan threatens “another Operation Olive Branch” in Sinjar to “clear the region of terrorists.”

In August 2014, Dezhwar, who served in the 2nd Division of the Iraqi army for eight years, watched as IS caused havoc in Sinjar, killing and enslaving thousands of Yazidis and blowing up their shrines. While Iraqi and Kurdish forces abandoned the Yazidis, and Turkey was alleged to have allowed its territory to become a main artery for foreign fighters who arrived from across the world to reinforce IS in Raqqa and Mosul, Dezhwar watched as a group of Syrian Kurdish fighters from the People’s Protection Units (YPG) came to the rescue of Yazidi civilians. He was so impressed by the bravery and discipline of the YPG fighters that he and around three dozen other Yazidis stayed behind and, supported by the group, formed the nucleus for a local Yazidi militia that became known as the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS).

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Attacks on Turkish communities in Germany reportedly on the rise

March 20, 2018 by administrator

There have been dozens of attacks so far this year on Turkish mosques and restaurants in Germany — a sharp rise from last year’s figures. The Interior Ministry said Turkey’s offensive in Afrin has inflamed tensions.

As tensions rise over the Turkish government’s offensive in Afrin, the violence is spilling over in Germany’s Kurdish and Turkish communities.

German police have logged a total of 37 attacks carried out by suspected pro-Kurdish activists so far this year, reported newspapers by the Funke media group in Germany on Tuesday. The attacks targeted Turkish mosques, restaurants and cultural organizations.

There were 13 such attacks for the entirety of last year, according to figures provided by the Interior Ministry. The figures do not include attacks carried out by suspected far-right extremists.

“Germany has long been a mirror and sounding board for Turkish-Kurdish conflicts in view of the large numbers of people with Turkish backgrounds living here,” an Interior Ministry spokeswoman told the Funke media group newspapers.

“This is especially true considering the backdrop of current events in and around Afrin,” she added.

The spokeswoman emphasized, however, that the figures for this year and for last year are still provisional and may rise or fall.

In the past few weeks, there have been numerous arson attacks, acts of vandalism and other attacks on Turkish institutions in Germany.

In one incident, three youths were seen throwing a Molotov cocktail through the window of a mosque in Berlin. In the small south western German town of Lauffen, attackers hit a Turkish-linked mosque with explosive devices.

Communities in Germany should expect further attacks, Social Democrat (SPD) parliamentarian and deputy head of the foreign policy, defense and human rights commitees Rolf Mützenich told DW.

“It was also the case in the past that domestic Turkish conflicts were also noticable in Germany,” Mützenich told DW. “Clearly the political atmosphere in these communities is such that the tensions are on the rise again.”

Turkish Men who attack on peaceful protesters in Washington D.C. Flee Canada To Turkey

January 6, 2018 by administrator

Two Canadian citizens of Turkish-origin, who took part in the attack on peaceful protesters in Washington D.C. in May 2017, handed over their companies and moved to Turkey, a former lawyer of one of the men said, reported online news outlet Ahval on Saturday.

Ahmet Dereci and Sami Ellialtı were sought by the Washington Metropolitan Police Department after the incident on felony assault charges, CBC have reported at the time.

A spokesman for Toronto city police department, where the two men lived, said they were not asked by the US authorities to apprehend Dereci and Ellialtı, and the men did not turn themselves in on a public request. Their whereabouts are unknown, Toronto’s The Star newspaper reported last week.

“Dereci had an electricity company in Toronto. He was doing wiring for local businesses, and was earning good,” Brain İbrahim Cintosun, Dereci’s former lawyer, was quoted by a news outlet called Other Side as saying.

“We heard Dereci and Ellialtı emptied their houses, and handed over the company after the incident” Cintosun said. “They left before the arrest orders were issued.”

Dereci posted a photo on Facebook on June 2017, a week after the incident, showing him and his family in İstanbul, The Star said.

On May 16, 2017, Turkish security officers and pro-Turkish groups attacked a group of peaceful protesters who chanted slogans against Turkish government in front of the Turkish Embassy in Washington D.C., bodily hurting nine people. After the incident, D.C. police charged 19 people, including 15 security detail of Turkish autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Of the remaining four civilians, two US citizens of Turkish origin were arrested. Both pleaded guilty in December.

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Egypt: Gunmen launch deadly attack on Coptic church

December 29, 2017 by administrator

At least 10 people have been killed in the attack, including two police officers who tried to stop the man. Islamist militants have increasingly targeted the Coptic Christian community and carrying attacks on churches.

Two gunmen on Friday opened fire outside a church on the outskirts of Cairo before attempting to storm the building, leaving five people dead including two police officers.

Egypt has witnessed a massive spike in attacks targeting the country’s Coptic Christian community and its places of worship over the past year.

Christians targeted

At least 10 people were killed in the attack, including one gunman, according to the health ministry
No group has claimed responsibility, but the “Islamic State” militant group’s Egyptian network has targeted and urged attacks against Christians in the country
Coptic Christians make up 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 93 million people
Declaration of war’
The US embassy in Cairo condemned the attack, saying Washington “stands steadfastly with the people of Egypt in the face of such cowardly attacks.”

Warning of growing violence against Christians in Egypt, Coptic Bishop Anba Damian told DW: “We are convinced that the extremists’ aggression and the intensity of their terrorism have increased in such an enormous way that it’s now tantamount to a declaration of war against Copts.”

Earlier this year, Human Rights Watch accused the Egyptian state of not doing enough to protect Coptic Christians, saying: “The deep-rooted sectarianism in many places in Egypt provides the climate where this hateful ideology can fester, but states of emergency have been the path to more abuses, not greater protection for Christian lives.”

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Terror attacks in Spain ‘Resilient Barcelona’ stands up against fear

August 18, 2017 by administrator

The terror attack in Barcelona has not prevented locals and tourists from taking to the streets and showing their solidarity. Anna Gumbau reports from the Catalonian capital.

“Barcelona is not scared,” Víctor Garcia, a local from Barcelona, says the morning after the terror attack in the city, when a van drove through Las Ramblas and killed 14 people and wounded more than a hundred others.

Las Ramblas is the longest boulevard and the busiest pedestrian street in the city. It is regularly filled with tourists and locals who work in the city center. There are several iconic newsstands located along the street. Alberto Garcia, who works at one of these kiosks, noted that things were less busy than usual. He was, however, hopeful that this would solely “be an immediate consequence of the attack,” and that Las Ramblas would regain its usual crowds in the upcoming days.

However, many locals and shop owners admitted being surprised by how many people were roaming around the streets in the city. “We are shocked and saddened, but we are not really surprised about the attacks,” Víctor told me. Amid the wave of terror attacks in Europe in the past two years, citizens in Barcelona were aware that the city would be hit by one at some point – the question was only when it would happen. “We cannot prevent [such an attack], so we must prevail,” Antoni, a local who works at a bank near Las Ramblas, told DW.

Acts of solidarity

By morning after the attack, once the investigation and operations were over, the police removed the perimeter they had erected around Las Ramblas. At 11 a.m., the streets were mostly crowded; the majority of shops, department stores and local businesses were open as usual, and tourists rambled around Barcelona’s most crowded boulevard again.

Clara and Lorenzo, two travelers from Italy, were planning on visiting Las Ramblas the evening of the attack, until a call from a relative warned them about the situation. “Our hotel was located in one of the streets parallel to Las Ramblas and it was impossible for us to get in there at first. We had to walk for nearly an hour before we could reach it,” they say. They were “in shock” the night before, but nevertheless decided to take a walk around Las Ramblas the morning after in spite of the attack.

On Thursday night, many tourists were unable to get back to Las Ramblas and reach the hotels they were staying in. However, the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, praised the solidarity shown by citizens, as hundreds of locals offered shelter at their houses and rushed to the nearest hospitals to give blood for the wounded, while taxi drivers gave rides for free and translators voluntarily acted as interpreters between the hospital personnel and tourists who were wounded.

US politicians want apology for brutal attack by Turkish President Erdogan’s bodyguards

July 21, 2017 by administrator

Americans are incensed by a brutal attack by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s bodyguards on protesters even now, months later. Politicians joined the victims to express their outrage at a rally in Washington.

Two months after bodyguards in the service of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan brutally attacked anti-Erdogan demonstrators in Washington, members of the US Congress joined victims of the attack in a “Stand for Free Speech” rally at Sheridan Circle in the capital. Five bipartisan members of Congress and about 50 protestors from Kurdish, Turkish and Armenian groups met in front of the Turkish ambassador’s residence to reaffirm their right to free speech and stand up for press freedom in Turkey.

“American soil is free soil,” Republican Congressman Ted Poe told the crowd. “The idea that a foreign tyrant can come to the USA and allow his goons to beat up Americans on American soil is preposterous. The Turkish government is responsible for this action.”

Read: Opinion: Germany is finally taking a tougher stance on Erdogan’s Turkey

Lucy Usoyan, founder and president of the Ezidi Relief Fund, a non-governmental organization that advocates for refugees in Kurdish regions of Turkey and Syria, is one of several anti-Erdogan protestors who were attacked on May 16. Usoyan was knocked unconscious, but was later able to identify a New Jersey man as one of her attackers. He has been charged with a hate crime, a classification of crime that increases penalties in sentencing.

Usoyan wants President Erdogan to apologize to US citizens for what his bodyguards did. “They must be held accountable,” said Usoyan. “They have to be extradited for prosecution and sentencing.”

Democratic Congressman John Sarbanes reiterated that freedom of speech is a fundamental part of democracy. “We want to remind Erdogan that in this country, we have a constitution that allows us to speak freely without fear of being beaten up,” Sarbanes said.

Attack made Americans take notice

“Freedom is something that people are born with, and Erdogan cannot simply take it away,” Usoyan added. Usoyan suffered a concussion and was hospitalized. She said she was glad the trials of the attackers were bringing attention to what she considered the bleak conditions of human rights and free speech in Turkey. She was shocked and horrified that this violent incident had to happen on US soil for people to notice.

In June, 18 arrest warrants were issued for alleged attackers, including a dozen for Turkish bodyguards, two for Turkish-Americans and two for Turkish-Canadians. In response to the May 16 melee, the German government indicated that Erdogan’s bodyguards would not be welcome at the G20 Summit in Hamburg.

One of the accused, a Turkish-American named Sinan Narin, is currently on trial in the District of Columbia for aggravated and misdemeanor assault. On his Facebook page, Turkish social media users have praised Narin as a “hero,” and said he was “defending” President Erdogan. The Turkish embassy’s Facebook page has since been filled with one-star reviews, with many users calling for expulsion of the Turkish ambassador to the United States.

The Turkish Embassy alleged that the demonstrators were associated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. Protestors denied this allegation.

This incident is not the first time that Erdogan’s bodyguards have found themselves in trouble in Washington. A Brookings Institute event in 2016 that featured Erdogan also ended with Erdogan’s bodyguards beating up Brookings staff and journalists.

Turkey’s relations with the US and the European Union have been strained for some time. Last year’s failed coup, the dire situation for journalists in Turkey, and Erdogan’s recent statement vowing to “behead” traitors, leave the country facing a turning point in its relationship with democracy, and with other nations.

Germany said on Thursday it was reorienting its relationship with Turkey after a court in Istanbul ordered six human rights activists, including a German man from Berlin, detained on suspicion of supporting terrorism. Turkey will face a further test next week, when parliament will vote on whether to authorize the death penalty.

France: The Armenian Association of Creteil CCAF “We strongly condemns acts of violence perpetrated” on Thursday.

July 1, 2017 by administrator

The CCAF learned with amazement that an imbalance, which the dispatches call Armenian, was guilty of a serious aggression against faithful of the Mosque of Creteil.

The CCAF condemns this act, as well as all manifestations of violence or hatred, a fortiori when they are based on religious intolerance, racism, rejection of the other.

While welcoming the fact that this action did not provoke any victims, he expressed his solidarity and fraternal feelings towards the members of this mosque and in general to the Muslim community in France with which the Armenian structures maintained the best relationships.

The CCAF also urges justice to quickly clarify this matter and dispel any misunderstandings.

CCAF National Office

Créteil, June 30, 2017 (AFP) – Police custody of the man who attempted to drive into the car on Thursday by worshipers of the Créteil mosque was lifted because he suffers from schizophrenia and must be hospitalized ex officio, The prosecutor said on Friday.

His psychiatric expertise “concluded that the state of health was incompatible with police custody and the necessity of” compulsory hospitalization “in psychiatry, said the prosecutor’s office of Créteil (Val-de-Marne) at AFP. The medical certificate mentions “delirious and incoherent remarks”, he added.

This 43-year-old Armenian “was hospitalized twice in 2006 and 2007 for schizophrenia,” according to the prosecution. “Currently he is on medication”.

Without a job and holder of a disability card, he has lived in France for twelve years. He lives in concubinage and has a daughter aged twelve. The public prosecutor’s office will open a judicial investigation. He will also ask the investigating judge to take a warrant against him. What could enable the judicial police of the Val-de-Marne, in charge of the investigation, to hear the defendant after his stay in the hospital.

The man, who lives in Creteil, crashed into the barriers and crossed the grating protected the mosque with his 4×4, before stamping cars of faithful after the prayer, without causing any injuries. He was arrested Thursday night at his home.

His motives remain for the moment unclear. Witnesses to the scene are currently being heard, the prosecution added.

According to a source close to the file, the man held “confused remarks in reference to the” jihadist attacks that have killed 239 in France since 2015.

A witness also assured AFP that the man was seen Wednesday by a faithful near the mosque. He was laying flowers on the plaque of the “Garden of Armenia”, installed by the city of Creteil in tribute to the Armenian people, in the large park adjacent to the place of worship.

Ten days after the London antimusulman attack, perpetrated by a man who fell on the faithful of the mosque of Finsbury Park and made eleven wounded, the French Muslim community also feels targeted. Some of its officials denounced an “attack attempt” and asked the authorities to “strengthen the protection of places of worship”.

The prefect of police, Michel Delpuech, addressed a letter to the president of the French Muslim Council (CFCM), Anouar Kbibech, in which he condemns the act that took place on Thursday and reiterates his vigilance to the security forces protecting the Places of worship Muslims.

The Armenian Association of Creteil announced that it “strongly condemns acts of violence perpetrated” on Thursday.