Showing posts with label Terrorism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Terrorism. Show all posts

Saturday 1 July 2023

Mossad abducts terror leader from inside Iran

Mossad announced on Thursday its method for recently thwarting a Cyprus terror attack by kidnapping the mastermind from within Iranian territory, reports The Jerusalem Post.

The stunning revelation, including the identity of the mastermind, Yusef Shahabazi Abbasalilu, was the latest in the saga which itself first broke on last Sunday.

“In a unique daring mission within Iranian territory, the Mossad was able to seize the mastermind of the terror cell, who then admitted to the terror plot in detail during his interrogation, which led to exposing and the taking apart of the Cyprus terror cell,” said a Mossad statement.

A senior Mossad official said, “We will get to every official who advances terror against Jews and Israelis anywhere in the world, including within Iranian territory.”

Abbasalilu had received detailed instructions from senior members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and told his interrogators exactly how the plot was to be carried out and where to find all the related supplies and cell members, said the Mossad.

Next, the spy agency passed on the information to Cyprus’ authorities who arrested most of the cell’s other members.

On Sunday, The Jerusalem Post and Phile News reported that the Mossad and Cyprus thwarted a planned Iranian terrorist attack on Jews on the island state.

That initial report said that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps planned the attack, which was stopped in cooperation between Cyprus and Western partners, which named the US and Israel as among the likely partners.

Jerusalem and Nicosia have worked together to foil Iranian plots to attack Israelis in the past. In 2021, they arrested a Russian-Azerbaijani hitman hired by the IRGC to kill Israeli businessmen in Cyprus. Billionaire Teddy Sagi, among others, was evacuated to Israel at the time.

Channel 12 added on Sunday that the terror cell targeted a Jewish real estate businessman, a Chabad site and hotels where Israelis tend to visit. Seven members of the cell were arrested, with one having escaped.

In March, Greek police disrupted what they called a foreign terrorist network operating within the country and arrested two foreign nationals.

According to both the Mossad and AFP, the terrorists were plotting to attack Israelis in Greece. “This is another example of Iran trying to use terror against Israeli and Jewish targets overseas,” said the Mossad at the time.

The Mossad had also helped identify the connection between the local terror cell in Greece and Iran’s broader global terror operations.

According to the intelligence agency, along with our intelligence partners, we will act in our role without rest to thwart Iran’s intentions to cause harm throughout the world.

In the Greece instance, the terrorists planned to strike a target of high symbolic value, a Jewish synagogue, which also functions as a restaurant, located in the center of Athens, Greek media reported.

In 2022, Greek media noted that Pakistani nationals were involved in an attempted attack on an Israeli in Istanbul, Turkey.

It was unclear if Greek media were referring to the September 2022 joint Turkey-Mossad operation which saved the lives of a large number of Israeli tourists.

In mid-2022, the Mossad kidnapped another senior IRGC official who revealed a variety of Iranian plots in the midst of a series of operations in which a number of other IRCG operatives and nuclear scientists were assassinated, with Iran accusing Israel.



 

Saturday 17 June 2017

Recent blasts aimed at initiating the third World War



I have the habit of logging in Reuters every morning, this is part of my professional activities as well as my personal endevour. I also make an attempt to keep myself abreast with whatever is happening around the world in general and in my neighborhood in particular. In my blogs on Geopolitics in South Asia and MENA, I write about the ongoing turmoils and also try to understand the motives of ‘Merchants of Death’.
This morning  when I logged in, I read the news about  an explosion in Bogota, Colombia in a shopping center that killed three and wounded nine. Authorities said there had been threats of attacks in Bogota by the Gulf Clan, a group of former right-wing paramilitary fighters who traffic drugs. This reminded me of a blast In Kabul on May 3, 2017 in which least eight Afghan civilians were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a military convoy and another 25 civilians were wounded.
I spent some time in exploring news about blasts and suicide bombing from Google, list is given below. Having a cursory look at the news forced me to the following conclusion:
The groups having vested interest are killing people in the name of religion to get control of energy supplies and drugs. However, they completely mislead the people by making these religious and sectarian conflicts. Their sole objective remains, proliferation of conflicts for selling arms.
These conflicts continue because regional and global powers are fighting proxy wars. Hundreds and thousands of innocent people are killed every year, millions face displacement and miseries are projected through social media but killers remain at large.
Pakistan is one of the worst victim of terrorism and sectarian killing, but hardly a few have been trialed and sentenced death penalty, except from the military courts. Pakistan has been hosting millions of Afghans for more than four decades in the name of Islam, but Afghan rulers are never tired of accusing Pakistan of cross-border terrorism.
I once read an article that the third World War will be fought for getting control on sources of water, but now I have the reasons to believe that it will be on the basis of religion/sects. The trailers are already going on in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain. An attempt was also made to break out full-scale war between Saudi Arabia and Qatar that failed due to the timely mediation of neighboring countries.
List of some of the recent attacks
Twin attacks in Iran: June 07 2017
Attacks on the Iranian parliament and Ayatollah Khomeini's mausoleum killed at least 12 people and injured many more.
London Bridge terror attack: June 02 2017
The London terror attack killed at least seven people and injured 58 others on London Bridge and in nearby Market. 
Manchester terror attack: May 22 2017
The Manchester terror attack killed at least 22 people and injured 59 others at a concert. 
Paris shooting: April 20 2017
A policeman was killed on the Champs Elysees in Paris in what is being treated as a terror-related attack.
Stockholm attack: April o7 2017
Four people were killed and at least fifteen were injured when a man drove a truck down a busy shopping street.
Westminster attack: March 22 2017
In London an attacker mowed down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing two men and two women and injuring many others. 
Sehwan shrine bombing: February 16 2017
At least 72 killed at the Shrine of  Sufi Muslim in Pakistan, the blast was part of a  new wave of violence in Pakistan
Blasts in Cairo: April 09 2017
Twin blasts at a Church killed at least 47 people and inured dozens
Car bomb explosion in Baghdad: February 16 2017
A deadly car bomb explosion in Baghdad killed 51 people and wounded many others
Blast in Russia: April 3, 2017
Blasts at St. Petersburg Metro station kill at least 10 people and injured more than 40