ANKARA: Three Turkish police personnel were killed, and nine other people were wounded in an operation on Monday against the Islamic State group in the northwest of the country, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said. The fighting took place at Yalova on the Sea of Marmara during one of scores of raids against the militant group, the minister said, adding that six Islamic State members were killed. &quot;Three of our courageous police unfortunately, lost their lives. Eight police and a security agent were also wounded,&quot; he added. &lsquo;Simultaneous operations&rsquo;Yerlikaya said that &quot;simultaneous operations&quot; were staged on 108 addresses in 15 provinces, including at Yalova at 2:00 am (2300 GMT Sunday). &quot;During this operation, IS terrorists opened fire on our courageous police,&quot; he said. According to the minister, the six IS operatives killed were all Turkish, and five women and six children who were with them were all evacuated safely. An Istanbul prosecutor last week ordered the detention of 137 suspected IS members following information that the group planned attacks during the end-of-year holidays. Turkey has a 900-kilometer (560-mile) border with Syria and is wary of cross-frontier infiltrations by militants. IS was recently accused of attacking Americans in Palmyra, killing two soldiers and an interpreter.&nbsp;

Europe

According to the Turkish minister, the six IS operatives killed were all Turkish, and five women and six children who were with them were all evacuated safely.

Three Turkish police, six Islamic State militants killed in clash: minister

PALM BEACH: President Donald Trump said US forces conducted &quot;powerful and deadly&quot; strikes Thursday against Islamic State militants in northwestern Nigeria, weeks after he warned against any systemic assault on Christians in the country. The Nigerian foreign ministry early Friday confirmed the air strikes, describing them as &quot;precision hits on terrorist targets&quot; in the country. The Department of Defense&#39;s US Africa Command said &quot;multiple ISIS terrorists&quot; were killed in an attack in Sokoto state conducted at the request of Nigerian authorities, but few details were provided, and it was not clear how many people died. The strikes hit IS targets on Christmas Day, according to Trump. &quot;I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was,&quot; he said in a post on his Truth Social platform. &quot;May God bless our Military,&quot; he said, adding provocatively, &quot;MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues.&quot; The attacks mark the first by US forces in Nigeria under Trump, and come after the Republican leader unexpectedly berated the West African nation in October and November, saying Christians there faced an &quot;existential threat&quot; that amounted to &quot;genocide&quot; amid Nigeria&#39;s myriad armed conflicts. That diplomatic offensive was welcomed by some but interpreted by others as inflaming religious tensions in Africa&#39;s most populous country, which has seen bouts of sectarian violence in the past. Nigeria&#39;s government and independent analysts reject framing the country&#39;s violence in terms of religious persecution &mdash; a narrative long used by the Christian right in the United States and Europe. But Trump, spotlighting what his administration says is global persecution of Christians, stressed last month that Washington was ready to take military action in Nigeria &mdash; with &quot;guns-a-blazing&quot; &mdash; to counter such killings. &#39;Grateful&#39; for cooperation&nbsp;The Nigerian foreign ministry said the country was engaged with international partners against terrorism. &quot;Nigerian authorities remain engaged in structured security cooperation with international partners, including the United States of America, in addressing the persistent threat of terrorism and violent extremism,&quot; the ministry said in a statement on Friday. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth took to X to say he was &quot;grateful for Nigerian government support &amp; cooperation.&quot; The United States this year placed Nigeria back on the list of countries of &quot;particular concern&quot; regarding religious freedom, and has restricted the issuance of visas to Nigerians. Trump last month also threatened to stop all aid to Abuja if it &quot;continues to allow the killing of Christians.&quot; Nigeria is almost evenly divided between a Muslim-majority north and a largely Christian south. Its northeast has been in the grip of violence for more than 15 years by the Boko Haram group, which has claimed more than 40,000 lives and displaced two million people. At the same time, large parts of the country&#39;s northwest, north, and center have been hit by criminal gangs known as &quot;bandits&quot; who attack villages, killing and kidnapping residents. On Wednesday, an explosion ripped through a mosque in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, killing at least seven worshippers. No armed groups immediately claimed responsibility.

Americas

Nigerian foreign ministry says country engaged with international partners against terrorism; US president vows more attacks if fighters keep killing Christians, adds he previously warned there would be hell to pay, “and tonight, there was." 

US launches Christmas Day strikes on IS targets in Nigeria

PARIS: A 20-year-old man from Afghanistan suspected of having links to an offshoot of the Islamic State group has been arrested in France, anti-terrorism prosecutors said on Saturday. The man was charged with participating in a criminal terrorist organization and financing a terrorist enterprise, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor&#39;s Office (PNAT) said. The suspect, who was arrested in Lyon last week, was placed in pre-trial detention. &quot;Clearly adhering to jihadist ideology, he is suspected of having been in contact with IS-K (Islamic State in Khorasan),&quot; the anti-terrorism unit said. Suspect accused of &#39;sending funds&#39; to IS-KThe man is suspected of &quot;sending funds&quot; and helping translate and relay &quot;the propaganda of this terrorist organization,&quot; PNAT added. The Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K), the jihadist group&#39;s branch in Afghanistan, also operates in Pakistan and former Soviet countries in Central Asia, including Uzbekistan. The group has been responsible for deadly attacks in Afghanistan and Russia, including an attack on a Moscow concert hall in March 2024 that killed 150 people. According to French daily Le Parisien, the Afghan, who arrived in France several years ago, was arrested by officers from the DGSI domestic intelligence agency when he was already in an administrative detention center in Lyon. Under investigationLe Parisien said that the suspect, already under investigation for glorifying terrorism, was editing and disseminating jihadist propaganda on TikTok and Snapchat social networks. France has been repeatedly targeted by Islamist attackers over the past decade, often by individuals inspired by Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group.

A 20-year-old man from Afghanistan suspected of having links to an offshoot of the Islamic State group has been arrested in France

France arrests Afghan with suspected links to Islamic State offshoot

Reuters

ISLAMABAD: The US military reportedly killed a senior Islamic State (ISIS) militant in a raid on Syria early on Saturday. The operation coincides with the first official visit by a Syrian foreign minister to Washington in more than 25 years.&nbsp;Friday night, US forces conducted a raid in Syria that killed Omar Abdul Qader, also known as Abdul Rahman Al-Halabi. The Iraqi counterterrorism service, working in coordination with the US-led international coalition, confirmed the operation.&nbsp;&nbsp;Abdul Qader was identified as the Islamic State group&rsquo;s head of external operations and security.&nbsp;He was accused of overseeing attacks across several countries, including the bombing of Iran&rsquo;s embassy in Lebanon. He also planned other attacks in Europe and the United States that were foiled through intelligence efforts.&nbsp;&nbsp;The US military said Abdul Qader was actively seeking to launch attacks against the United States. The statement did not specify if any civilians were killed in the raid.&nbsp;The operation forms part of a series of US strikes against ISIS figures in Syria. US officials have warned that the group is seeking to stage a resurgence following the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.&nbsp;US ends protected status for Syrian migrants Meanwhile, the US Department of Homeland Security confirmed it will terminate temporary protected status (TPS) for more than 6,000 Syrians currently living in the US with legal protections granted since 2012. The DHS cited improvements in conditions in Syria and described it as &ldquo;a hotbed of terrorism and extremism for nearly two decades,&rdquo; stating it was against US national interests to allow Syrians to remain in the country. Syrian nationals under TPS have 60 days to voluntarily leave the US and return home. Failure to do so could result in arrest and deportation. This move is part of President Donald Trump&rsquo;s wider effort to rescind deportation protections he says were overused, including for migrants who have legally lived and worked in the US for many years.&nbsp;&nbsp;Critics, including US Democrats and migrant advocates, argue that forced returns could send Syrians back into dangerous circumstances and that many US employers depend on their labour.&nbsp;Diplomatic breakthrough&nbsp; Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani arrived in Washington on 18 September for high-level talks, marking the first visit by a Syrian foreign minister in over 25 years.&nbsp;&nbsp;He is scheduled to meet US lawmakers to discuss lifting the remaining US sanctions on Syria, Senator Lindsey Graham was quoted as saying by Axios. Two sources familiar with the trip confirmed the visit to Reuters.&nbsp;The visit follows the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad by forces loyal to President Ahmed al-Sharaa in December 2024. The US is seeking to integrate its longtime Syrian Kurdish allies with Sharaa&rsquo;s administration in Damascus and is mediating talks between Syria and Israel.&nbsp;The Syrian President is expected to attend the upcoming UN General Assembly in New York, where he and President Trump reportedly plan to meet. Negotiations aiming to secure a security pact between Syria and Israel could yield results &ldquo;in the coming days,&rdquo; according to officials.&nbsp;The US has imposed harsh sanctions on Syria since 2011 in response to Assad&rsquo;s violent suppression of protests that ignited a nearly 14-year civil war. The current thaw between Washington and Damascus, including Trump&rsquo;s announcement in May to lift sanctions after meeting Sharaa, signals a substantial shift in policy.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Articles tagged with "Islamic State"

Three Turkish police, six Islamic State militants killed in clash: minister

US launches Christmas Day strikes on IS targets in Nigeria

France arrests Afghan with suspected links to Islamic State offshoot

US kills alleged ISIS militant as Syrian FM visits Washington