Two more suicide bombings occurred in Saudi Arabia after last night’s blast in Jeddah. Two security guards were killed when a bomber exploded himself in Medina, but only the bomber is thought to have been killed in an explosion in Qatif.
In other news, after the successful Brexit vote, Nigel Farage has decided to step down as the leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).
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Thanks to Dean, Fjordman, RR, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
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Cologne Mayor Blames State, Police for New Year’s Eve Attacks
Henriette Reker has said that state and police leaders did not keep her informed of the situation as it developed. She has claimed she was not given the full picture of the attacks on New Year’s Eve until days later.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Exit Stage Right: UKIP Leader Farage Announces Surprise Departure
The leader of the insurgent right-wing UK Independence Party said on Monday he was stepping down after realising his ambition to win a vote for Britain to leave the EU, the latest twist in a dramatic reshaping of the nation’s politics.
The departure of brash former commodities trader Nigel Farage would sideline one of the most outspoken and effective anti-EU campaigners from the debate about how to sever Britain’s ties with the other 27 countries in the bloc.
But it could also give his UKIP party — which under Britain’s winner-takes-all election system won just one seat in parliament last year despite capturing 12.6 percent of the vote — an opportunity to select a less polarising figure and take on the mainstream in a radically altered political environment.
The June 23 ‘Brexit’ vote to leave the EU has thrown both the two main political parties into disarray, with the ruling Conservatives seeking a replacement for Prime Minister David Cameron and lawmakers from the main opposition Labour Party voting to withdraw confidence in leader Jeremy Corbyn.
“I have never been, and I have never wanted to be, a career politician. My aim in being in politics was to get Britain out of the European Union,” said Farage, who remains a UKIP member of the European Parliament.
“During the referendum campaign, I said ‘I want my country back’. What I’m saying today, is, ‘I want my life back,’ and it begins right now.”…
| — Hat tip: Dean | [Return to headlines] |
Report: Berlin Wants Juncker to Resign as EU Commission Chief
Berlin is piling on pressure for European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker to step down, according to the Sunday Times.
The newspaper reported that German chancellor Angela Merkel is unhappy with how Juncker handled the lead up to Britain’s exit from the EU as well as his plans to take charge of its exit negotiations.
An unnamed German minister told the paper that pressure for Juncker “to resign will only become greater and chancellor Merkel will eventually have to deal with this next year”.
“Juncker has time and again acted against the common interest and his reaction to the British referendum has been very damaging,” said the source.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UKIP Leader Nigel Farage Stands Down
Nigel Farage says he is standing down as leader of the UK Independence Party.
Mr Farage said his “political ambition has been achieved” with the UK having voted to leave the EU.
He said the party was in a “pretty good place” and said he would not change his mind about quitting as he did after the 2015 general election.
Leading UKIP was “tough at times” but “all worth it” said Mr Farage, who is also an MEP. He added that the UK needed a “Brexit prime minister”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
At Least 2 Reported Dead in Suicide Blast Near One of Islam’s Holiest Sites in Medina
State-linked Saudi news websites reported a suicide bombing that killed at least two people Monday outside one of Islam’s holiest sites in the city of Medina, the same day that two suicide bombers struck different cities in Saudi Arabia, one of them near a U.S. consulate.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Baghdad Bomb Attack: Victims and Their Stories
At least 165 people were killed shortly after midnight on Sunday when a suicide bomber blew up an explosives-laden lorry in the centre of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, security sources say.
The jihadist group Islamic State (IS) has said it was behind the attack, which targeted a crowded shopping centre in the Karrada district, where people were enjoying a night out after breaking their daily fast for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iranian Commander Warns There Are 100,000 Missiles Ready to Strike Israel
The deputy commander of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard declared Friday that there are tens of thousands of missiles in Lebanon ready to strike Israel.
“Hezbollah has 100,000 missiles that are ready to hit Israel to liberate the occupied Palestinian territories if the Zionist regime repeats its past mistakes,” Gen. Hossein Salami was quoted as saying by Tasnim, according to Reuters.
The Jerusalem Post reported that Salami warned that Israel’s occupied territories could come under attack if they make the “wrong move.”
“Today, the grounds for the annihilation and collapse of the Zionist regime are (present) more than ever,” he said.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Kuwait: MOI Foil IS Plots, Arrest Would-be Perpetrators
KUWAIT, July 3 (KUNA) — In a successful blow to the so-called Islamic State (IS) group, Kuwait security agencies have carried out three pre-emptive operations in Kuwait and abroad that led to derailing a number of IS plots targeting Kuwait and arresting several IS members.
In the first operation, the security agencies arrested IS member Talal Naif Raja, a Kuwaiti national born in 1998, who was planning to carry out several terrorist bombing operations against a Jaafari mosque in Hawali Governorate and a Ministry of Interior’s facility.
After his arrest, Raja provided detailed information to the security agencies about his plots. He admitted that he has sworn allegiance to IS group and has received instructions from an IS leading figure abroad and planned to execute the scheme at the end of the holy month of Ramadan or during the first days of Eid Al-Fitr, expected to start July 6.
Raja noted that he was ordered to come in person or send a young recruit, unknown to security people, to receive the explosive belt, others explosives or to purchase a rifle or machine gun to use in the terrorist operations in Kuwait.
In the second operation, the security agencies managed to arrest abroad and bring back home terrorist Ali Mohammad Omar, a Kuwaiti national born in 1988, his terrorist mother Hessa Abdullah Mohammad, a Kuwaiti national born in 1964, and his son from a Syrian wife.
After repeated attempts, the Kuwaiti security agencies succeeded in busting them and bringing them back despite the intensity of the terrorist operations in the area on the Syrian-Iraqi border, the statement said.
Omar confessed that he has joined the IS group after upon incitement from his mother who also incited his older brother Abdullah, a Kuwaiti national born in 1991, to join the terrorist group. He added that his brother Abdullah was killed in terrorist battle in Iraq.
He unveiled that he left Britain, where he was studying petroleum engineering, after the death of his brother Abdullah and travelled along with his mother to Raqqa in Syria where they joined the terrorist group.
He added that the group assigned him to be in charge of operating oil and gas fields there and his was educating IS members’ wives and children and incite psychologically and ideologically to adopt terrorism.
The statement pointed out that the arrested terrorists had admitted that they have supervised and offered the logistical support to several terrorist operations.
In the third operation, the security agencies busted a four-member IS cell in Kuwait. The statement noted that three of the cell members were arrested, two nationals, namely Mubarak Fahad Mubarak, born in 1994 and Abdullah Mubarak Mohammad, who was born in 1992 and works in the Ministry of Interior, and an unnamed citizen of an Asian country. It added that the fourth member, a Gulf national, is still at large…
| — Hat tip: RR | [Return to headlines] |
Kuwait: Security Agencies Foil is Plots, Arrest Would-be Perpetrators
After his arrest, Raja provided detailed information to the security agencies about his plots. He admitted that he has sworn allegiance to IS group and has received instructions from an IS leading figure abroad and planned to execute the scheme at the end of the holy month of Ramadan or during the first days of Eid Al-Fitr, expected to start July 6.
Raja noted that he was ordered to come in person or send a young recruit, unknown to security people, to receive the explosive belt, others explosives or to purchase a rifle or machine gun to use in the terrorist operations in Kuwait. In the second operation, the security agencies managed to arrest abroad and bring back home terrorist Ali Mohammad Omar, a Kuwaiti national born in 1988, his terrorist mother Hessa Abdullah Mohammad, a Kuwaiti national born in 1964, and his son from a Syrian wife.
After repeated attempts, the Kuwaiti security agencies succeeded in busting them and bringing them back despite the intensity of the terrorist operations in the area on the Syrian-Iraqi border, the statement said. Omar confessed that he has joined the IS group after upon incitement from his mother who also incited his older brother Abdullah, a Kuwaiti national born in 1991, to join the terrorist group. He added that his brother Abdullah was killed in terrorist battle in Iraq.
He unveiled that he left Britain, where he was studying petroleum engineering, after the death of his brother Abdullah and travelled along with his mother to Raqqa in Syria where they joined the terrorist group. He added that the group assigned him to be in charge of operating oil and gas fields there and his was educating IS members’ wives and children and incite psychologically and ideologically to adopt terrorism. The statement pointed out that the arrested terrorists had admitted that they have supervised and offered the logistical support to several terrorist operations.
In the third operation, the security agencies busted a four-member IS cell in Kuwait…
| — Hat tip: RR | [Return to headlines] |
Medina Explosion: Saudi City ‘Hit by Suicide Bomber’
A suicide bomber has attacked the Saudi city of Medina, close to the Prophet’s Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites, according to local media reports.
The bomber detonated his device as security officers were breaking their Ramadan fast, al-Arabiya TV said.
News outlets said at least two of the officers had been killed, but there has been no official confirmation.
The mosque is the burial place of the Prophet Muhammad and Medina the second-holiest city in Islam after Mecca.
Earlier, at least one explosion rocked the eastern city of Qatif. Qatif is home to many minority Shia Muslims and the blast appeared to target a Shia mosque. The attacker was killed but no other casualties were reported.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Suicide Attack Carried Out Near US Diplomatic Site in Saudi Arabia
A suicide bomber carried out an attack early on Monday near a U.S. diplomatic site in the western Saudi city of Jiddah, according to the Interior Ministry.
The ministry said the attacker detonated his suicide vest when security guards approached him near the parking lot of a hospital. The attacker died and two security men were wounded with minor injuries, according to the ministry statement, which was published by the state-run Saudi Press Agency. Some cars in the parking lot were damaged.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Top Aide to Khamenei: US Will Disintegrate Within 25 Years
A senior military aide to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei predicted that the United States would “disintegrate” within the next quarter-century.
“The US has reached a point today that it will witness fragmentation and disintegration 25 years later,” General Nasser Arasteh was quoted as saying Friday night by the semi-official Fars news agency.
The remark recalled comments by Khamenei himself, who predicted last year that Israel would not survive the next 25 years.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh Attack: Shock Over ‘Elite’ Holey Cafe Suspects
Bangladeshi police are continuing to investigate Friday’s deadly attack on a Dhaka cafe, amid shock at the elite background of most of the suspects.
They include the son of a government politician, along with university and elite public school students.
Twenty hostages, two policemen and six suspects were killed in the raid. One suspect was arrested.
The so-called Islamic State (IS) group said it was behind the attack but the government has denied this.
Nine Italians, seven Japanese, one US citizen and an Indian were killed in the 12-hour siege at the Holey Artisan cafe in the Gulshan neighbourhood. One Italian is unaccounted for.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
China Plans South China Sea Military Drills Ahead of Court Ruling
China’s military plans exercises in the disputed South China Sea this week, adding to tensions ahead of an international tribunal’s ruling that is expected to challenge Beijing’s maritime claims in the area.
The drills, announced in a brief online statement Sunday, are scheduled to stretch over seven days starting Tuesday and ending July 11, the day before the United Nations-backed tribunal in The Hague is expected to issue its ruling. Beijing has repeatedly said it will ignore the verdict despite pressure from the U.S. and its allies to comply.
U.S. Navy ships have conducted exercises around the South China Sea in recent weeks.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Europe’s Immigration Crisis is Just Beginning
Demographers project more and more immigrants for decades to come. Last Thursday’s events raise troubling questions about the ability of political institutions in the developed world to cope with their arrival.
Annual net immigration into Europe is projected to increase steadily from current levels for another 20 years. This year, just over 1 million immigrants will arrive in the Europe, according to Eurostat, the statistical agency of the E.U. That figure will reach an apex of nearly 1.5 million in 2036, the agency projects.
If current trends hold, immigration to Europe will not subside below its current level until 2069. The continent will have seen net immigration of 77 million people in that time. The figure includes immigrants to the 28 members of the E.U. as well as Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Informant Helps Italy Crack Smuggling Ring
Italy’s interior minister has said police and prosecutors have cracked a transnational network dedicated to migrant trafficking. The arrests were made in ten cities across the country.
The arrests were made in ten cities across Italy, Sicilian police said, and the suspects were accused of people smuggling, drug trafficking and various financial crimes. Their nationalities were: 25 Eritreans, 12 Ethiopians and one Italian.
Europe’s worst migration crisis since World War II has seen hundreds of thousands of people pay smugglers to risk their lives by crossing to Europe from Libya and Turkey on often unseaworthy boats and dinghies.
Italy has borne much of the brunt, with about 60,000 migrants arriving by boat on its shores this year. Italy’s navy and coastguard have rescued tens of thousands of refugees at sea.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Study: Majority of EU Citizens Fear Muslim Migration
According to an EU-wide study, 70 per cent of Europeans believe Muslim migration poses a serious threat to the continent, while 86 per cent fear that terrorist attacks in their country are likely.
The survey, conducted by Hungarian think-tank the Szazadveg Foundation, polled 1,000 people in each of the European Union’s (EU) member nations. While the study was carried out in April, the publication of the results was delayed until after Britain’s referendum.
The report found that Europeans are deeply unhappy about migration and the EU’s response to the migrant crisis. It states that the majority of EU citizens believe “the immigration wave increases the risk of terrorism, the number of criminal activities, and imposes risk on the cultural integrity of the countries that are impacted by it.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Blimey! Who would have guessed?
Nigel Farage has stood down as UKIP leader because of death threats to his family and himself. Obviously the Police are powerless to stop it.
I am sure the UK, England in particular is heading for civil war. The left/Remain simply will not accept the result at any cost. They will have to be forced to act. It’s going to get messy.
Nigel Farage is still a political giant amidst political pygmies!
No matter how many times MEPS, Tories, labourites, Greens, liberals or sundry left wing lunatics try to traduce his reputation most people in the UK know he is the one who secured BREXIT!
Hopefully he will inspire others in the fetid, odious EU failing experiment to lead their countries out of the darkness and into the light.
http://youtu.be/v5fsN.2ucZc
The people versus Mohammed.
And with the Olympics coming up who know what could happen