Search results

Gulf Co-operation Council countries began the Gulf Security 1 exercise on 26 October in Prince Naif Security City, Bahrain. The drill is a collaboration by GCC interior ministries and is intended to improve preparedness for security events and to develop co-operation and co-ordination between the GCC member states’ forces.

Tehran says it has foiled an attack by Kurdish militants in the north-west. A brief report from the official Islamic Republic News Agency (Irna) on 11 October said the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)’s Beit-Ul-Moqaddas unit had prevented the attack on Marivan in Kurdestan province, close to the border with Iraq. Other reports said there had been a brief clash in the village of Gol-e Cheydar, close to Marvian, with one rocket-propelled grenade fired at IRGC forces before the attackers fled.

Houthi fighters on 1 October fired an anti-ship missile at a UAE military vessel near the Red Sea port of Mocha in the Bab Al-Mandab strait off the coast of Yemen. The Swift, a high-speed catamaran, is owned by Abu Dhabi-based Marine National Dredging Company and leased by the UAE Navy. The vessel was travelling from an Emirati base in Eritrea to Aden, where UAE forces are assisting in reconstruction work. UAE authorities said it was delivering medical and relief aid and evacuating injured civilians.

Interior minister Mohammed Salem Al-Ghabban resigned on 5 July following a suicide car bombing in Baghdad that killed more than 250 people. His resignation was approved by prime minister Haider Al-Abadi, who promoted a deputy minister to take over the Ministry of Interior (MoI). Abadi subsequently relieved Lieutenant General Abdulamir Al-Shimmari of his position as Operations Commander in Baghdad, along with the heads of the capital’s intelligence and security departments.

The amount of territory controlled by Islamic State (IS or Daesh) shrank by 12% in H1 2016, according to research firm IHS. As of early July, IS controlled roughly 68,300km2 in Iraq and Syria, roughly the size of Ireland. Territorial losses in Iraq this year include an area north-west of Baiji, land between Ramadi and Haditha, and parts of Anbar province. IHS joined analysts predicting that the continued loss of territory is likely to push Daesh towards more mass casualty attacks in Iraq, Syria and further afield, including Europe and Kuwait.

The new Louvre Abu Dhabi building is expected to host an international conference on the terrorist threat to culture, convened by French President François Hollande and President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan. The conference could take place this December, even though the delayed building will not be completed by then, The Art Newspaper reported.

One year after an Islamic State (IS or Daesh) suicide bomber killed 27 people inside a Shia mosque in Kuwait City – and following the discovery of three IS cells the authorities said were plotting attacks in the country – strict security procedures were imposed on mosques, oil fields and Kuwait International Airport in the run up to Eid Al-Fitr. The authorities said they had carried three out “pre-emptive” operations in Kuwait and abroad that confounded a number of IS plots within Kuwait and led to the arrest of several Daesh members.

An Islamic State (IS or Daesh) affiliate claimed responsibility for seven simultaneous attacks, including two suicide bombings, that killed 43 people in Mukalla on 27 June. Mukalla was occupied by its jihadist rival Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula until April, when it left following an agreement with local groups to avoid conflict with forces backed by the UAE, which secured Mukalla’s main streets, port and airport.

The UAE is playing a leading role alongside the UK and Malaysia on countering the online propaganda drive by Islamic State (IS, Isil or Daesh), according to comments by US special envoy for theGlobal Coalition to Counter Isil Brett McGurk. Speaking at a briefing at the White House on 10 June, McGurk said Twitter had taken down about 125,000 pro-IS handles to date. “For every one on Twitter now there’s about six counter-Isil handles countering their messaging every day”, he said. Similar efforts are afoot on other platforms such as Facebook and YouTube.

In yet another clash between jihadists and the security forces in the west, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on 8 May that a soldier had died in a gun battle in the Taif region. SPA said two assailants opened fire on a police station before retreating to a mountain village, Thaqeef, where Private Saeed Al-Harithy was killed in an exchange of fire. An explosive vest and bomb-making material were found. On 5 May, troops shot dead two Islamic State fighters and two others blew themselves up in a raid on their compound outside Mecca.

Two suspects linked to attacks claimed by Islamic State (IS or Daesh) were killed, and another alleged jihadist, named as Oqab Al-Otaibi, was arrested in south-western Bisha province, Ministry of Interior spokesman Major General Mansour Al-Turki said on 1 May. Security personnel killed the two men on 29 April in an exchange of gunfire during a chase to thwart an “imminent” attack, Turki said in a televised statement. Turki said explosive belts and machine guns were found the men’s car.

Never slow to see a sector in need of its input, London-based Policy Exchange, which has been described as the largest and most influential think tank on the centre-right wing of British politics, has launched a new National Security Unit. It was inaugurated with a keynote address on nuclear deterrence by defence secretary Michael Fallon; former Nato secretary-general and New Labour grandee Lord Robertson of Port Ellen delivered a vote of thanks. The new unit is headed by Dr John Bew, of King’s College London’s War Studies Department and a former Henry A Kissinger chair at the Library of Congress.

Analysts are coming to terms with the significant shake-up in the security services running parallel to the federal reshuffle driven by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (MBZ). Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan was appointed national security advisor, with his predecessor Sheikh Hazza Bin Zayed now vice-chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council. In the Ministry of Interior, Sheikh Khalid Bin Mohammed Bin Zayed assumed chairmanship of the State Security Department, at the level of minister.

Morocco’s Bureau Central d’Investigations Judiciaires (BCIJ) on 8 January reported breaking up a seven-member “terrorist cell” in Dar Bouazza, on the western edge of Casablanca. The group had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, recruiting Moroccans and dispatching them to camps for military training – before returning them home to carry out terrorist operations in the kingdom, BCIJ claimed. Morocco is an active ally of Saudi Arabia and the UAE in regional conflicts, sending aircraft to fly in the Yemen campaign. In mid-December, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Co-operation responded to news agency reports of Moroccan soldiers dying in Yemen, which it said were “without foundation”.

Further violence has been reported as tension persists in parts of Eastern Province following the execution of dissident cleric Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr. Masked men threw firebombs at an intelligence service compound in Qatif, Reuters reported activists saying on 11 January. A Ministry of Interior spokesman said, “there was a failed terrorist attempt to burn the building with Molotov cocktails”, and one of the assailants was captured.