Wednesday, January 13, 2016
JCPA: The True Face of the Palestinians’ Leader
What can we learn from Abbas’ and Rajoub’s comments? First, whether they were responsible for the launching of the current wave of terror or not, they are now taking responsibility for it. Not only do they refrain from denouncing it, they encourage it. That is, no longer can the terror attacks be presented as an assemblage of individual acts. It should be recognized as a national campaign whose fighters, the knife-wielders and the car-rammers, are acting openly according to the directives of their leadership, which has no need to formally organize or direct these acts to ensure public response. The lack of security brought about by their actions in the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv is the tool by which the leadership expects to rack up achievements on the diplomatic level.Sweden's Walking Diplomatic Disaster
The second conclusion is that Abbas is more realistic than could be gathered from the threats of various officials in Israel and his own arrogant statements. Not only does he negate the possibility of the PA’s collapse, with which he used to threaten Israel, but he also admits for the first time that the entity he heads is an “authority” and not a “state.” All the external signs of statehood that he tried to adopt are therefore meaningless from his perspective as well. Moreover, since there will be no PA collapse, Israel will not need to deal with the warning by the Israeli left and many in the West that it will have to choose between a democratic and a Jewish state.
The third conclusion, perhaps the most important, is that Abbas continues to rely on the idea that time and demographics will bring about the end of Zionism. His strategic goals have not changed, and so he continues to refuse to recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. This also explains his opposition to the involvement of Israeli Arabs in terror attacks – he fears that this will spur a process that will lead to their transfer out of Israeli territory.
Israel must use these statements to expose the true face of the Palestinian leadership. Not to worry, the Palestinians won’t hate us more than they do already, but they might conclude that continuing terror is not worth their while.
"It is a shame for Sweden to have a Foreign Minister who creates a diplomatic crisis as soon as she opens her mouth, and who so one-sidedly allies herself with anti-democratic forces against Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East." — Political analyst Mathias Sundin, in Aftonbladet.Swedish officials unwelcome, deputy FM says, as Swedish deputy speaker visits
"Wallström portrays [Palestinian President Mahmoud] Abbas as a pacifist who has denounced terrorism.... He has not condemned a single one of the murders of 20 Israelis during the last few months. On the contrary ... Abbas said in September, regarding the violence against Israelis, that 'We bless every drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem', and we know that every Palestinian assassin apprehended by Israel is rewarded by the Palestinian Authority. So how can Wallström claim that he denounces terrorism, when he is actually rewarding it with money from the Swedish taxpayers? ... Is Wallström aware of the praising of terrorism? Is Wallström aware of the rewards paid to terrorists? Yes or no?" — Kent Ekeroth, Sweden Democrats Party.
Officials from Stockholm are currently unwelcome in Israel, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely declared Wednesday, a day after Sweden’s foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom, called for an investigation to determine whether Israel has been conducting extrajudicial executions of Palestinians during the current wave of violence.
“Israel is closing its gates to official visits from Sweden,” Hotovely said during a briefing for future Israeli diplomats currently taking the cadets’ course.
“For over two years, relations with Sweden have been at some level of disconnect,” she said. “That is, we have refused visits by the Swedish foreign minister in Israel. At the clearest level, the State of Israel is sending a very stark message to Sweden that says that [when] you encourage terror [in Israel], you encourage Islamic State to act in all parts of Europe: in Brussels, in Paris.
“We’re currently at the front line of the battle against terror,” Hotovely added. “[Wallstrom] is de facto supporting it, encouraging it, and the State of Israel is sending a blunt message.”
Israel blasts Swedish FM for 'supporting terrorism, encouraging violence'
Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström is supporting terrorism and encouraging violence, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday in a sharply worded statement, after she once again attacked Israel in Sweden’s parliament.Liberman: Let's hope Sweden's FM doesn't join Palestinian terrorists in stabbing Jews
Wallström on Tuesday called for an investigation to determine if Israel was guilty of extrajudicial killings of Palestinians during the recent wave of violence, local media reported.
“It is vital that there is a thorough, credible investigation into these deaths in order to clarify and bring about possible accountability,” she said during a parliamentary debate, according to news agency TT.
The Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that her “irresponsible and delirious statements are giving support to terrorism and encouraging violence.”
Science, Technology and Space Minister Ophir Akunis said an investigation should be conducted instead on “how a woman who so bluntly hates Israel was elected, and still holds the role of foreign minister of Sweden.”
Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman criticized Sweden's foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom, on Tuesday in reaction to her suggestion that Israel should be investigated for extrajudicial killings of Palestinian terrorists.Palestinians praise Swedish FM's 'brave humanitarian stance' against Israel
"The only thing that Sweden's foreign minister hasn't done yet is physically join Palestinian terrorists and stab Jews," the former foreign minister said. "In light of her conduct now, one is left to really hope that this won't happen."
The Foreign Ministry said Tuesday in a sharply worded statement that Wallstrom is supporting terrorism and encouraging violence.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday praised Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom’s call for an investigation to determine if Israel was guilty of extrajudicial killings of Palestinians during a recent months long wave of violence.Swedish delegation in Israel to learn from security experience
The ministry, in a statement carried on official Palestinian news agency Wafa, demanded that all states adopt “this brave humanitarian stance which emphasizes the importance of taking part in the peace process without fearing Israel's use of state sponsored terrorism."
In addition, the ministry condemned "the brutal campaign of Israel against the Swedish foreign minister and the political terror it uses that displays its willingness to keep hiding the crimes and the victims of its colonization policy."
A Swedish delegation has arrived in the country earlier this week to learn from Israel's experience in dealing with security challenges.The Israeli Left Rallies Around a Murdering Pedophile
Meanwhile, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström on Tuesday called for an investigaton into what she referred to as Israel's "extrajudicial killings" of terrorists who carry out attacks.
The delegation of former senior experts in Sweden’s defense establishment along with former executives in the private sector (for example, the CEO of Ericsson) arrived in Israel on Sunday. It was sent by the Royal Swedish Academy of War Sciences, an independent body that advises the king of Sweden and the Swedish government.
The Royal Swedish Academy seeks to prepare Sweden for future security challenges and catastrophes, and chose to visit Israel given its positive impression of the methods Israel has developed to deal with both current and future challenges.
The delegation, as well as other representatives from the Swedish business sector, come to Israel to develop professional relationships regardless of the Swedish government's policy on Israel. Automaker Volvo, for example, invited Israeli companies to Sweden a few months ago following a successful visit to Israel.
The “star” of the story is a leftist extremist named Ezra Nawi, who has become something of a poster boy for the radical Left. “Nawi” is a well-known and ordinarily distinguished surname among Jews who came from Iraq. Most of these are patriotic Zionists, but a small minority of them were communists back in Iraq in the 1940s/1950s and have remained such. A few of these Iraqi Jews continue to embrace communism, like the radical anti-Zionist sociologist from Tel Aviv University, Yehouda Shenhav.Ex-Israeli diplomat suggested getting Israel booted from the UN
Nawi famously was convicted of pedophilia and rape of a minor boy some years ago. Later he was also convicted of violently attacking police as part of a riot of violent Palestinians he helped lead. He speaks Arabic and likes to dress as an Arab. He is active in small far-leftist anti-Israel NGOs operating in Israel that pretend to be “human rights groups,” including B’tselem and Taayoush. These are foreign-funded subversive groups that have never heard of any human right for Jews worthy of being defended and certainly not the right of self-defense against genocidal terror and Islamofascist aggression. They are also notoriously indifferent to violations of free speech rights of anyone not from the far Left.
Those arrests turned Nawi into a minor folk hero for the radical Left around the world, where people like Noam Chomsky came out in support of him. Within Israel the anti-Israel Tenured Left embraced Nawi. The anti-Semitic pro-terror pseudo-academic Neve Gordon from Ben Gurion University, Israel’s Norman Finkelstein, who has himself served illegally as a human shield to defend terrorists and disrupt IDF anti-terror operations, leads the Nawi groupies. Gordon claims Nawi’s only offense is being too caring and compassionate. The campaign to support the Pedophile for Palestine has gone global. The presidential bid in Ireland in 2011 was disrupted when it was disclosed that candidate Senator David Norris was intimately tied to Nawi and had supported him. Norris had to drop out of the race.
Liel, who was Israel's ambassador to South Africa and Director of the Foreign Ministry, described how apartheid South Africa gradually lost its legitimacy and said that the Israeli context was "very similar."Israeli leftists allegedly 'plotted soccer ban on Israel'
"You are our country's hope," he encouraged the activists. "It's true that so many people think you are wrong, but I told you about the Jews who helped Nelson Mandela. There, their families did not speak to them. They were traitors to the whites, to the Jews, they were exiled, they were jailed. You have not yet begun to pay those prices."
Liel then explained that the group needs to focus on the UN, because individual nations have a hard time fighting Israel: "Not even Britain, not France, not the United States, because of the consensus here, because of the determination and the willingness to pay a price. Bibi was willing to go to Congress and fight Obama, and nothing happened."
However, he said, if the UN Security Council adopts a pro-Palestinian resolution and the US does not veto it, the matter could reach the General Assembly, which could then make Palestine a full member state. If this happens, he elucidated, Israel would be deemed as occupying a UN member state, and this "sets into motion an unavoidable process of beginning to suspend us from the UN. It is unavoidable. No UN member state in history was an occupier of another state that is a UN member. South Africa was booted from the UN; it was dismissed. No one could take part in Olympic games. You couldn't travel anywhere in the world with a South African passport."
Nationalist activists are about to release yet another secretly recorded video, which will show how members of Breaking the Silence and ex-diplomat Alon Liel discussed the possibility of getting international sports bodies to boycott Israel. Among the possibilities discussed was a boycott on Israel by the international soccer body, FIFA. Liel mentioned the boycotts on apartheid South Africa as a model that could be followed, and mentioned that South Africans could not partake in the Olympics.Leftists deny it, but Arabs who sell land to Jews are murdered
Shimon Riklin, a nationalist pundit and businessman, claimed Monday night on Channel 20 that the discussion included the idea of getting Israel banned from the upcoming Olympics.
The recording was made by the members of Ad Kan, the same group that revealed how central leftist activists have been handing over to the Palestinian Authority Arabs who wished to sell land to Jews.
A friend of Liel's, former Attorney General Michael Ben Yair, reacted to the revelation without denying it. "The 'planted' agents are continuing their operations, videotaping and recording," he wrote on Facebook. "This time – they recorded my good friend Alon Liel, in a closed meeting with Breaking the Silence.
Following the explosive revelation on Channel 2 TV, that central Jewish and Arab leftist activists have a policy of handing over to the Palestinian Authority (PA) Arabs who approach them and wish to sell land to Jews, leftists have been claiming that the PA does not execute such people.Shameless: NIF uses Rabin murder footage in latest PR offensive
The denials are meant to refute claims made by the central figure in the televised investigative piece, Ta'ayush's Ezra Nawi, who boasted on hidden camera that the men he handed over to the PA were tortured and then executed. Leftist journalist Haggai Matar published an article that claimed that Nawi was just making empty boasts, and that while Ramallah's courts do mete death sentences to people who sell land to Jews, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has not approved the carrying out of such sentences since 2005.
An investigative report by Akiva Bigman on the nationalist-conservative Mida website has found that this is a lie. While it is true that Abbas has not signed death warrants since 2005, the executions are carried out unofficially.
The latest such execution that Mida knows about took place in 2012. According to the report, a man was thrown from the third floor window of the Ramallah jail, and died. While the PA claimed he had killed himself, sources "in the know" are convinced that he was thrown to his death. His crime was selling land to Jews.
As far-left NGOs and activist groups come under increasing pressure, after an expose revealed a series of damning revelations about their conduct, a new video published by the New Israel Fund went on the attack - using footage of the Rabin assassination to back its claims over "right-wing incitement."Israel Air Force strikes Gaza cell attempting to target soldiers with explosive device
The shameless use of footage from the 1995 assassination came towards the end of the less than two-minute clip, which bombastically accused the current government of inciting against practically every sector of Israeli society.
"Incitement to violence is their modus operandi, and they know exactly what they are doing. To promote their extreme right-wing ideology, they don’t care if they incite and encourage violence against the rest," the video's narrator says.
"But there is just one thing they didn’t account for: without Arabs, leftists, secular people, mizrahim, Tel Avivians, LGBT, and the poor, there would be no Israel. Israel is us."
The video is likely a response to damaging revelations concerning the involvement of far-left activists and organizations funded by or associated with the New Israel Fund in a number of shocking activities. Most notably, a recent expose revealed how extreme-leftist Ezra Nawi handed over Palestinians to the PA for execution, with the help of an activist from B'Tselem.
The Israel Air Force struck a terrorist cell in northern Gaza which was in the process of attempting to plant an explosive device on the border with Israel on Wednesday morning, the army said.Hamas threatens retaliation for strike on bomb-planting cell
The airstrike came following a joint Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and air force operation to target the cell, which had attempted to target an IDF unit carrying out border security missions in the area.
According to Palestinian media reports, one Gazan citizen was killed and three others were injured.
The IDF has not raised its overall level of alert and no special instructions have been issued to residents of southern communities following the air strike.
Hamas threatened to retaliate Wednesday for an airstrike that the IDF said targeted operatives planting a bomb along the Gaza border fence.Bedouin Arab rock ambush strikes firefighters
The organization insisted that Israel had not targeted fighters, but civilians.
“The attack on civilians by the Zionist occupation today in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip amounts to Israel playing with fire,” a spokesman for the organization, Salah Bardawil, said in a statement.
The Israeli Air Force strike killed one man and wounded three others, Palestinian health officials said.
Hamas claimed the attack came from an Israel Navy ship, not an aircraft.
Firefighters on Tuesday night were dispatched to an alleged car fire at Segev Shalom, a Bedouin town just southeast of Be'er Sheva in the Negev, only to find an Arab rock ambush waiting for them.Arab watched terrorist bodies returned on TV, went out to stab
The fire department noted that "firefighters who were in the fire engine were saved by a miracle, after the commander of the crew decided to drive fast amid the rock throwing directed at him, on an unpaved path as their lives were in danger."
Police forces were called to the scene, as was Negev district fire commander Eli Peretz, watch commander Moti Bukuvza and another firefighting crew from the Be'er Sheva station to put out the car fire.
However, with the arrival of the additional forces, it became clear that the call reporting a car fire at the Bedouin town was in fact a false report.
The discovery made clear that the call was a set up to lure the firefighters out into the rock ambush.
The Jerusalem district attorney's office submitted an indictment on Wednesday to the district juvenile court in the city, charging a 16-year-old terrorist from Jabel Mukaber in the southeast of the capital with attempted murder and possessing a knife.TA gunman Milhem buried in small, private funeral in Arara
The terrorist conducting a stabbing attack last Sunday in the southeastern neighborhood of Armon Hanatziv, located adjacent to Jabel Mukaber, lightly wounding one man waiting at a bus stop.
Earlier that Sunday, according to the indictment, the terrorist watched footage on TV of the bodies of terrorists being returned to their families and greeted heroically as "martyrs," and decided at that moment to go out and stab a Jew to death.
In the afternoon hours he took a knife from his kitchen, hid it in his coat, and went out to Armon Hanatziv. For several long minutes he waited at a bus stop in the neighborhood, alert for the approach of a Jewish victim.
At a certain point a man approached and the terrorist identified him as a Jew, before proceeding to whip out the knife and trying to stab him in the upper body with the intention of murdering him.
The Jew reacted swiftly and tried to defend himself, and as a result the knife strike hit his shoulder - miraculously, the lethal blade bent upon impact, and did not penetrate the victim's body.
The funeral of gunman Nashat Milhem, who killed three people in a shooting spree in Tel Aviv on January 1, was held Tuesday night in his hometown of Arara, in northern Israel. The event was a low-key one, with only a small number of participants from Milhem’s family taking part.Iran releases American sailors after standoff
Some 80 people were estimated to have taken part.
Milhem’s father Mohammed, who is under house arrest, did not attend. Security sources said he would have been allowed to do so, but chose not to.
Authorities had held off on releasing Milhem’s body, fearing a mass funeral that could escalate into riots. Police demanded the ceremony be attended by no more than 40 people.
Tehran released 10 US Navy sailors who were arrested Tuesday after their boats entered Iranian territorial waters.Iran Releases Humiliating Images of U.S. Sailors in Captivity
The US Navy said the American crewmembers were returned safely and there were no indications they had been harmed while in custody.
The nine men and one woman had been held at an Iranian base on Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf after being detained nearby on Tuesday. The tiny outpost has been used as a base for Revolutionary Guard speedboats as far back as the 1980s.
The sailors departed the island at 8:43 a.m. GMT aboard the boats they were detained with, the Navy said. They were picked up by Navy aircraft and other sailors took control of their boats for the return to Bahrain, where the US 5th Fleet is based.
Iran state television released images of the 10 U.S. sailors that the Iranian military held in custody overnight Tuesday.Iran: U.S. ‘Extended Apology’ Over Captured Sailors
ABC News first reported the photos, which appeared after the sailors were released by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps Wednesday morning.
Two small Navy boats and their crew were taken into custody Tuesday, Iran accusing them of drifting into Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf.
The U.S. military confirmed the release of the naval personnel early Wednesday, saying that there was no indication that the sailors were harmed. The Navy said that it would investigate the circumstances surrounding the sailors’ detention. In images depicting their condition in captivity, the sailors appear to have had their boots, personal equipment, and weapons seized, and a female sailor appears to have been compelled to wear a Muslim headscarf.
The Obama administration is denying official Iranian reports claiming that U.S. officials “extended an apology” to the Islamic Republic following a Tuesday standoff over the capture of 10 U.S. sailors whose boats reportedly drifted into Iranian territorial waters.PreOccupiedTerritory: US Navy In Persian Gulf To Use ‘Roll Over And Die’ Doctrine (satire)
The sailors were released by Iran early Wednesday morning after being arrested by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and being put in detention for the night.
The Revolutionary Guard Corps, which released pictures of the U.S. sailors on their knees with hands over their heads, said Wednesday that it had conducted an investigation into the incident.
Iran asserts the sailors were released after the United States apologized, prompting a flurry of denials from senior Obama administration officials.
“Following technical and operational investigations and in interaction with relevant political and national security bodies of the country and after it became clear that the U.S. combat vessels’ illegal entry into the Islamic Republic of Iran’s waters was the result of an unintentional action and a mistake and after they extended an apology, the decision was made to release them,” the IRGC said in a statement that was carried by Iran’s state-controlled media.
Amid escalating tensions with Iran, American naval forces patrolling the Persian Gulf have been ordered to implement a doctrine that calls for stubborn adherence to not doing what they have been trained to do.Hamas and the Palestinian Authority fight over the opening of Rafah border crossing
President Obama directed US Navy commanders yesterday to apply his Roll Over And Die doctrine in all encounters with Iranian forces in and around the body of water through which much of the world’s crude oil supply travels. The doctrine, developed by the president and several political advisers over the last decade, calls for the massive firepower and technological superiority of those US forces to shrink from combat contact with any vessel or aircraft representing the Islamic Republic of Iran. Once implemented, Roll Over And Die is expected to become the primary military doctrine of all the US armed forces within two years.
Although Roll Over And die was initially planned for rollout only later this year, the president decided to accelerate its application once ten US Navy personnel and their two fast-attack boats were captured by Iran’s navy yesterday. Fearing that such an act, which could be considered an act of war, might prompt US forces to follow their training and attempt to aid their comrades, Obama immediately ordered American vessels and aircraft in the region to initiate the Roll Over And Die procedure.
On Tuesday, Hamas agreed for the first time to hand over control of the Rafah border crossing, which is the only gateway to the outside world the Gazans have, to a national committee that will be composed of the Palestinian factions and will be accountable to the Palestinian government.
The question of who will manage the border crossing currently controlled by Egypt – Hamas or the Palestinian Authority – has been controversial among the Palestinians since Hamas seized control over Gaza in June 2007. Hamas has insisted on being part of the management of the crossing since then.
In a press statement on Tuesday, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri pointed out that Hamas now does not insist on its presence at the Rafah border crossing and that it welcomes the Palestinian government’s arrival in Gaza to assume its duties in the management of the crossing and other issues.
However, on Wednesday, the Palestinian government responded to Hamas' offer, saying that its only aim is to continue foot-dragging on the issue, and blaming the movement for failing to hold up its obligations in Gaza and ignoring the suffering of Gazans.
Gaza journalist says he was tortured in Hamas jail
Palestinian journalist Ayman al-Aloul frequently writes about the hardships of life in the Gaza Strip, and is one of the few voices willing to publicly criticize the rule of the Islamic Hamas movement.‘If UN positions on Syria border fall to radicals, Israel will have to respond’
But after nine days in jail, al-Aloul says he won’t be writing about politics anymore. He said a painful experience that included beatings and being forced to sit uncomfortably in a tiny chair has made him a “new man” and that he will now focus on less controversial topics like sports, food, literature and fashion.
“I’ve decided not to talk about the general situation anymore,” al-Aloul said in an interview at his home Tuesday, a day after he was released. “The experience I went through was very difficult.”
Al-Aloul’s experience is part of a crackdown by Hamas at a time when the continuing miseries of life in Gaza appear to be driving its population toward more open dissent. Critics have grown bolder on social media sites, and attempts by Hamas to impose new taxes have triggered rare public protests.
The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force must retain control of its positions on Mount Hermon on the Syria-Israel border, since their capture by Sunni terrorist factions, or by elements from the radical Shi’ite axis, would form a “severe threat to IDF posts” in the area, a former senior military official warned.US jets bomb Islamic State cash pile worth 'millions' in Iraq
In a paper published in recent days at the Institute for National Security Studies, where he is a senior research fellow, Brig.-Gen. (res.) Assaf Orion said the IDF would have to “respond accordingly” if UNDOF’s border posts on Mount Hermon in Syria fall to radical elements.
Between 2010 and 2015, Orion headed the Strategic Division of the IDF’s Planning Directorate, and had previously spent two decades in Military Intelligence’s 8200 signal intelligence unit.
UNDOF was originally created in 1974 to separate the IDF from the Syrian military. Today, however, after the Syrian military’s withdrawal from the border with Israel, UNDOF mainly acts as a communications channel between Israel and the Assad regime, reducing escalations following cross-border incidents, whether deliberate or accidental, Orion said.
A U.S. aircraft bombed an Islamic State cash distribution site in Iraq on Monday, part of efforts by the American-led coalition to disrupt the militant group's financing of its activities, the U.S. military said.ISIS affiliate in Sinai threatens to stop Jordan's natural gas supply
"The bulk cash distribution site was used by ISIL [Islamic State] to distribute money to fund terrorist activities," U.S. Central Command spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Ben Tisdale said in a statement.
Citing unnamed U.S. defense officials, CNN said the building in Mosul -- one of Islamic State's main strongholds -- was destroyed by two 2,000-pound bombs. The officials could not say exactly how much money was there or in what currency, but one described it as "millions," CNN reported.
The strike comes several weeks after U.S. aircraft began targeting Islamic State oil trucks, hoping to cut the organization's sources of funding off at the knees.
In the new volume of its weekly newspaper, Al-Nabah, released on Tuesday, ISIS directly threatened Jordan's king Abdullah II, saying that: "Jordan's apostate ruler will have natural gas only with the permission of Amir al-Mu'minin [ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi]."Analysis: Istanbul attack reveals Erdogan’s crumbling sense of stability
On January 8, the ISIS branch in Egypt, Sinai Province, attacked the El-Arish pipeline to Jordan, blowing up the pipeline which carries gas from Egypt to the Hashemite Kingdom. Since the Egyptian uprising of 2011, that vital pipeline has witnessed more than 30 attacks by terror organizations.
Following the attack, Sinai Province’s media institute released a statement on Twitter, claiming: "In a blessed operation, Islamic State soldiers attacked the pipeline that supplies natural gas to the apostate Jordanian government from the city of El-Arish.
The statement was ended with a promise that "not a single cubic foot of gas will reach the insignificant state of Jordan without the permission of Amir al-Mu'minin,"adding that: "The jihadists will continue attacking the interests of the apostate rulers in the Middle East and their economic facilities, which they ironically use to fight Islam and the Muslims."
A terrorist bombing on Tuesday in the heart of Istanbul’s major tourism district that killed 10 people and left 15 injured showed the fragility of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s security promises.Number of Germans killed in Istanbul bombing up to 10
“It has become apparent how important stability is to our nation,” Erdogan said in November, during the country’s national election.
By targeting the vibrant area of the former Ottoman Empire, the alleged Islamic State suicide bomber, Saudi- born Nabil Fadli, sought to further decimate Turkey’s struggling tourism industry.
The terrorist attack jolted the state, prompting a government ordered media blackout. Turkey initially reported that the suicide bomber was a Syrian.
The bombing was likely a retaliatory move by Islamic State following Turkey’s crackdown on rising jihadism within its territory and along the 500-mile border it shares with Syria, as well as its shared border with Iraq.
Ten Germans died in the suicide bombing that ripped through the historic heart of Istanbul, Germany’s foreign ministry said Wednesday.Report: Russian Citizens Arrested in Turkey for ISIS Connections
“I must relay the sad news that we now have 10 dead Germans among the victims” from Tuesday’s attack, ministry spokeswoman Sawsan Chebli told reporters.
She said seven wounded Germans were being treated in hospital in Istanbul, five of them in intensive care.
Officials initially said that at least eight Germans were among the dead in the explosion.
Information released by regional authorities shows that the victims came from across Germany and included two couples.
Earlier, Germany’s interior minister said there are no indications so far that Germans were specifically targeted in the attack in Istanbul.
Three Russian citizens were arrested in a raid on a suspected ISIS terror cell in Turkey after a deadly suicide bombing in Istanbul.
ABC News, citing the Turkish Dogan news agency, reported that military officials said that the arrests were made in the southern city of Adana. The three individuals detained are believed to be linked to ISIS. It was unclear whether the arrests were made in direct connection with the Istanbul bombing, for which the Turkish prime minister has said ISIS was responsible.
Russia’s consulate in Turkey confirmed the arrests of three citizens to state media but said it had not yet clarified the reasons behind the detention.
A suicide bomber set off an explosion in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet district, which is popular with tourists, Tuesday that killed at least 10 people and wounded 15 others. At least eight of the dead are German nationals, according to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
