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ISIS, Al Qaeda ‘Inspired by Hamas’ to Attack Americans and Israelis, US Intel Chief Says
FBI Director Christopher Wray, Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research Brett Holmgren, National Security Agency (NSA) Director Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, and Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Director Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, arrive to testify at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats to American security, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, March 11, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Julia Nikhinson
US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said on Monday that the Islamist terrorist groups al Qaeda and Islamic State (ISIS) have been inspired by Hamas to attack Americans and Israelis.
“While it is too early to tell, both al Qaeda and ISIS, inspired by Hamas, have directed supporters to conduct attacks against Israeli and US interests,” Haines testified to the US Senate Intelligence Committee. “And we have seen how it is inspiring individuals to conduct acts of antisemitism and Islamophobic terror worldwide.”
Antisemitism has skyrocketed since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel launched the current war in Gaza, which is ruled by the Palestinian terrorist group. Antisemitic incidents have reached record levels in the US and several European countries following the Hamas atrocities, which resulted in the largest mass slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust by the Nazis during World War II.
“It is likely that the Gaza conflict will have a generational impact on terrorism,” Haines told US lawmakers. “The crisis in Gaza is a stark example of how regional developments have the potential of broader and even global implications.”
Haines also noted concerns that the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza could spread global insecurity: “The crisis in Gaza is a stark example of how regional developments have the potential of broader and even global implications.”
Hezbollah has been attacking northern Israel from Lebanon almost daily since the outbreak of the war, and during that time the Houthis have been targeting shipping in the Red Sea from Yemen. Both Islamist terrorist groups are backed by Iran, as is Hamas.
Haines was testifying alongside other US intelligence chiefs. Their testimony came as US intelligence agencies released their 2024 Annual Threat Assessment, which concluded that the country faces an “increasingly fragile world order,” strained by great power competition, transnational challenges, and regional conflicts.
“An ambitious but anxious China, a confrontational Russia, some regional powers, such as Iran, and more capable non-state actors are challenging longstanding rules of the international system as well as US primacy within it,” the agencies said in their report.
The report largely focused on threats from China and Russia, more than two years after Russia invaded Ukraine. It also noted the risks of broader conflict related to Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza since the Oct. 7 massacre.
The hearing also touched on how the Israel-Hamas war could impact the US homeland, where illegal immigration across the southern border from Mexico has reached record levels.
FBI Director Christopher Wray expressed concern about the “terrorism implications from potential targeting of vulnerabilities at the border,” pointing to heightened threats from Americans inspired by Islamist and other foreign terrorist groups since the Oct. 7 atrocities.
“The threat has gone to a whole new level,” Wray said.
At one point, a protester interrupted the hearing, shouting about the need to protect civilians in Gaza. After the interruption, Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns was asked about children in the Palestinian enclave.
“The reality is that there are children who are starving,” he said. “They’re malnourished as a result of the fact that humanitarian assistance can’t get to them. It’s very difficult to distribute humanitarian assistance effectively unless you have a ceasefire.”
The Biden administration has called for a six-week ceasefire to help address the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where Hamas embeds itself in the civilian population and hides among a complex network of underground tunnels. The Islamist terrorist group has been accused of using the civilian population and civilian sites, such as hospitals, as human shields while fighting Israel.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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