Free Republic

Obama did everything he could to undermine Nigeria's Christian president Jonathan Goodluck in his fight against the Islamic terrorists of Boko Haram. The administration kicked and screamed against even naming Boko Haram a terrorist organization. Every offer of aid was undermined with more claims that Nigeria was violating Muslim civil rights. Finally Obama got what he wanted. Nigeria's former Muslim dictator was "elected" and began promptly Islamizing key portions of the military. Then he came to Washington D.C. for a victory lap. Obama on Monday offered strong support for Nigeria's new president, Muhammadu Buhari, saying he had a "clear...

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed new defence chiefs after sacking the heads of the army, navy and air force. The sackings were expected as the president has repeatedly criticised the military's inability to defeat Islamist group Boko Haram. The Islamists have recently launched a series of deadly guerrilla attacks, killing more than 250 people. Boko Haram is thought to be responsible for more than 10,000 deaths since 2009. Both the new head of the army, Maj Gen Tukur Yusuf Buratai, and the National Security Adviser, Maj Gen Babagana Monguno, are from Borno State which is at the heart of...

Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif, has written an op-ed in the Financial Times which sets forward a distinct sequence for ostensibly resolving the daunting security challenges of the Middle East. First, the P5+1 - the group of powerful nations negotiating with Iran - should come to a deal over its nuclear program. As a result, he argues, Tehran will "open new horizons" and join "the international battle" against "the increasingly brutal extremism that is engulfing the Middle East." The idea that Iran is a partner in the fight against terrorism is not only disingenuous but also absurd. What Zarif is...

Nearly 150 people are reported to have been killed by suspected Boko Haram Islamist militants in attacks in Nigeria's north-eastern Borno state. Eyewitnesses say the gunmen stormed the village of Kukawa near Lake Chad on Wednesday evening, killing 97 people, including women and children. On Tuesday, the militants shot dead 48 men after they had finished prayers in two villages near the town of Monguno, a resident told the BBC. The women are said to have been spared. Monguno was recently recaptured from Boko Haram. At least 23 people died in the town last month after a confiscated Boko Haram...

ISMAILIA: Egypt launched airstrikes on Islamist militant targets in the Sinai peninsula Thursday, killing 23 fighters a day after the deadliest clashes in the region in years, security sources said. The sources said those killed had taken part in Wednesday's fighting in which 100 militants and 17 soldiers, including four officers, were killed, according to the army spokesman. Sinai-based insurgents, affiliates of ISIS, have stepped up attacks on soldiers and police since then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi toppled Islamist President Mohammad Morsi in 2013 after mass protests against his rule. Sisi, now Egypt's elected president, says the pro-ISIS group Sinai...

(CNN) —At least 145 people were killed after Boko Haram militants raided three villages in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno, witnesses said Thursday. The Islamist militant group's attack late Wednesday in the Kukawa fishing village killed 97 people, resident Kawu Aisaye told CNN. A senior Nigerian military official confirmed the attack, adding the military conducted airstrikes following the raid and is sending troops to assess the damage. The official was unable to provide details about casualties. A lawmaker in the region, Mohammed Tahir, told CNN that Boko Haram killed 48 people and injured 11 others Wednesday when the militants...

At least 97 dead in new 'Boko Haram' attack in NE Nigeria MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: Suspected Boko Haram militants killed close to 100 people in attacks on homes and mosques in a northeastern Nigerian village, witnesses said Thursday. "The attackers have killed at least 97 people," a local from Kukawa village, who gave his name as Kolo and who said he had counted the bodies, told AFP. A fisherman who witnessed Wednesday's attack corroborated the death toll. "They wiped out the immediate family of my uncle ...They killed his children, about five of them, and set his entire house ablaze," Kolo...

<p>EL-ARISH, Egypt (AP) - Dozens of Islamic militants unleashed a wave of simultaneous attacks, including suicide car bombings, on Egyptian army checkpoints in the restive northern Sinai Peninsula on Wednesday, killing at least 53 soldiers, officials said.</p> <p>The advanced planning and coordinated execution of the attacks show that the long-running insurgency in the area is growing stronger, posing a serious threat to Egypt's security as the military-backed government struggles to restore stability after years of unrest since the 2011 uprising.</p>

The United Nations rights chief Wednesday urged Nigeria to show compassion and make it easier for women and girls who became pregnant in Boko Haram captivity to access abortions. Boko Haram militants are estimated by Amnesty International to have kidnapped more than 2,000 women and girls in northeastern Nigeria since the beginning of 2014, including the 276 girls seized from their school in Chibok last year in a kidnapping that sparked global outrage. "During their captivity, lasting in many cases for months or even years, women and girls have been sexually enslaved, raped and forced into so-called 'marriages'," Zeid Ra'ad...

Islamic State militants launched a wide-scale coordinated assault on several military checkpoints in Egypt's North Sinai on Wednesday in which 50 people were killed, security sources said, the largest attack yet in the insurgency-hit province. Egyptian army F-16 jets and Apache helicopters strafed the region that lies within the Sinai Peninsula, a strategic area located between Israel, the Gaza Strip and the Suez Canal. It was the second high-profile attack in Egypt this week. On Monday, the prosecutor-general was killed in a car bombing in Cairo. The attacks raise questions about the government's ability to contain a Sinai-based insurgency that...

Global support for ISIS may be much bigger than previously known, according to a new report that found as many as 42 million Muslims around the world have positive feelings about the black-clad army of barbarians that established a so-called caliphate in Syria and Iraq last year. The report from the New York-based research institute Clarion Project crunched numbers from four recent polls surveying Arab public opinion toward ISIS. Clarion found the terror group's supporters are 8.5 million strong, but more than 42 million of the world's estimated 1.5 billion Muslims feel at least somewhat positively about the terror group....

An apparent terrorist attempted to attack a leprosy hospital with a suicide vest in the restive northern region of Nigeria, according to a report. Witnesses told Agence France Presse the bomber was stymied at the security checkpoint out front manned by vigilantes who have taken up arms in the fight against the ISIS-affiliated terrorist group Boko Haram. The bomber apparently detonated his vest in front of the hospital, killing 5 and wounding 10, AFP reports. Witnesses claimed he was one of three men dropped off near the hospital. The other two are believed to have fled in the confusion following...

(Original title too long: Obama now an accessary to genocide and war crimes; denies USA Special Forces permission to intercede on massacre in Nigeria) From a retired Special Forces Officer, now consulting with Rescue Christians. In another act of brutality committed by Boko Haram The Obama Administration’s brazen disregard for human life and continued tacit support of Islamic extremists, is again highlighted by an incident revealed in an intelligence briefing given at Ft. Huachuca Arizona this morning. This past Saturday, near the town of Damasak, Nigeria, 264 Christian men, women and children were herded into an open pit and burned...

TEHRAN — Women have been "forbidden" from watching Iran play the U.S. volleyball team on Friday night despite the government signaling it would loosen restrictions on females attending sports events. Earlier this month, Iran's Vice President for Women and Family Affairs Shahindokht Molaverdi announced that a limited number of women — mainly members of players' families — would be allowed at upcoming men's volleyball matches. In an interview with The Associated Press, Molaverdi said women could also now watch live basketball, handball and tennis. However, women would not be allowed to attend soccer, swimming and wrestling. Hardliners objected angrily to...

Boko Haram is winning. That's the assessment of both U.S. counterterrorism officials and many experts who cover West Africa.

SANLIURFA, Turkey — When Abu Hamza, a former Syrian rebel, agreed to join the Islamic State, he did so assuming he would become a part of the group’s promised Islamist utopia, which has lured foreign jihadists from around the globe. Instead, he found himself being supervised by an Iraqi emir and receiving orders from shadowy Iraqis... All of the men, however, were former Iraqi officers who had served under Saddam Hussein... His account, and those of others who have lived with or fought against the Islamic State over the past two years, underscore the pervasive role played by members of...

Unbelievable: SHADY Nigerian official gave MILLIONS to Clinton Foundation while Hillary COVERED for BOKO HARAM The Hillary scandals are getting so bad that it really does seem like we’re making them up, but we’re not. The latest is an attempt to solve the mystery behind why the government was so late to designating Boko Haram a “terrorist organization.” Unbelievably, it might have to do with a million dollar donor to the Clinton Foundation and his possible terrorist ties: A conservative group is suing the State Department in an effort to find out whether the agency’s refusal to place Boko Haram...

A conservative group is suing the State Department in an effort to find out whether the agency's refusal to place Boko Haram on the terrorist watch list while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state had anything to do with the fact that a high-level Nigerian official was a major Clinton Foundation donor and close friend of the former president. Citizens United, a conservative nonprofit, brought the case to court after the State Department ignored its request for records about the Chagoury Group, a sprawling Nigerian company headed by a Clinton friend and financial supporter of Clinton causes, Gilbert Chagoury. Chagoury...

More than 220 members of the European Parliament issued a statement, this week, warning about the flagrant rise of breaches of human rights in Iran. They have asserted that Iranian regime is the heart of the crisis in the Middle East. Many representatives in the European Parliament have already declared they will participate in this year’s Iranian resistance reunion. The meeting will take place in Paris on June 13th.

Islamic State (ISIS) has conquered large parts of Syria and Iraq and set up 'branches' as far away as Libya and the Sinai Desert - but now, it has set its sights on Algeria. Months after successfully conquering the Libyan coastal city of Sirte, Algerian authorities say that ISIS has attempted to expand westward to conquer the largely-desert border region between the two countries. On Thursday, the Algerian army raised its alert level to the highest level and has drafted some 50,000 troops to ward off ISIS ahead of an anticipated invasion...