Free Republic

(Original title too long: Muslim Suicide Bomber Take 50 Germans Hostage At Theater, The Police Blast Him Just Before He Blows Himself Up- The Middle East Is Now In Central Europe). This was a close call. Thank God for the swift action of German policemen who saved these 50 people. But there will be another time, and next time might be too late, especially since the German media is already trying to say the man had ‘no identifiable links to radical Islam’: An armed man who was gunned down by the police at a cinema complex in Viernheim, western Germany,...

BERLIN (Reuters) - A gunman took hostages at a cinema in western Germany on Thursday before police shot him dead, a police spokesman told the N-TV television channel, adding that no other people were injured. German television showed pictures of heavily armed police, wearing helmets and body armor, storming the Kinopolis complex in Viernheim and a couple fleeing the building. German media said earlier that the masked man had opened fire at the cinema complex in the small town near Frankfurt. Police shot the man dead after elite forces stormed the complex, the Mannheimer Morgen newspaper reported, citing the interior...

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether a Department of Homeland Security employee with top-secret clearance was planning an attack at the agency's Washington headquarters when he entered the building with a gun, a knife, an infrared camera, pepper spray and handcuffs.

(Full title too long: Muslim Terrorist In Ohio Takes Apartment Complex Hostage, And Then Opens Fire On American Police Officer.) A Muslim terrorist in Ohio, Mohammad Laghaoui, took hostages in an apartment complex and then opened fire with an AK-47 on an officer once she arrived on the scene. The hostages were Mohammad’s father and brother. Mohammad threatened to murder his father and brother. His brother dialed 911 and Mohammad punched his father in the face and left, only to return with an AK-47. His father and brother locked Mohamamd out. He opened fire through the door and shot his...

AMARILLO, TX (KFDA) - The Amarillo Police Department is reporting an active situation at the Amarillo Walmart at 4215 Canyon Drive. Early reports indicate an armed man is inside the store. APD and several other agencies including DPS, Amarillo Emergency Management and Randall County are on scene. There are unconfirmed reports of a possible hostage situation. Police are searching for a Somalian man wearing Kakhi pants.

Witnesses are reporting gunfire and explosions in the Paris suburb commune of Magnanville. French special police have surrounded a house where a man is holding hostages. The attacker stabbed the home owner, a police officer who was reportedly his neighbor.

A gunman took multiple people hostage overnight inside Pulse nightclub in Orlando, where "multiple people" were killed and 42 were injured, Orlando Police Chief John Mina said at a morning news conference. The gunman, who has not been identified, was carrying an assault rifle, a handgun and a "device." The Orange County Sheriff;s Office hazardous device team is now searching the area. Dozens of emergency vehicles surrounded the chaotic scene at the club at 1912 S. Orange Ave. after the 2 a.m. shooting and rescue squads were transporting multiple victims to area hospitals.

Problematic, in a very big way even if the offer was made.Qatar’s ties to Al Qaeda and ISIS aren’t news. They’ve effectively served as intermediaries in everything from ransom exchanges for hostages to Taliban negotiations. But actually trying to secure terrorist swaps for prisoners on their own behalf would have been a new frontier. Before he was released from a U.S. maximum-security prison last week, a confessed al Qaeda sleeper agent was offered up in a potential prisoner swap that would have freed two Americans held abroad.According to two individuals with direct knowledge of the case, the proposition was...

In a new video purportedly released by Islamic State affiliate Abu Sayyaf, Canadian hostage John Ridsdel is beheaded after Canada’s refusal to pay the terrorists his ransom. In the latest video, ISIS crudely beheads Ridsdel. Watch the video above. Viewer discretion is advised.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned on Monday the execution of a Canadian hostage by Abu Sayyaf militants in the Philippines, calling it "an act of cold-blooded murder."

Stop by your local post office and you might just see a poster of Rodrigo “Timochenko” Londono hanging next to the Most Wanted posters of bank robbers and fugitives. The State Department is offering a $5 million reward for information about the Communist terrorist leader. But all the State Department had to do was ask Secretary of State Kerry. Obama did the wave with the Cuban dictator and Kerry met with Timochenko , the leader of FARC, a Marxist terrorist organization that appears on his own department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations a little above Al Qaeda. Timochenko is a...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The bishop who leads the apostolic vicariate that includes Yemen said he has "strong indications" that Salesian Father Tom Uzhunnalil "is still alive in the hands of his kidnappers." Bishop Paul Hinder, head of the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia, told Catholic News Service March 28, "I have no confirmation that anything happened Good Friday" and added that the rumors appear to be untrue. Father Uzhunnalil, an Indian, was kidnapped March 4 from the home for the aged and disabled run by the Missionaries of Charity in Aden, Yemen. Four Missionaries of Charity and 12 others...

AsiaNews spoke to Josephine, one of hundreds of Christians from Al-Hasakah, who spent a year in the hands of the Islamic State group. She talked about psychological suffering, conversion attempts, and separation from her male relatives. She survived thanks to her faith. Her mother Caroline, a Caritas official, is the only one in her family to have been spared the ordeal. She also negotiated their release with IS, and gave a Jihadi copies of the Bible. Now she hopes “to meet the pope” with her entire family. Damascus (AsiaNews) – Josephine Martin Tamras is a young Assyrian woman. For a...

Father Tom Uzhunnalil was seized when four armed militants stormed an old people's home in Aden in Yemen on March 4, killing 16Fears are growing for a priest believed to have been kidnapped by ISIS as sickening reports suggest he may be crucified on Good Friday. Father Tom Uzhunnalil was seized when four armed militants stormed an old people's home in Aden in Yemen on March 4. The gunmen killed 16 people, including four nuns in the brutal attack. No group has come forward to claim responsibility for the kidnap of the priest, who was a member of the Silesian...

It turns out that so-called "prisoner swap" with Iran didn’t involve much of a swap. When given the chance, none of the Iranians freed from U.S. custody chose to return to Iran, according to U.S. officials familiar with the negotiations. As the United States and Iran secretly negotiated the terms of a deal that culminated with a "prisoner swap" this weekend, both parties agreed they would fly their prisoners to Geneva, Switzerland, for the exchange – a neutral country that for years has worked as a diplomatic mediator between the two adversaries. After an hours-long and nerve-wracking delay, a Swiss...

Three U.S. citizens who disappeared last week in Baghdad were kidnapped and are being held by an Iranian-backed Shi'ite militia, two Iraqi intelligence and two U.S. government sources said on Tuesday. The U.S. sources said Washington had no reason to believe Tehran was involved in the kidnapping and does not believe the trio are being held in Iran, which borders Iraq. "They were abducted because they are Americans, not for personal or financial reasons," one of the Iraqi intelligence sources in Baghdad said.

The White House denied Tuesday that the U.S. paid Iran $1.7 billion as ransom to gain the release of American prisoners, saying the payment settled a long-running claim by Tehran over military equipment. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the payment last weekend was “a very good deal for taxpayers” because Iran was actually seeking interest payments of up to $8 billion for the decades-old claim. “Our exposure when it came to paying interest could have been much higher,” Mr. Earnest said. A spokeswoman for Speaker Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, criticized the administration for paying “ransom” to gain the...

The following preliminary timeline of the events surrounding the Iranian detainment of 10 U.S. Navy Sailors from January 12-13, 2016, is based upon multiple operational reports received by U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) in the first 24-48 hours after the incident. A Navy command investigation initiated on Jan. 14, will provide a more complete accounting of events.

Three Americans have been kidnapped in Baghdad by "militias," according to Arab news channel Al Arabiya, citing its own sources. The State Department said it is aware of the report and is working with Iraqi authorities to locate the missing Americans. Officials, however, would not confirm that anyone been kidnapped. "We are aware of reports that American citizens are missing in Iraq," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement to The Hill. "The safety and security of American citizens overseas is our highest priority, he continued. "We are working with the full cooperation of the Iraqi authorities to...

Three American contractors are missing in Iraq, a senior security official in Baghdad says. "A company filed a report Sunday about three of its staff going missing. ... They are American contractors. We are looking into this report," the official told CNN. Separately, an Iraqi security official with knowledge of the case said that two of the contractors are dual Iraqi-American citizens and that the third is an American national. Gunmen grabbed the men at an apartment in Baghdad's southeastern Dora neighborhood late Friday afternoon, the source said.