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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - A Florida man is charged with providing material support to the Islamic State extremist group, including attempting to buy multiple weapons and scouting potential targets for an attack in the Tampa Bay area, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. A criminal complaint charges Muhammed Momtaz Al-Azhari, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen, with attempting to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. The charge carries a potential 20-year prison term. **SNIP** According to the affidavit, Al-Azhari scouted a number of targets in the Tampa Bay region, including beaches, parks and even the Tampa FBI field...

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) “knowingly” siphoned off millions in American taxpayer-funded humanitarian assistance into the coffers of the al-Qaeda wing in Syria, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) reported this week. In post-Islamic State (ISIS) caliphate Syria, the al-Qaeda-linked Ha’yat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) group has surfaced as the strongest jihadi group in the region. On Tuesday, the Pentagon OIG’s Lead Inspector General for Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), the official name of the U.S. mission against ISIS, revealed: Since late 2017, USAID [U.S. Agency for International Development] OIG investigations have uncovered numerous instances of...

Kurdish citizens in Serekaniye town, northeast Syria, bidding farewell to several YPG fighters who were killed in clashes with ISIS. Photo: ARA News Kurdish leadership of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) announced on Sunday the death of 111 of its fighters during offensives by the Turkish Army and Turkey-backed Islamist groups in northern Syria.According to the YPG media office, the Turkish Army and allied Islamist rebels launched more than 80 attacks on Kurdish areas held by the YPG in May. “Turkey’s military used heavy artillery and mortar shells in its offensives against the YPG-held areas in Rojava-Northern Syria,” YPG officer...

Saddam's Ambassador to al-QaedaBy Jonathan SchanzerWeekly Standard | February 23, 2004 A RECENTLY INTERCEPTED MESSAGE from Iraq-based terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi asking the al Qaeda leadership for reinforcements reignited the debate over al-Qaeda ties with Saddam Hussein's fallen Baath regime. William Safire of the New York Times called the message a "smoking gun," while the University of Michigan's Juan Cole says that Safire "offers not even one document to prove" the Saddam/al-Qaeda nexus. What you are about to read bears directly on that debate. It is based on a recent interview with Abdul Rahman al-Shamari, who served in...

The Islamic State has derided United States President Donald Trump as a "stupid idiot" and said his rise to power was a sign of America's bankruptcy. Targeting Trump directly for the first time since he took office, the Islamic State terror group in the 36-minute audio released by its spokesperson Abu Hasan al-Muhajir yesterday called him an Arabic term that means an "idiot", saying the US President does not know anything about Islam, NBC News reported. Terming the US as "bankrupt", it said, "the sign of your elimination are now clearer to everyone, as the most clear of signs is...

The FBI secretly kept tabs on Nicholas Michael Teausant for six months, having a confidential informant meet with him repeatedly in Stockton at breakfast joints, a park and a flea market as the 20-year-old student allegedly spun his vision of jihad against the United States. Federal court papers say Teausant talked for months of his desire to train fighters in Syria, to bomb the Los Angeles subway system over the New Year’s Day holiday and to spark a civil war that would topple the U.S. government. :snip: In Internet postings quoted in the complaint, as well as conversations Teausant had...

The 27-year-old man photographed in 2009 seemed to represent hope springing from Paris’s desperate suburbs. Part of a work-insertion program, he was about to meet then-French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who was trying to combat high youth unemployment.... The man was Amedy Coulibaly, who was killed Friday after seizing hostages in a Jewish supermarket in Paris, an attack he claimed was in support of the terrorist Islamic State of Iraq & Al-Sham. A close associate of Said and Chérif Kouachi, the two brothers who attacked the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo Wednesday, Coulibaly is a symbol of the huge challenges lying ahead...

Two years ago today, SEAL Team Six sent Osama bin Laden on his way to Davy Jones’ Locker — but his Islamist terror machine is anything but sinking to the depths. It remains a vicious, global threat. Since Osama’s demise, the terror group’s strength has ebbed in some areas, but flowed strongly in others. Indeed, one current estimate concludes that al Qaeda affiliates and associates (i.e., groups, cells or operatives) are active in more than 30 countries (of some 190) on four continents. Including our continent. While we don’t yet know the whole story behind the Boston bombing, just last...

Qandil: Syria's Army will be back in LebanonTuesday, 12 February, 2008 @ 8:23 PM Beirut - Former MP Nasser Qandil, a staunch supporter of Syria and a suspect in the Hariri assassination rejected the international tribunal as "illegitimate" and predicted the return of Syria's army to Lebanon. The International tribunal is being established in Holland to try all the suspects in the Hariri assassination. The top Syrian security officials were named as suspects by Detlev Mehlis , the first UN chief investigator .Qandil told a news conference Tuesday that the tribunal is based on an agreement between the government of...

Local News>>President al-Assad and King Abdullah II of Jordan hold talks on regional issues President al-Assad and King Abdullah II of Jordan hold talks on regional issuesSunday, November 18, 2007 - 09:15 PM DAMASCUS, (SANA)-President Bashar al-Assad and King Abdullah II of Jordan on Sunday underlined the importance of finding a just and comprehensive solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict based on the Arab peace initiative and international relevant resolutions to restore the occupied Arab territories in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. A final statement following a Syrian-Jordanian summit held by President al-Assad and King Abdullah II announced support to Arab,...