Free Republic

Russian authorities have arrested 11 members of the outlawed Hizbi Tahrir radical Islamist group for the possession of grenades, the ITAR-TASS news agency reports. The report says the suspected militants have been arrested in the city of Nizhny-Novgorod, 400 kilometres east of Moscow, in a joint operation between police and the secret services (FSB). All men, aged above 25, worked as traders in several markets in the city. They included several foreign nationals, who all held valid residency papers. Regional FSB officials quoted in the report say the suspects have been found in possession of "combat grenades, audio and video...

The Islamic Movement of Afghanistan, the IMU, whose suicide bombers struck the US and Israeli embassies and the Uzbek prosecutor-general’s office in Tashkent Friday, July 30, – killing three Uzbek guards and injuring 9 - is a multifaceted fundamentalist terror group affiliated to al Qaeda and sharing its philosophy. Friday, its bombers failed to break into the embassies, but many counter-terror authorities see this attack as the opening shot in their next major confrontation. President Islam Karimov, evidently sharing this view, cut short his Crimean vacation to return home and secure the capital with roadblocks at strategic points and searches...