Left: A still image from surveillance video shows a gunman approaching a Philadelphia Police cruiser in which Officer Jesse Hartnett was shot on January 8, 2016. Photo: Philadelphia Police Department
Indonesia
January 14, 2016, ISIS terrorists attacked a busy commercial hub in Jakarta, including a Starbucks cafe killing, at least, two, wounding 24. “It was the first major attack in Jakarta since the 2009 simultaneous attacks on the J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels, which left seven people dead. Since then, the secular government has made major inroads beating back terror groups in an Asian nation where about 87% of its roughly 255 million people are Muslim.”
Afghanistan
January 13, 2016, Islamic State’s central command took responsibility for an attack near the Pakistani Consulate in Jalalabad that killed, at least, seven members of the Afghan security forces.
The United States
- On January 13, 2016, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland indicted Mohamed Elshinawy, 30, of Edgewood, who allegedly pledged allegiance to ISIS, on four charges: Terrorism financing; Providing and attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization; Making false statements in connection with a terrorism matter, and Conspiring to provide material support to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a designated foreign terrorist organization.
- January 8, 2016, in Philadelphia, a man dressed in a long white garment stormed a police car driven by a police officer and shot at him with a pistol. The police officer managed to shoot the assailant and injured him. After his arrest, the attacker said that he had acted for the sake of ISIS. According to the security tapes, he apparently intended to kill the police officer (CNN, January 9, 2016).
The ITIC “Spotlight on Global Jihad” also listed:
Turkey
- January 12, 2016, there was a powerful explosion in Sultan Ahmet Square in Istanbul, near the Blue Mosque. According to initial reports, 10 people, all of them tourists, were killed in the blast, and 15 others were wounded. Nine of the dead were German. So far, no organization has claimed responsibility for the attack. According to the Turkish prime minister, the attack was carried out by an ISIS suicide bomber. In the assessment of the Turkish security services, the terrorist was Nabil Fadli, 28, who was born in Saudi Arabia and stayed in Syria. They said he had recently crossed the border from Syria to Turkey as a refugee. Ahmet Square is one of Istanbul’s most famous tourist attractions, with many tourist spots, and it is crowded most hours of the day.
Libya
- January 7, 2016, At least, 70 people were killed, and more than 200 were injured in a car bomb attack at the police training camp in the city of Zliten (located between Tripoli and Misrata in northwestern Libya). ISIS’s Tripoli province claimed responsibility for the attack.
- A suicide bomber driving a booby-trapped oil tanker blew himself up at the entrance to the camp in the morning, during roll call. In its claim of responsibility, ISIS notes that the attack was carried out by an operative codenamed Abdullah al-Muhajer, and that the attacks will continue until all of Libya is conquered (Al-Wasat, January 7, 2016; Libyan interior ministry website, January 7, 2016; aljazeera.net, January 7, 2016; Akhbar Libya 24, January 7, 2016; Akhbar Dawlat al-Islam, January 8, 2016).
- January 6, 2016, ISIS posted a video that it claims documents the crash of a fighter plane belonging to the Libyan Army, which supports the Tobruk government, in the city of Benghazi. ISIS claims to have shot down the plane on January 4, 2016, using anti-aircraft fire (Aamaq, January 6, 2016).
France
- January 7, 2016, a man whose identity is unknown entered a police station in Paris’s 18th arrondissement, waving a meat cleaver and shouting Allah Akbar. Fearing that he was wearing an explosive belt, the police shot and killed him. After he was shot, a team that examined him determined that the explosive belt he was wearing was not real. A letter with an ISIS flag printed on it was found in the terrorist’s possession, along with a note in Arabic claiming responsibility. This may be the latest in a long series of local attacks carried out in France and other Western countries, inspired by ISIS but not carried out by it.
Bangladesh
- January 7, 2016, ISIS announced its operatives stabbed a Christian missionary to death in the Jhenaidah District, about 132 km southwest of the capital Dhaka (Aamaq, January 7, 2016).
For more, see Global Jihad weekly report on ITIC.