PALERMO, Italy — The investigators for Italy’s antidrug unit were used to measuring the flow of hashish from Moroccan fields to European shores one speedboat or Jet Ski at a time. So when the phone rang with a tip that an enormous freighter loaded with hashish was plying international waters ...
Read More »Senior ISIS Strategist and Spokesman Is Reported Killed in Syria
WASHINGTON — The senior Islamic State strategist Abu Muhammad al-Adnani was killed in northern Syria, the group announced on Tuesday, signaling the death of one of the world’s most-wanted terrorists. In Washington, the Pentagon spokesman, Peter Cook, confirmed that an American “precision strike” near Al Bab, Syria, on Tuesday night ...
Read More »U.S.-Backed Militias in Libya Claim to Retake ISIS Stronghold of Surt
CAIRO — Pro-government Libyan militias backed by American air power said Wednesday that they had seized the Islamic State’s last stronghold in the country, in the seaside city of Surt. If confirmed, the capture would be a severe blow to the militant organization’s expansion into North Africa, and extend the ...
Read More »How a Secretive Branch of ISIS Built a Global Network of Killers
BREMEN, Germany — Believing he was answering a holy call, Harry Sarfo left his home in the working-class city of Bremen last year and drove for four straight days to reach the territory controlled by the Islamic State in Syria. He barely had time to settle in before members of ...
Read More »As ISIS Posts in Portuguese, U.S. and Brazil Bolster Olympics Security
By SIMON ROMERO and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT August 1, 2016 RIO DE JANEIRO — Worried about possible terrorist attacks at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s government is working closely with American law enforcement and intelligence services to identify threats and thwart potential disasters at the Games. Despite its notorious battles with violent crime, ...
Read More »As ISIS Loosens Grip, U.S. and Iraq Prepare for Grinding Insurgency
BAGHDAD — The Islamic State’s latest suicide attack in Baghdad, which killed nearly 330 people, foreshadows a long and bloody insurgency, according to American diplomats and commanders, as the group reverts to its guerrilla roots because its territory is shrinking in Iraq and Syria. Already, officials say, many Islamic State ...
Read More »U.S. Will Deploy 560 More Troops to Iraq to Help Retake Mosul From ISIS
BAGHDAD — President Obama will send 560 more troops to Iraq to help retake Mosul, the largest city still controlled by the Islamic State, a deployment intended to capitalize on recent battlefield gains that also illustrates the obstacles that Mr. Obama has faced in trying to wind down America’s wars. ...
Read More »Appealing to Its Base, ISIS Tempers Its Violence in Muslim Countries
By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI July 2, 2016 The first to be killed was a jogger, gunned down last September during his daily run in the leafy diplomatic quarter of Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka. He was identified as a 50-year-old Italian aid worker, and the police say the men who murdered him had been given ...
Read More »Iraqi Brother, ISIS Enemy: War Fractures Sunni Families, and Sect
FALLUJA, Iraq — In the days leading up to the storming of Falluja by Iraqi forces, Brig. Gen. Hadi Razaij, the leading Sunni police commander in the campaign, sat on a cot in an abandoned house near the front line. He described the resistance that lay ahead: a determined force ...
Read More »ISIS Claims Responsibility for Killing of French Police Officer
By ALISSA J. RUBIN June 13, 2016 PARIS — A police captain was fatally stabbed and his companion was also killed at their home in a small town northwest of Paris on Monday evening, and within hours the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the murders. The police captain, who was not otherwise identified, ...
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