Sophisticated plan raises fears of al-Qaeda revival

Time Sep 18, 08 4:04 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Islamic militants who attacked the US embassy in Yemen yesterday planned to massacre all the Americans in the compound, a security source tells Time . The attackers intended to pass a checkpoint disguised as guards and then blow up the gate with a vehicle, clearing the way for a second carload to enter and kill US workers inside.
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'Multiple casualties' in car bomb blast at gates

Associated Press Sep 17, 08 6:03 AM CDT
(Newser)
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A car bomb at the gates of the American embassy in Yemen has caused at least 16 casualties, a US spokesman inside the embassy told AP. Two car bombs were followed by a gun battle between attackers and guards, said Yemeni officials. Hundreds of heavily armed troops have now surrounded the embassy. The dead included at least six Yemeni security guards, six attackers and four civilians, CNN reported. No embassy employees were killed, said a US official.
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UBS gave Iran money
it knew would support terrorism, suit says

Reuters May 13, 08 8:47 AM CDT
(Newser)
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American victims of attacks in Israel are suing Switzerland's biggest bank for helping fund militants by providing money to Iran, Reuters reports. The lawsuit says UBS AG gave loans to Iran even though it supports Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad. The plaintiffs seek $500 million in damages for some 50 US citizens who were hurt or whose relatives were killed in attacks between 1997 and 2006.
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Egyptians now will try to convince Jewish state on proposal

AFP Apr 30, 08 2:19 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Twelve Palestinian militant groups have agreed to a proposal for a truce with Israel, already backed by Hamas and Fatah. Egypt, mediating talks, will now try to sell the plan to Israel, AFP reports. The proposal calls for a "comprehensive, simultaneous, and reciprocal period of calm to be applied progressively, first in Gaza and then in the West Bank."
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Islamic Jihad, Hamas want more concessions before truce with Israel

Reuters Mar 27, 08 3:49 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Egypt’s talks with Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, aimed at establishing a truce with Israel, ended unsuccessfully today, Reuters reports. The militant groups demanded Israel stop Gaza and West Bank raids, end its Gaza blockade, and reopen border-crossings. Hamas and Israel already appear to have instituted a de facto ceasefire, Reuters notes. Islamic Jihad continues to fire rockets into Israel.
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Haaretz (Israel) Mar 13, 08 7:44 AM CDT
(Newser)
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A week-long moratorium on rocket attacks in Israel exploded today when the militant group Islamic Jihad fired two rockets into the town of Sderot on the Gaza border. Nobody was injured in the attack. The radical Palestinian group claims its rocket launch was in retaliation for a raid by the Israelis in the West Bank yesterday, which claimed four lives, reports Haaretz .
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Iraq invasion justification again called into question

McClatchy Newspapers Mar 11, 08 5:48 AM CDT
(Newser)
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A Pentagon-sponsored study of captured Iraqi intelligence archives has been unable to find a single operational link between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden or his al-Qaeda network, reports the McClatchy newspapers. The study will be released this week and is expected to refuel debate over the US justification for invading Iraq. Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once described evidence for links between the two as "bulletproof."
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Arab bulwark pitches ceasefire to Hamas, Islamic Jihad

Reuters Mar 6, 08 12:44 PM CST
(Newser)
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Egypt has begun talks with Hamas and Islamic Jihad in an attempt to broker an end to rocket attacks on Israel and retaliatory Israeli raids in Gaza, Reuters reports. A ceasefire would make it easier for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to resume peace talks with Israel. Leaders of the groups met with officials in Egypt today, but were noncommittal, except to say they'd study Egypt's proposal.
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Israeli military denies involvement in death of Palestinian Islamic Jihad chieftain

Reuters Feb 15, 08 6:32 PM CST
(Newser)
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A leading member of terrorist group Islamic Jihad was killed today in the Gaza Strip, Reuters reports. Ayman Fayed and at least seven others were killed in an explosion that leveled a house where Fayed was staying. The Israeli army denied involvement, but Palestinian leaders saw the attack as Israel taking revenge for recent killings there.
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Federal prosecutors will appeal for more prison time

Miami Herald Jan 22, 08 12:45 PM CST
(Newser)
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A federal judge sentenced Jose Padilla to 17 years and 4 months today following his conviction for conspiring to commit murder and otherwise aid Islamic terrorists around the world, the Miami Herald reports. Although the court invoked “terrorism enhancement” to lengthen the sentences of Padilla and his two co-conspirators, prosecutors, who had sought life for Padilla, said they would appeal.
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In unusual call to Israeli media, PM asks for end to strikes in Gaza

Associated Press Dec 19, 07 12:49 PM CST
(Newser)
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The leader of Gaza’s Hamas party, weary of months of Israeli airstrikes and sanctions, has appealed for a ceasefire through Israeli media, the AP reports. "The occupation should stop its attacks and siege." In return, Hamas PM Ismail Haniya said in an unprecedented phone call to an Israeli TV station, "a truce would be possible, and not unlikely."
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Biggest offensive in months against militants

Reuters Dec 18, 07 7:17 AM CST
(Newser)
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Israeli airstrikes rained down on Gaza militants today, killing at least 13 in a series of separate attacks, Reuters reports. It was the country’s most intense offensive in months, a response to the frequent but largely ineffectual rocket attacks lobbed across the border. In response, militants threatened a round of suicide bombings, something Israel hasn’t seen in 11 months.
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Turning Iraq footage into hip-hop videos is one recruiting tool

New York Times Oct 15, 07 4:00 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Jihadists have long used the internet to spread their message, but now a growing number of Western-based extremists are tapping into a Western audience by giving the message a pop-culture twist, the Times reports. They act as middlemen, translating newsletters and relaying videos from militant Islamic leaders; they also turn insurgent footage from Iraq into hip-hop videos.
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Predawn strike hits tent in Gaza boot camp

Haaretz (Israel) Sep 11, 07 4:11 AM CDT
(Newser)
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At least 66 Israeli soldiers were wounded by a Qassam rocket fired into Israeli territory from inside the Gaza strip early today. The missile struck a tent in an Israeli basic training camp in the northern Negev desert near the community of Kibbutz Zikkim, reports Ha'aretz. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
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