Suspected Pirates Hijack Yemeni-Flagged Vessel Off Somalia Coast
Suspected pirates boarded a Yemeni-flagged dhow off the eastern coast of Somalia, the second such attack in a month.
'Up to seven hijackers remain on board,' the European Union Naval Force, or EU Navfor, said in a statement. 'The dhow has a crew of eight Somali nationals.'
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Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Yemen's al-Qaeda leader threatens Trump, Musk over Israel's war on Gaza
The leader of al-Qaeda's Yemen branch has targeted US President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk over United States backing for Israel's ongoing war on the Gaza Strip and its besieged Palestinian population. 'There are no red lines after what happened and is happening to our people in Gaza,' said Saad bin Atef al-Awlaki in a half-hour video message that was spread online Saturday by supporters of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the Yemeni branch of the armed group. 'Reciprocity is legitimate,' he said. Al-Awlaki's video message also included calls for so-called lone wolves to assassinate leaders in Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf Arab states over the war, which has decimated Gaza, killing at least 54,772 Palestinians over the past 20 months. The message featured images of Trump and Musk, US Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, as well as logos of Musk's businesses – including electric carmaker Tesla. Born in 2009 from the merger of al-Qaeda's Yemeni and Saudi factions, AQAP is completely distinct from Yemen's Houthi rebel group, which controls most of the country and agreed to a ceasefire with the US earlier this grew and developed amid the chaos of Yemen's war, which has pitted the Houthis against a Saudi-led coalition backing the government since 2015. Al-Awlaki became the group's leader in 2024, replacing predecessor Khalid Batarfi, who died that year. He already has a $6m US bounty on his head, having, as Washington puts it, 'publicly called for attacks against the United States and its allies'. Though believed to be weakened in recent years due to infighting and suspected US drone strikes killing its leaders, the group had been considered the most dangerous branch of al-Qaeda still operating since the US killing of founder Osama bin Laden in 2011. United Nations experts estimate AQAP has between 3,000 and 4,000 active fighters and passive members, claiming that it raises money by robbing banks and money exchange shops, as well as by smuggling weapons, counterfeiting currencies and conducting ransom operations. The Houthis have previously denied working with AQAP, though the latter's targeting of the Houthis has dropped in recent years, while its fighters keep attacking the Saudi-led coalition forces. Now, with its focus on Israel's war on Gaza, AQAP appears to be following the lead of the Houthi group, which has launched missile attacks on Israel and targeted commercial vessels moving through the Red Sea in solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli fire. 'As the Houthis gain popularity as leaders of the 'Arab and Muslim world's resistance' against Israel, al-Awlaki seeks to challenge their dominance by presenting himself as equally concerned about the situation in Gaza,' said Mohammed al-Basha, a Yemen expert with the Basha Report risk advisory firm. 'For a national security and foreign policy community increasingly disengaged from Yemen, this video is a clear reminder: Yemen still matters,' he said.
2 days ago
Man once convicted in Minnesota of supporting al-Qaida is now charged in Canada for alleged threats
MONTREAL -- A man who was once convicted in the United States of supporting al-Qaida has been charged in Canada after allegedly threatening an attack. Mohammed Abdullah Warsame, 51, allegedly told a homeless shelter employee in Montreal that he wanted to build bombs to detonate on public transit. He was charged with uttering threats. He was ordered at a court appearance in Montreal on Friday to undergo a 30-day psychological assessment and return to court July 7, according to the newspaper La Presse. 'Both parties have reason to believe that Mr. Warsame's criminal responsibility is in question in this case,' Vincent Petit, who represents Warsame, told the court. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police confirmed that he is the same Mohammed Warsame who spent 5½ years in solitary confinement before pleading guilty in Minnesota in 2009 to one count of conspiracy to provide material support and resources to al-Qaida, which the U.S. calls a terrorist organization that was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Warsame was sentenced to seven years and eight months in federal prison with credit for time served. He was deported to Canada in 2010 and had no fixed address at the time of the latest alleged incident. The Old Mission Brewery, which runs several homeless shelters in Montreal, contacted police after Warsame allegedly said on May 27 that he wanted to carry out an attack that would kill a large number of people. Warsame was hospitalized for psychiatric reasons, and he was formally arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Wednesday. The Somali-born Canadian citizen admitted in his 2009 plea agreement that he traveled to Afghanistan in 2000 to attend al-Qaida training camps, where he dined with the organization's founder, Osama bin Laden. Prosecutors say he later sent money to one of his training camp commanders and went to the Taliban's front line. Warsame later settled in Minneapolis, where he continued to provide information to al-Qaida associates. Prosecutors painted him as a jihadist who called his time in one training camp 'one of the greatest experiences' of his life. They said that even after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, he passed along information to al-Qaida operatives about border entries and whereabouts of jihadists — and only stopped when he was arrested in December 2003. But his attorneys depicted him as a bumbling idealist whom other fighters in the camps in Afghanistan viewed as ineffective and awkward. Warsame's case took unusually long to work through the U.S. court system partly because everyone — including the judge, defense attorneys and prosecutors — needed security clearances. Retired agent Harry Samit, who was the lead FBI investigator on the case and is now director of special investigations for the professional assessment company Pearson VUE in Bloomington, recalled in an interview Friday that Warsame's case was the second major al-Qaida case to break in Minnesota. It came after that of Zacarias Moussaoui, who took flight simulator training in Minnesota and remains the only person to stand trial in a U.S. court in the 9/11 attacks. Moussaoui was jailed on an immigration violation when hijacked planes slammed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon and crashed in a Pennsylvania field. Samit, whose books on the Minnesota cases will be published starting this summer, said the FBI got word as it was preparing for Moussaoui to stand trial that another al-Qaida operative was in Minneapolis. He said he is certain that Warsame was a sleeper agent who was waiting for instructions from his commanders before he was found. While Warsame was 'kind of a goofy, not very threatening guy,' Samit said, he and other agents who questioned him also concluded that he was 'pure of heart and he was dedicated to the cause.' He said that was apparently enough for al-Qaida leaders who sent him Minnesota, where at a minimum they used him to raise money. When Warsame was deported, the retired agent said, the FBI gave Canadian authorities a 'full accounting' of what it knew and why the bureau still considered him a threat. So he said wasn't surprised to learn this week, after all these years, that Warsame might still remain a danger to society.
San Francisco Chronicle
2 days ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Man once convicted in Minnesota of supporting al-Qaida is now charged in Canada for alleged threats
MONTREAL (AP) — A man who was once convicted in the United States of supporting al-Qaida has been charged in Canada after allegedly threatening an attack. Mohammed Abdullah Warsame, 51, allegedly told a homeless shelter employee in Montreal that he wanted to build bombs to detonate on public transit. He was charged with uttering threats. He was ordered at a court appearance in Montreal on Friday to undergo a 30-day psychological assessment and return to court July 7, according to the newspaper La Presse. 'Both parties have reason to believe that Mr. Warsame's criminal responsibility is in question in this case,' Vincent Petit, who represents Warsame, told the court. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police confirmed that he is the same Mohammed Warsame who spent 5½ years in solitary confinement before pleading guilty in Minnesota in 2009 to one count of conspiracy to provide material support and resources to al-Qaida, which the U.S. calls a terrorist organization that was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Warsame was sentenced to seven years and eight months in federal prison with credit for time served. He was deported to Canada in 2010 and had no fixed address at the time of the latest alleged incident. The Old Mission Brewery, which runs several homeless shelters in Montreal, contacted police after Warsame allegedly said on May 27 that he wanted to carry out an attack that would kill a large number of people. Warsame was hospitalized for psychiatric reasons, and he was formally arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Wednesday. The Somali-born Canadian citizen admitted in his 2009 plea agreement that he traveled to Afghanistan in 2000 to attend al-Qaida training camps, where he dined with the organization's founder, Osama bin Laden. Prosecutors say he later sent money to one of his training camp commanders and went to the Taliban's front line. Warsame later settled in Minneapolis, where he continued to provide information to al-Qaida associates. Prosecutors painted him as a jihadist who called his time in one training camp 'one of the greatest experiences' of his life. They said that even after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, he passed along information to al-Qaida operatives about border entries and whereabouts of jihadists — and only stopped when he was arrested in December 2003. But his attorneys depicted him as a bumbling idealist whom other fighters in the camps in Afghanistan viewed as ineffective and awkward. Warsame's case took unusually long to work through the U.S. court system partly because everyone — including the judge, defense attorneys and prosecutors — needed security clearances. Retired agent Harry Samit, who was the lead FBI investigator on the case and is now director of special investigations for the professional assessment company Pearson VUE in Bloomington, recalled in an interview Friday that Warsame's case was the second major al-Qaida case to break in Minnesota. It came after that of Zacarias Moussaoui, who took flight simulator training in Minnesota and remains the only person to stand trial in a U.S. court in the 9/11 attacks. Moussaoui was jailed on an immigration violation when hijacked planes slammed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon and crashed in a Pennsylvania field. Samit, whose books on the Minnesota cases will be published starting this summer, said the FBI got word as it was preparing for Moussaoui to stand trial that another al-Qaida operative was in Minneapolis. He said he is certain that Warsame was a sleeper agent who was waiting for instructions from his commanders before he was found. While Warsame was 'kind of a goofy, not very threatening guy,' Samit said, he and other agents who questioned him also concluded that he was 'pure of heart and he was dedicated to the cause.' He said that was apparently enough for al-Qaida leaders who sent him Minnesota, where at a minimum they used him to raise money. When Warsame was deported, the retired agent said, the FBI gave Canadian authorities a 'full accounting' of what it knew and why the bureau still considered him a threat. So he said wasn't surprised to learn this week, after all these years, that Warsame might still remain a danger to society.
