Tag: terrorism

Offshoot Of Syria’s Ruling HTS Claims Credit For Damascus Church Bombing

On Sunday, a massive suicide bomb attack tore through the important Greek Orthodox church Mar Elias in Damascus, killing 27 and wounding dozens more. The huge attack just added to the spate of sectarian violence across Syria, which undercuts the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) government’s claim to be protecting religious minorities.

The HTS was quick to blame ISIS for the Mar Elias bombing, and on Monday announced the arrest of a number of ISIS associates who they claimed were involved, vowing to bring them to justice. Now that whole narrative seems in doubt.

ISIS never took credit for the Mar Elias bombing, which, since it was the biggest attack in Damascus in a very long time, would be an unusual oversight. Now, another group, Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah (SAAS), issued its own statement claiming credit for the attack.

SAAS, which was said to be formed in February, went on to say that the government’s claims of arresting people involved with the attack were “untrue, fabricated.” The group is being presented as an ISIS splinter group by some reports, but the reality is substantially different.

SAAS does indeed have some ISIS defectors within, according to reports, but it also has a substantial number of HTS defectors.

SAAS founder Abu Aisha al-Shami was an HTS member, and said he broke away and formed his own group because he perceived HTS as being too soft on Shi’ites and other “rejectionists.”

While HTS has undergone a massive reformation in its presentation in the media, the group was a renamed al-Qaeda affiliate that retains its deeply Salafist ideologies.

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They Should Have Been Called Martyrs: Syria’s Church Bombing and the Government’s Possible Involvement

On what should have been a peaceful Sunday morning of worship, 25 Syrian Christians were slaughtered for their faith.

As the faithful gathered for Divine Liturgy at Mar Elias Greek Orthodox Church in Dweila, outside Damascus, on June 22, 2025, at least three terrorists shattered the sanctity of the service with bullets and explosives.

The main attacker entered the packed church, opened fire on the 350 worshippers, and detonated his explosive vest at the entrance as they tried to force him out.

Meanwhile, at least one terrorist remained outside, firing at worshippers and into the stained-glass windows, while the other attempted to enter and detonate a grenade.

Two parishioners intervened and managed to wrest the device away before it exploded. Still, the blast tore through the church, destroying pews, shattering glass, and leaving blood-stained icons and scattered bodies in what should have been a sanctuary.

“People were praying safely under the eyes of God,” said Father Fadi Ghattas, who witnessed the carnage that left 25 dead and at least 63 wounded. Among the victims were children, innocent lives taken in a place meant to offer peace and protection.

This attack is the latest in a series of assaults on Christians, but it is the first known to be launched from inside a church since the Syrian conflict began in 201, marking a disturbing escalation in violence and a grave violation of holy spaces.

But the historical significance was even more damning.

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NSC advisors urged ‘ISIS’-style drone attacks on Russian rail, leaked files show

A coterie of British and American academics advising the US National Security Council explicitly urged Ukraine adopt the tactics of ISIS in a detailed proposal for “anti-rail drone operations,” according to leaked documents reviewed by The Grayzone.

The aggressive war plans recommended in the files eerily foreshadowed Ukraine’s Operation Spider Web, which consisted of a series of brazen drone attacks waged inside Russia between May 24 and June 1 – the eve of scheduled negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. A pair of Ukrainian bombings of Russian trains in Bryansk on May 31 and Kursk and the following day left seven dead, and injured more than 30 people, including two children.

The attacks on Russian rail infrastructure have continued since the launch of Operation Spiderweb, suggesting the British-born strategy has heavily influenced the thinking of Kiev’s increasingly desperate military.

The leaked plans reviewed by The Grayzone explore the use of “inexpensive drones” as “a low-cost means for disrupting Russian logistics,”  but also include blueprints for terror attacks composed by three “drone experts” before being passed to the Biden administration’s then-Director for Russia at the National Council, Col. Tim Wright.

Those experts belonged to a secret academic-intelligence cell called Project Alchemy, whose existence was first exposed by The Grayzone, and which was founded with a mission to “to keep Ukraine fighting” by imposing “strategic dilemmas, costs and frictions upon Russia.”

As previously reported here, Project Alchemy researchers called “to take a page from ISIS’ playbook,” presenting the jihadist group’s psychological operations as a model for Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilians. The Grayzone can now reveal that Alchemy’s team also urged US war planners to look to the Islamic State for inspiration in using commercial drones for attacks on Russian civilian targets.

One academic advising the Alchemy cell, Zachary Kallenborn of George Mason University, recommended Ukraine carry out “two-stage attacks like ISIS did frequently” on Russian-held railways, suggesting that Kiev first “break the track, and wait for the engineers to come to fix it, then use the drone to kill them.” In other words: double tap kamikaze drone strikes.

“Drones also could provide ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] in finding and tracking trains to support larger actions,” with satellite imagery exploited for targeting purposes, Kallenborn added.

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U.S. Ramps Up Surveillance Amid Fears Of Iran-Backed Sleeper Cells 

President Trump stated Thursday that a potential U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear targets could occur within a two-week window. This announcement aligns with an uptick in U.S. military activity across the USNORTHCOM, USEUCOM, and USCENTCOM theaters, including airlift missions, the deployment of aerial refueling tankers, and the repositioning of naval assets—indicators consistent with pre-strike staging. While officially framed around countering Iran’s nuclear program, the operation so far suggests regime change. 

Simultaneously, in the Homeland, concerns are flourishing over the possible activation of Iran-backed operatives. According to CBS News, intelligence and law enforcement officials remain focused on Hezbollah-linked sleeper cells and IRGC proxy networks, which could be directed to carry out retaliatory actions if the U.S. initiates kinetic attacks against Iran to support Israel. 

Here’s more from CBS News, citing multiple sources… 

As President Trump is contemplating potential U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, law enforcement officials have stepped up surveillance of Iran-backed operatives in the United States, multiple sources told CBS News.

FBI Director Kash Patel has increased efforts to monitor possible domestic sleeper cells linked to Hezbollah — a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization backed by Iran — since Israel’s Operation Rising Lion offensive began earlier this month, U.S. officials said.

. . . 

The threat from Iranian operatives has worried current and former administration officials since Iranian General Qasem Soleimani was assassinated on Mr. Trump’s orders in January 2020.

CBS noted:

Late last year, federal prosecutors charged an operative of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and two U.S.-based people with plotting to surveil and assassinate critics of the Iranian regime. The IRGC operative allegedly told investigators he was pushed by unnamed IRGC officials to plan an attack against Mr. Trump.

The threat on the Homeland has never been graver given the Biden-Harris regime of globalists facilitated the greatest invasion this nation has ever seen on the southern border, with millions of unvetted migrants, criminals, cartel gangsters, and terrorists. 

In late 2024, former CIA targeting officer Sarah Adams spoke on the Shawn Ryan Show about Al-Qaeda terrorists on American soil. 

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Al-Qaeda Leader Makes Chilling Demand of Muslims in America

What is happening in Los Angeles these days is insurrection enough, but Sa’ad al-Awlaki, the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), wants much more. If he gets his way, America will be awash in blood, with the principal leaders of the Trump administration, above all the president himself, all assassinated. Al-Awlaki sees such assassinations as an Islamic religious duty, and made his case to Muslims in America, some of whom are already out on the streets in Los Angeles, on the basis of their Islamic responsibilities. Whether any will take heed remains to be seen.

In a video published on Sunday, al-Awlaki asserted that assassinating non-Muslim leaders was a form of Islamic jihad: “Anyone who can revive the tradition of assassinations and is near the leaders of apostasy – those who support the war in Gaza with money, aid, and logistics, the Jewish Arabs, like the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, and all the rulers of the Arabian Peninsula – should not hesitate even for a moment. By Allah, [assassinations] are the greatest form of jihad today.” The “Jewish Arabs” are the Muslim leaders whose countries have accords with Israel, or who have, like Saudi Arabia, been working toward a rapprochement with the Jewish state largely behind the scenes.

As for assassinating leaders, that is indeed an Islamic tradition. As “The History of Jihad” explains in detail, in the twelfth century, a Shi’ite Muslim sect, the Nizari Ismailis, came to be known as the Assassins. With their planned murders of many of their individual opponents, the Assassins gave the English language its word for one who commits planned, premeditated murder, and foreshadowed the individual jihad terror attacks of the twenty-first century. 

The word “assassin” is derived from “hashashin,” or hashish smokers, a name given to the group by its foes and based on stories about their novel method of recruiting new members. Recruits would be given hashish and taken into a garden where beautiful women awaited them. Later, when they came to their senses, they were told that they had been in paradise and that they could return there by killing Allah’s enemies and being slain in the process, thereby taking hold of Allah’s promise of paradise to those who “kill and are killed” (Qur’an 9:111). 

Today, al-Awlaki has some very specific targets in mind. He called upon observant Muslims in countries that aren’t attacking Israel, and who “fear Allah’s punishment for abandoning their brothers in Palestine,” to take matters into their own hands and “strike the Jews, the American military bases in the region, and the American aircraft carriers that are looming in the sea here.”

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Afghan National Brought to US As a ‘Refugee’ by Biden Admin Pleads Guilty to Plotting Election Day Terror Attack in Oklahoma on Behalf of ISIS

A citizen of Afghanistan has pleaded guilty to federal charges that he was planning an election day terror attack in Oklahoma City.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiring and attempting to provide material support and resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization, and receiving, attempting to receive, and conspiring to receive firearms and ammunition in furtherance of a federal crime of terrorism.

Tawhedi was brought to the United States as a “refugee” in 2021 during the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

According to a press release from the Department of Justice, court documents state that “Tawhedi admitted that between June 2024 and October 2024 he conspired with at least one other individual to purchase two AK-47 rifles, 500 rounds of ammunition, and 10 magazines, with the intent to carry out a mass-casualty attack on or around Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024, on behalf of ISIS. According to a criminal complaint affidavit filed in the case, Tawhedi communicated with an ISIS facilitator about his plan to purchase firearms for use in the terror plot, including asking the individual whether 500 rounds of ammunition would be sufficient.”

“Tawhedi and his co-conspirator, Abdullah Haji Zada, were arrested on Oct. 7, 2024, after purchasing the firearms and ammunition from an undercover FBI employee,” the press release continued. “Zada, 18, pleaded guilty in April 2025 to the firearms offense in connection with his role in the terror plot and is awaiting sentencing. Zada, who was 17 at the time of his arrest, entered his guilty plea as an adult and will be sentenced as an adult.”

Tawhedi faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for the material support charge and up to 15 years in prison for the firearms charge. Zada faces up to 15 years in federal prison.

Following any prison sentences, both conspirators “will be permanently removed from the United States and barred from reentry under stipulated judicial orders of removal to Afghanistan.”

“By pledging allegiance to ISIS and plotting an attack against innocent Americans on Election Day, this defendant endangered lives and gravely betrayed the nation that gave him refuge,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Today’s guilty plea guarantees he will be held accountable, stripped of his immigration status, and permanently removed from the United States, and shows the Justice Department has zero tolerance for those who exploit our freedoms to spread violence.”

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Kristi Noem shuts down controversial TSA watchlist program, calls for Congressional probe

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday ended an expensive and controversial watchlist program, overseen by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), that she claimed failed to “stop a single terrorist attack.”

Republicans have accused the program of targeting the Biden administration’s political opponents, including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, while caving to Democratic influence by keeping some elites off the list. 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said TSA will continue its own vetting functions, including verifying the identities of travelers through REAL ID, but that the Quiet Skies program will close.

“It is clear that the Quiet Skies program was used as a political rolodex of the Biden Administration—weaponized against its political foes and exploited to benefit their well-heeled friends,” Noem said in a statement. “The Trump Administration will return TSA to its true mission of being laser-focused on the safety and security of the traveling public. This includes restoring the integrity, privacy, and equal application of the law for all Americans.” 

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Boulder Was a Sanctuary. Now It’s a Crime Scene

The suspect in the Boulder, Colorado, terror attack wasn’t a lone wolf—though you wouldn’t know it from the gaslight-and-deflect routine of the legacy press.

He was the inevitable result of a system built to fail—and preserved in decay by design.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the Egyptian national now accused of carrying out a targeted attack that injured multiple people, was in the United States illegally. The FBI confirmed it. The Department of Homeland Security under President Trump is pursuing consequences.

But the real indictment here isn’t of one man—it’s of an entire era of lawlessness engineered by the prior administration and protected by local sanctuary policies that treat immigration enforcement not as a duty but as a sin.

Investigators say Soliman schemed for more than a year. His chosen target? A vigil for the Jewish hostages still imprisoned by Hamas—a scene of solidarity twisted into one of terror by a man consumed with hate.

Let’s be clear: Soliman should never have set foot in Boulder—or any corner of a nation governed by laws and borders.

He should never have been here. And he should never have had the chance to harm innocent Americans.

And the reason he did is because the American left spent four years dismantling border security, hollowing out interior enforcement, and suing anyone who tried to stop it.

Now, the usual voices want you to believe this was a fluke. It wasn’t. It’s precisely what happens when “enforcement priorities” become bureaucratic code for doing nothing at all.

Soliman didn’t sneak in last week. He entered during Joe Biden’s border bonanza—on a B-2 tourist visa in August 2022. That visa expired in February 2023. But Soliman remained unlawfully, filed an asylum claim, and was granted a work permit that lapsed this past March.

He was living openly in Colorado Springs with his wife and five children—all of whom are now in ICE custody and being processed for expedited removal. Homeland Security is also investigating whether any family members had prior knowledge of or gave support to the attack.

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Biden-Appointed Judge Blocks Trump From Deporting Family Of Radical Islamist Terrorist

Colorado Federal Judge Gordon Gallagher, a Biden appointee, issued an order on Wednesday blocking the Trump administration from deporting the family of radical Islamist terrorist Mohamed Soliman, who on Sunday set a dozen Jewish demonstrators on fire.

The two-page order — the latest in the string of judicial lawfare — states that the Trump administration “SHALL NOT REMOVE Hayem El Gamal and her five children from the District of Colorado or the United States unless or until this Court or the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit vacates this Order.”

The order comes hours after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “have taken the family of suspected Boulder, Colorado terrorist, and illegal alien, Mohamed Soliman, into ICE custody.”

ICE detained Soliman’s wife, Hayam Salah Alsaid Ahmed Elgamal, and his five children and processed them for removal, according to the Department of Homeland Security. All are citizens of Egypt. While Soliman is an illegal alien, the legal status of his family members is unclear.

Soliman set Jewish demonstrators on fire in Boulder, Colorado, on Sunday, injuring a dozen, including a Holocaust survivor. The demonstrators were calling for the release of the hostages being held by Hamas.

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USAID Paperwork Found in the Vehicle of Biden Illegal Alien Responsible for Boulder Terror Attack

A discovery by law enforcement officials regarding the Islamist terrorist responsible for burning several peaceful Jews alive Sunday in Boulder, Colorado, will certainly invite some interesting questions from Americans.

As Jim Hoft previously reported, a deranged man screaming anti-Jewish epithets attacked Jewish families, including children, in Boulder, Colorado, on Sunday.

The attacker was identified as Mohamad Soliman. Several children were injured in the planned attack.

Soliman came in 2022 during the Biden regime and overstayed his visa and never left.

Now, Fox News has obtained an arrest affidavit which reveals law enforcement officials found paperwork with the words “USAID” inside Soliman’s 2015 silver Toyota Prius.

They also found paperwork with the words “Israel” and “Palestine” inside the terrorist’s vehicle.

It is not clear why an illegal alien from Egypt would have USAID-related paperwork. There is no indication he was ever an employee with the agency, and any other affiliation is unknown.

This disturbing discovery came after Soliman was charged with 16 counts of attempted murder in the first degree and will face the maximum federal sentence, which is life in prison.

Soliman was also found with 14 more Molotov cocktails on his person, along with a makeshift flamethrower. Further reports say that during interviews with police, he said he wanted to “kill all Zionist people,” and “wished they were all dead.”

Additionally, he said that he would “do it again.”

Soliman is currently in jail on a $10 million bond.

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