International Crisis Group
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Fix Mali political crisis before taking on rebels: ICG | Reuters
By David Lewis
Any efforts to tackle the crisis in Mali must focus on rebuilding a central state authority before trying to recapture northern desert zones now mainly in the hands of al Qaeda-linked Islamists, the International Crisis Group said.
Photo: Emilio Labrador/Flickr
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Militant Gets 20 Years in Prison for Bali Bombing | NY Times
By Sara Schonhardt
An Indonesian court on Thursday sentenced a militant to 20 years in prison for his role in several terrorist acts, including the twin nightclub bombings on the resort island of Bali in 2002 that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners.
The militant, Umar Patek, known by the alias Little Umar, stared at his hands during the 12-hour proceeding. When the judge read the verdict, far less severe than the life sentence prosecutors had been demanding, Mr. Patek remained unmoved and silent.
He is believed to be a leading member of the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah, a radical splinter group blamed for a series of deadly terrorist attacks in Indonesia, including the blasts on Bali. Among the dead in two nightclubs were 88 Australians and 7 Americans.
Photo: Ulet Ifansasti / Getty Images
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Reuters | Tunisian Islamists join jihad against Syria’s Assad
The first that Tunisian schoolteacher Mokhtar Mars heard of his brother fighting alongside rebels in Syria was a phone call from a foreign number, telling him Houssein was dead.
“We got an anonymous call telling us he had been martyred. Just three words. We tried to call back but there was no answer,” said Mars, 40, sitting on a mattress along a wall of what was his younger brother’s room, bereft of other belongings.
“The last call we got from him in February was from Libya. He said he was there to study … Then all contact was broken. We tried to call the number he used but there was no answer.”
Houssein Mars, 34, is one of at least five Tunisians, all from the southeastern town of Ben Guerdane on the border with Libya, who are believed to have been killed in Syria. Two of their families agreed to be interviewed, as did the family of a sixth man, from the same town, whose fate is not known.
The families either received calls from their sons in Syria or calls from strangers telling them their sons were dead.
Though the families have seen no corpses or proof of the deaths, a video carrying the black flag of al Qaeda has appeared on Facebook eulogising the five men to a backdrop of Koranic verses and stating they had been killed in Homs, which has seen some of the worst bombardment by Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
Photo: Freedom House/Wikimedia Commons
