'Ordinary white man'? Picture of New Zealand accused gunman emerges

A one-time gym trainer from rural Australia who became steeped in neo-fascist ideology during travels in Europe, Brenton Tarrant described himself as an "ordinary white man" -- until he became anything but ordinary.

The gunman behind the massacre of 49 people in two New Zealand mosques flashed a white power sign during a brief court appearance Saturday, but he was not on any terrorist watch-list and appeared to have no criminal history.

Tarrant, 28, grew up in the small town of Grafton in northern New South Wales, where he graduated high school before earning some fitness qualifications and going on to find work at a local gym in 2009.

The gym's owner, Tracey Gray, described him as a hard-working trainer but said he appeared to have been changed by his travels in Europe and Asia -- which social media posts suggested included trips as far afield as Pakistan and North Korea.

"I think something must have changed in him during the years he spent travelling overseas," Gray told national broadcaster ABC. 

"Somewhere along the lines, experiences or a group have got a hold of him," she said.

Gray's speculation was backed up by a rambling, hate-filled, manifesto Tarrant posted to social media ahead of the Christchurch killings.

In the 74-page screed, he says he first began considering an attack in April and May of 2017 while travelling in France and elsewhere in Western Europe.

He mentions being shocked at the "invasion" of French cities by immigrants and his "despair" at the French presidential vote that year which saw pro-European centrist Emmanuel Macron defeat his far-right opponent Marine Le Pen.

In a brief biographical sketch included in his manifesto, Tarrant describes himself as "just a ordinary white man... born in Australia to a working class, low income family".

His childhood was "regular" and, he insisted, issue-free. He "barely" achieved a passing grade in school and had no interest in pursuing higher education.

According to media reports, his father died of cancer in 2010 and gym owner Gray said she believed he had a mother and sister still living in Grafton.

Tarrant left the gym in 2011 and his travels, he says, were funded by money he made investing in Bitconnect -- an open source cryptocurrency that collapsed in early 2018 amid charges it was a glorified Ponzi scheme.

Two modified semi-automatic weapons -- reportedly AR-15s -- two shotguns and a lever-action gun were used in Friday's deadly rampage, and photos of the weaponry with distinctive writing on them were posted on social media days before.

Scrawled in English and several Eastern European languages were the names of numerous historical military figures -- many of them Europeans involved in fighting the Ottoman forces in the 15th and 16th centuries. A few took part in the Crusades, centuries earlier.

Ankara on Friday said it was investigating Tarrant's multiple visits to Turkey, and who he might have met while he was there.

The Bulgarian government has also said it was looking into Tarrant, who apparently visited the country late last year, as well as having earlier travelled to other parts of the Balkans -- including Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Tarrant's manifesto said he took "inspiration" from other right-wing extremists including racist Norwegian killer Anders Behring Breivik, who murdered 77 people in Norway in 2011 motivated by his hatred of multiculturalism.

Tarrant described Oswald Mosley, a notorious British fascist leader and anti-Semite from the 1930s, as "the person from history closest to my own beliefs".

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Extremist appears in court charged with New Zealand mosque attack

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand - A right-wing extremist who filmed himself rampaging through two mosques in the quiet New Zealand city of Christchurch killing 49 worshippers appeared in court on a murder charge Saturday.

Australian-born 28-year-old Brenton Tarrant appeared in the dock wearing handcuffs and a white prison shirt, sitting impassively as the judge read a single murder charge against him. A raft of further charges are expected.

The former fitness instructor and self-professed fascist occasionally turned to look at media present in court during the brief hearing that was held behind closed doors for security reasons.

He did not request bail and was taken into custody until his next court appearance scheduled for April 5.

Forty-two people are still being treated in hospital for injuries, including a four year old child, after an attack thought to be the deadliest directed against Muslims in the West in modern times.

Outside the court, guarded by heavily armed police in body armor, the sons of 71-year-old Afghan man Daoud Nabi demanded justice. 

"It's outrageous, the feeling is outrageous," he said. "It's beyond imagination."

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Saturday the victims were from across the Muslim world, with Turkey, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia among the countries rendering consular assistance. 

One Saudi citizen was killed and another wounded, according to Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television news channel.

At least two Jordanians were among the dead, according to that country's foreign minister, while Pakistan foreign ministry spokesman Mohammed Faisal said five citizens of his country were missing.

Ardern described the spree killing as a terrorist attack and said the shooter -- who was not on any watchlist and did not have a criminal record -- had legally purchased the two semi-automatic weapons, two shotguns and lever-action gun he used.

"The offender was in possession of a gun license" obtained in November 2017, and he started purchasing the weapons the following month, she said.

"While work is being done as to the chain of events that led to both the holding of this gun licence, and the possession of these weapons, I can tell you one thing right now -- our gun laws will change," she vowed.

The suspect documented his radicalization and two years of preparations in a lengthy, meandering and conspiracy filled far-right "manifesto".

He live-streamed footage of himself going room-to-room, victim to victim, shooting the wounded from close range as they struggled to crawl away in the main Christchurch mosque.

Two other people remain in custody, although their link to the attack is unknown. A third person who was earlier arrested was said to be a member of the public with a firearm who was trying to help.

Two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were found in a car and neutralized by the military, while police raided a home in Dunedin, where Ardern said the suspect was based.

- 'HORRIBLE MASSACRE' –

Tributes to the victims poured in from around the world.

US President Donald Trump condemned the "horrible massacre" in which "innocent people have so senselessly died", but denied that the problem of right-wing extremism was widespread. 

Speaking in Sydney, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison described the gunman as "an extremist, right-wing, violent terrorist".

The shooter's two targets were the Masjid al Noor mosque, where 41 people were killed, and a second, smaller mosque in the suburb of Linwood, where seven more died. The remaining victim succumbed in hospital. 

The dead were said to include women and children. 

The survivors included 17 members of Bangladesh's cricket team, whose game against New Zealand on Saturday has been postponed, and a Palestinian man who fled for his life after seeing someone being shot in the head.

"I heard three quick shots, then after about 10 seconds it started again," said the man, who did not wish to be named.

"Then people started running out. Some were covered in blood," he told AFP.

New Zealand police described the footage shot by the gunman -- which AFP has verified, but is not distributing -- as "extremely distressing" and warned web users that they could be liable for up to 10 years in jail for sharing such "objectionable content".

The attack has shocked New Zealanders, who are used to seeing around 50 murders a year in the entire country of 4.8 million and pride themselves on living in a secure and welcoming place.

Police warned Muslims across the country not to visit mosques "anywhere in New Zealand" in the wake of the Christchurch attacks. Friday is Islam's holy day.

- 'BODIES ALL OVER' –

The attack shocked the local Muslim population, many of whom had come to New Zealand as refugees.

One witness told news website Stuff he was praying when he heard shooting -- and then saw his wife lying dead on the footpath outside when he fled.

Another man said he saw children being shot.

"There were bodies all over," he said.

Mass shootings are very rare in New Zealand, which tightened its gun laws to restrict access to semi-automatic rifles in 1992, two years after a mentally ill man shot dead 13 people in the South Island town of Aramoana.

However, anyone over 16 can apply for a standard firearms license after doing a safety course and police check.

Christchurch, a relatively small city on New Zealand's south island, hit global headlines in 2011 when it was struck by a deadly earthquake, killing more than 180 people.

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19 killed in Crimea attack

People lay flowers in downtown Simferopol on Wednesday evening, after nineteen people were killed and dozens more wounded, most of them teenagers, after a student opened fire today in a technical college in the Russian-annexed Crimea city of Kerch. 

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No Filipino casualty in Belgium shooting, DFA says

MANILA - The Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday said no Filipino was hurt in a suspected terror attack in Belgium, as it sympathized with the European nation over the incident.

Earlier in the day, a gunman shot dead 2 police officersbefore killing a bystander in the Belgian city of Liège, about 100 kilometers south of the capital, Brussels.

"We condole with the Government of Belgium and the Belgian people and stand in solidarity with them," Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said in a statement.

The Philippine Embassy in Brussels reported no Filipinos were among the casualties in the carnage. About 100 Filipinos live in Liège, it said.

A terrorist investigation was launched into the incident, which came as Belgium was on high alert after a string of attacks including twin suicide bombings in Brussels in 2016 claimed by the Islamic State group.

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2 dead in Paris knife attack, including knifeman

PARIS - A knifeman shouting "Allahu akbar" was shot dead by police in central Paris late Saturday after he killed one person and injured four, prompting a terror probe.

The attack took place near the city's main opera house in an area full of bars, restaurants and theatres which were brimming on a weekend night.

French President Emmanuel Macron said: "France once again pays the price of blood."

Prosecutors cited witnesses as saying the man shouted "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) as he went on the rampage, and added that a terror investigation had been launched. 

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility, according to the SITE monitoring group.

"The executor of the stabbing operation in the city of Paris is a soldier of the Islamic State and the operation was carried out in response to the calls to target the coalition states," a "security source" told IS's official Amaq news agency, according to SITE.

The man attacked five people with a knife, one of whom died, police said. Two were in serious condition and all the victims are in hospital. 

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb hailed in a tweet the "sang-froid and reaction of the police who neutralised the attacker."

A large area was cordoned off where police, fire and rescue vehicles converged. 

Shocked tourists and residents looked on from behind the security perimeter.

"I was on the cafe terrace, I heard three, four shots, it happened very fast," said 47-year-old Gloria.

"Then the bartenders told us to come inside very quickly. Then I went out to see what was going on, and then I saw a man on the ground," she added.

France has suffered a series of major Islamist attacks over the past three years, including the massacre at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, the November 2015 attacks that killed 130 in Paris, and the 2016 Bastille Day truck attack in Nice.

A state of emergency put in place just after the 2015 Paris attacks was lifted in October when Macron's centrist government passed a new law boosting the powers of security forces.

Thousands of French troops remain on the streets under an anti-terror operation known as Sentinelle, patrolling transport hubs, tourist hotspots and other sensitive sites.

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Egypt mourns 305 victims of Sinai mosque attack

Egypt mourned on Saturday as the death toll from a gun and bomb assault at a mosque rose to 305, including children, in the deadliest attack the country has witnessed.

The state prosecution said up to 30 militants in camouflage flying the Islamic State (IS) group's black banner had surrounded the mosque in North Sinai and proceeded to massacre the worshippers during weekly Friday prayers.

Twenty-seven children were among the dead, it said.

IS, which is conducting a deadly insurgency in the Sinai, has not claimed responsibility for the attack, but it is the main suspect as the mosque is associated with followers of the mystical Sufi branch of Sunni Islam whom it has branded heretics.

Funerals for the victims were held overnight and many were buried unwashed in their bloodied clothes, according to the Islamic burial practices for martyrs, security and medical officials said.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi declared three days of mourning and vowed to "respond with brutal force" to the attack, among the deadliest in the world since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

"The army and police will avenge our martyrs and return security and stability with force in the coming short period," he said in a televised speech.

Hours later Egyptian air force jets pursued the "terrorists and discovered several vehicles used in the terrorist attack, killing those inside near the vicinity of the attack," an army spokesman said in a statement.

The state prosecutor's office said in a statement that 305 people were killed and 128 wounded in the assault on the mosque roughly 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of the North Sinai capital of El-Arish.

It said the attackers, with long beards and hair often seen on jihadists, had arrived in five all-terrain vehicles to surround the mosque.

Witnesses said they heard gun shots and explosions before the assailants entered the mosque, according to the prosecution.

One of the wounded, Magdy Rizk, told AFP assailants wore masks and military uniforms, and that extremists had previously threatened people in the area.

Relatives visited victims in hospital in the city of Ismailia near the Suez Canal where the wounded were taken for treatment, an AFP photographer reported.

World leaders voiced outrage. US President Donald Trump denounced on Twitter the "horrible and cowardly terrorist attack on innocent and defenceless worshippers".

Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Cairo's Al-Azhar, Egypt's highest institution of Sunni Islam, condemned "in the strongest terms this barbaric terrorist attack".


- IS targeting of Sufis -


The Egypt branch of IS has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers, and also civilians accused of working with the authorities, in attacks in the north of the Sinai peninsula.

They have also targeted Sufis as well as Christians.

A tribal leader and head of a Bedouin militia that fights IS told AFP that the mosque is known as a place where Sufis gather.

IS views Sufis as heretics for seeking the intercession of saints.

The group has also killed more than 100 Christians in church bombings and shootings in Sinai and other parts of Egypt, forcing many to flee the peninsula.

The military has struggled to quell the jihadists who pledged allegiance to IS in November 2014.

The jihadists have since increasingly turned to civilian targets, attacking not only Christians and Sufis but also Bedouin Sinai inhabitants accused of working with the army.

The group also claimed the bombing of a Russian plane that killed all 224 people on board after takeoff from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on October 31, 2015.

Aside from IS, Egypt also faces a threat from Al-Qaeda-aligned jihadists who operate out of neighbouring Libya.

A group calling itself Ansar al-Islam -- Supporters of Islam in Arabic -- claimed an October ambush in Egypt's Western Desert that killed at least 16 policemen.

The military later conducted air strikes on the attackers, killing their leader.

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New York rail operator bolsters security after London bombing

NEW YORK - The bombing of a packed London commuter train on Friday prompted officials to beef up security on New York City's subway system, major commuter rail networks, at airports and other locations.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates mass-transit lines in New York City and the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North commuter lines, said it was closely monitoring the investigation of the fiery blast that injured 29 people in a West London underground station.

The MTA will expand bag screening and deploy extra police patrols on the LIRR and Metro-North, as well as in midtown Manhattan's Grand Central Terminal and Pennsylvania Station, "out of an abundance of caution," spokesman Kevin Ortiz said.

MTA officials were also consulting with New York City police about bolstering security in the subway system, he said.

New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement he had also directed authorities to increase security at airports, bridges, tunnels and other sensitive locations across the state.

"On behalf of all New Yorkers, I condemn the apparent terrorist attack in London today in the strongest possible terms," Cuomo added.

The NYPD said it has been in contact with London law enforcement officials and has added officers, some heavily armed, and bomb-sniffing dogs to the city's transit system.

Across the country, Los Angeles police said in a statement they had beefed up their presence on subway, commuter train and bus lines in response to the attack in London.

Amtrak, the country's nationwide passenger rail carrier, said it was closely following the events in London but was not adding to the layers of security it already has in place.

"Robust security measures are in place at stations, on trains and along the tracks, and partnerships with federal agencies to gather intelligence information are underway," Amtrak said in a statement.

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ISIS claims responsibility for Barcelona van attack that left several dead

BARCELONA -- A van ploughed into crowds in the heart of Barcelona on Thursday and Spanish media reported at least 13 people were killed.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, the group's Amaq news agency said.

"The perpetrators of the Barcelona attack are soldiers of the Islamic State and carried out the operation in response to calls for targeting coalition states," the agency said, referring to a United States-led coalition against the Sunni militant group.

Regional authorities said one death had been confirmed so far, with 32 injured, 10 seriously. But radio station Cadena Ser cited police sources as saying the death toll was much higher.

According to a report by Agence France-Presse quoting a regional minister, 13 were dead and 50 were hurt.

Police said they said were searching for the driver of the van who, according to local media, fled the scene on foot.

Spanish newspaper El Periodico said two armed men were holed up in a bar in Barcelona's city center, and reported gunfire in the area, though it did not cite the source of the information.

It was not immediately clear whether the incidents were connected.

A source familiar with the initial US government assessment said the incident appeared to be terrorism, and a White House spokeswoman said President Donald Trump was being kept abreast of the situation.
Trump said the US stood ready to help Spanish authorities after what he called a "terror attack" in Barcelona.

Media reports said the van had zigzagged at speed down the famous Las Ramblas avenue, a magnet for tourists.

"I heard screams and a bit of a crash and then I just saw the crowd parting and this van going full pelt down the middle of the Ramblas and I immediately knew that it was a terrorist attack or something like that," eyewitness Tom Gueller told the BBC.

"It wasn't slowing down at all. It was just going straight through the middle of the crowds in the middle of the Ramblas."

Mobile phone footage posted on Twitter showed several bodies strewn along the Ramblas, some motionless. Paramedics and bystanders bent over them, treating them and trying to comfort those still conscious.

Around them, the boulevard was deserted, covered in rubbish and abandoned objects including hats, flip-flops, bags and a pram.

"We saw a white van collide with people. We saw people going flying because of the collision, we also saw three cyclists go flying," Ellen Vercamm, on holiday in Barcelona, told El Pais newspaper.


TOURIST DRAW

Emergency services said people should not go to the area around Barcelona's Placa Catalunya, one of the city's main squares at the top of the Ramblas, and requested the closure of nearby train and metro stations.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he was in contact with authorities, and the priority was to attend to the injured.

The incident took place at the height of the tourist season in Barcelona, which is one of Europe's top travel destinations with at least 11 million visitors a year.

Vehicles have been used to ram into crowds in a series of militant attacks across Europe since July 2016, killing well over 100 people in Nice, Berlin, London and Stockholm.

Witness Ethan Spibey told Britain's Sky News: "All of sudden it was real chaos. People just started running screaming, there were loud bangs. People just started running into shops, there was a kind of mini-stampede where we were, down one of the alleyways."

He said he had taken refuge with dozens of other people in a nearby church.

"They've locked the doors because I'm not sure whether the person who may have done it has actually been caught, so they've locked the doors and told people just to wait in here."

Authorities in Vic, a small town outside Barcelona, said a van had been found there in connection with the attack. Spanish media had earlier reported that a second van had been hired as a getaway vehicle.

Barcelona is the capital of the wealthy northeastern region of Catalonia, which plans to hold a popular vote on Oct. 1 on whether it should secede from Spain. It is in dispute with the central government, which says the vote cannot go ahead because it is unconstitutional.

If Spanish media reports of at least 13 killed are confirmed, it would be the deadliest in Spain since March 2004, when Islamist militants placed bombs on commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people and wounding more than 1,800. (Reporting by Madrid newsroom, writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Alison Williams and Nick Tattersall) -- With a report from Agence France-Presse

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Music stars unite in Manchester as fans face down fears

Cheers drowned out tears in Manchester on Sunday as Ariana Grande was joined by fellow music stars for a charity concert where fans vowed to face down fears of terrorism after two deadly attacks in Britain.

"Let the world hear your resilience," Pharrell Williams told a sell-out crowd of 50,000 who had gathered to remember victims of a May 22 suicide bomb attack on Grande's concert in the city.

The hastily-organised "One Love Manchester" event became one of the biggest single gatherings of musical talent this year, as stars lined-up for the concert dedicated to the 22 people killed and 116 injured, many of them children.

Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Robbie Williams, Take That, Liam Gallagher, and Little Mix were among those who hit the stage, as fans held "We stand together" and "For our angels" signs.

Mumford & Sons frontman Marcus Mumford opened the show after the crowd fell silent for a minute.

Less than 24 hours before the concert got underway, Britain was rocked by another terrorist attack, in central London, in which seven people were killed and 48 injured.

Grande tweeted "Praying for London" while her manager Scooter Braun said the concert would go ahead "with greater purpose".

DANCING POLICE OFFICERS

Fans flocked to the Old Trafford cricket ground for the show, many of them with tears rolling down their cheeks during the performances.

In one heartfelt moment, Grande was joined on stage by children from a local school, some of whom were at the targeted Manchester Arena concert, as the group performed her hit song "My Everything".

Grande and Coldplay's Chris Martin performed "Don't look back in anger", the track by Manchester Britpop band Oasis which crowds sang during vigils in the days following the bombing.

Additional security measures were put in place for the concert, with police warning that everyone would be searched.

But there was also a jovial atmosphere, as police officers and security guards danced with music fans.

Revelers dressed for the occasion, with many wearing tops featuring a bee -- a symbol for Manchester -- and slogans expressing their love for the city.

"We're here to show our support to Manchester more than anything. These people aren't going to dampen our spirits," said 34-year-old Abdullah Mala.

His eight-year-old daughter Hannah had left the Grande concert just before the deadly bombing and said she was "happy to be back" to see some of pop's biggest names.

'OVERCOME THE FEAR'

Proceeds from the concert will be donated to a fund set up to help the victims' families.

Rachel Jea, 32, said she was at Grande's previous Manchester concert and felt it was important to attend Sunday's show to regain trust after the bombing.

"Our grandparents went through world wars so that we could live in freedom and now it's starting again. It just shouldn't be like this," she told AFP.

Her nine-year-old daughter Scarlet adopted a defiant tone, telling others not to be afraid. "We need to try and find a way to overcome the fear. I'm really happy to come tonight, it is good for Ariana, it wasn't her fault what happened."

Grande, who described herself as "broken" following the May 22 bombing, had immediately returned to the US, interrupting her Dangerous Woman world tour and later promising to return for the charity concert.

On Friday the 23-year-old singer made a surprise visit to injured fans being treated at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital.

Sunday's concert was held on the eve of the first funeral of Manchester attack victims.

The coffin of Eilidh MacLeod, a 14-year-old victim of the bombing, was flown to the Scottish island of Barra and carried across a beach by mourners on Sunday ahead of the funeral.

UNSCRUPULOUS APPLICATIONS'

Those who had attended Grande's May 22 concert were offered free tickets to the Sunday show, while the 35,000 tickets put up for sale on Thursday at £40 each ($51, 46 euros) sold out in minutes.

"Over 10,000 unscrupulous applications", however, were made for free tickets, Ticketmaster said, with people applying despite not having attended the original concert.

Others tried to resell their tickets on eBay for £1,200. The online auction platform has since then pledged to immediately remove any item "which profits in any way from the tragedy in Manchester".

The BBC, Twitter, Apple, YouTube and MTV streamed the concert live, making it available to viewers in 180 countries.

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Snipers make rescue of trapped civilians, wounded soldiers difficult

MARAWI, Lanao del Sur - Snipers of the Maute group were making it difficult for government forces from rescuing wounded soldiers and trapped civilians in this southern city on Sunday, as fighting between state forces and local terrorists entered the sixth day. 

Authorities said around 17 non-combatants were reportedly stranded in a building in the downtown area after they sought shelter from the government's surgical airstrikes against the extremists.

 The building's fourth and fifth floors reportedly collapsed due to the airstrikes, trapping the civilians on the second floor.

ABS-CBN sources, meanwhile, said several wounded soldiers were also trapped in the city center.

Soldiers and elite policemen from the Special Action Forces have made several attempts to rescue their injured comrades and the civilians.

Snipers, however, have opened fire at the state troops, forcing them to retreat.

VIOLENCE MARS RAMADAN 

The military on Saturday said it will sustain the airstrikes to flush out Maute fighters. 

The offensives have damaged or destroyed at least 4 houses, including the residence of Lanao del Sur Rep. Jun Papandayan. 

The fighting has also made it difficult for Marawi residents to observe Ramadan, the holiest month in Islam, as many continued fleeing to safer ground or grappled with difficult conditions in evacuation centers. 

At least 31 suspected terrorists have been killed in clashes since Tuesday, 6 of whom may be fighters from Malaysia and Indonesia, Armed Forces spokesperson Restituto Padilla earlier said.

The government side, meanwhile, has suffered 13 deaths, 11 soldiers and two policemen. There has yet to be a confirmed count on civilian deaths, but nine people were found slain allegedly by the Maute group on Tuesday.

The pandemonium in Marawi erupted last Tuesday after a failed attempt to arrest Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon, the suspected leader of the Islamic State terror group in Southeast Asia. -- report from Ron Gagalac, ABS-CBN News

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Germany shuts down shopping mall over attack threat

ESSEN, Germany - German police sealed off a major shopping center in the central city of Essen on Saturday, citing the threat of a terror attack, with media reports suggesting a link to the Islamic State group.

The country is on high alert following scenes of carnage at a Christmas market in Berlin in December, when an IS jihadist rammed a truck into a crowd of pedestrians, killing 12 people.

The German domestic security agency BfV believes the IS group was "almost definitely" behind the threat, local media reported.

According to the Bild daily, IS called for an attack and got a message to Syrian supporters in the Essen region to attack a shopping centre on Saturday.

Security services quoted by Bild described the threat as a potential multiple suicide bombing at the mall, one of the biggest in the country.

"The shopping center will be closed all Saturday due to security concerns. The police have concrete information regarding a possible attack," local police said in a statement published on social media.

Local car parks and the underground train station were also closed.

Though there was no announcement of arms or explosives being found, police said two men had been picked up for questioning.

Both men were arrested in the town of Oberhausen near Essen but later police said in a statement that the pair "are not suspects" in the case.

- 'Major operation' -

"Many agents are deployed onsite. This is a major operation," a local police spokesman told AFP, indicating the lockdown included the 200-store Limbecker Platz in downtown Essen, nearby parking garages and an underground rail station.

Sniffer dogs were also been deployed at the site.

Essen, which is in the industrial Ruhr region, has a population of approximately 500,000.

The police said they had been alerted to the threat by "another department" but no German agency has confirmed if it was involved.

Interior ministry spokesman Tobias Plate told AFP that the operation was being handled by the local police force but added that his ministry was in "constant touch" with the GTAZ, a joint counter-terrorism center used by 40 internal security agencies.

German authorities have been on alert since the deadly Christmas market attack in Berlin.

A Tunisian failed asylum seeker, Anis Amri, rammed a hijacked truck into the crowded market on December 19, before being shot dead four days later by police in Italy.

Last July, a German-Iranian teenager who police say was obsessed with mass murderers, shot dead nine people at a Munich shopping mall before turning the gun on himself.

Fears of another attack rose on Thursday when a 36-year-old paranoid-schizophrenic man from Kosovo rampaged through Duesseldorf railway station with an ax, wounding nine people. Police have ruled out a terrorist motive for that attack.

Domestic security officials estimate there are some 10,000 radical Islamists in Germany, with roughly 1,600 among them suspected of being capable of violence.

IS has claimed responsibility for attacks in Germany in the past year, including the murder of a teen in Hamburg, a suicide bombing in Ansbach and an ax rampage on a train in Wuerzberg that injured five.

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Islamic State kills 24 with Baghdad car bomb, attack police stations in Samarra

BAGHDAD/TIKRIT, Iraq - An Islamic State car bomb killed 24 people in Baghdad's Sadr City district on Monday and the militants also attacked two police stations in the city of Samarra as Iraqi forces fought to oust the group from Mosul, its last major stronghold in Iraq.

At least four other attacks across Baghdad, some also claimed by Islamic State, killed nine more people earlier in the day, bringing the total death toll from bombings in the capital over the past three days to more than 60.

In the attacks in Samarra, about 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, security sources said multiple gunmen wearing suicide vests took over two police stations, killing at least seven policemen.

The mayor of Samarra, Mahmoud Khalaf, said security forces had regained control, killing at least six assailants, but declined to comment on the number of casualties on the government side.

The pro-Islamic State news agency Amaq said the militants had executed some policemen.

The upsurge in violence comes as U.S-backed Iraqi forces try to drive Islamic State from the northern city of Mosul, where the militants are putting up fierce resistance.

Islamic State has lost most of the territory it seized in a blitz across northern and western Iraq in 2014 and ceding Mosul would probably spell the end of its self-styled caliphate. But it would still be capable of waging a guerrilla-style insurgency in Iraq and plotting or inspiring attacks on the West.

"The terrorists will attempt to attack civilians in order to make up for their losses, but we assure the Iraqi people and the world that we are able to end terrorism and shorten its life," Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said after talks with visiting French President Francois Hollande.

REVENGE

Islamic State said Monday's attacks in Baghdad were revenge for "the repeated targeting of health institutions in Nineveh province" by the U.S.-led coalition backing Iraqi forces.

That was an apparent reference to two air strikes last month on hospitals in eastern Mosul, one where Iraqi forces were under attack and another which the U.S. military said had targeted militants sitting in a van. At least one of the strikes may have caused civilian casualties.

After Monday's attacks U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirkby reaffirmed Washington's commitment to support Iraq.

"These vicious acts of mass murder are a sobering reminder of the need to continue coalition operations against Daesh and to eliminate the threat this terrorist group poses," he said, using the Arabic name for the group.

Monday's blast in Sadr City hit a busy square where day laborers typically gather. Islamic State said in an online statement it had targeted Shi'ite Muslims, whom it considers apostates. Sixty-seven people were wounded in the blast.

Nine of the victims were women in a passing minibus, whose charred bodies were visible inside the burnt-out remains of the vehicle. Blood stained the ground nearby.

A parked car bomb targeting a Sunni religious figure near a mosque in western Baghdad killed five people, and another blast close to a hospital in the center killed one civilian and wounded nine, police and medical sources said.

In the southeastern Zaafraniya district, two more people were killed and seven wounded when a car bomb exploded. A bomb affixed to a vehicle in the eastern area of Baladiyat killed one person and wounded four.

A British soldier serving in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State was killed, the defense ministry in London said in a statement, adding that it was "not as a result of enemy activity". The statement gave no details of the incident.

MOSUL

Since the drive to recapture Mosul began on Oct. 17, elite forces have retaken a quarter of the city in the biggest ground operation in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Abadi has said the group will be driven out of the country by April.

Clashes continued in and around Mosul on Monday. The counter-terrorism service (CTS) blew up several Islamic State car bombs before they reached their targets, and linked up with the Rapid Response forces, an elite Interior Ministry unit, said spokesman Sabah al-Numani.

CTS was also clearing North Karama district of remaining militants, the fourth area the unit has retaken in Mosul during the past week, he said.

Islamic State targeted military positions away from the main battlefield, killing at least 16 pro-government fighters and cutting a strategic road linking Mosul to Baghdad, although authorities later said they had regained control of it.

(Additional reproting by Ahmed Rasheed and Saif Hameed in Baghdad, Isabel Coles in Erbil and Mostafa Hashem in Cairo; Writing by Stephen Kalin; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Gareth Jones)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Istanbul nightclub attack kills 39 in New Year carnage

Thirty-nine people, including many foreigners, were killed when a gunman reportedly dressed as Santa Claus stormed an Istanbul nightclub as revelers were celebrating the New Year, the latest carnage to rock Turkey after a bloody 2016.

The assailant shot dead a policeman and a civilian at the entrance to the Reina club, one of the city's most exclusive nightspots, and then went on a shooting rampage inside, Turkish officials said.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said the attacker escaped and was now the target of a major manhunt, expressing hope the suspect "would be captured soon".

Soylu said in televised comments that of 21 victims who have been identified so far, 16 are foreigners and five are Turks. Another 69 people are being treated in hospital.

"The attacker -- in the most brutal and merciless way -- targeted innocent people who had only come here to celebrate the New Year and have fun," Istanbul governor Vasip Sahin said at the scene on the shores of the Bosphorus.

Many revellers threw themselves into the water in panic and efforts were under way to rescue them, NTV television said.

Dogan news agency said there were two gunmen dressed in Santa Claus outfits, although this has yet to be confirmed.

Television pictures showed party-goers -- including men in suits and women in cocktail dresses -- emerging from the nightclub in a state of shock.

Sahin said the attack began at 1:15 am Sunday (2215 GMT), just after hundreds of revellers had seen in 2017 at the club in the Ortakoy district on the European side of the city.

"What happened today is a terror attack," he said.

Dogan reported that some witnesses claimed the assailants were "speaking Arabic" while NTV said special force police officers were still searching the club.

There has been no claim of responsibility.

The attack evoked memories of the November 2015 carnage in Paris when Islamic State jihadists went on a gun and bombing rampage on nightspots in the French capital, killing 130 people including 90 at the Bataclan concert hall.

- 'Walking on top of people' -

From Sydney to Paris, Rio to London, security had been boosted over fears that the New Year festivities could present a target for violent extremists.

In Istanbul, at least 17,000 police officers were deployed and some, as is customary in Turkey, dressed themselves as Santa Claus as cover, according to television reports.

"Just as we were settling down, by the door there was a lot of dust and smoke. Gunshots rang out. When those sounds were heard, many girls fainted," professional footballer Sefa Boydas told AFP.

"They say 35 to 40 died but it's probably more because when I was walking, people were walking on top of people."

Dogan said there were at least 700 revellers at the elite club, where getting past the bouncers who seek out only the best dressed is notoriously hard.

Turkey has been hit by a wave of attacks blamed on Kurdish militants and IS jihadists and 2016 saw more attacks than any other year in the history of the country.

On December 10, 44 people were killed in a double bombing in Istanbul after a football match hosted by top side Besiktas, an attack claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) seen as a radical offshoot of the outlawed PKK rebel group.

In June, 47 people were killed in a triple suicide bombing and gun attack at Istanbul's Ataturk airport, with authorities blaming IS.

And in one of the most brazen strikes, an off-duty policeman assassinated Russia's ambassador to Turkey in an Ankara art gallery less than two weeks ago.

- 'Tragic start to 2017' -

"No terror attack will destroy our unity, or eradicate our fraternity or weaken Turkey's effective fight against terror," Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag wrote on Twitter.

Mainly Muslin Turkey's religious affairs agency Diyanet condemned the attack, saying the fact it took place in a nightclub "was no different to it being in a market or place of worship".

Turkey is still reeling from a failed July coup blamed by the government on the US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen that has been followed by a relentless purge of his alleged supporters from state institutions.

"Tragic start to 2017 in Istanbul," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter.

The White House condemned the "savagery" of the attack, with National Security Council spokesman Ned Price saying that Washington reaffirmed its support for its NATO ally "in our shared determination to confront and defeat all forms of terrorism".

The US embassy warned citizens that extremist groups are continuing "aggressive efforts to conduct attacks in areas where US citizens and expatriates reside or frequent."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is in Istanbul for the New Year, had been informed of the attack, local media said.

The shooting spree came as the Turkish army wages a four-month incursion in Syria to oust IS jihadists and Kurdish militants from the border area, suffering increasing casualties.

As is customary after such attacks in Turkey, the authorities slapped a broadcast ban on images from the incident.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Truck plows into crowd at Berlin Christmas market, 12 dead

* 45 injured brought to hospitals, police say

* Interior minister says a lot points to an attack

* Suspected truck driver is arrested after fleeing scene

* Incident evokes memories of truck attack in Nice, France

BERLIN - A truck plowed into a crowded Christmas market in central Berlin on Monday evening, killing 12 people and injuring 48 others in what Germany's interior minister said looked like an attack.

Police said on Twitter that they had taken one suspect into custody and that another passenger from the truck had died as it crashed into people gathered around wooden huts serving mulled wine and sausages at the foot of the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church in the heart of former West Berlin.

The nationality of the suspected driver, who fled the crash scene and was later arrested, was unclear, police said.

German media cited local security sources as saying that there was evidence suggesting the arrested suspect was from Afghanistan or Pakistan and entered Germany in February as a refugee.

"We heard a loud bang," Emma Rushton, a tourist, told CNN. "We started to see the top of an articulated truck, a lorry ... just crashing through the stalls, through people."

Rushton said the truck seemed to be travelling at about 40 mph (65 kph).

Police later said that 48 injured people were brought to Berlin hospitals.

Pictures from the scene showed Christmas decorations protruding from the smashed windscreen of the black truck. In the aftermath, it was resting lopsided on the pavement with a mangled Christmas tree beneath its wheels.

Berlin police said on Twitter they were investigating leads that the truck had been stolen from a construction site in Poland.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the circumstances of the crash were still unclear, adding: "I don't want to use the word 'attack' yet although a lot points to that."

The incident evoked memories of an attack in Nice, France in July when a Tunisian-born man drove a 19-tonne truck along the beach front, mowing down people who had gathered to watch the fireworks on Bastille Day, killing 86 people. That attack was claimed by Islamic State.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump condemned what he called an attack, linking it to "Islamist terrorists" before German police officials had said who was responsible.

The White House on Monday condemned what it called "what appears to have been a terrorist attack".

Germany has not in recent years suffered a large-scale attack from Islamist militants like those seen in neighbouring Belgium and France.

But it was shaken by two smaller attacks in Bavaria over the summer, one on a train near Wuerzburg and another at a music festival in Ansbach that wounded 20 people. Both were claimed by Islamic State.

And government officials have said the country, which accepted nearly 900,000 migrants last year, many from the war-torn Middle East, lies in the "crosshairs of terrorism."

In mid-October, police arrested a Syrian refugee suspected of planning a bomb attack on an airport in Berlin. The 22-year-old man committed suicide in prison shortly after his arrest.

PEOPLE URGED TO STAY AWAY

A government spokesman said Chancellor Angela Merkel was briefed on the situation by de Maiziere and the Berlin mayor. Police said there were no indications of further dangerous situations in the area and urged people to stay away from the scene.

"I'm deeply shaken about the horrible news of what occurred at the memorial church in Berlin," Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.

The truck veered into the market around 8 p.m., normally a crowded time when adults and children would be gathering in the traditional cluster of wooden huts that sell food and Christmas goods in an annual celebration replicated across Germany and much of Central Europe.

Ariel Zurawski, whose Polish freight company owns the truck, said the driver of the truck did not work for him.

"It wasn't my driver," Zurawski told Polish private broadcaster TVN 24. "I vouch for him. He's my cousin."

The incident took place near a famous Berlin landmark - the Gedaechtniskirche or memorial church built in 1891-95, which was left a ruin with a jagged tower after it was damaged in World War Two bombing raids as a monument to peace and reconciliation.

Police cars and ambulances converged quickly on the scene. (Reporting by Michael Nienaber and Paul Carrel,; Additional reporting by Jakub Iglewski in Warsaw and by Roberta Rampton in Washington; Writing by Robin Pomeroy and Ralph Boulton; Editing by Mary Milliken and Cynthia Osterman)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Several killed in terror attack in Jordan's popular castle

AMMAN, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Jordanian security forces said they killed four "terrorist outlaws" after flushing them out of a castle in the southern city of Karak where they had holed up after a shoot-out that killed nine people.

An official statement said the four assailants, who shot at police targets in the town before heading to the Crusader-era castle, carried automatic weapons. Large quantities of explosives, weapons and suicide belts were seized in a hideout, it added.

The statement made no mention of their identity or whether they belonged to any militant group.

A Canadian woman, three other civilians and five police officers were among the nine killed during the exchange of gunfire between the assailants and security forces. At least 29 people were taken to hospital, some with serious injuries, security sources said.

Witnesses said occasional gunfire was heard in the vicinity of the castle where police said earlier they had rescued nearly ten tourists who were on a tour of the historic site and trapped inside when the gunmen went into the castle.

It was not clear if there were any other tourists in the castle where the gunmen shot at security forces who were surrounding it.

The identity of the assailants was not immediately clear.

A former government minister from Karak city, Sameeh Maaytah, said there were signs Islamist militants may have been behind the attack but the government has so far steered away from saying this.

"The operation is continuing, it has not ended and the criminals are still inside the castle ... This was a group that was plotting certain operations inside Jordan," Maaytah told pan-Arab news channel al-Hadath.

Video footage on social media showed security forces taking groups of young Asian tourists up the castle's steep steps to its main entrance as gunshots were heard overhead.

The castle is one of the country's most popular tourist attractions.

Prime Minister Hani al Mulki told parliament "a number of security personnel" had been killed and that security forces were laying siege to the castle. The Canadian government confirmed one of its nationals had been killed.

Police and witnesses said gunmen had earlier gone on a shooting spree aimed at officers patrolling the town before entering the castle, perched on top of a hill. They used one of the castle's towers to fire at a nearby police station.

Police said the gunmen had arrived from the desert town of Qatraneh nearly 30 km northeast of Karak city, a desert outpost known for smuggling, where many tribal residents are heavily armed.

They had fled to Karak after an exchange of fire with the police at a residential building, security forces said.

Jordan is one of the few Arab states that have taken part in a U.S.-led air campaign against Islamic State militants holding territory in Syria. But many Jordanians oppose their country's involvement, saying it has led to the killing of fellow Muslims and raised security threats inside Jordan.

Officials worry about radical Islam's growing profile in Jordan and support in impoverished areas for militant groups. (Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Robin Pomeroy, Andrew Bolton and Jane Merriman)

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At least 10 hurt in southern Turkey blast: report

ANKARA - At least 10 people were hurt in a blast Tuesday at a car park in an office building in the southern Turkish city of Antalya, local media reported.

City mayor Menderes Turel told the broadcaster NTV that "10 to 12 people were slightly injured by flying glass" in the explosion at the Antalya Chamber of Commerce and Industry building. The blast occurred at 8.50am (0550 GMT).

Turel told CNN Turk channel the blast was being investigated and it was "too early" to make assumptions as to the cause.

"The blast may not be a terror attack... we must wait for official information," Turel said.

Over the past year, Turkey has suffered a series of attacks blamed on the Islamic State jihadist group and Kurdish militants.

TV images showed a wrecked, burned-out car and smashed glass nearby. At least four cars nearby were also damaged, Dogan news agency said.

The incident occurred 11 days after three rockets hit a roadside fishmonger in the popular tourist region, but without causing casualties.

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Suicide bomber kills 31 in Turkey attack blamed on IS

ANKARA, Turkey - A suspected Islamic State suicide bomber killed at least 31 people Monday in an attack on a Turkish cultural centre where activists had gathered to prepare for an aid mission in the nearby Syrian town of Kobane.

The blast ripped through the centre in Suruc -- a town just across the border from Kobane, which was itself later hit by a suicide car bombing -- blowing out the windows and starting a fire, witnesses said.

Most of the dead were university students who were planning to enter Syria to help rebuild Kobane, which was occupied by Islamic State for months before being recaptured by Kurdish forces in January.

In addition to those killed, around 100 other people were wounded by the blast.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on a visit to northern Cyprus, condemned the attack as an "act of terror".

"On behalf of my people, I curse and condemn the perpetrators of this brutality," he said. "Terror must be condemned no matter where it comes from."

Television footage showed several people lying on the ground covered in blood and ambulances rushing to the scene.

AFP pictures showed bodies covered in blankets lain out in the centre's garden.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu pointed the finger of blame for what was "clearly a terrorist attack" at Islamic State.

"Preliminary findings point to it being a suicide attack carried out by Daesh," Davutoglu said in Ankara, using an Arabic acronym for IS. "But we are not at a point to make a final judgement."

If confirmed, it would be the first such attack by IS fighters against Turkey, a regional military power and NATO member.

Local resident Mehmet Celik told AFP the town was "in chaos".

Alp Altinors from the pro-Kurdish HDP party said the group of around 300 activists who gathered in Suruc from across the country were from the Federation of Socialist Youth Associations and that most were students.

"They were planning to build parks in Kobane, hand out toys for children and paint school walls," he told AFP.

Social media images showed the group relaxing over breakfast in the garden a few hours before the noon blast.

A video circulated by the private Dogan news agency showed a spokesman for the activists saying into a microphone: "We, the youth, are here. We have defended Kobane together and now we are setting out to rebuild it together."

Davutoglu said the blast aimed to undermine Turkish democracy.

"This attack targets us all," he said, dispatching three ministers to the southeastern region.

"Daesh threatens not only Syrian people but also Turkey," he added.

'Targeting Turkey's democracy'

White House spokesman Josh Earnest condemned the "heinous" attack, as did Russian President Vladimir Putin, who labelled it a "barbaric act" and called for greater international cooperation in fighting terrorism.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius also joined in the condemnation.

The attack in Suruc was followed closely afterwards by a suicide car bombing at a checkpoint in Kobane, which killed two members of the Kurdish security forces, according to Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Kobane has been a symbol of resistance against the jihadists since IS fighters were driven out by Syrian Kurdish forces backed by US-led airstrikes.

Turkey's Kurds were frustrated at the time at Ankara's refusal to intervene to rout the insurgents, who have seized large parts of Syria and Iraq over the past year.

Ankara's critics accused it of tolerating or even aiding IS, as a useful ally against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom Erdogan wants ousted -- allegations vehemently rejected by Ankara.

In recent weeks, Turkish authorities have stepped up their actions against the jihadists, arresting dozens of suspected IS militants and sympathisers.

"It's now obvious that the Turkish government has upgraded the threat posed by ISIS to among the top ones it is facing," a Western diplomat told AFP last week.

Turkey has also boosted its border defences, stationing tanks and anti-aircraft missiles along its frontier with Syria as well as bolstering troop numbers.

The build-up has fed speculation that the government is planning an intervention to push the jihadists back from the border and halt the advance of Kurdish forces who have made gains in the area.

The government has however ruled out any immediate action in Syria.

Reluctant coalition member

Ankara categorises IS as a terrorist group but has been a reluctant member of the US-led anti-IS coalition, refusing to give its NATO ally the use of Incirlik air base in the south for raids on the jihadists.

The Islamists made a surprise raid on Kobane last month, five months after being driven out of the town.

The nearby town of Suruc, once a centre of silk-making, is home to one of the biggest refugee camps in Turkey housing Syrians who have fled their country's bloody four-year conflict.

The camp shelters about 35,000 refugees out of a total of more than 1.8 million refugees taken in by Turkey since 2011.

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Islamic State claims attack in Texas

The Islamic State jihadist group on Tuesday claimed responsibility for its first attack on US soil, a shooting at an event in Texas showcasing cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed that left the gunmen dead.

"Two of the soldiers of the caliphate executed an attack on an art exhibit in Garland, Texas, and this exhibit was portraying negative pictures of the Prophet Mohammed," the jihadist group said.

"We tell America that what is coming will be even bigger and more bitter, and that you will see the soldiers of the Islamic State do terrible things," the group announced.

It marked the first time the extremist group, which has captured swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq, claimed to have carried out an attack in the US.

US police said two men drove up to the conference centre Sunday in Garland, where the right-wing American Freedom Defense Initiative was organising the controversial cartoon contest, and began shooting at a security guard, who was wounded in the ankle.

Garland police officers then shot and killed both men.

According to US media reports, the two suspected jihadists were Elton Simpson, 31, and Nadir Soofi, 34, who shared an apartment in Phoenix, Arizona.

Simpson was being investigated by the FBI over alleged plans to travel to Somalia to wage holy war, court records show.

Many Muslims find drawings of the prophet to be disrespectful or outright blasphemous, and such cartoons have been cited by Islamists as motivation in previous attacks.

According to court records seen by AFP, Simpson was sentenced to three years' probation in 2011 after FBI agents presented a court with taped conversations between him and an informant discussing travelling to Somalia to join "their brothers" waging holy war.

The prosecution was unable to prove that Simpson had committed a terror-related offense, but did establish he had lied to investigators when he denied having discussed going to Somalia.

The White House said that President Barack Obama had been briefed on the investigation, which Texas police said was ongoing.

"There is no form of expression that justifies an act of violence," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

'Bad choice'

The American Freedom Defense Initiative, a group listed by civil rights watchdog the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-Muslim hate group, had organized the event, which drew about 200 people.

At the event, attended by Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders and AFDI co-founder Pamela Geller, supporters held an exhibition of entries to a competition to draw caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.

AFDI had offered a $10,000 prize for the winner of the contest, which was billed as a "free speech" event.

Commentators were quick to draw parallels to the January mass shooting at the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris that killed 12 people and wounded 11 more.

But the magazine's film critic, Jean-Baptiste Thoret, the magazine's film critic who only avoided the attack because he had been late for work said "there is absolutely no comparison."

"You have a, as you said, a sort of anti-Islamic movement (in Texas)... the problem of Charlie Hebdo is absolutely not the same," Thoret told Charlie Rose on PBS, according to an advance transcript released on Monday.

Gerard Biard, chief editor of the magazine, added: "We don’t organize contests. We just do our work. We comment on the news. When Mohammed jumps out of the news, we draw Mohammed.

"But if he didn’t, we didn’t. We don’t... We fight racism. And we have nothing to do with these people."

On Twitter, jihadist Abu Hussain Al-Britani, who extremist monitoring group SITE identified as British IS fighter Junaid Hussain, described the gunmen as "two of our brothers."

But Simpson's father Dunston told ABC News that his son, who he said worked in a dentist's office, simply "made a bad choice."

"We are Americans and we believe in America," Dunston Simpson said. "What my son did reflects very badly on my family."

'Just shocked'

Wilders told AFP in an e-mail that he was concerned he may have been targeted because he, like one of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists killed in January, is on a hit list circulated by Al-Qaeda supporters.

"I am shocked. I just spoke for half an hour about the cartoons, Islam and freedom of speech and I had just left the premises," he said.

"This is an attack on the liberties of all of us."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

84 children killed in Taliban attack on Pakistan school

PESHAWAR - At least 84 children were killed in Pakistan on Tuesday when Taliban gunmen stormed a military-run school in the city of Peshawar, taking hundreds of students and teachers hostage in the bloodiest insurgent attack in the country in years.

They were among the 126 people killed. with 122 others injured in the attack, a Pakistani provincial official said.

Troops surrounded the building and an operation was under way to rescue the remaining children, the army said. A Reuters journalist at the scene said he could hear heavy gunfire from inside the school.

Pervaiz Khattak, Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the province of which Peshawar is the capital, said 84 children had been killed.

"In CMH (Combined Military Hospital) there are around 60 and there are 24 dead in Lady Reading (hospital)," he told local television channels.

It was not immediately clear whether some or all of the children were killed by the gunmen or in the ensuing battle with Pakistani security forces trying to gain control of the building.

Outside, helicopters hovered overhead and ambulances ferried wounded children to hospital.

An unspecified number of children were still being held hostage in the school, a provincial official said, speaking some three hours after the attack began.

The Pakistani Taliban, who are fighting to topple the government and set up a strict Islamic state, have vowed to step up attacks in response to a major army operation against the insurgents in the tribal areas.

They have targeted security forces, checkpoints, military bases and airports, but attacks on civilian targets with no logistical significance are relatively rare.

In September, 2013, dozens of people, including many children, were killed in an attack on a church, also in Peshawar.

"WE WANT THEM TO FEEL THE PAIN"

The hardline Islamist movement immediately claimed responsibility.

"We selected the army's school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females," said Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani. "We want them to feel the pain."

The army said in a statement that many hostages had been evacuated but did not say how many.

"Rescue operation by troops underway. Exchange of fire continues. Bulk of student(s) and staff evacuated. Reports of some children and teachers killed by terrorist," the army said in a brief English-language statement.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attack and said he was on his way to Peshawar.

"I can't stay back in Islamabad. This is a national tragedy unleashed by savages. These were my kids," he said in a statement.

"This is my loss. This is the nation's loss. I am leaving for Peshawar now and I will supervise this operation myself."

Military officials at the scene said at least six armed men had entered the military-run Army Public School. About 500 students and teachers were believed to be inside.

"We were standing outside the school and firing suddenly started and there was chaos everywhere and the screams of children and teachers," said Jamshed Khan, a school bus driver.

One student inside the school at the time of the attack told a private television channel: "We were in the examination hall when all of sudden firing started and our teachers told us to silently lay on the floor. We remained on the floor for an hour. There was a lot of gunfire.

"When the gunfire died down our soldiers came and guided us out."

Originally the Taliban said the attackers, including a number of suicide bombers, had been instructed not to target children and shoot only adults. (Additional reporting by Mehreen Zahra-Malik and Syed Raza Hassan in Islamabad and Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan; Writing by Katharine Houreld and Maria Golovnina; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

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Canadian soldier, gunman dead in parliament attack

OTTAWA - A gunman whose name was on a terror watch list killed a soldier and attempted to storm Canada's parliament Wednesday before being gunned down in turn by the assembly's sergeant-at-arms.

The attacker, identified in the Canadian media as 32-year-old Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, was considered a "high risk" suspect and had seen his passport seized to prevent him fighting abroad.

Instead, he shot and killed a Canadian soldier who was mounting a ceremonial guard at a war memorial in downtown Ottawa before storming into the nearby parliament building.

The soldier was named in reports as Corporal Nathan Cirillo, part of a detachment on ceremonial duties at Parliament Hill, the heart of Canada's national government and home to its legislature.

The attacker was killed, reportedly by a shot fired by the bearer of the House of Commons' ceremonial mace, Sergeant-At-Arms Kevin Vickers, who was hailed as a hero by lawmakers.

Police said an investigation was continuing, but earlier reports that more gunmen were involved appeared unfounded. Heavily armed officers backed by armored vehicles sealed off the building.

The attack came two days after another alleged Islamist drove over and killed another soldier in what authorities branded a terrorist attack.

Authorities had raised the security threat level from low to medium after the car attack, which came as Canadian jets were to join the US-led air armada bombarding Islamist militants in Iraq.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned that "facts are still being gathered" as he "condemned this despicable attack."

A police spokesman said two people received "minor injuries" in the incident.

Lawmakers, staff and reporters evacuated from the building spoke of intense gunfire in the historic building on Parliament Hill.

Video footage posted online by the Globe and Mail newspaper showed police ducking for cover as they advanced along a stone hallway, loud gunfire echoing among parliament's stone columns.

'Pop, pop, pop'

A member of parliament, Maurice Vellacott, told AFP that House of Commons security had told one of his aides the suspect had been killed inside parliament.

"I literally had just taken off my jacket to go into caucus. I hear this 'pop, pop, pop,' possibly 10 shots, don't really know," Liberal Party member John McKay told reporters outside.

"Suddenly the security guards come rushing down the hallways and usher us all out to the back of the parliament buildings," he said, as lawmakers, staff and reporters scurried from the area.

Witnesses at the scene said they saw a man armed with a rifle running into parliament after shooting a guard at the war memorial.

Passers-by told reporters that a bearded man had gunned down the soldier and hijacked a passing vehicle to take him the short distance to Parliament Hill, on a bluff over the Ottawa River.

One witness, parliamentary aide Marc-Andre Viau, said he saw a man run into a caucus meeting at the parliament, chased by police armed with rifles who yelled "take cover."

That was followed by "10, 15, maybe 20 shots," possibly from an automatic weapon, he said. "I'm shaken," said Viau.

Police raced to seal off the parliament building and Harper's office, pushing reporters and bystanders back and blocking roads.

Harper -- who was attending a meeting with lawmakers in parliament at the time -- left the area of the shooting and was "safe," his spokesman Jason MacDonald said.

Jihadist sympathies
In Canada's southern neighbor the United States, President Barack Obama condemned the attack as "outrageous" after talking by telephone with Harper, the White House said.

"We don't yet have all the information about whether this was part a broader network or plan, or whether this was an individual or a series of individuals," Obama said.

Officials said US and Canadian air defenses were on alert, and the US embassy in Ottawa was placed on lockdown.

The incident came a day after 25-year-old Martin Couture-Rouleau ran over a soldier, killing him before being shot dead by police as he emerged from his wrecked car wielding a knife.

Couture-Rouleau was reportedly a supporter of the so-called Islamic State, a jihadist group operating in Iraq and Syria, and on the same list as Zehaf-Bibeau.

Canadian authorities have warned they are tracking 90 suspects, and "intelligence has indicated an individual or group within Canada or abroad has the intent and capability to commit an act of terrorism."

After the incident, much of downtown Ottawa remained on lockdown and heavily armed officers from Ottawa Police and the Mounties continued to patrol the area.

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