Agbara Bank Robbery: Gang leader, others arrested in Delta

‎Leader of the notorious robbers raiding commercial banks in Lagos and Ogun States and terrorising residents has been arrested with three of his gang members.

Vanguard gathered that operatives from the Inspector General of Police Special Intelligence Responses Team, SIT, led by CSP, Abba Kyari, trailed the robbers to ‎Sapele area of Delta State where there was an exchange of gunfire.

Sources disclosed that ‎a police officer lost his life during the gun duel, while some of suspects sustained bullets wounds and were arrested.

File photo: Agbara robbery –  One of the victims injured during the robbery operation.

It was also gathered that the gang leader, identified  as Kelly Foto, A.K.A, Kelvin, is alleged to be the notorious Kelvin of Kokori, who had terrorised the entire South South and South East in the past.

Source: Vanguard

13 killed in Tunisia blast

A bus carrying presidential guards in Tunisia was rocked by an explosion on Tuesday, November 24, killing 13 people and leaving 20 others injured.

Officials say there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack against the presidential guard.

Walid Louguini, spokesman for the Tunisian interior ministry, told The Associated Press that at least 13 people were killed

Louguini also affirmed that no fewer than 20 others were wounded in the attack.

A witness, Bassem Trifi, said the explosion hit the driver’s side of the bus. He described the scene as “catastrophic”.

He said: “I saw at least five corpses on the ground,” adding: “This was not an ordinary explosion.”

Few days earlier, authorities had increased the security level in the capital and deployed security forces in large numbers.

Mark Toner, State Department spokesman, speaking in Washington, said the US government was still seeking details on what happened in Tunis.

Toner further noted the US position on the incident, saying: “We strongly condemn the attack.”

Following the explosion, President Beji Caid Essebsi, declared a 30-day state of emergency across the country and imposed an overnight curfew for the capital.

The Tunisian president who wasn’t in the bus at the time, declared the state of emergency and curfew on the Tunis region.

He convened an emergency meeting of his security council for Wednesday, November 25.

Speaking on national television, Essebsi said: “Tunisia is at war against terrorism” and urged international cooperation against extremists who have killed hundreds around Europe and the Mideast in recent weeks, from Paris to Beirut to a Russian plane shot down over Egypt.”

“I want to reassure the Tunisian people that we will vanquish terrorism,” he added.

It is pertinent to note that Tunisia is the only Arab Spring country to have solidified a new democracy. However, the nation is facing serious economic and security challenges.

In June, shootings at a luxury beach hotel in Sousse, left 38 people dead, mostly tourists.

Also in March, an attack by Islamist extremists at the famed Bardo museum near the capital killed 22 people.

Both cases of terrorism this year, has left a great dent on Tunisia’s tourism industry.

IG gives deadline for spy police to stop wearing police uniform

The Inspector General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase, has given Jan. 1, 2016 as 

the deadline for Supernumerary Police (SPY) to stop wearing police uniform.

This is contained in a statement issued by the Force Acting Spokesperson, 

ACP Olabisi Kolawole, in Abuja on Thursday.“The Inspector-General of Police, 

Solomon Arase, has directed companies using Supernumerary Police (SPY) 

nationwide to stop the use of Police uniform for their operations on or before 

Jan. 1, 2016,’’ it stated.It stated that Arase gave the directive at a meeting with 

Security Managers of Companies using SPY Police for their internal security.

The measure, the statement stated, was part of his administration’s renewed 

crime fighting strategy aimed at curtailing activities of criminally minded persons.

The statement stated that Arase had approved the use of a newly designed 

grey and black trouser as the new uniform to be worn by spy police officers nationwide. 

(NAN)

Rockets Hit Russian Embassy In Syrian Capital

 
Two rockets have hit the Russian Embassy in the Syrian capital as pro-government supporters gathered outside to thank Moscow for its intervention in Syria.
Reports said the first shell hit a building in the compound, sparking a panic. As people began to flee, another shell hit the area.
The Russian Embassy said there were no casualties among its staff.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the attack an act of terrorism.
AFP says some 300 people were gathered outside the embassy in Damascus at the time of the attack.
Opposition fighters in the suburbs of the capital have targeted the embassy in the past, but it was not clear if the attack on October 13 targeted the rally.
The head of Syria's Al-Nusra Front, an offshoot of Al-Qaeda, urged retaliation on October 12 for what he said was the indiscriminate killing of Sunni Muslims by invading Russians.
Russia began launching air strikes against insurgents in Syria on September 30.

Syrian army advances with help of Russian strikes; Putin reaches out to Saudis

 
SOCHI, Russia/AMMAN (Reuters) - Russian warplanes pounded Syrian rebels unaffiliated with Islamic State on Sunday, insurgents said, helping Moscow's ally Bashar al-Assad reclaim territory and dealing a fresh setback to the strategy of Washington and its allies.



President Vladimir Putin - who has infuriated Assad's enemies in the United States, Europe, Turkey and the Arab world by bombing the rebels to protect him - reached out to one of the Syrian leader's fiercest opponents by meeting the powerful defense minister of Saudi Arabia.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the 4-year-old conflict, said the Syrian military and its Lebanese Hezbollah militia allies had taken control of Tal Skik, a highland area in Idlib province, after fierce Russian bombing.
That brings Syrian government forces closer to insurgent-held positions along the main highway that links Syria's principal cities. The area is held by a rebel alliance that excludes Islamic State fighters.
"The coming battles are going to be ferocious, the Russians are using scorched earth policy and they are hitting the targets very accurately but this is a battle of destiny," said Abu Hamed, the head of the military bureau of Jabhat Sham, an insurgent group that operates mainly in Hama province.
The Syrian army made advances from the towns of Mourek and Atshan in Hama province using tanks, heavy artillery and new surface-to-surface missiles, he said.
Russia said its planes had flown 64 sorties, striking 63 targets and destroying 53 fortified positions in the previous 24 hours. As in the past, it described all targets as belonging to Islamic State, although most of the areas it said it had struck are not held by that group.
Syrian state television also reported that the government had captured Tal Skik with the help of Russian air strikes.

However, the advance came at a cost, with the Observatory and a Lebanese television station reporting that a senior Hezbollah commander had been killed fighting on the Syrian government side.
In recent days, Russia has dramatically intensified its 10-day-old bombing campaign. Moscow says it is targeting the Islamic State militant group, but most of its strikes have hit other rebel factions fighting against Assad, some of which have the support of Gulf Arab powers, Turkey or the United States.
The Russian bombing has been accompanied by a major advance by Syrian government forces, backed by thousands of Lebanese Hezbollah militiamen and hundreds of Iranian troops.
Putin's meeting with Riyadh's Defence Minister Mohammed bin Salman, a son of the Saudi king and leading figure in its regional security policy, was the Kremlin's boldest move to reach out to Assad's foes since launching the strikes.
After the meeting, which took place on the sidelines of a Formula One Grand Prix race in the Russian resort of Sochi, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow had sought to assuage Riyadh's concerns. Both sides shared the objective of preventing a "terrorist caliphate" from taking root in Syria, he said.
Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Saudi Arabia, which along with other Arab states has joined a U.S.-led coalition bombing Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, was still demanding Assad's removal from power. He hoped talks with Russia would continue.
Putin also met Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who holds a senior post in the armed forces of the United Arab Emirates, another rich Gulf state hostile to Assad.

Source: World news Report
 
Turkey, a NATO member that has accused Russian aircraft of violating its air space during the bombing campaign, said Syrian jets and missile systems had harassed its fighter planes at the border on Saturday in the latest incident.
Moscow said its officials had held a second video conference with counterparts from the United States to ensure safety as the former Cold War foes both fly combat missions in the same air space for the first time since World War Two.
OBAMA POLICY UPENDED
The Russian intervention has upended the strategy of the U.S. administration of President Barack Obama, which has led a separate bombing campaign against Islamic State for a year but failed to establish strong ties with fighters on the ground.
Washington and Moscow say they have the same enemy in Islamic State, the world's most violent jihadist group, which has set up a caliphate in much of eastern Syria and northern Iraq. But they have very different friends.
Washington and its European and Middle Eastern allies say the Syrian president should step down in any peace deal, while Moscow says his government should be the centerpiece of international efforts to fight extremism.
Washington has announced in recent days that it is abandoning a failed effort to train "moderate" rebel groups opposed to both Assad and Islamic State. Other rebels fighting against Assad are equipped and trained by Washington's Arab allies and range from secular nationalists to Islamist militants affiliated with al Qaeda.
Moscow accuses Washington of effectively siding with other militants that are no different from Islamic State; Washington says the Russian campaign helps Islamic State by targeting its rivals.

In recent days, Islamic State fighters have taken advantage of the Russian attacks on rival rebel groups to advance near Aleppo in the north of Syria, the Observatory and sources on the ground say. The Observatory said there was fighting on Sunday between Islamic State and other rebels in that area, although no change in positions since Saturday.
In neighboring Iraq, the army said it had struck a convoy carrying Islamic State's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to a meeting of Islamic State figures. Local residents in the town of Karabla near the Syrian border said eight Islamic State leaders had been killed in an air strike, but Baghdadi did not appear to be one of them.
 

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's convoy 'hit in military air strikes' - but Isis denies leader's death

 

The Iraqi air force claims to have successfully targeted the convoy of the Isis leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
In a statement, the military said it had hit the convoy in an air raid, adding that his fate remains unknown.
The Iraqi military said: "Iraqi air forces have bombed the convoy of the terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi while he was heading to Karabla to attend a meeting with Daesh commanders."
The military said the location of the planned Isis meeting was also bombed, and that "many of the group's leaders were killed or wounded".
It said the fate of al-Baghdadi was "unknown". "He was carried away by a vehicle. His health condition is still unclear," the statement said.
A Twitter site which publishes statements from Islamic State said "rumours" that an air strike had targeted Baghdadi were false.
Hospital officials and local residents later told the Reuters news agency that at least eight senior figures from Isis were killed in the air strikes on the meeting, which struck two houses in the Anbar province of Iraq.
Similar claims of attacks targeting the figurehead for the military group have been made before. It was reported that al-Baghdadi was injured in an air strike in April this year, prompting speculation that he would be forced to step down.
In mid-May, the leader re-emerged in a new audio recording, apparently alive and well, calling on "every Muslim in every place" to join Isis or take up arms. Analysts at the time said it was clear that the release was aimed at dispelling rumours al-Baghdadi had been incapacitated or replaced.

Born in Samarra in 1971, al-Baghdadi was radicalised after the American invasion of Iraq and spent time in Camp Bucca, the main US-run prison in the country after Abu Ghraib.
He rose through the ranks of al-Qaeda upon his release, until the outbreak of the Syrian civil war presented him with new opportunities as the leader of a revamped "Islamic State of Iraq".
Since Isis's dramatic rise, al-Baghdadi has become one of the US's most-wanted terror targets - though the bounty on his head remains lower than that of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al-Qaeda leader who cast him aside when that group denounced Isis.

Explosion rocks Lagos

A yet to be identified substance exploded on Sunday afternoon at Number 88 Oworo Road, in Oworonsoki area of Lagos State.
The incident according to eyewitness, occurred at about 2 15 pm, when Christian faithful were just returning to their different destinations after the day’s service.
At press time, it could not be ascertained if there was any casualty, as confusion took over the entire area following the sudden explosion.
However, many sustained different kinds of injury in an attempt to escape from the scene.
Director, Lagos Fire Service, Mr. Rasaq Fadipe, who confirmed the incident, said immediately they received the distressed call at about 2 20pm, men of the Ilupeju Fire Service were dispatched to the area to bring the fire situation under control.
Fadipe also could not confirm immediately if the explosion was a bomb or otherwise.
“We are still investigating the incidence to determine the immediate or remotes cause of the explosion, ” he said.