• Atlas Group, the real life Rainbow Six. Not many realize that GSG-9 and KSK responded from Germany to the terrorist attacks in France.

    Special operation forces, or in police terminology special intervention teams, are an essential asset in any counter-terrorism operation. Their deployment can be needed during a terrorist incident or as a logical follow-up on gathered intelligence with the aim to arrest terrorists and prevent an attack. The need for well-trained intervention units in Europe was first demonstrated during the 1972 Olympics in Munich when Palestinian terrorists kidnapped members of the Israeli Olympic team and the subsequent action to rescue the hostages failed tragically. – The Jamestown Foundation by Ludo Block

  • ISIS threatens more terrorist attacks like the ones in Paris, but is it credible?

    A video released by an Islamic State sub-group appears to show militants in Iraq praising the Paris shootings and warning that a similar attack could take place in Washington. The message, which was distributed by Islamic State-related social network accounts on Monday, claimed to be made by Wilayat Kirkuk, a group based in Salahuddine province, north of Iraq. Its authenticity could not immediately be confirmed. – Stars and Stripes

  • ISIS in the Balkans

    Albanian police spokesperson Genti Mullai told media on Monday that officers are investigating people believed to have been responsible for an Islamist attack threat to Interior Minister Saimir Tahiri. “We don’t have anyone under arrest yet, but we are interviewing people who have information about this threat and those who might be behind it,” said Mullai. A threatening email received by Tahiri on Saturday said that “holy war has started against all those who are involved in the war against the Islamic State”. – Balkan Insight

  • The other terrorist strike…Beirut

    Ali Awad, 14, was chopping vegetables when the first bomb struck. Adel Tormous, who would die tackling the second bomber, was sitting at a nearby coffee stand. Khodr Alaa Deen, a registered nurse, was on his way to work his night shift at the teaching hospital of the American University at Beirut, in Lebanon. All three lost their lives in a double suicide attack in Beirut on Thursday, along with 40 others, and much like the scores who died a day later in Paris, they were killed at random, in a bustling urban area, while going about their normal evening business. – The Globe and Mail

  • France bombs empty targets using outdated intelligence in response to the Paris terrorist attacks


    Airstrikes will be conducted overnight, so far no end in sight power and water have been cut to Raqqa. The U.S. is expanding intelligence sharing with France and has agreed to speed the delivery of detailed targeting information in support of possible French retaliatory strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq. LiveLeak

[Featured image: Iraqi security forces hold a flag of the Islamic State group they captured during an operation outside Amirli, some 105 miles (170 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Sept. 1, 2014. | AP ]