18 July 2013 THOUGHT FOR THE DAY THE PTSS DAILY began as a means of keeping PTSS FLASH POINTS Marshall Center Alumni abreast of news related to TOP HEADLINES terrorism. THE PTSS DAILY is neither an academic journal nor the effort of a research directorate or a large SPECIAL: DID CUBA'S ARMS SHIPMENT TO NORTH KOREA VIOLATE SANCTIONS? staff. Early each morning, articles that are cited in THE U.N. WILL INVESTIGATE. PTSS DAILY are culled from hundreds of sources with COUNTERTERRORISM NEWS BY NATION & REGION the intent of providing you with the most current news, BANGLADESH discussions and commentary on terrorism and related BURMA issues such as piracy or narco-terrorism. These articles, CUBA curated from news media, academic and international COLOMBIA DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO sources or submitted by many of you, give our growing EGYPT network a snapshot of this pernicious threat. FRANCE Every effort is made to ensure that credible articles are GERMANY chosen, but the intent of THE PTSS DAILY is to deliver INDIA IRAN wide coverage. You – the professional – must be the ISRAEL final discriminator on the merit of a particular article and LEBANON its value to your profession. To ensure that THE PTSS MEXICO DAILY is both relevant and valuable to the reader, we NETHERLANDS welcome and highly encourage comments from you. NIGERIA PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY SUDAN GEORGE C. MARSHALL SYRIA EUROPEAN CENTER FOR SECURITY STUDIES TURKEY UNITED KINGDOM LTG (Ret.) Keith W. Dayton, Director UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Dr. Robert Brannon, Dean, College of International VENEZUELA Security Studies YEMEN GENERAL COUNTERTERRORISM NEWS PTSS DAILY EDITORIAL STAFF AL QA’IDA & AFFILIATES Col (Ret.) Professor Nick Pratt, Executive Editor COMMENTARY & OPINION Mrs. Brenadine C. Humphrey, Managing Editor CONVERGENCE SUBSCRIPTIONS CYBER WARFARE To subscribe, unsubscribe, submit comments or news LEGAL ASPECTS & LAWFARE items, please e-mail: [email protected]. NARCO-TERRORISM NETWORK NOTES SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY TERRORIST FINANCING This is a Curated News Aggregation service. All material is TRANSPORTATION SECURITY copyrighted. For reuse, please contact original copyright holder. WMD TERRORISM Contributor Comments and Reader Comments are copyrighted by individuals. Contact the PTSS Daily for reuse permissions. Thought for the Day | back to top | “Cyber-terrorism threat is real and rapidly expanding (…) terrorists will either train their own recruits or hire outsiders, with an eye toward combining physical attacks with cyber attacks (…) terror groups are using the Internet to recruit, radicalize, and incite terrorism…” ~ Robert S. Mueller (Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director) Flash Points | back to top | JTIC Flashpoints JTIC 18 July 2013 SYRIA: Shortly after the ethnic Kurdish Partiya Yekîtiya Demokrat (PYD) unilaterally declared the autonomy of Kurdish regions in the north of the country early on 17 July, the PYD’s armed wing, the Yekîneyên Parastina Gel (YPG), engaged in sustained clashes with Jabhat al-Nusra, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and Ghurabaa al-Sham militants, forcing them out of the town of Ras al-Ayn in Al-Hasakah governorate and seizing the town’s border crossing with Turkey. Further clashes between the YPG and Islamist militants erupted in at least seven villages and towns in Al-Hasakah that day and were ongoing early on 18 July. Reports contained no details of any casualties in Ras al-Ayn. (Firat News Agency/Arutz Sheva/AFP) GUINEA: Government and medical officials confirmed late on 17 July that at least 54 people had been killed and 77 others wounded in three days of ethnic clashes in Nzérékoré Prefecture between 15 and 17 July. Clashes erupted on 15 July when petrol station guards belonging to the Guerze tribe killed an ethnic Konianke man accused of stealing. (Al-Jazeera/Reuters) AFGHANISTAN: Eight labourers – employed at the United States military’s Camp Shank in Logar province – were killed when suspected Taliban militants stopped their vehicle and executed them in the Khushi district of the province early on 18 July. (BBC/Khaama Press/AFP) IRAQ: At least seven people were killed when an improvised explosive device (IED), emplaced by unidentified militants, exploded in a teahouse in the city of Mosul in Ninawa province on 17 July. (Reuters) LEBANON: The head of the international relations division of the International Organisation for Arab Immigrants and a well-known political commentator supportive of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, Syrian national Mohammed Darrar Jamo, was shot dead by unidentified militants inside his residence in the Hizbullah stronghold town of Sarafand in South Governorate early on 17 July. (SANA/BBC) COLOMBIA: Two people were wounded when a remote-controlled improvised explosive device (RCIED), strapped to a dog by suspected Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) militants, was detonated outside a police station in the town of El Charco in Narino department on 17 July. (Colombia Reports/Caracol Radio) THAILAND: Three soldiers were wounded in two separate IED attacks by suspected southern separatist militants in the Bannang Sata district of Yala province and in the Cho Airong district of Narathiwat province on 17 July. The attacks came during an agreed 40-day ceasefire between the government and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN). (Bangkok Post) SOMALIA: Suspected Shabab militants detonated an RCIED targeting an AMISOM peacekeeper patrol in the town of Kismayo in Jubbada Hoose region on 17 July. Unverified reports, citing civilian eyewitnesses, claimed that a woman had been killed and four other civilians wounded in the attack. (Radio Bar-Kulan) BANGLADESH: The secretary-general of Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), Ali Ahsan Mohammed Mojaheed, 65, was sentenced to death by a court in the capital Dhaka on 17 July after being convicted on charges of genocide, conspiracy in killing intellectuals, torture, and abduction during the 1971 War of Independence. Reports added that clashes erupted between JeI activists and security force personnel in several towns. (Reuters) INTERNATIONAL: Security forces in Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands carried out at least six coordinated operations on 17 July searching the residences and prison cells of six suspected neo-Nazi militants, allegedly part of a group known as the Werewolf Squad, which authorities claimed was planning terrorist attacks. No arrests were reported. (Reuters/Der Spiegel) FURTHER READING: OSINT Summary: M23 militants clash with DRC army forces https://janes.ihs.com/CustomPages/Janes/DisplayPage.aspx?DocType =News&ItemId=+++1580406&Pubabbrev=JTSM Brief: Old hostilities - Mozambique's violence suggests possible RENAMO re-emergence https://janes.ihs.com/CustomPages/Janes/DisplayPage.aspx?DocType =News&ItemId=+++1579026&Pubabbrev=JTIC Rebellious youth - The Shabab's internal rifts https://janes.ihs.com/CustomPages/Janes/DisplayPage.aspx?DocType =News&ItemId=+++1579921&Pubabbrev=JTSM Country Briefing: Turkey https://janes.ihs.com/ExternalItems/Janes/images/hybrid/jtir/jtir2012/d ata/jtir0328_c.pdf Flashpoints courtesy of JTIC. Top Headlines | back to top | Afghan Officials: Insurgents Kill 8 Laborers Associated Press 18 July 2013 Afghan officials say insurgents have shot and killed eight day laborers on their way to work at a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan. Thursday’s attack in Logar province is the latest in an intimidation campaign against Afghans working for the government or NATO forces. Provincial spokesman Din Mohammad Darwesh says the laborers were killed just after dawn as they headed to Forward Operating Base Shank, a U.S. base located near the capital of Puli Alam. Darwesh says they were day workers and not part of the base’s local staff. Logar deputy police chief Raeis Khan Abdul Rahimzai says the victims were in their late teens and early 20′s. He says their driver was released. The Taliban have recently killed dozens of people working for the government or the international troops… Read more at: http://world.time.com/2013/07/18/afghan-officials-insurgents-kill-8-laborers/ Egypt: Suspected Militants Kill 3 Policemen Associated Press 18 July 2013 Egypt's Interior Ministry says suspected militants have killed three policemen and seriously wounded two in an attack in the Sinai Peninsula. The ministry said in a statement on Thursday that the attack took place late Wednesday night in the volatile northern part of Sinai. That part of the mostly desert peninsula has been mired in lawlessness and violence since the 2011 ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Attacks on security forces dramatically increased since the overthrow on July 3 of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Critics of the former leader see this as evidence of his suspected links to militants in the peninsula. The area, which borders Gaza and Israel, was the scene last August of an attack that killed 16 Egyptian soldiers. Militants were also blamed for that attack… Read more at: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/egypt-suspected-militants-kill-policemen-19696457 Bomb Attack Kills Seven In Iraq Tea House: Police, Medics Reuters 18 July 2013 A bomb blast in a tea house in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul killed at least seven people on Wednesday, police and medics said. The violence is part of a sustained campaign of militant attacks this year that has prompted fears of wider conflict in a country where ethnic Kurds and Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims have yet to find a stable power- sharing compromise. Medics said they had