Category: Terrorism

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Kabul ready to talk intelligence cooperation with Pakistan ‘at any level’: Afghan official

KABUL, Feb 21: Afghanistan is ready to hold dialogue with Pakistan for intelligence cooperation at ‘any level’, an Afghan security official has told members of the Pak-Afghan track-II dialogue in Kabul.

The Afghan official, speaking informally and off-the-record, said senior security officials of the two countries had planned a ‘interaction’ but three major attacks in Kabul, Kandahar and Helmand on January 10 delayed the process. Nearly 60 people, including five UAE diplomats were killed in the attacks. The UAE ambassador, who was injured in the blast, died of wounds last week.

The remarks by the Afghan security official came amid growing tensions over the recent wave of terrorist attacks in Pakistan last week, which claimed the lives of about 100 people and injured over 300 more.

“We are ready for deep discussions on intelligence cooperation. We need a better environment. We need engagement. But only meetings and shaking hands will not give results. Sincere and effective engagement is a must to remove the mistrust,” the Afghan official told members of the dialogue titled ‘Beyond Boundaries’ which concluded on Monday.

President Ashraf Ghani had put a pause on a memorandum of understanding between the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in 2015. As the two sides struck the ground-breaking agreement to share intelligence and resources to combat terrorism, it was opposed in Afghanistan and some leaders, including Hamid Karzai, publicly opposed the deal as against the ‘national interests’. Afghan media had also reported then NDS Chief Rahmatullah Nabil had refused to sign the accord.

But the Afghan official said that Kabul is open for talks on intelligence cooperation at any level to explore options how to deal with the security challenges. “We also want Pakistan to extend its counter terrorism strategy to the region,” he said.

“Pakistan may be concerned only about TTP, China has apprehensions about ETIM, Arab states will be worried about Da’ish and al Qaeda, Iran may have fears about Jundullah, Uzbekistan would expect dangers of IMU but Afghanistan is fighting against nearly 30 groups.” He claimed that the Afghan Taliban have provided space to many of these groups as they all have same approach.

The Afghan official said bilateral track for Pakistan and Afghanistan is the best option to deal with the security problems and end violence in both countries as ‘no one will bring stability for us’.
He also renewed Kabul’s suggestion for a third party’s verification of the claims by both countries about the presence of the armed groups on both side of the border. The verification could either be by the US or China, he said.

On peace talks with the Taliban, he said peace dialogue is more important to Afghanistan but “we want action to be taken against the Taliban if they decline the dialogue.”

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Trainer of suicide bombers killed in artillery shelling by Pakistan army

ISLAMABAD, Feb 18: Nearly a dozen training camps and hideouts of terrorist groups have been destroyed and over a dozen terrorists – including a top trainer of suicide bombers – have been killed in two days of artillery shelling by Pakistan’s military, Afghan sources confirmed on Saturday.

The confirmation came hours after Kabul summoned Pakistan’s ambassador to lodge a protest over what it called ‘cross-border rocket firing’. A day earlier, sources said four training compounds of the outlawed Jamaatul Ahrar (JuA) terrorist group had been decimated in the areas opposite Mohmand and Khyber agencies.

According to Afghan sources, 10 to 12 training camps and hideouts of the JuA and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) – including that of JuA commander Wali – and ammunition dumps have been destroyed in the blitz. “Fifteen to 20 terrorists, among them Commander Rehman Baba, have been killed and many more injured,” one Afghan source added.

Army decimates four Jamaatul Ahrar camps
Rehman Baba, a high-value target, was responsible for training suicide bombers and young terrorists. Sources said on Friday that four JuA terrorist camps – including one run by the group’s deputy chief Adil Bacha – had been decimated.

The outlawed TTP and its breakaway faction JuA have set up ‘safe havens’ across the border in Afghanistan which they use as a springboard for launching attacks inside Pakistan. The two groups have been behind most terrorist attacks in the country.

The security situation along the Pak-Afghan border in Khyber Agency remains fluid. An official of the local political administration said as many as 4,000 tribesmen living in the Shinpokh and Samsay villages of Shalman have been asked to evacuate. A day earlier 400 households in the Samsai area had been evacuated amid a military operation in the villages near the border with Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, fresh contingents of security forces have reached the bordering areas of Shalman, Rena and Parchao.

Pakistan shuts down border with Afghanistan
Pakistan shut the main Torkham border crossing with Afghanistan following a string of deadly attacks, including Thursday’s suicide bombing at the shrine of Sufi saint Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, in the country last week.
Long queues of container trucks were stranded on both sides of the border as transit trade between the two countries remained suspended due to their strained relations. Movement of people to and from Afghanistan is not allowed. However, border guards and political administration allow the transportation of corpses and bereaved families as a goodwill gesture.

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Civilian Institutions Need to be Strengthened for Intel Gathering & Prosecution

Lahore, February 17: Strongly condemning the Sehwan Sharif suicide bombing and a series of terrorist attacks in the country over the last few days, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has demanded decisive crackdown on all manifestations of violence, especially in the name of faith.

In a statement issued on Friday, the Commission said: “HRCP is saddened and greatly alarmed by a renewed wave of deadly attacks, the latest of which on Thursday evening took a heavy toll on human life at the Lal Shahbaz Qalander shrine at Sehwan Sharif.

“Unfortunately, we have been at similar junctures in our recent history. Perhaps things would have been different if the pledges made to crack down on all forms of hate speech and violence, on the basis of faith on those previous occasions, had been honoured.

“Irrespective of where the attackers blowing themselves up or pulling the trigger come from, assaults in rapid succession cannot take place without local support and facilitation networks. The people are justified in asking all those tasked with their safety and security what steps had been taken to preempt such violence and why they have not succeeded.

“As we mourn these latest victims of ideologies of hate, we are once again asking our children to undergo security trainings in their schools. No longer must the policy makers remain indifferent to non-implementation or selective pursuit of various aspects of the National Action Plan (NAP) on counter-terrorism. HRCP urges the state to use all the resources at its disposal for across-the-board and decisive action against the perpetrators of these inhuman crimes. It is important that no exception is made while proceeding against those promoting violence or discrimination in the name of faith. While we do not have the expertise to advise on security matters, it is obvious that relying solely on the military and paramilitary forces will not yield results without enhancing the policing and intelligence gathering capabilities of civilian forces.

“If these attacks are concluded to have a cross-border dimension, all efforts must be made to collaborate with neighbouring countries to pursue the mischief makers in order to deny sanctuary to them.”

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Islamic State blast at famed Sufi shrine in Pakistan kills at least 73

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — At least 73 people were reported killed and up to several hundred wounded Thursday when a suicide bomber struck inside a famous Sufi shrine in southeastern Pakistan while devotees were performing a weekly ritual dance, police and medical officials said.

The Islamic State, a Middle East-based militant group with allied outfits in Pakistan and Afghanistan, asserted responsibility for the blast through an affiliated news site.

The attack in the isolated rural town of Sehwan, in Sindh province, was one of the country’s deadliest bombings in a decade of terrorism, and it came after several successive days of violence that claimed 25 lives in all four provinces of Pakistan and two tribal areas.

On Monday, a suicide bombing in a crowded square in the eastern city of Lahore killed 13 people and injured scores. An affiliate of the Islamic State, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, said in an email to journalists that it was the start of an operation targeting government agencies and sites. Pakistan formally complained to next-door Afghanistan on Wednesday, charging that the militants were operating from sanctuaries across the border. Late Thursday, army officials announced that the border crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan would be closed until further notice for security reasons.

It was not possible to confirm, however, whether the Islamic State or a local affiliate had carried out the Thursday attack at the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine. In August, when a bomb killed more than 70 people in the southwestern city of Quetta, both the Islamic State and an allied group claimed to be behind it. The Islamic State is also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Troops were sent to the shrine and the surrounding areas, and Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, issued a statement appealing to the nation to remain calm. “Your security forces shall not allow hostile powers to succeed,” he said.

“Each drop of the nation’s blood will be avenged, and avenged immediately” he added. “No more restraint for anyone.”

Officials at a local hospital said they had received about 60 bodies and about 250 wounded people, including about 40 in critical condition. The Pakistani navy placed all naval hospitals in Karachi, the provincial capital, on special alert to receive patients. Sehwan has very limited rescue and hospital services.

Pakistan has often been accused of coddling some violent Islamist groups that serve as its proxies in India and at home, while cracking down on others that oppose the Pakistani state and unleash attacks on domestic targets. Recently, though, officials placed an extremist anti-India cleric under house arrest, calling it a policy decision by both civilian and military leaders.

Islamist militants, including the Pakistani Taliban, have attacked numerous Sufi shrines in recent years, deeming them anti-Islamic. In November, a Sufi shrine in Balochistan province was bombed, killing 45 people. Sufism is a more mystical strain of Islam, and many conservative Muslims view it as heretical. Sufi shrines welcome people from all walks of life, and offer free food and other charity to the poor. On Thursdays, the shrines host poetry readings and other gatherings.

On Thursday night, officials said that security had been increased at Sufi shrines across the country and that some had been temporarily closed, Pakistani news channels reported.

In addition to targeting Sufis, violent Sunni groups have often attacked Christians, Shiites and Ahmadis, a community that sees itself as a branch of Islam but is reviled by many Muslims. Political leaders in Punjab province have been accused of appeasing some sectarian groups there.

In Sindh, some political leaders have resisted pressure from security agencies and provincial officials to ban or place more controls on extremist Islamic groups and dozens of seminaries alleged to have ties with terrorist groups. Over the past decade, bombings across the province have targeted shrines, mosques and other sites.

While groups affiliated with the Islamic State, including Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, have become more active in Pakistan, they remain controversial among many local Islamist factions. Some such groups have seen their followers defect to the foreign-affiliated outfits, and others have distanced themselves from admirers linked to the Islamic State.

When Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claimed the recent Lahore bombing, it named its planned terror operation after the late leader of Islamabad’s famed Red Mosque, the scene of a dramatic army siege in 2007. But this week, leaders of the mosque denounced the ISIS affiliate as an “enemy of Islam” and said its actions were un-Islamic.

Mehdi reported from Karachi, Pakistan.

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Taliban suicide bomber strikes Pakistan rally, killing 13

A suicide bomber struck police escorting a protest rally in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Monday, killing at least 13 people and wounding nearly 60 in an attack claimed by a breakaway Taliban faction.

The blast ripped through the crowd of hundreds of pharmacists, who were protesting new amendments to a law governing drug sales. Six police officers, including a former provincial counterterrorism chief, were among those killed, police said.

Police initially said the attacker was on a motorcycle, but provincial Law Minister Rana Sanaullah later said that closed-circuit footage revealed the bomber was on foot.

Sameer Ahmad, the Lahore deputy commissioner, said at least 13 people were killed and 58 wounded, including nine who were in critical condition.

Live TV registered a loud bang and showed smoke and fire billowing up as people ran away, some of them carrying the wounded.

“We just couldn’t understand what happened,” Tufail Nabi told local Geo News TV. “It was as if some big building collapsed,” he said as he limped away.

A group called Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claimed the attack in a text message, saying it was revenge for Pakistani military operations against Islamic militants in tribal regions along the Afghan border.

The group, which claimed a number of large attacks last year, is one of several splinter factions from the Pakistani Taliban, which has repeatedly targeted security forces and religious minorities. In recent years, Pakistan has launched several offensives against the Taliban and other Islamic militants in the tribal regions.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed to continue fighting terrorism “until we liberate our people of this cancer and avenge those who have laid down their lives for us.”

Washington condemned the Lahore attack and extended condolences to the victims and their families. “We stand with the people of Pakistan in their fight against terrorists and remain committed to the security of the South Asia region,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

Elsewhere in Pakistan, a roadside bomb killed two members of a bomb disposal squad on the outskirts of the southwestern city of Quetta, said police officer Abdur Razzaq Cheema. Another eight people were wounded in the explosion, he said.

A Taliban-linked group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, said it planted the bomb.
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Associated Press writers Asif Shahzad in Islamabad, Matthew Lee in Washington and Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

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TTP claims responsibility for Parachinar attack

PARACHINAR, Jan 21: Around 21 people have been killed and over 50 are injured in a powerful explosion that ripped through a crowded marketplace in Parachinar Kurram tribal agency, according to officials.

Kurram Agency’s political administration has confirmed the death toll and said the injured were shifted to the agency headquarters hospital. There is shortage of doctors and medical facilities in the hospital. The death toll is expected to rise. Dr. Sabir Hussain at the Parachinar main hospital said 11 critically wounded people who were brought from the vegetable market blast site died while being treated. He said several of the wounded were in serious condition and being shifted to other hospitals for better care.

Soon after the incident, the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban has claimed responsibility for the blast in Parachinar. “Saifullah alias Bilal carried out the attack in Parachinar on Saturday,” TTP spokesperson Muhammad Khorasani said. He further said the blast was in retaliation for killing Lashkar-e-Jhangvi chief Asif Chotu, along with three others in an encounter. It was to avenge the killing of our associates by security forces and to teach a lesson to Shiites for their support for Bashar al-Assad,” said the group’s spokesman Qari Saifullah, referring to the Syrian president.

Saifullah warned that his Sunni Muslim group will continue attacking Shiites if they back Assad, whose regime is entrenched in a civil war that began in 2011 and has claimed more than 310,000 lives.

The explosion occurred at 8:50AM at the city’s Eidgah market, where a large number of people were shopping for fruit and vegetable. An IED that was placed in a vegetable box which blew up.

Shahid Khan, an assistant tribal administrator, said the explosion took place when the market was crowded with retailers buying fruits and vegetables from a wholesale shop. He said the attack was being investigated.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing, said ’20 shaheed and 30 Injured.Injured being shifted to CMH and LRH Peshawar through Army helicopters. Army and FC troops are under taking relief and rescue operations. It was carried out through an improvised explosive device (IED).

“Army and FC Quick Reaction Force reached at incident site and cordoned off the area. Army helicopters flown for medical evacuation of injured to hospitals,” said the ISPR.

President Mamnoon and PM Nawaz Sharif has expressed grief over the loss of life and directed concerned authorities to provide medical treatment to the injured at all costs.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has condemned the blast and ordered for a detailed report regarding the incident. He further said that those involved in the gruesome incident would not be spared.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra has also condemned the blast, and sympathized with the bereaved families.

Governor said the war on terror will continue until the last terrorist is eliminated. He said the cowardly terror attacks cannot weaken the nation’s resolve against the menace. Militants cannot lower courage of nation by such cowardly attacks, vowing to end terrorism from the country soon. He said the war against militancy will continue till ending of every single terrorist.

Information Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mushtaq Ghani said that emergency has been imposed in Peshawar, confirming that the blast was carried out by a remote control device planted in a vehicle. He said the blast was carried out at a busy market in order to target highest numbers of civilians. He said they are ready to help any sort of to their tribal brothers.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan condemned the blast saying citizens would not accept any such attacks and those who are attacking peaceful enemies of nation. He said culprits would be brought before the justice. He directed the provincial government to provide best medical facilities to injured people in the blast.

Former president Asif Ali Zardari also condemned the blast saying terrorists would not be succeeded in their nefarious aims.

Chief Minister KP Pervaiz Khatakk, CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and JUI-F chief Fazul-ur-Rehman have also condemned the attack in strongest words.

“We received 21 bodies of the local tribal people killed in the blast,” Turi said, adding that there would be a mass funeral and then a demonstration over the attack. About 40 others were wounded in the blast in Kurram region, near the border with Afghanistan, said Sajid Hussain Turi, member of the National Assembly from the region.

Another Kurram official, Sabzali Khan, said early reports had suggested that a suicide bomber was responsible for the blast.

Ashiq Hussain, who was lightly wounded, was being treated in Parachinar hospital. He said he was purchasing fruits and vegetables loaded on a van when the explosion took place. “There was big bang and dark cloud of smoke and dust I saw before passing out. There was no ambulance, and people had to carry the injured in cars and private pickup trucks to the hospital,” Hussain said.

After coming back into his senses Hussain said he saw bleeding bodies, severed limbs and heard cries. “I was just bleeding from my leg,” he said. “Thank God I am alive.”

A list of names have been released regarding people who have been killed or injured in the attack.
No group has immediately claimed responsibility of the attack.

According to a Shiite leader Faqir Hussain, all the bodies have been brought to a Shiite mosque.

Taliban militants have been active around Parachinar in the past, ad the town has also suffered sectarian tension between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims.

A similar blast at the Eidgah Market in December 2015, killed 25 people and injured 70 others. Parachinar is mainly a Shiite area of Pakistan’s Northwestern Tribal Belt

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Attacks Kill Dozens Around Afghanistan

KABUL, Jan 10 —Attacks in three major Afghan cities highlighted the worsening security situation in the country, as blasts killed more than 45 people on Tuesday and wounded close to 100 others, including members of a delegation led by the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates.

Kandahar’s provincial governor, Humayun Azizihad, had been meeting with the U.A.E. ambassador to Afghanistan, Jumaa al Kaabi, at the time of the explosion, and both survived with injuries, Afghan officials said.

“Both of them are in stable condition,” said Samim Khpalwak, the governor’s spokesman.

The provincial health department in Kandahar said the explosion killed 11 people, including a number of Emirati diplomats and high-ranking Afghan officials at the meeting. At least 14 others were wounded.

“The corpses are difficult to identify,” a provincial health official said, adding that the building had caught fire, burning victims inside.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The U.A.E. Ministry of Foreign Affairs said its ambassador to Afghanistan and a number of Emirati diplomats had been wounded in the attack. It didn’t say whether any had been killed.

“The U.A.E. ambassador’s visit to Kandahar was on [a] humanitarian mission within the program of the U.A.E. to support the brotherly Afghan people,” the ministry said.

In Kabul, twin blasts killed at least 32 people and wounded at least 70 others near Parliament during afternoon rush hour, at an office building used by members of Parliament, officials said. In the first explosion, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives vest next to a minibus transporting government employees, they said. As rescue crews reached the scene, a car bomb went off.
The Taliban, Afghanistan’s largest insurgency, claimed responsibility for the assault, which interrupted weeks of relative calm in the capital amid frigid winter temperatures.

The explosions shattered the windows of nearby buildings. Casualties were transferred to hospitals by ambulances and private vehicles, said Mohammad Asil, an employee of a private firm who was near the scene.
“It was horrifying,” he said. “I have never seen so many dead bodies in my life. Many innocent people died. It was like a bloodbath.”

The attack is the deadliest in Kabul since Islamic State claimed responsibility for a November bombing that killed 30 Shiite Muslim worshipers at a popular shrine.

The Taliban and the country’s Islamic State affiliate regularly staged attacks in the city throughout the past year, targeting government workers and buildings, foreigners and members of Afghanistan’s Shiite Hazara minority.

The third attack took place earlier Tuesday. The Taliban bombed a meeting of an elite Afghan intelligence agency squad in the capital of Helmand province, killing at least three people and wounding seven others, said Payenda Mohammad, a local police official. The casualties included members of the squad, he said.

Following the bombing in the province’s capital Lashkar Gah, intelligence officers also found a truck in the area that was loaded with explosives, which they defused, Mr. Mohammad said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message, saying the assailant fled the area after the assault. Local authorities said it was a suicide attack.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s special representative for security in Helmand, Abdul Jabar Qahraman, said the intelligence agency squad had been formed last year to strike Taliban-controlled areas.

“This is guerrilla war and the creation of such force is a necessity,” Mr. Qahraman said. “We have to go after the Taliban inside their strongholds.”

Helmand province in the southwest of the country is a major center of narcotics production and trade, making it an important source of income for the militants.

Last year, the Taliban nearly overran Lashkar Gah but were pushed back by U.S. and Afghan troops. The city remains under siege, with most major roads leading to and from the city controlled by the militants.

The latest spasms of violence in Afghanistan come a little more than a week before Donald Trump is sworn in as U.S. president.

Amid gains by the Taliban and the growth of Islamic State, U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan has deepened since the withdrawal two years ago of most foreign forces in the country.

In the past year, the Obama White House has granted expanded authority to the U.S. military to fight Islamic State in Afghanistan and to allow the U.S. to target the Taliban under certain circumstances.

The number of airstrikes carried out by the U.S. Air Force in the country increased dramatically last year, and on Friday the Pentagon announced that 300 U.S. Marines would be deployed to Helmand this spring, the first marines in the province since 2014.

The U.S. has about 10,000 troops in Afghanistan to train and advise government security forces fighting the Taliban.

—Jessica Donati in Kabul and Asa Fitch in Dubai contributed to this article.

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Suspected Fort Lauderdale shooter portrayed as troubled Army vet

The man suspected of shooting 13 people at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Friday afternoon, killing five and injuring eight, is a former U.S. Army combat engineer who flew to South Florida from Alaska — where he had received mental-health treatment after disclosing he felt forced to fight for the terrorist group ISIS.

Federal investigators believe Esteban Santiago, 26, landed at Fort Lauderdale early Friday afternoon with a checked bag containing a firearm. He picked up his bag at the carousel and walked into the men’s room, where investigators suspect Santiago loaded the weapon. Then he returned to the Terminal 2 baggage claim and pulled the trigger.

Witnesses described Santiago unloading magazine after magazine of ammunition. In some cases, they feared, he was aiming straight at his victims’ heads.

Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies captured Santiago unharmed, without firing a shot of their own, Sheriff Scott Israel said, though he wouldn’t name Santiago.

“If I had to give a hypothesis based on the knowledge I have at this time, it would be a home-grown violent extremist,” Israel told reporters about the shooter, who is believed to have acted alone.

Law enforcement sources confirmed to the Miami Herald that Santiago went to an FBI office in Anchorage, Alaska, in November to confess he felt compelled to fight for ISIS. The feds sent Santiago to get psychiatric help. They are expected to comb through Santiago’s social-media profiles and possessions to try to understand his possible motives.

Federal investigators began interviewing Santiago and airport witnesses Friday. A Facebook profile thought to belong to Santiago quickly vanished from the site. So did an Instagram account that appeared to show three photographs of Santiago — in an Army uniform, with cohorts and with a Puerto Rican flag. Other snapshots showed him in London, with a cousin in Southwest Florida and showing off several tattoos. Whether Santiago owned either or both accounts was unverified by authorities.

Why Santiago was in Fort Lauderdale is unknown, and where his flight originated is unclear. Investigators first said they believed he’d arrived from Canada. But Air Canada, which had two flights land at around noon Friday, said in a statement it has “no record of a passenger by the name Esteban Santiago, or checked guns, on any of our flights to Fort Lauderdale.”

A spokesman for Delta Air Lines, the other carrier that operates Terminal 2 flights, declined to offer any details on whether Santiago was one of its passengers, citing the ongoing shooting investigation.
Regardless of the city Santiago departed from, he had been living in Anchorage, public records show.
He was discharged last summer. Santiago, a former Army private first class, was an Iraq War vet who also served from Puerto Rico to Alaska between December 2007 and August 2016, according to Air Force Lt. Col. Candis Olmestead of the Alaska National Guard.

Olmstead said Santiago served in Alaska for less than two years, starting Nov. 21, 2014, and received a “general discharge” from the Alaska Army National Guard on Aug. 16, 2016 “for unsatisfactory performance.” She did not elaborate.

He joined the Puerto Rico National Guard on Dec. 14, 2007, Olmstead told the Miami Herald by email, deployed to Iraq with the Puerto Rico National Guard from April 23, 2010, to February 19, 2011 and also did a stint in as in the Army Reserves before he joined the Army National Guard in Alaska. He never served in the Florida National Guard.

The U.S. Army issued a nearly 10-year military record that described Santiago as released from the Alaska National Guard in August to the Inactive Ready Reserve, meaning he could be available for future service.
His assignments included a short stint at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, likely for training, and a single deployment — to Iraqi from April 2010 to February 2011.

He received 10 medals and ribbons for his service, notably the Army Commendation and Good Conduct medals as well as the Iraq Campaign Medal with a campaign star.

In January, Santiago was charged in Alaska with misdemeanor counts of property damage and assault.

The charges stemmed from an alleged assault on his girlfriend at her Anchorage home, according to court records obtained by Alaska Dispatch News. The girlfriend told police that Santiago smashed in her bathroom door and tried to strangle her, although an officer said she did not appear to be injured, the newspaper reported. Santiago was later accused of returning to his girlfriend’s house, which he had been ordered to avoid.

A spokeswoman for the Anchorage Police Department referred all questions to the FBI. Santiago’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

Santiago’s brother in Puerto Rico told the Associated Press Santiago received psychological treatment in Alaska. Bryan Santiago didn’t know why or how his brother was being treated. He knew of the help from a call his family received in recent months from Esteban Santiago’s girlfriend, the AP reported.

Santiago was born in New Jersey but moved to Puerto Rico when he was 2 years old, according to the AP. Esteban Santiago grew up in the southern coastal town of Penuelas.

Santiago’s aunt, María Ruiz, told reporters in Union City, New Jersey, that Santiago seemed troubled when he returned from Iraq. According to the Bergen Record, Ruiz said he was “happy” after the recent birth of a child.
“I don’t know why this happened,” Ruiz told the Record.

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Nearly 40 Killed in New Year’s Terrorist Attack in Istanbul

ISTANBUL, Jan 1 – A gunman opened fire on New Year revellers at a packed nightclub on the shores of Istanbul’s Bosphorus waterway on Sunday killing at least 39 people, including many foreigners, then fled the scene.

Some people jumped into the Bosphorus waters to save themselves after the attacker opened fire at random in the Reina nightclub just over an hour into the new year. Officials spoke of a single attacker but some reports, including on social media, suggested there may have been more.

The attack shook NATO member Turkey as it tries to recover from a failed July coup and a series of deadly bombings in cities including Istanbul and the capital Ankara, some blamed on Islamic State and others claimed by Kurdish militants.

Security services had been on alert across Europe for new year celebrations following an attack on a Christmas market in Berlin that killed 12 people. Only days ago, an online message from a pro-Islamic State group called for attacks by “lone wolves” on “celebrations, gatherings and clubs”.

The Hurriyet newspaper cited witnesses as saying the attackers shouted in Arabic as they opened fire at Reina.
“We were having fun. All of a sudden people started to run. My husband said don’t be afraid, and he jumped on me. People ran over me. My husband was hit in three places,” one club-goer, Sinem Uyanik, told the newspaper.

“I managed to push through and get out, it was terrible,” she said, describing seeing people soaked in blood.
The incident bore echoes of an attack by militant Islamists on Paris’s Bataclan music hall in November 2015 that, along with assaults on bars and restaurants, killed 130 people.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said 15 or 16 of those killed at Reina were foreigners but only 21 bodies had so far been identified. He told reporters 69 people were in hospital, four of them in critical condition.
“A manhunt for the terrorist is underway,” he said.

Nationals of Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Lebanon, Libya, Israel and Belgium were among those killed, officials said. France said three of its citizens were wounded.

Turkey is part of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State and launched an incursion into Syria in August to drive the radical Sunni militants from its borders. It also helped broker a fragile ceasefire in Syria with Russia.

“As a nation, we will fight to the end against not just the armed attacks of terror groups, but also against their economic, political and social attacks,” President Tayyip Erdogan said in a written statement.

“They are trying to create chaos, demoralize our people, and destabilize our country … We will retain our cool-headedness as a nation, standing more closely together, and we will never give ground to such dirty games,” he said.

There has been no claim of responsibility, but Erdogan linked the attacks to developments in the region where Turkey faces conflict across its frontier in Syria and Iraq. Some three million Syrian refugees currently live on Turkish soil.

The Reina club is one of Istanbul’s best known nightspots, popular with locals and foreigners. Some 600 people were thought to have been inside when the gunman shot dead a policeman and civilian at the door, forced his way in and then opened fire.

Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin said the attacker used a “long-range weapon” to “brutally and savagely” fire on people, apparently referring to some form of assault rifle.

U.S. President Barack Obama, on vacation in Hawaii, expressed condolences and directed his team to offer help to the Turkish authorities, the White House said.

“POLICE MOVED IN QUICKLY”
Dozens of ambulances and police vehicles were dispatched to the club in Ortakoy, a neighbourhood on the city’s European side nestled under one of three bridges crossing the Bosphorus and home to nightclubs, restaurants and art galleries.

“I didn’t see who was shooting but heard the gun shots and people fled. Police moved in quickly,” Sefa Boydas, a Turkish soccer player, wrote on Twitter.

“My girlfriend was wearing high heels. I lifted her and carried her out on my back,” he said.
Hurriyet quoted Reina’s owner, Mehmet Kocarslan, as saying security measures had been taken over the past 10 days after U.S. intelligence reports suggested a possible attack.

Turkey faces multiple threats including spillover from the war in Syria. Beside its cross-border campaign against Islamic State, it is fighting Kurdish militants in its southeast.

The New Year’s Day attack came five months after a failed military coup, in which more than 240 people were killed, many of them in Istanbul, as rogue soldiers commandeered tanks and fighter jets in a bid to seize power.

More than 100,000 people, including soldiers and police officers, have been sacked or suspended in a subsequent crackdown ordered by Erdogan, raising concern both about civic rights and the effectiveness of Turkey’s security apparatus.

On Dec. 28, the Nashir Media Foundation, which backs Islamic State, urged sympathisers to carry out attacks in Europe during the holiday period and to “replace their fireworks with explosive belts and devices, and turn their singing and clapping into weeping and wailing”.

A month ago, a spokesman for Islamic State urged supporters to target “the secular, apostate Turkish government”.
Turkey has seen repeated attacks in recent weeks. On Dec. 10, two bombs claimed by Kurdish militants exploded outside a soccer stadium in Istanbul, killing 44 people.

A car bomb killed at least 13 soldiers and wounded 56 when it ripped through a bus carrying off-duty military personnel in the central city of Kayseri a week later, an attack Erdogan also blamed on Kurdish militants.
The Russian ambassador to Turkey was shot dead as he gave a speech in Ankara on Dec. 19 by an off-duty police officer who shouted “Don’t forget Aleppo” and “Allahu Akbar”.

In June, around 45 people were killed and hundreds wounded as three suspected Islamic State militants carried out a gun and bomb attack on Istanbul’s main Ataturk airport.

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Berlin terror attack: Islamic State claim responsibility as police launch new manhunt for armed gunman

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Berlin terror attack which killed 12 people and injured nearly 50.
The group’s Amaq news agency said in a statement that “the person who carried out the truck run over attack in Berlin is a soldier of the Islamic State and carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition.” 

Its claim came as German police released the man they had arrested because of lack of evidence, meaning the real culprit is still at large and armed and dangerous.

Authorities urged people to remain “particularly vigilant” and to report “suspicious movement” to a special hotline.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has visited the scene and paid her respects for the victims by laying a single white rose. Tonight, she joined the city’s residents for a church service just yards from the horror.

Earlier it emerged that police under increasing pressure to find those responsible had spent 24 hours questioning the wrong man.

“We have the wrong man,” an unnamed police source told Welt newspaper earlier. “This means the situation is different. The real culprit is still armed and can commit further atrocities.”

The man arrested on Monday night under suspicion of ploughing a 7-tonne truck through a Christmas market in the heart of Berlin, killing 12, was named in German media reports as a 23-year-old asylum seeker of Pakistani origin. 

He denied involvement in the attack, according to police, and this evening he was freed.

The Welt daily reported that police raided a large shelter for asylum-seekers at Berlin’s defunct Tempelhof airport overnight. Four men are understood to have been questioned, but not arrested.

At least 48 were injured, some seriously, in the attack, after the vehicle mounted the pavement at about 40mph and crashed into them.

A passenger in the lorry – believed to be the original driver – was later found dead inside. German authorities confirmed that the passenger was a Polish national and that he was not the person in control of the vehicle, which belonged to a Polish delivery company, at the time of the crash.