Homeland Security News

Coalition forces killed a top Islamic State commander earlier this month, the Pentagon announced Friday, the latest blow to the terror group’s command structure in its Syrian stronghold.

Abd ar-Rahman Mustafa al-Qaduli, a senior religious leader for the terrorist group, was killed in Syria, said the official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the attack. Al-Qaduli went by the alias Haji Imam. The U.S. had a $7 million bounty on his head.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said he would not describe how al-Qaduli was killed, citing operational security concerns. Al-Qaduli's demise comes on the heels of the death of Islamic State senior operative Omar al-Shishani, who was targeted in an airstrike earlier this month

Read more: USA Today

More than 800 people held captive by the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram were rescued in two separate missions, the Nigerian army reported.

Read more: UPI

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on Thursday said police had foiled a terror plot that was in its “advanced stages” following an arrest and a subsequent search of the suspect's apartment in the northern Paris suburb of Argenteuil.

Read more: France 24

Nine days before the Paris attacks, Islamic State leaders gathered in the Syrian town of Tabqah to talk about what was coming next for the terror organisation.

In what marked a critical phase in the group’s evolution, there was to be a new focus on exporting chaos to Europe, the assembled men were told. And up to 200 militants were in place across the continent ready to receive orders.

Read more: The Guardian (UK)

Belgian police have arrested six people in Brussels as a major investigation continues into attacks that claimed 31 lives in the city on Tuesday.

The arrests were made in the Schaerbeek district. Separately, in France, a suspect who was plotting an attack has been arrested near Paris. 

Read more: BBC News