Homeland Security News

The Libyan National Army has seized most of the eastern coastal city of Derna from extremist groups who have controlled it for years, a spokesman said, amid fierce fighting since late April.

Their progress continued, with troops saying on Saturday that they have mostly cleared the Ambekh area, the largest residential neighborhood in Derna, from militants.

LNA forces used multiple light, medium and heavy weapons, amid fierce clashes on the city streets, to regain control of Derna from the grip of the Shura Mujahideen Council, they said.

Read more: Al-Arabiya

Mozambique's government has been shaken by beheadings and other deadly attacks by suspected Islamic extremists in a northeastern region touted internationally for its offshore reserves of natural gas.

Since last month, men with machetes have spread terror in several villages in Cabo Delgado province on the border with Tanzania, beheading 10 people in one attack, hacking others to death and burning vehicles and homes. At least 24 people have died and security forces have killed 11 suspected militants, the Portuguese news agency Lusa reported.

The violence started last year and included a deadly attack on police in Mocimboa da Praia town in October, prompting the Mozambican government to launch counterterrorism operations in Muslim communities where some have complained of official neglect. Relative calm has returned to Cabo Delgado's coastal areas after security forces increased their presence, Mozambican radio reported Monday.

Read more: Sacramento Bee

A 24-year-old Arizona man is facing federal charges for allegedly threatening to shoot black Harvard University students and bomb the school to "end their pro-black agenda."

On May 13, 2017, Nicholas Zuckerman allegedly made the racist and threatening comments on Harvard's Instagram page, according to the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney's Office.

"If the blacks only ceremony happens, then I encourage violence and death at it.  I'm thinking two automatics with extendo clips. Just so no [expletive] gets away," Zuckerman allegedly wrote, using a racial slur.

Read more: Mass Live

Kosovo has arrested two people, including a Belgian national, suspected of planning attacks on NATO troops and the public in Kosovo, Belgium and France, the state prosecutor said on Friday.

The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that on June 2 the pair, a man and a woman, spoke by telephone of preparing “terrorist attacks and commit suicide attacks with explosives with a car against KFOR (NATO-led Kosovo Force) soldiers in Kosovo and to attack places frequented by citizens.”

They were taken into custody on Wednesday.

The man, identified only as a 26-year-old Belgian national, was living with the woman, identified as a 25-year-old residing near the capital Pristina. According to the prosecution the man was also preparing suicide attacks in public places in Belgium and France.

Read more: Reuters

Heavy fighting in Yemen between pro-government forces and Shiite rebels has killed more than 600 people on both sides in recent days, security officials said Monday.

Government forces, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, have been advancing along the western coast in recent weeks as they battle the Iran-allied rebels, known as Houthis. The fighting has escalated as government forces close in on the Red Sea port of Hodeida, a vital lifeline through which most of Yemen’s food and medicine enters.

Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war pitting the coalition against the Iran-backed Houthis since March 2015. The coalition aims to restore the government of self-exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

The three-year stalemated war has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced more than 3 million. It has damaged Yemen’s infrastructure, crippled its health system and pushed the Arab world’s poorest country to the brink of famine.

The U.N. considers Yemen to be the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with more than 22.2 million people in need of assistance. Malnutrition, cholera and other diseases have killed or sickened thousands of civilians over the years.

Read more: AP