Homeland Security News

A far-right terrorist who was caught with bomb-making equipment and neo-Nazi material has been jailed by a Scottish court for 12 years.

Peter Morgan, 35, from Edinburgh, had already begun assembling an improvised bomb from ball bearings, which an expert said could have caused catastrophic injuries, and had a cache of bomb-making manuals at his home.

The police found a collection of neo-Nazi, racist and Islamophobic literature at his flat amassed over a five-year period, along with fuses, ball bearings, nail gun cartridges, a model rocket initiator, a large quantity of fireworks and propellants.

He was photographed at one neo-Nazi rally with a poster bearing the letters NF, for National Front, and the slogan “white pride worldwide” and holding a Scottish saltire flag.

Read more: The Guardian (UK)

American and European intelligence and counterterrorism officials said on Tuesday that the escalating tensions between President Trump and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey could jeopardize information sharing and law enforcement cooperation between the two countries as they fight the Islamic State in Syria.

Military commanders said plans were still underway for American and Turkish troops to conduct joint patrols near Manbij, a former Islamic State hotbed in northern Syria that was liberated by Kurdish fighters.

“That’ll start very soon,” Maj. Gen. Felix Gedney, the British deputy commander of the American-led coalition in Iraq and Syria, told reporters at the Pentagon.

Read more: New York Times

In a rare diplomatic foray and the strongest sign yet of increasing Taliban political clout in the region, the head of the insurgents' political office led a delegation to Uzbekistan to meet senior Foreign Ministry officials there, Uzbek and Taliban officials said.

Taliban political chief Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai represented the insurgents in the four-day talks that ended on Friday and included meetings with Uzbekistan's Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov as well as the country's special representative to Afghanistan Ismatilla Irgashev.

The meetings follow an offer made by Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev in March to broker peace in Afghanistan.

Read more: ABC News

A United Nations report mentioned that ISIS still has as many as 30,000 members distributed almost equally between Syria and Iraq and is supported by the al-Qaeda organization, which has become much stronger in some places due to increased Iranian support.

According to the Associated Press, the report which was prepared by UN experts on Monday, and presented to the UN Security Council, reveals that despite the defeat of ISIS in Iraq and most of Syria, it is likely that a “secret copy” of the extremists group will exist in both countries, with supporters in Afghanistan, Libya, Southeast Asia and West Africa.

Experts said the global al-Qaeda network is much stronger than in some locations, including Somalia, Yemen, South Asia and the African Sahel area.

Experts said al-Qaeda leaders in Iran had become more capable and working with al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, and they were highlighting his authority more effectively than before, particularly with regard to events in Syria.

Read more: Al-Arabiya

Two members of Marine Special Operations Command received valor awards for their heroism during a gun battle last year with al Qaeda militants in Northern Africa, a spokeswoman for U.S. Africa Command confirmed on Wednesday.

While on a three-day operation to train, advise, and assist partner forces in the unnamed country — which the command withheld due to "classification considerations, force protection, and diplomatic sensitivities" — the Marine Special Operations Team on February 28, 2017, became engaged in a "fierce fight against members of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb," according to one of the award citations for the unnamed Marines, who are often referred to as "Raiders."

Read more: Business Insider