Homeland Security News

A 24-year-old university student blew himself up outside police headquarters in the Indonesian city of Medan on Wednesday, wounding six people, just a month after an Islamist militant attacked a former security minister.

National police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said the student was a “lone wolf” suicide bomber, although authorities were still investigating whether he had links to any militant groups.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, has suffered a resurgence in homegrown militancy in recent years, with police frequently the target of attacks.

Read more: Reuters

Al-Shabab extremists in Somalia remain “a potent threat” to regional peace and are now manufacturing home-made explosives, expanding their revenue sources and infiltrating government institutions, U.N. experts say.

The panel of experts’ report to the Security Council, circulated Tuesday, said a significant escalation of U.S. airstrikes targeting al-Shabab militants and leaders has kept the al-Qaida-linked group “off-balance” but has had “little effect on its ability to launch regular asymmetric attacks throughout Somalia.”

The report said al-Shabab’s assault on Jan. 15 on a commercial business complex in Nairobi, Kenya, containing the DusitD2 Hotel “illustrates the danger the group continues to pose to regional peace and security.” That attack killed 21 people as well as four gunmen.

Read more: Washington Post

Two Oklahoma students are in custody after police say they attempted to set off an explosive device outside of a local school.

Officials with the Oologah Police Department told KJRH that two teenagers attempted to set off an explosive device outside of Oologah Public Schools on Friday.

Investigators allege the teens were testing the device and had plans to set off explosions inside the school, targeting items like computers. However, authorities stress they do not believe the teens were intending to harm other students.

Read more: KFOR

The U.S. wars against terrorism have lasted 18 years, and post-9/11 veterans and service members could soon have a memorial on the National Mall to honor their service.

Reps. Jason Crow, D-Colo., and Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., introduced a bill Tuesday to propose locations for a new memorial to honor veterans of the Global War on Terrorism. President Donald Trump approved the construction of a new memorial in 2017 and the proposed legislation designates options of where to build it in Washington. The three possible locations place the new memorial near the Korean, Vietnam and World War II memorials.

“In some ways, these are becoming forgotten conflicts,” said Crow, an Army veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “I never pass an opportunity to highlight these conflicts are still ongoing. We’ve been at this for almost two decades.”

Read more: Stars and Stripes