Homeland Security News

The White House said Thursday that the U.S. has killed Qassim al-Rimi, the leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

A White House statement said al-Rimi was killed in Yemen but did not say when. The counterterrorism operation was conducted at the direction of President Donald Trump, it said.

Tribal leaders in Yemen said Saturday that a suspected U.S. drone strike destroyed a building housing al Qaeda militants the previous week, and Trump retweeted several tweets and media reports that seemed to offer confirmation that the Jan. 25 strike killed al-Rimi, The Associated Press reported at the time. The Arabian Peninsula branch is often referred to as AQAP.

"Under Rimi, AQAP committed unconscionable violence against civilians in Yemen and sought to conduct and inspire numerous attacks against the United States and our forces," the White House said.

Read more: NBC News

The FBI has elevated its assessment of the threat posed by racially motivated violent extremists in the U.S. to a "national threat priority" for fiscal year 2020, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday. He said the FBI is placing the risk of violence from such groups "on the same footing" as threats posed to the country by foreign terrorist organizations such as ISIS and its sympathizers.

"Not only is the terror threat diverse — it's unrelenting," Wray said at an oversight hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.

Racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists, or domestic terrorists motivated by racial or religious hatred, make up a "huge chunk" of the FBI's domestic terrorism investigations, Wray said in statements before the Senate Homeland Security Committee last November. The majority of those attacks are "fueled by some type of white supremacy," he said.

Read more: KUTV

The man accused of killing 22 people and wounding two dozen more in a shooting that targeted Mexicans in the border city of El Paso, Texas, has been charged with federal hate crimes, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

Federal prosecutors were expected to announce multiple charges against the suspected gunman, Patrick Crusius of Allen, Texas, later Thursday at a news conference in El Paso, according to the source, who had direct knowledge of the case but was not authorized to disclose details of the indictment before the official announcement and spoke to on condition of anonymity.

A manifesto attributed to the suspect in the Aug. 3 shooting, during a busy back-to-school shopping day, said the attack was aimed at scaring Hispanics into leaving the United States.

Read more: AP

THE PSNI HAS said that it believes dissident republicans were behind a bomb plot that saw an explosive device attached to a lorry being found in Co Armagh.

Police say they were first informed on 31 January that an explosive device was in a lorry in Belfast docks. The report stated that the lorry was due to travel by ferry to Scotland.

Friday 31 January was the day the UK exited the EU.

A thorough search by both the PSNI of Belfast Harbour and Police Scotland found nothing and the ferry sailed safely to Scotland.

Read more: MSN