Fatal car crash
Jenner’s Cadillac Escalade rear ends a Lexus on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, causing it to veer into oncoming traffic where it is hit by a Hummer. The driver of the Lexus dies at the scene. Witness:
Bruce seemed physically okay after the accident, but he acted extremely concerned about the other people involved. There was one fatality and several other people were injured. Bruce walked around the accident scene without obvious injuries, but his car was damaged.
Clips bridge, crashes
TransAsia Airways flight GE235 clips a highway bridge shortly after takeoff then crashes into the Keelung River in Taiwan. Of the 58 passengers aboard the plane, at least 25 are dead, 15 are rescued and 18 are missing. The cause of the accident is unknown. TransAsia director Peter Chen:
Actually this aircraft in the accident was the newest model. It hadn’t been used for even a year.
12 dead, 8 injured
Three masked gunmen kill 12 people, including the editor, and injure eight in an alleged terrorist attack on the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine. The search for the gunmen continues. One gunman, according to French video:
Hey! We avenged the Prophet Muhammed! We killed Charlie Hebdo.
French President Francois Hollande:
[This is] a terrorist attack without a doubt
US skiers die
Two US ski team prospects, Ronnie Berlack, 20, of Franconia, N.H., and Bryce Astle, 19, of Sandy, Utah, die during an avalanche while free skiing at the Austrian resort of Soelden. U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association President and CEO Tiger Shaw:
Ronnie and Bryce were both outstanding ski racers who were passionate about their sport – both on the race course and skiing the mountain. Our hearts go out to the Berlack and Astle families, as well as to their extended sport family. Both of them loved what they did and conveyed that to those around them.
Baga massacre
The group carries out series of mass killings in Nigerian town of Baga and surrounding areas. Over 2,000 people are killed. Muhammad Abba Gava, a civilian defense group spokesman:
The human carnage perpetrated by Boko Haram terrorists in Baga was enormous. No one could attend to the corpses and even the seriously injured ones who may have died by now.
Ferry catches fire
An Italian Ferry, the Norman Atlantic, catches fire in the Adriatic Sea, on route from Patras in western Greece to the eastern Italian city of Ancona.. Italian and Greek forces are involved in the rescue operation to save over 400 passengers and crew members. The fire begins at approximately 6:00 a.m. Passengers phone Greek television stations with live reports of the event. One passenger states:
They tried to lower some boats, but not all of us could get in. There is no co-ordination. It’s dark, the bottom of the vessel is on fire. We are on the bridge, we can see a boat approaching … we opened some boxes and got some life vests. We are trying to save ourselves.
Warplane not shot down
The U.S. military dismisses a claim that ISIS shot down a jet piloted by a Jordanian airforce pilot, and confirms the group has taken the pilot captive. CentCom statement:
Evidence clearly indicates that ISIL did not down the aircraft as the terrorist organization is claiming. We strongly condemn the actions of ISIL, which has taken captive the downed pilot
We will support efforts to ensure his safe recovery, and will not tolerate ISIL’s attempts to misrepresent or exploit this unfortunate aircraft crash for their own purposes.
The Jordanians are highly respected and valued partners and their pilots and crews have performed exceptionally well over the course of this campaign.
Turning churches into torture chambers
ISIS is reported to be turning Christian churches into torture chambers and stripping the former places of worship of ancient relics, which they are smuggling to Western collectors to help fund their terrorist activity. Christians are being held captive in make-shift torture chambers set up in raided churches in Qaraqosh. Jerusalem Post report:
This is why they are crucifying Christians — which includes children — destroying churches and selling artifacts. ‘The reality is, this group will stop at practically nothing to raise funds for its terrorist mission.
Captures pilot
The group captures the Jordanian pilot after his plane crashes in Syria while carrying out airstrikes. He was in an F-16 and was able to eject. He is the first foreign fighter to fall into the militant group’s hands since the bombing campaign began several months ago.
Threatens to use nuclear bomb in London
ISIS followers claim that they have assembled a dirty bomb from 40kg of uranium they found at Mosul University in July. One militant tweets about the impact the group anticipates if they were able to detonate it in London:
[..] terribly destructive
There is not further information on how ISIS would transport the weapon to the UK or if they have developed a viable bomb, however Iraq’s ambassador to the UN states that this could be considered the group having developed a weapon of mass destruction.
Peter Kassig beheaded
ISIS releases a video showing the beheading of a dozen Syrian soldiers that ends with a militant standing over a severed head he says belongs to Kassig. U.S. officials said they are working to determine the video’s authenticity. The main militant has a British accent (although the video appears to have been distorted to hide the speaker’s identity) and warns that U.S. soldiers will meet a similar fate.
We say to you, Obama: … You claim to have withdrawn from Iraq four years ago. Here you are: You have not withdrawn. Rather, you hid some of your forces behind your proxies.
The militant claims Kassig was killed because he “fought against the Muslims in Iraq, while serving as a soldier”. Kassig’s family says it is awaiting the outcome of the investigation.
The family respectfully asks that the news media avoid playing into the hostage takers’ hands and refrain from publishing or broadcasting photographs or video distributed by the hostage takers. We prefer our son is written about and remembered for his important work and the love he shared with friends and family, not in the manner the hostage takers would use to manipulate Americans and further their cause.
Audio recording released
A 17-minute recording apparently of Baghdadi’s voice is released, his first public statement since U.S. airstrikes began against ISIS, and comes six days after he was reported to have been injured in a strike. Baghdadi is said to vow that ISIS will resist the ‘crusader campaign,’ and calls for ‘volcanoes of jihad,’ while saying that the group prefers death to humiliation of defeat or surrender. Recording:
God has ordered us to fight. For that reason the soldiers of the Islamic State are fighting… they will never leave fighting, even if only one soldier remains. They will never leave fighting, because they reject humiliation.
ISIS, Al Qaeda in accord
A Syrian opposition commander and a high level militant say leaders from the two groups met between midnight and 4 a.m. at a farmhouse in northern Syria to agree to stop fighting each other and fight together against their opponents. The accord is believed to be fragile, and won’t soon extend to a full merger of the Islamic State (ISIS) and Nusra, Syria’s Al Qaeda affiliate. But it is expected to increase the level of opposition that more moderate rebels fighting against both the extremist groups and the Assad government, and backed by the U.S.-led international coalition, are facing in the conflict.
Video shows slave market
Video appears to show ISIS fighters bargaining over prices for Yazidi women at a slave market. One man says that he will pay more for a girl with blue eyes, while another says he wants a 15-year-old girl with green eyes. Fighter:
Today is distribution day, God willing. Everyone takes his share.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=303_1414937675
Terrorists post 90 tweets a minute
The Saudi-based Sakina NGO finds that terrorist groups including ISIS post 90 propaganda tweets a minute. ISIS, Al-Nusra and other groups posted 129,600 tweets in October. Sakina official:
The nature of the extremist can be understood by analysing his posts, identifying his social circle and understanding his internal motives and history
Sydney Shias fear beheading after man shot
The Shia community in Sydney warn that tensions could escalate to an ISIS-style beheading, after an Islamic leader is shot outside his Islamic prayer centre in an industrial part of Greenacre suburb. The preacher is hit in the shoulder and head by pellets hours after people drive past the Shia centre, shouting threats about ISIS. His injuries aren’t life threatening. Shia community leader:
This is a warning, a strong warning. Something bigger could happen. I hear a lot of people in the community warning that something like beheading people could happen here. There is a lot of talk in the community that they need more action from the authorities to prevent this.
Kills 50 tribespeople
ISIS militants are reported to have lined up and shot 50 men, women, and children from the Sunni Al Bu Nimr tribe in the village of Ras al-Maa, north of Ramadi. The number of tribespeople killed in the last few days is now 150.
20-30 Gitmo detainees join radical groups
Intelligence and Department of Defense officials believe that 20-30 former Guantanamo Bay detainees released within the last two to three years have joined groups like ISIS, Al Nusra and Al Qaeda. Of the 620 detainees released from Guantanamo Bay, 180 have returned or are suspected to have returned to the battlefield. Officials say most of those 20 to 30 are operating inside Syria, while some are providing support including financing to radical groups from outside the country.
More than 2,500 Yazidi women kidnapped
A researcher at the University of Bristol’s Gender and Violence Research Centre says at least 2,500 women from the minority sect have been kidnapped and subjected to abuse. Nazand Begikhani:
These women have been treated like cattle. They have been subjected to physical and sexual violence, including systematic rape and sex slavery. They’ve been exposed in markets in Mosul and in Raqqa, Syria, carrying price tags.
A survivor, asked what she would say to the 70-year-old Arab man who took her home and ordered her to convert to Islam at gunpoint:
I wouldn’t want to tell him anything. I just want to kill him.
She says she has given up a dream of being a doctor that she had before being taken by ISIS.
Australia threat led to U.S. alert
House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., says a recent message to ISIS recruits in Australia to attack in their own country rather than traveling to Syria was part of the threat stream that led to Homeland Security increasing security at federal buildings. He says 14 recruits were ready to travel:
They got a note back from ISIL that said: ‘No, No.What we want you to do, stay in Australia. We want you to randomly kidnap people off the street behead them, videotape it, send it to us for further propaganda’.
He says the Australian beheading plot in mid-September was the culmination of that message. Terror activity in Canada, the U.S., Germany, France, Spain and parts of Europe has similar motivation:
What you know now is these folks are sending out that message that spontaneous terrorism is the word of the day, and that’s what’s so concerning to individuals that they’re radicalizing these folks to attack government officials. They wanted to have a high-profile event in a Western country.