IS claims responsibility for Texas cartoon attack

CAIRO (AP) — The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Tuesday for a weekend attack at a center near Dallas, Texas, exhibiting cartoon depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.

An audio statement on the extremist group's Al Bayan radio station said that "two soldiers of the caliphate" carried out Sunday's attack and promised to deliver more in the future.

The statement did not provide details and it was unclear whether the group was opportunistically claiming the attack as its own. It was the first time the Islamic State, which frequently calls for attacks against the West, had claimed responsibility for one in the United States.

Two suspects in Sunday's attack in the Dallas suburb of Garland were shot dead after opening fire at a security guard outside the center.

It was unclear whether the group, which has captured large swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq, had an actual hand in the operation, or whether the two suspects had pledged allegiance to the group and then carried out the attack on their own.

The suspects have been identified by officials as Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi. They opened fire in on an unarmed security officer stationed outside the contest center featuring cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.

According to mainstream Islamic tradition, any physical depiction of the Prophet Muhammad — even a respectful one — is considered blasphemous, and drawings similar to those featured at the Texas event have sparked violence around the world.

The IS statement was read on the Al Bayan radio, which is based in the Syrian city of Raqqa, the group has proclaimed the capital of its self-styled caliphate.

"We tell ... America that what is coming will be more grievous and more bitter and you will see from the soldiers of the Caliphate what will harm you, God willing," it said.

There have been numerous attack in Western countries believed related in some way to the group, which holds roughly a third of Iraq and Syria.

In October, Canada was hit by two terror attacks by so-called "lone wolves" believed to have been inspired by the Islamic State group. In Ottawa, a gunman shot and killed a soldier at Canada's National War Memorial and then stormed Parliament before being gunned down. Two days earlier, a man ran over two soldiers in a parking lot in Quebec, killing one and injuring the other before being shot to death by police.

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Associated Press writers Zeina Karam and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

About a year ago, the world was horrified to learn of a roving group of Islamic extremists who terrorized northern Nigeria and raided a girls’ school in an area known as Chibok. In the dead of night, the militants of Boko Haram kidnapped nearly 300 girls at gunpoint, a mass abduction that sparked global outrage. It fueled a social media campaign with the popular hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.

Now, the Nigerian military says it has freed nearly 700 captives, including 275 that were being treated at a refugee camp in the eastern city of Yola on Sunday for malnutrition and various injuries sustained during their harrowing escape, The Associated Press reports. Yet, it’s unclear whether the schoolgirls were among those freed; it was rumored that some were forced into marriage with Boko Haram fighters.

Sadly, the story of their freedom is no less harrowing than the tales of their abduction. As the AP puts it:

“Even with the crackle of gunfire signaling rescuers were near, the horrors did not end: Boko Haram fighters stoned captives to death, some girls and women were crushed by an armored car and three died when a land mine exploded as they walked to freedom.”

Lami Musa, 27, and her newborn baby survived the stoning, which ended when Boko Haram fighters finally fled the Nigerian military. She told the AP that she cradled her daughter from the hail of rocks, shielding the curly-haired baby just days after giving birth to her, and then fled on ankles still badly swollen from the pregnancy.

Musa had been a captive for five months, after fighters came to her village and killed her husband before abducting her. On Sunday, a day after her painful walk to freedom, Musa was joyous: Her milk had come in, and she was able to breast-feed her newborn daughter for the first time.

While it’s unclear whether all “our girls” are safe yet, one tiny girl who was born in captivity is free of the horrors.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's new Armata tank appeared in public for the first time Monday, rumbling down a broad Moscow avenue on its way to Red Square for the final rehearsal of the Victory Day parade.

The Russian Defense Ministry last month released photographs of the tank, but its turret was covered with fabric and only the platform was visible. Monday was the first time that the tank was shown uncovered.

The Armata will be a highlight of the military parade on Saturday, the 70th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. About 200 pieces of military hardware and 16,500 troops will take part in the parade on Red Square.

Russian and some Western military experts say the Armata will surpass all Western versions. The tank is the first to have an internal armored capsule housing its three-man crew and a remotely controlled turret with an automatic weapons loading system, features that allow for increasing both the level of crew protection and the efficiency of the tank's weapons.

The Armata designers also envisage the use of the same platform for several other machines, including a heavy armored infantry vehicle, a self-propelled heavy howitzer and combat support vehicle. This would cut production costs and streamline technical support and maintenance.

The pioneering design potentially puts the Armata ahead of Western competition, but it is yet unclear whether the Russian weapons industries will be able to meet the ambitious production plan for the new tank.

Under a major weapons modernization program, the military is reportedly set to receive 2,300 Armatas by 2020, but those plans may face revision with the Russian economy reeling under the impact of slumping oil prices and Western sanctions.

Oleg Bochkaryov, a deputy head of the Military Industrial Commission, a government panel dealing with weapons procurement, said last week that the Armata will enter service next year. He said the new tank will not be sold abroad at least for another five years.

Last month, when President Vladimir Putin of Russia announced plans to sell a powerful anti-missile system to Iran before the lifting of international sanctions, Israel was quick to join the U.S. in expressing shock and anger.

But behind the public announcements is a little-known web of arms negotiations and secret diplomacy. In recent years, Israel and Russia have engaged in a complex dance, with Israel selling drones to Russia while remaining conspicuously neutral toward Ukraine and hoping to stave off Iranian military development. The dance may not be over.

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Critics of the Russian move say it undermines efforts to apply pressure to Iran by removing one building block of a sanctions regime that will be hard to put back together. It would also enhance Iran’s defenses against a potential U.S. or Israeli attack, as both countries have said they’d consider using force if diplomacy fails.

Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warned that the missiles, known as S-300s, would provide the Islamic Republic with a military shield that would encourage further adventurism, and expressed concern they could end up in the hands of Iranian allies like Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

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Others argued that the Russian move shouldn’t be taken at face value.

“The public announcement of the possible sale of S-300 to Iran is no more than a political gesture aimed at the U.S. to motivate it in restraining its arms transfers to Ukraine,” says Konstantin Makienko, deputy head of Moscow’s Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies.“In any case deliveries of S-300s to Iran will remain a bargaining chip between Moscow, the United States and Israel in talks on a wide range of issues.”

One of those issues is Israel’s neutrality toward Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have waged war over the past year. Israel has held back from selling weapons to the government in Kiev, which is backed by the U.S. and European Union, in the hope of keeping Russia’s S-300s away from Iran. It’s reportedly reconsidering that position

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“Israel has come under a lot of pressure for not joining the all-Western consensus on the Ukrainian crisis,” said Sarah Feinberg, a research fellow at Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies. “It was a difficult decision for the Israeli government, which was concerned about possible Russian retaliatory moves in the Mideast - such as selling the S-300 to Iran.”

On April 18 Putin cautioned Israel against selling arms to Ukraine, saying it “will only lead to yet another swirl of confrontation, to more human casualties, but the result will be the same.”

Putin’s concern over Israeli arms sales to Ukraine, including drones, is not without basis. Last October, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin visited Israel and told local journalists his country was very interested in importing Israeli drones, especially to monitor ceasefire agreements with Russian-backed separatists.

Just a month earlier, Israel’s Channel 2 television reported that Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd., the country’s top producer of unmanned aerial vehicles, had agreed to sell Ukraine drones. The deal foundered over opposition from within the Israeli government, Channel 2 said, without citing sources.

An Israeli official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter on record, said the drones sale to Ukraine was quashed after Putin phoned Netanyahu to object. Netanyahu’s office, the Israeli Defense Ministry and IAI declined comment. A Putin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, didn’t reply to messages seeking comment.

While Ukraine may not have gotten the Israeli drones, Russia already has -- in an earlier deal that sources say has a direct connection with the S-300 sale.

Russia expressed interest in buying Israeli drones after coming up against them during the 2008 war with Georgia. In 2010 Russia concluded a deal to purchase 15 of them from IAI, and to set up a joint venture to produce drone technology.

An Israeli familiar with the matter said the drone deal with Russia carried an unwritten quid pro quo: It would proceed only if the Kremlin suspended its announced S-300 sale to Iran. Now having gotten the Israeli technology, the Israeli said, that promise is no longer a factor in Russian considerations.

“Sending drones or other arms to Ukraine would be an ineffective, even inconsequential Israeli response to Russia selling the S-300s to Iran,” said Feinberg. More effective, she said, would be for Israel to lift its political neutrality on the Ukrainian conflict, or take actions in the Middle East against Russian regional allies such as the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.

IAI says it sells drones to 50 international clients but wouldn’t provide figures. Israel overall is the biggest global exporter of UAV products and services, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, and consultancy group Frost & Sullivan estimates that Israeli drones garnered at least $4.6 billion in export sales from 2005-2013.

On April 23 Russia did appear to backtrack somewhat on its earlier announcement of the S-300 sale to Iran, with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov telling the Interfax news agency that delivery won’t occur soon, and would only happen after political and legal issues were resolved. In his April 16 call-in show on Russian television, Putin acknowledged that Israeli objections had scuttled a potential S-300 sale to another Mideast nation, reportedly Syria.

Russian analyst Makienko suggests that what occurred in public over the S-300 sale was essentially political theater. “It is likely that behind the curtain, the announcement of lifting the embargo on the sale of the S-300 was agreed with Israel in advance,” he said. “So Israel’s response to this Russian decision was just going through the motions.”

Dakar (AFP) - Senegal on Monday said it would send 2,100 soldiers to Saudi Arabia to join Riyadh's military coalition battling rebels in Yemen, at the request of Saudi King Salman.

Foreign Minister Mankeur Ndiaye made the announcement in a speech to the National Assembly, according to a copy of the remarks obtained by AFP.

He did not specify when the troops would be deployed, and officials did not immediately provide further details.

Ndiaye said Riyadh originally asked Dakar to contribute to the Saudi-led coalition at the beginning of April.

Senegalese President Micky Sall "decided to respond favourably to this request by deploying a contingent of 2,100 men to the holy land of Saudi Arabia".

"The terms and other necessary arrangements for the deployment were made between the chiefs of the armed forces of the two countries," the foreign minister said.

The Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes against Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels and their allies on March 26 after they seized control of large parts of the country and advanced on the main southern city of Aden, where President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi had taken refuge.

Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia and the Huthis -- who have joined forces with army units loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh -- have refused to concede territory or down arms despite international pressure.

According to Ndiaye, previous Senegalese military deployments to the Middle East have included serving as part of the international coalition that liberated Kuwait following Iraq's invasion of the country in 1990.

Since independence from France in 1960, the country has deployed nearly 25,000 soldiers in more than 20 peacekeeping operations, he said.