Islamist

BAMAKO: Malian security forces on Saturday stormed a hotel used by United Nations staff and freed four hostages held there by suspected Islamist militants during a nearly 24-hour siege in which 12 people died.

LONDON: Anjem Choudary, Britain's most high-profile Islamist preacher, well-known globally for praising the men responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, was charged on Wednesday with inviting support for Islamic State (IS).

DHAKA: Bangladesh's highest court Monday rejected a final appeal by an Islamist leader to overturn his death sentence for atrocities committed during the 1971 independence war, clearing the last legal hurdle to his execution.

AMMAN: Three months of U.S.-led strikes in Syria have so far killed at least 1,171 people, mostly Islamic State militants, a British-based Syrian monitoring group said on Tuesday.

ISTANBUL: Pope Francis on Sunday urged Muslim leaders worldwide to "clearly" condemn terrorism carried out in the name of Islam, and called for an end to the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

DUBAI: United Arab Emirates banks have been banned from doing business with some Islamist groups including the Muslim Brotherhood, their representative said, as the country's central bank won powers to freeze suspect accounts for up to seven days.

DUBAI: A group of Islamist scholars led by an influential Qatar-based cleric expressed "astonishment" on Monday at being designated a terrorist body by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), one of several Gulf Arab states that view political Islam as a security threat.

DHAKA: Bangladesh's war crimes tribunal sentenced the chief of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh to death on Wednesday for his involvement in crimes against humanity, including genocide, torture and rape, during the country's 1971 war for independence from Pakistan.

LONDON: British police arrested nine men as part of an operation into Islamist-related militancy on Thursday, with media reporting the country's most high-profile radical Muslim preacher was among those held.

EGYPT: Residents in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula said on Wednesday they found a beheaded corpse bearing a note signed by an Islamist militant group linked to the Syria and Iraq-based Islamic State, accusing the victim of being an Israeli spy.