Mali Forces Kill Senior Figure in ISIS Affiliate

Malian soldiers are pictured during a patrol with soldiers from the new Takuba force near Niger border in Dansongo Circle, Mali August 23, 2021. REUTERS/ Paul Lorgerie
Malian soldiers are pictured during a patrol with soldiers from the new Takuba force near Niger border in Dansongo Circle, Mali August 23, 2021. REUTERS/ Paul Lorgerie
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Mali Forces Kill Senior Figure in ISIS Affiliate

Malian soldiers are pictured during a patrol with soldiers from the new Takuba force near Niger border in Dansongo Circle, Mali August 23, 2021. REUTERS/ Paul Lorgerie
Malian soldiers are pictured during a patrol with soldiers from the new Takuba force near Niger border in Dansongo Circle, Mali August 23, 2021. REUTERS/ Paul Lorgerie

Malian forces killed Abu Huzeifa, a commander for a West African affiliate of the ISIS group, during a large-scale operation in the northern region of Menaka, the Malian authorities said in a statement read on state television on Monday.
Huzeifa's death on Sunday had been confirmed after the operation in the region's Indelimane sector, they said, but did not give further details.
The US State Department's Rewards for Justice program offers a bounty of up to $5 million for information on Huzeifa for his alleged participation in a 2017 attack in neighboring Niger that killed four US and four Nigerien soldiers, Reuters reported.
Over the past decade, attacks by groups linked to al Qaeda and ISIS have killed thousands of people in Mali, Niger, and neighboring Burkina Faso, destabilizing West Africa's central Sahel region.
As of March, the protracted security and humanitarian crisis had displaced over 3 million people in the region, according to the International Organization for Migration.



Trump Administration to Cancel Student Visas of Pro-Palestinian Protesters

The Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza led to several months of pro-Palestinian protests that roiled US college campuses. (AFP)
The Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza led to several months of pro-Palestinian protests that roiled US college campuses. (AFP)
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Trump Administration to Cancel Student Visas of Pro-Palestinian Protesters

The Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza led to several months of pro-Palestinian protests that roiled US college campuses. (AFP)
The Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza led to several months of pro-Palestinian protests that roiled US college campuses. (AFP)

US President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Wednesday to combat antisemitism and pledge to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests, a White House official said.

A fact sheet on the order promises "immediate action" by the Justice Department to prosecute "terroristic threats, arson, vandalism and violence against American Jews" and marshal all federal resources to combat what it called "the explosion of antisemitism on our campuses and streets" since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

"To all the resident aliens who joined in the protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you," Trump said in the fact sheet.

"I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before."

The Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza led to several months of pro-Palestinian protests that roiled US college campuses, with civil rights groups documenting rising antisemitic, anti-Arab and Islamophobic incidents.

The order will require agency and department leaders to provide the White House with recommendations within 60 days on all criminal and civil authorities that could be used to fight antisemitism, and would demand "the removal of resident aliens who violate our laws."

The fact sheet said protesters engaged in pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, blocked Jewish students from attending classes and assaulted worshippers at synagogues, as well as vandalizing US monuments and statues.

Many pro-Palestinian protesters denied supporting Hamas or engaging in antisemitic acts, and said they were demonstrating against Israel's military assault on Gaza, where health authorities say more than 47,000 people have been killed.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a large Muslim advocacy group, accused the Trump administration of an assault on "free speech and Palestinian humanity under the guise of combating antisemitism," and described Wednesday's order as "dishonest, overbroad and unenforceable."

During his 2024 election campaign, Trump promised to deport those he called "pro-Hamas" students in the United States on visas.

On his first day in office, he signed an executive order that rights groups say lays the groundwork for the reinstatement of a ban on travelers from predominantly Muslim or Arab countries, and offers wider authorities to use ideological exclusion to deny visa requests and remove individuals already in the country.