Dilitas Weekly International Security Brief

?Dilitas Weekly Security Brief

Dilitas provides the following services:

INVESTIGATIONS

DUE DILIGENCE

SURVEILLANCE

CLOSE PROTECTION

SECURITY CONSULTANCY

The threat to the UK from International Terrorism is?SUBSTANTIAL

The threat to Great Britain from Irish Republican Terrorism is?SUBSTANTIAL

Threat levels are designed to give a broad indication of the likelihood of a terrorist attack.

LOW means an attack is unlikely

MODERATE means an attack is possible, but not likely

SUBSTANTIAL means an attack is a strong possibility

SEVERE means an attack is highly likely

CRITICAL means an attack is expected imminently

AFRICA

The alleged leader of a kidnapping gang has been arrested in Nigeria along with 29 other suspects.

The Ethiopian government has denied an accusation that it is blocking aid from reaching the Tigray region, where there has been conflict for more than a year.

UN experts have drawn up a list of 142 people to be investigated over gross human rights abuses in South Sudan.

Medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has asked Ethiopia to respond to a media report that government forces killed three of their staff members in conflict-hit region of Tigray last year.

Belgian gold dealer Alain Goetz and a network of companies have been sanctioned by the US for allegedly smuggling hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of gold from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

ASIA

Pakistani law enforcement agencies have claimed to have averted terror attacks on government buildings and security personnel as it arrested five terrorists belonging to Al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) from the country’s Punjab province on Saturday.

North Korea has fired an "unknown projectile" which appeared to fail immediately after launch, South Korea's military said.

Tributes have been paid to a British kabaddi player who was killed in northern India. Sandeep Singh Sandhu, from West Bromwich, was shot in Mallian Khurd, outside Jalandhar, in Punjab, on Monday.

AUSTRALIA

Australian PM Scott Morrison says he will declare a national emergency over flooding in two states. The disaster in New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland has killed 20 people and inundated thousands of homes in the past two weeks, after record rains.

EUROPE

Russian forces have conducted a second hypersonic missile strike against Ukrainian targets, Moscow's defence ministry has said. Officials said the strike, using Russia's new Kinzhal missile system, destroyed a fuel storage site in the south of the country.

An art school in Mariupol, where about 400 people were sheltering, was attacked, the city council says

Officials say the building has been destroyed and people could be trapped under the rubble

Ukraine's president says Russia's attacks on the southern port city of Mariupol will be remembered for centuries

Volodymyr Zelensky alleges that Russia committed war crimes in the city, where heavy fighting has now reached the centre

It comes as officials there allege thousands of residents have been forcibly taken to Russian cities. The BBC is yet to verify the claim

The UK defence ministry, meanwhile, says Russia had failed to gain control of the air and is relying on weapons launched from its own airspace

Ukraine's military says Russia paused offensive operations on Saturday, instead replenishing supplies and repairing equipment

More than 3.3 million people have fled the conflict, which has been raging for more than three weeks

Scores of Ukrainian soldiers are feared to have been killed after an attack on a military barracks on Friday. About 200 soldiers were sleeping in the barracks when three Russian missiles hit the base on the northern edge of Mykolaiv, a source told the BBC. Some 57 injured people were being treated in hospitals, another source said.

A US military plane has crashed in northern Norway, killing all four passengers on board. The aircraft, which belonged to the US Marine Corps, was taking part in a Nato exercise when it came down on Friday.

Seven people have been charged after an armed robbery was staged last month on the French film set of hit Netflix series 'Lupin'.

At least four people have been killed after a car rammed into a crowd in southern Belgium. The incident happened in the small town of Strépy-Bracquegnies, about 30 miles (50km) south of the capital Brussels.

UK

A 15 year old from Leeds has on Friday, March 18 appeared, via video link, before Westminster Magistrates charged with engaging in the preparation of an act of terrorism He was arrested on Saturday, March 12 as part of a pre-planned, intelligence led operation. A seven-day Warrant of Further detention was granted on Sunday, March 13.

A murder investigation has been launched after a woman was shot in north Dublin on Saturday, Gardaí (Irish police) have confirmed.

THE AMERICAS

Nearly 100 planes with ties to Russia have been effectively grounded by the US government, including one owned by billionaire Roman Abramovich.

Worshippers at a Canada mosque have confronted and restrained a man who was allegedly wielding an axe and attacked them with bear spray during Saturday morning prayers, police say.

More than 100 people who took part in rare anti-government protests in Cuba in July have been sentenced to lengthy jail terms of between six and 30 years.

A suspected drug lord, whose arrest sparked clashes in north-eastern Mexico, has been deported to the US.

CYBER/CRYPTO/HACKING

Russian government websites including the Kremlin's own have been hit by unprecedented cyber attacks, with desperate efforts made to filter foreign web traffic. State entities and Kremlin-owned companies have been targeted since the start of the war in Ukraine, the TASS news agency reported via the digital ministry on Thursday. Flagship carrier Aeroflot and major lender Sberbank are among those which have seen outages or temporary access issues in recent weeks.

A week after Ukrainian military officials detailed how the hack of Viasat satellite modems caused a “huge loss” in communications right as the Russian army invaded, the FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have issued a new joint advisory warning American and allied satellite owners and operators that they “are aware of possible threats to U.S. and international satellite communication networks.”

Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) says the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) and other Chinese intelligence agencies are trying to get more info on the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine. Google TAG Security Engineer Billy Leonard says Google notified Ukrainian government organisations targeted by a Chinese-sponsored hacking group.

Germany's cyber-security authority has warned against using anti-virus software from Russian headquartered company Kaspersky.

Australia has launched legal action against Facebook's parent company Meta, alleging it allowed scam ads to target users with fake celebrity endorsements.