SYDNEY: Australian authorities said on Thursday they were treating as a terrorism incident an attempt to bomb a rally protesting against the country’s national day on January 26, the first such charge in the state of Western Australia.
They arrested a 31-year-old man on accusations of hurling a homemade bomb into a crowd of several thousand people in the city of Perth. No one was injured because the bomb did not explode.
Police and state leader Roger Cook said the man held white supremacist views and the attack was an attempt to target Aboriginal people, one of Australia’s two main Indigenous groups.
“This charge ... alleges the attack on Aboriginal people and other peaceful protesters was motivated by hateful, racist ideology,” Cook told a news conference. If proved, it carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Australia Day, which commemorates Britain’s colonization of the country in 1788, is a public holiday marked by picnics, barbecues and ceremonies for new citizens but it has also attracted criticism from some including in the Indigenous community, with “Invasion Day” protest rallies nationwide.
Polling shows a majority of Australians oppose moving the date of the holiday.
Australia says attempted bombing of national day protest was act of terror
https://arab.news/cepsp
Australia says attempted bombing of national day protest was act of terror
- Authorities arrest 31-year-old man on accusations of hurling a homemade bomb into a crowd in Perth
Locals in Niger say ‘terrorists’ killed 25 near Mali
- “Twenty-five self-defense militia fell on Thursday in terrorist ambushes,” a former mayor said
- The surrounding Tillaberi region is an area of operations of the Sahel branch of the Daesh militant group
ABIDJAN: Local sources in western Niger said “terrorists” killed 25 members of a militia in several villages near the Mali border.
“Twenty-five self-defense militia fell on Thursday in terrorist ambushes,” a former mayor in the commune of Anzourou told AFP — a toll confirmed by a leader from a local civil association.
“There were 25 young self-defense fighters who lost their lives and three others who were wounded and evacuated” to hospitals in Tillaberi town and Niamey, the latter source said.
The surrounding Tillaberi region is an area of operations of the Sahel branch of the Daesh militant group.
Conflict-monitoring NGO ACLED said that in 2025 Tillaberi became the deadliest region in the central Sahel, with more than 1,200 deaths recorded.
It blamed the violence mainly on the Daesh in the Sahel group, followed by the Nigerien army and the Al-Qaeda-linked Group to Support Islam and Muslims (JNIM).
The association source said the victims came from four neighboring villages — Doukou Makani, Doukou Djinde, Doukou Saraou and Doukou Koirategui.
The Anzourou district is made up of around 50 villages and hamlets in Tillaberi, which borders near the area between Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, long the scene of deadly militant attacks.
Niger has been run by a military junta since a coup in July 2023.
For the last decade, the country has been blighted by deadly militant attacks. Since the beginning of the year, there have been nearly 2,000 deaths, according to ACLED.
With the Nigerien army struggling to contain the attacks, it has tolerated the creation of self-defense militias by villagers, leading to bloody clashes with militants.
In December last year, the military regime in Niamey announced a “general mobilization” and the “requisition” of people and property to better fight the Islamists.
Niger has created a 6,000-strong joint force with Mali and Burkina Faso, countries also run by the military and facing militant violence.
