Summary of Terrorist Incidents and CT Operations: April 2013
Counter-Terrorism Action
This monthly report has extensive coverage of incidents which took place in Asia, specifically pertaining to events in Nepal. On 13 April, Mohsin Khosravian, an Iranian national carrying a forged Israeli passport, was arrested by Israeli Embassy personnel in Kathmandu, suspected of planning to carry out a series of attacks against Israeli institutions and tourists in Nepal. Authorities in Nepal said they believed that the man entered Nepal on 3 April on a false Israeli passport while concealing his genuine Iranian documents in his luggage. Khosravian, was carrying a tourist map of the neighborhood when he was detained, initially told police he had been looking for a computer shop to repair his laptop. He later admitted travelling from Iran to the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, where he had been given the forged passport that named him as “Alexander”. Subsequently, he flew to Sri Lanka, and from there to Kathmandu. He claimed that after facing loss in his garment business, he arrived in Nepal intending to go to Europe to seek asylum. He was discovered when his Thai wife and two of his Iranian relatives arrived in Kathmandu from Bangkok, where Mohsin has been residing for five years. Other Asia countries discussed in the report include: Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Thailand.
Terrorist Incidents
In the USA, the report highlighted 2013 Boston Marathon bombing attack that killed three people and wounded 264 others, many seriously. The suspects initially escaped. On 18 April, shortly after the FBI released images of the suspects, an MIT police officer identified as Sean Collier, 27, was killed and a civilian was carjacked by the suspects. Police managed to chase the suspects resulting in a firefight in which one of the suspects Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed. The second suspect, Tamerlan’s younger brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev escaped leading to an unprecedented manhunt in the area of Watertown. On 19 April, following a lockdown of the area, a Watertown resident helped police find the suspect who was hiding in his boat in his back yard. Dzhokhar was arrested and taken to a hospital with injuries to the throat. On 22 April, Dzhokhar was charged while still in the hospital, with use of a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property resulting in death.
Other countries covered in the April 2013 IDRP are: Canada, France, Israel and West Bank, Italy, Iraq, Libya, Spain, Somalia, Syria, Thailand, Tunisia, the United Kingdom and Yemen.
