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You could call it a demonstration of the proliferation of drone use with frightening possibilities.

Last week’s attack in northern Iraq in which a small drone exploded killing two Peshmerga fighters and badly wounding two members of the French special forces, marks something of an innovation in modern warfare.

The US launched the first armed drone attack back in October 2001. Since then the use of armed drones has been the preserve of the most sophisticated military actors in the world.

Israel and the US had the early technological lead with Russia and China rapidly developing their own drone industries. Modern military drones can operate over huge distances and remain aloft for extended periods. They have become an invaluable means of gathering intelligence and conducting surveillance. Their armed counterparts can strike with an array of precision-guided weapons. That is, if you like, the high-end of drone technology.

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Suspected Islamist militants have killed 12 soldiers and injured eight in an attack on an army checkpoint in the Sinai Peninsula, Egyptian security sources say.

The army says 15 militants were also killed in the attack, which took place near the town of Bir al-Abd. Gunmen from the Sinai Province group are reported to be behind the attack. It is Egypt’s most active insurgent group, which pledged allegiance to so-called Islamic State in 2014.

Officials said a gun battle erupted after the militants opened fire on the checkpoint with light arms and heavy machine-guns. Friday’s attack was the latest in what appears to be a surge in the number of operations launched by the militants.

Originally called Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Supporters of Jerusalem), but changed its name after it pledged allegiance to so-called Islamic State in November 2014.

Began with rocket attacks on Israel but refocused on targeting Egyptian security forces after the removal of President Morsi
Its aim is thought to be to take control of the Sinai peninsula to turn it into an Islamist province
Deadliest attacks include killing of 33 security personnel in North Sinai in October 2014
The number of active members is believed to be between 1,000 and 1,500
Believed to have cells in Cairo, Giza and the Western Desert

Profile: Sinai Province

However, the army has appeared to have had a degree of success in suppressing the militants recently, and it is some time since the fighters carried out an attack on the scale of this one. Egypt has battled militants in Sinai for years, but Islamist militancy has risen since the army deposed President Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013.

In August, the Egyptian military said it had killed the leader of Sinai Province, along with dozens of its fighters.

The death in a prison cell of a Syrian refugee suspected of planning a bomb attack in Germany is a judicial scandal, his lawyer has said.

Jaber al-Bakr, 22, hanged himself in a jail in Leipzig with his shirt and the government has demanded an immediate inquiry. His lawyer said the prison was aware Bakr was a suicide risk after he was captured on Monday. However, regional authorities said he had not been considered an acute risk.

Sebastian Gemkow, justice minister in the eastern state of Saxony, told reporters a psychological assessment of the prisoner had been made and safety measures had been taken. “It shouldn’t have happened, but it did,” he said.

Bakr’s defence lawyer, Alexander Huebner, insisted the suspect had already broken light bulbs and tampered with power sockets. “How could this happen?” he asked, pointing out that Bakr had been refusing food and drink. “He must have been the best-guarded prisoner in Germany,” the lawyer said.

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An official report has concluded that foreign spies were behind a cyber attack on the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s computer system.

The report provides new details on the 2015 attack on the BoM, which owns one of Australia’s largest supercomputers.

The Australian Broadcasting Corp previously quoted officials blaming China for the hack, which China denied. The weather bureau produces scientific research information which is valuable to other countries. Among other services, it gives climate information to commercial airlines and shipping, analyses national water supplies, gathers climate data and works closely with the defence department.

The Australian Cyber Security Centre report says that suspicious activity was detected from two computers on the bureau’s IT network last year.
Investigations found the presence of malware “popular with state-sponsored cyber adversaries, amongst other malware associated with cybercrime”. The same “Remote Access Tool” (RAT) malware had also been used to compromise other Australian government networks, said the report.

The ACSC said the malware was linked to “a foreign intelligence service” and that security controls “were insufficient to protect the network from more common threats associated with cybercrime”. It said the hackers had been “searching for and copying an unknown quantity of documents from the bureau’s network”. The report did specify which country it believed was responsible.

Unnamed sources have previously told ABC that China was behind the hack, but China said the accusations were “groundless” and “not constructive”. China has repeatedly been accused of using cyber-attacks to spy on foreign states and companies. But its officials routinely deny this, and say China is itself a victim of hacking.

Lawyers for the main suspect in last year’s Islamist attacks in Paris say they will no longer defend him as he has chosen to remain silent.

Salah Abdeslam is angered at being placed under 24-hour video surveillance, Frank Berton told BFM TV.”We said from the beginning… that if our client remained silent we would quit his defence,” he said alongside fellow lawyer Sven Mary.

The attacks in Paris last November killed 130 people.

So-called Islamic State said it was behind the coordinated assaults on bars, restaurants, a concert hall and the Stade de France.Salah Abdeslam was arrested in Brussels in March and has kept silent since his transfer to France in April.

He is being monitored 24 hours a day by video in his prison cell. Mr Berton said in May the suspect was “particularly disturbed” by the surveillance.
He told BFM TV the decision to monitor Abdeslam was a “political” one.

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