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Two rival criminal groups have been hit with what police describe as the largest ever gang injunction.

Eighteen men, aged between 19 and 29 and some in prison, are banned from parts of Birmingham and must register phones and vehicles with police.

The two-year orders aim to disrupt gang-related violence between the Burger Bar Boys and Johnson Crew.
West Midlands Police said it was “a landmark ruling”.

The orders follow a spate of firearms offences in the city in 2015 and 2016, but the gangs have struck fear across parts of Birmingham for many years.

They gained notoriety in 2003 when their violent feud claimed the lives of two girls – Letisha Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis – outside a late-night new year party in the city. Four men were later jailed for life for their murders.

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Dozens of so-called Islamic State (IS) militants are reported to have been killed in a Russian air strike near the eastern Syrian city of Deir al-Zour.

Russia’s defence ministry said at least 200 jihadists had died after its air force targeted a convoy of about 20 4x4s, armoured vehicles and tanks. It did not say when the strike took place, but a monitoring group reported that a convoy had been hit last Friday.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 70.

The activist-run Deir Ezzor 24 news network also said there had been a strike on a convoy outside Deir al-Zour on Friday that killed a number of militants.

IS has been besieging Syrian government-controlled areas of the city since 2015, leaving some 90,000 civilians dependent on air drops of aid organised by the UN.

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Lebanon’s interior minister has claimed a terror cell attempted to blow up a flight from Australia with bombs hidden in a Barbie doll and a meat grinder.

He said Amer Khayyat planned to detonate an improvised explosive device 20 minutes into an Abu-Dhabi bound flight with 400 passengers onboard.

The plan was allegedly only aborted after the luggage containing the devices was deemed overweight.

Four men were arrested in Sydney counter-terrorism raids in July. Two were released but Lebanese-Australian brothers Khaled Khayat, 49, and Mahmoud Khayat, 32 were charged with “preparing for, or planning, a terrorist attack”.

Australian authorities at the time confirmed the arrests related to a credible plot to bring down an aeroplane.

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Four men accused of belonging to the cell behind the terror attacks in and around Barcelona last week are appearing at the high court in Madrid.

The judge questioning them is deciding what charges to press over the vehicle attacks that left 15 people dead and more than 100 injured.

Eight other members of the alleged cell are dead – some killed in an explosion, others shot by police. The last suspect was killed in a vineyard west of Barcelona on Monday.

A 22-year-old Moroccan, Younes Abouyaaqoub, is thought to have been the driver of the van that rammed into crowds in Barcelona on Thursday. He was wearing a fake explosives belt and shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is Greatest”) before he was shot dead by police, said reports.

The surviving suspects were moved, under high security, from Barcelona to Madrid for Tuesday’s hearing.

Investigating judge Fernando Andreu is expected to read out the charges against them, likely to span counts of terrorism, murder and possession of arms. If they agree to testify, they will be questioned on their statements.

The hearing is likely to conclude with the suspects being remanded in custody for the duration of the investigation.

A suspect held in Finland over a knife attack that killed two people has been named as 18-year-old Moroccan asylum seeker Abderrahman Mechkah.

Police shot him in the leg and he is in hospital, but he is expected to appear in court via a video link on Tuesday.

The man appeared to choose women as targets, police said, in a rampage on Friday in Turku, south-western Finland. It is being treated as terrorism. Two Finnish women were stabbed to death. Eight other people were injured.

The injured – six of them women – included a British paramedic, a Swede and an Italian.

The paramedic, Hassan Zubier, took part in a minute’s silence for the victims on Sunday at a makeshift memorial in Turku’s market square. He is still having hospital treatment for his stab wounds, but turned up in a wheelchair. “I am not a hero. I did what I was trained for. I did my best and more,” he said. He had gone to the aid of a woman who later died.

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