A draft UN Security Council resolution calls for an arms embargo against Eritrea and travel bans and asset freezes for members of its government and military for aiding insurgents in Somalia. Somali pirates released a Panama-flagged ship that was seized earlier this month and alleged to be carrying a wide range of weapons. A blast […]
Iraqi security forces detained 17 wanted men in Basrah and two more in Kirkuk. Iraqi troops arrested a Hezbollah Brigade operative who leads a sniper and missiles group and is a member of a media cell that records attacks against security forces. Former Baghdad Awakening leader Adil al Mashhadani has been sentenced to death by […]
I accidentally ran across this video during a search this morning. The video is of a meeting between Mustafa Abu Yazid, al Qaeda’s leader in Afghanistan, and Mullah Mansour Dadullah, the brother of Mullah Dadullah Lang, the former military commander of the Afghan Taliban, who was killed by British special forces in May 2007. Mansour […]
We’ve noted several times at The Long War Journal that al Qaeda embeds trainers from the Shadow Army (or Lashkar al Zil) into Taliban units to increase their effectiveness. An International Security Assistance Force press release provides another example of an al Qaeda trainer embedded with the Taliban in Ghazni province: In another operation, an […]
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, right, listens to Omani Foreign Minister Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, left, during their meeting in Tehran, Iran, on July 11, 2009. An unidentified interpreter sits at center. AP Photo by Vahid Salemi. In geopolitics, as in astronomy, world powers have a certain gravitational pull. Some nations have less force, choosing […]
At his inauguration ceremony, President Hamid Karzai vowed to fight corruption. A Taliban suicide bomber killed 10 civilians and wounded 13 more in Uruzgan. Afghan and Coalition forces captured an al Qaeda IED facilitator and “several enemy militants” in Ghazni province, and detained several Taliban fighters in Kandahar.
The IAEA announced a second visit to the nuclear site in Qom. In a meeting in South Korea, President Obama warned Tehran of consequences for rejecting the nuclear fuel deal. In a speech to the public in Tabriz, President Ahmadinejad said Iran embraces “constructive” interaction with the world.
More than 50 are wounded, six critically, in the latest suicide strike in the besieged city of Peshawar.
Afghan MoD condemns paying the Taliban
Training of Afghan police by Europe is found lacking
A US airstrike killed four Haqqani Network fighters in North Waziristan. Pakistani airstrikes killed 24 Taliban fighters in Arakzai, Hangu, and Bajaur. Security forces killed six Taliban fighters in South Waziristan and detained 13 terrorists in Punjab, 10 Taliban fighters in Mohmand and Swat, and an al Qaeda operative in Quetta.
The shooting of Luqman Abdullah
Concern mounts as US bears costs of Afghan war while China reaps the profits
Afghan village armies fight Taliban
Luqman Ameen Abdullah. Photo from the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Fox News. In October, a shootout at a warehouse in Dearborn, Mich., claimed the life of Luqman Abdullah, the imam of Detroit’s Masjid al-Haqq, and in the process garnered national attention. Abdullah had been a Detroit representative to al-Ummah, which a criminal complaint filed […]
The US airstrikes in Pakistan have tapered off in the past three months.
US ‘to miss Guantanamo deadline’
Iraq’s Sunni vice president has vetoed parts of the election reform law while Kurdish groups signaled they may boycott the 2010 election if they are not given more seats. Security forces detained 10 wanted men in Basrah, nine insurgents in Baghdad, Najaf, and Diyala and seven more in Fallujah, and two Iranians in Khanaqin. Al […]
Hamas-linked group offers cash for Israeli soldier capture
Four people were killed after Shabaab attacked government troops in Mogadishu. Shabaab stoned to death a woman in the Bakool region. The captain of a chemical tanker hijacked this week has died from gunshot wounds. Pirates attacked the US-flagged Maersk Alabama for the second time in seven months and were thwarted by private guards.
Ansar al Awlaki (left), and Major Nidal Hasan (right). As more clues emerge and investigations continue in the Fort Hood shootings, the debate rages as to what Major Nidal Hasan’s motives were. The facts that are already known, however, seem to paint a pretty clear picture of how these events unfolded, and what Hasan’s intentions […]
Afghan and Coalition forces killed 23 Taliban fighters in the Barmal district in Paktika province; Arab and Pakistani fighters were among those killed. Afghanistan was ranked the second most corrupt nation in the world by Transparency International. Slovakia will send an additional 250 troops.
Major General Athar Abbas, the Director General of Inter Services Public Relations. Here is a very bad sign that the Pakistani Army views the very narrow offensive against the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan in South Waziristan as sufficient to defeat the Taliban. Major General Athar Abbas, the top military spokesman, in Reuters: ‘You […]
Foreign Minister Mottaki suggested a “simultaneous swap” of nuclear material for nuclear fuel. Iran’s chief of staff warned Saudi Arabia over its military offensive against Shiite Yemeni rebels. Tehran sentenced five post-election protesters to death.
Afghan troops killed 23 Haqqani Network fighters during a clash in the Barmal district. Arab and Pakistani fighters were reported killed in the battle.
Obama vows Afghan exit; battered Karzai to take oath
Pirates again attack US-flagged Maersk Alabama
Afghanistan: Soldiers attacked near Helmand mosque
Iraq’s Sunni VP rejects parts of election law
Headley, Rana may have been part of 26/11 plot