Pakistan
Pakistan™s leader, under pressure, cedes nuclear office
Yearly Archives: 2009
Afghanistan
US soldiers: Afghan war more challenging than Iraq
Afghanistan
Afghan talks to seek road to security handover
Somalia
Navy releases Somali pirates caught red-handed
United Kingdom
Cuts ground special forces™ helicopters
Afghanistan
Afghans offer jobs to Taliban rank and file if they defect
Somalia
Shabaab seized control of Dhobley, a town near the Kenyan border, with battle wagons and a heavily-armed militia, sending civilians fleeing towards the neighboring country. African Union peacekeeping troops have for the first time revealed that the AU has lost 80 of its soldiers in explosions and gun battles with insurgents since deployment to Somalia […]
Iran
Ahmad Khatami, a senior cleric, said Iran will produce its own nuclear fuel if the IAEA agreement collapses. Russia said the Bushehr nuclear plant will come online by the end of the year. Russia purportedly agreed to ship the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system.
Russia
Russian officials confirmed a bomb caused the train crash on the Nevsky Express that killed upwards of 39 people and wounded scores more. “Criminal experts say that based on preliminary findings a bomb equivalent to 7kg of TNT was detonated,” the chief of the FSB told Russia’s president.
Afghanistan
Twelve prisoners escaped through a tunnel at a jail in Farah province; Taliban commanders are said to have been among them. A suicide bomber killed three policemen in Farah. The Taliban murdered a Red Crescent leader in Takhar province. Afghan and Coalition forces detained Taliban and Haqqani Network fighters in Logar and Khost, and detained […]
Mali
The French national abducted in Menaka on Wednesday was kidnapped by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The 61-year-old man, identified as Pierre Camatte, was abducted overnight by armed men from his hotel. Camatte was in Mali conducting antimalarial plant research. The French government has recommended that all French nationals leave northern Mali immediately.
Yemen
Al Qaeda murdered a kidnapped Yemeni security official and released a videotape of his ‘confession.’ “I advise people not to get involved in actions (such as mine) … and not to be drawn into working for American intelligence,” the provincial security official said on the videotape.
Lebanon
The Cabinet has granted Hezbollah the right to take up arms against Israel. “[T]he government underscores Lebanon™s right through its people, army and resistance to liberate or regain [authority] of Shebaa Farms, Kfarshouba hills and the occupied part of Ghajar village and defend the country against any aggression,” a Cabinet policy statement reads.
Pakistan
Security forces killed 15 Taliban fighters in South Waziristan and 15 Lashkar-e-Islam fighters in Khyber, and detained 17 Taliban fighters in Bannu and a suicide bomber in Dera Ismail Khan. The Taliban killed a pro-government tribal leader in Bajaur and captured another in Mohmand.
Iraq
The speaker of parliament said national elections will likely be held in March. Security forces detained six al Qaeda operatives in northern Iraq, Baghdad, and Baqubah, three Promised Day Brigade fighters in Baghdad, and three Hezbollah Brigade operatives in northern Baghdad.
Al Qaeda
UK – Hidden threat from al-Qaeda sleeper cells
Afghanistan
Soviets’ Afghan ordeal vexed Gates on troop-surge plan
Pakistan
Zardari hands over control of Pak nuke weapons to Gilani
China
India concerned over China, Pakistan military ‘nexus’
Fighting intensifies in northwestern Taliban strongholds
Pakistan’s paramilitary Frontier Corps are concentrating on Taliban strongholds in a region that borders the Arakzai, Kurram, and Khyber tribal agencies.
Afghanistan
US and Afghan forces killed a Taliban fighter in Ghazni and detained a deputy to the Taliban shadow governor of Kandahar. NATO aircraft struck a Taliban compound in Kunar. The governor of Kandahar escaped an assassination attempt. NATO has located the crash site of a civilian helicopter.
Iran
The IAEA censured Iran for failing to cooperate with inquiries on its nuclear program. Iran filed new espionage charges against a jailed Iranian-American scholar. Iran seized the Nobel Prize for Human Rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi and froze her bank account.
Pakistan captures wanted South Waziristan Taliban commander
Abdullah Shah Mehsud is one of 19 most-wanted Taliban commanders in the South Waziristan region. He was detained recently in Tank.
Pakistan
The military detained a wanted South Waziristan Taliban commander in Tank, killed five Taliban fighters during airstrikes in Arakzai, and seized control of a Taliban training camp in Kurram. Pakistan’s interior minister said the Taliban are receiving weapons from Afghanistan.
Talban, al Qaeda move into Arakzai and Kurram
The Los Angeles Times’ Alex Rodriguez reports on the move by fighters from the South Waziristan Taliban, al Qaeda, and Central Asia into the Arakzai and Kurram tribal agencies. This is the perfect complementary piece to today’s report on the South Waziristan operation. From the LA Times: Villagers in Kurram and Arakzai, as well as […]
Saudi Arabia
Ibrahim al-Rubaish: New religious ideologue of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia calls for revival of assassination tactic
Afghanistan
Surge targets Taliban bastion
Afghanistan
Taliban expand insurgency to Northern Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Obama’s Afghan strategy will contain many messages
Russia
Lieutenant-Colonel Shapi Aligadzhiyev, the leader of the special task force police unit, was shot dead in the capital of Dagestan by two gunmen today. One of the gunmen is thought to have been injured and fled the scene; the other was killed by guards. Aligadzhiyev’s death is the latest in a slew of high-profile assassinations […]