A French national was kidnapped in northeastern Mali; a manhunt has ensued to free the man. The unnamed French national is thought to have been conducting research on malaria in the northeastern Mali town of Menaka when three armed men wearing “turbans” took him. It is unclear whether Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is […]
Saudi Arabia: Mufti urges Muslims to oppose terrorism
Iraqi security forces detained the northern emir of the Islamic State of Iraq in Ninewa, the head of a Naqshabandi cell in Kirkuk, and a Jaysh Al-Islami cell leader in Anbar. Insurgents killed three civilians in a series of bombings in Baghdad and one soldier in Mosul.
President Obama said the US will leave Afghanistan by 2017. Germany’s top general and a senior minister resigned over the September airstrike in Kunduz. Afghan and Coalition troops killed eight Haqqani Network fighters in Paktika and detained several more in Logar.
Joint drills help Iraq Kurd, Arab police thaw ties
Taliban, allies slip through Waziristan dragnet
Pakistan Taliban regrouping outside Waziristan
Senior Taliban leaders have dodged the operation, and the bulk of the forces have regrouped in North Waziristan, Arakzai, Khyber, and Kurram.
Terror threat pushes Timbuktu on to UK travel blacklist
Afghanistan is illiterate but has loads of TV
The head of the IAEA said he is “disappointed” by Iran’s lack of cooperation on the nuclear issue. Iran’s envoy to the IAEA said any UN resolution would “damage the currently constructive atmosphere.” Iran and Venezuela signed 12 Memorandums of Understanding as President Ahmedinejad completes his state visit.
Yesterday, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar issued an Eid message, which addressed his followers, the wider Muslim world, the Afghan, government, the US, Europe, neighboring countries, and “the Islamic Conference and the So-called Human Rights Organizations.” In the statement, Omar again rejects negotiations with the West, and instead insists foreign troops withdraw: However, the people […]
Fighting Afghan Taliban with Islamic credit unions
Taleban leader Mullah Omar gets on message with speech aimed at West
At the Asia Times, Syed Saleem Shahzad explains how the fruitless US/NATO attempts to conduct high-level negotiations with the Taliban and President Obama’s “dithering” over the path forward in Afghanistan have impacted the Pakistani military calculations. According to Shahzad, the Pakistani Army has opened channels to al Qaeda and has put off pursuing the Taliban […]
Security forces killed 10 Taliban fighters and detained 19 more in Arakzai, Hangu, Kurram, and Swat. A jirga turned over 10 Taliban fighters in Dir. The Taliban destroyed a NATO fuel tanker near Peshawar. A court indicted seven Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives for the November 2008 terror assault.
Iraq will not be able to hold elections in January. Forty-six Iraqis, including five policemen, were wounded in a bombing at a cafe in Karbala, and four more were wounded in an IED attack in Baghdad. Iraqi security forces detained 18 al Qaeda operatives in Mosul, 12 wanted men in Basrah, two terrorist leaders in […]
US AfPak envoy Richard Holbrooke said the Taliban are welcome to join the political process if they renounce al Qaeda. NATO may supply up to 5,000 troops. A US Air Force MQ-1 Predator has gone missing in southern Afghanistan.
Taliban acceptable if they renounce Qaeda: Holbrooke
President Ahmedinejad said Iran is ready to cooperate with Brazil to build nuclear plants. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran’s top priority is confronting “soft warfare which is aimed at creating doubt, discord and pessimism among the mass of people.” Seven recently detained Jundallah members will be tried in court.
Shabaab captured the town of Qoaqani from Hizbul Islam. The top leader of Hizbul Islam, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, condemned the ongoing clashes between his group and Shabaab. Hizbul™s faction in Tayeglow defected to Shabaab. At least five civilians were killed in clashes between insurgents and soldiers in Mogadishu. Shabaab ordered the World Food Programme […]
Ayman al Zawahiri (left) and Osama bin Laden (center) hold a press conference in Afghanistan in 1998. The Institute for the Study of War has a must-read analysis on the Taliban’s propaganda campaign that is designed to convince US policy makers the Taliban is not an external threat and is merely waging an insurgency to […]
An Indian commando rappels to assault the Jewish center in Mumbai in November 2008. Reuters photograph. With the one-year anniversary of the deadly Mumbai terror assault by Lashkar-e-Taiba just days away, Pakistan has finally indicted seven operatives from the terror group. From AKI: A Pakistani court has charged seven suspects in connection with last November’s […]
The Frontier Corps killed 18 Lashkar-e-Islam fighters and detained 12 more in the latest operation in Khyber. The military killed eight Taliban fighters in Arakzai. Five Pakistani Army officers have been arrested in connection with the Headley/Rana terror plot.
Police found the beheaded bodies of a police investigator and a court bailiff in the trunk of a car in a Muslim region of Kabardino-Balkaria. Police killed three “militants” during a counterterrorism raid along the border of Chechnya and Ingushetia.
NATO expands Afghan forces training initiatives
Al Qaeda is teaming up with Ba’athist elements, sparking fears that eastern Syrian will “begin to look like northwestern Pakistan.”
Iraqi parliament passes another election law
Iran expanding effort to stifle the opposition
Ahmed Rashid: Pakistan conspiracy theories stifle debate