Police shot and killed two suspected Islamist extremists after a gunfight at a checkpoint in Aceh. Police are hunting Jemaah Islamiyah leader Umar Patek and other fighters in Aceh. More than 2,000 mourners chanted “Allahu Akbar” at the funeral for slain Jemaah Islamiyah bomb maker and leader Dulmatin.
Sharif Mobley, the American al Qaeda operative detained in Yemen last month, worked as a “laborer” at the Salem and Hope Creek nuclear reactors in New Jersey, as well as at other nuclear reactors in the region. Mobley killed a security guard at a hospital in Sana’a.
In Mogadishu, Shabaab fighters attacked government positions near the president’s palace as the death toll reached 60 during the third day of fighting. Government soldiers backed by AMISOM troops crossed into the Shabaab-held district of Karan and killed a Kenyan al Qaeda leader. Shabaab mined the roadways and is reported to have entrenched in the […]
Al-Qaeda suspect, Sharif Mobley, worked at US nuclear plants
Afghan tribal rivalries bedevil a US plan
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has released a video with Mebarek Yazid, aka Abu Obeida Youcef, the chairman of the GSPC/AQIM Council of Elders speaking on behalf the group. The absence of Abdelmalek Droukdel in the video suggests that Yazid, a longstanding opponent of Droukdel, has possibly replaced him as leader of the terrorist […]
Iraqi parties maneuver to form new ruling coalition
Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations has written an interesting piece in Foreign Policy titled “What the Neocons Got Right.” Toward the end of the article, Cook argues that the neoconservative’s worldview of the Iranian regime has largely proven correct. Cook writes: It’s hard to sign up with the folks who seem all […]
President Karzai said Pakistan would get a major role in any upcoming negotiations with the Taliban. The Taliban killed an ISAF soldier in an IED attack in southern Afghanistan. Coalition and Afghan forces killed a Taliban fighter and captured a Taliban facilitator, a sub-commander, and 12 Taliban fighters in Helmand, Nimroz, Kandahar, Wardak, and Paktika. […]
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has demanded $5 million and the release of AQIM members held in Mauritanian prisons for the release of the two remaining male Spanish aid workers. AQIM advised the Spanish government to meet its “legitimate demands.” The female Spanish aid worker, Alicia Gomez, was released after she “voluntarily” converted […]
Putin: Terror outfits in Pakistan, Afghanistan worry to entire world
US Secretary of Defense Gates pressed Emirate leaders to support stronger sanctions against Iran. A US State Department report is critical of Iran’s human rights record. Britain said China will risk isolation if it refuses to support sanctions against Iran.
Taliban may be down, but not out: analysts
Detonating just seconds apart, two bombers targeted the Pakistani military. The attack is the third suicide strike in five days.
US: Europe biased against Muslims
Below is a statement from Representative Gary Ackerman, the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, which was delivered at the opening of a hearing on the the threat of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. Rep. Ackerman notes LeT’s global reach and aspirations, and questions the US support for Pakistan and the […]
BA terror suspect Rajib Karim ‘offered advice to overseas militants™
Police are hunting Jemaah Islamiyah leader Umar Patek in Aceh. Patek is believed to have entered Indonesia from the Philippines with Dulmatin and Zulkarnaen sometime in the past year. Indonesia’s National Police turned down the $10 million reward offered by the US for killing Dulmatin.
Security forces detained an American al Qaeda operative and 10 others during sweeps last month. The American, Sharif Mobley, from Buena, New Jersey, killed a security guard as he attempted to escape from a hospital where he was receiving medical treatment.
Drone attacks: Pakistan™s policy and the tribesmen™s perspective
A suicide bomber killed five civilians in an attack in Peshawar. North Waziristan Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadar was targeted in the March 10 Predator strike and is rumored to have been killed. Two suicide bombers were among 60 people detained in Hangu.
Prime Minister Maliki’s party is leading in the early vote count. Security forces detained seven wanted men in Basrah, two al Qaeda leaders and two operatives in central Iraq, two Naqshabandiya fighters in Jalawlaa, and an Ansar al Sunnah cleric in Kirkuk.
In Afghanistan, a push to burnish police’s poor reputation
Concerns on Iran in US rights report
Interview: ‘My Life With the Taliban™
A businessman strongly linked to Shabaab has been a contractor for the World Food Program and UNICEF, a UN report said. He has pocketed $1.36 million ransom for the release of kidnapped aid workers, has been the financier of Shabaab in Baidoa and was involved in the looting of the UN compound, and is a […]
The Taliban killed 10 civilians and an ISAF soldier in bombings in Helmand and Kapisa. Coalition and Afghan forces detained a Taliban commander and a sub-commander, and seven fighters during raids in Kabul, Farah, Kandahar, and Nimroz.
Spy chief in Pakistan to stay on another year
Unconfirmed reports indicate that Hafiz Gul Bahadar may have been among those killed in yesterday’s Predator strike in North Waziristan. Bahadar was the target of the strike, US intelligence officials told The Long War Journal.
British official urges Afghanistan to negotiate with Taliban, other insurgents