Iran
Iran blocking foreign, domestic Web sites to curb anti-government activists
Monthly Archives: March 2010
Iran
US changing focus of Iran policy
Al Qaeda
Somalia food aid bypasses needy, UN study finds
Pakistan
Lone stand of surrounded Pakistan anti-Taliban militia
Al Qaeda
CIA warns India of al-Qaida threats
United Arab Emirates
Israel, Syria pursue nuclear-powered Mideast
Somalia
Gunmen shot and killed senior Hizbul Islam official Bare Ali Bare in central Bakara market in Mogadishu; Hizbul Islam fighters killed four Shabaab members in revenge. Bare declared that his group Ras Kamboni did not merge with Shabaab. The most senior figure of al Qaeda in Nigeria, Ibrahim Haman Ahmed, was extradited to the US. […]
The Netherlands
Amsterdam airport tightens security after sting
Pakistan
The Taliban took credit for the March 9 suicide attack in Lahore and vowed further attacks. A Salarzai lashkar in Bajaur torched the homes of 130 Taliban fighters. A suspected suicide bomber was captured while planting an IED in Mohmand. Thirty-five suspected Taliban fighters were detained in Kohat.
Iraq
Election turnout is reported at 62 percent. Insurgents killed two policemen and a civilian in Mosul and Fallujah; one insurgent was also killed. Iraqi forces detained 16 wanted men in Basrah and two al Qaeda fighters in Mosul. Two US soldiers died in a vehicle accident near Baghdad.
Afghanistan
Fifteen Taliban fighters were killed in a Coalition airstrike in Kandahar. Coalition and Afghan forces detained a Haqqani Network commander and an undisclosed number and Taliban fighters in Khost, Helmand, and Kandahar. The Taliban killed three policemen and a civilian in an IED attack in Kandahar and two US soldiers in a suicide attack in […]
Ireland
Police arrested four men and three women for plotting to kill cartoonist Lars Vilks for portraying the Prophet Mohammed as a dog. The seven, who are part of a “conspiracy to murder an individual in another jurisdiction,” are Muslim immigrants from Morocco and Yemen.
Indonesia
Indonesia’s elite counterterrorism police unit, Detachment 88, believes it may have killed wanted Jemaah Islamiyah bomb maker and leader Dulmatin during a raid outside Jakarta. Dulmatin trained in terror camps in Afghanistan and masterminded the 2002 bombings in Bali that killed 202 people. The US has a $10 million reward out for Dulmatin’s capture.
Walt on how not to contain Iran
Harvard professor and Foreign Policy blogger Stephen Walt published an interesting piece last Friday raising objections to the containment argument for Iran. Responding to an article in Foreign Affairs by Ray Takeyh and James M. Lindsay titled “After Iran Gets the Bomb” (a shorter version appeared as an op-ed in the Washington Post), Walt offers […]
Afghanistan
Gates sees momentum in Afghanistan but plays down prospects for reconciliation
Afghanistan
Commentary: Afghan reporters caught in the crossfire
Pakistan
Why Pakistan is ‘boosting Kashmir militants’
Jemaah Islamiyah
Bali bomber mastermind Dulmatin ‘killed in shoot-out’
Niger
Suspected Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb fighters have attacked a Nigerian military outpost along the border with Mali. At least five Nigerian soldiers were killed and wounded along with three assailants in the attack in the Tilwa Banibangou area before the fighters retreated into Mali.
Pakistan
Lahore attack
Iran
Iran urged China to resist Western pressure to impose additional sanctions. President Ahmadinejad made plans to visit Afghanistan. Speaker Larijani criticized US General Petraeus for calling Iran a “thugocracy.”
Wanted Indonesian terrorist Dulmatin thought killed in raid
Indonesia police believe he was killed outside the capital of Jakarta, but the reports are unconfirmed. Dulmatin is a mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings and a possible successor to Mohammed Noordin Top.
Afghanistan
Zabul province seeks US troops, but is caught in Afghan numbers game
Nigeria
Nigerian massacre victims buried in mass grave
Afghanistan
A civil war among Afghanistan’s insurgents?
Second strike targets FIA in Multan, frees jihadists
While much of the news from Pakistan focused on the suicide attack that leveled the Federal Investigation Agency building in Lahore, a second strike against the FIA took place under the radar. According to Geo News, an assault team freed three dangerous terrorists from a police prison in Multan. The prisoners, who were not named, […]
The Taliban
Bajaur Taliban commander Faqir Mohammad survived last week’s airstrike in Mohmand. “I’m fine. It’s just propaganda,” Faqir told a reporter. “I was in Bajaur, not Mohmand that day. None of our commanders were killed in the attack.”
Pakistan
A suicide bomber killed 13 Pakistanis in an attack on a Federal Investigation Agency building in Lahore. The Taliban sprang three terrorists from an FIA prison in Multan. The US killed five Haqqani Network fighters in an airstrike in North Waziristan.
Nigeria
Continued violence outside the city of Jos escalated over the weekend, leaving upwards of 500 people dead and 95 arrested as Muslim men armed with machetes attacked the largely Christian community. The police are attempting to tame the violence that is described as “reprisal” attacks for violence in the city in January.
Belgium
The trial of nine Muslims accused of supporting terror activities has begun. Among those charged is Malika El Aroud, a 50-year-old Belgian woman accused of running a website that encouraged Muslims to become suicide bombers. Her husband, Abdessatar Dahmane, carried out the suicide attack that killed anti-Taliban leader Ahmad Shah Massoud just two days before […]