Shabaab killed seven Somali soldiers in a bombing in Mogadishu. Deputy Shabaab leader Sheikh Mukhtar Robow Ali Abu Mansoor was reportedly wounded during fighting in the capital. Shabaab issued a fatwa against Universal TV for displaying a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed.
Police detained 17 al Qaeda suspects during raids in four provinces. A bombing that targeted police in Istanbul wounded 15 people. A journalist was sentenced to 15 months in prison for reporting on the PKK’s propaganda.
Mideast expert calls for US talks with Hezbollah
The Taliban shot down a helicopter in Helmand, killing four US soldiers; killed a British soldier; and executed an Afghan child for “spying” in Helmand. Afghan and Coalition forces killed 19 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters in Paktika and detained an IED commander and several Taliban fighters in Kandahar.
Gates: Progress in Afghan war must come this year
No peace with Taliban without women’s rights: activist
Interview with Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar: Can peace talks succeed?
An insurgent in attendance at the Afghan peace conference
Britain’s move to Kandahar ‘highly unlikely’
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Allies yield to US Afghan influx
Afghan opium more deadly than Taliban bullets: UN
Pakistan – Attack on military convoy in Orakzai
Afghanistan: Tribal politician ‘talking with Taliban’
Afghan ex-spy boss calls peace strategy dangerous
A resilient Iran shields itself from pressure by building alliances
Last night the Taliban attacked NATO fuel and supply trucks at a truck terminal just west of the capital, killing eight people.
The UN Security Council passed new Iran sanctions today. Iran aired conflicting video messages from an Iranian scientist who defected to the United States. Tehran denied chasing Kurdish rebels into Iraqi territory.
United States Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke has long been sidelined by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and now it appears the Pakistanis no longer wish to deal with him as well. A June 9 visit to Islamabad by Holbrooke has been canceled “after he was informed that no important officials would be […]
Afghanistan strategy shifts to focus on civilian effort
IAEA chief cites suspicions about Iran
Kenya asks US to lead int’l effort in Somalia
UK – Officers™ mess: military chiefs blamed for blundering into Helmand with ‘eyes shut and fingers crossed™
The Taliban killed six Frontier Corps troops in Arakzai; 30 Taliban fighters were killed in the counterattack. The Taliban killed five people and destroyed more than 30 fuel tankers and cargo trucks in the suburbs of Islamabad, and executed a man in North Waziristan.
A Taliban force killed six Frontier Corps troops in an attack in Arakzai; the military claimed 30 Taliban fighters were killed in the counterattack. On June 1, the Pakistani army had said that military operations in Arakzai were completed.
Security forces detained 24 wanted men in Basrah and one more in Wasit, and seven insurgents in Karma. Insurgents killed a policeman in Baghdad. More than 200 Iraiqs burnt down the homes of men suspected in a recent bombing in Khalis.
US and Somali intelligence officials claim that between 300-1200 foreign fighters have become part of Shabaab. The group’s leaders are foreign and it receives support and direction from al Qaeda central in Pakistan.
The IRSIL Mufateh. The New York Times ran a front page story yesterday about the effectiveness of the Revolutionary Guard’s shell corporations created for the state-owned Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRSIL). The article explains that 73 of the 123 known IRSIL vessels are owned and operated by foreign companies not listed the on […]
Yemen has detained 50 foreign students, including 12 Americans, who are thought to be linked to al Qaeda in Yemen. An Australian woman detained for suspected links to al Qaeda is being deported along with her two children. The government is prosecuting three al Qaeda suspects detained in Hadramout.
Afghan military, ‘a force in fragments’