Somalia
Soldiers killed a man in Dharkenley who was thought to have been planting an IED. A senior Shabaab official was killed during recent fighting in Beletweyne. The pro-government Ahlu Sunnah Wal Ja’ama shut down a radio station.
Monthly Archives: June 2011
The Taliban
The Taliban were dismissive of President Obama’s plan to withdraw 33,000 US troops by next summer. In an official statement, the Taliban described the plan as “as a symbolic step which will never satisfy the war weary international community or the American people.”
United States
President Obama announced he will withdraw the “surge” force of 33,000 US troops by the summer of 2012. The plan calls for 10,000 troops to be withdrawn by the end of this year, and another 23,000 troops by September 2012.
France
President Sarkozy announced that France would begin to draw down its more than 4,000 troops from Afghanistan. The withdrawal would begin in months and would be “in a proportional manner and in a timeframe similar to the pullback of the American reinforcements.”
Obama announces rapid drawdown of surge forces from Afghanistan
Ten thousand troops will be withdrawn by the end of the year, and an additional 23,000 troops will leave Afghanistan by the end of the summer of 2012.
AQAP releases martyr’s biography for ex-Gitmo detainee
AQAP’s chief Mufti, Ibrahim Rubaish, has released a biography honoring ex-Gitmo detainee Fahd Saleh Suleiman al Jutayli. Rubaish, himself a former Gitmo detainee, denies that Jutayli was killed while fighting alongside the Houthis in Yemen.
Afghanistan
Obama Won’t Use Troops to Save Afghan Hellhole (Drones, Maybe)
Pakistan
Three security personnel and five Taliban fighters were killed during clashes in Khyber and Arakzai. The military is questioning four army majors over possible links to Hizbut Tahrir.
Pakistan
Pakistan: Military strategy and the flight of capital
Afghanistan
Fighting ghosts in deadly Afghan theatre
Afghanistan
The Taliban killed six Afghan policemen in a suicide attack in Ghazni and an ISAF soldier in the south. Security forces killed and captured several Taliban fighters in Kandahar, Helmand, Khost, and Laghman.
Iraq
Al Qaeda in Iraq killed seven Iraqis in attacks on police in Baghdad and Mosul. Security forces captured a Tunisian leader of an AQI cell in Mosul along with 16 cell members.
Yemen
Sixty-two al Qaeda fighters escaped during an attack on a prison in Mukalla; one prison guard was killed during the attack. A government spokesman insisted that President Saleh will return from Saudi Arabia this week.
Afghanistan
Why Afghan returnees could become Taliban recruits
Afghanistan
Afghans worry US will fail them again
Syria
Security forces killed seven people in the cities of Homs and Mayadeen. Troops opened fire on anti-regime protesters who showed up at rallies being held in support of President Assad.
Iran
The director of Iranian intelligence claimed Iran arrested 30 “US spies” and an additional 42 people are suspected of helping the US. The Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines bypassed US sanctions by using shell companies.
Pakistan
Pakistani support for military action against militants drops: poll
ISAF captures ‘foreign fighter’ facilitator in southeastern Afghanistan
“The facilitator assisted in the transfer of Uzbeks and Farsi speaking foreign fighters from Pakistan into Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban,” ISAF reported.
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan released an audiotape in German of a nasheed, or song, that praised slain al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. “The fact is that our best man and the Sheikh of Allah and the mujahideen is no longer amongst us,” the IMU said.
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Hafiz Saeed filed a petition in court that called for the government to halt US Predator airstrikes on Pakistani territory. Saeed asked the court to order the government to release all information related to the “secret deals” between the US and Pakistan.
Pakistan
In Pakistan, denial is easier than heartbreak
Afghanistan
The End of AfPak
Afghanistan
A suicide bomber killed two Afghans in Parwan. The Taliban killed an ISAF soldier in the south today and two more in the east yesterday. Security forces killed and captured several Taliban fighters in Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul, Khost, Paktia, Paktika, Wardak, and Kunduz.
Pakistan
Security forces arrested a Brigadier General for links to Hizb-ul-Tahrir. A security official and four Taliban fighters were killed during fighting in South Waziristan.
Iraq
A suicide assault team killed 25 Iraqis at an attack at a checkpoint outside of a provincial center in Diwaniyah. Insurgents killed two Iraqis in Mussayab and two more in Baghdad. Security forces killed two insurgents in Baghdad.
Yemen
More than 100 Yemeni soldiers have been killed while fighting al Qaeda int he Arabian Peninsula in the city of Zinjibar. The military was forced to withdraw two artillery brigades from the city.
Al Qaeda
Former comrade-in-arms warns that al-Qaeda’s new leader bears grudge against US, Egypt
Iran
Parliament has moved to impeach Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, an ally of President Ahmedinejad. Security forces arrested four Jundallah members in Sistan and Baluchistan,
Afghanistan
Afghanistan: US cautioned to take Pakistan along on talks with Taliban