The Taliban killed nine Afghans, including two policemen, in Kajaki district, and an intelligence chief, two aides, and a provincial council member in Nad Ali district, in separate attacks in Helmand province. The Taliban killed an ISAF soldier in the south.
Britain called for harsher sanctions on Syria, while Russia said it would work with China to block efforts at the UN. Senior Hamas leaders are evacuating their families from Damascus.
A tribal leader whose brother, Tariq al Dhahab, took control of the town, said senior Yemeni leaders conspired with al Qaeda to take control of Rada’a. Tribal leaders in Rada’a gave AQAP 24 hours to leave the town. The chief of intelligence in Aden dodged an assassination attempt.
Reporter Dies in Pakistan, and Taliban Warn Others
The UN said that Eritrea continues to support Shabaab. The British Royal Navy may have to free 14 pirates as no country is willing to prosecute them.
US says al-Qaida magazine got into Guantanamo cell
From US boarding school to al-Qaida suicide bomber
JuD promises Imran Khan treat at Difa-e-Pakistan convention
US, Thailand tussle over terror plot
Leaders of an al Qaeda cell that plotted a Mumbai-style attack in Europe in 2010 and fought alongside the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan are living in Iran.
Pakistan – Tribesmen fire at US drones
Ethiopia attacks: victims from five European countries
Mukarram Khan, Saleem Shahzad…who’s next?
Secret US, Taliban Negotiations Could Yield Positive Results
US doesn’t rule out Grossman-Taliban meeting
Air Force Finds Mixed Motives in Kabul Attack
As Powers Maneuver, Israel Says No Decision Yet to Attack Iran
Pakistan delays US envoy Marc Grossman’s visit
Tiny Qatar wielding powerful political punch
Pakistan’s interior minister isn’t sure, while the Taliban said he wasn’t at the scene of the drone strike.
Libyan forces freed the governor of the Algerian province of Illizi, who was captured yesterday by three purported al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb fighters. Governor Khelfi was about 100 miles inside of Libya when he was freed.
Kabiru Sokoto, the Boko Haram operative who planned the Dec. 25 bombing at a church outside of Abuja that killed 38 people, escaped custody. Sokoto, who was arrested at a governor’s compound, was freed as he was being transferred to a new prison.
Authorities believe that a video threatening retribution for Norway’s involvement in Afghanistan was made by local al Qaeda sympathizers linked to a planned demonstration outside Parliament on Jan. 20. Arfan Bhatti and Muslim Mohyeldeen Mohammad are among those behind the video.
AQAP carries on after al-Awlaki
After Years of Decline, Polio Cases in Afghanistan Triple in a Year
An Algerian court sentenced Nadji Abdelaziz, a former Guantanamo detainee, to three years in prison on Monday. Abdelaziz served both Lashkar-e-Taiba and al Qaeda, according to memos prepared by Joint Task Force-Guantanamo.
A suicide bomber killed one person in an attack outside a military base in Nangarhar. “Gunmen” killed an anti-Taliban tribal leader in the Dand district in Kandahar. Twenty insurgents in Ghazni reconciled with the government.
US officials urged South Korea to reduce oil imports from Iran. The UN’s nuclear monitoring agency plans to send a delegation to Iran by the end of January.
Insurgents killed five policemen during an attack on a checkpoint in Rutbah near the Jordanian border. Abu Mustafa al Khazali, the head of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah Brigades, said his militia would not surrender its weapons despite the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.
As US-Pakistani relations sink, nations try to figure out ‘a new normal’