Monthly Archives: April 2012

Islamist fighters gain in Egyptian Sinai

| April 2, 2012

Armed gunmen surrounded a Multinational Observer Force base in the Sinai for eight days until the government freed five terrorists linked to terror attacks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab, and Taba.

Afghanistan

| April 2, 2012

Security forces killed 17 Taliban fighters and detained 10 more during operations in Kabul, Helmand, and Kandahar. The Taliban killed two members of a district council and a policeman in Uruzgan, and a soldier in Kandahar.

Syria

| April 2, 2012

Violence continued across the country. The government agreed to another peace plan, vowing to pull troops out of cities by April 10. US and Arab states agreed to provide financing to rebels, including salaries to rebel fighters.

Egypt

| April 2, 2012

Egypt’s Coptic Church representatives withdrew from the committee drafting the nation’s new constitution. Liberals have also withdrawn, leaving the committee dominated by Islamists.

Somalia

| April 2, 2012

Two Shabaab fighters and a tax collector were killed in separate clashes in Mogadishu and Baidoa. Shabaab threatened to attack Kenya for sending troops into southern Somalia.

Mali

| April 2, 2012

Tuareg rebels seized control of Timbuktu, Kidal, and Gao over the past several days, putting them in control of the north. Gao was captured by Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, an al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb faction.

Nigeria

| April 2, 2012

Nine Boko Haram fighters and one soldier were killed after security forces raided a bomb factory in Ihima in Kogi state. Two security personnel were also wounded during the clash.

Iraq

| April 1, 2012

Vice President Tareq al Hashemi, who is wanted for terrorism charges, left Kurdistan for Qatar. Prime Minister Maliki chided Qatar and Saudi Arabia for arming Syrian rebels. The government said the March death toll was the lowest since the US invaded in 2003.

Yemen

| April 1, 2012

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula killed seven Yemeni troops in Shibam in Hadramout province. Tribesmen north of Sana’a denied AQAP was fighting government forces there.

Somalia

| April 1, 2012

Nineteen people were killed during clashes between local militias and Somaliland forces in Buhodle and Las Anod. Eight people were killed during clashes between Shabaab forces and local tribes in Jowhar.

Kenya

| April 1, 2012

The government accused Shabaab of carrying out yesterday’s grenade attacks in Mombasa that killed one person and wounded 15 more. Kenya’s security minister ordered forces “to beef up security in all public places and increase their patrols.”

France

| April 1, 2012

A French intelligence official said that several of the 17 terror suspects arrested in recent sweeps, including members of the banned group Forsane Alizza, may have been planning a kidnapping. A member of the Jund al Khilafah claimed in an Internet posting that Toulouse gunman Mohamed Merah had joined the terror group in Pakistan.

United States

| April 1, 2012

Patrick Nayyar, an Indian citizen and illegal alien residing in Queens, N.Y., was convicted of attempting to provide material support to the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah. A co-conspirator, Conrad Stanisclaus Mulholland, who is also not a US citizen, remains at large.

Egypt

| April 1, 2012

Parliament in the bag, Egyptian Islamists now eye presidency

NATO

| April 1, 2012

Foot-Dragging And Firebrands: The Politics Of Pakistan’s Engagement With The US

Maldives

| April 1, 2012

‘Dictatorship is coming back to the Maldives and democracy is slipping away’