Monthly Archives: December 2012

Libya

Assailants attacked two Benghazi police stations on Sunday in an attempt to free one or two prisoners linked to assassinations of security officials; four policemen were killed and several others were wounded. Assailants also attacked the Derna radio station, and fired at the police chief and a colleague. Fighter jets hit a smugglers’ camp near […]


Algeria

Salah Gasm, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s purported second in command, is rumored to have been captured outside of a restaurant of Cheurfa. The report is unconfirmed.


Russia

Russian naval sources said two assault ships, a tanker, and an escort ship were heading for the Syrian coast to prepare for a possible evacuation of Russian citizens from Syria. Yesterday two Russians and an Italian were kidnapped in Syria.


Denmark

‘Kaldet til Islam’ (The Call to Islam), a radical Danish Muslim group, regularly follows the sermons of Omar Bakri, a Syrian extremist cleric now imprisoned in Lebanon who has praised the 9/11 attacks and said anyone who insults the Prophet Mohammed should be killed. Parliament is beefing up security due to the rising risk of […]



United States

The State Department designated Michel Samaha, Lebanon’s former Minister of Information and Tourism, as a global terrorist for plotting with Syrian officials “to conduct bombing attacks against Lebanese political and religious figures in northern Lebanon.” The Treasury Dept. also designated him, for actions that undermined Lebanon’s democracy and sovereignty.


Pakistan

Seventeen Pakistanis were killed in a bombing at a bus station in Khyber. The Taliban killed three soldiers in an attack on an outpost in Lakki Marwat.




Afghanistan

A Taliban suicide bomber killed one person in an attack on a US contractors base in Kabul. Ten Afghan girls were killed in a landmine blast in Nangarhar.


Iraq

Thirty-two Iraqis were killed and more than 100 were wounded in a series of bombings and attacks across the country. The attacks targeted the Army, police, and Shiites.


Yemen

The military denied that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula had seized control of the Al Mahfad district in Abyan. “Gunmen” killed a Political Security officer in Hadramout.


Syria

Saying neither side could win the conflict, Syria’s vice president called for a negotiated settlement. Both Turkey and Iran put forward plans to end the conflict. The government warned that the rebels may use chemical weapons and blame the attack on the government.


Egypt

Tunisia: Islamists lose popular trust


Tunisia

Tunisians, angry and betrayed, gather two years after uprising


Syria

Iran cautiously tests options in Syria beyond ally Assad


Egypt

Egypt’s judges moved to boycott the second round of voting in the constitutional referendum. Opposition leaders called for protests on Tuesday over alleged polling violations in the first round.


Somalia

Security forces in Puntland intercepted a shipment of supplies thought to be headed to Shabaab in the Galgala mountains. The defense minister cautioned troops against being undiscipiined and warned that courts would be established to prosecute offenders.





Syria

Jihadis bankroll aid efforts in Syria to win followers



Turkey

Members of a political party banned in May for links to the hardline Turkish Islamist group Hizbullah petitioned the Interior Ministry to be allowed to form a new party, the Free Cause Party (Hüda-Par). The outlawed Hizbullah organization is active mainly in southeastern Turkey.


Germany

Omar D., a Somali Salafist, remains the key suspect in last week’s attempted bombing at the Bonn central train station; he and another Somali, Abdirazak B., who is linked to Shabaab, were arrested but soon released. Police agencies are bickering over the fact that video camera footage at the Bonn station was not recorded.