Ansar Dine
Mali’s PM says talks with rebels ‘inevitable’
Yearly Archives: 2012
Inter-Services Intelligence Agency
Pakistan lawyer challenges powerful army
Somalia
Somali security forces arrested two Shabaab leaders in Puntland. Abu Hafsa, allegedly Shabaab’s head of assassinations, and Abdirizak Hussein Tahlil, a Shabaab logistics officer, were arrested in Galkayo. The pair were in possession of suicide vests, explosives, grenades, and other explosive paraphernalia.
Kenya
Unidentified militants lobbed a hand grenade into a minibus in Nairobi, killing at least five people and injuring 13 others. The attack occurred in the predominantly Somali Eastleigh neighborhood. Such attacks have been seen as Shabaab retaliation for Kenya’s decision to send troops into Somalia.
Taliban release Nuristan attack video
The Taliban website has uploaded a 35-minute-long video depicting a series of attacks against Afghan security forces in the Kamdesh district in Nuristan province.
US, France assemble coalition to confront Islamists in Mali
The Islamist takeover of two-thirds of Mali this year has spurred the West as well as neighboring African countries to find a way to drive out the extremists.
Tunisia
Mohammed Bakhti, a prominent Salafist who was a suspect in the Sept. 14 attack on the US Embassy in Tunis, died after a hunger strike. Fellow detainee Bachir al-Gholi died earlier this week under similar circumstances. Bakhti had links to the leader of Ansar al Shariah, the group thought to be behind the attack.
Philippines
Radullan Sahiron, a senior Abu Sayyaf leader wanted for his alleged involvement in the 1993 kidnapping of an American in the Philippines, has been added to the FBI’s updated list of most-wanted terrorists. A wife of a detained Abu Sayyaf group leader has been detained for her role in a kidnapping plot four years ago.
Hamas
Arms With a Long Reach Help Hamas
Jamaat-ud-Dawa
Lashkar front JuD into mobile gaming?
Afghanistan
Security forces killed five Taliban fighters in Badakhshan and detained a Taliban commander in Kandahar. The Afghan High Peace Council wants immunity, and sanctions lifted for senior Taliban leaders.
Egypt
Sharia tribunals on the rise in North Sinai
Iran
A report from the IAEA said Iran had doubled the capacity at its uranium enrichment plant. Iran has postponed the startup of a nuclear reactor in Akak; the research reactor has the capability of producing plutonium for nuclear arms.
Israel
Israel accelerated its air attack in Gaza as Hamas continued to fire rockets into Israel, including one attack on Tel Aviv. Israel’s cabinet authorized the mobilization of 75,000 reservists as it prepared for a possible ground assault on Gaza. Arab leaders talked.
Afghanistan
Taliban group accidentally reveals their email list
Iraq
Insurgents killed seven people, including three Iranian pilgrims, in an IED attack in Balad. Iraqi clerics issued a fatwa prohibiting Muslims from marrying or doing business with members of terror groups.
Yemen
Security forces detained a suspected al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighter during a raid in Ibb province. The suspected AQAP fighter is thoguht to have fought for the terror group in Zinjibar and Jaar.
Kenya
Police arrested “dozens” of suspected Islamists during a series of raids in Garissa. The Islamists are thought to be involved in the killing of two policemen in Garissa on Nov. 16.
Turkey
In Cairo, Prime Minister Erdogan promised support for Palestinians in the Gaza strip; he also said Turkey would pressure Hamas to stop rocket attacks on Israel if the US “provides guarantees.” The jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party urged supporters to stop their hunger strike.
Mali
After yesterday’s failed offensive by the Tuareg MNLA to retake Gao, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb sent hundreds of fighters from Timbuktu to Gao as reinforcements. The AQIM-allied Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa said it is “in control of the situation”; the Tuaregs no longer control any towns in two-thirds of […]
Afghanistan
Afghan Peace Council Seeks Immunity, Lift on Sanctions for Taliban
Iran
Iran Set to Double Nuclear Fuel Capability
Pakistan
Pakistani Taliban Turn to Kidnapping to Finance Operations
Afghanistan
Pakistan May Release More Taliban Prisoners
Algeria
The military is building a 50-km-long electric fence on the border with Mali, and the defense ministry plans to set up a system of electronic surveillance, checkpoints, and aerial operations along the Malian and Libyan borders. On Nov. 6, border security personnel arrested a Nigerian suicide attacker from the Movement for Tawhid and Jihad in […]
ECOWAS
Mali military intervention countdown begins
Al Qaeda
Sahel terror alliances start to fray
‘Invincible’ Boko Haram leader reportedly killed in Nigerian raid
Nigerian security forces claim to have killed a senior Boko Haram leader suspected of facilitating the assassination of General Shuwa Mohammad earlier this month. Six other Boko Haram affiliates were also killed in the operation.
Pakistan ‘frees’ dangerous Taliban commander as part of Afghan reconciliation process
Anwar ul Haq Mujahid is the commander of the Tora Bora Military Front, a Taliban subgroup based in Nangarhar province that has been behind numerous attacks on Afghan and Coalition forces as well as civilians. His father was close to Osama bin Laden.
United States
The CIA is launching an internal investigation into the conduct of David Petraeus when he was director of the agency. Adis Medunjanin, a US citizen from Bosnia who plotted with two other men to conduct suicide attacks on the New York subway system, was sentenced to life in prison.