Iran
Iran nuclear impasse likely to continue
Monthly Archives: January 2013
Lebanon
Closer ties emerge between Sunni militants from Lebanon and Syria, officials say
Syria
Fighting in southwest Damascus caused the closure of the main highway to Deraa. Russian Prime Minister Medvedev said Assad’s chances of staying in power were getting “smaller and smaller.”
United Arab Emirates
UAE charged 94 people with attempting to overthrow the government. The suspects were alleged to have built a secret network, raised money through real estate deals, and maintained links to the Muslim Brotherhood for expertise and financial support.
Mali
French and Malian troops are securing Timbuktu; the Islamist fighters who have held it for months appear to have fled. Residents say the fleeing fighters dress as civilians and head for the Mauritanian border. French forces bombed targets in the Islamist stronghold of Kidal. The African Union said it sought to make “an African Standby […]
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
British cocaine users helping fund Islamic terror groups behind Algerian siege and Mali conflict
Afghanistan
Afghan Interior Ministry Concerned by Increase in Police Casualties
United Kingdom
The Foreign Office warned British citizens to leave Somaliland after it received notice of a “specific threat” to Westerners there that may involve kidnapping. The Foreign Office issued a similar advisory last week about Benghazi, Libya, after learning of an al Qaeda plot to kidnap British and German citizens.
African Union
Mali conflict: AU set to discuss troop deployments
ISAF launches another raid targeting al Qaeda in Kunar
The increased operational tempo of raids against al Qaeda in Kunar in 2012 and the first month of 2013 suggests that the terror group remains alive and well in the eastern province.
United States
The Defense Department warned that threatened budget cuts would adversely affect the war in Afghanistan. The cuts, due in March, would reduce the productivity of the Pentagon’s civilian employees and have the secondary effect of eroding the fitness of the combat force. Hackers attacked the website of the Justice Department’s Sentencing Commission.
Mali
Child Soldier’s Tale Illustrates Mali’s Dirty War
Afghanistan
A suicide bomber killed 10 policemen, including the chief of counterterrorism for Kunduz City, in an attack in the northern city. A second suicide bomber killed a policeman and a civilian in an attack in Ghazni.
Suicide bombers strike in Kunduz and Ghazni
Ten policemen were killed in the attack in Kunduz, while a policemen and a civilian were killed Ghazni.
Iraq
Al Qaeda killed four Iraqi soldiers in an IED attack in Haswa. Two soldiers were gunned down and three more were kidnapped near Fallujah. The suicide bomber who killed 42 people at a mosque in Tuz Khurmatu had escaped from an IRaqi jail.
France
Turkey Reinforces ‘Hands Off’ Policy on Mali
Syria
West’s fears over Syria Islamists mount as coalition flounders
Iran
A senior official said Iran would consider any attack on Syria as an attack on itself. The statement followed a similar comment in September 2012 when a military official said Iran would take action if the US attacked Syria.
Syria
As fighting continued over the strategically important city of Homs, the government brought in pro-regime militia to target civilians. Government troops attacked rebels in Damascus. Rebels freed 100 inmates in battle at a major prison outside of Idlib. Two car bombs exploded in the Golan Heights.
Pakistan
In Former Taliban Sanctuary, An Eerie Silence Takes Over
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
Mali dispatch: ‘Why join the Islamists? Because they pay more’
Libya
The Foreign Minister warned that extremists networking in the Sahel have an Afghan connection and recommended strict control of the Algeria-Mali border. The nephew of the former head of the National Liberation Army was assassinated in Benghazi. A Misrata council member involved in the reconciliation process was murdered. Libya is strengthening security around its oil […]
Tunisia
Salafists burned and desecrated the the Sidi Ahmed al-Ghout shrine in Douz, and tried to set the Sidi Knaou mausoleum on fire in Matmata, the day after another Sufi shrine was destroyed in Akouda. The government plans to create a security unit to protect historical and cultural sites from the “ongoing attacks … [that are] […]
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
Algeria attack mastermind targets Maghreb
Mali
French and Malian troops captured the airport and a main bridge in Gao, which has been occupied for months by Islamists, including the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa. Over 2,500 Chadian and Nigerien soldiers are deploying in Ouallam, Niger, near the Malian border, to open a second front against Islamist forces in […]
Russia
President Putin criticized Western actions in Libya and Syria as creating jihadist “blowback.” The Council of Europe alleged torture of prisoners by Russian authorities attempting to suppress Islamist insurgents in the Caucasus. Two wanted Caucasus Emirate leaders were among 11 militants killed in an operation in Chechnya this week.
Pakistani merchants ban videogames for portraying country as terrorist breeding ground
Maybe it is just too much reality for Pakistan’s electronic entertainment association.
Al Qaeda in Iraq video shows series of attacks against Iraqi security forces
The operations are part of the “third wave” of al Qaeda in Iraq’s “Destroying the Walls” campaign.
Al Nusrah Front claims complex suicide assault on Syrian military base
The al Qaeda affiliate sent five suicide bombers to attack a Syrian military base near the Golan Heights in what the group described as “a compound special operation.”
Mali
US Weighing How Much Help to Give France’s Military Operation in Mali