Monthly Archives: February 2013

‘Islamist factions’ seize Syrian airbase

MIG-al-Jarrah-Aibase-overrun-jihadists.jpgA fighter from the Ahrar al Sham, a jihadist group in Syria, is heard saying on a video that the aircraft at the overrun al-Jarrah airbase “are now in the hands” of the group. The Al Nusrah Front also participated in the assault.


Tunisia

The leader of the Islamist party Ennahda, Rached Ghannouchi, rejected Prime Minister Jebali’s proposal for a cabinet of technocrats and said the new coalition government must include politicians as well. Ghannouchi said he expected that Jebali, also an Ennahda party leader, would remain prime minister of the new coalition.





Mauritania

An imprisoned Mauritanian Salafist, Abu Ayyub al-Mahdi (a.k.a. Ahmed Salim bin al-Hassan), announced the creation of Ansar al Sharia in Mauritania with the goal of implementing sharia and countering an alleged war on Islam. Malian refugees in the M’Bara camp support the proposed deployment of UN peacekeepers to the areas they have fled; concerns remain […]


Libya

Kidnappers in Tripoli seized the chairman of the Arab Contracting Union and his driver. On Feb. 10, an armed group kidnapped the deputy head of the national Fire Service and Civil Protection agency from his office in Tripoli. A car bomb exploded outside a Derna hotel. A fire started by a petrol bomb destroyed a […]


Denmark

Ahmed Akkari, a Danish Islamic leader who traveled to the Middle East in 2006 to provoke reaction against a Danish newspaper’s publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, said he regretted his action now because it resulted in the curtailment of civil rights of Muslim groups in Denmark. He still blames the newspaper for the […]


Argentina

An official from Iran’s foreign ministry denied that Iranian officials, including the current Defense Minister tied to the 1994 AMIA bombing in Argentina, will be questioned as part of the recently established “truth commission” with Argentina.




United States

The National Intelligence Estimate stated that the US is being targeted by sustained cyber-espionage efforts that are undermining US economic competitiveness. The major offender by far is said to be China, and the losses to the US are thought to be in the tens of billions of dollars.


Europe

Iran’s Srebrenica: How Ayatollah Khomeini sanctioned the deaths of 20,000 ‘enemies of the state’





Iraq

Twelve Iraqis were killed in a suicide attack and shooting in Mosul, and three more were killed in an IED attack in Anbar. Counterterrorism forces captured two insurgent commanders and three fighters in Diyala.


Lebanon

Lebanese military seals off a town involved in Syrian rebellion


Syria

Iran, Hezbollah build militia networks in Syria in event that Assad falls, officials say


Egypt

Angry protests broke out on the second anniversary of former President Mubarak’s ouster. Clerics from Egypt’s leading religious institution chose the country’s Grand Mufti, a position previously appointed by the president.


China

U.S. said to be target of massive cyber-espionage campaign


Syria

Syrian War Closes In on the Heart of Damascus


Syria

Islamist rebels captured the country’s largest hydroelectric dam. The government moved tanks to reenforce hard-pressed units in the eastern Jobar district of Damascus. The government said it was ready to meet with the leader of the opposition Syrian National Coalition.


Germany

Code Name ‘Murat’: What Germany Knew About Ankara Bomber


Turkey

A car with a Syrian license plate exploded at the Cilvegözü border gate on the Turkish-Syrian border in Hatay province, killing 13 civilians and wounding 28 more. The incident occurred near a rebel rear base in northern Syria where disputes between rebel fighters and the jihadist Al Nusrah Front have broken out in recent weeks.



Al Qaeda

Timbuktu: al-Qaeda’s terrorist training academy in the Mali desert


Somalia

A suicide bomber killed four people in an attack that targeted a senior police official in Galkayo. Shabaab claimed credit for the attack and said that six “apostate troops” were killed.


Israel

Defense Minister Barak left for the United States in a “surprise visit.” Barak’s trip will include meetings with top intelligence and Pentagon officials. The trip comes mere days before aides to Prime Minister Netanyahu visit America to prepare for Barack Obama’s March visit to Israel.


Algeria

The Algiers Criminal Court postponed the case of 48 suspected terrorists, including al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb emir Abdelmalek Droukdel and the leader of al Ansar battalion “B.A.” The defendants face charges related to “more than 20 collective massacres” and other terrorist acts. Security forces arrested 10 members of a weapons trafficking network in […]