Pakistan
Malala book launch halted amid ‘political and police pressure’ in Pakistan
Monthly Archives: January 2014
Philippines
Government troops killed 17 Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in an offensive in Mindanao against the group, which has been trying to undermine the peace deal between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The clash started yesterday when authorities attempted to arrest 25 BIFF members suspected of kidnapping and murder.
Sinai gas pipeline targeted for 2nd time in 2014
The Sinai-based jihadist group Ansar Jerusalem has targeted gas pipelines in the Sinai Peninsula more than a dozen times since 2011. It recently threatened to increase attacks against economic targets tied to the Egyptian army.
Al Qaeda
Syrian Jihad: Bringing the War Back Home?
Malaysia
Malaysia churches pray to ‘Allah’ despite ban
Pakistan
Pakistani Army attack helicopters killed two people in strikes in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan. The Taliban killed four policemen in Tank, an Awami National Party leader and two people in Peshawar, and five policemen in Swat.
Afghanistan
An Afghan Border Police officer killed five of his colleagues in an insider attack in Herat; the attacker joined the Taliban. The US military protested a release order for 37 prisoners to be freed from Bagram; the prisoners are directly involved in killing Coalition and Afghan security personnel.
Iraq
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham beheaded four policemen and an Awakening fighter after overrunning a police station near Tikrit, and launched a suicide assault in Saqlawiyah. The military killed eight civilians in artillery and helicopter strikes in Fallujah.
Syria
The US is providing light arms, including antitank rockets, to “moderate” rebels in southern Syria. The US has also resumed the shipment of nonlethal aid, including vehicles and communications equipment, to Syrian rebels in the north, a month after shipments were suspended following the seizure of Free Syrian Army warehouses by Islamist rebels. A recent […]
Lebanon
In Tripoli, new fighting groups have emerged, including the Bilal Ben Rabah Brigades, the Oussoud al-Shaarani Brigades, Jalal Dandashi Brigades, and a Salafist group led by Hussam al-Sabbagh a.k.a. Abu al-Hasan, giving rise to speculation that a crackdown on Islamist groups may be imminent. The Abdullah Azzam Brigades released photos of its joint attack with […]
Israel
Some Israeli Defense Ministry computers were recently targeted in an apparent cyberattack. An IDF vehicle traveling along the Gaza border was targeted by an IED. The Shin Bet released its annual for 2013, which found a sharp rise in the number of terror attacks in the West Bank. According to the report, only 74 rockets […]
Egypt
Unidentified gunmen shot at cars passing along a highway in the Nasr City area. Army chief Abdel Fatah el Sisi is expected to soon announce plans to run in presidential elections, a move supported by the military. Authorities reportedly destroyed 11 smuggling tunnels along the border with Gaza.
Palestinian Territories
Armed Hamas fighters made a rare public appearance in the West Bank city of Jenin. A Gaza-based terror group claimed to have manufactured a new missile launcher that it will use against Israel. Hamas again denied having any connections to violence in Egypt’s Sinai.
Hezbollah
Israeli Soldiers Confront Hezbollah Terrorists in Lifelike Simulation
Saudi cleric’s reconciliation initiative for jihadists draws wide support, then a rejection
Saudi cleric Abdallah Muhammad al Muhaysini offered a reconciliation initiative for the jihadists in Syria to end their infighting. His proposal mirrored a message issued by Ayman al Zawahiri. Although the initiative garnered much support, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham has rejected it.
Boko Haram attacks in Borno and Adamawa kill 74
Suspected Boko Haram militants attacked two villages in northern Nigeria yesterday, killing an estimated 74 people and burning hundreds of houses.
Saudi MSC in Jerusalem fighter fought in Libya, sought to join ‘mujahideen’ in Somalia
Saudi national Adi Saleh Abdullah al Fudhayli al Hadhli, who died in June 2012 in an attack against Israel, had originally sought to join the “mujahideen” in Somalia. In 2011, he traveled to Libya to fight in the Libyan civil war.
Kenya
A parliamentary committee investigating the Westgate Mall attack claimed that security agencies in the border town of Mandera have given over control to Shabaab. Discrepancies were found in the testimony of a police officer who claimed he killed a terrorist during the Westgate Mall siege.
Somalia
Shabaab threatened more violence in response to Ethiopian troops’ formally joining AMISOM. Over the weekend, a US drone strike killed an Amniyat commander in Lower Shabelle, and Puntland forces attacked a Shabaab base in Galgala. In Mogadishu, Shabaab killed five Somali soldiers in a brazen daytime attack, after having attacked a police station the night […]
Libya
Libyan Revolutionaries Operation Room head Shaaban Hadia Al-Zway, who was freed in a prisoner swap for five kidnapped Egyptian diplomats, is awaiting repatriation from Egypt; authorities said he had been detained because his Egyptian residency had expired, not for al Qaeda links. A Benghazi media activist escaped an attempted car bombing. Gunmen assassinated the head […]
Al Qaeda
Tough road for Sahel security
Nigeria
Boko Haram attacked twice over the weekend; in Borno, the group killed 52 people in the town of Kawuri, and in Adamawa, the group killed 22 people in an assault on a church. The UNHCR claims that 6,000 people have fled northern Nigeria for Cameroon and Niger as a result of Boko Haram attacks.
Russia
Foreign Minister Lavrov ruled out talks with terrorists in Syria, including the Al Nusrah Front, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham, and “other al Qaeda branches.” The Foreign Ministry called for the Guantanamo Bay detention center to be closed before the end of President Obama’s term. A UK threat assessment warned that terrorist […]
Zawahiri’s message ‘to our people in Sinai’
In the message, Zawahiri mentions “muhajireen,” or foreign fighters, coming to the Sinai and needing the protection of locals. The presence of foreign fighters in the Sinai has long been speculated, but never conclusively proven to be a widespread phenomenon.
Al Qaeda
Israel extends detention of suspected al Qaeda men
Afghanistan
A suicide bomber killed two soldiers and two civilians, including a journalist, and wounded 22 more Afghans in an attack on a bus in Kabul. Teh Taliban claimed credit for the attack. The Taliban also killed six civilians in an IED attack in Helmand and two policemen in another bombing in Khost.
Iraq
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham captured five soldiers in Fallujah and killed three soldiers and four civilians in Kirkuk, three policemen in Qayyarah, a tribal sheikh in Mosul, and the head of the local council in Saadiya. Security forces killed three al Qaeda fighters in Ramadi.
Afghanistan
Afghanistan Exit Is Seen as Peril to Drone Mission
Yemen
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters gunned down a senior security officer outside of his home in Hadramout. A Yemeni official claimed that an Iranian diplomat who was kidnapped in Sana’a in July 2013 was found beheaded in Marib; Iranian officials denied the report.
Weekend attacks in Somalia deal Shabaab a double blow
Sahal Iskudhuq, a senior Shabaab commander who served as a high-ranking member of the Amniyat, Shabaab’s intelligence unit, is reported to have been killed in a drone strike.