The Obama administration released the five top Taliban commanders from Guantanamo in exchange for Sgt. Bowie Bergdahl, the only remaining US hostage held by the Taliban. The five commanders, Mohammad Fazl, Mullah Norullah Noori, Mohammed Nabi, Khairullah Khairkhwa, and Abdul Haq Wasiq, were flown to Qatar, which helped broker the deal.
Haftar: some Libyan officials support al Qaeda
The Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic Front battled regime forces in Reef Dimashq; and in Aleppo, where the Islamic Front blew up a tunnel in Old Aleppo near the Al Zahrawi market, killing at least 20 regime troops. The Islamic Front also clashed with regime forces in Quneitra; in Damascus; and in Hama, where […]
Chechen leader denies sending troops to Ukraine
Authorities dismissed a Free Syrian Army claim that Jordanian soldiers killed a child in an exchange of fire with the FSA. About 2,000 Al Nusrah Front fighters are said to be active in southern Syria near the Golan Heights and Jordan’s northern border, where they operate checkpoints across the Hauran plain. The government said it […]
The Interior Ministry asked Syrian refugees in Lebanon to refrain from returning to Syria, and said those who do return after June 1 will risk losing their refugee status. Mahmoud Hayek, a Hezbollah official reportedly killed in Syria, was sentenced in absentia to hard labor and life in prison for trying to assassinate Minister Butros […]
Syria bomber was Florida-born, raised in middle-class family
Pakistani Military Attacks Kunar With Rockets, Helicopters
Obama on slippery Syrian slope
A female news reporter and an associate were found dead with their throats slit in Sebha after being kidnapped. About 800 supporters of Khalid Haftar’s “Dignity Campaign” demonstrated in Benghazi. Haftar’s forces warned Benghazi University students to stay away from the campus, as Ansar al Sharia and the February 17 Brigade had moved weapons there. […]
In a statement released on May 26, AQAP commander Jalal al Marqishi addresses the “American enemy” and predicts an ignominious US withdrawal from Yemen.
The five Taliban commanders exchanged for Sgt. Bergdahl were all deemed “high” risks to the US and its allies by Joint Task Force Guantanamo. All of them were closely allied with al Qaeda prior to their detention. Two of them have been wanted for war crimes by the UN.
Norwegian media reported this week that a Somali man who had lived in Norway has been killed fighting in Syria. On May 27 police arrested a Somali and two Kosovans, all Norwegian citizens residing in Oslo, who are suspected of supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham. The two Kosovans are brothers who […]
Mohamed Hersi, 28, a Toronto university graduate who was born in Somalia, became the first Canadian convicted under a new law that penalizes “leaving or attempting to leave Canada” to commit terrorism. Hersi was arrested at the airport in Toronto in 2011 as he was trying to board a one-way flight to Cairo, on his […]
US officials have identified the first American suicide bomber in Syria as Moner Mohammad Abusalha, who reportedly grew up in Florida. Abusalha went by the alias “Abu Hurayra al Amriki” and joined the Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria.
Authorities charged Kyrgyzstan national Khairullozhon Matanov, an acquaintance of Boston Marathon bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, with lying to investigators and destroying evidence relating to the attack. An American who carried out a suicide attack for the Al Nusrah Front in Syria was identified as Moner Mohammad Abusalha, who had grown up in Florida.
Report: Florida man may be 1st American suicide bomber in Syria
Under Pressure, Hagel Promises to Act on Guantánamo Transfers
The Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic Front battled regime forces in Homs. The Islamic Front also clashed with regime forces in Aleppo near the central prison; in Deraa in Deraa city; and in Deir Izzour, where two members of a reconciliation committee were detained by the sharia committee. The Islamic State of Iraq and […]
Syria’s ‘western-backed’ rebels? Not in weapons
An alleged Muslim Brotherhood member was killed in Cairo when a bomb he was carrying to attack police exploded as he was riding a motorbike. Gunmen attacked security forces near the Sheikh Zuwaid Police Station in North Sinai but were repelled when security forces opened fire on them. A bomb exploded as a military convoy […]
Indonesia bans Hollywood epic ‘Noah’ over Islamic concerns
Suspected Boko Haram militants shot and killed a local emir in an attack on a funeral convoy in northern Nigeria.
Two killed after clash with protesters in CAR
In March, a group of nine al Qaeda jihadists wrote a letter supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (ISIS), a group that has been disowned by al Qaeda’s general command. Al Qaeda has now published a response written by a little-known ideologue named Abu ‘Amer al Naji.
Cameroon weakest link in fight against Boko Haram: Nigeria
Israeli forces foiled a suicide bombing at a checkpoint south of Nablus, arresting a Palestinian man as he approached the Tapuah Junction with suspected pipe bombs hidden under his clothes. Shin Bet announced the arrest of senior Hamas operative Mahmoud Toama, who told interrogators that Hamas secretly supports the Islamic Movement in Israel and that […]
Security forces in Melilla arrested six jihadists involved in a network that sends fighters to al Qaeda camps in Syria, Mali, and Libya. Cell leader Benaissa Laghmouchi Baghdadi, 42, who had spent eight months in Syria, has ties to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa […]
Violence Against Afghan Journalists Hits New Heights in 2014
NATO War Game Tests Intelligence-Sharing