A prominent young member of Norway’s radical Islamist community was recently killed while fighting in the ranks of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham. Norwegian authorities view the danger from returning Syrian jihadists as the most serious terrorism threat now facing Norway.
Members of the Syrian Sunni militant group Liwaa Ahrar al-Sunna clashed with Hezbollah fighters outside the border town of Brital. Baalbek residents protested Army security sweeps. Authorities detained 49 Syrian and Palestinian refugees who were trying to travel from Syria via Lebanon to another Arab country with false documents. The Army arrested seven wanted persons […]
Taliban can’t be held more than 96 hours decides UK judge
Strong case against Denmark in killing of al Qaeda leader
Special operations forces killed Rais Mingaleyev and Beslan Nazipov, two wanted militants linked to an assassination attempt on a mufti in Tatarstan in 2012, during a raid overnight on May 1. Another counterterrorism operation was launched in the Karabudakhkent district of Dagestan on April 29.
Aleppo Diary: Stories from the Front Lines
Ali bin Lakraa’ al Kazimi, the leader of Ansar al Sharia in Al Mahfad district, was killed in a US drone strike on April 20.
An explosion at a bus stop in Mombasa killed three people and wounded seven more; another explosion occurred at a coastal resort in Nyali. Authorities claimed to have thwarted twin Shabaab attacks aimed at disabling power stations and conducting further attacks in northeastern Mandera, where militants tried to damage a power station; and in Wajir, […]
Hours after police defused a bomb planted in a lawmaker’s car, a Shabaab car bomb killed a top police officer in Mogadishu along with four other people. Gunmen killed four Jubaland soldiers in Kismayo. Puntland security forces captured 12 Shabaab members, including three women, in Bossaso last week. In Gedo, Ethiopian AMISOM troops detained a […]
The death toll rose in the clash between special forces and Ansar al Sharia in Benghazi, as eight special forces troops are said to have been captured and killed, in addition to the nine already reported dead. The government condemned Ansar al Sharia as a terrorist group that attacked legitimate government forces; it is reportedly […]
The recent death of Egzon Avdyli, a Norwegian of Albanian descent who was killed fighting alongside the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Syria, was celebrated by Norwegian Islamists as a martyrdom. Mehtab Afsar, Secretary General of the Islamic Council of Norway (IRN), who said he had had talks with Avdyli, advocated talking […]
Nine Muslims, including six women and children, were found shot dead in a suspected sectarian attack in Assam; 20 people have been arrested. The army repelled an infiltration attack along the Line of Control in Jammu & Kashmir. Security sources say Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate is trying to establish a base in Sri Lanka; a […]
Syrians, Pick Your Passports
Ryan Crocker, who has served as US ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Kuwait, and Lebanon, warned the US against making the “grave mistake” of a military intervention in Syria and said that forcible regime change would probably result in a Syria dominated by “the worst of the worst” extremists. Defense Secretary Hagel called for […]
General’s opinion on Benghazi draws a rebuke
The emir of al Qaeda, Ayman al Zawahiri, told the Al Nusrah Front to stop fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham and urged ISIS to concentrate its efforts in Iraq. ISIS clashed with Al Nusrah and the Islamic Front in Deir Izzour. Rebels led by the Islamic Front overran an abandoned chemical […]
Former US diplomat warns of possible ‘grave mistake’ in Syria
The Sunni militant group Liwaa Ahrar al-Sunna claimed to have captured three Hezbollah members near Baalbek. Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Lebanon returned after a month’s absence blamed on security concerns.
Lebanon – Beirut’s southern suburbs exhale as bombings fade
At least five soldiers were killed and 11 people wounded during heavy fighting between Ansar al Sharia and the Saiqa Special Forces in Benghazi last night after the militants raided a security headquarters and tried to recover a vehicle packed with explosives. A convoy of 20 Ansar al Sharia technicals had reportedly moved into the […]
Ayman al Zawahiri offers an olive branch to the head of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (ISIS), which has been disowned by al Qaeda. But he also details the history of ISIS and its predecessor in Iraq, saying the leadership of this group was a part of al Qaeda.
The US Embassy warned of a potential terrorist attack on a Sheraton hotel in Lagos. The Nigerian military is said to be mobilizing for an assault on Boko Haram militants in the Sambisa forest in Borno in an attempt to free 276 kidnapped schoolgirls. Boko Haram gunmen killed 10 people along the Maiduguri- Beneshiek- Damaturu […]
Hamas maintains links with Sinai jihadists, Israeli security sources say
The Taliban and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan have executed three suicide bombings and assaults since October 2011 in the relatively peaceful Afghan province.
The national head teachers’ group expressed “serious concerns” about an alleged plot by Islamists to control education in a number of Birmingham schools. Ofsted, which oversees UK schools, and Birmingham authorities are conducting parallel investigations. Ofsted is now looking at 21 Birmingham schools; and schools in Bradford, Manchester, and east London are alleged to have […]
If Ansar Jerusalem takes credit for today’s suicide attacks, it would be the group’s first claimed attack since bombing a tourist bus in Taba in mid-February. In addition, the two bombings would be the fifth and sixth suicide attacks by the jihadist group since September 2013.
Spanish security forces, working with French police, arrested Abdelmalek Tanem, an Algerian national who also has French citizenship, in Almeria on April 30. He had recently returned from Syria, where he worked as a facilitator along the Turkish border, integrating European jihadists into the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the […]
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed the April 19 ambush of an Algerian army convoy near Tizi Ouzou in Kabylie. The latest US State Department worldwide terrorism report said that in 2013 Algerian forces had “decreased the number of successful terrorist attacks, sustained pressure on AQMI group’s Algeria-based leadership … and further isolated AQMI.”
Authorities arrested five members of Ansar al Sharia in Ariana. Foreign Minister Hamdi said France recently confirmed its commitment to supporting the efforts of Tunisian security forces, especially in stabilizing the area along the Libyan border.
Gunmen killed a Benghazi security official and injured his colleague in an attack near the Benghazi Al-Ahly football club. A former security official was killed near Derna. The road to Tripoli airport was blocked due to clashes with RPG-wielding drug dealers that left two alleged dealers dead and destroyed several vehicles. Protesters forced the closure […]