The Parliament authorized the deployment of up to 850 German soldiers in 2015 to Afghanistan to participate in NATO’s “Resolute Support” training mission. The government is also planning to send some 100 Bundeswehr soldiers to northern Iraq to train Kurdish Peshmerga forces.
Yemen’s Houthis consolidate control over state institutions
One ISIS thug suspected of killing 150 girls, women
Since Dec. 15, the US and partner nations have conducted 61 airstrikes in Iraq and six in Syria against the Islamic State; 45 of the airstrikes in Iraq were in support of Peshmerga and Iraqi forces in the region. President Obama announced the resumption of diplomatic ties with Cuba and Havana’s release of US citizen […]
EU court takes Hamas off terrorist list
Taliban mount assault on Kunar border district, Afghan officials say
How foreign imams radicalized Syria’s war
UN Security Council renews cross-border Syria aid authorization
A ministry of national security spokesman stated that military intelligence arrested at least seven suspected Shabaab fighters in Kahda district and Shabelle province; 228 were arrested during a security operation in Mogadishu. The jihadist group claimed that it has collected $9 million in zakat (alms) in areas under its control.
The army stated that it has killed 17 militants, arrested 11 others and destroyed 64 “militant sites” in north Sinai in the past three days. The Interior Ministry has expelled 40 Cairo police cadets for ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. The British Embassy in Cairo has reopened after unspecific security issues were “resolved.”
Pro-government and Islamist forces are fighting over two of the country’s largest oil ports in eastern Libya, shutting both down. The Islamist Libya Dawn carried out its first airstrikes of the conflict, hitting security forces in the port cities of Sidra and Ras Lanuf. Pro-government allied Zintanis claim to have captured “a senior Libya Dawn […]
The Tunisian government has declared security forces “ready to cope” as fighting rages at the Ras Jedir border crossing in Libya and as the country’s presidential run-off election looms. Tunisians go to the polls on Dec. 21.
“Scores” of suspected Boko Haram fighters were arrested near the capital of Borno state after fleeing the town of Bama disguised as refugees. The UN estimates that the number of refugees displaced by the jihadist group in northern Nigeria has reached 1.5 million.
The strike is the fifth that has targeted Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan fighters and leaders operating inside Afghanistan since the last week of November.
Prime Minister Abbott ordered an investigation into the Dec. 16 siege at a Sydney cafe by Man Haron Monis, an Iranian Sunni extremist who had been accused of violent crimes and was out on bail, that left three people dead and several others wounded. Iran claimed that it had asked Australia to extradite Monis 12 […]
ISIS reportedly destroys at least 6 border control stations on Jordan-Iraq border
Al Nusrah Front shoots two men for blasphemy
ISIS broadens recruitment beyond fighters
Lebanese increasingly chasing second nationality as backup
40% of Anbar’s cities in ruins: Iraqi official
Home Minister Singh announced that the government has banned the Islamic State terrorist group. Police are investigating the likelihood that Mehdi Masroor Biswas, who was arrested for running a prominent pro-ISIS Twitter account, has links to Islamic State operatives. The Intelligence Bureau warned of the possibility of lone-wolf terrorist attacks.
Pakistan’s refusal to sever ties with the so-called “good Taliban” has allowed groups like the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan to fester.
US Seeks to Use Letters Found in Bin Laden Raid in Terrorism Trial
IS threat led to closure of Western embassies in Egypt
The Afghan Taliban has released a statement condemning the Pakistani Taliban’s attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar.
In Sydney Hostage Siege, Australia’s New Anti-Terrorism Measures Proved Ineffective
Turkey’s Religious Schools Rise as Erdogan Exerts Sway
More than 100 high school students are said to have been killed as Taliban fighters fanned out and killed everyone in their path.
The Al Nusrah Front, Ahrar al Sham, and elements of the Free Syrian Army have taken two key regime bases in Idlib province. Al Nusrah has used an American TOW anti-tank missile against regime forces. The US-led coalition has conducted nine airstrikes in Syria since Dec. 13; eight of them “destroyed nine ISIL fighting positions, […]
During raids in Barcelona, Ceuta, Melilla, and the Moroccan municipality of Castillejos, Spanish and Moroccan police arrested seven people, including four women and a minor, suspected of links to an lslamic State recruitment network that sent women to Iraq and Syria. Two of the female suspects were allegedly about to join the Islamic State. Authorities […]