Al Nusrah Front
Qatar pares support for Islamists but careful to preserve ties
Yearly Archives: 2014
Al Nusrah Front
Theo Padnos, American Journalist, on Being Kidnapped, Tortured and Released in Syria
Afghanistan
Taliban return to Afghan town that rose up and drove out its leaders
Afghanistan
The Taliban killed four soldiers and seven policemen in a suicide attack in Logar province. A Taliban suicide bomber killed only himself in a premature detonation in Kandahar. Most of the district of Gizab in Uruzgan is now under Taliban control.
Iraq
The Islamic State reportedly executed 50 members of the Albu Nimr tribe who opposed the group in Hit. A suicide bomber killed five people in an attack at a checkpoint in Baghdad. The US launched five airstrikes against the Islamic State near Al Qaim and the Mosul Dam.
Yemen
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula killed 20 soldiers in an attack on a government building in Jabal Ras in Hodeidah; three al Qaeda fighters were also killed. Houthi rebels killed two guards and a civilian in an attack on the Islah Party headquarters in Ibb.
Al Nusrah Front forces Western-backed rebel group to flee base in Idlib
The Al Nusrah Front has forced the leader of the Western-backed Syrian Revolutionaries’ Front, Jamal Maarouf, to flee his base of operations in Idlib.
AQAP continues to portray US-led bombing campaign as a ‘Crusade’
In a pair of videos released in late October, two leading AQAP ideologues preached jihadist unity in the face of the US-led coalition’s bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria. One of the videos also included thinly-veiled criticisms of the Islamic State’s declared caliphate.
Islamic State
New Alignments: The Kurds’ Lonely Fight against Islamic State Terror
Somalia
UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon praised Somalia’s significant gains against Shabaab during a visit on Wednesday. A car bomb killed at least one person and injured another in Mogadishu today.
Tunisia
The country’s recent election results of a victory for secularists have been hailed as a “possible model for the region,” yet are also described as fragile.
Algeria
Algerian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdelaziz Benali Cherif condemned last Thursday’s terrorist attacks on forces in neighboring Niger on Friday.
Nigeria
Boko Haraam leader Abubakar Shekau has denied the government’s previous announcement of a ceasefire or any pending agreement to release girls kidnapped by the group in April. He also said the girls have been converted to Islam and “married … off” and threatened to kill a German hostage. A car bomb killed at least 23 […]
Germany
Kreshnik B,. who is on trial for joining the Islamic State in Syria, told the court that he still wants to die a martyr. Security officials estimate that some 50 people have left Germany to join the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Syria, and that there are about 13,000 members of the banned organization in […]
United Kingdom
The Foreign Office issued a warning to Britons living or traveling abroad to be vigilant due to the threat from persons and groups “motivated by the conflict in Iraq and Syria.” The heightened threat is said to generalized, not a reflection of specific intelligence. RAF jets intercepted a Russian military jet as it approached British […]
Al Nusrah Front
Waging the Information War on ISIS
Iraq
ISIS gains halted, but defeat not on horizon
Al Nusrah Front
Al Qaeda group seizes bastion of Western-backed rebels in Syria’s Idlib region
Trinidad
Extremist cleric Yasin Abu Bakr, the leader of Jamaat Al Muslimeen who was recently extradited from Jamaica, is suing the state for wrongful arrest for the murder of a man in 1998. Ashmead Mohammed, a Trinidadian, has reportedly been identified as fighting for the Islamic State in Syria; about 50 Trinidadians are said to have […]
Jamaica
Jamaican extremist cleric Abdullah el Faisal posted a statement on social media denouncing as “hypocrites” those Muslims who do not follow the Islamic State. On Oct. 16, Jamaican authorities deported Trinidadian extremist Muslim leader Yasin Abu Bakr home to Trinidad.
Iraq
Fearing uprising, Islamic State militants hunt former Iraqi police
United States
The State Department warned to US citizens in the Middle East to be vigilant, following an online jihadist threat against American and international schools. In its latest report on the Afghan war, the Pentagon said violence in Afghanistan fell by 30 percent between April and August, but warned that insurgent sanctuaries in Pakistan and Afghan […]
Ahrar al Sham
Syria rebels deploy peacekeepers in Idlib
Iraq
Iraqi weapons trade thrives
IAEA
UN Says Iran Is Silent on Efforts for a Bomb
Jordan
Security forces arrested influential al Qaeda-linked cleric Abu Mohammad al Maqdisi on Oct. 27, on charges of using the Internet to incite terrorism. Former Prime Minister Marouf al Bakhit recently estimated that up to 4,000 Jordanians are active in the Islamic State. Some 20 Jordanian clerics are said to have taken leadership positions in the […]
Afghanistan
Afghan ‘Blasphemy’ Case An Early Test For New Government
Islamic State
The Child Soldiers Of Islamic State
Boko Haram
Boko Haram ‘forcing girls to take part in operations’
United Kingdom
An appellate court upheld the extended sentences for convicted terrorists Richard Dart a.k.a. Salahuddin al-Britani, Zahid Iqbal, and Mohammed Sharfaraz Ahmed, on the grounds that the three men posed a continuing threat to society. The Government Prosecution Service reported that the number of persons arrested in the UK under European Arrest Warrants has risen significantly, […]