Seven people were killed in a bombing in Peshawar. Pakistani officials claimed Afghan troops crossed the border in Baluchistan and executed two Taliban fighters. Prime Minister Gilani said the government does not allow the US to conduct drone strikes inside Pakistan.
The Taliban assassinated a senior judge in Nangarhar. Four people were killed in a helicopter crash. Security forces killed seven Taliban fighters and detained 18 more in Kabul, Helmand, Uruzgan, Ghazni, Khost, Paktia, and Herat. A child suicide bomber who was freed has been rearrested.
Four members of the PKK were killed as Turkish warplanes bombed their bases in northern Iraq. Iraq opened a new crude oil export terminal in Basra that should increase exports by 300,000 barrels per day.
Ansar al Sharia, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s political front, beheaded two Saudis and a Yemeni who were accused of spying for the US. “Gunmen” assassinated a colonel in the Political Intelligence Security directorate in Al Baytha.
Shabaab fighters attacked Kenyan and Somali troops in Busaar; 10 people are said to have been killed. Shabaab fighters and local militia clashed in Beledweyne; five people reportedly killing five people.
The spokesman for the Kenya Defence Forces said that Shabaab’s merger with al Qaeda shows the Somali group has been weakened. Colonel Cyrus Oguna also said the merger would induce the international community to fight Shabaab.
Boko Haram exposed: How sect was formed; Training details; Why it is changing tactics
Security forces have created a list of the most wanted Boko Haram members; its leader, Abubakar Shekau, tops the list. Boko Haram gunmen are suspected of killing four Christians in the towns of Unguan Musa and Potiskum.
Siraj confirmed that the various Pakistani Taliban groups have signed a peace agreement with the Pakistani government.
The Taliban said they are holding a German and an Italian citizen who were kidnapped in Multan. The Army is court-martialing a brigadier and four officers for links to Hizb ut-Tahrir. The interior minister denied that NATO supplies are transiting via Afghan airspace.
The Taliban killed five Afghan policemen in an IED attack in Tarin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan, and an ISAF soldier in the south, and kidnapped six policemen in Balkh. Security forces captured several Taliban leaders and fighters in Helmand and Paktia.
German citizen and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan leader Mounir Chouka said that “jihad in Germany is only a matter of time.”
African Union Appeal for Mobilization to Defeat Al Qaeda in Somalia
The US is considering re-arming AMISOM after Shabaab’s merger with al Qaeda. AMISOM said that it would invest $4.5 million on projects in Mogadishu. Shabaab vowed to continue attacks in Mogadishu.
Insurgents killed an Awakening member in an IED attack in Fallujah. The government freed 18 senior Baathists in Wasit, and said others would soon be released.
Eight inmates were killed during an attempted jailbreak from a prison in Dhamar. Shia Houthi rebels kidnapped three Saudis in Al Jawf.
The Muslim Youth Center, Shabaab’s affiliate in Kenya, said that it is “part of this new union under the banner of AQEA (al-Qaeda East Africa).” The statement was released one day after Shabaab officially joined al Qaeda.
Security forces re-captured Kabiru Sokoto, Boko Haram’s Christmas Day bomber who escaped from prison on Jan. 18. Some Nigerians are fleeing to Cameroon to escape the threat of Boko Haram violence.
President Karzai said ISAF aircraft killed several children in Kapisa. The Taliban killed two policemen in an IED attack in Helmand. Security forces captured two Taliban commanders in Helmand and Nangarhar.
Insurgents killed a policeman near Kirkuk. The government is seeking to tighten the rules for security contractors operating in Iraq.
The chief of the Criminal Investigation Department in Al Houta was killed by “gunmen;” al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters are suspected of carrying out the attack. The military killed two members of the Southern Movement in Dhale who were protesting the upcoming election.
Shabaab and al Qaeda formally said the two groups have merged. Ayman al Zawahiri announced “the joining of the Shabaab al-Mujahideen Movement in Somalia to Qaedat al-Jihad, to support the jihadi unity against the Zio-Crusader campaign and their assistants amongst the treacherous agent rulers.”
The chief of the secret police in Kano said that Boko Haram fighters wear police uniforms when conducting attacks on security forces. “The sect members disguise as policemen… to launch attacks on police personnel and make it look like policemen are sent to kill their colleagues,” he said.
Kenyan forces claimed a senior Shabaab military commander named Abu Yahya and 13 fighters were killed in an ambush in Dalayat. Shabaab claimed its forces killed six Kenyan troops in the south. The death toll in yesterday’s suicide attack in Mogadishu has increased to 15 killed.
Badr Mansoor used his links with the Taliban and Harakat-ul-Mujahideen to recruit leaders and fighters into al Qaeda. US intelligence officials said Mansoor is but a part of al Qaeda’s “deep bench” in Pakistan.
Four “militants” were killed in the second strike in 24 hours in Pakistan’s Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. A senior al Qaeda-linked Taliban commander is reported to have been killed.
US drones killed 10 Haqqani Network and Central Asian fighters in a strike in North Waziristan. The Taliban killed two soldiers in Mohmand. Representatives from the US, Pakistan, and Afghanistan met to discuss border security coordination.
Security forces captured four Taliban leaders and facilitators in Helmand and Khost, and three insurgents, including a Pakistani, in Kandahar. The government said it was willing to accept the transfer of Taliban detainees held at Guantanamo to Qatar.
Iraq executed Abu Talha, a senior aide to Abu Musab al Zarqawi, and sentenced a Saudi al Qaeda in Iraq leader to death. A tribal sheikh was killed in an IED attack in Diyala.
Abu Talha was a senior al Qaeda in Iraq leader, a member of Ansar al Islam, and a potential successor to Abu Musab al Zarqawi.