Mawlana Salimullah Khan was also the president of Pakistan’s largest confederation of Deobani seminaries and schools. His son and grandson were deported from the United States for immigration violations after the FBI linked them to an al Qaeda plot in California.
The US military “remains committed to defeating AQAP and denying it safe havens in Yemen.” AQAP remains entrenched in southern and central Yemen despite the active targeting of the group and its leaders by the US for eight years.
US Africa Command continues to describe airstrikes launched during offensive operations against al Qaeda’s branch in Somalia as “self-defense strikes.”
The Taliban has good reason to deny involvement in this attack, as it has used the UAE to fundraise and gather support for jihadists based in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
General Abdul Raziq, the chief of police for Kandahar who has battled the Taliban for years and has been the target of numerous assassination attempts, is pushing the idea of a “safe zone” for the Taliban in Afghanistan.
In its statement claiming credit for today’s attack, the Taliban said that “both of the attackers were from the Martyr Battalion of Islamic Emirate.” The Taliban has deliberately targeted first responders in the past.
Mahmud Al Isawi was killed as the US-led coalition has stepped up its efforts to help drive the Islamic State from its Syrian capital. The Pentagon said that 16 “significant members” of the organization’s external operations network have been killed in 2016.
The US military has targeted senior and mid-level Islamic State leaders, external operations planners, and military commanders while also striking the group’s military and civilian infrastructure throughout Iraq and Syria in an effort to deny it territory and deal it a “lasting defeat.”
For the time being, Raqqah has become the most significant target in the air campaign in Iraq and Syria. Coalition forces have launched 52 strikes near the Syrian city over the past 5 days, compared to 23 in Mosul.
The announcement is part of a US military effort to stay ahead of criticism from media and international non-governmental organizations for striking jihadists as they use protected sites to attack allied forces.
The designations of Al-Muhammadia Students and LeT leaders Muhammad Sarwar and Shahid Mahmood highlight LeT’s role in international terrorism and its adeptness in using front organizations to skirt international sanctions.
CJTFOIR has launched 76 strikes in and around Raqqah since Dec. 20. For comparison, the US launched 23 airstrikes against the Islamic State in and around Mosul during the same time period.
The US has now launched 37 airstrikes against AQAP in 2016, the largest yearly total since 2012 (41 strikes).
In the past, the Taliban has assassinated key political and military leaders in an attempt to destabilize districts and provinces coveted by the group.
The US military announced the deaths of Bilal al Utabyi, al Qaeda’s deputy leader for eastern Afghanistan, and Wahid al-Junabi, a senior al Qaeda explosives expert. Both were killed on Oct. 23 in the airstrike that also killed Faruq al Qahtani, al Qaeda emir for eastern Afghanistan.
The US military said it destroyed 14 tanks “and other equipment” that was captured by the Islamic State after it overran the Syrian city of Palmyra and the nearby Tiyas Military Airfield.
State has upped the reward for Abu Bakr al Baghdadi as the Islamic State has been under significant pressure in Iraq. The $25 million reward puts Baghdadi on par with Ayman al Zawahiri, the emir of al Qaeda.
The Islamic State threatened further attacks in its “war on polytheism,” meaning against Christians and Jews, in Egypt and elsewhere. The group and its predecessor, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), have assaulted Coptic Christians in the past.
The Taliban bring another influential wayward commander back into the fold. Mullah Abdul Razaq Akhund served as the Taliban’s interior minister and chief of police in Kabul. He also served as a member of the Quetta Shura and was an adviser to Mullah Omar.
US Central Command released footage of a massive air raid that destroyed scores of Islamic State oil tankers near the Syrian city of Palmyra.
The Afghan Special Police Force, a unit assigned to the Interior Ministry, captured an al Qaeda “financier” during a raid in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar on Dec. 8.
According to CENTCOM, Islamic State fighters were using the Al Salem hospital complex as “a base of operations and command and control headquarters.”
When the Taliban assaulted the district of Ghorak in Kandahar last month, it seized a number of US-made weapons that were supplied to the Afghan security forces from a base that was overrun.
The Taliban said 100 mujahideen have graduated from its Khalid bin Walid Camp and 50 more from its branch, the Abu Dujana Camp. The Taliban claimed that the Khalid bin Walid Camp has 12 branches throughout Afghanistan.
Abdullah Ahmed al Meshedani manages foreign fighters as they enter Iraq and Syria, while Abdelilah Himich and Basil Hassan are planners for the Islamic State’s external operations network.
The claim cannot be independently verified, but Ghorak district has been hotly contested and Taliban has overrun it in the past. Security in Kandahar province also appears to be deteriorating.
The attack is the second of its kind in the Afghan capital by the Islamic State in the past six weeks.
The Taliban denied reports that Mullah Attaullah was killed by police forces. The Afghan government has a spotty track record when reporting on the deaths of Taliban commanders.
Afghan officials confirmed a helicopter encountered problems in Logar province, but said it “made a hard landing due to technical problems.”
The Taliban suicide bomber who killed two American soldiers and two contractors at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan’s central province of Parwan on Nov. 12 had joined the Afghan government’s “peace process” and reconciled in 2008.