The Department of Justice arrested and charged two Muslim men of conspiring to murder US soldiers at a recruiting and processing center in Seattle. Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif and Walli Mujahidh were informed on by another Muslim who pretended to be a member of the cell.
Afghans fear US troop drawdown will allow return of Taliban
Cellphone Offers Clues of Bin Laden’s Pakistan Ties
Security forces killed and captured several Taliban fighters in Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul Khost, Paktika, Laghman, and Balkh. An ISAF helicopter crashed in Zabul; no casualties were reported.
Military Leaders: We Would Have Handled Afghan War Drawdown Differently
Obama’s ‘mission accomplished’ speech on Afghanistan
Karzai surrounding himself with anti-US advisers
Afghan analysis gives high marks to special ops, but not rest of Petraeus campaign
Insurgents killed 34 people, including a civilian US contractor, in several bombings in Baghdad. Security forces detained four insurgents in Kirkuk.
Officials: Petraeus to hand off Afghan command sooner than expected
On Afghanistan drawdown, Obama sides with Gates over Petraeus
Vice-president Hadi battles against Saleh’s son for control in Yemen
US official calls for immediate, peaceful transfer of power in Yemen
Defiant Qaddafi vows to fight to the death
Syrian army sweeps through border towns
Dutch court acquits anti-Islam lawmaker
Soldiers killed a man in Dharkenley who was thought to have been planting an IED. A senior Shabaab official was killed during recent fighting in Beletweyne. The pro-government Ahlu Sunnah Wal Ja’ama shut down a radio station.
The Taliban were dismissive of President Obama’s plan to withdraw 33,000 US troops by next summer. In an official statement, the Taliban described the plan as “as a symbolic step which will never satisfy the war weary international community or the American people.”
President Obama announced he will withdraw the “surge” force of 33,000 US troops by the summer of 2012. The plan calls for 10,000 troops to be withdrawn by the end of this year, and another 23,000 troops by September 2012.
President Sarkozy announced that France would begin to draw down its more than 4,000 troops from Afghanistan. The withdrawal would begin in months and would be “in a proportional manner and in a timeframe similar to the pullback of the American reinforcements.”
Obama Won’t Use Troops to Save Afghan Hellhole (Drones, Maybe)
Three security personnel and five Taliban fighters were killed during clashes in Khyber and Arakzai. The military is questioning four army majors over possible links to Hizbut Tahrir.
Pakistan: Military strategy and the flight of capital
Fighting ghosts in deadly Afghan theatre
The Taliban killed six Afghan policemen in a suicide attack in Ghazni and an ISAF soldier in the south. Security forces killed and captured several Taliban fighters in Kandahar, Helmand, Khost, and Laghman.
Al Qaeda in Iraq killed seven Iraqis in attacks on police in Baghdad and Mosul. Security forces captured a Tunisian leader of an AQI cell in Mosul along with 16 cell members.
Sixty-two al Qaeda fighters escaped during an attack on a prison in Mukalla; one prison guard was killed during the attack. A government spokesman insisted that President Saleh will return from Saudi Arabia this week.
Why Afghan returnees could become Taliban recruits
Afghans worry US will fail them again
Security forces killed seven people in the cities of Homs and Mayadeen. Troops opened fire on anti-regime protesters who showed up at rallies being held in support of President Assad.