Iran
The chief of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran claimed Iran can now manufacture nuclear rods and plates at the Isfahan site. Security forces arrested a US citizen accused of being a “spy.”
Author Archives: Bill Roggio
AQAP continues attacks on Yemeni troops
Map of Yemen. Click to view. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula continued its attacks on Yemeni security forces today, hitting security forces in strikes in the southern provinces of Abyan and Lahj. In Lahj, four Yemeni solders were killed and six AQAP fighters were wounded, according to Reuters. In Abyan, eight Yemeni soldiers were […]
Mullah Dadullah Front behind Kandahar suicide attack
The attack killed 17 people, including a senior anti-Taliban police commander. The Mullah Dadullah Front is a wing of the Taliban in the Afghan south that has adopted al Qaeda’s tactics and ideology.
Afghanistan
A suicide bomber killed 17 people, including a police commander, in an attack in Kandahar. The Taliban killed three ISAF soldiers in attacks in the south and the east. Coalition and Afghan forces killed and captured several Taliban commanders and fighters in Kandahar, Zabul, Kabul, and Nimroz.
Swedish suicide bomber trained in Mosul: Iraqi official
Taimour Abdulwahab, who attempted to kill people in a failed attack Stockholm in mid-December 2010, trained in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul along with an Egyptian, according to Iraqi officials.
Al Qaeda ambushes Yemeni troops in the south
In two attacks today, 13 Yemeni soldiers were reported killed, and their brigade commander was wounded by an IED.
Somalia
Four people were killed during fighting between government forces in a village near Mogadishu. A newspaper claimed that the Puntland government is negotiating with Shabaab commander Mohamed Said Atom.
Yemen
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ambushed an Army convoy in Lauder in Abyan province. Twelve soldiers were reported killed in the attack.
US Predators kill 5 ‘militants’ in al Qaeda haven of Datta Khel
The strike is the fourth this year. Datta Khel is a known hub for al Qaeda’s leadership.
Pakistan
A tribal lashkar killed three Taliban fighters; three more Taliban fighters were found killed in Arakzai. An Awami National Party leader was killed in Mardan. The US will donate $190 million in flood aid.
Algeria
The US Department of Defense announced the transfer of Saiid Farhi to Algeria. Farhi was detained at the Guantanamo Bay detention faciliy after being detained in Pakistan in 2001 for associating with al Qaeda and the Taliban. A US court ordered Farhi’s release in November 2009.
United States
The FBI arrested Emerson Begolly, an Internet jihadist who has voiced his support for the Taliban and al Qaeda. Begolly, who was detained in New Bethlehem, Pa., bit two FBI agents and had a gun in his possession during the arrest.
Bangladesh
The Jamaat ul Mujahideen Bangladesh threatened to kill Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and bomb a prison if its associates are not released from jail. Four of the six top leaders of the MB were captured in 2005 and executed in 2007.
Afghanistan
The US will send an additional 1,400 Marines to the south in the spring. Coalition and Afghan forces killed and captured several Taliban commanders and fighters in Kandahar, Helmand, Ghazni, Kunar, and Nangarhar. The Taliban killed a policeman in Nimroz.
Iraq
Security forces detained 11 wanted men in Diyala, an “armed group” attempting to carry out a rocket attack near Baghdad’s airport, and a corrupt Army officer in Baghdad. Iraqi soldiers and intelligence officials foiled an attempt to blow up a church in Mosul.
Mali
The man who was detained for hurling a small explosive device and opening fire at the French embassy in Bamako claimed to be a member of al Qaeda. The man is said to be a Tunisian citizen. Police cannot confirm the man’s claims.
Somalia
Shabaab forces near Kismayo executed a man accused of spying for the Ethiopian military and detained three people in El Bur. A Somali military commander threatened to battle Shabaab forces in Beledweyn.
Pakistan
Barelvi clerics feted Governor Taseer’s assassin and warned Pakistanis not to mourn Taseer’s death, while lawyers showered the assassin with rose petals as he entered a courtroom. The US and Pakistan are stalemated over the transfer of drone technology.
Russia
Four “militants” were killed in a special operations raid in the city of Khasavyurt in Dagestan. Gunmen fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a Russian Orthodox Church in the town of Ordzhonikidze in Ingushetia; the church caught fire.
Welcome back, Sadr
Muqtada al Sadr. Muqtada al Sadr, the Iranian-backed, pseudo-cleric derisively known as Mullah Atari and hailed in US media circles as “the most powerful man in Iraq,” has returned from his self-imposed three-year-plus-long exile in Iran. Sadr left Iraq after the US and Iraqi security forces stepped up operations against his now-disbanded Mahdi Army in […]
Afghanistan
The Taliban killed three ISAF soldiers in attacks in the south and east and three civilians in Uruzgan. Coalition and Afghan forces killed and captured several Taliban and Haqqani Network commanders and fighters in Kandahar, Ghazni, Wardak, and Nimroz. CENTCOM suspended contractors Bennett-Fouch Associates and K5 Global.
Iraq
Muqtada al Sadr has returned to Iraq after sheltering three years in Iran. Security forces detained 35 wanted men in Falluah and Kirkuk, Ninewa, and Babil, and the imam of Saddam’s mosque in Tikrit. Insurgents killed a civilian in a bombing in Baghdad.
Morocco
Moroccan security forces arrested 27 people accused of plotting to attack security forces and rob banks. The men belonged to a “terrorist cell” commanded by an al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb operative tasked with setting up a base in the Western Sahara.
Somalia
Two people were killed in a grenade attack that targeted Somali troops in Mogadishu. Shabaab cut off a hand and a foot of a young man accused of stealing in Baidoa; the punishment was carried out in public.
Sweden
Mona Thwany, the wife of the failed Stockholm suicide bomber, admitted to posting on YouTube the audio of her husband claiming credit for the attack. Thwany claims she does not support terrorism. A Kurdish writer living in Sweden received death threats from Islamists in northern Iraq after he published a poem about women’s rights.
Pakistani lawyers, ‘moderate’ Muslim group fete governor’s assassin
To understand just how bad things are in Pakistan, read this Associated Press account of the treatment of the assassin who brutally murdered Punjab’s governor, Salman Taseer, for opposing Pakistan’s repressive blasphemy law. The lawyers showered the assassin bodyguard with rose petals, while Barelvi clerics, who are upheld as the caretakers of Pakistan’s moderate Muslims, […]
Tajikistan
Security forces killed Aloviddin Davlatov and seven other fighters during a raid in the Rasht Valley. Davlatov was an Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan commander; the interior minister said he was a member of al Qaeda.
Pakistan
Punjab’s governor was assassinated by his bodyguard for opposing the country’s blasphemy law. The Taliban killed a “spy” and chopped off the hand of a thief in Arakzai, and bombed a NATO fuel tanker in Khyber. Security forces arrested 39 suspected Taliban fighters in Mohmand.
Tajik forces kill al Qaeda-linked commander
Tajik security forces have killed an “al Qaeda member” during a recent raid in the Rasht Valley in eastern Tajikistan. From Reuters: “Aloviddin Davlatov has been destroyed. He was an al Qaeda member,” Tokhir Normatov, chief of staff at Tajikistan’s interior ministry, told Reuters, referring to the militant accused of leading the attack on government […]
Afghanistan
Coalition and Afghan forces killed and captured several Taliban and Haqqani Network commanders and fighters in Zabul, Ghazni, Khost, Nangarhar, Wardak, Baghlan, and Kunduz. Coalition and Afghan forces brokered a peace deal with the Alikozai tribe in Sangin district in Helmand province. A policeman was killed in a bombing in Kabul.