Reports of the death of Nasir al Wuhayshi, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s emir and al Qaeda’s general manager, are unconfirmed. The US launched a drone strike in Hadramout province last week.
Leading Iraqi political and religious leaders such as Prime Minister Haidar al Abadi and Grand Ayatollah Sistani have been reduced to cozying up to what John Allen, the US Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition To Counter ISIL, or the Islamic State, described as the “extremist elements” of the Popular Mobilization Committee.
US intelligence agencies thought that Abdul Haq al Turkistani, a member of al Qaeda’s executive council, was killed in a drone strike in February 2010. But according to a jihadist media outlet, he was badly wounded but recovered and assumed command of the Turkistan Islamic Party in 2014.
Akram Abbas al Kabi, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and the leader of the Harakat Nujaba, said his group and others “will seek revenge” for what he claimed was a US airstrike that killed 10 members of the League of the Righteous.
The attack took place in a section of Pakistan’s tribal agencies where the the US is concentrating its drone campaign in North Waziristan.
Five of the eight strikes that have taken place in Pakistan so far this year have targeted jihadists operating in the Shawal Valley, which spans both North and South Waziristan.
Simply because Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and his representatives are endorsing the Popular Mobilization Committee or Iranian-supported militias such as the Iman Ali Brigade doesn’t make them any less radical.
If true, US intelligence assessments on the strength of the Islamic State are grossly underestimated.
The strike took place in the Shawal Valley in Pakistan’s Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. The US continues to launch drone strikes in Pakistan, but the counterterrorism operation does not stray beyond the tribal areas.
US officials and generals continue to downplay the involvement of Iranian-backed Shiite militias in offensives in Iraq, and their dominance of the Popular Mobilization Committee.
Salahuddin al Shishani also accused the Islamic State of attempting to assassinate him after his failed attempt to mediate a dispute between the group and al Qaeda’s branch in Syria.
Iranian-supported militias, including Hezbollah Brigades, a US-listed Foreign Terrorist Organization, are advancing against the Islamic State east of Ramadi. The US is providing air support.
According to Iraqi police and tribal officials, the defensive line that was established outside of Habbaniyah with the help of the US has been breached.
The US military is issuing bizarre spin about events in both Iraq and Syria.
The jihadist group may destroy ancient ruins in the city, as it has done in Mosul and elsewhere. The Islamic State is now said to control half of Syria.
The Islamic State is attacking Iraqi forces and Iranian-backed Shiite militias that have regrouped at Habbaniyah, the last major city between Ramadi and Fallujah.
The poorly timed DoD report was issued the same day that the Islamic State took control of the government center, and two days before all of Ramadi, including the Anbar Operations Command and the large military base there, were overrun.
The attack, which took place the Shawal Valley, a terrorist haven, is just the sixth recorded inside Pakistan this year. The US launched 117 drone strikes in Pakistan at the peak of the campaign in 2010.
US troops killed Abu Sayyaf, a military and financial leader in the Islamic State, during an attempt to capture him at the Al Omar oil field in eastern Syria. His wife, Umm Sayyaf, was captured.
Islamic State advances on ancient Syrian ruins of Palmyra
43 killed in attack on bus carrying Ismailis in Karachi – Pakistan
The Taliban claimed credit for today’s attack and said it was carried out by a single fighter. The jihadist group denounced the hotel for promoting “lasciviousness and indecency.”
Iraq’s Ministry of Defense claimed that Abu Alaa al Afari and a large number of Islamic State fighters were killed in a coalition airstrike that targeted a mosque. CENTCOM denied it launched a strike on a mosque.
The Taliban’s propaganda cannot be independently verified. The Pakistani government claims the Mi-17 crash, which resulted in the death of the ambassadors of Norway and the Philippines and five others, was caused by a technical malfunction.
Matiur Rehman, who has served as a senior al Qaeda leader and the operations chief for Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, brought three Pakistani jihadist groups into the fold of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan.
“If America persists” in advocating for a Sunni and Kurdish state outside of Iraq, “then it will cease to exist,” the Iranian-backed cleric threatened.
A Taliban video shows its fighters inside military bases; seized Humvees, weapons and ammunition; and Afghan security personnel who were captured during the jihadist group’s weeklong offensive in Kunduz.
Four soldiers were beheaded and 11 more were shot in the head. The executions draw a stark contrast between the Islamic State’s and al Qaeda’s strategies.
Iraqi forces overpowered at Baiji refinery
Taliban gains pull US units back into fight in Afghanistan