Author Archives: Lisa Lundquist

Mauritania

Authorities released Sidi Ould Sidi High, a Malian suspected of belonging to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. He was arrested last year on charges of selling explosives to armed groups.



Turkey

The day after reports emerged that Prime Minister Erdogan was seeking to extradite influential Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen from the US, sources in the Ankara Prosecutor’s office said no investigation has yet been launched against Gulen; his activities may be investigated, however, in relation to the leak of a conversation of top Turkish officials discussing […]


China

State media said three people were killed and 79 injured by an explosion at a train station in Urumqi in the restive Xinjiang region. Police cordoned off the station, but it has since reopened. Railway stations in China were busy due to the start of a four-day holiday. President Xi had been concluding a four-day […]




Afghanistan

Mystery surrounds move of Afghan ‘torturer in chief’ to US amid allegations of agency abuse


United States

The US offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Li Fangwei a.k.a. Karl Lee, who is accused of providing missile parts to Iran, and sanctioned eight of his companies. He faces charges of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, money laundering, wire fraud, and conspiracy.


Canada

The government added the International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy (IRFAN), based in Mississauga, Ont., to its list of terrorist organizations for sending millions of dollars to Hamas-linked groups. Canada recently warned its citizens against travel to Nigeria due to the risk of terrorism, violence, and kidnapping. Members of Canada’s elite special operations […]



Syria

Two suicide car bombs in Alawite neighborhoods in Zahraa in Homs killed at least 51 civilians and injured more than 70. The Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic Front battled regime forces in Reef Dimashq; in Latakia, where they were joined by Ahrar al Sham, Sham Al Islam, and rebels; in Hama; and in Aleppo, […]


Bosnia-Herzegovina

The government adopted law providing for jail terms of up to 10 years for any citizen who fights in foreign conflicts or recruits for them. Some 150 Bosnians are thought to have traveled to Syria to fight last year, and 15 of them are known to have been killed there.


Libya

Gunmen from Benghazi with heavy weapons attacked Congress, sending lawmakers fleeing out a back door; several people were injured during the attack, which resulted in a postponement of the voting for a new prime minister. A suicide car bomber attacked the Saiqa special forces base in Benghazi, killing two special forces members and injuring two […]


Tunisia

Tunisian military forces have launched an intensified campaign, backed up by air power, against Islamist militants in the Mount Chaambi region; the army spokesman said the operation is the largest in the army’s history, and will not cease until the army has taken control of the mountain range. Police arrested two wanted “religious extremists” during […]


Algeria

A roadside bomb attack on a gendarmerie patrol killed two policemen and a civilian in Chabet El Ameur southeast of Boumerdes, the first attack in the town in nearly five years. Security sources estimate that fewer than 20 members of the al Qaeda-affiliated GSPC remain in Boumerdes province. The military killed two Islamists and seized […]



Nigeria

Suspected Boko Haram militants killed eight people in Adamawa state and burned houses and churches. The governor of Niger state said he has formed a two-man committee to flush Boko Haram out of the state, following the discovery of a Boko Haram-linked terrorist group in Bida. The families of the more than 230 schoolgirls kidnapped […]






Syria

The Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic Front battled regime forces in Hama; Reef Dimashq; Latakia, where they were joined by Ahrar al Sham, Ansar al Sham, and Sham al Islam; and in Aleppo, where Al Nusrah announced it decided to restore electricity to the city 10 days after cutting it off. Fighting alongside Al […]


Lebanon

Security forces in the Bekaa valley arrested Syrian national Amjad Shehadeh, who is suspected of recruiting fighters for the Al Nusrah Front. Mohammad Abdeldayem al Aaraj, a.k.a. Abou Jassem, the head of the Free Syrian Army’s military council in the Syrian regions of Qusair and Qalamoun, was arrested on April 24 in Arsal with nine […]


Jordan

The state security court sentenced 10 “jihadists” to jail terms of two-and-a-half years each for trying to enter Syria to join radical groups such as the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham. Security forces arrested 158 suspects in Maan after the shooting of five gendarmes there last week.


Somalia

Somali security forces claimed to have killed five of the 30 bodyguards of Abdullahi Dhere, Shabaab’s representative for the Bay region, during a raid in Kulan-Jareer in Bakool. Gunmen in military uniforms killed at least five civilians outside a mosque in Lower Shabelle.


Al Qaeda

Revealed: the radical clerics using social media to back British jihadists in Syria


Kenya

Ali Hanash Al Amri, a Saudi national arrested in Kiunga along the Kenya-Somali border on suspicion of links to Shabaab, was released for deportation to Saudi Arabia after protest by the Saudi ambassador. Al Amri, a.k.a. Ahmed Hanas, who was suspected of recruiting and funding Shabaab fighters, was arrested with two Kenyans, and authorities seized […]


Germany

Police arrested a Somali man in Kehl in possession of a fake Kenyan passport and a fake Swedish visa last week; he said he was applying for asylum. Authorities are building an additional wall to protect the interim storage of nuclear materials at the Gundremmingen nuclear power plant against terrorist attacks.


United States

Department of Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson said “Syria has become a matter of homeland security”; US authorities worry that Syrian foreign fighters will travel through Europe and then conduct attacks in the US. He also warned that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is “very active.” Youssef al Khattab a.k.a. Joseph Leonard Cohen, a […]


Al Qaeda

Feds Worry Whether Foreign Fighters in Syria May Target US, DHS Head Says