Authorities said 55 inmates escaped from Tripoli’s Bawabat Al-Jibs prison after overpowering the five guards on duty. The jailbreak reflects the instability plaguing the country; in July over 1,000 prisoners escaped from al-Kweifiya prison near Benghazi. A Maltese ferry company filed a claim for financial damages resulting from extended laytime during the evacuation of US […]
Kerry, Hagel urge ‘transatlantic renaissance’ to confront political and security challenges
Feature: Precarious calm in Algeria’s strife-hit Ghardaia /a>
At the Munich Security Conference, Secretary of State Kerry and Secretary of Defense Hagel called on European allies to step up their participation with the US in facing joint political and security challenges. Hagel indicated that the Obama administration is seeking to place more emphasis on traditional diplomacy and less on the exercise of military […]
Kabul Police Official Links Insurgency to Corruption
After billions in US investment, Afghan roads are falling apart
Aid agencies evacuated hundreds of residents from the rebel-held district of Yarmouk in Damascus. Regime barrel bombs killed at least 23 people in Aleppo city, including eight Al Nusrah Front fighters. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham detonated two car bombs in Aleppo and clashed with Islamist battalions and rebels in the Al-Ra’ii […]
Pakistani Taliban Announces Delegation To Talks With Government
Tunisia, Libya in AQIM crosshairs
US, Turkey realize al Qaeda threat in Syria
Turkish national intelligence and police reported that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham is planning to attack targets inside Turkey with car bombs; it also said Turkish forces destroyed three ISIS vehicles inside the Syrian border on Jan. 28. According to the report, ISIS now controls the Azaz, Jarablus, and Yayladağı border posts […]
A suicide car bomber detonated at a gas station in Hermel, killing at least four people and injuring 21 more. The Al Nusrah Front in Lebanon claimed the bombing, its second in the largely Shiite, Hezbollah-dominated area in the past two weeks. The US Embassy renewed a travel warning for Lebanon due to the series […]
Muslim gender segregation stirs UK debate
Some 120 Islamist prisoners, including extremist cleric Abu Qatada, began a hunger strike to protest conditions of their detention. Two days ago, Qatada threatened to boycott his retrial on terrorism charges. Over the past several months, Jordanian authorities have arrested scores of jihadists trying to travel to Syria.
A retired Libyan colonel was assassinated in Benghazi yesterday, and the son of another Benghazi security official died from gunfire wounds received a day earlier. A driver for the military police was wounded in a separate attack yesterday. Two soldiers were kidnapped in Benghazi, and the body of a man who had been shot in […]
French President Hollande said the UK and France have the “same level” Syrian jihadism, with some 600 to 700 people from their respective countries fighting in Syria; Whitehall countered that an estimated 350 Britons are fighting there. Six persons appeared in court for offenses linked to Syria, and two north London brothers, Akram and Mohamed […]
Egypt faces new threat in al Qaeda-linked group Ansar Bayt al Maqdis
Kurdistan’s “Islamic” parties seek to downplay Islam
A state news anchor’s take on the Syria war
The first week of Geneva II talks ended with no progress. A rights organization accused the Assad regime of deliberately destroying thousands of homes in Damascus and Hama over the past two years. The mother of a British doctor who died in regime custody said regime officials admitted to killing him. The OPCW told the […]
Syrian rocket and artillery fire hit in the Akkar villages, killing a Syrian refugee and injuring four other people, including a Lebanese soldier. Lebanese forces targeted gunmen in the border area. Seeking to deflect criticism for the shelling, Syria’s ambassador to Lebanon said terrorist groups are moving into Lebanese areas, including Sidon, Beirut, Tripoli, and […]
Reaper Drones In Sahel Now Part of ISR Assets of French Armed Forces
Spanish Air Force maintains maritime patrol force in Djibouti
The son of a colonel in Benghazi’s special forces was shot dead and a friend was injured by gunmen; the attack follows the kidnapping of the son of the commander of Benghazi’s special forces yesterday. One man was killed and two injured in clashes between Benghazi’s Special Forces and the 17 February Brigade after yesterday’s […]
Panama to release most of crew of North Korean ship
Indonesian Militants Join Fight in Syria
A French court is investigating two teenage boys from Toulouse suspected of trying to travel to Syria to join a terrorist group. The father of one of the boys said his son was radicalized over the Internet. Authorities are looking for a teenage girl missing from Avignon who may have gone to Syria. Interior Minister […]
An Indonesian think tank says the Syrian conflict is drawing Indonesian jihadists, particularly those affiliated with Jemaah Islamiyah. The government estimated in December that 50 Indonesians have gone to Syria to fight with the rebels. In Syria, some are said to have linked up with Ahrar al Sham, others with the Islamic State of Iraq […]
Iran can now build and deliver nukes, US intel reports
Belgian Hercules Takes Dutch Weapons to Mali