France
Serge Lazarevic: Mali confirms militants freed for French hostage
Author Archives: Lisa Lundquist
Islamic State
Prominent Malaysians fear country losing moderate Muslim credentials as it moves towards fundamentalism
Australia
A Sydney court rejected appeals by five members of the Pendennis terrorist cell against their convictions and sentences. Another member of the cell, Khaled Sharrouf, left for Syria last year to join the Islamic State. Ahmad Saiyer Naizmand, an Afghan who become an Australian citizen in 2007, pled guilty on Dec. 8 to stealing a […]
Algeria
Egypt looks to roll back Islamist militias in Libya
Al Qaeda
Pakistan arrests suspected South Asian al Qaeda commander
Afghanistan
From Florida to al Qaeda: terror group’s external operations chief spent last years at Iran-Pakistan-Afghan border
Indonesia
Indonesian editor who published anti-ISIS cartoon is summoned under blasphemy law
Al Nusrah Front
Finances of jihad: How extremist groups raise money
Syria
Syrian rebel ‘hell cannons’ kill 300 civilians: monitoring group
United Kingdom
Islamic Relief Worldwide, a Birmingham-based charity that received £3.2 million from the British government in 2013, claimed that an audit it commissioned has cleared the charity of allegations it funded terrorism; Israel has accused the charity of diverting funds to Hamas. A recently released US Senate report on post-9/11 CIA interrogations disclosed that information gained […]
Afghanistan
NATO airstrike leaves 17 suspected militants dead in Afghanistan’s Parwan province
Iraq
Peshmerga only “effective” force against ISIS: official
Houthis
Houthis take control of Sana’a air defenses: military sources
Denmark
Saudi Arabia links Dane’s shooting to Islamic State, arrests 3
Iraq
A Force to Fight ISIS Has Manpower, but Little Firepower
Indonesia
The new head of Indonesia’s counterterrorism agency warned that the number of Indonesians joining the Islamic State has more than tripled since June, and said the total number of Indonesians who have joined the group in Iraq and Syria is about 514. The Jakarta Post’s chief editor was named a suspect in a blasphemy case […]
Revolutionary Command Council
Is the Islamic State’s next target Daraa or Ghouta?
Germany
Investigations into jihadi returners pushing German courts to their limits
Boko Haram
Boko Haram: The Other Islamic State
Kenya
Shabaab in Kenya’s slums
France
The Foreign Ministry said several people were killed in Kabul, Afghanistan by a suicide bombing at a French school in the city. The French military announced that Ahmed el Tilemsi, a top commander in the al Qaeda-linked al Mourabitoun, was killed by French forces in Mali. A French media report claimed that Toulouse shooter Mohamed […]
China
China Uighurs: Xinjiang city of Urumqi to ban Islamic veil
United Kingdom
Runa Khan, a 35-year-old mother of six from Luton, was sentenced to five years and three months in jail for promoting terrorism on social media. Khan, who had advocated sending jihadists to Syria, had pled guilty in July to charges of disseminating terrorist literature.
United States
CENTCOM reported that since Dec. 8, the US has conducted seven airstrikes in Syria against the Islamic State and the US and partners carried out 13 airstrikes against the group in Iraq. The US also released video of recent airstrikes in Syria. ISAF formally ended its Afghan mission on Dec. 8, and began preparing for […]
Islamic State
Kerry seeks authority to target Islamic State affiliates anywhere
Islamic State
ISIS executes its top Mosul official: Kurdish sources
Islamic State
Kazakh Government Analyst: Blocking Extremist Sites Justified Amid IS Threat
Georgia
Zelimkhan Chatiashvili, 21, from the Pankisi Gorge, is said to have been killed in Syria while fighting for the Islamic State, and is reportedly the eighth Georgian to have been killed in this way. A member of the Pankisi elders council called the area a “slowly ticking time bomb.” An estimated 50 to 100 Georgians […]
Russia
Residents of Yandi in Chechnya reported that masked men, presumably government forces, torched several homes on Dec. 8. After the deadly militant attack in Grozny on Dec. 6, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov had vowed to raze the homes of relatives of those responsible for the killings.
France
Serge Lazarevic, a Frenchman held hostage by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb since 2011, arrived back in France. Lazarevic was reportedly freed in exchange for the release of AQIM members Heiba Ag Acherif and Mohammed Ali Ag Wadossene; the French government did not disclose whether a ransom was paid. President Hollande thanked the presidents […]