Author Archives: LWJ Staff

Afghanistan

Renewed fighting between Afghan army forces and Taliban fighters in the Kamdesh district in Nuristan left five militants dead and three wounded. Local residents in Logar condemned the Taliban for the recent murders of two day laborers. Family members of those killed in a 2009 airstrike in Kunduz have filed a multimillion-dollar class action lawsuit […]


Syria

Syrian military forces seized the Deir Baalbeh area of the central city of Homs after launching a fierce assault against the area several days ago. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi declared his support for the Syrian revolution. Austria has announced its support for Iran’s six-point plan on the crisis in Syria.


Yemen

A Yemeni intelligence officer was assassinated in the capital of Hadramout province by suspected al Qaeda militants. The commander of Yemen’s central military region deployed an infantry brigade to Marib province to stop armed tribesmen who maintain ties with al Qaeda from attacking oil pipelines. Yemen’s Navy claimed its forces have intercepted an Iranian ship […]


Mauritania

A British citizen was reportedly detained near the Malian border as he attempted to join up with terrorists linked to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. A tacit truce between between AQIM and the Mauritanian Army might be ending as the Army moves to secure the strategic town of Fassala Nere and other border areas […]


Nigeria

Suspected Boko Haram militants attacked a village last night in northeastern Nigeria and executed a group of 15 men, women, and children by tying them up and slitting their throats. A separate Boko Haram attack in Maiha near the border with Cameroon left at least two dead. The attackers burnt down the police divisional headquarters, […]


Boko Haram attacks 2 churches in northern Nigeria, kills 12

Boko_Haram_2011_Bombing.jpg Boko Haram fighters unleashed a series of attacks across northern Nigeria on Christmas Eve, killing at least 12 Christian worshipers and burning down two churches. Separately, Nigerian security forces killed 14 suspected Boko Haram members in northern Nigeria.


Pakistan

Unidentified gunmen shot and wounded Auranzeb Farooqi, a prominent Sunni cleric and leader of the Ahle Sunnat-Wal-Jamaat party, in Karachi. Pakistani militants shot dead two Afghan policemen who were traveling to Quetta via Chaman. The policemen were accompanying a sick female companion to a medical facility in Quetta when they were abducted and murdered; the […]


Yemen

Yemeni tribesmen are demanding a ransom in exchange for the release of a Finnish couple and an Austrian man abducted three days ago. Six militants and two soldiers died in clashes near a damaged oil pipeline east of Sanaa, and unidentified gunmen assassinated Brigadier Fadel Mohammed Ali in Sanaa. In a separate attack, gunmen assassinated […]


Somalia

A group of Shabaab fighters surrendered to Somali officials in the Bay region. Fighting between Somali forces and Shabaab had raged in the region a day earlier. Somali forces have erected a controversial checkpoint at Bar Ismail near the Afgoye district in lower Shabelle.


Philippines

Filipino military and police elements arrested suspected communist rebel leader Filemon Mendrez, also known as “Tatay” and “Edon,” in Negros Oriental. Mendrez was a commander of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in Negros and had a P5.25 million ($127,294) bounty on his head. Abu Sayyaf members freed a public school teacher whom they […]






Mullah Nazir orders all Mehsud tribesmen to leave Wana

Mullah Nazir ordered all Mehsud tribesmen to leave South Waziristan’s largest town before Dec. 5 or face the consequences. Nazir clearly holds the Mehsud tribe responsible for the Nov. 29 suicide attack against him and his associates at the Rustam bazaar in Wana.



Somalia

Somali security forces arrested two Shabaab leaders in Puntland. Abu Hafsa, allegedly Shabaab’s head of assassinations, and Abdirizak Hussein Tahlil, a Shabaab logistics officer, were arrested in Galkayo. The pair were in possession of suicide vests, explosives, grenades, and other explosive paraphernalia.


Kenya

Unidentified militants lobbed a hand grenade into a minibus in Nairobi, killing at least five people and injuring 13 others. The attack occurred in the predominantly Somali Eastleigh neighborhood. Such attacks have been seen as Shabaab retaliation for Kenya’s decision to send troops into Somalia.


Taliban release Nuristan attack video

The Taliban website has uploaded a 35-minute-long video depicting a series of attacks against Afghan security forces in the Kamdesh district in Nuristan province.


Philippines

Radullan Sahiron, a senior Abu Sayyaf leader wanted for his alleged involvement in the 1993 kidnapping of an American in the Philippines, has been added to the FBI’s updated list of most-wanted terrorists. A wife of a detained Abu Sayyaf group leader has been detained for her role in a kidnapping plot four years ago.




Insurgency encroaching on central Afghanistan

New Zealand’s 145-man unit tasked with stabilizing one of Afghanistan’s most vulnerable, yet once secure, regions has dismantled crucial forward operating bases in preparation for an early withdrawal in 2013.



Anti-Taliban commander assassinated in Buner

Buner_Fateh_Khan.jpgThe Pakistani Taliban’s spokesman claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing that killed a local politican and Aman Lashkar commander, Fateh Kahn, and three of his bodyguards in Buner, Pakistan.