Three “militants” were killed in a shootout with police in Makhachkala, the capital of Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan. Security officials in Dagestan claimed that a special police operation in the Khasavyurt district killed Yusup Magomedov, the leader of the Khasavyurt gang, along with an unknown number of his associates.
The US Treasury placed sanctions on Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, chairman of Iran’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Revolutionary Guard Deputy Commander Abdollah Araqi. Iran’s judiciary has issued indictments against 15 “American and Zionist” spies.
Hezbollah has revealed the identities of CIA officers working undercover in Lebanon. France will make a decision on whether to downsize its UNIFIL contingent after the UN finalizes a report on the Lebanon-based forces.
An American military drone which had been used to monitor piracy off the East African coast has crashed at an airport on the island nation of Seychelles during a routine patrol. The US Embassy in Mauritius said the MQ-9 Reaper was not armed and that the crash caused no injuries.
Yemen’s official news agency says six al Qaeda fighters have been arrested while allegedly planning attacks on senior government officials as well as Arab and other foreign diplomatic missions. Saudi Arabia has promised to provide the newly formed government of Yemen with urgently needed aid, mainly petroleum products.
Malian police arrested several men suspected of having kidnapped five Westerners on behalf of al Qaeda. The terror group has released photos of the kidnap victims and demanded an end to Mali’s cooperation with the French government.
Up to 15 al Qaeda fighters escaped from a prison in the southern port city of Aden, in the second such jailbreak this year. Most of the escapees were being tried over a 2009 bank robbery in Aden, while others were facing charges of involvement in the assassinations of intelligence officers.
A “mysterious” explosion occurred at a steel mill in Yazd, killing seven employees, including foreign nationals. Iranian authorities blamed the blast on “old munitions.” Iranian experts are in the final stages of “recovering data” from the US surveillance drone captured by the country’s armed forces, state TV reported.
A rocket fired from Lebanon toward Israel fell short, wounding a Lebanese woman. Israeli warplanes flew over south Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and Beirut after the failed rocket attack. Both Syria and Hezbollah rejected allegations that they had planned and executed the attack against French UN peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon.
A nutritional center run by the Somali Red Crescent Society in the southern town of Bardera was hit by an airstrike. Shabaab fighters showed ID cards of eight slain Burundian peacekeepers to local media outlets. Turkey has expanded its aid to refugees in Mogadishu, and Bahrain broke ground for a hospital building there.
An intelligence officer and a civilian were injured after their convoy struck a roadside bomb in Wajir. Security forces and police launched a major crackdown in the Wajir area. The Kenyan army and Shabaab fighters traded insults on Twitter.
Pakistan may continue blocking NATO convoys from delivering supplies to Afghanistan for several weeks. The military says it took over the Shamsi air base in Baluchistan following the departure of US personnel. TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan denied earlier statements by Maulvi Faqir Mohammed that the Taliban are holding peace talks with the Pakistani government.
President Hamid Karzai dismissed the March 2012 deadline he had set for the closure of private security firms, giving them until September 2013 to operate in the country. The US Special Operations commander who directed the operation that killed Osama bin Laden defended the unpopular night raids used against militants in Afghanistan. Germany, which has […]
Iran will not return a US surveillance drone captured by its armed forces, General Hossein Salami, deputy head of the Republican Guard, said in a broadcast on Iranian state television. He described the penetration of Iranian airspace by a US drone as a “hostile act” and warned of a “bigger” response.
France’s foreign minister said he believes the bombing that injured five French UNIFIL peacekeepers in southern Lebanon was carried out by Hezbollah at Syria’s urging. Telecommunications Minister Nicholas Sehnaoui said his group is not opposed to expanding Hezbollah’s telecommunication network as it is “essential in the confrontation with Israel.”
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of five foreign nationals in two recent Mali terror attacks. But AQIM denied any involvement in the kidnapping of three aid workers from a Polisario-run refugee in Algeria.
Fighter jets reportedly hit an Islamist militant stronghold in the heart of Bardhere town located in the Gedo region. Shabaab fighters fired anti-aircraft artillery at the fighter jets in response to the bombardment. Somali officials executed two convicted Shabaab fighters in Puntland.
Twin blasts killed one police officer and wounded nine soldiers in northern Kenya. In a separate incident, nine soldiers were wounded by a roadside bomb as they moved between Wajir and Mandera. The incidents are the latest in a string of attacks against the military and other targets in Kenya since the government sent troops […]
Prime Minister Maliki said that a bombing earlier this week inside Baghdad’s Green Zone was an assassination attempt against him. Maliki said the bomb had likely been assembled inside the Green Zone and was not very powerful.
Top Iranian officials claim that the deaths of military experts at the Bid Ganeh base on Nov. 12 “had no effect on the self-sufficiency unit” of the IRGC. The blast killed at least 36 members of the IRGC, including the “Godfather” of Iran’s ballistic missile program, Major General Hassan Moqaddam. France is temporarily reducing staff […]
At least two Yemenis were killed in the third day of shelling in the hotbed protest city of Taiz. Yemeni Vice President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi called on Taiz’s provincial governor and opposition parties of the Joint Meeting Parties to observe an immediate ceasefire.
At least two Somali soldiers were killed and four others wounded in Mogadishu after a land mine exploded at the Benadir Junction. Somali forces detained two suspected suicide bombers and their explosives-rigged vehicles in between Tabta and Dhobley district. A huge inferno engulfed the biggest market in Bosaso; the source of the blaze is under […]
The Kenyan army said four troops were killed in action and 10 have been wounded since it launched its incursion in Somalia to battle Shabaab in mid-October. Another four troops were killed in the crash of a helicopter on the first day of the intervention. The Kenyan army is “not necessarily headed for the key […]
A Pakistani official denied a Wall Street Journal report that the military gave the go-ahead to a NATO airstrike that inadvertently killed 24 Pakistani troops. Clashes between Pakistani Taliban and Lashkar-e-Islam fighters in Khyber Agency left at least six dead. Nine militants were killed and three hideouts were destroyed during security operations in Arakzai Agency.
Qods Force commander Major General Qassem Suleimani may have played a role in organizing the “protesters” that stormed the British embassy in Tehran last week. The European Union published its latest sanctions list on Iran and Syria, formalizing measures against 180 Iranian people and firms and 23 Syrian targets. The US has urged Turkey to […]
Israeli warplanes destroyed one its own clandestine eavesdropping platforms in southern Lebanon after it was discovered by Hezbollah fighters. Two unidentified people were reportedly injured in the airstrike.
A key anti-Taliban militia commander died in a sophisticated IED attack in Hangu City. Taliban fighters operating in Khyber and Arakzai are likely suspects in the attack.
The German Federal Prosecutor’s Office says Iran plans to attack US Air Force bases in Germany to disrupt supplies should Iran’s nuclear program become the target of airstrikes. Israeli officials claim Iran is developing advanced cruise missiles capable of carrying nonconventional warheads. Iran has released 11 hardline protesters detained for storming the British Embassy and […]
Somalia’s prime minister has asked Qatar to help reconciliation efforts between the various Somali factions and to assist with reconstruction. A Burundian defense official says the African Union Mission in Somalia must double the size of its peacekeeping force in order to hold territory secured in Mogadishu and move into Shabaab areas outside the capital. […]
The Singapore-registered chemical tanker MT Gemini was released yesterday, 215 days after it was hijacked off the Kenyan coast. Somali pirates released 21 of the tanker’s crew members, but took four South Korean nationals ashore to a safe haven in Somalia. Kenyan forces continue to pursue al Shabaab fighters who stormed a Kenyan security post […]