Saudi national Adi Saleh Abdullah al Fudhayli al Hadhli, who died in June 2012 in an attack against Israel, had originally sought to join the “mujahideen” in Somalia. In 2011, he traveled to Libya to fight in the Libyan civil war.
Sahal Iskudhuq, a senior Shabaab commander who served as a high-ranking member of the Amniyat, Shabaab’s intelligence unit, is reported to have been killed in a drone strike.
Ansar Jerusalem claimed responsibility for at least four additional attacks in North Sinai, but appeared to back off its original claims for attacks near the Talabiya police station and Behooth metro station in the Cairo area on Jan. 24.
The attacks came just hours after one of the group’s members issued an audio warning threatening attacks. The group also reiterated that its official material is released only through the jihadist forums of Al Fajr Media Center, al Qaeda’s exclusive media distribution outlet.
The largest attack, which targeted the Cairo Security Directorate, came only a few hours after an Ansar Jerusalem official urged Egyptian security personnel to repent and save themselves.
Four al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters were killed in a town that is known to serve as a base for the Yemen Soldiers Brigade.
Ayman al Zawahiri has released an audio message addressing the infighting between various jihadist factions inside Syria. Although Zawahiri does not address any group or individual by name, his message was clearly aimed at the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (ISIS), one of al Qaeda’s two official branches fighting inside Syria.
In its designation, the State Department noted that Iran is a key backer of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In addition, the State Department noted the increase in cooperation between PIJ and Hamas.
The three operatives were reportedly recruited by a Gaza-based terrorists who claimed to work for al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri. News of the recent arrests comes about two months after Israel security forces killed three Salafi jihadists near Hebron.
Unconfirmed reports indicate that 33 Uzbeks and three Germans are among those killed in Pakistani airstrikes in North Waziristan.
An ex-Guantanamo detainee, Ibrahim Sen, was arrested in Turkey on Jan. 14. Sen is accused of being an important al Qaeda facilitator and leader.
Adnan Rasheed, the emir of the Ansar al Aseer Khorasan, appears to have been one of the targets of the airstrikes in the Mir Ali and Datta Khel areas of North Waziristan. Tribesmen claimed the Pakistani Air Force launched indiscriminate attacks on villages.
The suicide assault that targeted an Afghan and Coalition base in Kandahar’s Zhari district is the second such attack in Afghanistan in four days.
Zabihullah Mujahid rejected the US’ call for the group to “put down their arms and begin peace talks,” a request that was made just one day after a Taliban suicide assault team killed 21 people, including two Americans, at a restaurant in Kabul.
A statement posted by Abu Khalid al Suri, Ayman al Zawahiri’s main representative in Syria, criticizes the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (ISIS). The statement was posted on Twitter. Al Suri is a senior leader in Ahrar al Sham, a Syrian rebel group that is directly linked to al Qaeda.
Fourteen people, including the International Monetary Fund’s representative to Afghanistan, are reported to have been killed in the attack on a restaurant in a secured area of the capital.
Recent infighting between the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham and other Islamist groups, including the Al Nusrah Front, has not yet risen to an all-out confrontation.
Qari Nazar Gul, the deputy shadow governor for Parwan province, is linked to the Haqqani Network and “transports weapons, fighters and suicide bombers” into Parwan and Kabul. Ten Taliban fighters, a US Special Forces soldier, and two civilians were killed during the raid.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters attacked military bases in Rada’a in central Yemen, where the group has remained entrenched.
AL Qaeda-affiliated groups are stepping up attacks on Hezbollah and Iranian interests in Lebanon as the Syrian civil war rages.
The group, which is named after a famous Hamas bombmaker, took credit for a recent attack around the time of the funeral of former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon. Top jihadists, including an Abdullah Azzam Brigades official, have promoted the claim.
A newly released report by the Senate Intelligence Committee notes that terrorists “affiliated” with al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the Muhammad Jamal Network, and Ansar al Sharia took part in the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.
Five of the past six strikes in Yemen have taken place in Hadramout, a province where al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is known to operate.
Arrests and raids in seven Turkish provinces involving suspected al Qaeda leaders as well as the Islamist charity IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation suggest that the Erdogan government is determined to disprove allegations that it tacitly supports al Qaeda in Syria.
It is unclear if the downing of the US Blackhawk in Zabul province, which killed six US soldiers, was caused by RPGS or “if the low-flying aircraft set off a bomb hidden on the ground.” Last year, the Islamic Jihad Union tested an anti-helicopter fragmentation mine with the intent of bringing down an Apache.
The State Department has designated three Ansar al Sharia organizations. Two of them were involved in the Sept. 11, 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya and the third was involved in the Sept. 14, 2012 assault on the US Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia. The State Department says Ansar al Sharia Tunisia is “tied” to al Qaeda’s affiliates, including al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
One week after the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham took over the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, large areas of Anbar province remain under its control. Karma has also been seized by the ISIS.
More than one year after the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, a former Guantanamo detainee remains a key suspect.
The strike is the first in Yemen this year. Four of the past five strikes in Yemen have occurred in Hadramout province, an AQAP stronghold and the ancestral home of Osama bin Laden.
Qari Saifullah, whom the State Department described as a “Taliban shadow deputy governor and an operational commander in Zabul Province,” also supports al Qaeda in southern Afghanistan.