The Taliban’s spring offensive promised a renewed focus on suicide attacks targeting ISAF forces. Today’s suicide bombing in a residential area also injured 39 Afghan civilians.
Sheikh Abu Muhammad al Julani, the emir of al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, swore allegiance to al Qaeda’s leader just over one month ago.
The Tunisian government has interfered in Ansar al Sharia Tunisia’s events and may refuse to grant the group permission to hold its third annual congress. Ansar al Sharia’s leaders have responded with statements condemning the Ennahda regime.
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan said yesterday’s attack, which killed eight people, was executed by a man whose daughter carried out a suicide bombing last year.
Egypt’s interior minister said that three members of an al Qaeda cell that was plotting to attack a Western embassy have been arrested. The cell received training in Iran and Pakistan and contacted al Qaeda in Algeria. The cell also has ties to the so-called Nasr City Cell.
District Chief of Police Lieutenant Colonel Sultan Mohammad discusses the roots of the insurgency, the Kandahar massacre, poppy eradication, and Panjwai’s improvement in security.
Abu Obeida Sharif Khattab, an Egyptian who appeared in at least two videos with Mohammed al Zawahiri, died in an attack along with three other Egyptians in Mali earlier this month. Mohammed al Zawahiri is the younger brother of al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri.
Ahmed Abassi, a Tunisian national, has been indicted for fraudulently applying “for a work visa in order to remain in the United States to facilitate an act of international terrorism.” Abassi, who previously lived in Canada, is tied to a terror plot linked to al Qaeda elements in Iran to blow up a commuter train between Canada and the US.
Raids against the al Qaeda-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan continue at an unprecedented pace. There have been five raids against the group in Afghanistan so far this month and 26 this year.
Before waging jihad in Syria, Kenneth Sørensen spent time in Yemen at Zindani’s Imam University as well as in Lebanon, Egypt, and Libya.
A politician from the pro-Taliban Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl party was targeted because he “handed over dozens of Arab mujahideen to America” after the battle of Tora Bora. Hafiz Dolat Khan is the Taliban’s new emir in Kurram.
One of those killed, Saleh Abd al Aziz Hamad al Luhayb, was wanted by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of the Interior. The International Security Assistance Force will not describe him and others with links to “Arabs” as al Qaeda.
The Israeli Air Force is suspected of being behind two recent airstrikes in Syria. One of the strikes targeted Fateh-110 surface-to-surface missiles at a Damascus airport, while the other allegedly targeted a research center in Jamraya that was also targeted in January.
The two ISAF soldiers were killed in western Afghanistan. So far this year, there have been six such attacks, which account for 13 percent of ISAF’s deaths.
“We dedicate all our activities for the next decade to Sheikh Osama bin Laden,” Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan said in a video praising the slain al Qaeda leader.
The insurgent leader runs a training camp somewhere along the Afghan-Pakistan border and commands more than 100 fighters, including suicide bombers.
The Taliban have now assassinated three senior members of the peace council since the end of the summer of 2011. The attack was likely executed by the Mullah Dadullah Front.
The Israeli Air Force killed a member of the Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem who was involved in the recent rocket attack on the Israeli city of Eilat from the Sinai Peninsula.
Taj Mir Jawad is a co-leader of the Kabul Attack Network, and is a senior commander in the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani Network.
The “Khalid bin Waleed spring operation” will include the use “special military tactics,” “collective martyrdom operations,” and “insider attacks,” against Coalition personnel.
Canadian authorities attempted to deport Raed Jaser in 2004, and Chiheb Esseghaier is said to have visited Iran sometime in the past two years.
The Israeli Air Force intercepted a drone, which it said belonged to Hezbollah, off the coast of Israel near Haifa. This is the second such interception of a Hezbollah drone by Israel in seven months.
In the video, the children, some of whom appear to be no older than six, are shown firing handguns, AK-47 assault rifles, and a PKM machine-gun.
A senior police official said two suspects involved in a plot to blow up a train received “support from al Qaeda elements located in Iran.” A Linkedin page of one of the suspects displayed al Qaeda’s black banner.
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan leader “coordinated operations between IMU and Taliban networks” and directed suicide operations in Balkh province.
Unconfirmed reports indicate that Abu Ubaydah Abdullah al Adam, a senior al Qaeda leader who serves as the intelligence chief for the terror group, was killed in a recent US drone strike in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
One of the Boston Marathon bombers made a trip to Dagestan and Chechnya last year. US officials are investigating whether or not he made contact with jihadist groups operating in the region. The investigation is ongoing.
Two Yemeni soldiers and another AQAP fighter are said to have been killed in a clash that took place after the strike in Marib.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula confirmed that Adnan al Qadhi, a former military officer and AQAP commander who operated in Sana’a, was killed in a US drone strike last November. AQAP accused a father and his young son of planting a “chip” that guided the US strike to its target.
As US forces draw down from southern Afghanistan, the evolving IED tactics race enters its final stages.