The Egyptian press has reported on two letters written by Muhammad Jamal to Ayman al Zawahiri. Jamal’s trainees reportedly took part in the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. The letters do not deal with the Benghazi assault, but one of them was written less than one month beforehand.
Additionally, ISAF captured a senior Taliban commander who worked with the Hizb-i-Islami Gulbuddin and who facilitated suicide attacks.
The assassination of a popular politician has sparked a crisis in Tunisia. Ansar al Sharia Tunisia, an al Qaeda-linked group, has called for a common Islamist solution to the crisis.
The strike reportedly killed Sheikh Abu Waqas, a Yemeni explosives expert; Abu Majid al Iraqi; and four Uzbeks.
A proposed Kabul religious conference on the impermissibility of suicide attacks has drawn opposition from the Afghan Taliban and from Pakistani religious parties, and a frustrated President Karzai has appealed to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
A video biography of one of the two members of the Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem (MSC) who carried out the June 18, 2012 cross-border attack that killed one Israeli civilian was posted on jihadist forums.
Officials from several countries are said to be trying to find two members of Hezbollah alleged to be behind the Burgas terror attack. Meanwhile, new details on the attack have been released by those involved in the investigation.
Five people are reported to have been killed in the attack. The drone strike is the first to have been recorded in Pakistan in nearly four weeks.
Abd el Kader Mahmoud Mohamed el Sayed was a close advisor to al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri and served as a military commander in Afghanistan before he was killed. El Sayed was involved in the Luxor massacre and, while living in Milan, was recorded by Italian intelligence discussing terror plots against the West.
Bulgaria’s Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov announced that the identity of three of those involved in the attack is known and that at least two of them are members of Hezbollah.
The video featured Adnan Rasheed, a dangerous Pakistani jihadist who was freed in a jailbreak last year; Yassin Chouka, a wanted German commander in the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan; and Abdul Hakeem, a previously unknown Russian IMU member.
Bulgaria is prepared to release an investigative report that will blame Hezbollah and Iran for the Burgas terror attack that killed five Israeli tourists and one Bulgarian national.
Nineteen anti-al Qaeda Awakening fighters and three Iraqi soldiers were killed in the suicide attack, which is the second of its kind in Iraq in two days.
The tactic of the suicide assault is being employed with increasing frequency by al Qaeda and its affiliates and allies in all of the major theaters of the Long War.
Thirteen Pakistani military personnel, 11 civilians, and 12 Taliban fighters are reported to have been killed. The Taliban said the attack was carried out to avenge the deaths of two senior commanders killed in recent US drone strikes.
Ansar al Sharia Egypt, an al Qaeda-linked group, has called on Muslims to resist France’s intervention in Mali. In an entry on its Facebook page, the group posted an image of the Eiffel Tower being attacked and asked, “Is France unaware of who it is fighting?”
The reconciliation between Faqir Mohammed and Abu Bakr, the new emir in Bajaur, shows that the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan is far from defeated and disorganized, as the Pakistani government has claimed. The Taliban’s leaders were able to convene the shura, send a delegation to Bajaur to mediate the dispute, and organize the reconciliation of the factions in the tribal agency.
On its Facebook page this week, Ansar al Sharia Tunisia honored two senior al Qaeda leaders who have been reportedly killed. The page contains numerous posts dedicated to global jihadist causes in addition to the group’s provision of social services.
Eastern Syria has long been a haven for al Qaeda in Iraq, but now the terror group’s affiliate is openly ruling a town near the Iraqi border.
The Israeli Air Force reportedly carried out an airstrike on a Syrian weapons convoy overnight. Reports suggest that Russian-made SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles, believed to be headed for Hezbollah, were struck in Syria, not far from the Lebanese border.
The weapons facilitator and assassinations director is the third Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan commander killed or captured in the Afghan north so far this year.
The Al Nusrah Front has claimed credit for five of the six suicide attacks that have been reported in Syria so far this year.
Three al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leaders who run operations in Baydah province and who were brothers-in-law of Anwar al Awlaki are said to be holding an Austrian and two Finnish hostages.
The increased operational tempo of raids against al Qaeda in Kunar in 2012 and the first month of 2013 suggests that the terror group remains alive and well in the eastern province.
The operations are part of the “third wave” of al Qaeda in Iraq’s “Destroying the Walls” campaign.
The al Qaeda affiliate sent five suicide bombers to attack a Syrian military base near the Golan Heights in what the group described as “a compound special operation.”
The younger brother of al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri has called for jihad in Mali and threatened France, as well as other countries. He “organized” last week’s protest at the French Embassy in Cairo. Al Qaeda banners were on display during the protest.
In 2012 there were 16 reported raids against al Qaeda operatives and affiliates in Kunar province. Yesterday’s raid was the first such operation in the province this year.
A newly released report from Israel’s Shin Bet shows a rise in terror attacks originating in the Sinai in 2012. In addition, the report reveals that five attempted infiltrations by terrorists were thwarted last year.
Said al Shihri died “after succumbing to wounds received in a counter terrorism operation” late last year, the Yemeni government said. The Saudi press and a prominent jihadist have also claimed that al Shihri is dead.