The al Qaeda-linked Movement for Tawhid [Unity] and Jihad in West Africa created the Abdullah Azzam, Al Zarqawi, and the Abu al Laith al Libi battalions, as well as the Martyrdom-Seekers Battalion. These join the previously established Osama bin Laden Battalion.
The Tunisian government has freed Ali Harzi, a key suspect in the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. The FBI questioned Harzi in December, and Ansar al Sharia Tunisia released photos of the investigating agents online.
Abdelbasit Alhaj Alhassan Haj Hamad and Mohamed Makawi Ibrahim Mohamed murdered a US diplomat and his Sudanese driver in Khartoum in January 2008.
An Afghan National Army soldier opened fire on British and Afghan troops at a patrol base in Helmand, killing one British soldier before being shot while attempting to flee.
Two compounds were hit in the Mir Ali area. The US has now launched six strikes in Pakistan so far this year.
The American jihadist’s rants against Shabaab indicate a personal feud with the al Qaeda affiliate, and not a wider split between Somali jihadists and foreign fighters.
A Taliban commander loyal to Hafiz Gul Bahadar was the target of the strike; 17 people, including a Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan commander who directed suicide operations, are reported to have been killed.
The Afghan Taliban said they reject any security agreement that allows “even a single American soldier” to remain in country. “War and destruction will continue in the region” if US forces stay in Afghanistan after 2014.
Bahwal Khan, the new emir of the Mullah Nazir group, maintains close ties to al Qaeda, the Afghan Taliban, and a host of terrorist groups, US intelligence officials told The Long War Journal. Additionally, the US intelligence officials denied that the Pakistani government or military aided in the killing of Nazir.
A local al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leader and two fighters were killed in the third strike in Rada’a in Al Baydah province since Dec. 24, 2012.
Nazir, who has professed his alligiance to al Qaeda, was killed along with several deputies in one of three strikes in North and South Waziristan over the past 24 hours. A separate strike killed Faisal Khan, a Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan commander, and two Uzbeks.
The remotely piloted Predators or Reapers fired four missiles at a compound in Mullah Nazir’s territory. The strike is the first in 2013.
Two Afghan soldiers opened fire on Spanish troops; no one was hurt in the attack. There were 44 reported insider, or green-on-blue, attacks in 2012.
The northeastern Afghan province remains a stronghold for al Qaeda despite the surge in US forces. The US conducted 67 raids against al Qaeda and allied groups in Afghanistan in 2012.
Since June 2011, the Taliban have conducted three mass executions of Pakistani security personnel.
A jihadist media group calling itself “al-Hijratain Foundation,” a possibly al Qaeda-affiliated group tied to the Sudanese terrorist front known as Ansar al-Tawhid (Partisans of Monotheism), released a video detailing the June 2010 prison escape of four men convicted of the January 2008 assassination of an American diplomat and his driver.
The US has launched four drone strikes in Yemen since Dec. 24. The uptick in attacks takes place after a nearly seven-week-long pause.
The Pakistani Taliban leaders are seen sitting side by side. Hakeemullah Mehsud also said the Taliban are “willing to get our heads cut off for al Qaeda.”
The US has stepped up drone strikes in the eastern province of Hadramout this year.
Abu Muhammad al Julani sends “a greeting of love and loyalty to our pure and pious emigrant brothers” who are waging jihad in Syria.
More than one-fifth of the drone strikes in Pakistan this year have taken place in the remote valley in North Waziristan.
“Two mujahideen brothers Abdullah Bawazir and Nabil al Kaldi” were killed in the Dec. 24 drone strike in Hadramout province.
An Afghan policeman and two civilians were killed in a blast outside of Forward Operating Base Chapman, which is known to host CIA operations.
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.
A Yemeni al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighter who escaped from prison two years ago was killed in the airstrike. The attack is the first reported US drone strike in Yemen in seven weeks.
An Afghan policewoman assigned to the “gender and equality department” at the Interior Ministry is said to have shot an American civilian adviser in the head at close range.
Al-Bayariq Media Foundation, Ansar al Sharia Tunisia’s media outfit, has released photos purportedly showing three FBI agents who questioned Ali al Harzi, a suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. The three FBI agents reportedly questioned Harzi about the attack in Benghazi, as well as the Sept. 14 assault on the US Embassy in Tunis.
Bashir Ahmed Bilour, the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was killed along with eight other people in today’s attack in Peshawar.
The Tunisian government has arrested members of a terrorist cell trained by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Tunisia’s interior minister says that members of the cell were “active within” Ansar al Sharia Tunisia.
Maulvi Abbas Wazir, a commander in the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan in the Wana area, was killed in a blast at his office yesterday. The attack is thought to be linked to an assassination attempt against Mullah Nazir late last month.