Unconfirmed reports indicate unknown militants overran a checkpoint overseeing the grave site of slain Afghan National Police General Daud Daud in northern Afghanistan. It is unclear if the general’s body was stolen from the tomb.
The al Qaeda leaders were identified as Younis al Mauritani, a senior member of the external operations council who was recently arrested in Pakistan; Hassan Ghul, a key facilitator who was freed by the Pakistanis in 2007; and Abu Yahya al Libi, a top ideologue.
The DC Circuit Court denied a Guantanamo detainee’s appeal yesterday. The detainee, Shawali Khan, was a facilitator for Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin prior to his capture in 2002. According to a leaked file, Khan’s cell in Kandahar received weapons and other support from Iran.
The Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami claimed it carried out the attack to force India to repeal the death sentence of a terrorist involved in the 2001 assault on the parliament in Delhi.
The attack took place just two days after the Pakistani military announced it arrested Younis al Mauritani, a senior member of al Qaeda’s external operations council, in Quetta. The Frontier Corps, which was the target of the suicide attack, was involved in the raid that netted Mauritani.
The Taliban are in control of six districts in eastern Nuristan province. The US military relocated forces from the region beginning in October 2009.
Al Mauritani, a senior member of the external operations council, was captured along with two other “senior al Qaeda operatives” by the Pakistani military.
LWJ has obtained the video of the Lashkar-e-Taiba propaganda tape that was created by Jubair Ahmad at the behest of Hafiz Saeed’s son.
A former Guantanamo detainee named Sabar Lal Melma was shot by security forces in Afghanistan. According to ISAF, Melma was a “key affiliate of the al Qaeda network.” Melma was once a senior Afghan official in charge of border security in Kunar province. Leaked files allege that he allowed al Qaeda members to escape Afghanistan.
A Taliban spokesman confirmed that the boys were kidnapped two days ago by fighters from the Bajaur tribal agency.
Badruddin Haqqani and Qari Younis were recorded while providing tactical guidance to the fighters who assaulted the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul in June. The Haqqani commanders called from Pakistan.
AQAP has released a biography commemorating former Guantanamo detainee Hani Abdo Shaalan. In the video, AQAP claims that Shaalan was killed in an American airstrike in December 2009. Previously, the Yemeni government claimed that Shaalan was killed during a shootout with government forces.
US airstrikes are said to have freed a Yemeni military unit in Abyan that was under siege by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. US intelligence officials expressed doubts about reports that AQAP’s leader was killed.
The bomber attempted to ram a car packed with explosives into a mosque in Quetta as Shia worshipers celebrated the end of Ramadan.
US officials have claimed that the al Qaeda leader was killed in a Predator strike. The tape gives no indication that Atiyah is dead.
Reports suggest local resistance to Taliban activities in Afghanistan continues, with another insurgent killed and one injured in the latest clash in Ghazni province. This marks the third reported instance of villagers attacking Taliban fighters this month.
Yemeni military officers claimed that Wuhayshi’s body was brought to a hospital in Aden after a clash near Zinjibar. His death has not been confirmed.
Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al Samarrai, the head of the Sunni Endowment who has been vocal in his opposition to al Qaeda, was the target of the attack. He was wounded in the blast.
Atiyah Abd al Rahman, a top al Qaeda leader, was reportedly killed on August 22. Senior US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal would neither confirm nor deny Atiyah’s death. Atiyah was al Qaeda’s “general manager” and Osama bin Laden’s “chief of staff,” according to a senior US intelligence official.
The Pakistani military accused local Afghan officials of aiding the Taliban and said ISAF has failed to take action on large concentrations of Taliban operating in the Afghan provinces of Kunar and Nuristan.
Sixteen soldiers were among those killed in the bombings in Cherchell. AQIM has carried out three suicide attacks in Algeria since mid-July.
At least 18 people have been killed. Boko Haram claimed it carried out the attack.
The Taliban shouted “Allahu Akbar” after using an 82mm recoilless rifle to execute a police commander in Paktia province in eastern Afghanistan.
The political front for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula published a videotape of the July 25 suicide attack that killed five Yemeni soldiers and wounded 25 more.
Two senior members of al Qaeda’s al Ghuraba cell were designated by the Treasury Department earlier this month. The cell was first broken up in 2003, based on intelligence gleaned from detainees in the CIA’s controversial enhanced interrogation program. Lashkar-e-Taiba reportedly provided training for the cell.
The strike took place in the Mir Ali area, a known haven for a number of terrorist groups.
Lieutenant Colonel Nasratullah Nasrat, the commander of Afghan forces in Sabari district in Khost, said that Pakistan’s intelligence service fuels the insurgency. He also believes US forces will not withdraw by the 2014 deadline.
Twelve pro-government tribal fighters were killed in suicide attacks in Abyan province, where al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula remains entrenched.
Another suicide bomber attacked a security function wearing an explosive-laden headdress. This is the third time this summer the tactic has been used.
A US patrol hunts insurgents in the village of Majiles in Sabari district. The aftermath of a grenade attack, which wounded six US troops, highlights the difficulty of partnered operations with Afghan forces.