The members of several US-backed rebel groups, including Harakat Hazm and the Syrian Revolutionary Front, surrendered, fled, or defected over the weekend in the face of an offensive by the Al Nusrah Front in Idlib province. Bases and weapons, likely including US-supplied TOW missile systems, were seized by the jihadist group. The Islamic State has […]
Two female school teachers and a Foreign Affairs Ministry official were gunned down in separate drive-by shootings on Sunday. No one has claimed the attacks.
A bomb exploded near Egyptian troops razing houses to create a buffer zone with Gaza, causing no casualties. Egyptian security officials claimed to have evidence of communication between the Sinai-based Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis and the Islamic State. Thirty-four individuals accused of terrorism were referred to a military court on Saturday; 56 judges were suspended on […]
A medical official estimated yesterday that over 210 people have been killed in the past two weeks of fighting between Islamist militias and the forces of General Khalifa Haftar in Benghazi. Pro-government forces “recaptured military positions that the Islamists … had seized in July” over the weekend and now claim to hold all of eastern […]
Two Malian soldiers were killed and four wounded by a bomb in Almoustrate in northern Mali.
Five military commanders were arrested for abandoning Mubi in the face of a Boko Haram assault last Wednesday; 350 children are “feared missing” after the attack. The UK Minister of State pledged “support” for Nigeria, but stressed that “it is for the Nigerian authorities to resolve the matter.”
Erol Incedal, 26, a Turkish-born Briton currently on trial for suspected terrorist activity including a plot targeting former prime minister Tony Blair, also tried to plan a robbery with three sons of extremist cleric Abu Hamza – Hamza, Sufyan, and Yaasir. Counterterrorism police are investigating the hacking of a Yorkshire rugby club’s website by Islamic […]
A Shia Muslim man was shot outside an Islamic center in southwest Sydney, reportedly by local Islamic State supporters. Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar, two Australians who joined the Islamic State in Syria in late 2013, have been linked to Australian construction kingpin George Alex, who is currently under investigation for corrupt business practices.
Canadian fighter jets dropped laser-guided missiles on Islamic State targets near Fallujah in Iraq, in the first Canadian airstrikes of the campaign against the terrorist group. Defense Minister Nicholson said that “[t]oday’s strike demonstrates our government’s firm resolve to tackle the threat of terrorism and to stand with our allies.” An intelligence official of the […]
Swiss authorities acknowledged that three Iraqi men arrested in March are suspected of planning terrorist attacks in Europe with explosives and toxic gases. The three suspects also allegedly facilitated the travel of 40 fighters from Switzerland to the Islamic State in the Middle East. Reports said two of the men lived in Switzerland and the […]
The Taliban killed four soldiers and seven policemen in a suicide attack in Logar province. A Taliban suicide bomber killed only himself in a premature detonation in Kandahar. Most of the district of Gizab in Uruzgan is now under Taliban control.
The Islamic State reportedly executed 50 members of the Albu Nimr tribe who opposed the group in Hit. A suicide bomber killed five people in an attack at a checkpoint in Baghdad. The US launched five airstrikes against the Islamic State near Al Qaim and the Mosul Dam.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula killed 20 soldiers in an attack on a government building in Jabal Ras in Hodeidah; three al Qaeda fighters were also killed. Houthi rebels killed two guards and a civilian in an attack on the Islah Party headquarters in Ibb.
UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon praised Somalia’s significant gains against Shabaab during a visit on Wednesday. A car bomb killed at least one person and injured another in Mogadishu today.
The country’s recent election results of a victory for secularists have been hailed as a “possible model for the region,” yet are also described as fragile.
Algerian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdelaziz Benali Cherif condemned last Thursday’s terrorist attacks on forces in neighboring Niger on Friday.
Boko Haraam leader Abubakar Shekau has denied the government’s previous announcement of a ceasefire or any pending agreement to release girls kidnapped by the group in April. He also said the girls have been converted to Islam and “married … off” and threatened to kill a German hostage. A car bomb killed at least 23 […]
Kreshnik B,. who is on trial for joining the Islamic State in Syria, told the court that he still wants to die a martyr. Security officials estimate that some 50 people have left Germany to join the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Syria, and that there are about 13,000 members of the banned organization in […]
The Foreign Office issued a warning to Britons living or traveling abroad to be vigilant due to the threat from persons and groups “motivated by the conflict in Iraq and Syria.” The heightened threat is said to generalized, not a reflection of specific intelligence. RAF jets intercepted a Russian military jet as it approached British […]
Extremist cleric Yasin Abu Bakr, the leader of Jamaat Al Muslimeen who was recently extradited from Jamaica, is suing the state for wrongful arrest for the murder of a man in 1998. Ashmead Mohammed, a Trinidadian, has reportedly been identified as fighting for the Islamic State in Syria; about 50 Trinidadians are said to have […]
Jamaican extremist cleric Abdullah el Faisal posted a statement on social media denouncing as “hypocrites” those Muslims who do not follow the Islamic State. On Oct. 16, Jamaican authorities deported Trinidadian extremist Muslim leader Yasin Abu Bakr home to Trinidad.
The State Department warned to US citizens in the Middle East to be vigilant, following an online jihadist threat against American and international schools. In its latest report on the Afghan war, the Pentagon said violence in Afghanistan fell by 30 percent between April and August, but warned that insurgent sanctuaries in Pakistan and Afghan […]
Security forces arrested influential al Qaeda-linked cleric Abu Mohammad al Maqdisi on Oct. 27, on charges of using the Internet to incite terrorism. Former Prime Minister Marouf al Bakhit recently estimated that up to 4,000 Jordanians are active in the Islamic State. Some 20 Jordanian clerics are said to have taken leadership positions in the […]
An appellate court upheld the extended sentences for convicted terrorists Richard Dart a.k.a. Salahuddin al-Britani, Zahid Iqbal, and Mohammed Sharfaraz Ahmed, on the grounds that the three men posed a continuing threat to society. The Government Prosecution Service reported that the number of persons arrested in the UK under European Arrest Warrants has risen significantly, […]
Gen. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said US advisers should be deployed to Iraq’s Anbar province, where Iraqi troops are battling the advance of the Islamic State. US officials said that the rate of foreign fighters flowing into Syria, about 1,000 per month, is remaining constant; this appears to be the case […]
Iraqi Peshmerga forces have begun to arrive in Kobane to reinforce Syrian Kurds; about 50 free Syrian Fighters have also joined the fight against the Islamic State. Ten of 12 US airstrikes in Syria on Wednesday were dropped near Kobane. Twenty to 30 former Guantanamo Bay detainees are suspected to have joined jihadist groups in […]
The Egyptian Army began demolishing homes to create a buffer zone against militants in the Sinai; the Army is also preparing for an operation to target “Sinai extremists.” The Egyptian government banned a pro-Morsi political group. The US embassy has warned Americans in Egypt of potential attacks by al Qaeda-affiliated groups after a recent threat […]
Ten people were killed when rockets struck a residential neighborhood in Benghazi as fighting continued between Islamist militias and the pro-government forces. Amnesty International states that rival factions have committed war crimes via indiscriminate shelling. A car bomb exploded in front of the security headquarters in Tobruk on Tuesday, killing one person.
Somali government forces killed four members of Shabaab in the Hiran region in south-central Somalia. A Shabaab leader killed in a US airstrike on Sept. 1 reportedly “had established new ties with” the Islamic State. The first wave of 2,700 additional Ugandan troops deployed to the country has arrived at Mogadishu International Airport.
The final tally in Tunisia’s election shows a total of 85 (of 217) seats for the secular Nidaa Tunis party vs. 69 for the Islamist Ennhahda party.