Ibrahim al Afghani fought in Afghanistan, traveled to Pakistan, is linked to top al Qaeda and Shabaab leaders, and is mentioned in the GITMO documents. The report of Afghani’s death is unconfirmed.
Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage “announces the renewal of its allegiance to the Emir of Qaedat al-Jihad,” according to a statement released on an al Qaeda-linked forum.
Leaked Guantanamo threat assessments highlight Osama bin Laden’s influence over East Africa al Qaeda (EAAQ) and its leader, the recently slain Fazul Mohammed. The files also contain striking details about the ties between EAAQ and Somalia’s Islamic Courts Union, the predecessor of Shabaab.
Brigadier General Josef Blotz claims the Haqqani Network is not part of the Taliban.
Omar Hammami appeared in public with other top Shabaab leaders and vowed to avenge the al Qaeda leader’s death. Hammami said that “the caliphate shall soon be reborn.”
So many foreign jihadis are arriving in the Afghan-Pakistan border area that “there are problems finding places for them to stay,” according to a recently captured terrorist.
In Hammami’s latest rap-nasheed, he asks to die in a Predator strike, special operations raid, air strike, or cruise missile attack, like other top al Qaeda commanders.
It isn’t every day that you get a terrorist leader to freely admit what an awful human he really is. Late last week, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a Shabaab commander and Specially Designated Global Terrorist with links to al Qaeda, proudly told how his organization recruits children to wage jihad. From Garowe: “We recruit underage […]
Shabaab executed the group’s deputy intelligence chief yesterday after accusing him of spying for the US. Sunatimes.com has the story: Somalia’s extremist group of Al Shabaab has executed their intelligence chief’s deputy, accusing him of spying for FBI amid mounting disputes to suppress civilian harassments between the group’s leaders.. Ahmed Ali Hussein, known as Ahmed […]
Qari Saifullah Akhtar, the leader of the Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, was recently freed after being placed into “protective custody” in August.
Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Amir al Mumineen (“the commander of the faithful”) of the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban. Below is the full text of Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s statement. The Voice of Jihad website often switches URLs after being hacked or taken offline, so the statement is republished below for when this eventually happens. To […]
The Taliban’s top leader called reports of negotiation “propaganda” and urged the Taliban to continue the fight. Omar said the Taliban want to bleed the US as the mujahedeen did to the Soviets in the 1980s.
Earlier today, I did a rather lengthy written interview with a journalist from an online Romanian newspaper. In light of the new tapes Osama bin Laden released last month, he put a number of questions to me about the al Qaeda leader. I thought the following, adapted from the interview but maintaining its Q&A format, […]
Eight Germans and two Britons are said to have been killed in the same strike that killed an Islamic Jihad Group leader who trained Germans to return to their home country to carry out terror attacks.
Earlier today I served as a panelist at the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s annual conference on foreign fighters, discussing the phenomenon in Somalia. The panel discussion was based around Ambassador (ret.) David Shinn’s forthcoming paper on foreign fighters in Somalia; since it is still a work in progress, the paper is not yet available online. […]
On Thursday, Joshua Foust published an article at PBS’s Need to Know that, though avoiding the term “constructive disengagement,” mirrors the arguments advanced by Bronwyn Bruton’s report for CFR, and those made by Fareed Zakaria in the wake of the bombings al Shabaab executed in Uganda. Though constructive disengagement is often advanced as a minor-league […]
Al Qaeda leaders from Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Sudan, and the United States hold top leadership positions in the Somali terror group.
The al Qaeda affiliate has carried out its first terror attack outside the borders of Somalia. The Somali suicide bombers attacked soccer fans as they watched the World Cup final in Kampala.
The defection is the latest blow to one of the two largest Islamist terror groups in Somalia, and will bolster the fortunes of Shabaab.
Abu Mansour al Amriki, a senior military commander and propagandist for the al Qaeda-linked Shabaab, issues a nasheed calling for global jihad. The tape is aimed at recruiting Westerners.
The five Americans detained in Sargodha while trying to link up with al Qaeda were in contact with HUJI leader Qari Saifullah Akhtar.
The Long War Journal has received a compliment from one of the most unlikely sources. General (Retired) Mirza Aslam Beg, Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff from 1988-1991, said that the depiction of the Taliban provided by The Long War Journal is spot on. Here is what General Beg had to say in his column, which […]
Moallim Hashi Mohamed Farah welcomed bin Laden and foreign jihadists to Somalia and asked them to fight against the government and African Union forces.
A leading Somali cleric declared that Shabaab and Hizbul Islam’s fight against the government is un-Islamic and not legitimate jihad, and the groups should negotiate a solution. The African Union called for a no-fly zone over Somalia and blocking the nation’s ports. More than 2,500 Somali military recruits are stranded in Kenya.
Were you aware that the Taliban are staunch defenders of freedom of speech and the press? Don’t believe, me just read the Taliban’s latest statement on the Afghan government’s proposed restrictions on press coverage of Taliban attacks. The statement, originally published at The Voice of Jihad, the Taliban’s website, and reprinted below, is a curious […]
Four Somalis were killed in the assassination attempt against Sheikh Yusuf Mohammad Siad, a former ally of Shabaab and Hizbul Islam, in Mogadishu.
The Ras Kamboni Brigade has broken away from Hizbul Islam, merged with Shabaab, and pledged allegiance with al Qaeda.
Federal authorities in Boston said Mehanna has been charged with conspiring with others on terror attacks against shoppers in US malls.
Aden Hashi Ayro, the deceased leader of al Qaeda-linked Shabaab, the terrorist youth movement of Somalia’s Islamic Courts Union. Photo from IntelCenter Over the past several years, an ongoing lack of internal order has left Somalia vulnerable to the rise of hard-line Islamist groups, of which the latest is al Shabaab (“the youth”), which has […]
Four Haqqani Network fighters have been reported killed in an airstrike in Danda Darpa Khel, the base of the Haqqani Network. The town has been hit four times since Aug. 20.