US drone strike targets Haqqani Network in North Waziristan
Five suspected jihadists were killed in the strike, which took place in the al Qaeda and Taliban haven of Datta Khel.
Five suspected jihadists were killed in the strike, which took place in the al Qaeda and Taliban haven of Datta Khel.
The “Training Camp Shaheed Ustaz Aasim in the Lions Den” is said to be in the Zurmat district in the eastern Afghan province. The district is a known bastion of the Haqqani Network and has hosted al Qaeda fighters in the past.
The influential veteran jihadist leader has endorsed Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour as the new emir of the Taliban, and urged others to pledge to him, according to the Taliban.
The Uighur jihadist group based in South Asia sent a message to the “honorable Mujahideen in Somalia” thanking them for the recent attack on the Jazeera hotel in Mogadishu.
Reports surfaced that veteran jihadist leader Jalaluddin Haqqani died in 2014, but the Afghan Taliban have gone on the record stating that the patriarch of the Haqqani Network is alive.
The Taliban’s new emir is Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour. His top two deputies are Moulavi Haibatullah Akhunzada and Siraj Haqqani. Both Mansour and Haqqani are allied with al Qaeda.
The Taliban’s spokesman has confirmed that Mullah Omar, the so-called “Emir of the Faithful,” is dead.
The district of Kohistanat in once-peaceful Sar-i-Pul is the latest to fall to the Taliban. Kohistanat is a known gathering place for Arab, Uzbek, and Pakistani jihadists.
The al Qaeda and Taliban-linked jihadist group has operated under the radar of Western officials in Afghanistan, but continues to wage jihad alongside its allies.
Abu Khalil al Sudani worked with Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri for years. He was a member of al Qaeda’s shura council and directed suicide operations. Osama bin Laden’s files reveal that he was one of al Qaeda’s most trusted leaders. The airstrike that killed Sudani took place in the Bermal district of the Paktia province, where the US operated a base before withdrawing its forces.
The Islamic State West Africa (formerly known as Boko Haram) has utilized dozens of women and girls as suicide bombers over the last two years.
The Defense Department says that Muhsin al Fadhli was killed in an airstrike on July 8 in Syria. Al Fadhli was a leader in the so-called “Khorasan Group,” a cadre of al Qaeda veterans who have been plotting attacks agains the West. Prior to relocating to Syria, al Fadhli headed al Qaeda’s network inside Iran.
The Taliban has released a new statement attributed to Mullah Omar saying that his men have been ordered to “forcefully prevent” anyone from sowing dissent in the jihadists’ ranks in Afghanistan. Although the statement doesn’t mention the Islamic State or its followers by name, the Taliban clearly has Abu Bakr al Baghdadi’s organization in mind.
Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost said that Hafiz Saeed Khan is alive, but did confirm that Khorasan province’s deputy emir and spokesman were killed last week in US airstrikes.
The National Directorate of Security (NDS) claimed that the US killed Hafiz Saeed Khan, the Islamic State’s leader for its Khorasan province in an airstrike in Nangarhar. The US has killed top leaders of jihadist organizations in the past, only to watch these groups expand.
Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security claimed that the US killed Shahidullah Shahid, the Islamic State’s spokesman for its Khorasan province, in a recent airstrike in eastern Afghanistan. The death of Shahid, the former spokesman for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, has not been confirmed.
Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Intelligence said that “Gull Zaman,” his deputy, and five fighters were killed in a US drone strike in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan.
The Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria, has released a mini-documentary on the jihadists’ quest to resurrect the caliphate. Contrary to highly dubious claims that the group was going to break from al Qaeda, Al Nusrah celebrates al Qaeda’s history, including the 9/11 attacks.
Mansur al Harbi, a Saudi who served as a senior al Qaeda military leader, trainer, and facilitator is said to have been killed by the US in an airstrike in Afghanistan over the past several days. His death has not been confirmed.
More than 50 troops from Burundi are reported to have been killed. The attack comes just one week after Shabaab killed at least 60 Ethiopian troops in another attack in southern Somalia.
In the video, Hezbollah Brigades, which is a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, is seen operating an array of US military hardware, including M113 armored personnel carriers, HUMVEEs, and artillery.
Prior to his capture in July 2014, Maulawi Abdul Rashid Baluch was a senior Taliban member whose activities ranged from waging guerrilla warfare against NATO and Afghan forces to narcotics trafficking. Rashid also served as a liaison to al Qaeda, arranging “planning meetings” between senior Taliban leaders and al Qaeda members in Karachi, Pakistan.
The Taliban and allied groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, al Qaeda, Harakat-ul-Mujahideen, and Lashkar-e-Taiba are known to have run dozens of camps inside Afghanistan even as the Coalition was present.
In a newly released audio speech, Islamic State spokesman Abu Muhammad al Adnani calls on his group’s rivals (including other jihadists) to “repent,” recognizes a new pledge of allegiance from the Caucasus, and urges Sunnis to fight Shiites throughout the Middle East.
Afghan forces have been unable to contain the Taliban offensive in Kunduz; the jihadist group raised its white banner over Dasht-i-Archi district and also took control of Chardara. The Taliban have also stepped up operations in Helmand.
Qasim al Raymi was appointed the new top leader of AQAP following the death of his predecessor earlier this month. His younger brother has been held at Guantanamo for more than 13 years. Files written by Joint Task Force-Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) provide details concerning Qasim al Raymi’s career, including his time in pre-9/11 Afghanistan.
Sa’ad Emarati, a senior jihadist commander as well as a member of the “Khorasan Shura,” was executed for leaving the Islamic State and rejoining the Taliban.
While making the argument that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is the rightful representative of jihadist activities in Afghanistan, the Taliban’s deputy leader notes that top al Qaeda and jihadist leaders over the past decades have based their activities in the region.
The Islamic State has used the suicide assault to demoralize and strike fear into the hearts of Iraqi troops, and often uses five or more suicide bombers during a single attack.
Earlier this week, one of the Islamic State’s “provinces” in Libya assassinated a veteran jihadist in Derna. The act sparked intense fighting between Abu Bakr al Baghdadi’s followers and al Qaeda-allied jihadists in the city.