Yesterday, the Yemeni military began what appears to be a forceful push into al Mahfad, the lawless border region and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula stronghold between Abyan and Shabwa provinces that was the site of a US strike on an AQAP training camp on April 20.
Police arrested nine Malaysian militants in Kuala Lumpur and Kedah state. The national police chief said the suspects had links to foreign terrorist cells and belonged to a militant group that planned terror attacks at home and abroad.
Lebanon – Tension between rival Islamists puts Ain al-Hilweh on edge
The Taliban killed an Army officer and two soldiers in an IED attack in an area between North and South Waziristan. Police claimed to have killed a Taliban commander who engineered the prison break in Dera Ismail Khan in 2013.
Mullah Adbul Qayoum Zakir, a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, has resigned as the Taliban’s military leader due to “ill health.” Security forces killed five Taliban fighters, including Pakistanis, in Paktika province. Abdullah Abdullah claimed he won the first round on the presidential elections.
Iraq’s Interior Ministry said Iraqi helicopters attacked an eight-truck convoy in eastern Syria that was heading for Anbar to supply fuel to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham; it is the first time Iraq has claimed a strike inside Syria since the civil war began. Fighters from the Al Nusrah Front, the Islamic […]
Omar al-Hajj Youssef a.k.a. Omar Hakim was arrested in Tripoli after he tossed a grenade at a military unit, injuring seven soldiers and six civilians. Islamists in the Ain al Hilweh refugee camp took military and security measures “to send a message” to rivals in the camp. Former Security Chief Jamil al-Sayyed talked with President […]
Amid reports that the US is stepping up efforts to supply aid, including weapons, to rebels in Syria, questions must be asked as to where the aid is ultimately going, and what the end result is likely to be.
The Foreign Ministry denied reports that convicted terrorist Mohamed Dersi had arrived in Libya from Jordan. A bank security van was hijacked in Tripoli and robbed of LD 6 million by 10 masked gunmen who also abducted two security guards. In Benghazi, gunmen tried to kill a special forces investigator, a car bomb destroyed several […]
The Ministry of Defence stated that five British troops died when their helicopter crashed, probably due to technical failure, in Afghanistan yesterday. Top UK spy chiefs warned that Internet giants such as Facebook and Google have begun withdrawing their cooperation with intelligence agencies’ requests for assistance in tracking terrorists and other significant criminals. A media […]
The US and the Philippines agreed to sign a 10-year pact giving US forces temporary access to certain military camps, including perhaps Subic Bay, and also the ability to preposition ships and fighter jets. The Pentagon is reportedly devising three alternative budget plans for US forces in Afghanistan in 2015: for zero troops; for 5,000 […]
Although Mullah Adbul Qayoum Zakir, a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, has resigned as the military leader, he is still “a member of the Leadership Council of Islamic Emirate and is busy working in other important Jihadi works.”
China – President Xi vows intense pressure on terrorism
Kuwait, ally on Syria, is also the leading funder of extremist rebels
Syria Making Good Progress in Chemical Weapons Removal
Attack on Journalist Starts Battle in Pakistani Press
Egypt’s Minya province flashpoint for Muslim-Christian violence
The Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic Front fought against regime forces in Reef Dimashq; and in Aleppo, where they were joined by the Muhajireen wal Ansar Army. In Deraa, 88 fighters have been killed in the past two days in clashes between regime forces and rebels led by the Al Nusrah Front and the […]
Assailants threw grenades at soldiers in Tripoli; eight soldiers were wounded as well as two civilians. The Army deployed in southern Beirut after clashes between families in which several people were wounded, an apartment was set on fire, and at least one RPG was used.
Security forces are looking for 19 suspects in Maan, where clashes with security forces have been ongoing since a man was killed during an attack on police last week. Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood dismissed three of its members for taking part in the national “Zamzam” initiative, which seeks to promote national unity through dialogue.
Special operations forces killed up to five militants during a raid on two homes in the coastal city of Derbent in Dagestan; two officers were wounded. Authorities said the members of a “southern” terrorist group were planning attacks in Dagestan during May holidays.
Syria’s bloodshed spills into Iraq as al Qaeda bombs Shia militant rally
British and Australian navies seize largest ever heroin haul at sea
Jordan: Syrian women in distress
The UN’s Special Representative for Mali, who heads the MINUSMA peacekeeping force, warned that the “window of opportunity” for peace in Mali may close, given the resumption of terrorist activities in the north, and MINUSMA’s low level of force generation and lack of military transport helicopters. A security source said that the Movement for Oneness […]
Some 40 Boko Haram militants were killed when soldiers repelled the militants’ attack on a base in the Damboa area of Borno state during six hours of fighting; four soldiers were also killed and nine were wounded. Three civil servants were killed by Boko Haram in an ambush outside an agricultural college in Gujba in […]
Turkish Leader Signs Bill Expanding Spy Agency’s Power
Al Qaeda chief urges Westerner kidnappings
Ali Ahmad Mohamed al Razihi is one of the 48 detainees President Obama’s Guantanamo Review Task Force said should be held in indefinite military detention. But a Periodic Review Board has now recommended that he be transferred to his home country of Yemen.
The Defense Ministry denied a report that the government paid a ransom of $18 million for the release of four French journalists who were were kidnapped in Syria by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham, an al Qaeda offshoot, in June 2013. According to the report, Defense Minister LeDrian took the ransom money […]