FDD's Long War Journal

Iran

President Ahmadinejad vowed to protect the Islamic Republic’s nuclear assets. Iran called on Russia to fulfill a missile sales deal for an S-300 system. A Pakistani Iranian consulate worker was shot in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Taliban govern openly in Nuristan

One month after US forces pulled out of the Kamdish district, the Taliban have established sharia courts, opened schools, and no longer hide their faces.

Al Qaeda names Fazul Mohammed East African commander

Fazul has replaced Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, who was killed during a US special operations raid in southern Somalia in mid-September. Shabaab’s leader praised the appointment.

Afghanistan’s war on drugs: Child ‘chemists’ and counternarcotics

Poppy pods procured from Kandahar City. They were lanced six times each, indicating a slightly above average extraction of raw opium. Photo by Matt Dupee. “I’ve been in this business a long time, but it really disturbs me when I see the opium workshops in Mawand that are completely run with children labor.” This is […]

Al Qaeda

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of a radical Hizb-i-Islami faction, said Osama bin Laden is still alive, and blamed al Qaeda’s “wrong” strategy for the toppling of the Taliban in 2001. Hekmatyar, who made his comments in a rare videotape, also said the Taliban should not conduct attacks against the Pakistani state.

Somalia

Pirates seized a UAE-flagged ship loaded with weapons bound for Somalia in contravention of a UN arms embargo, and launched their longest range hijack attempt yet — opening fire on a giant oil tanker 1,000 nautical miles east of Mogadishu. In Mogadishu, Shabaab commander Sheik Mohamed Sheik Abdullahi, also known as “Pakistan,” defected to the […]

Afghan, Coalition forces strike the Taliban in Kunduz

More than 130 Taliban fighters have been killed during an operation in a district under enemy control.

Suicide bomber kills anti-Taliban leader, 12 others near Peshawar

The attack killed a mayor who had raised a militia to battle the Taliban.

The fog of the South Waziristan war

Taliban commander Hakeemullah Mehsud at a press conference in Peshawar in 2008. Hakeemullah Mehsud, the leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, whose forces in South Waziristan are under assault by the Pakistani Army, reportedly issued a speech via Taliban radio that urged his followers to fight the Army and not abandon the […]

Army retakes fort in South Waziristan

The Ladha Fort was abandoned by the Frontier Corps during the summer of 2008 after the Taliban besieged the region. The Army said 28 Taliban fighters have been killed during fighting over the past day.

US kills 4 in North Waziristan airstrike

Unmanned aircraft targeted al Qaeda and Taliban operatives in the Mir Ali region.

Not exactly a smoking Indian gun

First, let me be clear that I am not an expert on the weapons manufactured or used by the Indian Army or any other army. When a commenter posted a link to the photo above, which shows what the Pakistani military claims to be Indian mortars captured during operations in South Waziristan as evidence of […]

Let’s blame India, again

Major General Athar Abbas, the Director General of Inter Services Public Relations. Its time to play let’s blame India again. As Pakistani security forces advance in South Waziristan, senior military and government officials continue to point the finger at India for backing the Taliban. The latest statements come from the military’s top spokesman and the […]

Qods Force ‘acting like a nation-state-backed terrorist organization’ – US general

The Air Force Times’ Sean Naylor scored an interview with Major General Mike Flynn, director of intelligence for General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan. There isn’t a lot new here to longtime readers of The Long War Journal and Threat Matrix. Flynn gives an overview of the Taliban groups, notes that […]

US moves on domestic jihadis

A high number of terrorist plots have been disrupted in the US this year. Several of the Islamists who have been detained have been traced back to Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, behind attack on UN guesthouse in Kabul

The attack was a joint operation between the Haqqani Network and the Lashkar al Zil. Siraj Haqqani and Ajmal, a senior Lashkar al Zil commander, have been implicated by Afghan intelligence.

Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed are back in business

Protesters at “Tehreek-e-Tahafuz Qibla Awal’s” rally in Lahore fly the Jamaat-ud Dawa flag during a rally in January. While the Pakistani military is moving against the Taliban and al Qaeda in South Waziristan, the al Qaeda-linked, home-grown jihadist groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed continue to conduct business as usual. Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the front group for Hafiz Saeed’s […]

Taliban blame ‘Blackwater’ for Peshawar bombings

A street is ablaze in the aftermath of the blast in Peshawar. AFP photo. The Taliban have denied involvement in this week’s deadly bombing near a bazaar in Peshawar that has now killed 119 people and wounded 500 more. Instead, Hakeemullah Mehsud said, the US contracting firm “Blackwater” (which changed its name and is now […]

9/11 plotter’s passport found in Waziristan

Said-Bahaji. Little surprise here: South Waziristan is used by al Qaeda operatives who have conducted attacks in the West. Pakistani security forces found the passport of a 9/11 plotter as well as the passport of the wife of a senior al Qaeda leader linked to the Madrid 3/11 bombings. From the Telegraph: A passport belonging […]

89 killed in car bomb attack in Peshawar

The car bomb took place in a crowded bazaar in the provincial capital. Hundreds are wounded. The blast leveled a mosque.

US jihadi: North Waziristan ‘bustling’ with ‘Foreign Mujahideen’

Here is an interesting tidbit of information from the charge sheet against David Coleman Headley, the US jihadi indicted for plotting attacks in Denmark. Headley traveled to North Waziristan and afterward offered his view on the number of al Qaeda and other foreign jihadis in the tribal agencies’ largest towns (in response to a think […]

Kashmiri, Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives aided 2 Americans in foiled Danish terror plot

The senior al Qaeda military commander and two Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives aided two Americans as they plotted to strike at a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

Kashmiri involved in Danish newspaper terror plot

Ilyas Kashmiri, the leader of the Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami and al Qaeda’s Brigade 313. It has emerged that David Coleman Headley (also known as Daood Gilani), one of the two Chicago men charged with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts and providing material support to terrorists, had contact with al Qaeda field commander Ilyas Kashmiri and two Lashkar-e-Taiba […]

Iran

Remarks by President Ahmadinejad hint at Iran’s hardened stance towards the IAEA on the nuclear program. Pakistan released 11 Iranian detainees in an act of good faith. Tehran welcomed Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan to the country.

Details on the latest North Waziristan ‘peace agreement’

A Pakistani general exchanges a Koran with a tribal leader during a prior peace deal in Waziristan. Photo from The Associated Press. It has been known for some time that the government brokered an agreement with North Waziristan Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadar just prior to the operation that was launched against the Mehsud branch […]

Bajaur strike hit Taliban, al Qaeda strategy meeting

Bajaur Taliban leader Faqir Mohammed. Some interesting news has emerged from Bajaur, where unmanned US aircraft pounded a Taliban and al Qaeda planning session, killing 27 Taliban and al Qaeda operatives. Eleven “foreigners” were reported killed. Some of developments from the Bajaur strike from The News: 1) One of Faqir Mohammed’s nephews (Zahid) and a […]

Khost province in Taliban’s grip

As seen through a night-vision device, Coalition forces and Afghan commandos cordon and search a compound during Operation Raven for an improvised explosive device cell operating in the area east of Khost City, Afghanistan, Aug. 31, 2009. US Army photo by Specialist Matthew Freire. The Wall Street Journal has a good article on the situation […]