Fighting between security forces and Boko Haram militants left over 185 people dead in Baga in Borno state; the militants used civilians as human shields. Authorities charged Kabiru Sokoto with masterminding the Boko Haram attack on a Catholic church in Abuja on Christmas Day 2011 in which 37 people were killed. Boko Haram has killed […]
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula confirmed that Adnan al Qadhi, a former military officer and AQAP commander who operated in Sana’a, was killed in a US drone strike last November. AQAP accused a father and his young son of planting a “chip” that guided the US strike to its target.
Insight: Pakistan cleric tries hand at politics
The US promised to double its nonlethal aid to the Syrian rebels; all foreign aid will go through the rebels’ Supreme Military Council. The State Department report on Human Rights Practices for 2012 said the democratic impulses that led to the Arab Spring are at risk of being crushed. The inquiry into the Boston Marathon […]
Syria Opposition Seeks Airstrikes Against Military
Boston Bomb Suspect Alarmed Russian Relatives With Extremist Views
FBI: Boston suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev followed ‘radical Islam’
Boston bombings expose limits of post-9/11 security
Uncertainty behind US escalation on Syria
Bombing probe focuses on 2011 warnings, 2012 Chechnya trip
Kyrgyz Former Neighbors Talk About Tsarnaevs, North Caucasus Ties
Interview: More About Tsarnaev Brothers And Their Ancestral Homeland
The Afghanistan NGO Safety Office reported that Taliban attacks are up 47% the first quarter of this year as compared to last. Officials claimed 20 Taliban fighters were killed in Ghazni.
Iraq held its first election, for provincial councils, since the US withdrew at the end of 2011. Two Iraqi soldiers were killed in a rocket attack on their base near Haditha. Iraqi soldiers killed an al Qaeda leader during a raid in Rabia.
Clashes between the Al Nusrah Front and villagers from al Masreb in Deir Ezzour resulted in the deaths of 17 villagers and 20 Nusrah fighters; Al Nusrah also took 13 villagers captive and burned houses in the village. The director of the Aleppo mosque has disappeared since being taken by government forces on April 9. […]
Saudi Arabia will soon open a luxury rehabilitation center in Riyadh for al Qaeda militants. There is already a rehab center in Jeddah, and three more are in the works. A total of 2,336 al Qaeda operatives have gone through the rehab program so far; some have returned to jihad, including Said al Shihri, who […]
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula assassinated a Yemeni intelligence officer as he traveled to his home in Mukallah. A court has begun to prosecute eight members of the crew of an Iranian vessel that was transporting arms to Yemen.
Police arrested 39 people for involvement in clashes on April 19 that injured over 90 near the Supreme Court. The trial of 26 suspected Islamist militants was postponed. A leading Salafist said “martyrdom will pave the way” for “a long-prevailing nation.” The Interior Ministry provided Sinai police with heavier weapons to help target “hostile targets.” […]
A masked gunman killed nine people at a hotel in Garissa, near the Somali border. Security officials said that al Qaeda (Shabaab or al Qaeda in East Africa) was behind the deadly attack.
Shabaab claimed to have beheaded 127 “spies” who work for the government over the past four months. Shabaab also claimed that Dahabshiil, a money transfer business, is paying a $500,000 tax every six months. Two Shabaab factions clashed in the town of Bardera.
A lawyers’ human rights group said recent amendments to the interim Constitutional Declaration are “alarming.” The latest amendment, adopted on April 9, allegedly violates citizens’ rights and the principle of separation of powers.
Germany announced a plan to keep as many as 800 military trainers in Afghanistan after the NATO withdrawal in 2014. The plan calls for reducing the number of German soldiers in the country to about 300 by 2017.
Iran shows off missiles and drones at National Army Day
Afghanistan – MPs Call to Stop Releasing Taliban Prisoners
Boston Marathon bombing: ‘My sons are innocent’
As US forces draw down from southern Afghanistan, the evolving IED tactics race enters its final stages.
Pakistan – JUI-F’s election plan: English, Urdu versions of manifesto termed incongruent
Security forces captured Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, following a daylong search in Watertown, Mass. after his brother Tamarlane, another suspect in the case, died in a clash with police that also killed a policeman. Authorities investigating the case took two other men and a woman into custody in New […]
Police arrested former president Musharraf, based on allegations that he abused power while in office. Four rockets fired at two political gatherings in Wana in South Waziristan killed two people and injured 22 more. Anti-polio teams were attacked in Tank and Nawabhshah.
The Taliban killed 13 members of a pro-government militia in Ghazni, while a suicide bomber killed five policemen and two civilians in Helmand. Security forces killed two Taliban fighters in Laghman and two more in Helmand. Five would-be suicide bombers, including a woman, were detained in Nangarhar.