After a lull, heavy fighting broke out in Damascus. Rebels said they had gone on the offensive against strategic targets in the city’s southern neighborhood of Jabar. Two suicide bombings, targeting a military compound in the central city of Palmyra, killed 19 government soldiers.
Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the opposition National Salvation Front coalition, denounced a fatwa that authorized the killing of NSF members. An NGO linked to the Muslim Brotherhood called for the National Council for Women and other women’s rights associations to be abolished.
Taliban group dismiss tripartite summit outcome on Afghanistan
Afghanistan As It Once Was
CIA ‘operating drone base in Saudi Arabia’
French battle Mali rebels in Sahara, Tuaregs an issue
A senior official in Palestinian Islamic Jihad has called on Palestinians to kidnap Israeli soldiers. The official’s remarks come just a couple days after Israel announced that it had thwarted a kidnapping plot by Islamic Jihad around New Year’s.
Foreign Minister Mladenov countered those who questioned the decision to publicly blame Hezbollah for the Burgas terror attack. “If Bulgaria did not have enough arguments to announce yesterday that the traces in this attack lead to Hezbollah’s military wing, we would not have done it,” Mladenov said. The EU will consider adding Hezbollah to its […]
Prime Minister Netanyahu has reportedly told the families of the victims in the Burgas terror attack that those responsible “will pay the price.” US President Obama is said to be planning a visit to Israel in late March, and Secretary of State Kerry will likely visit the region this month.
Turkey ‘blocked’ Israeli NATO steps
The ruling Islamist Ennahda party dissolved the government after prominent opposition leader Chokri Belaid was assassinated near his home and Ennahda offices were set on fire by protesters accusing the party of involvement in the assassination. A judge barred the broadcasting of an interview with Ansar al Sharia leader Abu Iyadh (a.k.a. Saif Allah bin […]
Nine Syrian refugees, including a Syrian army officer, were arrested in Benghazi for possessing videos and documents on how to make explosives. An estimated 110,000 Syrian refugees are in Libya. The son of a Zawia congressman was kidnapped along with two companions; their captors are demanding the release of two prisoners.
France announced it will begin pulling its nearly 4,000 troops out of Mali in March, handing over operations gradually to the UN-backed AFISMA force of some 8,000 troops.”Several hundred” Islamist militants are said to have been killed so far. French forces in the north are waiting for the AFISMA troops to arrive.
Police are looking for a Danish-speaking man with “Middle Eastern traits” who attempted to assassinate Danish free speech advocate and Islam critic Lars Hedegaard yesterday. PET, the domestic intelligence agency, cautioned that it can never “offer full protection to people who make controversial statements in the public debate and thereby become potential targets of violent […]
Abd el Kader Mahmoud Mohamed el Sayed was a close advisor to al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri and served as a military commander in Afghanistan before he was killed. El Sayed was involved in the Luxor massacre and, while living in Milan, was recorded by Italian intelligence discussing terror plots against the West.
Why Argentina is reaching out to Iran
Some 54 countries helped CIA detention efforts: report
A leaked confidential Justice Department memo sets forth the policy that the US can target and kill American citizens abroad who are senior al Qaeda leaders continually plotting violent attacks against the US or its citizens. The policy specifies that lethal force may be used only if the capture of the suspect is not feasible; […]
Post-Assad Syria poses new, unknown dangers for Israel
Justice Department memo reveals legal case for drone strikes on Americans
South Korea said the UN would impose tougher sanctions if North Korea went ahead with a third nuclear test. North Korea threatened to go beyond a third nuclear test because of “hostile” UN sanctions. North Korea loaded a video on YouTube showing a US city in flames after missile attack.
Bulgaria’s Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov announced that the identity of three of those involved in the attack is known and that at least two of them are members of Hezbollah.
An ally of President Ahmadinejad was arrested by his opponents, highlighting a schism in Iran’s politics. Ahmadinejad traveled to Egypt, becoming the first Iranian leader to do so since 1979. Iran agreed to a new round of talks with world powers over its nuclear program.
A suicide bomber killed seven people in an attack outside of a prison in Taji. The suicide attack is the third in three days, and the second in Taji in two days.
Houthis and Salafists fought in Saada province in northern Yemen; casualties on both sides were reported. Saudi Arabia requested that Yemen extradite the widow of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s former deputy emir, Said al Shihri.
Three former Kuwaiti opposition lawmakers were sentenced to three years in prison for insulting the country’s emir. On Sunday, a Twitter user was also sentenced to five years for a post considered offensive to the emir.
A Ugandan soldier was killed in an IED attack in Mogadishu. President Mohamud said he is prepared to negotiate with Shabaab if the al Qaeda group renounces its goal to overthrow the government.
Pakistan’s Islamist Militia Ansar Ul-Islam And Its Fight For Influence
The video featured Adnan Rasheed, a dangerous Pakistani jihadist who was freed in a jailbreak last year; Yassin Chouka, a wanted German commander in the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan; and Abdul Hakeem, a previously unknown Russian IMU member.
Pakistan ends blockage for 3,700 Afghan containers