A former Guantanamo detainee known as Jamal al Harith (formerly Ronald Fiddler) launched a suicide attack with a vehicle borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) south of Mosul earlier this week. He is at least the second former Guantanamo detainee to launch a suicide attack in or around Mosul on behalf of the Islamic State and its predecessor organization.
The Pentagon announced that 11 al Qaeda operatives were killed in a pair of airstrikes near Idlib, Syria earlier this month. One of them, Abu Hani al Masri, is described as “a legacy al Qaeda terrorist with ties to the group’s senior leaders, including Ayman al Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden.”
The Treasury Department has added the Scottish-born James Alexander McLintock to the US government’s list of specially designated global terrorists. McLintock’s charity, Al Rahmah Welfare Organization (RWO), is allegedly a “front organization for al Qaeda” that has been used to fund al Qaeda, the Taliban, and Lashkar-e-Taiba. Social media sites associated with McLintock and RWO have documented their operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and elsewhere.
Balkans launch fight against jihadist recruitment
A closer look at recent developments in a number of countries should dispel any illusions that the Islamic State’s aspirations and activities are only regional.
Bosnian protests: A Balkan Spring?
Turkish Flotilla Charity Tied to Terrorism Again
Serbian national Mevlid Jasarevic was sentenced to 15 years in jail after a new trial on terrorism charges for firing an automatic rifle at the US Embassy in Sarajevo in 2011. During his appeal, Jasarevic apologized and said he had been manipulated by Islamist mentors who later abandoned him.
Slimane Hadj Abderrahmane, an ex-Gitmo detainee, has reportedly been killed while fighting in Syria. Abderrahmane was allegedly a member of an al Qaeda-linked group prior to his detention in late 2001. Authorities at Guantanamo deemed him a “high” risk to the US and its allies.
The Muslim community elected moderate cleric Hussein Kavazovic as its new spiritual leader. Ultraconservative Wahabi Muslims in Sarajevo called for the imposition of sharia; activist Bilal Bosnic was prevented from traveling to an Islamist protest in Serbia.
Serbia: Thousands of Muslim football fans protest anti-Islam film
Egypt demands release of Guantanamo detainee
Worsening Syria war drives civilians from homes
For Saudi ex-jihadis: a stipend, a wife, and a new life
Viktor Bout has been sentenced to 25 years in prison. His amoral flexibility allowed him to serve everyone from al Qaeda and the Taliban, on the one hand, to military contractors in Iraq.
Police arrested radical Islamist leader Nusret Imamovic and his brother Eldin in a raid in Gornja Maoca, the center of Bosnia’s Wahabi community, for their roles in attacks that included the shooting at the US embassy in Sarajevo in October 2011 and the bombing of the Bugojino police station in June 2010.
With Launches In Balkans and Beyond, Al-Jazeera Building New Spheres Of Influence
Abu ‘Asim al Tabuki Mansour Nasser al Bihani waged jihad in Bosnia, Dagestan, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia. He trained Omar Hammami, the American military commander in Shabaab. Two of Abu ‘Asim’s brothers are currently being held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
Bosnia imams speak out after attack on US embassy
Mevlid Jasarevic, a Serb, was arrested for shooting a Kalashnikov at the US embassy in Sarajevo. At least one embassy guard was injured. Condemning the “terrorist attack,” Bosnian authorities said they did not yet know if the shooter acted alone.
White House defends continuing US role in Libya operation
An Italian court convicted a former Guantanamo detainee named Mohamed Ben Riadh Nasri of terrorsm-related charges on Monday. At Gitmo, Nasri was identified as “one of the most dangerous Tunisian operatives,” as well as the emir of the Tunisian Combat Group, a known al Qaeda affiliate.
On the trail of Pakistani terror group’s elusive mastermind behind the Mumbai siege
Radical Islam on rise in Balkans
Wahabi clerics distributed leaflets in mosques that warned Muslims not to join the security forces. “Those are forces devoted to a fake god who we should fight against with all of our powers,” the leaflets stated.
Bosnia: Radical Muslims urge boycott of security forces
Police arrested five people suspected of carrying out the bombing near a police station in Bugojno that killed five people. Among those arrested was Haris Causevic, a member of the Islamic Wahabi Islamist movement.
Saudis fund Balkan Muslims spreading hate of the West
Counterterrorism police detained 10 Wahabis during raids in the village of Gornja Maoca, a village under the rule of Sharia law. More than 600 policemen carried out the raid and seized a large cache of weapons, as well as cell phones and computers. The 10 people were detained for “jeopardizing Bosnia’s constitutional order and spreading […]
A profile of Abdul al Salam al Hilal, a Yemeni who is accused of having foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks and facilitating the travel of al Qaeda operatives around the globe.