The US military has conducted 27 counterterrorism strikes in Yemen in 2018, but has only provided complete information on two. One of the strikes hit an AQAP training camp in Hadramout. Read more >
Hazrat Abbas served as a leader for both al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent and the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan. AQIS was formed to unite disparate jihadist factions to fight under the banner of the Afghan Taliban. Read more >
Al Qaeda has released a message from its leader, Ayman al Zawahiri, that is timed to coincide with the Trump administration's relocation of the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Zawahiri notes that the decision caused a "big uproar," but he reminds listeners that Tel Aviv is also supposedly Muslim land. He calls for jihad to uproot the entire international system led by the US and the UN. Read more >
Yet again, senior American officials display a stunning level of ignorance about the Islamic State and the Taliban. Elections are antithetical to jihadists' belief of religious rule. Read more >
US officials should stop debasing themselves by issuing facile calls for peace. The Taliban has no intention of joining a political process and as it has stated numerous times, its goals are the expulsion of US and foreign forces, the overthrow of the Afghan government, the re-establishment of the of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the imposition of its harsh brand of Sharia. Read more >
The video highlights the worsening security situation in the Afghan north, including Baghlan, where 12 of the province's 14 districts are contested and one is controlled by the Taliban. Read more >
JNIM claims the brazen assault was in retaliation for the death of several of its commanders and fighters in recent French raids. Read more >
The military has not produced detailed press releases for any strikes this year, continuing 2017's limited transparency. Read more >
The Islamic State's propagandists continue to take aim at rival jihadists, including al Qaeda and Hay'at Tahrir al Sham (HTS). A recent Islamic State video calls upon HTS fighters to defect to the so-called caliphate's cause. Read more >
In the past six months, US forces have thrice interdicted Shabaab car bombs and prevented imminent attacks against civilians in the Somalia capital, Mogadishu. Read more >
The United States attacked al Qaeda's branch in Somalia in the southern town of Jilib, a recurring strike location and known Shabaab safe haven. Read more >
In his latest message, Hamza bin Laden warns that Shiites are expanding throughout the Middle East and claims that the Saudi government is incapable of stopping them. Hamza calls upon Muslims to support the jihadists in Yemen. He also criticizes the relationship between the Saudis and the US. Read more >
The US military announced that it killed Musa Abu Dawud, a high-ranking al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb leader in Libya, in an airstrike last weekend. Dawud is an established jihadist who has been in the fight with the GSPC and AIQM for at least three decades. Read more >
Jihadists and Islamists in Syria have denounced the US government's decision to designate Katibat Imam al Bukhari (KIB) as a terrorist organization. The KIB's own statement on the designation includes misleading claims and some of those defending the group have their own al Qaeda links. Read more >
The latest edition of al Qaeda's Al-Nafir news bulletin addresses the jihadists' infighting in Syria. Al Qaeda has been forced to comment on the disputes multiple times over the past year. Read more >
As Sahab has released two new messages from al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri in recent days. In the first, he again criticizes Abu Bakr al Baghdadi's Islamic State, accusing it of sowing dissent in the jihadists' ranks. In the second, Zawahiri reminds jihadists and Muslims that his organization considers the US to be their "first enemy." Read more >
US forces conducted nine strikes in Somalia this year, all of which have targeted al Qaeda's affiliate in the country. Read more >
A US military spokesman also said that the military would be fine if the Taliban was operating on the Pakistani side of the border just as long as Afghanistan was secured. Read more >
The US military has launched 22 airstrikes against al Qaeda int he Arabian Peninsula and the Islamic State's Yemeni branch, a spokesman told FDD's Long War Journal. Read more >
Turkistan Islamic Party fighters, alongside the Afghan Taliban, released a video showing the combined forces overrunning remote Afghan military outposts in mountainous terrain. Read more >
State added Ahmad Iman Ali, the leader of Shabaab's network in Kenya, and Abdifatah Abubakar Abdi, a dangerous Kenyan commander, to its list of Specially Designated Global terrorists. Read more >
The son of Mullah Fazlullah, the emir of the TTP, and two commanders, including the camp's trainer of suicide bombers, are reported to have been killed. Read more >
The Afghan military said it captured a German citizen who was fighting in Helmand province and belonged to the Taliban's Red Unit, which serves as an elite unit that spearheads attacks on Afghan forces. Read more >
Three jihadist factions in Syria announced today that they have joined the "Guardians of the Religion" organization. Al Qaeda-affiliated social media channels have promoted the new group, which was formed as a result of jihadist infighting and leadership disputes in Syria. Read more >
Rehan, a commander from the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan who also served as an al Qaeda facilitator, was killed in an airstrike in Bermal district in Afghanistan's eastern province of Paktika. Bermal is a known jihadist hotspot. Read more >
Khattab al Masri, a foreign fighter who sided with Omar Hammami during his dispute with Shabaab, reconciled with the terrorist group and was killed while fighting Ethiopian forces in 2016. Read more >
Strikes in 2018 have been concentrated in and around the town of Jilib, whihc has been identified as a Shabaab safe haven. Read more >
On January 19, the Pentagon released its new National Defense Strategy, which prioritizes "inter-state strategic competition" from China and Russia over "terrorism." In many ways, the strategy makes sense. However, the threat from ISIS and al Qaeda has not been eliminated. The jihadists are fighting around the globe, everywhere from West Africa to Southeast Asia. Read more >
The State Department has designated Ansaroul Islam, a Burkinabe jihadist group affiliated with al Qaeda's network in Mali, as a terrorist organization. FDD's Long War Journal has tracked the rise of the group since its founding in late 2016. Read more >
French forces conducted near simultaneous raids and airstrikes on three jihadist targets belonging to al Qaeda's Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM). Read more >
General Bajwa and Pakistani officials can pontificate all they like about how their country has eliminated terrorism and no longer permit terrorists to use its soil to attack another country. A look at the facts tells another story, and that is one of Pakistani duplicity. Read more >
Sajna Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan, not in Afghanistan like some Pakistani officials have claimed. Sajna lead the group's powerful Mehsud faction, was close to al Qaeda, and was responsible for murdering thousands of Pakistanis. Read more >
The US Treasury Department designated three jihadist facilitators who work for Sheikh Aminullah, a key al Qaeda and Taliban facilitator based in Peshawar, Pakistan. All three have allegedly facilitated Aminullah's travels to the Gulf, where he has presumably raised funds. Two of the newly-sanctioned jihadists have been tied to operations in Afghanistan. Read more >
The United States conducted 131 counterterrorism strikes in Yemen, CENTCOM told FDD's Long War Journal. Read more >
The camps were used by the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and other terrorist groups. Read more >
US forces conducted a record 120 strikes in Yemen in 2017 and appears to be operating at a similar tempo thus far in 2018. Read more >
The DoD would not be suppressing information on Taliban district and population control as well as key metrics on the Afghan security forces if the fight was going well. Read more >
In a newly-released audio message, Ayman al Zawahiri blames Islamist parties in Tunisia and Egypt for the failure of the Arab uprisings to deliver sharia-based governance. Read more >
The designation of Taliban leaders on the Peshawar Shura highlights the continuity of the Taliban-al Qaeda relationship in Afghanistan and Pakistan that has endured more than 16 years of war against the US and its allies. Read more >
The US Treasury Department designated six Taliban-Haqqani figures as terrorists today. Treasury's identifying information locates five of the six -- including three senior Taliban finance officials and the deputy leader of the group's military commission -- inside Pakistan. At least two of the newly-sanctioned men have ties to al Qaeda. Read more >
The Pakistan government often criticizes US airstrikes that kill members of the Afghan Taliban, including Haqqani Network leaders. Read more >
The State Department has added Khalid Batarfi, an al Qaeda veteran and senior al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) leader, to the US government's list of specially designated global terrorists. Batarfi threatened the US and Jews in a video released by AQAP just yesterday. Read more >
Afghan forces will be on the offensive in the coming year, but have significant challenges ahead. Read more >
Ibrahim al Qosi, a former Guantanamo detainee, is one of three senior AQAP leaders featured in a video released this week titled, "Secrets, its Dangers and the Departure of the Best of Us." The video is focused on the US drone campaign and the jihadists' lapses in security. Read more >
While Katibat al Ghuraba al Turkistan (KGT) appears to be small, it is yet another group in northwestern Syria containing ethnic Uighurs. Read more >
The US is seeking the extradition of Christian Ganczarski from France, where he has been imprisoned since 2003. A French court convicted Ganczarski on terror-related charges for his role in the Apr. 11, 2002 suicide bombing at a synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia. The bomber called Ganczarski beforehand to receive his "blessing." A newly-released indictment focuses on Ganczarski's other ties to al Qaeda, including a plot targeting American interests in Australia. Read more >
CENTCOM identified the AQAP operatives who were killed as "key Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula leaders." Their responsibilities included "external operations facilitator," an operative who paves the way for attacks outside of Yemen, an arms facilitator, and a member of its proselytizing council. Read more >
At least 276 attacks in Mali and its neighboring countries were linked al Qaeda in 2017. This includes a significant shift of violence to central Mali, as well as northern Burkina Faso. Read more >
One of the leaders "planned" the March 2015 Bardo Museum attack in Tunis, which was claimed by the Islamic State. Another serves as Shabaab's deputy emir. Read more >
In the first strike of 2018, US forces have again halted an imminent car bomb attack intended for Somalia's capital. Read more >
