Since resuming military activity inside Somalia earlier this year, the Biden Administration has ramped up the pace of airstrikes in the Horn of Africa country in recent weeks. Since June 3, the US has conducted at least six airstrikes against Shabaab, al Qaeda’s branch in East Africa. Read more →
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan leader Omar Khalid Khurasani, who is believed to have given sanctuary to Ayman al Zawahiri in the past, has called for global jihad, attacks on the US, and the establishment of the caliphate, and celebrated the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. He is reported to have been killed in a district in Afghansitan that has hosted an Al Qaeda training camp in the past. Read more →
Edmund Fitton-Brown — outgoing coordinator of the UN Security Council Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring team and longtime friend of the show — joins Bill to discuss the killing of Al Qaeda emir Ayman Zawahiri, who died in a U.S. drone strike last Sunday. Read more →
Zawahiri's death is being hailed as a counterterrorism success, but that masks the fact Afghanistan has become a safe haven for top Al Qaeda leaders. Read more →
In this episode, Bill flies solo and expands upon his recent article in FDD's Long War Journal, "Ayman al Zawahiri is alive; Taliban and Al Qaeda 'remain close,' UN reports," noting that reports today (August 1, 2022) of Zawahiri's death inside of Afghanistan underscore the country's role as a safe-haven for Al Qaeda. Read more →
This policy both limits the effectiveness of anti-Taliban resistance and reduces the U.S. military and intelligence communities' ability to monitor and strike Al Qaeda, the Islamic State and other regional and global terror groups based in Afghanistan. Read more →
Abu Hamzah al Yemeni, a senior leader and military commander in the Al Qaeda-linked Hurras al-Din, was the target of the strike. CENTCOM claims he was killed, but al Yemeni was also reported killed in a U.S. strike in Sept. 2021. Read more →
The presence of Abdul Haq al Turkistani, a veteran Al Qaeda leader, in Afghanistan contradicts the Taliban's claims that there are no foreign fighters based in the country. Read more →
Nelly Lahoud’s new book reportedly draws from 6,000 Abbottabad raid documents. But the book suffers from major analytical problems. Read more →
A Tajik commander in the Al Qaeda-linked Jamaat Ansarullah who was appointed to lead several districts in northern Afghanistan continues to celebrate the group's ties to the Taliban. Read more →
Al Qaeda's central leadership remains organized with its branches actively carrying out orders passed down from Ayman al Zawahiri who sits at the helm and remains an influential figure in Jihad. Host Bill Roggio is joined by Long War Journal contributor Caleb Weiss to discuss the state of Al Qaeda under Zawahiri's leadership. Read more →
The U.S. military continues to recycle stale estimates of Al Qaeda's strength in Afghanistan, and elevate the Islamic State as a greater threat. Read more →
The Haqqani Network, an integral part of the Taliban whose leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is the Taliban's deputy emir and minister of the interior, is reported to have facilitated the negotiations. Read more →
Host Bill Roggio briefs listeners on some of the latest news related to Afghanistan — including a few buried headlines you might have missed. Read more →
Shabaab again highlights operations from its urban assassination unit in Mogadishu. In doing so, it places these killings in the context of the wider global jihad. Read more →
One week after a series of suicide bombings in Mogadishu, the US conducts its first drone strike against al-Shabaab since August 2021. Read more →
Sanaullah Ghafar, who is also known as Shabab al-Muhajir, has been identified as an "ambitious new leader" of the Islamic State Khorasan Province. His challenge is to hold off the vastly superior Taliban, which controls Afghanistan. Read more →
Bill Roggio is joined by Edmund Fitton-Brown, Coordinator of the United Nations Security Council Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, to discuss the findings from his team's latest report on the statuses of ISIS and al-Qaeda. Read more →
On Feb. 2, Bill Roggio testified before the House Committee on Homeland Security at a hearing titled, "The Dynamic Terrorism Landscape and What It Means for America." His testimony focused on the state of Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, state sponsors of terrorism such as Iran and Pakistan, and the growing threat of global jihadism. Read more →
Two new videos from Ansaru, or al Qaeda's franchise in Nigeria, demonstrate the group's continued ideological affinity and connections to the global jihadist network. Read more →
