Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has killed three members of Algeria™s security forces in two separate incidents. Two security force members were ambushed in the Mascara region in northwestern Algeria on Sunday, while another was killed by a roadside bomb when his convoy passed near the city of Jijel, in northeastern Algeria.
Abdelkader Belliraj, a Moroccan-Belgian national accused of leading a terrorist network operating in Europe and Morocco, was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for arms trafficking and money laundering. He is among 34 co-defendants sentenced from 30 years in prison to one-year suspended sentences for numerous crimes related to terrorist activities.
Latest reports indicate that police forces have besieged Islamist fighters in northern Nigeria at their stronghold in a district of Maiduguri. “President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has ordered national security agencies to take all necessary action to contain and repel the sad and shocking attacks by extremists,” a written statement by the Nigerian government stated.
Clashes between the Nigerian Police Force and an Islamist group dubbed the “Nigerian Taliban” have left over 150 dead and hundreds arrested as violence shakes northern Nigeria.
Gates talks security, arms sales in Iraq
The FBI arrested six US citizens and one Kosovar in North Carolina for plotting acts of terrorism in Israel. All seven “are charged with conspiring to provide support to terrorists and conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons abroad.” One suspect, Daniel Boyd, “is a veteran of terrorist training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan.”
Short-lived cease-fire with Taliban dims prospects for broader deals
Twenty Taliban fighters were reported killed during airstrikes on four camps, including a suicide training center in the Tirah Valley. US forces in Afghanistan pursued Taliban fighters into this region late last year.
A fourth Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb member was arrested outside Nouakchott on Saturday. He is held in connection with the murder of Christopher Leggett, an American English and computer teacher working in the capital. Four suspects have been arrested in connection to the killing since July 17th.
Britain and US prepared to open talks with the Taliban
With Stubborn Chaos in Swat, Landowners Remain in Exile
Pak army chief exploits Baloch bungle
Terror Ties Run Deep in Pakistan, Mumbai Case Shows
Police released a former bombing suspect who turned himself in to the authorities last Wednesday. The former suspect claimed that he had been convinced by Noordin Mohammed Top to become a suicide bomber in the July 17 terrorist attack in Jakarta. The police stated that the suspect had lied about his involvement in the attack.
Four Abu Sayyaf members surrendered directly to Deputy National Security Adviser Luis Singson in Sulu province; they were rushed back to Manila on board the cabinet member’s private plane. President Arroyo stated that terrorist issues will be on the agenda when she travels to Washington to meet with President Obama later this week.
Key quotes from new Taliban book
Italy: Calls for troop withdrawal in Afghanistan causes cabinet rift
‘Hezbollah™ suspects face trial in Egypt
Hezbollah™s Nasrallah warns Israel over future war
Security forces killed 20 Lashkar-e-Islam fighters in Khyber and 11 Taliban fighters in Swat and Dir; 28 Taliban fighters, including a commander were also detained. The interior minister said Mullah Fazlullah has been wounded and will be captured within days.
Algerian security forces ambushed and killed 5 suspected Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb members in the northeastern Tiz Ouzou region, 100 kilometers from Algiers. The security forces were told on a tip that AQIM members were operating in the forest highlands of Sid Ali Bounab.
Iraq: Sunni leader envisions alliance with Maliki in next polls
The death toll in northern Nigeria continues to rise as Islamists attack police stations and neighboring buildings throughout northern Nigeria; 150, many of them Islamist fighters, have been reported killed. The violence has spread from the city of Bauchi to the cities of Wudil, Potiskum, and Maiduguri. The Islamists are reported to be targeting civilians […]
The Taliban issued a new handbook with rules for the organization, its units, and its fighters. The 13-chapter handbook, titled “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Rules for Mujahideen,” calls for the limiting of suicide attacks, reducing civilian casualties, and winning over the Afghan people.
Insurgents killed an emergency police chief in Ramadi and a tribal leader in Mosul, and wounded six policemen in Mosul. Security forces detained seven suspects in a shooting in Irbil that killed one person, and three members of Ansar al Sunnah and two Naqshabandiya group members in Kirkuk.
Karzai: Afghans want new rules for troops
President Karzai’s running mate narrowly escaped a Taliban ambush while campaigning in Kunduz province on July 26. Afghan and US forces detained an IEd facilitator and seven other Haqqani Network members in the town of Majles in Khost province. The Taliban wounded two Afghan soldiers as they gathered for prayers at a mosque in the […]
Opposition set to break Iraqi Kurd stranglehold
Mahmud Farhadi was one of the five Iranians released on July 9. He led one of the three regional commands under the Qods Force’s Ramazan Corps, the unit assigned to strike at US, Coalition, and Iraqi forces.
The Downward Spiral: Pakistan Consumed by Violence as Taliban Power Grows