US and Afghan forces killed a Taliban fighter in Ghazni and detained a deputy to the Taliban shadow governor of Kandahar. NATO aircraft struck a Taliban compound in Kunar. The governor of Kandahar escaped an assassination attempt. NATO has located the crash site of a civilian helicopter.
The IAEA censured Iran for failing to cooperate with inquiries on its nuclear program. Iran filed new espionage charges against a jailed Iranian-American scholar. Iran seized the Nobel Prize for Human Rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi and froze her bank account.
Abdullah Shah Mehsud is one of 19 most-wanted Taliban commanders in the South Waziristan region. He was detained recently in Tank.
The military detained a wanted South Waziristan Taliban commander in Tank, killed five Taliban fighters during airstrikes in Arakzai, and seized control of a Taliban training camp in Kurram. Pakistan’s interior minister said the Taliban are receiving weapons from Afghanistan.
The Los Angeles Times’ Alex Rodriguez reports on the move by fighters from the South Waziristan Taliban, al Qaeda, and Central Asia into the Arakzai and Kurram tribal agencies. This is the perfect complementary piece to today’s report on the South Waziristan operation. From the LA Times: Villagers in Kurram and Arakzai, as well as […]
Ibrahim al-Rubaish: New religious ideologue of al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia calls for revival of assassination tactic
Surge targets Taliban bastion
Taliban expand insurgency to Northern Afghanistan
Obama’s Afghan strategy will contain many messages
Lieutenant-Colonel Shapi Aligadzhiyev, the leader of the special task force police unit, was shot dead in the capital of Dagestan by two gunmen today. One of the gunmen is thought to have been injured and fled the scene; the other was killed by guards. Aligadzhiyev’s death is the latest in a slew of high-profile assassinations […]
A French national was kidnapped in northeastern Mali; a manhunt has ensued to free the man. The unnamed French national is thought to have been conducting research on malaria in the northeastern Mali town of Menaka when three armed men wearing “turbans” took him. It is unclear whether Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is […]
Saudi Arabia: Mufti urges Muslims to oppose terrorism
Iraqi security forces detained the northern emir of the Islamic State of Iraq in Ninewa, the head of a Naqshabandi cell in Kirkuk, and a Jaysh Al-Islami cell leader in Anbar. Insurgents killed three civilians in a series of bombings in Baghdad and one soldier in Mosul.
President Obama said the US will leave Afghanistan by 2017. Germany’s top general and a senior minister resigned over the September airstrike in Kunduz. Afghan and Coalition troops killed eight Haqqani Network fighters in Paktika and detained several more in Logar.
Joint drills help Iraq Kurd, Arab police thaw ties
Taliban, allies slip through Waziristan dragnet
Pakistan Taliban regrouping outside Waziristan
Senior Taliban leaders have dodged the operation, and the bulk of the forces have regrouped in North Waziristan, Arakzai, Khyber, and Kurram.
Terror threat pushes Timbuktu on to UK travel blacklist
Afghanistan is illiterate but has loads of TV
The head of the IAEA said he is “disappointed” by Iran’s lack of cooperation on the nuclear issue. Iran’s envoy to the IAEA said any UN resolution would “damage the currently constructive atmosphere.” Iran and Venezuela signed 12 Memorandums of Understanding as President Ahmedinejad completes his state visit.
Yesterday, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar issued an Eid message, which addressed his followers, the wider Muslim world, the Afghan, government, the US, Europe, neighboring countries, and “the Islamic Conference and the So-called Human Rights Organizations.” In the statement, Omar again rejects negotiations with the West, and instead insists foreign troops withdraw: However, the people […]
Fighting Afghan Taliban with Islamic credit unions
Taleban leader Mullah Omar gets on message with speech aimed at West
At the Asia Times, Syed Saleem Shahzad explains how the fruitless US/NATO attempts to conduct high-level negotiations with the Taliban and President Obama’s “dithering” over the path forward in Afghanistan have impacted the Pakistani military calculations. According to Shahzad, the Pakistani Army has opened channels to al Qaeda and has put off pursuing the Taliban […]
Security forces killed 10 Taliban fighters and detained 19 more in Arakzai, Hangu, Kurram, and Swat. A jirga turned over 10 Taliban fighters in Dir. The Taliban destroyed a NATO fuel tanker near Peshawar. A court indicted seven Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives for the November 2008 terror assault.
Iraq will not be able to hold elections in January. Forty-six Iraqis, including five policemen, were wounded in a bombing at a cafe in Karbala, and four more were wounded in an IED attack in Baghdad. Iraqi security forces detained 18 al Qaeda operatives in Mosul, 12 wanted men in Basrah, two terrorist leaders in […]
US AfPak envoy Richard Holbrooke said the Taliban are welcome to join the political process if they renounce al Qaeda. NATO may supply up to 5,000 troops. A US Air Force MQ-1 Predator has gone missing in southern Afghanistan.
Taliban acceptable if they renounce Qaeda: Holbrooke
President Ahmedinejad said Iran is ready to cooperate with Brazil to build nuclear plants. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran’s top priority is confronting “soft warfare which is aimed at creating doubt, discord and pessimism among the mass of people.” Seven recently detained Jundallah members will be tried in court.