Ten suspected Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb members have been arrested in separate raids in Algiers and Setif. The four men arrested in Setif are suspected of providing logistical support for AQIM while the six members in Algiers are accused of extorting money from small businesses in the capital to finance the terrorist organization.

Iran successfully test-fired an upgraded version of the Sajjil-2 ballistic missile. The US House approved the Iran energy sector sanctions bill. Tehran said the US fuel sanctions move will fail.

Malaysian police arrested three Thai men along the border in Kelantan state suspected of being connected with the Moro insurgency in southern Thailand. The men were found with chemical fertilizers and home-made bombs that were made in Malaysia.

Multi-National Corps-Iraq and Multi National Forces-Iraq merger to United States Forces – Iraq

Pakistan’s Zardari resists US pressure to expand counterinsurgency operations

A suicide bomber killed 33 Pakistanis in an attack outside a politician’s home in Dera Ghazi Khan. The military said 20 Taliban fighters were killed during airstrikes

Pakistan – Militant crackdown behind latest bomb attack

NATO to seek Russian kit, trainers for Afghanistan

A roadside bomb killed three Puntland soldiers and injured nine others near Bosaso. At least 20 people were killed in the last 24 hours in heavy fighting between insurgents and government forces in Mogadishu. A firefight ensued between pirates in Hobyo town over ransom money obtained after the release of a Greek vessel.

More than 20 Islamist fighters have been surrounded by Algerian authorities in three operations in Boumerdes province. Security forces killed four Islamist fighters in Bouira, one of whom was a Libyan. A 30-man network that supported Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was apprehended outside the city of Constantine; the men’s roles in the terrorist network are unclear.

With special forces in Afghanistan

North Korean arms plane linked to East European arms traffickers

Hamas says will unite with Iran if Israel attacks

Nine Iraqis were killed in a series of bombings in Mosul and Baghdad. Iraqi security forces detained 13 wanted men in Basrah, three al Qaeda fighters in Baghdad, and a Naqshabandiya fighter and a Jaish-e-Mujahideen fighters in Kirkuk.

The Taliban killed eight people in a suicide attack in Kabul and killed five more in a bombing in Paktia. A pair of suicide bombers killed two British and two Afghan soldiers in Helmand. Afghan and Coalition forces killed four members of a Taliban IED team in Kandahar and detained a Taliban commander in Kabul.

The attack is the second in South Punjab in the past week.

Iran denied it is working on nuclear bomb components. The US pushed for a tougher sanctions regimen on Iran. Iranian nuclear officials announced that the Bushehr reactor passed its main tests.

Strategic depth, anger at the US, and fear of a military revolt keep Pakistan from moving against the Haqqani network and the Quetta Shura.

The Lahore High Court blocked the extradition of six Americans to the US who were detained as they were trying to link up with al Qaeda in North Waziristan. The military killed five Taliban fighters in South Waziristan. The Taliban bombed a girls’ school in Khyber.

Libya’s coup: Turning militants against Al Qaeda

Pakistan – Is there a Taliban connection?

Pakistan rebuffs US on Taliban crackdown

Pakistan may face new jihad, this time on Internet

Afghan insurgency more pervasive, Mullen says

At least six people were killed in a landmine explosion in the central Galgaduud region. Three people, including two government soldiers, were killed in a gunbattle in Mogadishu. Ahlu Sunnah Waljamaa, the pro-government group that controls central Somalia, has banned women from wearing veils, for security reasons.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry in Baghdad after the August 19 suicide attacks. Photo by The New York Times. Joel Wing rolls up his sleeves again and does the boring yet essential work of analyzing mass casualty events within the context of Iraq’s overall decline in violence: Every time there is a massive, headline-grabbing bombing in Iraq, it sets off a wave of reports and commentaries in the West about how the security situation in the country is getting worse. The most recent such attack was on December 8, 2009 when four targets in Baghdad were assaulted resulting in 127 deaths…

Iraq plans to execute 13 terrorists behind the deadly Baghdad bombings in August. Insurgents killed a policeman in Fallujah and three civilians in a series of blasts in Baghdad. Security forces detained an al Qaeda leader in Tal Afar and two members of a car bombing cell in Najaf.

Security forces have been put on high alert after intelligence indicated that Taliban suicide bombers have entered the country and will strike at targets in New Dehli, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Gujarat. The target list included the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre, the Bombay Stock Exchange, the RSS headquarters, and defense installations.

Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, a 23 year old Georgia man, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for terror related crimes. Sadequee was found guilty on 4 terror related charges, including providing material support to the Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad tours an Iranian centrifuge facility. This morning The Times of London ran a lead story reporting that Iran is engaged in testing a key final component of a nuclear bomb. According to “confidential intelligence documents” obtained by The Times, the Islamic Republic is completing work on a uranium deuteride (UD3) initiator-the component of a nuclear weapon that triggers the explosion. From the story: “Although Iran might claim that this work is for civil purposes, there is no civil application,” said David Albright, a physicist and president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington,…
