Airliner plot raises fears about al-Qaida in Yemen

Ten combatants were reportedly killed in heavy fighting between Hizbul Islam and pro-government militia Ahlu-Sunnah Wal-Jama™a near Beledweyne. Ahlu Sunna Wal-Jama™a fighters captured four suspected bombers in Dolow. Hizbul Islam conducted security operations in the areas between lower Shabelle and Bay regions southwest of Mogadishu. A helicopter dropped a $4 million ransom payment onto the deck of a Chinese coal ship hijacked by pirates in mid-October.

Afghanistan – My sister: The war lady in the all-female Tornado crew

Insurgents killed five Iraqis in bombings in Baghdad and an Awakening leader in Kirkuk, and wounded six policemen in Kirkuk. Security forces killed an insurgent and captured five more in Kirkuk, and detained 10 wanted men in Fallujah and an Iranian agent in Amarah.

The nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi was reportedly killed along with several other protesters during clashes with police in Tehran. Security forces opened fire on thousands of protesters who ignored orders to keep off the streets.

Afghan and Coalition forces killed and captured an undisclosed number of Taliban fighters, including an IED cell commander and a facilitator, during operations in Zabul and Kandahar. The Taliban killed a US soldier in the South and took control of a village in Badghis.

The anti-Taliban tribal leader is the sixth who has been assassinated in Bajaur since Oct. 3.

Daily Times inadvertently stumbles across one of the many mysteries that is Pakistan. Shah Doran, the second in command of the Swat chapter of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan and Mullah Fazlullah’s right hand man, died of complications from cancer in the Bajaur tribal agency and was buried the other day: A leader of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s Swat chapter and a broadcaster of the illegal Taliban FM radio, Shah Doran, died of cancer in Bajaur last week, sources said on Saturday. The sources said that Doran had been suffering from prostrate and kidney cancer and had died from…

Yemen emerges as new Al Qaeda hub

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Suspected US airstrike kills 3 in northwest Pakistan

Montreal woman aboard Flight 253 tells of foiled terror attack

US charges suspect, eyeing link to Qaeda in Yemen

Four terrorists were killed in a US airstrike in North Waziristan. The Taliban beheaded a tribal leader in Bajaur. Twenty-six people were wounded in a bombing at a Shia procession in Karachi. The military said 10 Taliban fighters were killed in Arakzai and Mohmand.

US suspects planned to target Chashma nuclear plant

Detroit terror attack: police search London home of Nigerian suspect

Elite US force expanding hunt in Afghanistan

Official: US knew for 2 years airline bombing suspect could have terror ties

Troops secure former Taliban ghost town in Afghanistan

US behind attacks on Pakistani civilians: Ex-ISI chief

Calm returned to Galkayo after intra-clan violence killed 11 people. Shabaab and Hizbul Islam clashed 20km across the Kenyan border. Shabaab peacefully seized five islands near the Kenyan coast. In the last three days, 18 people were killed after insurgents and government forces exchanged mortar fire in Mogadishu.

Insurgents killed two Shia pilgrims in Karbala and two more in Baghdad, a police officer in Mosul, and a civilian in Fallujah. Iraqi security forces detained seven Hezbollah brigades fighters in Baghdad, eight wanted men in Basrah, four al Qaeda operatives in Balad and Muqdadiyah and a commander in Mosul, and two Jaysh al-Islami Mujahadeen fighters in Bayji.

Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian national with admitted links to al Qaeda, was subdued and apprehended after trying to detonate an explosive device strapped to his leg aboard an international flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. The explosive device, reported to be a mix of powder and liquid, failed to explode but did ignite, in what reports were initially describing as fireworks aboard the plane. The suspect was left with severe burns on his upper leg after passengers overpowered him; two passengers also sustained minor injuries during the altercation. Mutallab, a 23-year-old engineering student at University College in London, is the…

Afghan and Coalition forces killed eight Taliban fighters in Kunduz and a Taliban commander in Wardak, and detained an undisclosed number Haqqani Network and Taliban fighters in Khost and Kandahar, and two Taliban commanders in Nimroz. The Taliban killed a “spy” in Nangarhar and wounded three people in a rocket attack in Kabul

One Algerian soldier was killed when a roadside bomb planted by Islamists exploded 40km east of Tizi Ouzou in northeastern Algeria. Two civilians were injured in the explosion as well. Security forces hunting Islamists in the area have defused a number of home-made roadside bombs in the last few days.

Unmanned US strike aircraft hit a safe house in Saidgai in Pakistan’s Taliban-controlled tribal agency.

Iranian and Iraqi forces continue a standoff over a disputed oil well in Iraq. Protesters and government forces clashed in southern Tehran. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran would allow Osama bin Laden’s daughter to return to Saudi Arabia if her identity is confirmed.

Security forces killed 10 Taliban fighters in Arakzai, but locals claimed 10 civilians were killed. The Taliban killed a tribal leader and kidnapped 18 tribal members, and blew up two schools in Khyber, and killed two policemen in Peshawar. Five US citizens arrested for attempting to join al Qaeda have been remanded to custody.

Family and friends of radical US cleric Ansar al Awlaki said he survived the Dec. 24 airstrike in Shabwa province that targeted a high-level al Qaeda meeting. Mohammed Saleh Awlaki, a local al Qaeda leader, is thought to have been killed in the strike.
