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Taliban claim they shot down US warplane in eastern Afghanistan
A Taliban video shows fighters opening fire on what appears to be a C-130. ISAF has neither confirmed nor denied the claim that one of its aircraft has crashed or been shot down.
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Algeria
A roadside bomb attack on a gendarmerie patrol killed two policemen and a civilian in Chabet El Ameur southeast of Boumerdes, the first attack in the town in nearly five years. Security sources estimate that fewer than 20 members of the al Qaeda-affiliated GSPC remain in Boumerdes province. The military killed two Islamists and seized rifles and grenades during a raid in Gouraya in Tipaza province last week. The Minister of Religious Affairs pardoned 30 imams in eastern Algeria who had refused to perform funeral prayers after the crash of a military plane in the area that killed 77 people,…
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Afghanistan
Lull Prompts Question: What Are Taliban Up To?
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Afghanistan
The Taliban killed five soldiers and five Afghan Local Police officers in attacks in Paktia, Laghman, and Jawzjan, and two ISAF troops in the east. The Taliban claimed it shot down a US Air Force AC-130 gunship.
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Nigeria
Suspected Boko Haram militants killed eight people in Adamawa state and burned houses and churches. The governor of Niger state said he has formed a two-man committee to flush Boko Haram out of the state, following the discovery of a Boko Haram-linked terrorist group in Bida. The families of the more than 230 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram on April 14 were told that the militants have since conducted mass marriages and are sharing the girls as wives. Foreign Affairs Minister Wali said that terrorism now poses the main threat to African countries.
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Czech Republic
Muslim Leaders Denounce Police Over Raids in Czech Capital
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Al Nusrah Front
My perilous journey from Aleppo to Turkey
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Al Nusrah Front
Legitimate targets? Debating how to battle the Assad regime
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Kenya
The Sheikh who would have fought Shabaab at Westgate
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Iraq
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham claimed credit for two suicide attacks that targeted security forces as they voted in Baghdad and Kirkuk. Thirty-eight Iraqis are reported to have been killed in attacks throughout the country.
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Syria
The Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic Front battled regime forces in Hama; Reef Dimashq; Latakia, where they were joined by Ahrar al Sham, Ansar al Sham, and Sham al Islam; and in Aleppo, where Al Nusrah announced it decided to restore electricity to the city 10 days after cutting it off. Fighting alongside Al Nusrah and the Islamic Front in Aleppo are Jaysh al Muhajireen wal Ansar, Fajer al Sham, Abo Amara battalions, Al Tawhid brigade, and Ahrar al Sham. The Islamic Front also fought against regime forces in Homs, Deraa, Deir Izzour, Idlib, and Damascus. The Islamic State…
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Lebanon
Security forces in the Bekaa valley arrested Syrian national Amjad Shehadeh, who is suspected of recruiting fighters for the Al Nusrah Front. Mohammad Abdeldayem al Aaraj, a.k.a. Abou Jassem, the head of the Free Syrian Army’s military council in the Syrian regions of Qusair and Qalamoun, was arrested on April 24 in Arsal with nine Syrian fighters. That same day, security forces also arrested three Syrians in Arsal; one had a suicide vest. A military judge issued 55 arrest warrants for suspects involved in Tripoli violence, including Arab Democratic Party figures Ali and Riifat Eid.
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Jordan
The state security court sentenced 10 “jihadists” to jail terms of two-and-a-half years each for trying to enter Syria to join radical groups such as the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham. Security forces arrested 158 suspects in Maan after the shooting of five gendarmes there last week.
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Somalia
Somali security forces claimed to have killed five of the 30 bodyguards of Abdullahi Dhere, Shabaab’s representative for the Bay region, during a raid in Kulan-Jareer in Bakool. Gunmen in military uniforms killed at least five civilians outside a mosque in Lower Shabelle.
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Al Qaeda
Revealed: the radical clerics using social media to back British jihadists in Syria
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Kenya
Ali Hanash Al Amri, a Saudi national arrested in Kiunga along the Kenya-Somali border on suspicion of links to Shabaab, was released for deportation to Saudi Arabia after protest by the Saudi ambassador. Al Amri, a.k.a. Ahmed Hanas, who was suspected of recruiting and funding Shabaab fighters, was arrested with two Kenyans, and authorities seized a boat allegedly used by Shabaab militants. A Somali diplomat, Siyad Mohamud Shire, was detained during ongoing security sweeps in Nairobi. Gunmen on a motorcycle shot and killed a security guard at Nairobi’s biggest shopping mall and then escaped.
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Germany
Police arrested a Somali man in Kehl in possession of a fake Kenyan passport and a fake Swedish visa last week; he said he was applying for asylum. Authorities are building an additional wall to protect the interim storage of nuclear materials at the Gundremmingen nuclear power plant against terrorist attacks.
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United States
Department of Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson said “Syria has become a matter of homeland security”; US authorities worry that Syrian foreign fighters will travel through Europe and then conduct attacks in the US. He also warned that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is “very active.” Youssef al Khattab a.k.a. Joseph Leonard Cohen, a Muslim convert and founder of the radical Islamist group Revolution Muslim in the US in 2007, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for using the group’s website to encourage attacks on Jewish groups and individuals in the US. The Supreme Court declined to hear…
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Al Qaeda
Feds Worry Whether Foreign Fighters in Syria May Target US, DHS Head Says
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Yemen begins southern offensive against AQAP
Yesterday, the Yemeni military began what appears to be a forceful push into al Mahfad, the lawless border region and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula stronghold between Abyan and Shabwa provinces that was the site of a US strike on an AQAP training camp on April 20.
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Malaysia
Police arrested nine Malaysian militants in Kuala Lumpur and Kedah state. The national police chief said the suspects had links to foreign terrorist cells and belonged to a militant group that planned terror attacks at home and abroad.
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Palestinian Territories
Lebanon – Tension between rival Islamists puts Ain al-Hilweh on edge
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Pakistan
The Taliban killed an Army officer and two soldiers in an IED attack in an area between North and South Waziristan. Police claimed to have killed a Taliban commander who engineered the prison break in Dera Ismail Khan in 2013.
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Afghanistan
Mullah Adbul Qayoum Zakir, a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, has resigned as the Taliban’s military leader due to “ill health.” Security forces killed five Taliban fighters, including Pakistanis, in Paktika province. Abdullah Abdullah claimed he won the first round on the presidential elections.
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Syria
Iraq’s Interior Ministry said Iraqi helicopters attacked an eight-truck convoy in eastern Syria that was heading for Anbar to supply fuel to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham; it is the first time Iraq has claimed a strike inside Syria since the civil war began. Fighters from the Al Nusrah Front, the Islamic Front, and the Jaysh Muhajireen wal Ansar clashed with regime forces in Old Aleppo; the Islamic Front blew up bridges and buildings, including the Chamber of Industry, which had been used as an office for regime forces; at least 21 people were killed and 50…
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Lebanon
Omar al-Hajj Youssef a.k.a. Omar Hakim was arrested in Tripoli after he tossed a grenade at a military unit, injuring seven soldiers and six civilians. Islamists in the Ain al Hilweh refugee camp took military and security measures “to send a message” to rivals in the camp. Former Security Chief Jamil al-Sayyed talked with President Assad of Syria about the regime’s military operations across the border from Akkar and the Bekaa valley.
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The shadowy flow of US weapons into Syria
Amid reports that the US is stepping up efforts to supply aid, including weapons, to rebels in Syria, questions must be asked as to where the aid is ultimately going, and what the end result is likely to be.
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Libya
The Foreign Ministry denied reports that convicted terrorist Mohamed Dersi had arrived in Libya from Jordan. A bank security van was hijacked in Tripoli and robbed of LD 6 million by 10 masked gunmen who also abducted two security guards. In Benghazi, gunmen tried to kill a special forces investigator, a car bomb destroyed several cars and houses, and the body of a woman who had been shot in the head was found on a coastal road.
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United Kingdom
The Ministry of Defence stated that five British troops died when their helicopter crashed, probably due to technical failure, in Afghanistan yesterday. Top UK spy chiefs warned that Internet giants such as Facebook and Google have begun withdrawing their cooperation with intelligence agencies’ requests for assistance in tracking terrorists and other significant criminals. A media report said that 10 British women, including two teenagers, have traveled to Syria for jihad.
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United States
The US and the Philippines agreed to sign a 10-year pact giving US forces temporary access to certain military camps, including perhaps Subic Bay, and also the ability to preposition ships and fighter jets. The Pentagon is reportedly devising three alternative budget plans for US forces in Afghanistan in 2015: for zero troops; for 5,000 troops; and for 10,000 troops.
