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Head of Taliban’s military commission resigns due to ‘ill health’
Although Mullah Adbul Qayoum Zakir, a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, has resigned as the military leader, he is still “a member of the Leadership Council of Islamic Emirate and is busy working in other important Jihadi works.”
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China
China – President Xi vows intense pressure on terrorism
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Al Nusrah Front
Kuwait, ally on Syria, is also the leading funder of extremist rebels
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OPCW
Syria Making Good Progress in Chemical Weapons Removal
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Inter-Services Intelligence Agency
Attack on Journalist Starts Battle in Pakistani Press
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Egypt
Egypt’s Minya province flashpoint for Muslim-Christian violence
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Syria
The Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic Front fought against regime forces in Reef Dimashq; and in Aleppo, where they were joined by the Muhajireen wal Ansar Army. In Deraa, 88 fighters have been killed in the past two days in clashes between regime forces and rebels led by the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic Front. In Hasakah, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham clashed with Kurdish YPG and Asayesh forces, which also clashed with Syrian intelligence forces. ISIS battled Islamic fighters in Deir Izzour. ISIS left three people dead in a road in Idlib with a…
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Lebanon
Assailants threw grenades at soldiers in Tripoli; eight soldiers were wounded as well as two civilians. The Army deployed in southern Beirut after clashes between families in which several people were wounded, an apartment was set on fire, and at least one RPG was used.
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Jordan
Security forces are looking for 19 suspects in Maan, where clashes with security forces have been ongoing since a man was killed during an attack on police last week. Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood dismissed three of its members for taking part in the national “Zamzam” initiative, which seeks to promote national unity through dialogue.
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Russia
Special operations forces killed up to five militants during a raid on two homes in the coastal city of Derbent in Dagestan; two officers were wounded. Authorities said the members of a “southern” terrorist group were planning attacks in Dagestan during May holidays.
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Al Qaeda
Syria’s bloodshed spills into Iraq as al Qaeda bombs Shia militant rally
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Al Qaeda
British and Australian navies seize largest ever heroin haul at sea
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Jordan
Jordan: Syrian women in distress
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Mali
The UN’s Special Representative for Mali, who heads the MINUSMA peacekeeping force, warned that the “window of opportunity” for peace in Mali may close, given the resumption of terrorist activities in the north, and MINUSMA’s low level of force generation and lack of military transport helicopters. A security source said that the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, which recently claimed the killing of a French hostage, is returning to the Gao region.
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Nigeria
Some 40 Boko Haram militants were killed when soldiers repelled the militants’ attack on a base in the Damboa area of Borno state during six hours of fighting; four soldiers were also killed and nine were wounded. Three civil servants were killed by Boko Haram in an ambush outside an agricultural college in Gujba in Yobe state; five women were abducted by the militants in the attack. A group of 40 gunmen stormed a police station in the Maradun area of Zamfara state, killing two children and injuring their mother.
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Turkey
Turkish Leader Signs Bill Expanding Spy Agency’s Power
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Al Qaeda
Al Qaeda chief urges Westerner kidnappings
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Review board recommends indefinite detainee at Guantanamo be transferred
Ali Ahmad Mohamed al Razihi is one of the 48 detainees President Obama’s Guantanamo Review Task Force said should be held in indefinite military detention. But a Periodic Review Board has now recommended that he be transferred to his home country of Yemen.
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France
The Defense Ministry denied a report that the government paid a ransom of $18 million for the release of four French journalists who were were kidnapped in Syria by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham, an al Qaeda offshoot, in June 2013. According to the report, Defense Minister LeDrian took the ransom money to Ankara, where Turkish secret services helped transfer it to the kidnappers.
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Afghanistan
Afghan Taliban broker ceasefire between rival TTP factions
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CIA
The Big Weapons that the US May Be Secretly Supplying to the Syrian Rebels
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Syria
Syrian opposition looks to Congress for military boost
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Syria
The Ahl al Sham, an umbrella group comprising the Al Nusrah Front, the Islamic Front, and the Mujahideen Army, announced an interim truce with Kurdish YPG forces in Aleppo and its countryside. In Deraa, the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic Front fought against regime forces, and 45 of the jihadist fighters were killed. Al Nusrah and Islamic fighters also battled regime forces in Hama and Reef Dimashq. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham clashed with Islamic fighters in northern Reef Aleppo, clashed with the Islamic Front in Deir Izzour, claimed two suicide truck bombings yesterday in Hasakah,…
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Iraq
As Iraq violence grows, US sends more intelligence officers
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Jordan
Worried about terror attacks at home, Jordan steps up arrests of suspected Syria jihadists
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Jordan
Jordanian authorities reportedly released convicted terrorist Mohamed al Dersi in exchange for Jordanian diplomat Fawaz Al Aytan, who was kidnapped in Libya, presumably by Ansar al Sharia. Al Dersi is said to be already in Libya, but al Aytan has not yet been freed. Authorities are trying to stem the flow of Jordanian jihadists to and from Syria, amid reports that some 2,000 Jordanians are fighting there and about 300 have returned in the past two months. “Outlaws” tossed petrol bombs in Maan, where one person was killed and five policemen were injured in clashes this week.
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Al Nusrah Front
Lebanon – Tripoli militia leaders abound despite crackdown
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Lebanon
Three rockets hit outside Hermel, slightly wounding a woman; the Brigade of Free Sunnis in Baalbek claimed the attack. A worker lost his leg after stepping on a landmine near Baalbek. A Jordanian fighter was arrested in Arsal. A string of 11 car bomb cases from late 2013 and early 2014 was referred to the Justice Council. The case of senior Abdullah Azzam Brigades operative Jamal Daftardar was referred to the military prosecutor. Ghassan Qorhani a.k.a. Abu Ahmad, a prominent militia leader, said that both the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham operate freely…
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Egypt
Authorities arrested Yasser Mehrez, the spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing, who has been on the run for the past 10 months. Two people were killed in clashes between security forces and supporters of former president Morsi in Fayoum. Police clashed with Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Beni Suef.
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Central African Republic
Central African Republic’s Seleka rebels call for secession amid sectarian war
