Authorities arrested wanted al Qaeda-linked militant Sheikh Omar Bakri Fustoq in Aley, southwest of Beirut, yesterday. Lebanese media reports said that Mahmoud Hayek, a Hezbollah official who was wanted for a 2012 assassination attempt on Minister Butros Harb, was killed while fighting in Syria. Rockets fired from Syria hit in an area between the Bekaa […]
Terrorists exploit social networks in North Africa
Nigeria pleads for ratification of arms treaty
Nigeria’s defense chief said authorities know the location of the more than 200 kidnapped schoolgirls but will not try to rescue them by force. President Jonathan’s government reportedly pulled out of a deal for the release of 50 of the girls in exchange for 100 Boko Haram prisoners. Senate President Mark has ruled out negotiation […]
Trash mountains pile up in Benghazi
Khalifa Haftar, head of the Libyan National Army, called newly-elected Prime Minister Meitig “illegitimate” and said parliamentary elections should be postponed for at least three months while LNA forces rid the country of terrorists. Haftar’s forces are conducting reconnaissance over Derna, looking for Islamist militants, including Ansar al Sharia. Benghazi’s Benina airport closed after a […]
Al Qaeda’s affiliate and a unit in the supposedly moderate Islamic Front executed a complex suicide attack and used three foreign fighters. One is rumored to be an American, although that report is unconfirmed.
AQAP attempts to take control of a city in the east, and a senior AQAP military leader is said to have been killed during a raid in the capital.
The Interior Ministry said that the two suicide bombers who detonated at a busy restaurant yesterday, killing three people and injuring at least 15 more, were a man and a veiled woman who were both Somali. Several European soldiers were injured in the attack but no US troops were harmed.
Pope Francis prays at Bethlehem wall, calls for Middle East peace
Ansar Jerusalem says that, contrary to claims made by Egyptian security officials, Shadi el Menai has not been killed and is not the group’s leader. Ansar Jerusalem says the Egyptian government does not even know who the real leader of the group is.
In a newly released three-page statement, Ayman al Zawahiri again says that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (ISIS) owed its allegiance to al Qaeda’s senior leadership before disobeying orders. Any pledges of allegiance collected by the ISIS since then “are null pledges, because they arose from a direct violation of my command as his direct emir,” he states.
North Waziristan offensive “not full-scale operation” – Pakistan
A May 3 message from al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri was posted on jihadist forums, calling for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham to leave Syria and fight in Iraq, and urging clashing jihadists in Syria to submit to an independent sharia court. A three-day truce near Homs city went into effect […]
Lebanon enters presidential void as Sleiman bids farewell
Two grenades exploded in an attack on a Djibouti city restaurant crowded with Westerners, killing two people and injuring 11 more. Six Dutch soldiers and several French nationals are said to have been injured in the attack. Both the US and France have bases in Djibouti, which also contributes forces to the AMISOM effort in […]
Boko Haram fears hold Maiduguri hostage
The suicide assault, which killed 10 Somali troops, took place just two days after Shabaab vowed to step up attacks in Mogadishu.
Israel-Egypt anti-terrorism cooperation at zenith
Syrian opposition scores in US Senate defense bill
Afghan notebook: Going home to Helmand
Nigeria’s Army Holding Up Hunt for Taken Girls
Two days after warning it was shifting its war to Kenya, Shabaab launched an assault on the Somali parliament in Mogadishu. At least four people have been killed in the clash, which began with a car bombing followed by an attack by gunmen in military uniforms. Shabaab spokesman Ali Hussain also threatened two days ago […]
Security officials detonated a live grenade left this morning at a Mombasa church. Police are looking for a suspected Shabaab member who escaped when two or three associates threw a grenade at policemen escorting the suspect in Mombasa on May 22.
Sentiments expressed recently on an online forum about the allegiances of Hezbollah run deeper than Lebanon, offering insight into Iranian strategic thinking about the Levant and the Middle East.
The Anbar police chief said that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham has been cleared from most of Ramadi, according to a Turkish news agency report.
A suicide bomber intending to detonate at a soccer match viewing center in Jos died along with two other people when his car blew up on the way; phone signals suggested the bomber was directed from Niger. A Borno state elders’ forum said the military’s failure to properly equip, deploy, and pay soldiers has enabled […]
A gunman opened fire on visitors at a Jewish museum in Brussels, killing two women and a man, and seriously injuring a fourth victim, before fleeing in a car with another person. Twelve other people were hospitalized for shock following the incident. An election truck belonging to a nationalist politician was gutted in a suspected […]
Authorities named five people, all apparently Uighurs, as suspects in the May 22 bombings in Urumqi that killed 39 people. Four of them died in the attack and were identified by their DNA; the fifth suspect was arrested in Bayingolin. The five had engaged in “illegal religious activities” and formed a terrorist cell in late […]
Nigeria’s Boko Haram ‘targets village vigilantes’