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France
Defense Minister LeDrian said France is willing to coordinate a regional task force in Africa to confront Boko Haram; the 2,800-strong force was pledged by regional powers in July but has not yet materialized. He urged greater cooperation among African nations on security matters. He also noted that jihadists driven from Mali have regrouped in southern Libya and threaten the stability of the region. The UN’s special envoy to the Sahel region warned that “the Boko Haram problem is no longer limited to Nigeria” and also that the Islamic State appears to be running training camps in Libya.
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United Kingdom
Ismail Abdulrahman, Muktar Said Ibrahim, Yassin Omar, and Ramzi Mohammed, who were sentenced to life in prison for an al Qaeda plot to attack London transport on July 21, 2005, two weeks after the deadly July 7 subway bombings, lost their appeals to the European Court of Human Rights. Two men from Luton were arrested by counterterrorism police on suspicion of membership in a banned organization; there are 63 groups currently on the UK’s list of banned groups.
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United States
Since Dec. 10, the US has conducted 16 airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria, and the US and partners have carried out 29 airstrikes against the group in Iraq. President Obama told US troops: “The time of deploying large ground forces with big military footprints to engage in nation building overseas, that’s coming to an end.”
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Afghanistan
Operation Enduring Freedom: A look back in photos
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Australia
Sydney siege over: Lindt cafe gunman forces hostages to appear in videos
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Iraq
Attacking ISIS, From an American Aircraft Carrier
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Guantanamo
US asks Vatican for help with Guantanamo inmates
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Australia
Police stormed a cafe in downtown Sydney where Man Haron Monis, an Iranian self-styled cleric and known criminal, was holding hostages for 16 hours after forcing them to display an Islamist flag at the cafe window. Monis and two hostages were killed and a number of hostages were injured; others managed to escape. During the siege, Monis, a convert from Shia to Sunni Islam, had demanded that an Islamic State flag be delivered to the cafe.
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Al Nusrah Front, Ahrar al Sham advance in northwestern Syria
The Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria, backed by Jund al Aqsa, Ahrar al Sham, and several other groups, has launched an offensive on two major regime bases in the northwestern province of Idlib.
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Somalia
Suspected Shabaab fighters attacked the military base of the African Union Mission in Somalia in Mogadishu with mortars on Dec. 14; nearly 200 suspected members of the jihadist group were detained throughout the city earlier that day. Shabaab has conducted five beheadings in Somalia over the past week.
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Egypt
Egypt’s head prosecutor referred 439 “hard-liners” to military tribunals over violence that occurred last year after protests were broken up. Two policemen were killed in a drive-by shooting in the town of El Arish in the Sinai. At least 10 jihadists were killed and one vehicle destroyed in a government air strike on militant hideouts in the North Sinai, according to state media.
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Libya
Anti-government forces with Libya Dawn attacked al-Hilal, a major oil region, causing the shutdown of one oil export port and threatening another. Pro-government forces under General Khalifa Hafter and Libya Dawn are fighting over the Ras Jdir border crossing, the main crossing into Tunisia. Hafter’s forces claimed to have seized “the western Bokmash area and the Ras Ajdir border crossing,” forcing a retreat by Libya Dawn. A Libyan Army airstrike on the Abu-Kammash area near the Tunisian border killed four Islamist fighters and injured several more.
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Mali
The Malian government announced that it traded four prisoners to AQIM to obtain the release of French hostage Serge Lazarevic last week. France’s defense minister said that “nearly 200 terrorists have been neutralized” by French forces in the Sahel region over the past year.
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Tunisia
Tunisia closed its border crossing at Ras Gdair on Dec. 15 as fighting raged between pro-government forces and Islamist militias in Libya. The closing follows another air strike by the Libyan Army near the border on Dec. 14.
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France
During raids in Toulouse, Paris, Bordeaux, and Normandy, antiterrorism police arrested at least 10 suspected members of a jihadist recruiting network, as part of an investigation begun in late 2013. Among those arrested were two prison inmates and a woman. The number of French jihadists traveling to Syria has risen at least 80 percent this year.
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United Kingdom
Michael Coe and Simon Keeler, of east London, were charged with trying to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State; Anthony Small, of southeast London, was charged with helping Coe and Keeler with travel plans; and two other east Londoners, Zagum Perviaz and Hamzah Safdar, were charged with assisting Coe and Keeler in obtaining false documents. Coe, Keeler, and Small also face charges of supporting a terror organization. Separate charges were filed against another man, Abdulraouf Eshati; they involved the purchase of ammunition and the hire of a cargo plane for terrorist purposes.
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Australia
A number of businesses in central Sydney were evacuated as a hostage situation unfolded in a downtown cafe, where hostages inside were forced to display an Islamist flag at the window. Three hostages have escaped. In a separate matter, two men who had been detained during counterterrorism raids in September were charged; one of them is accused of funding a terrorist group.
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Al Nusrah Front
Syrian army recaptures territory north of Aleppo in fierce fighting
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Al Nusrah Front uses American-made anti-tank missile in Idlib
The Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria, has used a BGM-71 TOW anti-tank missile in the recent assault on Wadi al Daif in the Idlib countryside.
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Turkey
Antiterrorism police in Istanbul arrested Z.M., a Russian national of Chechen origin, on suspicion of assassinating Abdullah Bukhari, 38, a dissident Uzbek religious leader in the city. On Dec. 5, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov claimed that Akhmat Umarov, a brother of late Caucasus Emirate leader Doku Umarov, was behind the deadly Dec. 4 attack in Grozny and demanded his extradition from Turkey. Turkish police arrested at least 31 people, including the editor of a leading newspaper, in simultaneous raids conducted in 13 provinces in a crackdown on opposition media. Police officers who had investigated al Qaeda cells in Turkey were…
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Afghanistan
Kabul – the fifth fastest growing city in the world – is bursting at the seams
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United Kingdom
British soldiers told not to shout at, insult terror suspects, report claims
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Islamic State overruns town in Anbar, executes Awakening fighters
The jihadist group remains on the offensive in the western Iraqi province.
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Jamaat-ud-Dawa
Pakistani jihadist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba/Jamaatud Dawa now active in Gaza
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Libya
Britain pressing Tobruk to reach agreement with Muslim Brotherhood: Libyan minister
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Syria
Syrian patriarch: To help Christians, stop flow of weapons
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Al Nusrah Front
Al Nusrah Front, ISIS appoint new Lebanon hostage mediator: report
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Boko Haram
Boko Haram ‘will be defeated:’ leading Nigerian emir
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Al Nusrah Front
Rebels advance on 2 bases in northwestern Syria
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Chechnya
Chechnya human rights office set on fire
