AQIM claims two attacks in northern Mali
The two attacks, including a suicide bombing, targeted foreign bases at airports in northern Mali. Al Qaeda has launched more than 200 attacks in Mali and the neighboring countries in the past year.
The two attacks, including a suicide bombing, targeted foreign bases at airports in northern Mali. Al Qaeda has launched more than 200 attacks in Mali and the neighboring countries in the past year.
Justin Nojan Sullivan has pleaded guilty to terrorism charges, including conspiring with Islamic State operative Junaid Hussain to plan “mass casualty shooting attacks on behalf” of the Islamic State. Hussain, who was killed in an airstrike last year, asked Sullivan to make a video of the attacks and Sullivan agreed. Hussain was one of the Islamic State’s key digital planners.
The Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency claims that its “soldier” carried out the attack at Ohio State University yesterday. The wording is similar to that used after previous claims of responsibility for attacks in both Europe and the US.
Filipino forces have been battling for control over a southern town after Islamic State-loyal forces captured it last week.
The Taliban said 100 mujahideen have graduated from its Khalid bin Walid Camp and 50 more from its branch, the Abu Dujana Camp. The Taliban claimed that the Khalid bin Walid Camp has 12 branches throughout Afghanistan.
The Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) have announced plans about securing the border with Syria and pushing into the country following the Islamic State’s defeat in Iraq. There are discussions in Western policy circles that PMF’s movement is part of a broader Iranian strategy to establish a land corridor stretching from Iraq to the Mediterranean. However, Iran already exercises freedom of movement via its air bridge to Syria, and is unlikely to risk hard-fought gains for building a sustainable land bridge. Tehran has other plans for Iraq and Syria, in which the PMF plays important roles.
The Popular Mobilization Forces continues to flex its military muscles in Iraq. The PMF has surrounded Tal Afar and has promised it would lead the offensive to retake the city, despite Iraqi and US claims that the group would only operate in rural areas of western Mosul.
Al Qaeda’s general command has released a statement commenting on the “martyrdom” of Faruq al Qahtani and others. They were killed in an American airstrike on Oct. 23 in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden’s files show that Qahtani was tasked with establishing new safe havens for al Qaeda in Afghanistan in 2010, if not earlier.