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US conducts 6 strikes against Al Qaeda in Yemen
The United States has conducted a total of 34 strikes in Yemen in 2018, all of which targeted Al Qaeda barring one strike against the Islamic State in Jan. 2018. However the military is not likely to top last year’s high.
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Newly released interrogation files demonstrate Iran’s long game in Iraq
A newly released interrogation report shows that Qayis al-Khazali identified Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Abu Mustafa al-Sheibani as the two individuals Iran trusted “the most with attempting to implement the Iranian agenda in Iraq.” The pair went from being marginal players shortly after the US-led invasion in 2003 to leading the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces, one of most powerful and influential military organizations in Iraq.
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Faryab capital under Taliban threat as Afghan troops desert bases
Afghan military officers said there are no problems in Faryab and that the abandonment of the bases was all part of plan.
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US military on track to match record 2017 for airstrikes in Somalia
The United States has conducted 21 strikes against Shabaab in Somalia so far this year, meaning it is on track to meet or exceed last year’s record high.
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Analysis: Losing a War
The Trump administration is desperately trying to negotiate with the Taliban’s senior leadership. The Obama administration did as well, with the effort ending in a diplomatic fiasco.
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Hezbollah commemorates last year’s joint operation with Lebanese, Syrian militaries
Despite official Lebanese claims to the contrary, the photos recently released by Hezbollah offer more evidence of how its forces coordinated with the Lebanese military in last year’s battle near Arsal.
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US airstrike kills Islamic State terrorist in northern Libya
This is the first strike since early June, when the United States targeted both the Islamic State and Al Qaeda in separate strikes in Bani Walid.
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France kills top Islamic State in the Greater Sahara commander in northern Mali
In a military operation yesterday, the French reportedly killed a top Tuareg commander for the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara in Mali’s northern Menaka region.
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Analysis: US terror designations target Islamic State’s Southeast Asian network
On Aug. 24, the US Treasury Department designated three Islamic State recruiters as terrorists. The trio appeared in a June 2016 beheading video that was used to recruit fighters from Southeast Asia. The new designation is the latest in a series of moves taken by the US government to target the Islamic State’s global network with financial sanctions and other measures.
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Afghan forces cede Faryab district to the Taliban
The Afghan military continues to struggle to hold onto districts in remote areas of the country. The fall of Ghormach was all but certain after the Taliban overran a large base in the district on Aug. 11 and killed and captured nearly 100 Afghan soldiers.
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Islamic State’s emir for its Khorasan province reported killed
Bajauri’s death is likely to be touted as a strategic blow to Khorasan province. However, the US military has killed the three previous leaders in the span of 25 months, and yet the group has expanded its operations.
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Al Qaeda leader argues Taliban’s ‘blessed emirate’ a core part of new caliphate
Al Qaeda has released a new message from its emir, Ayman al Zawahiri, who argues that the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is a core part of a new, imagined caliphate.
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Taliban video shows fighters on captured Afghan base in Baghlan
Like many other similar Taliban videos that show the aftermath of successful assaults on military bases and outposts, the Taliban fighters are seen walking throughout the base in broad daylight, without fear of being targeted by Afghan or Resolute Support aircraft.
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Analysis: Gen. Nicholson says US strategy in Afghanistan ‘is working,’ despite the facts
At a Pentagon press conference, General Nicholson again gave a Pollyannish assessment of the state of Afghanistan. He claimed the peace process is working and the Taliban’s offensive is failing, and took credit for a Taliban victory over the Islamic State.
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Authorities investigate knife attack west of Paris
An assailant stabbed a small number of people in Trappes, west of Paris, earlier today. The Islamic State quickly claimed via its Amaq News Agency that the attacker was one of its “fighters.” Authorities are investigating the incident, and the possibility it was a family dispute turned violent. Some reports say the two people killed were the “attacker’s mother and sister.”
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Islamic State leader downplays territorial losses in new audio message
The public seldom hears from the reclusive Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, who last released a speech nearly a year ago. But in his latest message, Baghdadi downplays the loss of his territorial caliphate while claiming the US has entered a new stage of “weakness.”
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US military targets Shabaab north of Kismayo
The strike is the second against Shabaab, which is al Qaeda’s branch in East Africa, in Somalia that has been reported by U.S. Africa Command this month.
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NATO touts efficacy of Afghan crisis response unit
A team of nine Islamic State jihadists launched a mortar attack in Kabul yesterday as President Ashraf Ghani was delivering a speech. NATO’s Resolute Support touts the efficacy of the Afghans’ response, but the Islamic State’s network continues to regularly launch operations in the Afghan capital.
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Islamic State video purportedly shows youths responsible for attacks in Chechnya
The Islamic State’s Amaq News Agency has released a short video purportedly showing the four young males responsible for attacks on police in Chechnya yesterday. Chechen authorities have said the attackers were all younger than 17 years-old, with the youngest being just 11. Amaq’s video shows youth in that age range swearing allegiance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.
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Hezbollah’s Nasrallah meets with Houthi leadership
Hezbollah media sources released a photo of a meeting between its Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and Houthi leadership.
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Wanted AQAP bomb maker rumored killed in US drone strike
The death of Ibrahim al Asiri, one of the most dangerous and wanted men in the world, has yet to be confirmed. If he is confirmed to have been killed, his death will likely have minimal impact on AQAP as he has shared his expertise for well over a decade.
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In Afghan north, another district falls to the Taliban
The fall of the northern district of Bilchiragh in Faryab province, is part of a disturbing pattern of Afghan forces being surrounded by the Taliban and then either overwhelmed or forced to surrender.
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Taliban fighters loot district center in Ghazni
In what has become an all too familiar scene in Afghanistan, Taliban fighters celebrated their victory and looted a district center in broad daylight, without fear of reprisal.
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Taliban leader demands US withdraw from Afghanistan, blasts government as ‘corrupt regime’
The Taliban has released a new statement attributed to its emir, Hibatullah Akhundzada, who says there will only be “peace” when America leaves Afghanistan. Akhundzada blasts the current Afghan government as a “corrupt regime” and portrays the Taliban’s Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan as the only legitimate authority.
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Islamic State releases photos from deadly raid on military base near Lake Chad
The Islamic State’s West African province has gone on a recent spate of assaults on military bases in northeastern Nigeria.
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Taliban occupied Ghazni City police station as Resolute Support claimed city was under Afghan control
The Taliban occupied a police station in Ghazni City and looted the facility even as Resolute Support claimed the entire city was under Afghan government control.
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Islamic State claims deadly school bombing in Kabul
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a school in the Afghan capital yesterday. The so-called caliphate’s jihadists regularly target Shiite civilians in its “suicide and complex attacks.”
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Taliban overruns another base in north as it withdraws from Ghazni City
The Taliban never slowed in launching numerous attacks across the country even as it committed significant resources to the fight in Ghazni.
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Al Qaeda’s alliance with the Taliban ‘remains firm,’ UN says
According to a new report published by the United Nations, al Qaeda’s “alliance with the Taliban and other terrorist groups in Afghanistan remains firm,” as al Qaeda and the Taliban are “closely allied.” Some of the UN’s Member States consider al Qaeda’s global network to be a bigger long-term threat than the Islamic State.
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UN: Iran-based leaders ‘have grown more prominent’ in al Qaeda’s global network
A report by the United Nations includes new details concerning the dispute between Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and al Qaeda’s senior leaders, including the role played by two veteran operatives living in Iran. The UN’s member states say that HTS is still in “contact” with al Qaeda’s leadership despite their heated disagreements, and that al Qaeda has even reinforced HTS with “military and explosives experts” sent from Afghanistan.
