Asmatullah Muawiya said the PML-N “will have to pay a price” if it carries out the executions of jihadists. Pakistan’s interior minister said the government will carry out death penalties starting next week.
The MSC in Jerusalem has taken responsibility for a rocket attack on Eilat just days after four members of the Salafi jihadist group Ansar Jerusalem were killed in the Sinai.
Al Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has claimed responsibility for a deadly string of bombings inside Iraq on Aug. 10. The State Department also confirmed that the ISIL’s emir has relocated to Syria.
The al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula emir was providing guidance to al Qaeda’s affiliate in North Africa on its operation in northern Mali more than one year ago.
The US has launched nine strikes in Yemen in the past 14 days. The strike in Lahj is the first recorded in the southern province.
Sinai-based Ansar Jerusalem has announced that four of its fighters were killed as they were preparing to fire rockets toward Israel yesterday. It still not entirely clear whether Egyptian or Israeli authorities were responsible for the strike that killed the jihadists.
The IJU continues to operate in eastern Afghanistan. The group said that fighters from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan as well as Pashtuns participated in attacks on US bases, and that the fighters have deployed a mine designed to down a US Apache.
Bahrain recently blocked websites run by Hezbollah, as well as those run by al Qaeda and its affiliates. The Gulf States are expected to take additional action against Hezbollah.
The Long War Journal has confirmed a report by the Daily Beast saying that multiple al Qaeda operatives were involved in the intercepted communications that led to the closure of more than 20 US diplomatic facilities.
Reports that an Israeli drone targeted and killed five jihadists in the Sinai have been strenuously denied by the Egyptian army, while Israeli officials refuse to comment.
An “emigrant lion from the Peninsula of Muhammad” drove a BMP packed with explosives into the Minnigh airbase in Aleppo province; assault teams then took the airbase. Free Syrian Army units fought alongside al Qaeda’s affiliates during the attack.
The US has dramatically stepped up its targeting of AQAP as a plot to attack US facilities has unfolded. There have been four strikes in the past two days, and eight in 12 days.
A new video praising Hithem Ziad Ibrahim Masshal, a well-known jihadist in the Gaza Strip, was released by the Ibn Taymiyyah Media Center to jihadist forums. Masshal, who was killed in April by the Israeli Air Force, is celebrated for his role in supporting jihadist groups in Gaza.
The US has launched six strikes in 11 days. The strikes are part of a US effort hit al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, whose emir is at the center of the plot to conduct attacks on Western targets.
Bahawal Khan, the leader of the Mullah Nazir Group who is considered to be part of the “good Taliban” by Pakistani officials, continues to support al Qaeda, runs training camps, and conducts operations in Afghanistan.
Nasir al Wuhayshi, the emir of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has been appointed the overall general manager of al Qaeda. Osama bin Laden’s letters contain a description of the general manager’s role.
The strike, which took place in the central province of Marib, is the fourth in Yemen in 10 days.
Al Salafiyya al Jihadiyya in Sinai released a statement detailing alleged “crimes” committed by the Egyptian army in recent weeks. The statement also claimed that the army is allowing Israeli drones to operate over the Sinai.
Al Khidr Husayn al Ja’dani, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s emir for Abyan province, is thought to have been killed in the July 30 strike. He replaced an AQAP leader who was involved in the USS Cole attack.
The State Department said 21 US embassies and consulates will be closed on Sunday, Aug. 4, in response to a suspected threat from an al Qaeda affiliate. No specific details about the threat have been provided. Al Qaeda-linked jihadists assaulted multiple diplomatic facilities in September 2012.
The strike is reported to have taken place at an al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula training camp in the Qatan Valley in the eastern province of Hadramout.
The three al Qaeda trainers reported killed in the July 28 strike in North Waziristan hailed from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Yemen.
In one attack in Idlib, al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria claimed that “2,000 fully-equipped mujahideen” from eight different “brigades” fielded “8 tanks, a BMP armored vehicle,” and an assortment of mortars, rockets, machine guns, and other heavy weapons to overrun Syrian military forces. Free Syrian Army units participated in the attack.
“A known Saudi member” of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and two Yemenis are said to have been killed in the latest strike.
At least 30 “hardcore militants” have been freed in a complex suicide assault on a prison in Dera Ismail Khan. The attack was likely carried out by the Taliban and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan’s newly-formed Ansar al Aseer.
The Taliban video praises rogue Afghan National Army soldier Lambar Khan, who participated in a deadly July 9 “green-on-blue” attack at Kandahar Airfield, as well as a second rogue ANA soldier, Lieutenant Ihasanullah, who helped free Khan from custody a few days later. Both men are seen pledging allegiance to the Taliban.
Four “Arab fighters” are reported to have been killed by the US in Pakistan’s Shawal Valley. The drone strike is the first reported in Pakistan in two weeks.
Six al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula fighters are reported to have been killed in a strike on a vehicle traveling in the Al Mahfad area in Abyan province, where AQAP has regrouped.
Despite a dispute between the emirs of the Al Nusrah Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the two al Qaeda branches are jointly fighting against their Kurdish enemies.
Tunisian officials have accused a longtime jihadist, who fought in Iraq, of being involved in two high-profile assassinations. The Tunisian government also alleged that some of the perpetrators “belong to Ansar al Sharia.”