Al-Qaida // Current

US: Yemeni suspect made videos glorifying al-Qaida

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — A Yemeni detainee made videos glorifying al-Qaida's attacks to lure new recruits... more

wlwatkins
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Somali Militia Threatens to Attack Kenya

An extremist Islamic militia in Somalia has threatened to launch attacks in neighboring Kenya if the Kenyan government trains... more

Apocalipstick
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No al-Qaida fighters reported dead in US airstrike

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - The latest in a barrage of suspected U.S. missile strikes in Pakistan's northwest killed five... more

GETTINGOUTOURDREAMS
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Clerics' debate underlines Sunni-Shiite divide

Two of the Arab world's most prominent Muslim theologians have waded into a bitter exchange of barbs, engaging in a debate... more

starr111
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Pakistan: 3 suicide bombers blow themselves up - washingtonpost.com

KARACHI, Pakistan -- Police raided a militant hide-out in southern Pakistan, triggering a gunbattle during which three suicide... more

starr111
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U.S. presses NATO to target Afghan drug lords

Defense officials site drugs as a source of funding for the terrorists.

starr111
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Karzai warns of Afghan backlash at U.S.

'Credibility' of partnership is threatened by deaths of civilians, he warns

starr111
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60 die in Pakistan crackdown

Offensive targets al-Qaida, Taliban insurgents in volatile region

starr111
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U.S.: Al-Qaida 'imploding' - Terrorism- msnbc.com

Intelligence agencies caution against saying terror group's demise too soon!!! Top U.S. counterterrorism officials Monday... more

starr111
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Bush to attack Al Qaida

U.S. President George Bush has reportedly authorized attacks on Taliban and al-Qaida targets in Pakistan. Military officials in... more

urlspotter
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Pakistani government on brink of collapse

Pakistan's ruling coalition teetered on the brink of collapse as the two main partners squabbled over a successor to ousted... more

Pericles1978
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U.S. drawdown in Iraq raises security fears

A string of bombings in this small but strategic city in northwest Iraq is stoking fears of a return to sectarian conflict and raising questions about a strategy of handing security in urban areas to the Iraqi police.

Those concerns have emerged as the top U.S. commander, Gen. David Petraeus, is considering whether to recommend a further drawdown in the 145,000-strong U.S. force after the July departure of the last of the “surge” troops sent here in 2007 to curb a wave of sectarian slaughter.

Since April, at least four major bombings have shaken Tal Afar, killing about 40 people and wounding nearly 150. The deadliest occurred Aug. 8, when a suicide bomber detonated a truck packed with explosives in a vegetable market in a Shiite district.

At least 20 people were killed and about 70 were wounded, police said. U.S. officials blamed the attack on al-Qaida in Iraq. Local authorities said the driver was a Tal Afar native named Ashraf Mohammed al-Yas, who had recently been released from detention by an Iraqi court.

All that has alarmed Mayor Najim Abdullah, who fears that the removal of American troops from his city and the deployment of Iraqi army soldiers to nearby Mosul have left his overwhelmingly Turkoman community vulnerable.

“The goal was to start sectarian violence with the car bombs,” the mayor said.

the recent bombings have taken place at a time when U.S. commanders have cut the number of American troops patrolling Tal Afar down to a platoon, usually about 30 people. U.S. soldiers no longer man combat outposts in the city.

Iraq’s government has also moved out a battalion of its own troops to secure Mosul, where Iraqi forces launched an operation last May to wrest control from al-Qaida.

Throughout the Iraq war, U.S. commanders have wrestled with the problem of suppressing extremists in one area only to have them reappear somewhere else.

“Whenever you feel comfortable that you’ve eliminated them in one area, they tend to re-emerge,” Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling, commander of U.S. forces in the north, said of the insurgents last month. “We’ll never say that we’ve completed pursuing them because they may always come back.”

A string of bombings in this small but strategic city in northwest Iraq is stoking fears of a return to sectarian conflict and... more

TravG73
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3 months ago

Closing arguments of Bin Laden's driver's trial

" Closing arguments began Monday in the trial of Osama bin Laden's former driver, Salim Hamdan, the first inmate at the... more

Peewong
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4 months ago

Pakistan alerting al-Qaeda?

Pakistan says its intelligence agents have been accused by the US of alerting al-Qaeda linked militants before the US launches... more

riffhard98
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4 months ago

New strategy 'can beat al-Qaeda'

"Al-Qaeda can be defeated if the US relies less on force and more on intelligence and policing to find its leaders, a leading... more

DeliaTheArtist
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4 months ago

Jihadist cells urged to target Canadians

A virulent Al-Qa'ida website has issued a new call for followers to kill Canadians and other westerners and attack oil and economic targets.

The message on the password-protected al-Ekhlaas.net forum was posted July 7, the third anniversary of the London transit massacre. The website is a favoured site of hardcore jihadists.

Experts are debating the significance of the latest al-Ekhlaas threat calling for the targeting of Christians, especially those from Canada the U.S., Britain, Spain, Australia and Italy.

Most unsettling, perhaps, is the instructional nature of the posting. Details of the Arabic-language posting, titled "Clandestine work inside the city," were recently translated and reported by the Jamestown Foundation, a conservative Washington think-tank.

Under the nom de guerre Abu Hajar Abdul Aziz al-Moqrin (the former leader of Al-Qa'ida's Saudi wing killed in 2004), the posting explains how a four-unit jihadist cell should be properly trained in urban terror warfare before activation.

Further, the intelligence cell that collects information on a target must not know the purpose of the information. Al-Moqrin warns jihadists not to attack religious figures because it harms the cause. Instead, urban cells should seek economic targets, such as Jewish investments in Muslim countries, international companies, international economic experts, exports from "Crusader countries" and raw materials being "stolen from Muslim countries by the enemies," with al-Moqrin calling for attacks on oil wells, pipelines and oil tankers.

Terrorism experts are divided on the message's import.

"The reference to Canada is fairly peripheral and embedded in a broad anti-'kufar' (non-believer) strategy targeting Jews, Christians, apostate Muslim leaders, and 'secular officials,' " said Wesley Wark, a security expert. "The main interest in the story would seem to me the effort taken on some jihadi websites to try to encourage professionalism and clandestinity in terrorist operations."

Martin Rudner, founding director of the Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies, believes the specific threat to oil interests and possibly overseas corporate executives is worrying, especially for Canadian energy interests in such places as Yemen, where the offices of Calgary-based Nexen Inc. were shaken by a bomb blast in April.A virulent Al-Qa'ida website has issued a new call for followers to kill Canadians and other westerners and attack oil and... more