Tag: Qaeda

ADEN - Gunmen killed two soldiers in the southern Yemen town of Zinjibar on Monday in separate shootings which a local official blamed on Al Qaeda.
The attacks came in different neighbourhoods of Zinjibar, the capital of restive Abyan province, the official said on condition of anonymity. "They bear the hallmark of Al Qaeda, which often attacks soldiers," he added.
A hospital source confirmed the deaths of the two soldiers.
Militants of Al Qaeda have been increasingly

BAGHDAD - One of Al Qaeda leaders in Iraq, identified as the militant group's "war minister", has been killed in a raid, a senior Iraqi official said on Friday. Noman Salman, also know as Al-Nasser Lideen Allah Abu Suleiman, the war minister for the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), was killed on Thursday night in Hit, about 130 km west of Baghdad, a spokesman for the Baghdad operations command said.
"Based on intelligence, Iraqi security forces carried out the raid that killed him.

WASHINGTON - US authorities on Wednesday ordered sanctions on two Afghan nationals said to be part of the financial network that supports Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the Haqqani network. The US Treasury named as Specially Designated Global Terrorists Said Jan Abd Al-Salam and Khalil Al-Rahman Haqqani, a move that freezes any assets they hold in US jurisdictions that prohibiting Americans from transactions with them.
Al-Salam was designated for acting for or on behalf of Al Qaeda

LONDON - Revolts in Egypt and Tunisia have struck a blow against Al Qaeda's call to violence as a means of overthrowing autocratic governments, showing "people power" to be a more effective weapon. The adaptable militant group, with strong roots in Egypt, will work hard to exploit any sense of disappointment if the eventual outcome of the uprising there does not deliver better lives for the Arab world's most populous country, analysts say.
But for now the group has no easy

BARCELONA - Spanish police have arrested a Pakistani suspected of being part of a ring that forged passports for Al Qaeda-linked groups, a police statement said on Friday. Police said they had hunted for the suspect since Dec 1 when they swooped on gang and arrested seven people - six Pakistanis and a Nigerian - in Barcelona.
According to police, the detained man "participated with the people arrested in December in sending stolen passports to Thailand and collecting money to

Al-Qaeda is under more pressure in Pakistan now than at any time since the September 11, 2001 attacks, US President Barack Obama said in his State of the Union address Tuesday: "Their leaders and operatives are being removed from the battlefield. Their safe havens are shrinking." Obama said. "And we have sent a message from the Afghan border so the Arabian Peninsula to all parts of the globe: we will not relent, we will not waiver and we will defeat you." Obama thanked

SANAA - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton landed in Yemen on Tuesday on a surprise visit aimed at helping President Ali Abdullah Saleh tackle problems that allow Al Qaeda to threaten his country and the West.
The first chief US diplomat to visit Yemen in more than 20 years, she said the trip was aimed at going beyond military cooperation to broach a "comprehensive strategy" for tackling Yemen's myriad problems. "We are partnering with Yemen and other countries in the Gulf and

RIYADH - Saudi authorities announced Sunday a list of 47 people wanted for suspected links to Al-Qaeda who are all abroad, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.
"Authorities have identified 47 wanted Saudis who are abroad and who adopt the deviant ideology," the ministry said, using the kingdom's term for the Al-Qaeda terror network. The interior ministry said that it has passed the list to the international police, Interpol, and advised the

ADEN - Al Qaeda militants killed nine soldiers in an ambush on a military convoy in the restive southern province of Abyan on Friday, Yemeni officials said.
"We were hit today in an Al Qaeda ambush which resulted in the killing of five soldiers and two others being wounded," a security official who requested anonymity told AFP.
But another security official later revised the death toll to nine soldiers.
Loder health department chief Mostafa Ahmed confirmed to AFP that

DUBAI - An Al Qaeda website had identified in December the church in Alexandria, Egypt, which was bombed on New Year's Day as being among Coptic places of worship designated as targets.
Al-Qiddissin (The Saints) church, where 21 people were killed and 79 wounded in Saturday's bombing, was on a list posted by the Al-Qaeda-linked Shumukh al-Islam website of 50 Coptic churches across Egypt. Coptic churches in several European countries, including France, Germany and Britain, also

ISTANBUL - Turkish police have detained 10 suspected Al Qaeda militants who they believe were planning an attack ahead of New Year, state-run Anatolian news agency reported.
The agency said the suspects, eight of whom were detained in anti-terror raids in the northwestern city of Bursa on Wednesday, were expected to be brought before a court on Friday.
A further two people were detained in Istanbul and taken to Bursa, the agency said. Bursa police said in a statement that

ABU DHABI - Two Pakistani brothers accused of collecting money and recruiting jihadists for Al-Qaeda went on trial in the United Arab Emirates and appeared in a court on Monday, a daily reported on Tuesday.
The pair, charged with running a jihadi organisation and aiding and abetting Al-Qaeda, have confessed to having links with the jihadist network, the court was told according to the report. They also had direct communication with a senior member of Al-Qaeda, the daily said.

WASHINGTON: Al Qaeda is trying to "bring down" nuclear-armed Pakistan, US Vice President Joe Biden warned on Sunday, days after a war review tip-toed around Islamabad's role in fighting extremists.
"Our overarching goal and our rationale for being there is to dismantle, ultimately defeat Al Qaeda... to make sure that terrorists do not, in fact, bring down the Pakistani government, which is a nuclear power," Biden said.
The vice-president, in an interview with NBC's "Meet the

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama's Afghan troop surge has made progress in curbing the Taliban and severely weakening Al Qaeda, but US gains are not yet durable and sustainable, a new policy review said on Thursday.
The long-awaited assessment says that some aspects of the high-stakes strategy are working well, after a year of record bloodshed, but many of the advances in the nine-year war remain fragile and reversible.
The report, which Obama is set to unveil today

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is the key source of funding for radical Islamist groups including Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hamas and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, according to a US diplomatic cable leaked by WikiLeaks on Sunday.
"Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide," said the document, an assessment from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dated December 30, 2009. "Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for Al

PARIS: Security around France's First Lady Carla Bruni Sarkozy has been tightened up amid fears that she may be the "priority target" of a terrorist assassination plot.
Security services believe President Nicolas Sarkozy's wife is now "high up" on Al Qaeda's hitlist of potential VIP victims in France, it was revealed. Fears for Bruni's safety come after Osama bin Laden issued a chilling personal threat to kill French citizens in revenge for France backing the war in Afghanistan

MAKKAH: The Saudi interior minister on Wednesday said he would not rule out an Al Qaeda attempt to disturb security during the annual haj pilgrimage, which begins next week.
"We cannot trust them (Al Qaeda). We do not rule out any attempt to disturb the security of haj," Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz told reporters when asked about a possible Al Qaeda threat.
"We are ready for any act that might take place. God willing, nothing of that will happen, out of respect to this