Alleged massacre took place on market day in Hombori after military convoy hit explosive device
At least 50 civilians were killed during a military operation conducted by Mali’s army and “foreign troops” on 19 April, according to a report by the UN.
The UN has repeatedly accused Malian soldiers of summarily executing civilians and suspected militants during their decade-long fight against groups linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State.
Continue reading...At security debriefings, Aimen Dean and his family fell in love with the Highlands. Three years later, they feel rejected
Aimen Dean remembers the moment he and his wife, Saadia, decided to make their home in Scotland. They had toured the Highlands and were standing on the battlements of Edinburgh Castle, looking out over the city’s skyline.
Dean already knew Scotland: as one of the UK’s key spies, operating in the highest levels of al-Qaida, he had visited the country in secret six times before, to be debriefed by MI6 officers at safe houses deep in the Highlands or, on one occasion, a hotel on the island of Iona.
Continue reading...Inquiry opens into St George’s after Aimen Dean claims it singled out his daughter over fears he was a security risk
One of the UK’s leading private schools is under investigation after being accused of discrimination against the daughter of one of the west’s most important spies, a former al-Qaida bomb-maker credited with saving thousands of lives.
Aimen Dean, who spied for British intelligence inside the terrorist network for eight years, has made a formal complaint against St George’s School in Edinburgh, claiming it singled out his five-year-old daughter because other parents feared he was a security risk.
Continue reading...Early release of ex-member of terror group linked to al-Qaida will cause distress for bereaved, says Australian PM
Umar Patek, the bomb maker who helped assemble the devices used in the 2002 bombing in Bali, could walk free early from prison this year.
The Indonesian ministry of law and human rights regional office in East Java has proposed the early release after the ex-member of Jemaah Islamiyah, an Indonesian terror group linked to al-Qaida, completed two-thirds of his sentence, plus remissions.
Continue reading...UN says terror organisation, whose affiliate recently attacked Mali’s most important military base, ‘is once again the leader of global jihad’
It was one of Ayman al-Zawahiri’s last victories. Just over a week before the al-Qaida leader was killed in Kabul by missiles fired from a US drone, militants from the organisation’s biggest affiliate in sub-Saharan Africa attacked the most important military base in Mali.
The tactics of the attack were familiar – suicide bombers blowing a gap in defences to allow gunmen to reached stunned defenders – but the operation marked a major escalation.
Continue reading...The Kabul property hit by a US drone was familiar. It turned out Dan Smock had something in common with al-Qaida’s leader
The balcony in Kabul where the head of al-Qaida was killed was a spot Dan Smock knew well. It used to be his – when he worked in Afghanistan on a US government aid project – and the views were spectacular.
Smock enjoyed starting the day looking out at the Afghan capital, as did the world’s most wanted terrorist, from the villa they both called home, several years apart.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed
Another area of tension lies between the US and Russia, which Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has ratcheted up again this morning.
On his daily call with the media, Peskov said any talks on a possible prisoner exchange involving US basketball star Brittney Griner needed to be discreet, and that “megaphone diplomacy” would not achieve results, Reuters reports.
Continue reading...Picture bore striking similarities to 1 May 2011 image, when US special forces killed Osama bin Laden
The White House on Tuesday released a picture of Joe Biden being briefed on the CIA drone strike which killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaida and a chief planner of the 9/11 attacks, in Kabul last weekend.
The move came amid widespread celebration of the killing in the United States and the apparently successful attack provides a welcome fillip to Biden, whose popularity has plunged during 2022 as the nation gears up for crucial midterm election in November.
Continue reading...Analysis: The terrorist leader had been ill and key tasks are likely to have been handled by others for several years
Ayman al-Zawahiri was a low-key but effective leader of al-Qaida whose death will cause the terrorist organisation some short-term turbulence but is unlikely to cause any major long-term problems.
A decade ago, killing Zawahiri would have made a major difference. Now, though the nature of his death demonstrates the US’s continuing ability to strike individual enemies even in hostile environments and raises questions about the Taliban’s relationship with extremist groups, it is unlikely to weaken al-Qaida significantly.
Continue reading...President ordered strike on Kabul safe house last month during a high-level meeting, administration says
A US drone strike in Afghanistan has killed the top al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, Joe Biden announced on Monday.
The US president described the death of Zawahiri, who was Osama bin Laden’s deputy and successor, as a major blow to the terrorist network behind the September 11 2001 attacks.
Continue reading...Suicide bombings threatened after ‘slandering’ comments made by Hindu Bharatiya Janata party
Al-Qaida in the Indian subcontinent has said it plans to carry out suicide bombings in revenge for the “insulting and slandering” remarks made by leaders of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party about the prophet Muhammad and his wife, Aisha.
The Indian news agency ANI has reported that in a letter dated 6 June, AQIS – the regional branch of al-Qaida – warned that Hindu nationalist “terrorists should now await their end in Delhi and Bombay and in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat”.
Continue reading...Intelligence report raises fears country could again become base for international terrorists
Al-Qaida has a haven in Afghanistan under the Taliban and “increased freedom of action” with the potential of launching new long-distance attacks in coming years, a UN report based on intelligence supplied by member states says.
The assessment, by the UN committee charged with enforcing sanctions on the Taliban and others that may threaten the security of Afghanistan, will raise concerns that the country could once again become a base for international terrorist attacks after the withdrawal of US and Nato troops last year.
Continue reading...Mohammad Ahmad al-Qahtani was accused of attempting to enter the US to hijack planes in the September 11 attack
A man accused of attempting to join hijackers in carrying out the September 11 attacks has been repatriated to his home country of Saudi Arabia for mental health treatment after two decades detained at Guantánamo Bay, the US Department of Defense said on Monday.
Mohammad Ahmad al-Qahtani was flown back to Saudi Arabia, to a treatment facility, from the US base in Cuba after a review board including military and intelligence officials concluded he no longer represented a significant threat to US national security, and could be safely released after 20 years in custody.
Continue reading...Joe Biden says military has removed Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi from the battlefield
Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, the leader of Islamic State and one of the world’s most wanted men, has been killed during an overnight raid by US special forces in north-west Syria.
The pre-dawn attack on a house in the village of Atme, just south of the Turkish border, led to up to 13 casualties, among them women and children. It also resulted in the destruction of a US helicopter, which had been used to carry special forces troops from Erbil in Iraq.
Continue reading...NGOs call for aid exemption to EU-backed sanctions imposed after election postponement and arrival of Russian paramilitary
More than a dozen aid organisations have called for humanitarian exemptions to heavy sanctions imposed on Mali after the military leadership postponed planned February elections.
The EU has announced support for the sanctions imposed earlier this month by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), which include closing borders and a trade embargo.
Continue reading...The killings come amid escalating violence in the region, where a four-year Islamist insurgency has resulted in thousands of deaths
Authorities in Burkina Faso have declared a two-day period of mourning after suspected militants killed at least 41 members of a government-backed civilian militia in the country’s desert north this week.
A column of civilian fighters from the homeland defence volunteers (VDP), a group the government funds and trains to contain Islamist insurgents, was ambushed on Thursday as it swept a remote area in the northern Loroum province, authorities said on Saturday.
Continue reading...Insurgents shoot villagers going to a market on the same day UN peacekeeping convoy attacked, killing one person
Militants have killed at least 31 people in central Mali when they fired upon a bus ferrying people to a local market and attacked a UN convoy in the north of the country in a region racked by a violent insurgency.
The bus was attacked on Friday by unidentified gunmen as it travelled its twice-weekly route from the village of Songho to a market in Bandiagara six miles (10km) away, said Moulaye Guindo, the mayor of the nearby town of Bankass.
Continue reading...• Order responds to call by victims’ families suing Riyadh
• Full record to be released over six months after review
Joe Biden has announced the wholesale review and declassification of files from the investigation into the 9/11 attack, in response to intense pressure from Congress and victims’ families currently suing Saudi Arabia.
Related: ‘A horn blew when human remains were found’: Wim Wenders’ six hours in the hell of Ground Zero
Continue reading...Analysis: Experts are divided over whether events in Afghanistan will significantly increase risk of attacks
In three days in earlier this month Islamist militants killed more than 120 civilians in a series of attacks in the Sahel, a belt of increasingly anarchic and violent territory across Africa, where such groups have gone from strength to strength in recent years. Thousand of miles to the east, fighters from the al-Qaida-affiliated al-Shabaab stormed a military base in the centre of Somalia.
None of these attacks received much attention – nor did the recent arrest of IS sympathisers in Australia, the attempted murder of a moderate politician in the Maldives or a court case against militants who attacked LGBT activists in Bangladesh.
Continue reading...Death toll from the assault near northern town of Gorgadji leaves 59 civilians dead, along with six militiamen and 15 military police
Burkina Faso’s president has declared three days of national mourning after suspected jihadists killed 80 people, including 59 civilians, in an attack in the north of the country.
The attack was the latest bloodshed in an area with high levels of Islamist violence.
Continue reading...