Tag: Al-Qeada

Al-Qaeda North Africa confirms chief is dead: SITE

BAMAKO, Mali (AFP) — Al-Qaeda’s North Africa wing has confirmed that its Algerian chief Abdelmalek Droukdel is dead, according to SITE, the US watchdog for extremist groups. France said early this month that its forces killed Droukdel in northern Mali near the Algerian border, where it says the group has bases it uses to carry out bombings and abductions of Westerners. “After nearly two weeks, AQIM (Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) has officially acknowledged the […]

Trump confirms killing of AQAP chief in Yemen

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump confirmed Thursday that the US had killed the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — days after the jihadist group claimed responsibility for a mass shooting at a US naval base. The US “conducted a counterterrorism operation in Yemen that successfully eliminated Qassim al-Rimi, a founder and the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP),” Trump said in a White House statement. AQAP claimed responsibility […]

Software better tackling IS propaganda, Facebook says

SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) — Facebook on Monday said new detection tools wielded by its counterterrorism team are quickly detecting and removing extremist propaganda for the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda. The leading social network ‘took action’ on 1.9 million pieces of IS or al-Qaeda-linked content in the first three months of this year — nearly double the amount from the previous quarter, according to vice president of global policy management Monika Bickert and […]

Iraq hangs 38 members of IS, Qaeda for ‘terrorism’

NASIRIYAH, Iraq (AFP) — Iraq hanged 38 jihadists belonging to the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda for terrorism offences on Thursday in the southern city of Nasiriyah, provincial authorities said. It was the largest number of executions in Iraq on a single day since September 25 when 42 people were put to death in the same prison. “The prison administration executed on Thursday in the presence of Justice Minister Haidar al-Zameli, in Nasiriyah prison, 38 […]

FBI releases 9/11 Pentagon photos

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Never-seen photographs from the September 11, 2001 attack on the Pentagon released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation this week show the massive devastation that faced first responders. Twenty-seven pictures from that day depict the crushed walls, blazing fires and eviscerated interiors of the seat of the United States Department of Defense. The American Airlines jet that struck the Pentagon was one of four airliners hijacked by Al-Qaeda teams and […]

US defends Yemen raid that left SEAL, civilians dead

by Thomas WATKINS Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The White House on Thursday defended a US special operations raid in Yemen as a “success by all standards,” even though multiple civilians and a Navy SEAL were killed, and the mission was beset with problems. Sunday’s raid — the first authorized by President Donald Trump — saw US special operations forces enter the Yakla region of Baida province and target a compound occupied […]

Al-Qaeda chief denounces Islamic State ‘liars’

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has denounced what he said was a dishonest propaganda campaign by rival jihadist group the Islamic State against his organization, in an audio message released Thursday. In the message found and translated by US-based watchdog the SITE Intelligence Group, the Egyptian extremist accuses IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of slandering his group. Al-Qaeda, founded by the late Osama Bin Laden, is locked in a battle with […]

Senior Al-Qaeda leader’ killed in US strike in Syria: Pentagon

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A US drone strike has killed a senior Al-Qaeda leader in Syria who previously operated in Afghanistan, the Defense Department announced Tuesday. The November 18 strike near Sarmada in northwestern Syria targeted Abu Afghan al-Masri, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said. “He had ties to terrorist groups operating throughout Southwest Asia, including groups responsible for attacking US and coalition forces in Afghanistan and those plotting to attack the West,” Cook […]

Former Qaeda in Syria confirms a leader killed in raid

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A jihadist group that was formerly Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria on Monday confirmed that an air strike killed a senior leader after the Pentagon said it had targeted him. Ahmed Salama Mabrouk, an Egyptian also known by his nom de guerre Abu Faraj “was martyred after a coalition air strike in the west of Idlib province,” the Fateh al-Sham Front said in a statement on the Telegram app. Born in […]

‘At least 10’ dead in jihadist attack on Mogadishu hotel

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AFP) — At least 10 people, including two lawmakers, were killed in a car bomb and gun attack Wednesday on a top hotel in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab group, medical and security sources said. Around 40 others were injured in the assault on the central Ambassador Hotel, where Somali security forces continued to battle Shabaab fighters into the evening, around five hours after the attack began. The initial blast […]

Obama confirms Taliban leader’s death in US strike

HANOI , Vietnam (AFP) — President Barack Obama on Monday confirmed that Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US air strike, hailing his death as an “important milestone” in efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan. “We have removed the leader of an organisation that has continued to plot against and unleash attacks on American and Coalition forces, to wage war against the Afghan people, and align itself with extremist groups like Al-Qaeda,” […]