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US drone strike kills senior al-Qaeda leader in Yemen

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Jalal Baleedi, a field commander in the country’s south, was killed with his guards in Shabwa province.

The US has continued a drone campaign in Yemen targeting al-Qaeda figures [EPA]

The US has continued a drone campaign in Yemen targeting al-Qaeda figures [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

One of al-Qaeda’s senior commanders was killed by a US drone strike in southern Yemen, a military source told Al Jazeera.

Fighters belonging to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) were preparing to receive the body of Jalal Baleedi, also known as Hamza al-Marqashi, after he was killed overnight with two of his guards near the town of Azzan, the source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Thursday.

Reuters news agency also reported another US drone attack that killed six alleged al-Qaeda fighters in their car travelling in Yemen’s southern Shabwa province.

Al-Qaeda fighters took over Azzan on Monday, and it has become the group’s stronghold in Shabwa.

Originally from Yemen’s mountainous Abyan province, Baleedi was identified in 2004 by the Yemen Times as being the field commander of AQAP in the southern governorates of Abyan, Shabwa, Lahj, Hadramout, and al-Beidha.

Recent reports suggested  Baleedi pledged allegiance to and joined the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group with several other AQAP fighters, becoming the leader of ISIL in Yemen.

However, the reports were not confirmed by ISIL nor by AQAP.

Kerala-based Muslim outfit launches campaign against IS, Al-Qaeda

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Kerala campaign against IS Al-Qaeda

Thiruvananthapuram: A Kerala-based Muslim outfit has launched an intensive campaign to wean away its youth from the influence of terror groups like Islamic State and Al Qaeda.

The campaign assumes significance in the wake of deportation of two Kerala youths by UAE for allegedly supporting IS ideology in the social media, after which state police had initiated a probe.

Kerala Nadvathul Muhjahideen, a progressive movement in the community, has embarked on an ambitious anti-terror and communal drive through meetings and awareness programmes.

“Our campaign is against the fundamental, communal and terror ideologies spreading among youths,” KDM Youth wing State President Abdul Majeed Swalahi said.

“We are getting good response for the campaign which began seven months ago,” he said.

Swalahi said pamphlets containing messages to counter the hate mongering of outfits like IS are also being used during the campaign.

He said the terrorist groups whether it be IS, al Qaeda or Boko Haram were using the name of Prophet Muhammed and distorting the glorified history of Islam.

“The focus of the campaign is based on the humanism in the teachings of Prophet Muhammed”, he added.

Majeed said youths were unknowingly falling prey to various propaganda of these terror outfits and ‘some of them get into trouble by reacting in the social media’.

Hence ‘we are creating an awareness among youths how vigilant they should be while sharing messages in the social media, especially in Facebook’, he said.

Swalahi alleged that both majority and minority fundamentalist groups were trying to indulge in communal polarisation through the social media.

(Agencies)

US air strike kills top Al Qaeda commander in Afghanistan

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Al Qaeda commander in Afghanistan

Baghdad: A US air strike in Afghanistan killed a senior Al Qaeda commander in charge of suicide bombing and two other militants, the Pentagon said Friday.

The attack, which occurred in Paktika province on July 11, killed Abu Khalil al-Sudani, a “high-ranking Al-Qaeda operational commander”, the Pentagon said in a statement released to reporters in Iraq who were travelling with US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter.

“Al-Sudani was one of three known violent extremists killed in the strike. The death of al-Sudani will further degrade Al Qaeda operations across the globe,” the statement said.

The Pentagon described Sudani as a senior shura member and head of Al Qaeda’s suicide and explosive operations, and said he was directly linked to plotting attacks against the United States.

“He also directed operations against Coalition, Afghan and Pakistani forces, and maintained a close association with Aymar al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda’s leader,” the statement said.

In the statement, Carter said the killing of Sudani underscored the work done by General John Campbell, the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, and his troops “to take the fight to Al Qaeda”.

“We will continue to counter violent extremism in the region and the world,” Carter said

(AFP)

Libya says former al-Qaeda leader killed in US strike

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Tobruk-based government says Mokhtar Belmokhtar linked to 2013 Algeria gas attack killed in coordinated attack with US.

Belmokhtar was a leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb [EPA]

Belmokhtar was a leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Libya’s recognised government says that the leader of an al-Qaeda-linked group in Algeria, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, has been killed in a coordinated attack with the US.

Earlier on Sunday, the US Department of Defence said the US military conducted a counterterrorism strike against an al-Qaeda-associated target in Libya on Saturday night, but were assessing results before providing more details.

“The Libyan government in the east of Libya confirms that the US fighter jets conducted air strikes last night in a mission which resulted in the death of the terrorist Belmokhtar,” the internationally recognised government based in Tobruk said.

Al Jazeera’s Daniel Lak, reporting from Washington, said: “They are not saying a great deal in terms of details here in Washington. On the record the defence department has said that an air strike was carried out on an al-Qaeda-affiliated group described interestingly as a mid-level target.”

“More details have come from the Libyan government. The strike apparently took place in the east of the country near Tobruk, and according to Libyan news websites it was aimed at Ansar al-Sharia group where several commanders of the group were meeting.

“What we await is word here in Washington that indeed is the case.”

‘Mr Marlboro’

Belmokhtar was a leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, but later split from the group in 2012 to form his own militia, called Those Who Sign With Blood, that later became al-Mourabitoun.

He has been involved in cigarette smuggling and one of his nom de guerre is “Mr Marlboro”. He has also been associated with various groups involved in attacks on governments in the region including, Mali.

“Belmokhtar has a long resume of involvement in violence in the region. He came out of the Algerian civil war and struggled in 1990s and early 2000,” Al Jazeera’s Lak said.

“He has been involved in abduction of tourists and UN officials. He looms large over the Maghreb region and the Sahara desert,” he said.

Five million dollar bounty

The death of Belmokhtar has been declared at least on four occasions in recent years. In 2013, Chad’s military claimed to have killed Belmokhtar, who was behind a bloody mass hostage-taking at an Algerian gas plant the same year.

“If this is confirmed it will be a very significant development,” the Al Jazeera correspondent said.

The Americans have charged him with terrorism and related offences in connection with the attack in 2013 on the Algerian gas refinery. At least 35 hostages, including three Americans were killed.

The US had offered a $5m reward for information on his whereabouts.

It’s the first publicised operation by the US forces in Libya since 2011, when long-time Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was unseated from power in a NATO-backed revolt.

Libya has rival governments and parliaments, and powerful militias are battling for influence and a share of its oil wealth.

CIA declassifies 9/11 documents on al-Qaeda

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A firefighter breaks down following the twin tower attacks in New York, September 11, 2001. (AFP/File)

A firefighter breaks down following the twin tower attacks in New York, September 11, 2001. (AFP/File)

by Andolu Ajansi

The CIA has declassified documents running to almost-500 pages ten years after the completion of an investigation into purported flaws within the intelligence community which may have led to a failure to stop September 2001 attacks.

The Office of Inspector General’s investigation, prompted by a joint Congressional inquiry in 2005, uncovered several systemic problems within country’s intelligence agencies which missed warnings about the 9/11 plot to attack US targets.

Al-Qaeda operatives crashed passenger jets into the World Trade Center towers in New York and the Pentagon headquarters in Washington DC, killing thousands.

“Concerning certain issues, the team concluded that the CIA and its officers did not discharge their responsibilities in a satisfactory manner,” the report read.

The inspectors, according to the report, also found out that intelligence agencies had “no comprehensive strategic plan” to thwart the al-Qaeda threat.

The inspector general’s report also accuses George Tenet, the former head of the CIA, of failing to develop a strategy against al-Qaeda “despite his specific direction that this should be done”.

Angry correspondence between the then CIA Inspector General John L. Helgerson and Tenet who rejected Helgerson’s critical draft report in 2005.

“Your report challenges my professionalism, diligence and skill in leading the men and women of US intelligence in countering terrorism,” Tenet wrote to Helgerson.

Although there has been speculation that some Saudi Arabian officials might have supported al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the investigators note a lack of evidence to support such a claim.

“The team encountered no evidence that the Saudi government knowingly and willingly supported al-Qaeda terrorists,” the report read.

The document is a compilation of the full version of the 2005 Office of Inspector General’s investigation plus several other related documents in addition to two other reports from the Counter Terrorism Center which were released in 2005 and 2010.

US releases trove of Bin Laden letters

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More than 100 documents taken from late al-Qaeda chief shed new light on his mindset before he was killed by US troops.

Osama bin Laden

by Al Jazeera

The US has published a trove of declassified documents that shed new light on the mindset of Osama bin Laden, the late al-Qaeda leader, before he was killed by US Navy Seals in 2011.

Hunkered down in his Pakistani compound, Bin Laden pleaded with his followers to stay focused on attacking the United States instead of being dragged into Muslim infighting.

“The focus should be on killing and fighting the American people and their representatives,” Bin Laden wrote in one of the documents revealed on Wednesday.

The letter was among thousands of files found by US Navy SEALs on May 2, 2011 when they descended on Bin Laden’s hideout in the garrison town of Abbottabad and shot him dead.

US intelligence agencies have now declassified more than 100 of these documents taken from Bin Laden’s archive, after politicians ordered the move and critics accused the CIA of withholding material.

The AFP news agency was given exclusive access to the documents ahead of their release.

CIA translations

Jeff Anchukaitis, spokesman for the US Director of National Intelligence’s office, said the release of “a sizeable tranche of documents recovered during the raid” was in keeping with US President Barack Obama’s call for “increased transparency”.

It was also in accordance with a law obliging the spy agencies to review all the Bin Laden materials for possible release, he said.

The documents are Central Intelligence Agency translations of the originals in English, and AFP had no way to independently verify the materials or the accuracy of the translation.

The release came shortly after US journalist Seymour Hersh alleged that Washington’s official account of the hunt for Bin Laden and the raid that led to his death was a lie.

But CIA spokesman Ryan Trapani said the declassification had been long planned and had not been intended as a response to Hersh’s report.

From the strategic and theological discussions to the mundane details of domestic funding and security measures, the documents show Bin Laden once again attacking the West in a spectacular fashion.

Mindful of drone strikes taking out senior leaders, Bin Laden frequently referred to security headaches and advised against communicating by email.

He scolded his followers for gathering in large groups and fretted about a microscopic bug being inserted in his wife’s clothes.

He laid out plans to groom a new cadre of leaders willing to risk the dangers of joining al-Qaeda, and his associates discussed arrangements for smuggling Bin Laden’s favourite son and likely heir, Hamza, to Pakistan.

Citing domestic US public opposition to the Vietnam War, Bin Laden argued that the only way to alter US foreign policy was to “start striking America to force it to abandon these rulers and leave the Muslims alone”.

But the documents also highlight deep divisions among his followers over how to wage their campaigns.

Bin Laden warned that conflict with regimes in the Middle East would distract the extremists from hitting hard at what as far as he was concerned was the real enemy – America.

“We should stop operations against the army and the police in all regions, especially Yemen,” he wrote.

The correspondence reflected Bin Laden’s “worry that disunity within the global jihadist movement could spell its demise,” said a senior US intelligence analyst.

The letters also show Bin Laden was stunned by the Arab uprisings that erupted across the region from 2010 and urged his deputies to seize the moment of “revolution” and rally Muslim youth.

ISIL and Bin Laden

Al-Qaeda’s branch in Iraq, which would later morph into the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group – and which now increasingly overshadows al-Qaeda – also came up in the documents.

Bin Laden and his then deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, received a scathing rebuke in a letter from some Iraqi supporters, who demanded they denounce the bloodletting in Iraq.

The Jihad and Reform Front warned Bin Laden that God would hold him to account “for blessing the work done by the al-Qaeda in Iraq organisation without disavowing the scandals that are committed in your name”.

“If you still can, then this is your last chance to remedy the jihad breakdown that is about to take place in Iraq, that is mostly caused by your followers,” said the letter dated May 22, 2007.

Bin Laden wrote of the need for large-scale terror operations, even though some of his deputies were finding it difficult to organise massive attacks as they tried to avert drones overhead and US eavesdropping.

One document recently declassified in a terrorism trial in New York but not released on Wednesday quotes Abu Musab al-Suri, an al-Qaeda veteran, who advocated going after smaller targets of opportunity as a more realistic approach, intelligence officials said.

“Bin Laden at the time of his death remained focused on large-scale operations while other al-Qaeda leaders believed smaller operations, or inciting lone terrorist attacks, could succeed at bleeding the West economically,” the intelligence analyst said.

Bin Laden failed to win the argument. After his death, al-Qaeda’s leadership called for lone-wolf attacks, and Suri’s idea of “individual jihad” won out.

ISIL, which was officially excommunicated from al-Qaeda, now controls vast swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria and its online propaganda has been blamed for inspiring attacks from Paris to the Dallas suburbs.

US's NSA labeled Al Jazeera journalist a member of Al Qaeda

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Al Jazeera Islamabad bureau chief Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan put on watch list after years of reporting on terror groups

Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan

by Common Dreams

The U.S. government labeled Al Jazeera journalist Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan a member of al Qaeda and put him on a watch list of suspected terrorists, new reporting by the Intercept has revealed.

Zaidan, a Syrian national who serves as Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Islamabad, Pakistan, was put on a watch list by the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2012, according to agency documents leaked in 2013 by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Among those documents are a PowerPoint slide from an NSA presentation which shows Zaidan’s face, name, terror watch list identification number, and a label that states he is a “member of Al-Qa’ida” and the Muslim Brotherhood. It also says he “works for Al Jazeera.”

As a journalist, Zaidan spent years reporting on the Taliban and al Qaeda, conducting several interviews with senior leaders in those groups, including Osama bin Laden.

“To assert that myself, or any journalist, has any affiliation with any group on account of their contact book, phone call logs, or sources is an absurd distortion of the truth and a complete violation of the profession of journalism,” Zaidan told the Intercept.

“For us to be able to inform the world, we have to be able to freely contact relevant figures in the public discourse, speak with people on the ground, and gather critical information. Any hint of government surveillance that hinders this process is a violation of press freedom and harms the public’s right to know.”

Read more at the Intercept.

Al Qaeda video claims Modi called for Muslims to be 'burnt alive'

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Photo: PTI

Photo: PTI

Al Qaeda’s latest video titled ‘From France to Bangladesh: The Dust Will Never Settle Down’ has made mention of Narendra Modi.

Seven minutes into the video, Al Qaeda’s chief Asim Umar says that there is a war going on against Muslims from Waziristan to Charlie Hebdo “through World Bank and IMF policies, drone attacks, satanic conspiracy of Kerry-Lugar bill, Charlie Hebdo’s writings, UN charter, official sermons by muftis and Narendra Modi’s speeches which call for muslims to be burnt alive- this is the same war.”

This nine-minute video, released by Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS ) and produced by their own As Sahab production house. The formation of the new affiliate AQIS was announced by the overall leader of Al Qaeda, Ayman al Zawahiri last year.

According to the Guardian, the video, is a bid to counter the growing influence of Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria and the rivalry between the two Islamic militant organisations has intensified.

The nine-minute video also takes responsibility for a series of attacks that killed Bangladeshi blogger Avijit Roy who was hacked to death on a Dhaka street in February and the death of three others – Oyasiqur Rahman Babu, Rajib Haider and AKM Shafiul Islam- saying that they “have recently assassinated several blasphemers of the Prophet and insulters of Islamic law.”

In addition to these incidents, AQIS has also claimed that its jihadists were responsible for killing  Muhammad Shakil Auj (who was the dean of Islamic Studies at the University of Karachi when he was shot in September 2014) and Aniqa Naz.

In the video Umar claims that the assassinations were all carried out by different branches of the Al Qaeda on instructions from “their leader Shaykh Ayman al-Zawahiri (may Allah protect him) ” and it is part of their commitment to fulfill the “oath of Sheikh Osama bin Laden (may Allah have mercy on him).”

“In France, Denmark, Bangladesh, Pakistan and other countries, enemies of the Prophet are slandering him with words which makes the hearts of the followers of Allah run cold,” Umar says in the video.

This video statement by Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent refers to another statement by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), that claimed responsibility for the killing of of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists.

In the video Umar also pays tribute to a “Bangladeshi brother” named Sulaiman who “was martyred in a drone strike in Khurasan by the same powers that expressed solidarity with the blasphemers by participating in the march in Paris.”

AQIS has in the past attempted to use the missiles aboard a Pakistani frigate to attack American and Indian ships. The AQIS team that tried to commandeer the frigate was comprised of former and active Pakistani officers. They failed to launch the missiles, but reportedly killed Pakistani servicemen in the resulting shootout.

(Agencies)

Al Qaeda frees 300 inmates in Yemen jailbreak

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Khalid Batarfi, a senior Al Qaeda figure who had been held for more than four years, was among more than 300 prisoners who escaped from the jai. — Reuters/file

Khalid Batarfi, a senior Al Qaeda figure who had been held for more than four years, was among more than 300 prisoners who escaped from the jai. — Reuters/file

Aden: In a surprise attack, Al Qaeda militants stormed a prison in southeastern Yemen on Thursday, freeing several hundred inmates including one of their leaders, a security official said.

Two prison guards and five inmates were killed in clashes, the official said.

Qaeda militants stormed the center of the city of al-Mukalla, the capital of the southeastern province of Hadramawt, which was still controlled by pro-Hadi forces.

The militants also clashed with troops guarding the local adminstration complex in the city, a branch of the central bank and the police headquarters.

Khalid Batarfi, a senior Al Qaeda figure who had been held for more than four years, was among more than 300 prisoners who escaped from the jail in Hadramawt province, the official told AFP.

Batarfi is among Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) top regional commanders, known for his leading role in a 2011-2012 battle with Yemeni government troops during which extremists seized swathes of territory in the south and east.

The remote area is also the ancestral home of former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, whose father was born in a valley before moving to neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

Yemen has descended further into chaos since a Saudi-led coalition launched air strikes a week ago against positions held by Shia rebels and their allies across the deeply tribal country.

Observers have warned that Yemen-based AQAP, classified by the United States as the network’s deadliest franchise, could exploit the unrest to strengthen its presence in the country.

(Agencies)

Yemen's Houthis advance towards Aden

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Senior officials dispute claims that President Hadi has fled and his military leaders are under arrest in southern city.

A TV station says Houthi fighters have seized an airbase from where US troops used to run anti-al-Qaeda campaign. Anadolu/Mohammed Hamoud.

A TV station says Houthi fighters have seized an airbase from where US troops used to run anti-al-Qaeda campaign. Anadolu/Mohammed Hamoud.

by Al Jazeera

Reports from Yemen say President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his top military commander are on the run while other military leaders, including the defence minister, are under arrest after Shia Houthi fighters entered the southern city of Aden.

However, two senior Yemeni officials including the head of national security have told Reuters news agency that Hadi remains in Aden and has no plans to leave.

Asked on Wednesday if Hadi was in Aden, Major-General Ali al-Ahmadi, chief of national security, told Reuters: “He’s here, he’s here, he’s here. I am now with him in the palace. He is in Aden.”

Al Jazeera could not independently verify the reports.

The developments came just hours after a television station said Houthi fighters and their allies had seized an airbase where US troops and Europeans helped the country in its fight against al-Qaeda.

The Al-Masirah TV station reported that the Houthis had “secured” the al-Annad airbase near the town of Lahij, and claimed the base had been looted by both al-Qaeda fighters and troops loyal to Hadi.

That airbase is only 60km  away from Aden, the port city where President Abd- Rabbu Mansour Hadi had established a temporary capital.

Witnesses said they saw a convoy of presidential vehicles leaving Hadi’s palace, located at the top of a hill in Aden overlooking the Arabian Sea, the Associated Press news agency reported.

The advance of the Houthis threatens to plunge the Arab world’s poorest country into a civil war that could draw in its Gulf neighbours. Already, Hadi has asked the UN to authorise a foreign military intervention in the country.

Saud Al Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, had previously warned that his country would take “necessary measures” if the Houthis did not resolve the crisis peacefully, without elaborating further.

Diplomatic missions of Hadi’s Arab Gulf allies, including Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait, have evacuated their diplomatic staff from Aden over the past few days, officials said.

They earlier evacuated from Sanaa and relocated to Aden to support Hadi.

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