Latest Briefs

BRIEFS

DEPUTY AMIR OF TALIBAN REJECTS U.S. PLAN TO CREATE AN “AWAKENING” MOVEMENT IN AFGHANISTANLate last month, Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Carl Levin described a new law signed by President Barack Obama authorizing the payment of Taliban militants in return for laying down their arms.... MORE

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TALIBAN AIM TO ELIMINATE U.S. BASES IN NURISTAN In the wake of an attack that nearly overran a U.S. military outpost in Afghanistan’s Nuristan province, the Taliban have released a statement in the name of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan describing the attack as part... MORE

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AL-SHABAAB BLAMED FOR ASSASSINATION OF MILITARY COMMANDER IN DISPUTED SOMALI REGION OF SOOLViolence in the strategically located Somali city of Las Anod continues to threaten a new round of warfare in a region that has largely evaded the interminable fighting consuming Mogadishu and southern Somalia.... MORE

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PAKISTANI SECURITY SWEEP SEIZES TALIBAN LEADERS IN KARACHI  Pakistani security forces have announced the arrest of Akhtar Zaman Mahsud, the alleged Amir of the Karachi branch of the Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP) as part of a major sweep of terrorist suspects in the strategically important port city. Security... MORE

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PAKISTANI TALIBAN COMMANDER DESCRIBES COUNTER-MEASURES AGAINST UAV ATTACKSA commander of the Pakistan Taliban, Sahimullah Mahsud, recently provided a description of the measures taken by the Taliban forces and leadership to lower the impact of the American Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) missile attacks which have claimed... MORE

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“NO MIRACLES IN THE WAR ON TERROR”: TURKISH CHIEF OF STAFF COMMENTS ON CONFLICT WITH THE PKKIn a live speech carried by Turkish media on September 21, Turkish Chief of Staff General Ilker Basbug maintained that the Turkish Armed Forces (Turk Silahli Kuvvetleri – TSK)... MORE

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U.S. TRAINED “COLONEL IMAM” DISCUSSES BIN LADEN, STINGER MISSILES AND THE TALIBAN Karachi’s Geo News conducted an interview on September 13 with Colonel Imam, a former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officer who is best known as “the Father of the Taliban” for his crucial role in helping... MORE

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YEMEN’S PRESIDENT ACCUSES IRAQ’S SADRISTS OF BACKING THE HOUTHI INSURGENCY Offers from the Iranian government and Iraq’s militant Shi’ite leader Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr to mediate the ongoing and seemingly intractable struggle between the Sana’a regime and the Zaydi Shi’ite Houthist rebels of northern Yemen have been... MORE

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ISLAMISTS WARN FRANCE AGAINST MILITARY ROLE IN SOMALIA With al-Shabaab extremists threatening to try a captured French security advisor in Somalia under their version of Islamic law, the radical Islamist movement appears ready to provoke a French military intervention. The man is one of two Direction... MORE

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FIRST SUICIDE BOMBING IN MAURITANIA MAY HERALD NEW AL-QAEDA OFFENSIVE Suicide bombing made its first appearance in Mauritania on August 8 when a man armed with an explosives belt blew himself up outside the walls of Nouakchott’s French embassy. The blast killed the bomber and wounded... MORE