Al-Qaeda

Three Top Jihadists Dominate Sahel After Al-Qaeda Leader Death

Three leaders have been left dominating the jihadist insurgency in the Sahel, following the death of a top al-Qaeda commander in the West African state of Mali last week.

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Saudi Attacker on US Base Had Longstanding Al-Qaeda Ties: US

The Saudi military student who killed three Americans at a U.S. naval base in December had longstanding ties to Al-Qaeda and planned an attack before he arrived in the United States, U.S. justice officials said Monday. The December 6 attack by Mohammed Alshamrani, a Royal Saudi Air Force flight student at the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida, “was actually the culmination of years of planning and preparation,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. Evidence discovered on an encrypted cell phone shows he was radicalized at least as far back as 2015, and had since been associating with “dangerous” operatives from the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Wray added. The FBI and Justice Department revealed their findings after a months-long effort to crack the encryption on Alshamrani’s iPhone, which they said Apple refused to help with. U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr accused Apple of putting its own financial interests ahead of the nation’s. “If not for our FBI’s ingenuity, some luck, and hours upon hours of time and resources, this information would have remained undiscovered,” Barr said. “The bottom line: our national security cannot remain in the hands of big corporations who put dollars over lawful access and public safety. The …

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Sudan finalizes deal with USS Cole victims’ families

Sudan's justice ministry said it finalized a settlement with families of the victims of the USS Cole bombing, ending long-running litigation in US courts

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Somalia: AFRICOM says US airstrike kills 5 militants near Janaale, acknowledges civilian casualty reports

A US airstrike in Somalia killed five al-Shabaab militants near Janaale, AFRICOM said, acknowledging reports of civilian casualties

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Egypt executes special forces officer turned militant Hisham al-Ashmawy

Egypt executed an ex-special forces officer turned top Islamist militant, Hisham Ashmawy, over involvement in several high-profile attacks

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US airstrike kills al-Shabaab leader involved in Manda Bay attack, AFRICOM says

A US airstrike in Somalia killed a senior al-Shabaab official believed to have planned a January raid on Manda Bay Airbase in Kenya

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Slow admissions of civilian harm in Somalia raise questions about US transparency

AFRICOM’s new commander General Stephen Townsend drove openness in civilian casualty reporting in the war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria

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French actions ‘neutralize 50 terrorists’ near Mopti in central Mali

The France-led Operation Barkhane targeted ISIS and al-Qaeda affiliated fighters near Mopti in central Mali, 'neutralizing' around 50 militants

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AFRICOM shifts strategy from degrading to containing West Africa insurgents, OIG report says

United States Africa Command has shifted its strategy from degrading violent extremist organizations in West Africa to simply containing their spread

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French operations in Mali put 30 militants ‘out of action,’ as Barkhane builds Sahel Coalition coordination

French military operations against Islamic State and al-Qaeda groups in Mali put 30 militants "out of action" as Barkhane builds Sahel Coalition mechanisms

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