Pakistan’s army said Tuesday it had captured a key Taliban and Al-Qaeda complex dug into rocky mountains close to the Afghan border after killing 75 local and foreign militants.

Commanders gave journalists a guided tour of the bastion, which one general said numbered 156 caves developed over five to seven years, and carved into sheer rock within clear view of the snow-capped peaks in eastern Afghanistan.

The visit follows Pakistan’s latest offensive against militants in its semi-autonomous tribal badlands, launched under US pressure to eliminate Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked groups who attack Western troops in Afghanistan.

Major General Tariq Khan accompanied journalists to the warren of caves in the area of Damadola that he said served as a key militant headquarters until troops overran the complex in an offensive launched in January.

“There were Egyptians, Uzbeks, Chechens and Afghans killed in the operation,” he told reporters.

Journalists saw bedding such as pillows and mattresses, which suggested inhabitants had camped out for significant periods.

“The first Pakistan army uniformed soldiers have arrived in Damadola after a recent operation and the Pakistan flag has been raised for the first time since (independence in) 1947,” said Khan.

Damadola, in the Bajaur tribal region, was the scene of a 2006 US drone strike that targeted Al-Qaeda number two Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who managed to escape.

Read more here.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Pakistan ‘captures Taliban base’ (news.bbc.co.uk)

As leaders meet in London this week to discuss countermeasures to Al-Qaeda’s growing threat in Yemen, one man here is hoping to fight terrorism with rap. “No Terrorists Please,” the soon-to-be-released single by Yemeni-American rapper Hagage “AJ” Masaed, targets both Yemeni youth and adults with an anti-extremist message of peace and tolerance.

He seems qualified. Dressed in hip-hop style, with baggy black jeans, but none of the bling jewelry and accessories that rappers often don, he is relaxed, good-natured and modest, combining Yemeni and American qualities. He speaks as if he’s been a friend for many years. “No Terrorists Please” has AJ’s trademark mix of American-English and Yemeni-Arabic rap, and an easy blend of hip-hop beats with traditional Arabic sounds and instruments like the oud and mizmar (a reed instrument).

The inspiration for the song first came to him when Korean tourists to Yemen were attacked by an 18-year-old last March.
“I got so upset when the Koreans came to visit Yemen and the kid blew himself up, killing them,” Masaed said. “I kept thinking, ‘Why did they have to die, because they were curious and wanted to visit Yemen?’ I was so upset with it, and I felt like, he was a young kid who was influenced by other people. That was probably the bottom line.”

The song’s first verse is a statement to distance the majority of Yemenis, AJ says, from the terrorist groups’ extremist ideology and violent tactics. “Yes man, in Yemen, al-watan [the nation], my home / Al-Qaeda, not welcome, so let it be known / irhabeeyeen [terrorists] ain’t wanted / No, no terrorists please.”

In the second verse, AJ explicitly labels Al-Qaeda members as “terrorists” and questions the group’s ideology: “Are they targeting ajanib [Westerners] or white T’s and blue jeans?”

Adopting an instructive tone, he tells Yemenis, “You know if terrorists strike, hoo ihna thee nikhsar [we are the ones who lose].” The UK’s recent ban on direct flights from Yemen is perhaps one example of Yemen’s suffering as a result of terrorism.

Read more here.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Yemen Wants More Help To Tackle Terror (news.sky.com)
• UK halts Yemen flights (cnn.com)

Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, has warned Barack Obama, the US president, that there will be further attacks on the United States unless he takes steps to resolve the Palestinian situation.

In an audio tape obtained by Al Jazeera on Sunday, the world’s most wanted man also praised the Nigerian accused of a failed attempt to blow up an airliner heading for Detroit on Christmas Day.

“The message I want to convey to you through the plane of the hero Umar Farouk [Abdulmutallab], reaffirms a previous message that the heroes of 9/11 conveyed to you,” Bin Laden said.

“America will never dream of living in peace unless we live it in Palestine. It is unfair that you enjoy a safe life while our brothers in Gaza suffer greatly.

“America will never dream of living in peace unless we live it in Palestine. It is unfair that you enjoy a safe life while our brothers in Gaza suffer greatly.

“Therefore, with God’s will, our attacks on you will continue as long as you continue to support Israel,” bin Laden said.

“If it was possible to carry our messages to you by words we wouldn’t have carried them to you by planes.”

The Obama administration said intelligence analysts had not confirmed that the al-Qaeda leader’s voice was on the tape.

Read more here.

Related articles by Zemanta

• ‘Bin Laden tape’ warns of attacks (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Bin Laden claims failed U.S. bomb bid (msnbc.msn.com)
• Bin Laden Tape Connects Christmas Day Terrorist to Occupation of Gaza (trueslant.com)

The Yemen-based affiliate of al-Qaeda has denied Yemeni government reports that six of its leaders were killed in an air raid, saying the men only suffered mild injuries.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula made the counter-claim in a statement posted on Monday on the internet, the Site Intelligence Group, which monitors websites used by such groups, said.

“The Yemeni government has been making many false claims … against the Mujahideen leaders in the Arabian Peninsula,” the statement said.

“We assure our Muslim nation that none of the Mujahideen were killed in that strike, but some have suffered mild injuries.”

The government claimed on Saturday that the air raid, which took place on Friday, killed Qasim al-Raymi, the Yemeni al-Qaeda wing’s military chief, as well as Ayed al-Shabwani, who is accused of sheltering al-Qaeda fighters at his farm in the eastern province of Maarib.

It identified the other men as Ammar al-Waili, Saleh al-Tais, Ibrahim Mohammed Saleh al-Banna. The sixth person was unidentified.

Read more here.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Yemen keen to flaunt anti-terror credentials (guardian.co.uk)
• Yemen seeks Canada’s help in terror, poverty fight (ctv.ca)
• Yemen warns on helping al-Qaeda (news.bbc.co.uk)

Zakaria Amara, the mastermind of a 2006 terrorist plot to bomb Toronto, has been given a life sentence by an Ontario judge, a punishment that represents the courtroom climax of the so-called “Toronto 18″ case.

Mr. Justice Bruce Durno’s decision is the stiffest punishment imposed in the terrorism conspiracy and also the stiffest punishment imposed to date under Canada’s antiterrorism laws, which Parliament passed in the aftermath of al-Qaeda’s 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States.

“What this case revealed was spine chilling,” said Judge Durno, stressing the case should bring the threat of terrorism home to Canadians.

“It cannot be said these things happen only in other countries,” he added as he read aloud his written decision. “These things happen here.”

Five years after New York’s World Trade Center towers were razed, a suburban gas station attendant, then barely out of his teens, was inspired by al-Qaeda to follow suit.

Mr. Amara, a Cypriot-Jordanian who had immigrated to Canada in his early teens, hoped to shock Parliament into pulling Canada’s soldiers from Afghanistan.

Police had Mr. Amara under constant surveillance in Mississauga during the months leading up to his arrest, catching him in a relentless pursuit of a singular goal: He wanted to build truck bombs and explode them in downtown Toronto.

The RCMP, the federal police agency that spent millions pursuing the case, ultimately used an expensive sting operation to ensnare Mr. Amara and his accomplices – paying two Muslim infiltrators millions to unfurl the plot.

“Zakaria Amara did not just commit a criminal offence. He committed a terrorist offence that would have had catastrophic consequences,” said Judge Durno. “… He did not serve as a foot soldier but as a leader.”

Read more here.

What does it say about Washington’s ”war on terror” that dozen and a half people with paper cutters forced hundreds of thousands of Western troops into the battlefields of the “greater Middle East” region;

That 100,000 foreign soldiers are bogged down in occupied Afghanistan wondering how many dozens of al-Qaeda operatives have remained, if any;

That the most liberal democracy enacted new controversial illiberal laws and unpatriotic practices under its “Patriot Act”;

That one shoe-bomber has forced millions of people to take off their shoes every time they take a flight;

That one underpants-bomber will expose every other traveler in most humiliating of ways;

That after US loss of deterrence and prestige as well as trillions of dollars of military and other expenditures, al-Qaeda’s top leadership remains at large; its bases/cells proliferate globally; that volunteers continue to flock into its ranks and young supporters to its websites… !!! And above all that it continues to terrorize America and Americans.

So much that one gets the impression that America is fighting a world superpower despite the incredible disparities in capacity, numbers and support.

Is al-Qaeda winning? Has the United States lost?

Read more here.

While dozens of reporters from different countries around the west arrive in Yemen every day to report on Al-Qaeda in Yemen, a prominent figure of Salafism in Yemen, Sheik Mohamed Al-Baidani, stated that cracking Al-Qaeda down cannot be done militarily.

And although he admitted an Al-Qaeda presence in Yemen, he said that Al-Qaeda in Yemen no longer counts many members.

The Sheikh Mohamed Al-Baidani, who is a prominent figure of Salafism in Yemen, released this statement today in an interview with the ABC, a Spanish news paper.

“Al-Qaeda in Yemen now does not have many members and they are only now hundreds of young people,” he said. “The Yemeni state can arrest them at any time and bring them to courts.”

“The using of Al-Qaeda by the Yemeni government in picturing it as a growing movement in Yemen is merely a political ploy by the Yemeni regime to get financial assistance from the west,” he said. “The Yemeni regime now is suffering from huge economic obstacles and during the past decades was not able to meet the development demands that the Yemenis look for, so now it resorts to [blaming] Al-Qaeda,” he said.

He warned the United States of America (USA) of having any military intervention in Yemen under the pretext of combating terrorism.

Read more here.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Somalis fleeing to Yemen prompt new worries in fight against al-Qaeda (starting-points.blogspot.com)
• Reports: Al Qaeda leader killed in Yemen (cnn.com)
• Yemen Says It Killed a Qaeda Leader (nytimes.com)

The wife of the man who killed seven CIA operatives in Afghanistan spoke to the Turkish press on Wednesday evening, expressing surprise at the events and disbelief over some of the theories surrounding her husband’s connections, reports Today’s Zaman.

Defne Bayrak, the Turkish wife of Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, told Turkish media by telephone she was shocked at the news that her husband blew himself up at a base in Afghanistan on Dec. 30, killing himself and the CIA officers. Al-Balawi, a graduate of İstanbul University’s Çapa medical school, was born into a middle-class Kuwaiti family, moving with his family to Jordan in 1977 after Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait. Al-Balawi moved to Turkey in 1996 to attend medical school; Bayrak and al-Balawi were introduced by a mutual friend in 2001, and the two married, moving to Jordan in 2002 after al-Balawi graduated.

Bayrak, who lives in İstanbul, said her husband had plans to become a surgeon in Turkey and doubts he was working for the CIA. “I’ve read in newspapers the claims that he was connected to al-Qaeda or the CIA; I absolutely don’t believe in any such connection. My husband couldn’t be an agent. He was devoted to his family; he was a good father. He didn’t even like to leave the house much.”

Bayrak, an Arabic language translator for some Turkish media outlets, confirmed that al-Balawi was jailed for three days last March and left Jordan shortly after that, saying he was going to Pakistan to become a surgeon. After those plans did not work out, al-Balawi said he got another job there, Bayrak said.

Bayrak and her two daughters left Jordan in October and now live in İstanbul. “I was shocked when I heard the news [of the Afghanistan bombing] because he constantly spoke about coming to Turkey. … I was not expecting it,” she said.

“We had a very happy marriage. … I last saw my husband in person on March 18, and we last spoke by telephone a month ago. We had also last communicated via the Internet about 10 days ago. He didn’t mention anything out of the ordinary; he was fine. I was shocked when I heard about the [Afghanistan bombing]. … Our pain is great. My two daughters still don’t know their father is dead; I don’t know how to tell them,” she said.

Read more here

Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh affirmed on Monday Yemen’s readiness to confront and defeat anyone who thinks to harm the country and its security, stability and unity.

This came during his visits to a number of training camps of armed forces , where he got acquainted with the progress in the training and rehabilitation programs and the implementation of the training plan for 2009 prepared by Ministry of Defense and General Staff.

He spoke to the officers and soldiers in the camps and praised their high moral, saying “The military and security institution is the solid rock, on which all forms of plots of advocates of Imamate, separation and al-Qaeda terrorists have been crashed”.

“Many challenges have been faced and addressed due to the awareness of this institution and sacrifices of its loyal sons, as well as protection of revolution, unity, democracy, development and all national accomplishments,” he added.

The President’s visit and proclamations follow a series of attacks by the Yemeni army against al-Qaeda bases.

Meanwhile, the Yemen Times reports Member of the Yemeni parliament Shawqi Al-Qadhi warned the U.S. on Tuesday against sending its troops to Yemen to fight Al-Qaeda, describing such action as “a disaster by all means.”

The warning comes while some senators argue that “Yemen will be tomorrow’s war” for the US.

“If the U.S insists on sending its troops to Yemen, the whole Yemeni people will turn to the Al-Qaeda,” said Al-Qadhi, who represents the opposition party, the JMP.

France has closed its embassy in Yemen after threats from a local branch of Al-Qaeda, the French foreign ministry said Monday, following a similar move by the United States and Britain.

“On January 3, our ambassador decided to no longer authorise public access to the premises of our diplomatic mission,” spokesman Bernard Valero told reporters.

He said French citizens in the country had been warned to remain vigilant and to limit their movements.

Yemeni forces have tightened security around the airport and foreign embassies in the capital Sanaa amid fears of strikes by an Al-Qaeda branch linked to a botched attack on a US airliner.
The US and British embassies in Sanaa have been shut since Sunday for what they said were reasons of security.

US President Barack Obama has accused the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) of arming and training a Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines jet on Christmas Day.

AQAP claimed responsibility for the failed attack and called for strikes on embassies in Yemen.

Read more here.

Related articles by Zemanta

• US Embassy in Yemen Closes Over Al-Qaida Threat (abcnews.go.com)
• U.S. commander meets with Yemeni president (cnn.com)
• Yemen kills rebels behind embassy threat (nationalpost.com)