International Crisis Group
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Wave of Aden killings tests Gulf role in Yemen
The recapture of Aden by Gulf Arab coalition troops last summer has failed to provide any respite from Yemen’s civil war, with residents facing a wave of bomb and gun attacks that is crippling efforts to stabilize the city.
Seven months after rebel fighters from the Iranian-allied Houthi militia were driven out of the strategic southern port, there are almost daily assassinations of judges, security officials and police.
FULL ARTICLE (Via Reuters)
Photo: Flickr/US Department of State
SOURCE: Reuters
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Yemen in Crisis | Zachary Laub
Yemen faces its biggest crisis in decades with the overthrow of its government by the Houthis, a Zaydi Shia movement backed by Iran. As the Houthis captured the capital of Sana’a and advanced south toward the Gulf of Aden in March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition launched an air campaign to reinstate Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
These developments have derailed a political transition following a 2011 uprising against longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Amid factional fighting, al-Qaeda’s Arabian Peninsula franchise has found new opportunities to capture territory. Meanwhile, the Houthi advance and Saudi intervention have provoked a humanitarian catastrophe, and many Yemenis have fled by land and sea.
FULL ARTICLE (via Council for Foreign Relations)
Photo: Swiatoslaw Wojtkowiak/Flickr
Source: Council for Foreign Relations
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Al-Shabaab’s Kenyan Ambitions | Cedric Barnes & Abdullahi Abdille & Zakaria Yusuf
Al-Shabaab’s 2 April attack in Kenya that killed 147 people at a university in Garissa, 120km from the border with Somalia, has again cast doubt on the Kenyan government’s ability to keep its citizens safe. Three members of Crisis Group’s Horn of Africa staff consider here the implications of Al-Shabaab’s longstanding ambition to broaden its campaigns from Somalia into the wider East Africa region.
FULL ARTICLE (via In Pursuit of Peace)
Photo: Members of the hard line al Shabaab Islamist rebel group parade during a military training exercise in Huriwaa district, southern Mogadishu. 5 September, 2010. Reuters.
Source : In Pursuit of Peace
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Syria battle between al Qaeda and Western-backed group spreads | Oliver Holmes
(Reuters) - Fighting between the Syrian arm of al Qaeda and Western-backed rebels in northern Syria spread from Aleppo province into neighbouring Idlib on Friday, the rebel group and an organisation monitoring the civil war said.
Clashes began on Thursday when the al Qaeda Syria wing, the Nusra Front, seized positions from the Hazzm movement west of Aleppo, threatening one of the few remaining pockets of the non-jihadist insurgency.
A Hazzm official said by telephone clashes had spread to Idlib and that his group had retaken some areas previously controlled by Nusra.
FULL ARTICLE (via Reuters)
Photo: Christiaan Triebert/flickr
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U.S. cracks down on Somalia militants with strike on Shabab leader | W.J. HENNIGAN
A U.S. airstrike intended to kill the leader of Somalia’s Al Qaeda-affiliated Shabab group illustrated the Pentagon’s determination to take down militants responsible for a wave of bombings and suicide attacks throughout the Horn of Africa.
The Pentagon on Tuesday did not confirm whether the operation — which took place late Monday — killed Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane, 37. But the special-forces strike against a militant encampment in the town of Barawe, south of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, was seen by U.S. officials as a setback for the Islamic militant group, which has struggled in recent years with leadership disputes, military defeats and questions about its direction.
“We are assessing the results right now,” said Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby. “We certainly believe that we hit what we were aiming at.”
FULL ARTICLE (LA Times)
Photo: DoD Photo by Glenn Fawcett/flickr
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Iraq analyst Maria Fantappie spoke to HuffPost Live about the latest fighting in Fallujah. Watch here: huff.lv/1dJxTw5
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“Their peaceful nature may have damaged Al Qaeda and its allies ideologically, but logistically, in terms of the new porousness of borders, the expansion of ungoverned areas, the proliferation of weapons, the disorganization of police and security services in all these countries — it’s been a real boon to jihadists.” — Robert Malley, Crisis Group’s Middle East and North Africa Program Director, on Arab uprisings and Al Qaeda in The New York Times, “Jihadists’ Surge in North Africa Reveals Grim Side of Arab Spring” -
Somali terrorists al-Shabaab threaten 7/7 style attack on UK | The Week
SOMALI militants linked to al-Qaeda have threatened to inflict on the UK a terrorist attack worse than the London bombings of 7 July 2005 for extraditing the Islamist cleric Abu Hamza to the United States.
Al-Shabaab made the threats in a series of messages on Twitter, The Times reports.
One tweet threatened the biggest Islamist terrorist attack yet on Britain: “The nightmare that surreptitiously looms on British shores is bound to eclipse the horrors of 7/7 and 21/7 combined.”
Another read: “Britain will pay the heftiest price for its brazen role in the war against Islam and endless brutality against innocent Muslims.”
Al-Shabaab also said it would “go to every possible length to attain the freedom of imprisoned Muslim scholars”.
Photo: C. G. P. Grey/Flickr
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As Syrian War Drags On, Jihadists Take Bigger Role | New York Times
By Neil MacFarquhar and Hwaida Saad
BEIRUT, Lebanon — As the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s government grinds on with no resolution in sight, Syrians involved in the armed struggle say it is becoming more radicalized: homegrown Muslim jihadists, as well as small groups of fighters from Al Qaeda, are taking a more prominent role and demanding a say in running the resistance.
Photo: FreedomHouse2/Flickr
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Violence in Iraq? It’s the politics, stupid! | CNN GPS
By Joost Hiltermann
With all eyes trained on Syria’s unfolding civil war, the only headline-grabbing news to emerge from the former battleground, Iraq, concerned a fresh wave of violence. Last week, well over a hundred Iraqis were killed and several hundred injured in a series of attacks throughout the country that were claimed by Iraq’s al Qaeda franchise, the Islamic State of Iraq. Its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had warned of what was to come the day before, announcing a “Breaking the Walls” campaign. On Thursday, Islamic State militants battled with security forces for the first time in years, succeeding even in bringing down a helicopter. It looks as if, having been driven out of most of the areas they controlled and dealt a body blow during the U.S. surge in 2007-08, al Qaeda is rebounding and launching its own military surge now that U.S. troops have gone.
Photo: US Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Jessica J Wilkes/Wikimedia Commons
