Osama bin Laden's terrorist deputy has reportedly released his new audio message on the internet, the first message from Al Qaeda since the unrest in Egypt began, terming the ousted President Hosni Mubarak's government as a 'suppressive regime that had ruled the people with suppressive forces'.
"I think the most significant thing in the recent situation is the threat has moved into Pakistan proper to threaten the very existence of the (state). Pakistan has now recognised that this is an existential threat to their very survival," director of US national intelligence Admiral Michael McConnell said.
Commander of the Task Force in Afghanistan Major General David Rodriguez also said the Taliban in Afghanistan probably will not stage a spring offensive in the volatile eastern region bordering Pakistan.
Buoyed by a ceasefire deal negotiated by Pakistan in 2007, the Al Qaeda has rebuilt some of its pre-September 11 capabilities, leading to major spike in attacks within the country and neighbouring Afghanistan, the United States State Department's latest annual terrorism report says. The ceasefire negotiated by Pakistan in 2007 gave Al Qaeda leaders "greater mobility and ability to conduct training and operational planning, particularly those targeting Western Europe," it said
The letter was received two days ago and warns of bombs in trains.
The Afghanistan government will engage with Taliban elements which are not part of the Al Qaeda network as it continues its military campaign against extremism and terrorism, President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday. "We believe that while we are continuing our campaign against extremism and terrorist networks, the Al Qaeda and its associates, we will also seek means other than a military campaign to bring stability to Afghanistan and to Pakistan by extension," he said.
A top Al Qaeda commander, who was reported to have been killed in a US drone strike last year, has appeared in a video warning India of more Mumbai-style terror attacks if it tried to attack Pakistan. 'India should know that it will have to pay a heavy price if it attacks Pakistan,' Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, believed to be Al Qaeda's military commander in Afghanistan and ranked behind No 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri, said in a 20-minute video in Arabic received by the BBC.
Rashid Rauf, the terror mastermind believed to be behind the 2006 trans-Atlantic plane bombing plot, and another top al Qaeda operative were among five militants killed in a United States missile attack on Saturday which hit the house of a prominent Taliban commander in Pakistan's troubled north-west.Rashid Rauf, a British-Pakistani citizen, was one of two of the suspected ringleaders of the al Qaeda London Airline plot to destroy the aircraft en route to the United States.
While 10 operatives were Myanmarese, five were from Bangladesh, the sources said.
An Al Qaeda-linked plot to launch a Mumbai-style terror attack simultaneously on London and major cities in France and Germany was disrupted by intelligence agencies, a report has said.
Terror outfit Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which claimed responsibility for the failed attempts to send two parcel bombs to Chicago by courier planes of the FedExpress and the UPS on October 29, has come out with a detailed account of its operation code named Operation Haemorrhage in its online magazine titled Inspire.
The Al Qaeda has named computer literate Farman Ali Shinwari, a resident of the restive Khyber tribal region and whose brothers have been associated with terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, as its new chief in Pakistan.
Kashmiri militant Ilyas Kashmiri has reportedly warned the international community against sending sportspersons to India to participate in events like the IPL and Commonwealth Games.Asia Times Online claimed the top guerrilla commander, whose 313 Brigade is an operational arm of the Al Qaeda, has vowed to continue attacks across India, while threatening international sportspersons to face the consequences if they chose to visit the country.
Al-Qaeda and other terror groups like the Taliban and their affiliates are planning to strike against American facilities and its nationals in South and Central Asia, the United States said on Saturday.
Pakistani authorities imposed a ban on the publication and sale of a translated version of a book by Al Qaeda leader Aiman al-Zawahiri, saying it has the potential to incite law and order problems.
They were among the 21 people, including women and children from Kerala, who had travelled to the Middle East and went missing in 2016.
Now that it has been revealed that Osama was hiding in Pakistan, the presence of other key Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives in that nation doesn't seem such a far-fetched possibility
While Abu Yahya Al-Libi, the Al Qaeda's deputy leader was reportedly killed in an American drone strike on June 4, there are stories which say otherwise, reports Tahir Ali
FBI spokesperson Richard Kolko told ABC News in an email that 'there have been several reports that Al Qaeda will release a new message calling for the use of weapons of mass destruction against civilians.'
After 14 months in captivity, an Indian national abducted by Al Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf militants in southern Philippines on Friday dramatically escaped from his captors while they were sleeping after fasting for Ramzan.
The Al Qaeda has comfortably set up base in Europe at least 480 men -- a deadly mix of locals and infiltrators from the Middle East, says Vicky Nanjappa
China on Wednesday responded to reports claiming that Al Qaeda would target Chinese interests overseas to avenge the killings of Muslims in the Urumqi riots recently.
"We tend to forget, in the West, that the United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al-Qaeda has on its hands of innocent non-Muslims," Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf said in a question-and-answer session at Australia's Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre in 2005.
Al Qaeda is promoting the upcoming online release of its first English magazine called Inspire, promising Anwar Al Alwaki, the America-born cleric linked to several terror attacks on the United States, as one of its first guest writers.
"Are we reaching a tipping point to witness the decline of this radical behaviour? We don't know the answer to that yet, but we're watching it very closely," National Intelligence Director Admiral Mike McConnell told the House Select Committee on Intelligence. "Brutal attacks unleashed by the al-Qaeda and its affiliates against Muslim civilians have tarnished al-Qaeda's self-styled image as the extremist vanguard," he said.
The arrest of Colleen R Larose alias Jihad Jane, the American woman accused of providing material support to terrorists and recruiting men and women on the Internet to wage 'violent Jihad' in south Asia and Europe, was a rude wake up call for the United States administration.The involvement of Jihad Jane and Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Headley in fomenting terror has rudely reminded US intelligence agencies that the Al Qaeda had succeeded in inducting American nationals.
'The majority of Indian Muslims abroad -- like their counterparts in India -- have kept a distance from extremist and jihadi activities.'
Warren Weinstein, the first American citizen to be taken hostage by Al Qaeda linked terrorists in Pakistan since Daniel Pearl, is also a Jewish American like the ill-fated journalist. Amir Mir reports
Expressing concern over violence in the Middle East, Musharraf said dangers loomed large in the region that threatened regional and global peace.
The defence secretary, however, said the US would not be looking to add significant numbers of US forces to run operations in Pakistan.
'Israel should stop water supply to the people who want to destroy us.' 'It is not Israel's responsibility to take care of the people who want to kill Israelis.'
American intelligence agencies believe that they have killed Sheikh Said al Masri, alias Mustafa Abu al Yazid, Al Qaeda's no. 3 leader, in a recent missile strike in a tribal area of Pakistan. The New York Times quoted a United States administration official as saying that al-Masri was the terror network's main conduit to leader Osama bin Laden. He further said that as Al Qaeda's chief operating officer, he played a role in everything -- from finances to operational planning.
The Nigerian man who allegedly tried to blow up a US plane has told interrogators that the explosive device strapped in his legs was "acquired in Yemen along with instructions for its use".
Al Qaeda and the Taliban are planning suicide and rocket attacks on the embassies, consulates, NGOs, firms and citizens of the US and UK in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.
According to the Inter-Services Public Relations, the media wing of the army, the terrorists attacked the security post in Dera Ismail Khan's Daraban area bordering the South Waziristan tribal district in the early morning hours.
A non-metallic explosive device that could have passed through airport security unnoticed like the one used in the failed attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound jet in 2009 by underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was recovered, the official said.
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