Iraq is on the verge of collapsing and foreign military intervention is inevitable. But for those who follow the developments in Iraq and the Middle-East will understand the current situation is nothing but a culmination of US and western policies toward the region, says Dr Waiel Awwad
A change in the name of the Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) magazine 'suggests a refocusing' of the terror group from Afghanistan to Kashmir, a United Nations report has said.
In an address at a security conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in the Kazakh capital, he also underlined the need for holding accountable the sponsors, financiers and facilitators of terrorism, in remarks that came amid Pakistan's continuing support to various terror groups.
Iran has supplied Iraq with fighter jets to help it counter the belligerent offensive by Islamist militants who have taken over large swathes of territory, a media report said in London.
Death came calling for the 71- year-old terrorist from the sky on Sunday morning in Kabul.
Sixteen Indians stranded in violence-affected areas of Iraq have been evacuated even as one of the 40 abducted Indians has fled from the captors in Mosul town which is under the control of the militants.
United States President Barack Obama has authorised "targeted air strikes" against Islamic militants to protect American military personnel and airdrops of meals and water to thousands of religious minorities trapped on a mountaintop in northwest Iraq.
Forty Indian workers have been kidnapped in strife-torn Iraq, prompting the government to launch all-out efforts to trace them. The workers, most of whom may be from Punjab and other parts of north India, were workers of a construction company in Mosul town of Iraq, said External Affairs Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddid.
Forty Indian in the in violence-hit Iraqi city of Mosul could not be contacted, the external affairs ministry said on Wednesday amid reports of abduction.
Blair, however, stopped short of a full apology for the war, saying, "I find it hard to apologise for removing Saddam. I think, even from today in 2015, it is better that he's not there than that he is there."=
The advance of the Al-Qaeda splinter group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and its allies towards Baghdad appears to have been "stalled" but the "grave" situation in Iraq needs to be dealt with militarily as well as politically, a top UN official has said.
'Should the new ISIS leadership opt for a consolidation, the Afghan-Pakistan border would be an attractive place,' warns Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
United States President Barack Obama on Friday ruled out sending US ground troops "back into combat" in Iraq, but said that he is reviewing a range of other options to help the war-torn country counter the violent Islamic insurgency.
The US drone strike that killed Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri on the balcony of a safe house in downtown Kabul points to the use of secret Hellfire missiles by the CIA as there was no explosion and, according to American President Joe Biden, "no civilian casualties" either.
Cherif Kouachi, 32, and his brother Said, 34, accused of carrying out the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris, managed to slip under the radar despite them being on counterterrorism agencies' radar for years before Wednesday's attack.
Muraleedharan said that terrorist groups such as Al-Shabaab have put in place elaborate revenue collection networks, to support their terrorist activities.
Dreaded Islamic State militant group has appointed a breakaway Taliban commander as its chief in Khurasan, a historic name used by militants for an area covering Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of India.
Umer Ahmed, a member of the Al Qaeda-backed Al Nusra, was killed in a suicide bombing in Syria.
While the chances of an Al Qaeda-mounted operation outside Iraq to avenge Saddam's execution are thus minimal, there is a greater danger of individual Muslims in the overseas diaspora carrying out acts of terrorism to avenge his execution
Meals prepared for Baghdadi and three other Islamic State leaders were allegedly poisoned in Nineveh's Be'aaj district in Iraq, several Arabic-language and Iranian news sites reported.
The world's most dangerous man Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi leads Islamic State of Iraq and Syria's attempts to carve out a caliphate in the Middle East. After Iraq, will ISIS make a foray in neighbouring Afghanistan?
Sunni rebels from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria -- who have stormed Iraq's big cities like Mosul and Tikrit, taken over its largest oil refinery and slowly marching on to Baghdad, leaving a trail of blood and death -- as a part of its image-building has done something only major corporations do at the end of the year: issues annual reports, outlining its attacks, assassinations and terror acts.
There is only one perpetrator, Hamas. It is a terrorist organisation. It is obscene to argue that until the Palestinian question is solved, anybody has the right to use terrorism as an instrument of policy, argues Shekhar Gupta.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has claimed that the documents seized during the nation-wide raids conducted at offices of Popular Front of India (PFI) and its leaders contain highly incriminating materials targeting prominent leaders of a particular community.
It is time to throw an outer ring around India's national security by proactively engaging in areas immediately outside our neighbourhood. Such a ring will not only insulate India from emerging threats, but also create new leverage in securing our own neighbourhood, says Nitin Pai.
The new executive order, which will come into force on March 16, covers people from Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen.
The job was assigned to Blackwater, now known as Xe Services, the company whose operations in Iraq had come under intense scrutiny. CIA earlier hired it for its secret (now abandoned) programme to eliminate top Al Qaeda leaders.
The past week has seen bombings and violent strikes that have killed innocent civilians. Rediff.com recaps some of these deadly attacks.
Ali Soufan, the former FBI agent who was the bureau's lead investigator of Al Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks, told CBS News the letters reveal Hamza to be a young man who adores his father and wants to carry on his murderous ideology.
'Underwear bomb' creator Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, perhaps the best bomb maker in the world, has been the most high-profile recruit of the Islamic State. And the ability of his bombs to go unchecked through the most stringent security setups has left the US and UK very worried. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
The United States has offered rewards amounting to USD 20 million (around Rs 127 crore) for tips on whereabouts of four top leaders of the Islamic State, a day after the terror group claimed responsibility for its first attack on American soil.
Pakistan, which recently witnessed a series of suicide attacks by pro-Taliban and al Qaeda militants, is the most dangerous country in the world and has become a safe haven for terrorists, says a report. "Pak has everything Osama bin Laden could ask for: political instability, a trusted network of radical Islamists, an abundance of angry anti-Western recruits, secluded training areas and security services that don't always do what they're supposed to do," says the magazine.
Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan's six top commanders on Tuesday pledged allegiance to the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who has been vying for supremacy with Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri.
The United States has launched a separate and secret drone campaign managed jointly by the CIA and Special Operation Forces in Syria to target the leaders of the dreaded ISIS in Syria, a media report has said.
Countries in the region like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Maldives face serious existential threats from a mix of terrorist groups active in the region and elsewhere
While confirming that the voice in the slideshow was that of Moosa, senior police officials did not rule out the possibility that the banned IS terror group was trying to create a base in the Valley.
'Why not ask for a change of leadership in Qatar, Bahrain or Saudi Arabia? Is there a constitution in Saudi Arabia? Are there elections in Saudi Arabia? Why no talk of democracy in these countries?' 'America said change the leader now, but is now ignoring the feelings of the Syrian moderate majority. Is that democracy,' asks H E Dr Riad Abbas, Syrian ambassador to India, in an interview to Cleo Paskal.
IS-Khorasan was sanctioned for its links with Al Qaeda and involvement in several deadly attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan that killed over 150 people.
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