Free Republic

SNIPPET: "Dulmatin, one of the most wanted al Qaeda-linked terrorists in Southeast Asia, has been confirmed killed, Indonesia's resident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said during a meeting in Australia." SNIPPET: "Police killed Dulmatin as he attempted to resist arrest during a raid on a doctor's home in the Jakarta suburb of Pamulang on March 9. Dulmatin pulled a handgun and fired a round at counterterrorism police from Detachment 88. Police also killed two other terror suspects during a raid at a nearby Internet cafe [See LWJ report, "Wanted Indonesian terrorist Dulmatin thought killed in raid"]. Dulmatin was a top leader and...

"Russian 'Bin Laden' killed by Moscow's special forces Russia exulted in the death of a terrorist dubbed "the Russian Bin Laden," yesterday claiming it has proof he was behind a deadly train bombing last November that left 28 people dead." By Andrew Osborn in Moscow Published: 7:11PM GMT 07 Mar 2010 SNIPPET: "The FSB intelligence service said a special forces operation had resulted in the death of Sheikh Said Buryatsky, an Islamist convert whose real name was Alexander Tikhomirov."

Excerpt - Karachi, 24 Sept. (AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - The alleged mastermind of last Saturday's deadly truck bombing of the Marriott hotel in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, has emerged. The suspect, Qari Zafar (photo), has become part of Al-Qaeda's hardline Takfiri inner circle. He enjoys the protection of Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud and is believed to be hiding out in the lawless South Waziristan tribal area of North West Frontier Province. Zafar is not only the suspected mastermind of the Marriot bomb blast, but has created a network which will shortly target strategic installations belonging to...

The head of the Taliban in Pakistan, Hakimullah Mehsud, has been killed in a US drone attack, according to Pakistan state television. The Pakistani Taliban are believed to have played a role in the suicide bombing of a CIA base in Afghanistan's eastern Khost province in December last year. More to follow...

SNIPPET: "The US military targeted a Taliban commander in eastern Afghanistan who was behind the kidnapping of a Norwegian journalist in November. The Taliban commander, who is known as Haji Mohammad Dawran Safi or Qari Dawat, was the target of a November 26 airstrike in the eastern province of Kunar. Qari Dawat "is known for attacking innocent civilians in the Kunar region, as well as international forces and bases," the US military noted in a press release on Nov. 27, one day after the strike. Qari Dawat was not named, however. An Afghan Police commander confirmed the airstrike and said...

SNIPPET: "The NEFA Foundation has obtained a video recording released by the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) paying tribute to a German national "Abu Safiyya" (a.k.a. Javaid Siddiqi) who was "martyred" in late October during fighting alongside mujahideen forces in Afghanistan. The video shows Siddiqi on the frontline along the Afghan-Pakistani border accompanied by other German recruits--and at a terrorist training camp that was organized last May."

SNIPPET: "Al-Qaida's network in the Arabian Peninsula (Yemen) has released the audio-recorded wills of two mujahideen operatives who were recently "martyred" in clashes with local security forces -- including former Guantanamo Bay detainee #114 Yusuf Muhammad Mubarak al-Jebairy al-Shehri. The younger brother of a senior Al-Qaida member, al-Shehri first left his home in Saudi Arabia in mid-2001 in order to wage jihad alongside the Taliban because he "thought that participating in jihad with the Taliban was the right thing to do... the Taliban were good Muslims.” In the midst of fleeing the crumbling Taliban frontline in late 2001, Yusuf al-Shehri...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Taliban new chief Hakimullah Mehsud's brother was among 15 militants killed in two US drone attacks in the country's lawless tribal belt, reports said on Wednesday. Hakimullah's brother Kalimullah was among six militants who were killed in the first drone attack in the Sararogha area of South Waziristan Agency yesterday afternoon, Express 24/7 news channel reported. Nine militants were killed in the second drone attack, which was carried out in the evening in the Dandey Darpakhel area of North Waziristan Agency. Several foreigners, including Afghan nationals, were among those killed in the two attacks. Former Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief...

Ayman al Zawahiri, al Qaeda's second in command, has sung the praises of former Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud on a videotape produced by As Sahab and distributed on jihadi forums. Zawahiri used Baitullah's death to praise the Taliban's fight against NATO and the US in Afghanistan. But Zawahiri especially focused on Baitullah's role in the attempt to smash the Pakistani state. The following translation is a portion of Zawahiri's tape: Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2009/09/zawahiri_eulogizes_baitullah_m.php

RADICAL Islamist Noordin Mohammed Top, the man accused of a series of suicide bombings in Indonesia, is one of Asia's most-wanted and elusive militant leaders. But his long and bloody game of cat-and-mouse with Indonesia's US-trained elite counter-terrorism forces may have come to an end in a storm of gunfire during a raid on a suspected hideout in Central Java today. His death has been reported by local television but police would confirm only that they believed the 40-year-old former accountant was hiding in the house when it was besieged by security forces late yesterday. At least three people are...

Antiterrorism police killed two alleged terrorists and arrested three others suspected of involvement in last month's deadly hotel bombs in Jakarta, a police spokesman said. The nighttime raid on a house near Jakarta uncovered more than 1,000 pounds of explosives, and a car fitted out for another terrorist attack, said Nanan Sukarna, the police spokesman. Meanwhile, a standoff with terrorists at a house near Temanggung, a town in central Java, a province on Indonesia's main island, which began at 5 p.m. local time on Friday continued on Saturday morning. Police say they believe inside the house was Noordin Mohamed Top,...

TWO body bags were seen being taken from a suspected hideout of terror suspect Noordin Top in Indonesia after a raid by police special forces. He was killed during a raid on his hideout, local television reported. The television station did not disclose its sources and police have not confirmed the report, which came as ambulances arrived at the suspected hideout following a 17-hour siege involving heavy gunfire and explosions. A witness said that two body bags were taken from the house. Elite police carrying assault rifles entered the house in Central Java after it had been besieged as part...

The man's death is the fifth apparent suicide at the offshore US prison, which President Barack Obama hopes to close by January. The Joint Task Force that runs the US prison in Cuba said guards conducting a routine check found Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah Salih unresponsive and not breathing in his cell on Monday night. In a statement issued from Miami, the US military said the detainee was pronounced dead by a doctor after "extensive life saving measures had been exhausted." The Yemeni prisoner, also known as Mohammad Ahmed Abdullah Saleh Al-Hanashi, had been held without charge at Guantanamo since February...

An al-Qaeda trainer and explosives specialist involved in a range of European terrorist networks has been killed in Pakistan, the latest senior militant to die in a spate of controversial American missile strikes. The death two weeks ago of Abu Suleiman al-Jazairi, a highly experienced Algerian militant, has been confirmed only in the last few days, intelligence sources in Pakistan and Western Europe told The Observer. Al-Jazairi, thought to have been 45, died along with at least 15 others when the house in which he was staying in Pakistan's Bajaur tribal district was hit by a missile fired from a...

I?ve never been in therapy, but I can?t imagine anything could be more cathartic than watching King Leonidas and his mighty band of Spartans brutally massacre the thousands of jihadis that descended on them at the epic Battle of Thermopylae in the blockbuster hit 300. Did I say jihadis? I meant Persians. Sorry, about that. The two are easily confusedd in light of current events. While watching 300 it?s tempting to mentally substitute the freedom-loving Spartans for dedicated U.S. soldiers and swap the occultist Persians for Islamic insurgents lusting to cash in their martyrdom for 72 virgins. Leonidas?s men are...

BAGHDAD – Iraqi and U.S. forces killed a top official of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's organisation in a raid on his home north of Baghdad on Sunday, calling him a 'rogue leader' of Sadr's Mehdi Army militia. An official in Sadr's political office, Abdul-Mehdi al- Matiri, called the killing of Khadhim al-Hamadani in the village of Huweidar near Baquba an 'assassination'. The U.S. military said in a statement that Hamadani had reportedly been responsible for attacks on U.S. and Iraqi troops and was believed to have 'facilitated and directed numerous kidnappings, assassinations and other violence'. They said two Iraqi...

Government troops gunned down a high-ranking Abu Sayyaf leader in a raid late Tuesday in the southern Philippine island of Sulu. Military officials said troops killed Binang Sali, alias Freedom, in a firefight during a raid at around 8:20 p.m., at a safehouse in Sitio Halaw, Anuling, in the town of Patikul, Sulu province, a day after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo visited the troops in Sulu and ordered to intensify the hunt for the al-Qaeda-linked terror groups Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) that are holding out on the island. Military's Task Force Comet Chief Ruben Rafael who led the...

A ROYAL Marine sniper from Edinburgh has described marking his first kill with a cigar after "slotting" a Taliban commander from more than 1000 metres. British troops fighting in southern Afghanistan are embroiled in some of the most intense combat involving UK forces since the Second World War. Meanwhile, Nato-led troops and Afghan police killed two suspected Taliban militants and detained four others in the latest round of fighting, a police official said today. Crackshot Royal Marine (45 Commando) sniper Dallas Turner, 27, was among the soldiers who described their dramatic stories in their own words. He said: "We were...

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – Coalition forces engaged Taliban leadership with joint fires, killing a known Taliban commander and 15 other militants on Aug. 25 in the central Khod Valley of Uruzgan Province. The Taliban commander and his associates were involved in conducting attacks against the Afghan people and against Afghan, ISAF and Coalition forces. There were no injuries to civilians during the operation. Coalition forces used deliberate measures to limit the chances of property damage, and due to the precision of the air strike, no damage was reported to a mosque located adjacent to the militants’ safe house. “Coalition forces...

National Geographic Channel will premiere a new special, The Hunt for Zarqawi, July 25 at 10 pm The show will use commentary from journalists, experts and and Armed Forces members to deconstruct the manhunt for the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Hunt will follow Zarqawi through his transformation from thug to jihadist and try to figure out why he was such a threat to U.S. efforts in Iraq. The show includes interviews with Richard Clarke, former counterterrorism czar under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush; General Stephen L. Hoog, an Air Force commander in Iraq; reporters for Time, Newsweek, ABC and...