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Two French radio journalists were killed by gunmen in northern Mali on Saturday shortly after being abducted in the town of Kidal, French and Malian officials said. The French government confirmed that 58-year old Claude Verlon and Ghislaine Dupont, 51, both journalists at RFI radio, had been found dead.

(Reuters) - Algerian troops discovered a huge arms cache near the border with Libya, including hundreds of surface-to-air missiles, rockets and landmines, an Algerian security source said on Thursday. ... The source said the cache was found in Illizi in southern Algeria, about 200 km (125 miles) from the Amenas gas plant, which Libyan-based Islamist militants attacked in January, killing nearly 40 foreign contractors. The weapons included 100 anti-aircraft missiles, more than 500 MANPAD shoulder-launched rockets often used against low flying aircraft like helicopters, and hundreds of rocket launchers, rifles, landmines and rocket-propelled grenades, the source added.

(Reuters) - Niger would welcome the deployment of armed U.S. drones to the West African country to help in its battle against an armed Islamist threat and drug trafficking in the Sahara, Foreign Minister Mohamed Bazoum said on Wednesday. Washington deployed about 100 military personnel and unarmed surveillance drones in Niger after a French-led military operation in January destroyed an al Qaeda enclave in neighboring northern Mali. Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou's government, concerned not only by the presence of Islamists but also the trafficking of arms, cocaine and cannabis in the north, wants to further reinforce military ties with the...

A dentist who offered to perform genital mutilation on two young girls in a sting by an undercover reporter has been struck off. Omar Sheikh Mohamed Addow, 56, is the first dentist to be struck off by the General Dental Council for the crime, which carries a maximum 14-year sentence in the UK. The council's Professional Conduct Committee found that Addow had also performed an inappropriate examination of the reporter's chest, abdomen and vagina at his surgery, which was illegal as he was not a doctor registered with the General Medical Council. ... When asked to perform FGM on the...

Abu Hafs al Maqdisi, the leader of the Gaza-based Jaish al Ummah (Army of the Nation), today called on Egyptians to wage "jihad" against Egyptian army commander General Abdul Fattah el Sisi. Al Maqdisi, who was released from a Hamas prison in December, also called on Egyptians to overthrow "the tyrant" (el Sisi) and establish an Islamic state. In addition, al Maqdisi said he hoped that one of el Sisi's bodyguards would kill him. Al Maqdisi further stated, according to press reports, that although Jaish al Ummah does not currently coordinate with any Salafist groups in Egypt, it is...

France’s campaign in Mali exposes Europe’s unpreparedness for 21st-century war. WITH WELL-ARMED radical Islamist insurgents closing in last winter on Mali’s capital, Bamako, French President François Hollande suddenly decided to defend Western civilization. Plunging in the polls as the most unpopular French president since the Fifth Republic was founded in 1958, he just might have had ulterior motives; diverting hostile public opinion at home with a military escapade abroad is a tried and true tactic for floundering chiefs of state. Be that as it may, French troops, mainly Foreign Legion, began deploying to Mali in Operation Serval on January 11....

Editor's note: Below is Thomas Joscelyn's testimony to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, on al Qaeda, the nature of the group's central command and its relationship with its affiliates, and the future challenges the West faces in battling the terror organization. Chairman Poe, Ranking Member Sherman and members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me here today to discuss the threat posed by al Qaeda. We have been asked to "examine the nature of global al Qaeda today." In particular, you asked us to answer the following questions: "What is [al...

When rebel forces, led by Arab-speaking Muslims, seized control of the Central African Republic this March, it deepened fears that a co-ordinated Islamist insurgency could now be spreading through swathes of the continent. Four months on, the landlocked country is living through a reign of terror, largely directed against its Christian minority.“Churches have been routinely robbed and pillaged here, while Muslim mosques have been left untouched,” Mgr Cyriaque Gbate Doumalo, secretary-general of the Central African Republic’s Catholic bishops’ conference, told me in an interview. “Our public institutions aren’t functioning and our hospitals have been ransacked, leaving the sick and destitute...

The Obama administration continues to ramp up its military-response capabilities in Africa, where it is now looking for contractor support to transport U.S. Africa Command troops, weaponry and explosives. The U.S. Transportation Command on behalf of AFRICOM is soliciting help from private aircraft providers who can move U.S. troops and supplies in the Central African nations of Uganda, Central Africa Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. The development comes at a time when the Department of Defense simultaneously is strengthening its ability – also with contractor assistance – to retrieve soldiers trapped and injured in hot spots...

TIMBUKTU, Mali (AP) -- The photocopies of the manual lay in heaps on the floor, in stacks that scaled one wall, like Xeroxed, stapled handouts for a class. Except that the students in this case were al-Qaida fighters in Mali. And the manual was a detailed guide, with diagrams and photographs, on how to use a weapon that particularly concerns the United States: A surface-to-air missile capable of taking down a commercial airplane. The 26-page document in Arabic, recovered by The Associated Press in a building that had been occupied by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb in Timbuktu, strongly suggests...

When Islamist rebels set fire to two libraries in Timbuktu earlier this year, many feared the city's treasure trove of ancient manuscripts had been destroyed. But many of the texts had already been removed from the buildings and were at that very moment being smuggled out of the city, under the rebels' noses. "These manuscripts are really precious to us. They are family heirlooms. Our history, our heritage," says Dr Abdel Kader Haidara, owner of one of Timbuktu's biggest private libraries, containing manuscripts dating back to the 16th Century. "In our family there have been generations and generations of great...

Gunmen killed two guards and wounded around 10 other people in an attack on a prison in Niger’s capital Niamey on Saturday, a week after al Qaeda-linked groups raided a uranium mine and an army barracks. Local residents said the assault began at around 3 p.m. (1500 GMT) when a group of attackers opened fire on guards at the entrance to the prison. They said they also heard a loud explosion. Ila Yaye, who lives near the prison, told Reuters she saw several of the guards fall and not get back up. It was not immediately clear who had carried...

Timbuktu, Mali — Her light-skinned master no longer beats her with a camel whip. He no longer makes her work from dawn to night without pay. He fled with his family four months ago, along with the Islamists who briefly ruled this historic city. “I am free,” said Aminaya Traore, a 50-year-old woman who was born a slave. “I can do whatever I want.” Across this sand-swept city, hundreds of modern-day slaves are experiencing a sense of liberation, many for the first time. Nearly all the lighter-skinned Tuaregs and Arab Moors who for generations exploited them have fled the city,...

Days after a deadly suicide attack at a French-run uranium mine in Niger, a FRANCE 24 team that was given access to the high security site found evidence that the assailants had meticulously studied their target and likely received inside help. The explosives-packed car that rammed a grinding unit at a uranium mine in Arlit, a remote town in northern Niger, last week is in tatters. The shell of the car’s transmission system stands upright in the rubble, while the twisted frame was flung about ten meters away. Days after suicide bombers attacked a uranium mine in this West African...

U.S. aerial tankers have flown more than 200 missions this year to fuel French airpower supporting Paris’ intervention against al Qaeda linked extremists in Mali. The aid underscores NATO’s reliance on U.S. military capabilities to stage even their own unilateral operations. Air Force Times reported the U.S. Air Force’s 351st Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron, forward deployed to Morón Air Base, Spain, from RAF Mildenhall, in Suffolk, England, has offloaded more than eight million pounds of fuel in 204 separate missions in support of the French Air Force as of May 15. ... But French forces could not have gotten to...

A Congolese army battalion that received its formative training from the U.S. military went on to commit mass rapes and other atrocities last year, a U.N. investigation has found. Members of the 391st Commando Battalion, a unit created in 2010 with extensive support from the U.S. government, joined with other Congolese soldiers to rape 97 women and 33 girls as they fled a rebel advance in eastern Congo in November, according to the United Nations. U.S. Special Operations forces had spent eight months training the 750-member battalion in a bid to professionalize Congo’s ragtag military, which has a long history...

Proof Positive - In My Opinion True Source Found For "Innocence of Muslims." (Obama)This is a Youtube video produced by user Montagraph who speculated that "Innocence of Muslims" was a false flag op. So did I. He has done a lot of work tracing numerous websites connected to the original uploading of the now famous video. His narrative starts out very slow but give it a chance. He does explain it all in detail and has sourced it all with URLs below his vid. Montagraph declines to say that his evidence is definitive so you be the judge. The internet...

The United States has deployed a small number of troops to Mali, but insists they will only be used to provide support to the French-led operation there and will not engage in combat. Lieutenant Colonel Robert Firman, a Pentagon spokesman, said around ten US military personnel are in Mali to provide ‘liaison support’ to French and African troops, reports the Washington Post. “Today, there are about 10 US military personnel providing liaison support to French and AFISMA (the African-led International Support Mission to Mali) forces,” Africom spokesman Benjamin Benson said in a statement, adding that the number has fluctuated as...

When Niankoro Yeah Samake lands in Mali on Friday, following a successful California fundraising campaign, to register as a candidate in the country’s upcoming presidential elections, he will be carrying a lot of baggage. There will be the requisite suitcase stuffed with gifts from the United States for his family back home. He will have a sizable check from an American hair products magnate to help fund his campaign. And he will have his well-thumbed copy of the Book of Mormon, scripture that has been a constant source of strength since he converted more than a decade ago. He is...

Image that accompanied Abu Bakr al Baghdadi's audiotape announcing the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. The flag was originally al Qaeda in Iraq's banner, but has been adopted by other al Qaeda affiliated and associated groups. Image from the SITE Intelligence Group. The emir of al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), Abu Bakr al Baghdadi (also known as Abu Dua), has announced a new brand for his organization's efforts: the "Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant." The new name replaces all previous brands used by al Qaeda's affiliates in Iraq and Syria, including the...