U.S. and Afghan forces killed a regional Taliban commander in a clash that also left an American soldier and an Afghan interpreter dead, the military said Friday as violence spiraled ahead of this month's landmark elections.
The military said Manan was in command of three other Taliban sub-commanders and responsible for the movement of equipment and personnel throughout the northwest Zabul province — regarded as a hotbed of Taliban-led insurgents.
It did not identify the American, whose death comes amid a surge of violence that has claimed about 1,100 lives across Afghanistan — including hundreds of suspected rebels — ahead of Sept. 18 legislative elections.
Iraqi Army forces and U.S. Soldiers recently detained 24 suspected insurgents during a cordon and search mission southwest of Iskandariyah. The Soldiers were from the 1st Battalion 155th Infantry, 155th BCT, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward).
Additionally, Soldiers of the 150th Engineer Battalion, 155th Brigade Combat Team, detained 12 suspected insurgents in the village of Owesat on Aug 29th.
The 155th BCT is a U.S. Army unit assigned to the II Marine Expeditionary Force (Fwd) in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Karachi, 2 Sept. (AKI) - A massive crackdown has been conducted in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province's Malakand area where leaders of the pro-Taliban movement known as the Tehreek-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat (TNS) were rounded up on Thursday, sources told Adnkronos International (AKI). Those arrested included the TNS leaders Safiullah and Maulana Abdul Haq. The founder of the movement Maulana Suf Mohammed is already in custody.
According to security officials, the Tehreek-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat (TNS) is constantly involved in instigating a revolt against the Pakistani authorities. The TNS leaders have urged people to boycott every election process in the country and to adopt revolutionary means in order to implement Sharia law in Pakistan. Sharia or Islamic law is a the code of law derived from the Koran or Muslim holy book and from the teachings and example of the Prophet Mohammed.
In 2001, the founder of the TNS movement Maulana Sufi Mohammed recruited 10,000 people and took them to Afghanistan to fight against the US-led forces that had entered the country to remove the Taliban from power for harbouring Osama bin Laden and members of the al-Qaeda terrorist network responsible for the September 11 2001 attacks in the United States.
The Taliban advised the would-be volunteer fighters not to join them because the task of providing a 10,000-strong force with food and accommodation would have been too difficult. When the Taliban were ousted, Sufi Mohammed fled to Pakistan and was arrested.
In the mid 1990s, Sufi Mohammed along with thousands of youths from the Malakand area occupied various highways around the area of Swat and the Mengora districts of the North West Frontier Province and demanded that Sharia law be implemented in those areas. The Pakistan army later intervened and managed to resolve the dispute without any major conflict.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq executed three convicted murderers on Thursday, the first time the government has carried out the death penalty since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, government spokesman Laith Kubba said.
"At 10 a.m. in Baghdad the first executions were carried out since the fall of the regime, against three criminals," he told reporters.
Iraq's presidency had signed the death sentences for the three men found guilty by a criminal court in Wasit province in southeastern Iraq of murder, kidnapping and rape.More..
Two incidents in Rusafa Aug. 28 showed the continuing success of Iraqi Security Forces in their fight against terrorists.
In the first incident, 1st Battalion, 2nd Iraqi Army Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, captured a terrorist known for making and emplacing roadside bombs, as well as involvement in car bomb operations.
"The Iraqi Army Battalion developed the intelligence on this target," said Capt. Michael Dick, an advisor to the Iraqi Army Battalion. "They planned and executed the operation to detain him and disrupt car bomb operations in Baghdad.
"The performance of the ISF in this operation demonstrates their capability to conduct independent operations," added Dick, who is from Cincinnati.
The terrorist was discovered with remote detonation equipment and other bomb-making paraphernalia.
The second incident involved the discovery of a car bomb before it could be detonated. The car bomb was found by Iraqi Police near a school and was loaded with rockets and anti-tank mines.
"The car bomb would have been devastating to anyone who was nearby," said Staff Sgt. Mark Morse, of Olivia, Minn., and an advisor to the Iraqi Police. "That the terrorists placed the car bomb near a school house shows their absolute disregard for even the most innocent lives."
An Iraqi explosive ordnance disposal team was called to the site of the car bomb and disabled the device before it could be detonated.
Tips from Iraqi citizens led to the discovery by U.S. Soldiers of a weapons cache Aug. 23.
Soldiers of D Company, 172nd Infantry Regiment, Task Force 1-118th Field Artillery, 3rd Brigade heard small-arms fire near their position while conducting security operations north of Baghdad.
The Soldiers moved toward the sound of the gunfire but found a deserted fighting position that contained two mortar rounds, 12 mortar fuses, and a 155-millimeter artillery shell.
While the Soldiers searched the area, Iraqi civilians approached and said they knew where to find more weapons. The men of D Co. found two 203-millimeter rockets and two additional mortar rounds, based on the information provided by the Iraqi citizens.
Iraqi Security Forces and Task Force Baghdad officials continue to encourage all Iraqi citizens to report suspicious behavior by e-mailing baghdadtipshotline@yahoo.com or calling one of the TIPS hotlines at 0790-173-7723 or 0790-173-7727.
TALL AFAR, Iraq, Sept. 2 -- It was a clear and quiet dusk, with only the call to prayer echoing from minarets across this city, when a roadside bomb blasted an M1-A1 Abrams tank, shaking nearby buildings and filling the indigo sky with a plume of black smoke.
Crackling small-arms fire clanged off the damaged vehicle from an adjacent house. U.S. soldiers answered with increasingly violent volleys -- .50-caliber machine gun bursts, tank rounds and a TOW missile -- but the shots from inside the house kept coming. Finally, an ear-splitting succession of five rounds from the tank's big gun reduced the building to flaming rubble and lit the empty streets with white sparks from exploding power transformers.
The execution of three criminals is good news. But I am waiting for them to start executing terrorists caught in the act of setting up IEDs and constructing car bombs.
Terrorism Headlines of the Week
Domestic
Four indicted in alleged terrorist plot against LA-area targets
The head of a radical Islamic prison gang and three others were "on the verge" of carrying out attacks against U.S. military sites, synagogues or other Los Angeles-area targets when police foiled the alleged plot, prosecutors said.
The four face counts of conspiracy to wage war against the U.S. government through terrorism, kill armed service members and murder foreign officials, among other charges, according to the indictment .
Named in the indictment Wednesday were Levar Haley Washington, 25, Gregory Vernon Patterson, 21, Hammad Riaz Samana, 21, and Kevin James, 29.
"Some in this country mistakenly believed it could not happen here," U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, referring to the London mass transit attacks last July, said in Washington, D.C. "Today we have chilling evidence that it is possible."
According to prosecutors, Washington, Patterson and Samana orchestrated the scheme at the behest of James, a California State Prison, Sacramento, inmate who founded the radical group Jamiyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh, or JIS. Washington converted to Islam while imprisoned there for a previous robbery conviction.
After pledging his loyalty to James "until death by martyrdom," Washington allegedly sought to establish a JIS cell outside prison with members with bomb expertise.
Washington, Patterson and Samana — who attended the same Inglewood mosque — then allegedly conducted surveillance of military sites, synagogues, the Israeli Consulate and El Al airport counter in the Los Angeles area as well as Internet research on Jewish holidays.
Source: The Associated Press
Yemeni man gets 45 years in NY terror sting case
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Yemeni man arrested after an FBI sting operation in Germany in 2003 was sentenced to 45 years in prison and fined $750,000 on Thursday for conspiring to support and fund al Qaeda and Hamas.
Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed, 32, was convicted by a federal jury on March 10 of conspiring to provide material support and resources to al Qaeda and to Hamas.
At a hearing in federal court in Brooklyn, Zayed was given a 15-year sentence and a $250,000 fine for each of three counts. His sentences are to be served consecutively.
His colleague Sheikh Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, 56, was sentenced in July to 75 years and fined $1.25 million in the same case. For each of five counts, al-Moayad received 15-year sentences, each to be served consecutively.
Prosecutor Kelly Moore said during the five-week trial that al-Moayad had ties to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and had bragged about having "taught him about Islamic law."
The sheikh was arrested in Germany in 2003 after telling a federal agent posing as an American businessman he would help him funnel money to militants, prosecutors said. The sheikh and Zayed, who prosecutors said worked in tandem, were later extradited to the United States.
The case was closely watched in Yemen, where both men belong to the Islamic opposition Islah party, whose members have denounced their arrests and said the pair had no connection to al Qaeda.
Source: Reuters
Va. Man May Face More Terror Charges
An American student charged in an al Qaeda plot to kill President Bush and conduct a Sept. 11-style terrorist attack in the United States may face additional charges in the next several weeks, federal prosecutors said yesterday.
Prosecutors revealed the possibility of upgraded charges at a hearing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria in the case against Ahmed Omar Abu Ali. They did not disclose what the new counts could be.
Abu Ali, 24, of Falls Church, is charged with material support of al Qaeda in a plot to kill Bush and establish an al Qaeda cell in this country. The government says he confessed to the assassination plot while being detained in Saudi Arabia and admitted discussing with al Qaeda his plans to conduct attacks in the United States that included crashing hijacked planes into buildings.....
Source: Washington Post
Muslims in Lodi believe mystery man who spoke of jihad was a federal mole in terror investigation
In the days after federal agents arrested five residents of Lodi in a terror investigation in June, a clean-cut young man who had befriended the suspects and had spent nights at their homes vanished.
He hasn't been seen in town since, and now members of Lodi's Muslim community suspect they know why: The man, who called himself Nasim Khan, was a government mole, they believe, an informer whose surreptitious tape recordings of one of the suspects are at the heart of the federal probe.
Community members said Khan, who is in his early 30s, sometimes spoke of "jihad" in what they now believe was an attempt to get others to express radical sentiments.
In his three years in Lodi, Khan -- who spoke fluent Pashto, Urdu and English -- forged deep ties in the Muslim community. He once lived in one of two apartments that overlook Lodi's mosque, helped set up a Web site for a Muslim school that was forming in the area and took the teenage son of one of the suspects to ride roller-coasters at Paramount's Great America in Santa Clara.
"He got me -- he convinced me he was an average guy," said a 23-year- old member of the Lodi mosque, who like many other members spoke on condition that he not be identified because he is afraid of drawing FBI scrutiny. "I was thinking he was just somebody who was interested in religion."
Federal prosecutors last week revealed they had a "cooperating witness" in Lodi. Without naming him, they said he had recorded scores of conversations with Hamid Hayat, a 22-year-old man accused of lying when he denied participating in a terrorist training camp in Pakistan. His father, 47-year- old Umer Hayat, is charged with lying about the same thing.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Deadly Car Bomb Linked To Jihad
TAMPA - Something about the small, white car bothered Meital Mordechay.
She was a 19-year-old soldier riding a public bus in northern Israel when she noticed the slow-moving car ahead of her on June 5, 2002. The bus passed the car as it approached the Megiddo Junction.
Then, Mordechay said Tuesday, the bus exploded.
“All of a sudden I found myself in some sort of a whirlpool,'' she said.
The car had crashed into the bus, triggering a huge explosion that sent it spinning. The bus rolled over once before coming to a stop upright. The blast killed 17 people and injured 45.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
Mordechay was among five Israelis to testify about the attack Tuesday in the terror-support trial of Sami Al-Arian and three other men accused of helping finance and organize the Islamic Jihad.
The men are not accused of helping plan this or any other Islamic Jihad attack, nor is there evidence they knew about it in advance, but prosecutors say their assistance helped the Islamic Jihad wage terror.
Telephone calls secretly intercepted by the FBI show three of the defendants discussing the attack.
Hatim Fariz asks Al-Arian whether he ``heard the world news.''
Source: Tampa Bay Tribune
Study finds terrorists still exploiting immigration laws to enter country
WASHINGTON – Some used false documents to enter the United States; others let their legal visas expire once in the country. And at least 21 foreign nationals became naturalized U.S. citizens before being charged or convicted as terrorists.
In all, at least 94 foreign-born visitors accused of terror activity between 1993 and 2004 exploited federal immigration laws to enter or remain in the United States, according to a study being released Tuesday.
Distributed by the Center for Immigration Studies, an advocate for stricter immigration policies, the report provides newly compiled data on U.S. terror arrests to illustrate gaps in the nation's border security, visa approval and immigration systems. It was written by Janice Kephart, who served as counsel to the 9/11 Commission that investigated missteps leading to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"The attack of 9/11 was not an isolated instance of al-Qaeda infiltration into the United States," the 46-page report found.
"In fact, dozens of operatives both before and after 9/11 – other than the 9/11 hijackers – have managed to enter and embed themselves in the United States, actively carrying out plans to commit terrorist acts against U.S. interests or support designated foreign terrorist organizations," the report concluded. "For each to do so, they needed the guise of legal immigration status to support them."
Overall, 59 of 94 foreign-born nationals who were either convicted or indicted on terror charges broke federal immigration laws to enter or remain in the country between 1993 and 2004, the report found. It also noted:
Source: The Associated Press
International
Al-Qaeda vows new attacks as London bomber appears in video
DUBAI (AFP) - Al-Qaeda second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri emerged days before the anniversary of September 11 to threaten more anti-Western attacks like the July strikes on Britain, in a videotape aired by Al-Jazeera which also showed one of the London bombers.
"The lands and interests of the countries which took part in the aggression against Palestine,
Iraq and Afghanistan are targets for us," Zawahiri warned in the tape broadcast by the Qatar-based news channel late Thursday.
Zawahiri hailed the July 7 "conquest" in London as similar to those in Madrid last year and the United States on September 11, 2001, appearing to take responsibility for the rush-hour bombings on underground trains and a bus which killed 52 people.
"Like its glorious precedents in New York, Washington and Madrid, the blessed conquest (in Britain) took the battle to the enemy's land, after... his (enemy's) armies occupied our lands in Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine," he said.
"We will respond in kind to all those who took part in the aggression on Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine," said Zawahiri, shown with an automatic rifle at his side.
"Just as they made rivers of blood flow in our countries, we will make volcanos of anger erupt in their countries," Osama bin Laden's right-hand man said.
Zawahiri's threats came 10 days before the fourth anniversary of the September 11 attacks claimed by his terror network.
In a posthumous message, one of the four London suicide bombers said he was driven to his actions in response to the "atrocities" committed against Muslims.
Source: Agence France Presse
("We will respond in kind to all those who took part in the aggression on Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine," said Zawahiri, shown with an automatic rifle at his side.
"Just as they made rivers of blood flow in our countries, we will make volcanos of anger erupt in their countries,"
Yeah Yeah....we know, we're all gonna die a horrible death...blah blah blah.....your mama.)
U.S. Hits Suspected Terror Base in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq U.S. warplanes launched multiple airstrikes Friday against a suspected "terrorist safe house" in the western Anbar province, destroying the building where up to 50 militants were believed to be hiding, the U.S. military said.
Coalition ground forces were alerted by local residents that a number of members of the terror group Al-Qaida in Iraq had gathered in an abandoned building northeast of Husaybah, near the Syrian border about 200 miles west of Baghdad.
The group is led by Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the second most-wanted terrorist on the U.S. list after al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
"Iraqi citizens reported that approximately 50 terrorists were in the building at the time of the airstrike" which occurred at 4:40 p.m., the statement said.
Source: The Associated Press
Terror alarm raised anew
MALACAÑANG raised anew the terrorism bogey yesterday as it warned that Metro Manila could be the target of a new wave of terrorist attacks that could involve weapons of mass destruction, dirty bombs, and biological weapons.
Similar to the global oil crisis threatening the economy, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales appealed to the opposition in the midst of impeaching President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to treat the terrorist threat as very serious and that it required the full attention of government officials.
Gonzales said the government needed everybody's help, including the opposition's, because it was "virtually impossible to stop terrorist attacks.” The President also appealed for the opposition's cooperation on the oil crisis because the government could not do anything about surging oil prices.
While the administration and the opposition lawmakers had cooperated very well before the current political crisis, Gonzales said that Congress has become too busy with the impeachment hearings to even consider approving the anti-terror bill.
In a briefing, Gonzales claimed that his group had gathered "pretty disturbing information that terrorists might be planning a major attack in the National Capital Region (Metro Manila).”
No chit-chat
"They are now in serious stage of planning a new wave of terror. We have to weigh the consequence of either scaring our people or just keeping quiet with what we know,” said Gonzales who preferred that the public continue to be scared but not to the point of panicking.
Source: Inquirer News Service
Iraq terror mastermind Zarqawi focusing sights on Europe: Report
Iraq's most wanted militant, Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who as Al-Qaeda's pointman in Iraq has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks, is overseeing preparations for a major attack in Europe, Time magazine said on Sunday.
Citing European intelligence reports, Time said Zarqawi "has been overseeing preparations by highly trained operatives for a large-scale terrorist attack in Europe."
Time did not specify the origins of the intelligence reports, but said Zarqawi has spoken of sleeper cells in Turkey and Iran "in communications with another Al-Qaeda leader."
The reports imply that these cells may be in contact with European jihadist groups that previously had no links to Al-Qaeda, Time said.
"The fear is we'll see these disparate, relatively inexperienced groups around Europe hook up with Afghan-trained terror cells, all under the influence of Zarqawi," independent French terrorism expert Roland Jacquard told Time.
European officials say the reports are based in part on US officials' interrogation of suspected Al-Qaeda deputy Abu Faraj al-Libbi, captured last May in Pakistan.
Zarqawi has written to al-Libbi about setting up camps in Jordan, Turkey, Syria or Lebanon, European officials say.
Source: Agence France Presse
Concerns of al-Qaida Balkan link renewed
BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro -- The arrest in Serbia of a top terrorist fugitive has raised fresh concerns of an al-Qaida presence in the volatile Balkans, where thousands of U.S. and other international troops are stationed as peacekeepers.
Abdelmajid Bouchar, a 22-year-old Moroccan, sought for involvement in last year's train bombings in the Spanish capital Madrid, that killed nearly 200 people, was caught at the Belgrade railway station in June.
The arrest, revealed earlier this month, revived concerns that the Balkans - with its porous borders, unsophisticated security systems, rampant corruption and organized crime - could serve as a haven for al-Qaida-linked terrorist groups.
Local officials and experts have long warned that the Balkans at least is a major transit route for the terrorists, as well as for organized crime, including human and drug trafficking. They said the two often go hand in hand.
Serbian Interior Minister Dragan Jocic said police believed Bouchar was most likely passing through Serbia. He noted that "Serbia-Montenegro lies on important east-west transit routes."
Bouchar was arrested by chance during a routine police patrol check at a train that arrived to the Serbian capital from the northern town of Subotica, located on the border with Hungary, Serb authorities said.
Bouchar was sitting in a train compartment with several other people. He said he was an immigrant from Iraq en route to Western Europe - a common sight for Serbia's police which are used to escorting people who are heading west.
Source: The Associated Press
Philippine president orders hunt for bombers of ferry
MANILA : Philippine President Gloria Arroyo has ordered the country's security forces to "hunt down" the perpetrators of Sunday's ferry bomb blast that injured 30 people, many of them children.
In a statement Arroyo described the bomb attack at the Basilan island port of Lamitan as a "crime against peace and humanity".
"I have directed the country's security forces to pinpoint and hunt down the perpetrators who have shown a total disregard for the law and human life.
"Terrorism will always strive to frustrate our efforts at peace and development and disrupt the day-to-day enterprise of ordinary citizens but we shall not be cowered," she said.
The head of the Philippine National Police, Arturo Lomibao, flew to Lamitan on Monday to coordinate the investigation.
He said a special task force comprising both police and military had been established to investigate the bombing, which the authorities believe was carried out by Abu Sayyaf Islamic militants.
Lomibao stopped short of blaming Abu Sayyaf but added "we haven't ruled it out".
Sunday's explosion occurred while passengers were boarding the ferry as it was preparing to leave port for Zamboanga city, across the Basilan strait.
Security sources said the bomb was similar to the two that exploded in Zamboanga on August 10, injuring 26 people.
Source: Agence France Presse
Suicide bomber hits bus station in Israel; several dozen wounded
JERUSALEM - A suicide bomber hit a southern Israeli bus station Sunday, seriously wounding two security guards, in the first attack since Israel began removing thousands of Jewish settlers from the occupied Gaza Strip earlier this month.
The guards thwarted a more deadly assault, but Sunday's morning rush-hour bombing raised concerns that Islamic militants are stepping up their attempts to undermine tentative steps toward peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Nearly four dozen people suffered minor injuries in the attack at the central bus station in Beersheeba, a small city not far from the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian officials condemned the attack, but Israeli officials said it was a sign that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas needs to immediately crack down on Islamic militants suspected of dispatching the bomber.
"We call on responsible Palestinian leaders to step up to the plate, to act and to prevent Islamic Jihad and Hamas from hijacking the Palestinian national agenda," said Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
Nearly 12 hours after the attack, an Islamic Jihad official claimed responsibility and said the bomber came from Beit Umar, a village near the southern West Bank city of Hebron. Leaders with both Islamic Jihad and Hamas claimed that the bombing was justified in the wake of an Israeli attack in the West Bank last week that left five Palestinians dead.
Source: Knight Ridder News Agency
Saudi security forces clash with Iraqi 'infiltrators': Spokesman
RIYADH (AFP) - Saudi security forces exchanged fire Monday night in the eastern region of Jubail with four Iraqis "who infiltrated into the kingdom to steal cars and smuggle them (to Iraq)," the first incident of its kind, an interior ministry spokesman said.
"A security patrol detected four Iraqis in Jubail province, and when it approached them, they opened fire on the patrol and tried to flee," General Mansur al-Turki told AFP.
"The security men returned fire. One of them (Iraqis) was wounded and transferred to hospital and the three others were arrested," he said.
Turki said security forces seized two cars stolen by the gunmen.
"The arrested men are being interrogated," he said.
The spokesman did not give more details.
It was the first time such an incident involving Iraqis was reported in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich Eastern Province, although Saudi authorities reported last December the infiltration of a group of Iraqis who were captured by border guards and repatriated.
Source: Agence France Presse
Australia "prime target for al-Qaida"
AUSTRALIA is listed as a prime target for a terror attack by al-Qaida this year, a spy agency warns.
The US and Britain share the terrorist group's top billing, South Korea's National Intelligence Service said.
The warning coincides with revelations that about 137,000 foreigners have been identified as terrorism threats by Australian authorities.
The NIS said South Korea, Japan and the Philippines were secondary targets for al-Qaida.
It said its information came from a senior al-Qaida member arrested last month.
The comments come after the Financial Times quoted French investigating magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere as saying that a financial centre such as Sydney, Tokyo or Singapore could be the target of al-Qaida extremists.
In Australia, the Immigration Department uses the secret list to vet arrivals from overseas.
Source: The Herald Sun
Indonesian terror group hobbled
JAKARTA, INDONESIA – The ability of Jemaah Islamiyah, the most feared terrorist network in Southeast Asia, to execute attacks in the region has been greatly sapped by hundreds of arrests since 2002, according to security officials, analysts, and a former JI member.
Cut adrift from its Al Qaeda sponsors, JI appears to be splintered by the loss of its leaders and internal divisions over attacks on civilians. Its spiritual head, Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, is behind bars. The group's last confirmed attack, on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta almost a year ago, failed to penetrate the compound.
Despite the crackdown's success, Indonesia's president issued a warning Monday of possible terrorist attacks ahead. "Terrorist cells are still active. They are still hiding, recruiting, networking, trying to find new funding sources, and even planning," said President Susilo Yudhoyono at a seminar in Jakarta. "There will be an increase of terrorist activities in the region."
Why the concern? JI's deadliest bombmakers are still at large in Indonesia and continue to plot attacks against Western targets there. Even as the group appears paralyzed, informal personal networks are emerging to provide new sources of recruiting, training, and fundraising. Other extremist groups are also stepping up. And the overriding ideological glue for extremism here - a desire for a pan-Islamic state in Southeast Asia - has not gone away.
"If we look at the threat today in Indonesia, it's not only Jemaah Islamiyah. They recruit from other groups with the same ideology and mind-set," says Ansyaad Mbai, head of the counterterrorism unit in the national security ministry. "After each attack, we've found that the young bombers aren't necessarily JI members. They're new recruits."
Source: Christian Science Monitor
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The Taliban commander — identified by Afghan officials as Thor Mullah Manan — was killed with another rebel fighter in a firefight Thursday with coalition and Afghan forces in Daychopan district of southern Zabul province, the U.S. military said.
