Free Republic

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...

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...

A banner showing al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri and former emir Osama bin Laden is placed outside the French Embassy in Cairo, Egypt during a protest organized by Mohammed al Zawahiri. Image from Euronews. Within the past few days, Mohammed al Zawahiri, the younger brother of al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri, has threatened France and the West while condemning the intervention in Mali. The younger Zawahiri promised that if France and its allies continue to fight in Mali, then Westerners will be the "first to burn." During an interview broadcast by Euronews on Jan. 22, Mohammed al...

Robert Fowler was kidnapped by Mokhtar Belmokhtar's not-so-merry band of terrorists in 2008 and published a book about the experience, "A Season In Hell: My 130 Days in the Sahara with Al Qaeda." From the excerpts I've read, the title accurately sums up Fowler's experience. Belmokhtar's group is, of course, responsible for the recent assault on a natural gas field in eastern Algeria and the subsequent hostage crisis. Fowler, a Canadian diplomat who was serving the United Nations when he was kidnapped, has had some interesting things to say about Belmokhtar and his henchmen. ABC News reports: "I was...

The Obama administration is condemning an Islamist attack on a natural gas field in southern Algeria and confirming that Americans are among those being held hostage. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters in Italy that Americans were among the hostages and called the incident a "terrorist attack."