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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

The diaries of a British jihadi bride in Syria under ISIS

2017-02-04

[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] A British housewife who fled to Syria with her jihadi husband appears to have penned a hate-filled diary describing life as a housewife under ISIS's barbaric regime. Under the nom de guerre Umm Ibrahim al-Brit, she tells how the bodies of women and kiddies lay piled on the dusty streets following Arclight airstrikes by 'kuffar' (non believers) - and how her husband recruits others to wage jihad against the West. She also describes how she listens to an audiobook of the Koran through earphones to drown out the sound of falling Russian bombing raids at night. 'The Russian kuffar bombed - killing 100 people and injuring many,' she wrote on encrypted messaging service Telegram. In posts seen by MailOnline, Umm Ibrahim spews bully boy propaganda and encourages other families to join her family in Syria and wage jihad against the West. 'Every breath I take my hatred for them [non believers] increases,' she wrote on New Year's Eve. 'We just missed an Arclight airstrike today. Kuffar going crazy. May Allah destroy them,' she said a few weeks earlier. Her first post appeared on December 7 and she claims her diary, which has not been independently verified, is 'so anybody thinking of making hijrah [journey] can benefit from it'. Umm Ibrahim claims to have enjoyed a comfortable middle-class life in the UK before her husband was brainwashed by former al-Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki ... Born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, zapped in Yemen, al-Awlaki was a dual citizen of the U.S. and Yemen. He was an Islamic holy man who was a trainer for al-Qaeda and its franchises. His sermons were attended by three of the 9/11 hijackers, by Fort Hood murderer Nidal Malik Hussein, and Undieboomer Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He was the first U.S. citizen ever placed on a CIA target list... , who was killed in a US dronezap in 2011. 'After many years of a well settled life, me being a housewife and him doing a very nice job, kids going in a private (so called Islamic school), owning a house at a very young age, cars, every type of luxury and comfort one can imagine Allah being the best of planners had planned something for us we had not even thought of.' While plotting to join ISIS, she says her husband travelled to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... several times to establish the best route to Syria. His last visit to Turkey before the family fled the UK is believed to have come in June 2014, shortly before ISIS leader His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us... announced the so called caliphate in Iraq and Syria. 'Soon after this visit the [caliphate] was announced and now there was no option for us to stay back,' according to her posts which have been monitored by the Middle East Media Research Institute. 'We had given bayah [loyalty] to the Khalifah straight away without any doubts in our hearts and wanted to live under the shade of Shariah as soon as we could.' Umm Ibrahim is believed to have taken her sick mother-in-law to Pakistain before the pair returned back to the UK to make final preparations to travel to Syria. The family lived in Turkey for four months before getting the 'green light' to enter the country. Although the family's identity is unknown, several British families have left the safety of Britannia to join the terror group in the last few years. Among them in 2015 was a Moslem couple from Bradford who fled to Syria with their five young children, a family of 12 and a mother who took her five young children to join her brother fighting for Isis. Umm Ibrahim claims crossing the border was 'the happiest moment of our lives' but even her propaganda-heavy posts reveal the true horror of living in ISIS territory, where families go days without water and locals are executed in public squares in front of baying mobs. In a chilling post on December 31, she wrote: 'Me and my husband were about to leave for the market. The Russian kuffar bombed it killing 100 people and injuring many. 'We sat there with heavy hearts and hatred for these filthy kuffar. Every breath I take my hatred for them increases. 'Dead bodies were placed in a car park. Only two mins away from our house. Six days later people were still taking out the bodies of deaders from the rubble. 'Mostly killed were women and kiddies.Ya Rab [oh Allah] destroy them and make their lives miserable with the most harshest of your punishments.' She also describes the journey to the so-called 'caliphate' in a white van crammed with other families - and how she was shocked to see so many refugees heading in the opposite direction. Umm Ibrahim says she met many other Moslem families from different nations travelling to join ISIS, including a Russian single mother whom she describes as 'being close to her heart'. She says she was very happy to meet jihadi fighters for the first time, saying: 'Four men were accompanying us in the van with their weapons. The feeling of seeing the first mujahids and the first weapons was amazing.' Eventually the family was taken to a large house which they shared with several other families, where her husband was chosen as the head of the household and Umm Ibrahim was put in charge of cooking for the fighters. 'My husband being the ameer of the house had to make lists of everything and stick them on walls, she wrote. 'He divided duties of all the house work between the women. 'I used to tell my husband how I wish to cook for mujahideen. And here I was cooking for muhajireen and mujahideen,' she wrote on January 5. Ten days later she described the house as 'very spacious', claiming it had 'four big bedrooms, a big hall room, a very big kitchen, two bathrooms and a big balcony'. Umm Ibrahim added: 'The glass from most of the windows and doors were broken and some walls had bullet holes in them. 'The first night in such a big house wasn't easy. On the top most floor of the building [you could hear] sounds of planes and a lot of noise of the wind. I had never witnessed such winds. I couldn't sleep properly. 'The next day was better, but the night was even more tough. May Allah reward my husband who gave me ear phones to listen to the Koran all night. I was saved from listening to the sounds of the planes and the screaming of the winds.' In her posts she has also told how the man who lured them to Syria was tossed in the calaboose Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! in Turkey - and how her husband was working as an ISIS recruiter. She wrote: 'My husband worked really hard day and night to help people come to Shaam [Greater Syria]. After hard work and lots of duas, Allah helped in bringing the first group of muhajireen. 'They came to stay with us in our house. From 17 we became 28! Alhamdulilah [thank God] the house wasn't that small so we managed to accommodate them all. Umm Ibrahim says that, before her husband was brainwashed by al-Awlaki's sermons, she did not really understand Islam because she was raised by a single mother in Britannia. She explained: 'Though being born in a Moslem household I wasn't taught anything about true Islam. All I knew was we had to pray five times a day and recite the Koran. 'After meeting the most precious person of my life [my husband] my life changed completely Alhamdulilah [praise be to God].' She adds: 'Alhamdulilah [thank God] for the lectures from Imam Anwar al Awlaqi. 'They changed my husband's ways. Over a small period of time things became really clear in front of us. 'Life is a test from Allah. Either we fail and are thrown in the dreaded fire or we pass and are entered in the best of places.'

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Arabia

US commando dies in Yemen raid

2017-01-30

A bit disjointed from the Guardian. I assume we'll hear more. One elite US commando is dead and three wounded after a Yemen raid that Donald Trump’s Pentagon is signalling will be a template for aggressive counter-terrorism action. An aircraft malfunction led to what the Pentagon called a “hard landing in a nearby location”. Commandos intentionally destroyed the aircraft, which local residents and officials said was a helicopter. The US was said to have staged Saturday’s raid offshore, from an aircraft carrier in the region. “We are deeply saddened by the loss of one of our elite service members,” said Gen Joseph Votel, commander of US forces in the Middle East and south Asia. “These sacrifices are very profound in our fight against terrorists who threaten innocent peoples across the globe." Central Command, in a Sunday statement, said “an estimated” 14 members of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) had been killed in the raid. It provided no indication regarding the raid’s objective. In a statement, Trump said: “A life of a heroic service member has been taken in our fight against the evil of radical Islamic terrorism,” and said his “deepest thoughts and humblest prayers are with the family of this fallen service member”. He added: “The sacrifices made by the men and women of our armed forces, and the families they leave behind, are the backbone of the liberty we hold so dear as Americans, united in our pursuit of a safer nation and a freer world.” Central Command said the raid included “the capture of information that will likely provide insight into the planning of future terror plots”. Local witnesses cited by Reuters said the gun battle in the rural Yakla district of Bayda province killed Abdulraoof al-Dhahab, a senior AQAP leader, along with other militants. Unidentified Yemeni security officials reportedly said three senior al-Qaida leaders were killed. More via Dawn: Elite US forces launched a dawn raid against Al Qaeda in Yemen on Sunday, killing at least 14 suspected militants in an operation in which an American soldier also died. The assault marked Washing­ton’s first major military action in Yemen under President Donald Trump, who has vowed to step up the fight against “Islamic” extremism. The US military said the raid in the Yakla region of Baida province killed 14 members of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which Washington views as the global network’s most dangerous branch. A Yemeni provincial official gave a higher toll of 41 presumed militants and 16 civilians killed in the raid, including eight women and eight children. Washington did not specify how the US soldier died. It said three American servicemen were injured in the raid along with a fourth one who was hurt in a “hard landing”. A US defence official later said that “no prisoners had been taken” during the operation. Sunday’s US raid was said to have targeted the houses of three tribal chiefs linked to Al Qaeda. The provincial official said Apache helicopters also struck a school, a mosque and a medical facility which were all used by Al Qaeda militants. The three prominent tribal figures killed in the attack were identified as brothers Abdulraouf and Sultan al-Zahab and Saif Alawai al-Jawfi, the official and other sources said. They were known to be linked to Al Qaeda, the sources said. Among the children killed in the raid was the daughter of the late US-born preacher Anwar al-Awlaqi, Nura, who lived with the family of her maternal uncle, a relative said. Awlaqi himself was killed in September 2011 in a drone strike and his son Abulrahman was killed two weeks later in a similar attack. Local officials said an Al Qaeda chief in the region was also killed in Sunday’s raid. The operation resulted in the capture of information that would “provide insight into the planning of future terrorist plots”, said the military authorities.

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Arabia

Drone Attack Kills Four Qaida Suspects in Yemen

2015-02-01

[AnNahar] A drone strike killed four suspected al-Qaeda forces of Evil in Yemen Saturday, tribal sources said, the second attack in a week since Washington vowed to pursue its campaign against the jihadists. Tribal sources said the unmanned aircraft, which only the United States operates in the region, targeted a car carrying four forces of Evil in the southern province of Shabwa, a stronghold of the jihadist network. A similar strike on a car on Monday in a desert area between Shabwa and the neighboring province of Marib killed three suspected members of al-Qaeda. That vehicle was hit by four missiles. The previous day U.S. President Barack Obama We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us... had vowed no let-up in Washington's campaign against jihadists in Yemen. He dismissed suggestions that deepening chaos in Yemen since the resignation of Western-backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi last week had forced a change in Washington's campaign against al-Qaeda. Obama ruled out U.S. troop deployment in Yemen but said Washington would continue "to go after high value targets inside Yemen", admitting however that this was "a long, arduous process." According to the New America Foundation, the United States has carried out more than 110 strikes on targets in Yemen since 2009, mostly using drones. One such attack in September 2011 killed U.S.-Yemeni holy man Anwar al-Awlaqi, a leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ...the latest incarnation of various Qaeda and Qaeda-allied groups, including the now-defunct Aden-Abyan Islamic Army that boomed the USS Cole in 2000... accused of instigating a string of attacks against the United States. AQAP, which Washington considers the most dangerous branch of the global terror network, also grabbed credit for the deadly January 7 attack on French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... .

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Arabia

Five Civilians Killed as Yemen Battles 'Qaida'

2014-05-23

[An Nahar] A shell smashed into a vehicle and killed five civilians on Thursday during festivities between Yemen's army and Al-Qaeda suspects in the country's restive south, witnesses said. The incident occurred near Al-Saeed, an Al-Qaeda stronghold in Shabwa province, destroying the vehicle and killing all five people on board, the same sources said. They identified the victims as members of the powerful Shabwa-based Awaliq tribe, from which U.S.-born Al-Qaeda holy man Anwar al-Awlaqi, killed in a U.S. air strike in September 2011, hails. One witness said the "echo of the sound made by the shelling came from an army position", as another spoke of a "mistake" by troops. A tribal source also said "the army is responsible for firing at the car". But a military official denied the accusations, and blamed Al-Qaeda. "Al-Qaeda elements wanted to attack an army vehicle but their shells hit a civilian car," he told AFP. "Al-Qaeda and its allies are blaming the armed forces in order to impede the offensive" launched by the army on April 29 against jihadist strongholds in Shabwa and neighboring Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... .

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Arabia

Qaida Confirms Drone Death of Yemen Leader

2013-09-15

[An Nahar] The Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in an Internet posting has confirmed the death of senior AQAP member Qaeed al-Dhahab in a U.S. drone strike late last month. The U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group said AQAP, in a communique issued on jihadi forums on Friday, said Dhahab was killed in the U.S. "war on Islamic sharia" (law). It was the latest in a string of attacks targeting what Washington considers to be the Death Eater group's most dangerous branch. A tribal source told Agence La Belle France Presse the August 30 early morning strike on a vehicle in Manasseh village in the southern province of Bayda killed Dhahab and two other men. Witnesses confirmed the death of Dhahab, an AQAP military chief who had previously fought with the group in Iraq. The tribal source said he was killed just hours after being married on Thursday. He was the brother of Tarek al-Dhahab, an AQAP leader who in January 2012 with other gunnies briefly overran the town of Radah in Bayda province before being killed by Yemeni troops. Seen as a high-profile AQAP leader, Qaeed al-Dhahab was also the brother-in-law of Yemeni-born American radical Islamic holy man Anwar al-Awlaqi, a key AQAP figure who was killed in a drone strike in Yemen in September 2011.

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Africa Subsaharan

Nigerian Court Orders Al-Qaida Suspect's Extradition to U.S.

2013-08-29

[An Nahar] A Nigerian court on Wednesday ordered the extradition to the United States of a man accused of being a member of the al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen and assigned to find English-speaking recruits. The suspect identified as Lawal Olaniyi Babafemi, aka "Abdullah" or "Ayatollah Mustapha", is alleged to be a member of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and has been indicted on four charges in the United States, including supporting a foreign terrorist group. "An order is hereby made that the respondent in this case, Lawal Olaniyi Babafemi ... be extradited to the United States of America to face the indictment against him," said Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the federal high court in Abuja ruled. "It is also ordered that the respondent ... shall be surrendered to the officials of the United States of America not later than 15 days from the order of this court." The 33-year-old Babafemi did not contest the extradition. His lawyer said he had been in the custody of Nigeria's intelligence agency for some two years. Babafemi did not speak in court other than to confirm to the judge that he did not oppose the extradition. According to court documents, Babafemi travelled to Yemen between January 2010 and August 2011 to train with the al-Qaeda group as well as to seek out senior members Anwar al-Awlaqi and Samir Khan. Yemeni-born American radical holy man al-Awlaqi as well as Khan have since been killed in a drone strike. In interviews with FBI agents, "Babafemi admitted travelling to Yemen," the court documents say. They add that he said "AQAP members gave him ... approximately $8,600 in order to return to Nigeria and recruit English-speaking individuals to work in AQAP's English-language media operation".

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Africa North

Yemen Frees Qaida-Linked Journalist

2013-07-24

[AnNahar] Yemeni authorities on Tuesday released a journalist who incarcerated Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! '>were tossed into the calaboose for three years on charges of promoting al-Qaeda, the state news agency Saba reported. Investigative journalist Abdul Ilah Haydar Shae was tossed in the calaboose Book 'im, Mahmoud! on August 16, 2010 on charges of links to al-Qaeda and sentenced the following years to five years in prison. Saba said in a text message he had been freed "after he spent three years in prison for working with al-Qaeda." But Shae will remain under house arrest for two years in line with an earlier court ruling, it said. He was pardoned by President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, it added. Shae was arrested after reporting U.S. involvement in a deadly air raid against al-Qaeda in southern Yemen, according to rights groups that had been calling for his release. Last year, Amnesia Amnesty International said that Shae had alleged U.S. involvement in a December 2009 missile attack on Al-Majalah in Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... province of southern Yemen, noting the strike killed 41 local residents, mostly women and kiddies, and 14 al-Qaeda suspects. Former Yemeni strongman President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh ... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it... had issued an order for his release in February 2011 but rights groups said it was never carried out due to U.S. pressure. In January 2011, a special court convicted Shae, 34, of "working in the media for the benefit of al-Qaeda, taking pictures of security buildings, embassies and foreign interests in Sanaa, and inciting al-Qaeda to attack them." Shae was close to slain U.S.-born radical holy man Anwar al-Awlaqi. Washington says Awlaqi, killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in September 2011, was linked to a failed 2009 attack on a U.S.-bound airliner, who was killed on September 30 in an air strike in Yemen. Shae, who was employed by Saba, said in July 2010 that security agents had kidnapped and beaten him. An expert on terrorism, Shae is considered one of Yemen's most knowledgeable journalists on al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- the network's local affiliate.

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Arabia

New U.S. Drone Strike Kills Three Qaida Suspects in Yemen

2013-01-04

[An Nahar] A new U.S. drone strike on Thursday killed three al-Qaeda suspects in the town of Rada in Yemen's central al-Bayda province, the site of similar recent attacks, tribal sources there said. Mukbel Abbad, brother-in-law of Tareq al-Dahab who led the al-Qaeda gunnies in a brief January 2012 raid on Rada, was killed along with two other suspects, the sources said. "They're dead, Jim!" Abbad was a "leading" al-Qaeda figure, one source said. On Saturday, a similar drone strike killed three suspected bully boyz in the same region, in what was the fourth attack in one week. Thursday's attack brings to 14 the number of al-Qaeda suspects killed in Yemen since December 24, when attacks by the unmanned planes on targets in al-Bayda and the eastern Hadramawt province were stepped up. Dahab, who led the al-Qaeda gunnies in the January raid on the town, was rubbed out in February 2012 by his half-brother, who a tribal chief said was hired by Yemeni authorities. Dahab's other brother-in-law was U.S.-born holy man Anwar al-Awlaqi, who was killed in a suspected U.S. drone strike in September.

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Arabia

Drone Strikes Kill Six Qaida Suspects in Yemen

2012-12-25

[An Nahar] Two suspected U.S. drone strikes killed six al-Qaeda Islamic fascisti in Yemen on Monday, including a Jordanian, government officials said. The first "drone strike targeted a vehicle killing two al-Qaeda members -- a Yemeni and a Jordanian" in Manaseh of central Bayda province, a local government official said, requesting anonymity. A security official identified one of the Islamic fascisti killed as Abdullah Hussein al-Waeli, an al-Qaeda member from Marib province who was wanted after he beat feet from prison two years ago. No details were given on the Jordanian. Tribal sources said three other Islamic fascisti were maimed in the attack. Three missiles fired at cycle of violences in Hadramawt province killed four more al-Qaeda bad turbans, a local government official said. The official, who requested anonymity, said the missiles were fired by "an American drone," and that the attack took place in the center of Shehr, a town east of the bustling provincial capital Mukalla. Al-Qaeda had declared an Islamic emirate in nearby Radaa earlier this year, shortly before being driven out by tribal militiamen. Tareq al-Dahab, who led the al-Qaeda gunnies in the January raid on the town, was rubbed out in February. Dahab was a brother-in-law of slain U.S.-born holy man Anwar al-Awlaqi, who was killed in a suspected US drone strike in September.

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Home Front: WoT

HIV positive soldier accused of military base plot wears surgical mask in trial

2012-05-23

An HIV positive US soldier accused of plotting an attack on a military base after fleeing his post as a Moslem conscientious objector has gone on trial wearing a surgical mask and manacled to the floor. Courtroom security agents behind him wore protective goggles, an apparent reaction to an incident in which the soldier, Naser Jason Abdo, who claims to be HIV positive, bit his lip and spat blood at police. Prosecutors called the first of 43 witnesses to the stand in a bid to show that Abdo, who fled his post in Kentucky, was gathering bomb-making materials and weapons to attack soldiers and their families at the Fort Hood base in Texas, the scene of a deadly shooting rampage in 2009. One witness said Abdo told him that the assault was intended to show support for Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a Moslem psychiatrist accused of killing 12 soldiers and a civilian in the 2009 shooting, which also maimed 32 others. The FBI alleges Hasan had contacts with the charismatic US-born holy man Anwar al-Awlaqi, a leading member of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula who was killed in a September 2011 drone strike. FBI agent Charles Owens said that Abdo told him in an interrogation session that "he wanted to do it for the sake of the men and women of Afghanistan, that they had been wronged." Abdo was tossed in the slammer Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! July 27 in the nearby Texas town of Killeen. Police and federal agents have previously testified that they found a handgun and enough gunpowder to make at least one bomb. They also discovered directions from an al-Qaeda magazine on how to build an bomb. Prosecutors mounted a detailed case, mixing a trail of receipts and time-stamped videos of Abdo with testimony from a number of workers who encountered him. They said he planned to detonate a bomb in a crowded Chinese restaurant not far from Fort Hood, and then gun down soldiers, their families and civilians as they fled. "He referred to civilians as collateral damage," Mr Owens said. Defence attorney Zachary Boyd countered that prosecutors could not prove that his client intended to kill anyone, and that no bomb was ever built. "I want the jury to focus not just on the evidence, but the law," Boyd said in his opening statement. Prosecutor Gregg Sofer told jurors that Abdo had intended to kidnap a soldier and execute him on video when he was still in Kentucky. "He had already acquired a body bag, a stun gun, a cattle prong," Sofer told the jury. But the plan fell apart and Abdo fled, leaving his Cadillac, body bags, a green body bag carrier and bleach to clean up the scene of the crime. A hood, three handcuff boxes, batteries for the prong, his car keys and identification papers were also found. "My heart was racing," Oak Grove Police Sergeant Victor Lynch told the court. "I was thinking somebody was in danger." Abdo bought a .40-calibre handgun and two extended round clips from a man in Nashville and paid $315.05 in cash at a Dallas-area department store for items that prosecutors said could be used to make a bomb, including electrical wiring, clocks and a pressure cooker. He then took a four-hour taxi ride from North Texas to Killeen, where he bought smokeless gunpowder in a local gun store. A federal forensic analyst testified that the powder, typically used in fireworks, burns slowly but could be used to detonate a bomb. Prosecutors displayed receipts for the goods and showed videos of Abdo at the department store, his Killeen hotel and at the gun store a few miles down the road. Along the way, he aroused suspicion that twice prompted police investigations and ultimately led to his arrest. One employee recalled telling Abdo to have a nice day after he paid $256.44 cash for a number of items that included the smokeless gunpowder. Bothered after the exchange, those at the store later called police.

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Arabia

US drone strikes al-Qaeda convoy in Shabwa

2012-04-17

[Yemen Post] US drones targeted al-Qaeda an vehicle in the southeastern Yemeni province of Shabwa with five strikes, sources told Yemen Post.The drone targeted the beturbanned goons' car in Karma area in Azzan district, of Shabwa, which is considered to be al-Qaeda stronghold as it's the hometown of the Yemeni-American holy man Anwar al-Awlaqi, who was killed last year by a drone attack. As of yet, there is no reports of causalities resulting from the attack but a tribal source told Yemen Post on condition of anonymity that the five people who were in the car are all presumably killed. Further, the drone has targeted some hideouts in the areas between al-Hota and Azzan districts of Shabwa, media outlets said. US intensified its drones attacks in the southern parts of Yemen in an effort to compensate for the disrupted military cooperation on fighting the terror network. The cooperation, which is based on training, funding, and donating equipment, was suspended owning to the unrest that plagued the country last year.Azzan, a district in Shabwa, was taken over by al-Qaeda gunnies who found little resistance by security forces.The terror network also take control of some towns in the war-torn province of Abyan, including Zinjubar, the placid provincial capital, taking an advantage of the distracted army.

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Arabia

Al-Qaeda declares Shabwa Islamic Emirate

2012-03-09

[Yemen Post] Ansar al-Sharia ...a Yemeni Islamist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends... , al-Qaeda offshoot in Yemen, declared on Wednesday the southern Yemeni province of Shabwa, the hometown of the Yemeni American holy man Anwar al-Awlaqi, who was assassinated last year by an US drone strike, as an Islamic emirate. In a statement released on its website, al-Qaeda declared Shabwa, a province abundantly rich in natural resources such as oil and gas, an Islamic emirate, citing pictures of its elements in control of key government institution in the governorate. Such announcement is the third of its kind but the biggest of its magnitude. The terror network has declared Zinjubar, the lovely provincial capital of the strife-torn province of Abyan, an Islamic emirate in May last year. However Yemeni army assisted by tribal gunnies managed to regain control of it , forcing them out three months later. The town [Zinjubar] still the scene of nearly daily festivities between the Jihadists and army troopers nevertheless. On Sunday, AQAP gunnies has waged a surprise attack on military posts the outskirts of Zinjubar, leaving at least 180 soldiers killed, capturing 70, and looting different kinds of weapons. Also, earlier the year, the Orcs and similar vermin have briefly taken over Rada, the main town of the southeastern Province of Al-Baitha. They ,however, pulled out after Yemeni government has struck a deal with them, releasing dozens of their fellow islamists from prisons. Taking an advantage of the current situation the country is going through, Yemen-based al-Qaeda wing--the most active offshoot of the global terror network in the world according to US Department of State-- has gained momentum in south Yemen, stepping up its attacks on army and security forces, and taking control of large swathes of lands. Earlier the day, locals in al-Mukala, the lovely provincial capital of Hadramout, the biggest province in the country, has distributed flies, warning army personnel that their fate is going to be death unless they repent and stop fighting for the government. High-ranking security officer told Yemen Post on condition of anonymity that the interior Ministry have intelligence information that the AQAP fighters planning to take over al-Mukala. Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi has pledged to eradicate AQAP elements on Monday.

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