al-Qaeda

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Militants Free Doctor, 88, After More Than 7 Years

Australian doctor was kidnapped in Burkina Faso in early 2016

(Newser) - An Australian doctor has been reunited with his family more than seven years after he was kidnapped by an al-Qaeda offshoot in West Africa. Kenneth Elliott, 88, flew into Perth on Thursday and was reunited with wife Jocelyn and their children, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports. Jocelyn Elliott was also...

It's Coup Part II for Burkina Faso
It's Coup Part II
for Burkina Faso

It's Coup Part II for Burkina Faso

Paul-Henri Damiba, who ousted the ex-president in January, has himself been ousted by soldiers

(Newser) - In January, Paul-Henri Damiba led a military coup that ousted Burkina Faso President Roch Kabore, citing widespread discontent at Kabore's inability to quell relentless attacks by Islamic groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State that have killed thousands. Now, it appears Damiba, who took over as the West Africa...

Taliban: We Didn't Know Where al-Zawahri Was

US government claims otherwise

(Newser) - The Taliban broke its silence Thursday, days after a US drone strike killed al-Qaeda's top leader in Afghanistan's capital, acknowledging his slaying and pledging to launch an investigation. The killing of Ayman al-Zawahri on the balcony of a Kabul safehouse Sunday has further strained relations between the Taliban...

Al-Zawahri's Killing Reveals a Worrisome Alliance

Al-Qaeda leader must have been hiding in Kabul with Taliban's blessing: Fred Kaplan

(Newser) - For journalist Fred Kaplan, the killing of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri stands out not so much for the event itself. Al-Qaeda "is far from the potent global force that it was a decade ago," writes Kaplan at Slate , and while al-Zawahri certainly had a key role in planning...

Al-Zawahri's Habit of Sitting on Balcony Was His Undoing

Allowed US to target him in strike that wouldn't kill anyone else

(Newser) - As the sun was rising in Kabul on Sunday, two Hellfire missiles fired by a US drone ended Ayman al-Zawahri's decade-long reign as the leader of al-Qaeda. The seeds of the audacious counterterrorism operation had been planted over many months. US officials had built a scale model of the...

Ayman al-Zawahri, From Surgeon to al-Qaeda Leader
The Story of
bin Laden's
Slain Successor
profile

The Story of bin Laden's Slain Successor

Ayman al-Zawahri went from surgeon to al-Qaeda leader, was killed over the weekend

(Newser) - Before he became Osama bin Laden's deputy, and later the leader of al-Qaeda after bin Laden was killed, Ayman al-Zawahri was a brilliant student in Egypt, where he got a master's degree in surgery in 1978. He also, at age 15 in 1966, was part of forming an...

Biden: 'Justice Has Been Delivered' to al-Qaeda Leader

CIA drone strike killed Ayman al-Zawahri in Kabul

(Newser) - Update: This file has been updated with more details and President Biden's address. Ayman al-Zawahri, leader of al-Qaeda since the death of Osama bin Laden, was killed in a drone strike in Afghanistan over the weekend, President Biden told the nation Monday evening. "Justice has been delivered,"...

Cardinal's 'Bombshell' Reveal Involves Pope, a Nun, and $1M

Angelo Becciu testifies that Francis OK'd paying that to free kidnapped Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez

(Newser) - Pope Francis authorized spending up to around $1 million to free a Colombian nun kidnapped by al-Qaeda-linked militants in Mali, a cardinal testified Thursday, revealing previously secret papal approval to hire a British security firm to find the nun and secure her freedom. Cardinal Angelo Becciu's bombshell testimony could...

9/11 Families Set Condition for Biden to Attend Memorials

Relatives, first responders, and survivors want documents released that might implicate Saudi leaders

(Newser) - President Biden has been informed that he won't be welcome at events marking the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks unless he declassifies documents that could tie Saudi Arabian leaders to the terrorism. More than 1,800 relatives of victims, first responders, and attack survivors have signed onto...

Military Judge Allows Info Obtained During Torture

Law expert says it's a break with rules set by Congress

(Newser) - When Congress laid out rules for military tribunals, it decreed that "no statement obtained by the use of torture or by cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, whether or not under color of law, shall be admissible in a military commission." But in what may be a first, a...

Man Gunned Down in Iran Was No 'History Prof': NYT

Abu Muhammad al-Masri was shot while driving in Tehran this summer, officials say

(Newser) - Al-Qaeda's second-in-command was apparently gunned down in August—but where it happened, and what that means, might be as big as the killing itself. Intelligence officials tell the New York Times that Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, also known as Abu Muhammad al-Masri, was shot by Israeli agents on Aug. 7...

Sudan: a State Sponsor of Terror No More?

US proposal would free country from sanctions—at a price

(Newser) - The Trump administration has offered to remove Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism—if the poverty-stricken country will fork over $330 million. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed the proposal during a meeting with Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok in Khartoum on Tuesday, per the BBC , though...

9/11 Convict Slams bin Laden, Asks for Giuliani as Lawyer

Zacarias Moussaoui says he now renounces terrorism

(Newser) - The only man ever convicted in a US court for a role in the Sept. 11 attacks now says he is renouncing terrorism and al-Qaeda. Zacarias Moussaoui is serving a life sentence at a federal "Supermax" prison in Colorado; he was arrested in August 2001, lied to the FBI,...

FBI Cracks Phone of Shooter on Base, Finds al-Qaeda Link

Saudi shooter at Pensacola naval base killed 3 Americans

(Newser) - Last year, a Saudi military officer training at a US naval base in Florida shot and killed three American sailors and wounded eight others. Now, federal authorities have finally broken into one or both of his iPhones and discovered a link to al-Qaeda, reports the New York Times . The gunman,...

White Supremacists Are Major Threat, Says One State

New Jersey officials issue a new terrorist-threat report

(Newser) - Who's the biggest threat in New Jersey? Not al-Qaeda or ISIS. Not anarchists or black separatists. It's white supremacists, according to a terrorist-threat report released Friday by New Jersey Homeland Security officials. "The threat from white supremacist extremists increased from moderate to high in 2020 due to...

Trump Says US Operation Killed Yemen al-Qaeda Chief
Trump: We Killed
Al-Qaeda Honcho

Trump: We Killed Al-Qaeda Honcho

(Newser) - President Trump said Thursday that the US, at his direction, has conducted a counter-terrorism operation in Yemen that killed Qassim al-Rimi, an al-Qaeda leader who claimed responsibility for last year's deadly shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola , where a Saudi aviation trainee killed three American sailors. Al-Rimi is a...

Terror Group Claims Deadly Florida Naval Base Shooting

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula releases video claiming the attack

(Newser) - Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen claimed responsibility Sunday for last year's deadly shooting at the Naval Air Station Pensacola by an aviation student from Saudi Arabia, the AP reports. The shooter, 2nd Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, was a member of the Saudi Air Force in training at the base....

3 More Americans Killed in Base Attack

Al-Shabab strikes again, this time at Camp Simba in Manda Bay, Kenya

(Newser) - With Iran on everyone's mind, Americans killed in Africa don't get much attention—but three were indeed killed Sunday at a military base in Kenya, NBC News reports. According to US Africa Command, al-Shabab forces attacked a base used by US troops before dawn, killing a US service...

White House: Son of Osama bin Laden Has Been Killed

Details are still unclear on what exactly happened to Hamza bin Laden and when

(Newser) - The White House says Hamza bin Laden, the son of the late al-Qaeda leader who'd become an increasingly prominent figure in the terrorist organization, has been killed in a US counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. A White House statement gives no further details, such as when Hamza bin...

Another bin Laden Son Is Dead
Another bin Laden Son Is Dead

Another bin Laden Son Is Dead

Hamza bin Laden was killed, but where or when is unclear

(Newser) - Another Osama bin Laden son is apparently dead. The story broke after two US officials told NBC News that Hamza bin Laden, a likely successor to lead al-Qaeda one day, had died—but no details. Now officials say Osama's heir died between 2017 and 2019 and the US government...

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