Declassified report shows US predictions of IS group threat
A newly declassified U.S. intelligence report predicted in 2020 that the Islamic State group was likely to regain much of its former strength and global influence, particularly if American and Western forces reduced their role in countering the extremist movement.
One year after Afghanistan, spy agencies pivot toward China
In a recent closed-door meeting with leaders of the agency's counterterrorism center, the CIA's No. 2 official made clear that fighting al-Qaida and other extremist groups would remain a priority — but that the agency's money and resources would be increasingly shifted to focusing on China. The CIA drone attack that killed al-Qaida’s leader showed that fighting terrorism is hardly an afterthought. One year after ending the war in Afghanistan, President Joe Biden and top national security officials speak less about counterterrorism and more about the political, economic and military threats posed by China as well as Russia.
news.yahoo.comTaliban claim they unaware of al-Qaida leader in Afghanistan
The Taliban said Thursday they are investigating what they described as “claims” that al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri was killed in a U.S. drone strike in the Afghan capital. The statement marked the first time the Taliban leadership addressed the U.S. announcement that al-Zawahri was the target of Sunday's strike.
news.yahoo.comEXPLAINER: A look at the missile that killed al-Qaida leader
For a year, U.S. officials have been saying that taking out a terrorist threat in Afghanistan with no American troops on the ground would be difficult but not impossible. Last weekend, the U.S. did just that — killing al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri with a CIA drone strike. Other high-profile airstrikes in the past had inadvertently killed innocent civilians.
news.yahoo.comDid U.S. Chop Up al Qaeda Boss With Terrifying Top Secret Spinning Blades?
Ausaf Newspaper for Daily Dawn/Handout via ReutersWhen Ayman al-Zawahri, the post-Osama bin Laden leader of al Qaeda, was obliterated on the balcony of a pink house in a posh-for-Kabul district in the Afghan capital, neighbors heard a bang but did not see signs of an explosion.A neighbor who lives nearby told Reuters that she heard a loud noise on Sunday but curiously did not see the usual chaos most Kabul residents associate with a bomb or missile attack including smoke and fire. That has led t
news.yahoo.comWatching al-Qaida chief's 'pattern of life' key to his death
As the sun was rising in Kabul on Sunday, two Hellfire missiles fired by a U.S. drone ended Ayman al-Zawahri's decade-long reign as the leader of al-Qaida. U.S. officials had built a scale model of the safe house where al-Zawahri had been located, and brought it into the White House Situation Room to show President Joe Biden.
news.yahoo.comWeekend strike by US killed Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri, sources say
WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan this weekend killed Ayman al-Zawahri, who took over as al-Qaida leader after Osama bin Laden’s death in a U.S. raid. The attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon made bin Laden America’s Enemy No. Bin Laden provided al-Qaida with charisma and money, but al-Zawahri brought tactics and organizational skills needed to forge militants into a network of cells in countries around the world. Al-Zawhiri and bin Laden plotted the 9/11 attacks that brought many ordinary Americans their first knowledge of al-Qaida. Photos from the time often showed the glasses-wearing, mild-looking Egyptian doctor sitting by the side of bin Laden.
mlive.comUN: Taliban faces threat from Islamic State, new resistance
U.N. experts say Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers are maintaining close ties with al-Qaida as they consolidate control over the country, and their main military threat is coming from the Islamic State extremist group and guerrilla-style attacks by former Afghan government security personnel.