A resurgent Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has expanded its reach in Yemen to unprecedented levels and quadrupled its manpower from “approximately 1,000 members” in 2014 to “4,000” last year, according to the Department of State (DOS)..
The Syrian Army just landed a big fish, figuratively and literally. Video posted online shows the capture of “The Bulldozer,” a corpulent Islamic State executioner known for beheading and dismembering his victims, which included young children.
Months of peace talks and years of armed clashes have done little to bring Yemen close to a resolution of its civil war, as the Shiite Houthi rebels in charge of its capital, Sanaa, take more ground closer to the bases of the internationally recognized government.
Al-Qaeda has suffered some battlefield setbacks in chaotic Yemen, but the terror organization still controls highly profitable oil fields in the southern regions of the country and has been taking advantage of fuel shortages to reap huge profits.
On Thursday, the U.S. government officially added the ISIS affiliates in Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen to the list of designated terrorist organizations.
The army loyal to Yemen’s internationally recognized government will invade the Yemeni capital of Sanaa if the United Nations-brokered peace talks in Kuwait — aimed at ending the year-long war in the country — fail, a spokesman for the Saudi-led Arab coalition has said.
The United States has carried out four airstrikes in recent weeks against a resurgent al-Qaida branch in Yemen, killing 10 jihadists and injuring one, according to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).
Washington (AFP) – The Pentagon acknowledged for the first time Friday it has deployed US troops to Yemen since the country’s collapse last year, in a push to bolster Arab and local government forces battling Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
The White House spent a good deal of President Obama’s first day in Saudi Arabia trying to spin away the unmistakable snub dealt by King Salman, who personally greeted the leaders of other Gulf nations at the airport but left Obama to be welcomed by the governor of Riyadh and the Saudi foreign minister.
The 67 Yemeni Jews who chose to stay in their war-torn country instead of joining the recent secret airlift to Israel are now having second thoughts amid ongoing harassment from their Muslim neighbors, the Media Line reported.
Pro-secessionists protesters in southern Yemen, estimated to number in the thousands, are demanding “independence and right to self-determination” amid a fragile ceasefire between warring parties and delayed United Nations-brokered peace negotiations.
The Pentagon has announced the transfer of nine Yemeni detainees out of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to Saudi Arabia as President Barack Obama prepares to visit the Gulf kingdom and continues his efforts to shut down the U.S. military prison.
CASABLANCA – Lebanese daily Al-Mustaqbal published an article claiming that Hezbollah has morphed from being a resistance organization to a “Frankenstein’s monster” controlled by Iran and an occupier of Arab lands.
The Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen, backed by the United States, has helped al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) grow stronger than ever, reveals a recent investigation by Reuters.
A United Nations-brokered ceasefire in Yemen between Iran-allied Houthi rebels and a Saudi-led military coalition has reportedly started amid allegations of fighting among the warring sides.
The New York Times reports it was able to persuade Facebook to shut down six web pages used as “sprawling online arms bazaars” for terrorists and militants, “offering weapons ranging from handguns and grenades to heavy machine guns and guided missiles.”
The Washington Post reports: The Syrian government has freed an American freelance photographer who was abducted after traveling to the country in 2012, according to two U.S. officials. Kevin Patrick Dawes, 33, from San Diego, was released following months of
The U.S. Navy interdicted an enormous Iranian vessel in the Arabian Sea and seized more than 2,000 illicit weapons onboard, which were believed to be en route to the Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen, various news agencies report.
A troubling report from the UK Independent says that al-Qaeda has acquired sophisticated surface-to-air missiles from battlefields like Syria, Iraq, and Yemen and used a battle-tested Russian missile system to shoot down a French-made Mirage fighter jet, flown by the United Arab Emirates over Yemen.
The four nuns running a nursing home in Aden, Yemen, killed by the Islamic State earlier this month, belonged to the Missionaries of Charity, established by Blessed Mother Teresa.
Church officials in India are denying the now metastasizing rumors that Father Tom Uzhunnalil has been murdered by crucifixion at the hands of his radical Islamic captors.
The Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Cardinal Schonborn, issued a statement claiming he could confirm that Islamic State jihadists crucified 56-year-old Father Tom Uzhunnalil, an Indian Catholic priest, on Good Friday.
Ynet news reports: Among the people arrested by the Houthis in Yemen following the “smuggling” of a 600-year-old Torah scroll by the 17 Jews who were brought to Israel in a secret operation on Monday was a member of the Jewish
Contents: Iran and Pakistan agree to open border crossings and improve trade; Iran and Pakistan attempt to erase 40 years of sectarian hostility
Kirsten Evans, executive director of In Defense of Christians, spoke about the genocide perpetrated against Christians in the Middle East on the Good Friday edition of Breitbart News Daily.
At least 50 members of the resurgent al-Qaeda branch in Yemen were killed in a U.S. airstrike in the mountains of southern Yemen, Reuters reports, citing medics and a local official.
The internationally recognized government of Yemen and Shiite Houthi rebels have agreed on a ceasefire, Yemeni officials have reportedly said on condition of anonymity.
TEL AVIV – The immigration of Yemenite Jewry to Israel ended this week with the country’s last 19 Jews smuggled into the Jewish state over the past few days, the Jewish Agency announced. The organization’s spokesman Avi Mayer said that this
Major Saudi-led combat operations against Shiite Houthi rebels and their allies in Yemen, which began nearly a year ago, are “coming to an end,” the spokesman for the military coalition reportedly said.
Contents: Saudi Arabia says it will ‘end major combat operations’ in Yemen; Over 100 civilians killed in Saudi airstrike in Yemen
The Islamic State militants who killed the four Missionaries of Charity in Yemen earlier this month “tied them up, shot them in the head and smashed their heads,” according to an eye witness who escaped the killing. One of the
Pakistan’s Dunya News reports Saudi Arabia has proposed a “NATO-like” military alliance of Muslim nations, meant not as a defensive alliance against a particular country, “but to combat terrorism and emerging threats like ISIS.”
Two warplanes from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) fatally crashed while fighting the Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen, the New York Times reports, citing Saudi Arabia’s official news agency.
Saudi Arabia declared that anyone linked to Iran’s terror proxy Hezbollah will be deported from the kingdom, Al Arabiya News Channel reports.
There are signs the Houthi insurgents in Yemen might be talking with Saudi Arabia about ending the year-long civil war, including an encouraging prisoner transfer and the Houthis asking their patrons in Iran to back away from the conflict.
Another piece slides across the board between Saudi Arabia and Iran in the Middle Eastern game of thrones, as Djibouti, recently estranged from Iran, prepares to sign a deal that will give Saudi Arabia a military base in the East African country.
Al-Qaeda has denied responsibility for the savage attack on a home for the elderly established by Mother Teresa in Yemen’s port city of Aden, in which four Catholic nuns were murdered, along with 12 other people.
Indian and Yemeni officials believe the Islamic State kidnapped an Indian priest in an attack that left 16 dead at a nursing home in Yemen.
Contents: Italy debates military intervention in Libya after ISIS kills Italian hostages; Looking back at the 2011 ‘Arab Spring’ Libya military intervention; Russian media calls Gaddafi’s Libya an ‘oasis of stability’; Police in Turkey use force to shut down opposition newspaper
Pope Francis has reached out with a message of condolence for the victims of a terrorist attack on a care home in Yemen operated by the Missionaries of Charity in which four Catholic nuns as well as 12 other people were
