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The Afghan Taliban overran two district centers in the east while Afghan forces regained control of another which has changed hands several times over the past year. Afghan officials confirmed that the district of Zana Khan in Ghazni was overrun, while the Taliban claimed to have seized Gomal in Paktika province. Afghan officials then said that security forces regained control of Jani Khel in Paktia, however the Taliban has denied that claim. A member of Ghazni’s provincial council said that the Taliban killed four policeman and confiscated two “tanks” (likely up-armored HUMVEEs) and several Ranger pickup trucks after  storming the Zana Khan district center . Taliabn spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that a Taliban force inflicted “multiple enemy casualties” and “lots of weapons/equipment seized” during the operation. The Taliban  claimed it  “took over the center of the district of Gomal and its checkpoints in Paktika province during an intense fighting following an offensive last

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release SOUTHWEST ASIA, Aug. 3, 2017 – Coalition airstrikes continue to target and kill Islamic State of Iraq and Syria leaders and foreign fighters in Syria to support coalition partner forces and degradeISIS' ability to inspire, resource and direct terror attacks around the world, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials said today. Most recently, officials said in a statement, the coalition targeted and killed ISIS leaders involved in directing external operations as well as in bomb-making activities directed at regional and Western targets. Coalition forces killed Abd al-Ghafur, a Syria-based ISIS external operations official, and one associate in an airstrikeJuly 24 near Albu Kamal, Syria. His assistant, Abu Hammam, and three other ISIS members were killed by a coalition airstrike July 16 near Dayr Az Zawr, Syria. Ghafur and Hammam were responsible for managing and directing external op

President Muhammadu Buhari Kunle Aderinokun in Lagos and Tobi Soniyi in Abuja President Muhammadu Buhari has said that Nigeria cannot afford to sell forex to parents seeking to fund their children education abroad. This president’s position on forex allocation for school fees of Nigerian students studying abroad was part of the interview Buhari granted to Aljazeera television during his trip to Qatar last weekend, which was posted on the TV’s website sunday. Buhari said his position on the forex allocation issue followed a discovery that the high demand for forex by parents of the students studying abroad to pay their wards’ tuition fees had been putting unnecessary pressure on the Naira, which in turn affects Nigerian economy. Convinced that the practice is responsible for the current free fall of the currency, Buhari said the country could no longer continue to sell dollars to parents to sponsor their wards in schools abroad. He, however, said any parent who could afford forex ou

Australian counter-terrorism police conduct raids across Sydney suburb Security has been increased at Australian airports after police foiled "Islamic-inspired" plans for a bomb attack on an aircraft during counter-terrorism raids in which four men were arrested on Saturday, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) have confirmed. "In recent days, law enforcement has become aware of information that suggested some people in Sydney were planning to commit a terrorist act using an improvised device," AFP commissioner Andrew Colvin said during a press conference with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday, adding: "We do believe it is Islamic-inspired terrorism. Exactly what is behind this is something that we will need to investigate fully. "At this time we don’t have a great deal of information on the specific attack, the location, date or time. However, we are investigating information indicating that the aviation industry was potentially a target ...&qu

The file photo shows Iranian fishing boats. Saudi Arabia’s coastguard has opened fire on Iranian fishing boats in the waters south of Iran, killing a fisherman, a senior border official of the Islamic Republic says. The incident happened after two Iranian boats fishing in the Persian Gulf strayed from their course due to big sea waves, the Iranian Interior Ministry’s director general for border affairs Majid Aqa-Babaei said on Saturday. “Accordingly and without establishing whether the Iranian boats had crossed Saudi borders, the coastguard of this country opened fire on the Iranian boats and an Iranian fisherman was killed due to a bullet hitting him in the waist,” he added. “This Saudi move is not compatible with human principles and even assuming that the boats had crossed Saudi borders due to sea waves, they were not authorized to shoot at the Iranian boats,” the official said. Aqa-Babaei noted that the Islamic Republic is following up on the issue to determine whether the

On Jan. 19, the Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released 49 documents recovered in Osama bin Laden’s compound. To date, only a few hundred documents from bin Laden’s massive cache have been declassified. Still, the files that have been posted online reveal new details about al Qaeda’s complex international network. For instance, one  newly released missive  discusses Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s (AQIM) support for Boko Haram. The letter was written by Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, an AQIM commander who was subsequently killed in Mali in 2013. It was authored in Aug. 2009 and is addressed to AQIM’s emir, Abdelmalek Droukdel (also known as Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud). Boko Haram’s men sought AQIM’s assistance “Imam Abubakar Shekau, who assumed power of the Nigeria group after the death of Imam Muhammad Yusuf, sent three brothers to us,” Abou Zeid wrote at the beginning of his letter. Shekau (seen on the right) is the notorious leader of the organization commonly known as

People gather at the site of a car bomb explosion next to the central bank in Yemen's second city of Aden, October 29, 2016. (Photo by AFP) Three people, including a child, have been killed in a bomb attack in Yemen’s central province of Bayda. According to Yemen's official Saba news agency, the bombing was carried out near a checkpoint in the center of the town of Rada' on Tuesday, when Yemeni soldiers fired at an advancing car, suspected of carrying explosives, to bar it from striking itself against a nearby sports and culture club. The huge blast killed the assailant on the spot and claimed the lives of a fighter with the Houthi Ansarullah movement and a child. It also injured at least eight other people. The explosives-laden car was heading to target the club, in which a ceremony was held in commemoration of martyrs from the Yemeni army and the Ansarullah movement. The explosion also damaged a nearby school and shattered the windows of houses that were in the vi

Reuters ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari discussed a possible new arms deal with U.S. President Donald Trump by telephone on Monday to help the West African nation fight terrorism, the Nigerian presidency said. Nigeria has been fighting since 2009 against an insurgency by Boko Haram militants trying to set up an Islamic state in the remote northeast. The unrest has killed thousands and displaced more than two million people. Abuja has been trying to persuade the U.S. to sell it military aircraft, a request being reviewed by Congress. "President Trump assured the Nigerian president of U.S. readiness to cut a new deal in helping Nigeria in terms of military weapons to combat terrorism," the presidency said in a statement. Buhari is currently on medical leave in Britain. It gave no other details of the call, their first since Trump's inauguration, except that the U.S. president had invited Buhari to Washington. Under Buhari's predecessor Good