A Yemeni drone specialist who had traveled to Iraq to train other Iranian-backed fighters was among those killed in a U.S. airstrike near Baghdad last week, American and Iraqi defense officials said, illustrating the extensive cooperation among militant groups supported by Tehran.
The July 30 airstrike in Musayib, a town south of Iraq’s capital, targeted militants preparing to launch an attack on U.S. forces, officials have said. The strike killed Hussein Abdullah Mastoor al-Shabal, a Houthi commander, though the Pentagon was unaware of who he was until after an assessment of the operation’s results, said the U.S. official, who like others in this story spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the airstrike.
Read more…
Source: The Washington Post
Related:
- Colombia’s ELN rebels kill five soldiers in bomb attack
February 27, 2018
At least five Colombian soldiers were killed and more than 10 wounded early Tuesday in an attack by the Marxist ELN rebels near the border with Venezuela, the Army said. The attack came one day after the National Liberation Army (ELN) said it would hold a unilateral ceasefire during legislative elections next month. The government had ...
- Hamas teams with Iran and Hizbullah, hits Israeli forces with sophisticated IED
February 23, 2018
In an attack that closely resembled the tactics used by Iran-backed Hizbullah, Hamas on Feb. 17 remote detonated two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) which injured four Israeli soldiers. The sophisticated attack targeted soldiers from Israel’s Golani Brigade as they were attempting to remove a flag that was affixed to the border fence. The soldiers were wounded ...
- Israeli intel thwarts ISIS attack on Australian airliner
February 22, 2018
An elite IDF intelligence unit was successful in exposing and thwarting an Islamic State (ISIS) terror plot to bomb an airliner flying out of Australia at the end of 2017. According to an army announcement on Wednesday, the IDF’s famed 8200 cyber unit uncovered the plot and then relayed the information to Israel’s intelligence community, which shared ...
- Philippines: Arrested IS terror suspect yields bomb parts
February 20, 2018
A suspected Islamic State (IS) terrorist and his Filipino companion have been arrested in their apartment in Manila, Philippine National Police Director General Ronald dela Rosa said on Monday. Dela Rosa said Fehmi Lassqued, who carried a Tunisian passport but was earlier identified as an Egyptian born in Syria, was an IS commander who had been ...
- Europe will see increase in terror in 2018, as foreign Isil fighters ‘return home with high-tech skills’
February 13, 2018
The terror threat to Europe will only increase this year, experts have warned, as growing numbers of foreign fighters return home with “high tech” weapons knowledge learned on the battlefield. Scores of jihadists are expected to trickle back to the UK and the continent, bringing with them skills acquired in Syria and Iraq, such as the ...
- ‘New techniques used to trigger Bodh Gaya blast’
February 8, 2018
The Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) terrorists, who had allegedly planted three improvised explosive devices (IED) in Bodh Gaya on January 19, aimed for maximum casualty of Buddhist monks by triggering blasts with the help of three different techniques. Intelligence sources said these techniques were different from the ones adopted in 2013 blasts at Bodh Gaya and Gandhi Maidan in Patna. In those blasts, ...
- U.S. targets Chinese Uighur militants as well as Taliban fighters in Afghanistan
February 8, 2018
The U.S. military says it carried out a series of punishing bombings last weekend of Taliban militant camps that also support a separatist Chinese terror group. A bombing raid Sunday on a region bordering China and Tajikistan set a record for the number of precision-guided munitions launched at one time from a B-52 bomber, according to ...
- State Intelligence/Fusion Center staying ahead of next threat
February 5, 2018
High above the congested traffic on Kanawha Boulevard across the river from the state Capitol, Scott Pauley helps manage a team of eight intelligence analysts constantly searching for the next potential threat. Pauley is deputy director of the West Virginia Intelligence/Fusion Center located inside the old Columbia Gas Building in Charleston. The highly secure facility is a ...
- Afghan militants involved in Kurram agency IED blast: Sources
January 31, 2018
The militants based in neighboring Afghanistan were involved in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast which occurred in Kurram agency yesterday, sources said on Wednesday. On Tuesday, eight people including three women and a child were killed when their vehicle struck a landmine in Ghos Ghari area of Kurram agency. Sources said that the Afghan militants were ...
- Defense Threat Reduction Agency: 20 Years of Making the World Safer
January 25, 2018
“As an agency, DTRA started 20 years ago, but it wasn’t starting from scratch,” said Vayl Oxford, DTRA director. “It was initially created to focus various C-WMD efforts throughout the Department of Defense, and we’ve been building on those past successes ever since.” Under the Defense Reform Initiative of 1997, the Defense Special Weapons Agency, the ...
- Pressure cooker IED found in Pampore
January 24, 2018
A spokesman of the CRPF said that “an IED fitted in a three-litre pressure cooker was detected by alert jawans of the force at Kandizal-Tangpora village near the railway station.” RPF personnel Wednesday detected and defused a pressure cooker IED near a railway station in Pampore area of Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir. The recovery ...
- U.S. requires tougher cargo screening from Middle East airports
January 22, 2018
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said on Monday it will require six Middle Eastern carriers to undergo enhanced cargo screening as part of an effort to raise global aviation security. The emergency amendment covers carriers in five countries flying out of seven airports and focuses “on last points of departure locations where the threat is ...
- Trial set for man accused of making bomb parts for jihadists
January 21, 2018
A decade ago, military police raiding a Baghdad apartment during the Iraq War discovered bomb-making materials that authorities say contained the fingerprints of a Syrian man now accused of making a key component for improvised explosive devices for a jihadist group that attacked American soldiers. Ahmed Alahmedalabdaloklah (AL-ah-med-AL-ab-dahl-OK’-lah) is accused of making circuit boards used to ...
- Terrorists Stalk Dark Web for Deadlier Weaponry
January 17, 2018
Bottom line: Terrorists are turning to the dark web’s crypto-bazaars, social media channels and e-commerce sites to buy more coveted military equipment than the usual rocket launchers and AK-47s in the traditional black market. These digital black markets are also allowing terrorist organizations from Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen, as well as self-radicalized individuals in the West, ...
- Re-emergence of JeM, use of IEDs shake security grid in Kashmir
January 8, 2018
The re-emergence of Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) outfit on the militancy scene in Kashmir has shaken the security grid that fears more fidayeen attacks and Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blasts in future. The sources in the security grid said that re-introduction of remote-controlled IED in Sopore on January 6 that resulted in the death of four Indian Reserve ...
- Uighurs fighting in Syria take aim at China
December 23, 2017
Since 2013, thousands of Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority from western China, have traveled to Syria to train with the Uighur militant group Turkistan Islamic Party and fight alongside al-Qaida, playing key roles in several battles. Syrian President Bashar Assad’s troops are now clashing with Uighur fighters as the six-year conflict nears its endgame. But ...
- Fire as a Weapon: High-Rise Structures
December 20, 2017
Pyro-terrorism, the purposeful ignition of fire with the intention of causing harm, can make firefighting so complex that it eventually stretches the resources of a firefighting department to the limit. The need to preempt terrorist attacks on buildings has forced fire departments to create counter-terrorism units on an unprecedented scale. This thesis seeks to answer two ...
- How ISIS Produced Its Cruel Arsenal on an Industrial Scale
December 11, 2017
Late this spring, Iraqi forces fighting the Islamic State in Mosul discovered three unfired rocket-propelled grenades with an unusual feature — a heavy liquid sloshing inside their warheads. Tests later found that the warheads contained a crude blister agent resembling sulfur mustard, a banned chemical weapon intended to burn a victim’s skin and respiratory tract. The ...
- Islamic State cells now operating in Malaysia, says anti-terror chief
November 22, 2017
State terrorists no longer act as lone wolves but have organised themselves into cells in Malaysia, police said today. Special Branch Counter-Terrorism chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said the first cell detected in Malaysia was the group targeting the “Better Beer Festival” in September. He said the cells usually have between three and 10 members and have no direct links ...
- Homeland Security bulletin warns of weaponized drones and threat to aviation
November 9, 2017
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued an updated terror bulletin on Thursday highlighting the threat of weaponized drones, chemical attacks and the continued targeting of commercial aircraft. “We continue to face one of the most challenging threat environments since 9/11, as foreign terrorist organizations exploit the internet to inspire, enable or direct individuals already here in the ...
- White Supremacists Share Bomb-Making Materials in Online Chats
November 2, 2017
Right-wing extremists communicating in confidential online chats in recent months have shared scores of documents detailing the manufacture and use of bombs, grenades, mines and other incendiary devices. The documents, which range from instructions on detonating dynamite to U.S. military manuals for constructing improvised explosives and booby traps, were passed around during online conversations among members ...
- Pentagon Report: IED Casualties Surge in Afghanistan
October 20, 2017
Improvised explosive devices have plagued the U.S. military and its allies since the earliest days of the fight against terrorism, leading the Pentagon at one point to declare a “Manhattan Project” to battle the homemade bombs. Now, 16 years later, the number of IED deaths and injuries is falling overall among countries under U.S. Central ...
