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Note: Video included. SNIPPET: "In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera, Mustafa Abul-Yazeed, al-Qaeda's third in command, gives a rare insight into the group's campaign. He even said al-Qaeda would use Pakistan's nuclear weapons against the US should his group get hold of them."

SNIPPET: "Some comments • I have to assume that al-Balawi was thoroughly debriefed by al-Qaida before being sent on this mission, and I'm surprised no one has sought to correlate his "infiltration" of al-Qaida with Abu Yahya al-Libi's book released over the summer: "Guidance on the Ruling of the Muslim Spy" • See also: Al Qaida: Western Spies Multiply "Like Locusts"."

The leader of a Chinese terrorist group who serves on al Qaeda's top council may have been killed in an airstrike in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. The report is not confirmed. Abdul Haq al Turkistani, the leader of the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Party, is reported to have been killed by the US in the Feb. 15 airstrike. The US strike targeted a vehicle and a safe house operated by Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Baradar in the town of Tabi Ghundi Kala; four terrorists were reported killed in the attack. Pakistani intelligence officials and Taliban sources claimed that...

Unmanned US strike aircraft killed six Islamist extremists in an attack on a compound in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. The strike took place in the Datta Khel region in North Waziristan, a region that hosts a headquarters for al Qaeda's Shadow Army. "Two missiles fired by a US drone hit a compound which was being used by militants," a senior Pakistani security official told Dawn. "One missile hit a compound and the other hit a vehicle outside it. Six militants were killed." No senior al Qaeda or Taliban commanders have been reported killed in the strike at...

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) – A suspected U.S. drone fired two missiles into an al Qaeda and Taliban sanctuary in a Pakistani region the Afghan border on Tuesday, killing at least three militants, Pakistani intelligence officials said. The strike in the North Waziristan region was the first since U.S. President Barack Obama's speech last week outlining plans to send 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. Obama said Pakistan must not allow its territory to be used as a sanctuary for militants. "One of the missiles hit a vehicle and all three militants in it were killed," an intelligence official told Reuters...

Senior al Qaeda and Afghan Taliban leaders are reported to have met with Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud to advise him to move his group's operations into Afghanistan and halt attacks against the Pakistani state. Several meetings were said to have been held last week after an 11-man delegation of al Qaeda and Taliban heavy hitters arrived in Waziristan to deliver a request from Mullah Omar, the Amir al Mumineen, or the leader of the faithful in Pakistan and Afghanistan, according to a report in The Nation. The Taliban dispatched Sirajuddin Haqqani, the powerful military commander of the Haqqani Network,...

A New York Times reporter known for making investigative trips deep inside dangerous conflict zones escaped from militant captors after more than seven months in captivity by climbing over a wall, the newspaper said Saturday. David S. Rohde was abducted Nov. 10 along with an Afghan reporter colleague and a driver south of the Afghan capital, Kabul. He had been traveling through Logar province to interview a Taliban commander, but was apparently intercepted and taken by other militants on the way. The Times reported that Rohde and Afghan reporter Tahi Ludin on Friday climbed over the wall of a compound...

A fugitive British militant linked to an alleged UK plot to use liquid bombs to blow up transatlantic airliners has been killed in Pakistan, reports say. Pakistani media said Rashid Rauf, born in Birmingham, was killed in a US air strike in North Waziristan, a haven for militants and the Taleban. Mr Rauf, on the run after escaping from a Pakistani jail, was alleged to have helped the group planning the attacks. Three men were convicted in the UK in September of conspiracy to murder. News of the liquid bomb plot paralysed global air travel, prompting authorities to implement stringent...

Permalink | Printer-friendly version Arab, Asian al Qaeda operatives reported killed in North Waziristan raid By Bill RoggioJanuary 31, 2008 11:08 AM Abu Laith al Libi. Click to view. The Jan. 29 airstrike against a Taliban safe house in Pakistan's North Waziristan may have targeted two senior al Qaeda leaders, the Pakistani press is reporting. The airstrike was carried out by US forces in Afghanistan and killed 13, according to local tribesman in the town of Khushali Tari Khel near Mir Ali on the Pakistan-Afghan frontier. Seven Arab members of al Qaeda and six Central Asian operatives were reported...

MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan - Government forces attacked two militant bases with helicopter gunships and artillery Tuesday in some of the army's toughest action in the lawless Afghan border region since militant attacks began surging last month. Spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said troops targeted a pair of compounds in Daygan, a village 10 miles west of North Waziristan's main town of Miran Shah, after they received credible intelligence that militants were there. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, is under rising pressure from Washington to crack down on militants in...

Yahoo! News and Reuters Al Qaeda escapee caught in Afghanistan: report 52 minutes ago KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. forces in Afghanistan have captured an al Qaeda operative who escaped from the main U.S. military prison in the country last year, a Pakistani newspaper reported on Monday. The man, identified as Abu Nasir al-Qahtani, was captured recently in the southeastern Afghan province of Khost, the News newspaper said, citing Taliban supporters in the Pakistani border region of North Waziristan. The U.S. military said on November 6 a "known al Qaeda operative and five other extremists" had been captured during an operation...

CNN) -- An al Qaeda operative wanted in connection with the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings was killed in April in Pakistan, American officials have confirmed. Pakistani officials had said that Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah was killed in North Waziristan during an airstrike by Pakistani forces near the border with Afghanistan. DNA testing confirmed the Pakistani government's claim, U.S. officials said, and Atwah's name was removed from the FBI's list of Most Wanted Terrorists. Atwah, 42, was born in Egypt. He was indicted in connection with al Qaeda's suicide bombings of U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania....

Taliban military commander Mulla Dadullah Akhund has said he visited North Waziristan and South Waziristan in Pakistans tribal areas about three months ago and advised the Taliban there not to fight their countrys armed forces. I told the Pakistani tribal militants that fighting in Waziristan was in the interest of America. My argument was that we should fight the US, UK and armies of other Western countries, he told Pakistani newspaper in a satellite phone call from an undisclosed location. Mulla Dadullah, who is the most wanted Taliban leader after Mulla Mohammad Omar, argued that the Taliban fight was with...

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) - Seven Pakistani soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber blew up his car at a checkpost in a restive tribal area, a day after militants there announced a truce. It was the second suicide blast in a month in rugged North Waziristan, where Pakistani forces recently fought bloody battles against Taliban and Al-Qaeda insurgents who fled from neighbouring Afghanistan in 2001. Security officials said Monday paramilitary troops ordered the explosives-filled Toyota Corolla station-wagon to stop as it neared a roadblock six kilometres (four miles) east of Miranshah, the main town in the area. "As it did...

Not many outside Pakistan's troubled tribal zone of Waziristan along the country's north-western border with Afghanistan will be familiar with the name of Haji Omar. But in Waziristan, it is a name that is commanding increasing respect and awe with every passing day. Haji Omar is the amir (chief) of the Pakistani Taleban that have risen over the last year to take control of large parts of Waziristan. His writ runs virtually unchallenged in South Waziristan and he seems confident that his commanders will soon establish Taleban control in North Waziristan as well. 'Al-Qaeda ally' Meeting him in Wana, South...

Taleban fighters battling Pakistani security forces declared a unilateral ceasefire last week to accommodate a religious gathering near Miranshah, the largest town in North Waziristan. The ceasefire began on 2 May to allow tens of thousands of devotees from all over the region to attend the annual ritual organised by the Pakistan-based Tablighi Jamaat. The ceasefire ends on 11 May. What happens after that is anyone's guess.

MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan - Pakistani security forces backed by helicopter gunships killed at least 15 suspected Taliban sympathizers Friday in the latest flare-up of violence near the Afghan border, the Pakistani army said. One soldier also was killed. The top army spokesman described the continuing bloodshed in the North Waziristan tribal region as "disturbing" and said efforts to control it were costing the Pakistani military "heavily." "Eighty percent of the people in the area are sitting on the fence and watching for which side buckles, either the government or the militants, and they will go with the winner," Maj. Gen....

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani soldiers backed by helicopter gunships targeted a suspected militant hideout near the Afghan border, killing about 30 militants in a volatile tribal region that has seen repeated clashes in the past week, a military spokesman said Saturday. The spokesman, Gen. Shaulat Sultan, said the attack was launched late Friday near Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan. Sultan would not reveal the identity or nationality of the slain men, but told The Associated Press the attack was launched using "authentic intelligence, and according to our information about 30 miscreants, who included foreigners, were killed." An...

PESHAWAR, March 5: Security forces regained control of government buildings and installations after a fierce artillery duel with local Taliban in Miramshah on Sunday, officials said. However, there were reports of sporadic clashes continuing in the area. The officials said that troops had expelled Taliban elements from the government buildings after a nightlong battle in which Cobra helicopter gunships were also used. A senior military official said militants were still in control of a small pocket of Miramshah bazaar and expressed the hope that they would be ‘wiped out’ by Monday noon. “There have been small engagements in Mirali...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - A Pakistani army helicopter carrying about 16 people crashed Thursday in a remote northwestern tribal region that has seen sporadic fighting between government forces and foreign militants, police and army officials said. The helicopter went down near Karak, a town in North Waziristan, officials told The Associated Press. Authorities have recovered at least four bodies from the crash site, Inayat Ullah, a police official in Karak, told The Associated Press. He did not know if there were any survivors, but said they believe about 16 people were on board. Another police officer, Naseer Mohammed, said the...