100 die as Iraq forces battle Al Qaeda.

Over 100 die as Iraq forces battle Al Qaeda.

Gunmen walk in the streets of the city of Falluja, 50 km
 (31 miles) west of Baghdad January 3, 2014. Sunni
Muslim tribesmen backed by Iraqi troops fought al
 Qaeda-linked militants for control of Iraq's western
 province of Anbar on Friday. — Photo by Reuters

RAMADI | AFP | Iraq | 05 Jan 2014 :: More than 100 people were killed on Friday as Iraqi police and tribesmen battled Al Qaeda-linked militants who took over parts of two Anbar provincial cities, announcing one an Islamic state.

Parts of Ramadi and Fallujah, west of Baghdad, have been held by militants for days, harkening back to the years after the 2003 US-led invasion when both cities were insurgent strongholds.

Fighting began in the Ramadi area on Monday, when security forces removed the main anti-government protest camp set up after demonstrations broke out in late 2012 against what Sunni Arabs say is the targeting of their community.

Anger at the government among the Sunni minority is seen as one of the main drivers of the worst violence to hit Iraq in five years.

Police and tribesmen fought in Ramadi and Fallujah on Friday against militants from Al Qaeda-linked group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which operates in Iraq and Syria, security officials said.

At least 32 civilians and 71 ISIL fighters died in the clashes, the officials said, adding that they did not know how many police and tribesmen were killed.

Fallujah was the target of two assaults after the 2003 US-led invasion, in which American forces saw some of their heaviest fighting since the Vietnam War.( Courtesy : Dawn )

Iraq general among 15 killed attacking Qaeda: army

Iraq general among 15 killed attacking Qaeda: army 

When the assault began, the soldiers were hit by
suicide bombers, and when they entered buildings
 several booby traps exploded, the sources said.

BAGHDAD | AFP | 22 dec 2013 ::  Five senior Iraqi officers, including a major general, and 10 soldiers were killed Saturday in clashes with insurgents in the west of the country, military sources reported.

Major General Mohammed al-Karoui and the other 14 all died in an assault on “a hideout of the Al Qaeda network” in Sunni-majority western Anbar province near the border with Syria, the sources said.

They were killed attacking a militant camp near Rutba, 380 kilometres west of Baghdad, senior officers said.

When the assault began, the soldiers were hit by suicide bombers, and when they entered buildings several booby traps exploded, the sources said.(Courtesy:Dawn)

Al-Qaeda in Yemen denies U.S. claims on attack plots.

Al-Qaeda in Yemen denies U.S. claims 

on attack plots.

Yemeni security forces at a checkpoint in Sana’a. Embassies were
 closed during August due to allegations that the al-Qaeda was
planning attacks in Yemen. (File Photo: AFP)

Dubai | AFP | 27 Aug 2013 :: Al-Qaeda in Yemen has denied U.S. allegations it is plotting massive attacks that prompted the closure of Western missions in the country this month, in a statement posted online.

The extremist network also denied reports confirmed by Yemen’s President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi that U.S. intelligence services had intercepted a conversation between al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, head of the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

“Hadi repeated the nonsense and propaganda published by U.S. intelligence on telephone calls between jihadist leaders to justify the US plot to kill Muslims in Yemen through continued raids,” AQAP said in the statement posted on jihadist Internet forums.

Hadi had “claimed the jihadists were plotting to target oil terminals in the country using bomb-laden trucks,” said AQAP.

“We deny what he said and regard it as an attempt to justify US criminal practices.”

“We also affirm our concern... in preserving the blood of Muslims,” the statement added.

A source close to Hadi quoted the Yemeni leader as saying Friday that in the alleged conversation between the al-Qaeda leaders Wuhayshi told Zawahiri he would be hearing of something “that will change the course of history”.

Hadi and U.S. President Barack Obama had discussed the matter at the White House on August 1, according to the same source.

On August 4, the United States shut 19 of its consulates and embassies in the Arab and Muslim countries amid what American officials said was a threat of an imminent al-Qaeda attack.(Courtesy:Al Arabia)Read More>>>

Al-Qaeda suspects in Yemen killed in U.S. drone strike.

Al-Qaeda suspects in Yemen killed in U.S. drone strike.

U.S. drones strikes in Yemen nearly tripled in 2012compared to
 2011, from 18 to 53, according to the New America Foundation, a
 Washington-based think-tank. (File photo: AFP

Aden | AFP | 30 Jul 2013 :: A U.S. drone strike killed three suspected al-Qaeda militants in Yemen at dawn on Tuesday in the second such attack in three days, a tribal source told AFP.

"The car in which the three were travelling -- two Yemenis and a Saudi -- was blown to pieces and all of them were killed outright," the source said.

The attack struck in Shabwa, a southern province that borders Abyan, where Saturday night's strike hit.

"It was carried out by a U.S. drone," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The strike targeted two vehicles on the road between Al-Aram and Al-Saeed.

"Only one vehicle was hit and the other got away," the source said.

The United States, the only country to operate drones in the region, has sharply increase its use of them against al-Qaeda targets in Yemen over the past two years.

Washington regards al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a merger of militants in Yemen and neighboring Saudi Arabia, as the worldwide jihadist network's most active and dangerous branch.

U.S. drones strikes in Yemen nearly tripled in 2012 compared to 2011, from 18 to 53, according to the New America Foundation, a Washington-based think-tank.

A U.S. drone strike killed six suspected al-Qaeda militants in neighboring Abyan province on Saturday night, a Yemeni military source told AFP.

The six suspects were travelling in a two-vehicle convoy in the Mahfad mountains, an area of Abyan where the jihadists remain active despite the recapture of most of the province's main towns in a Yemeni army offensive last summer.

AQAP took advantage of the weakness of Yemen's central government during an uprising against now-ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011 to seize large swathes of territory across the south and east.

Washington has given strong support to the efforts of Saleh's successor, President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, to reassert central government control.

President Barack Obama is to host Hadi for White House talks on Thursday.

Several AQAP leaders have been killed in U.S. drone strikes, most recently the network's deputy leader Saeed al-Shehri whose death was confirmed by the jihadists on July 17.

But, although weakened, AQAP still carries out frequent hit-and-run attacks against members of the Yemeni security forces.(Courtesy:Al Arabia)