ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Al Qaeda terrorists in Yemen offer $160,000 in gold for killing the US ambassador, three months after the envoy to Libya was murdered. Motorcycle hit in drone strike in Yemen Al Qaeda terrorists in Yemen offer $160,000 in gold for killing the US ambassador, three months after the US envoy to Libya was murdered. The US State Dept. presumably will take the matter more seriously than it did when senior officials ignored events leading up to the brutal killing of Christopher Stevens on September 11. The al-Malahem terrorist website also offered $23,000 to anyone who murders an American soldier, but the offer is valid for only six months. The website posting followed a US drone strike in Yemen that killed three AQ terrorists, including a senior Al Qaeda member, Saleh Mohammed al-Ameri. The bounties were set to "inspire and encourage our Muslim nation for jihad," the statement said. A day earlier, five others were killed, and the US army carried our four drone strikes during t...

A small U.S. commercial plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Iran earlier this month, Mehr news agency reported Sunday. A small U.S. commercial plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Iran earlier this month, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported Sunday. Head of the state-owned Iran Airports Company, Mahmoud Rasoulinejad, announced that the plane landedapproximately three weeks ago in an airport located in the southern city of Ahvaz due to technical failure. “The 3-member plane faced technical problems while passing over Iran's airspace and this is the reason that the airport permitted it to make a landing,” he said. "After landing, the crew traveled on to countries around the Persian Gulf and the plane is currently being repaired," he added. Rasoulinejad did not specify who owned the aircraft, where it was headed or the nationality of the crew members. The aircraft will leave the country as soon as the repair work is completed, he said. It wa...

At least 21 men who belonged to a paramilitary force shot dead in Peshawar by their captors, say government officials. Government officials say 21 out of 23 tribal policemen believed to have been kidnapped by the Taliban have been executed by their captors in northwest Pakistan. Naveed Akbar Khan, a local government official, told the AFP news agency on Sunday: "We found 21 bullet riddled bodies of security personnel a short while ago in an uninhabited area." "One was found alive but wounded and admitted to hospital while another managed to escape unhurt," he added. Khan said officials found the bodies shortly after midnight on Sunday after being notified by one policeman who had escaped. The victims were from a paramilitary force recruited from members of ethnic Pashtun tribes in northwestern Pakistan, reported the Reuters news agency. The militias support the government in its efforts against fighters battling the state, it added. Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, ...

The US has sent 50 troops to Chad to help evacuate US citizens and embassy staff in neighbouring Central African Republic where rebels have seized several cities and are advancing on the capital Bangui. Barack Obama, the US president, informed congressional leaders of Thursday's deployment in a letter on Saturday citing a "deteriorating security situation" in the deeply impoverished nation. The US has special forces in the country who are assisting in the hunt for Joseph Kony, a Ugandan fugitive rebel leader of the Lord's Resistance Army based in northern Uganda. The planned evacuation of the US diplomats follows criticism of Washington's handling of diplomatic security before and during the attack on its consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11. The ambassador and three other Americans were killed in that attack. The US deployment comes amid reports that a rebel coalition known as Seleka seized another town in their advance on the capital, forcing an army re...

Sunni Muslims in Iraq are continuing their demonstrations against the Shia-led government which they accuse of marginalising them. Thousands gathered on Sunday in Ramadi, 100km west of Baghdad, in Anbar Province, which has seen several days of protests. The protests began on Friday with many demonstrators massing along a major highway near the city of Falujah in the country's north. Al Jazeera's Omar el Saleh, reporting from Ramadia, said the protests had been triggered by the arrest 10 days ago of nine bodyguards of the finance minister, Rafie al-Issawi,in Baghdad. "They're not only protesting against the arrest of the body guards; they're also now protesting against the imprisonment of Sunnis ... They say the Sunnis have been targeted by the Shia-led government. So they're demanding the release of female prisoners; they're demanding the release of male prisoners and also they want an end to what they say is marginalisation and discrimination against Sunn...