Sanctions can strike the often-radical Islamist network a piece at a time.
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Tag: al qaeda
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Opinion | Trump Takes On the Muslim Brotherhood
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Brit jihadi threatened to shoot Jewish hostages before FBI killed him
A BRITISH jihadist forced Jewish hostages to their knees and threatened to shoot them in the head before FBI agents killed him, an inquest heard.
Islamic extremist Malik Faisal Akram, 44, held the four at a Texas synagogue to demand an al-Qaeda prisoner’s release.
Malik Faisal Akram forced Jewish hostages to their knees and threatened to shoot them in the head before FBI agents killed himCredit: FBI Akram, of Blackburn, fired a warning shot in the air as he made the threat in a final phone call to the FBI.
He was killed when armed agents stormed the synagogue minutes later on January 15 2022.
The dad-of-six had owned five pharmacies which closed down when his marriage broke up.
He was subject to a domestic violence protection court order in 2016 to protect his wife, the Preston inquest heard
Coroner James Adeley recorded that he had “detained hostages and died after being shot by federal agents”.
Associates in Blackburn said he became increasingly religious and had quarrelled with his wider family in the months before his death.
He had spent much of the year before the attack in Pakistan.
It emerged after the kidnap drama that Akram had previously been the subject of a low-level investigation by MI5 but the case was closed after a month.
He travelled to New York on December 29 2021, and then on to Dallas, where he purchased a black market handgun.
Akram talked his way into a synagogue in nearby Colleyville, holding a rabbi and three Jewish worshippers hostage.
Texas synagogue siege: British hostage taker named as Malik Faisal Akram – as two teenagers arrested in ManchesterThe inquest revealed that the service was being live-streamed to other members of the congregation because of the Covid epidemic.
They were able to alert police after Akram was let into the building, claiming he was homeless.
Adam Sonin
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Court rules that the government can hide its own report on CIA torture
The government investigated itself—and you’re not allowed to see the results. On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) doesn’t apply to the Senate’s 2012 report on CIA torture programs. The decision blocks off an avenue to find out what’s in the 6,700-page paper, which the CIA has fought to keep under wraps for more than a decade.
The ruling comes after a small victory for transparency. On Friday, defense lawyers at the Guantanamo Bay military tribunal were allowed to release a photo of their defendant handcuffed and nude at a CIA black site in 2004. Defense lawyers have mentioned the existence of disturbing photos from black sites, but because almost all evidence at the Guantanamo trials is classified, they have never been able to release these photos to the public.
Over the weekend, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin canceled military prosecutors’ controversial plea deal for three accused Al Qaeda members. Their cases may go to trial—which would allow lawyers to uncover more evidence related to the CIA torture program.
The Senate investigation had been prompted by past CIA attempts to cover its tracks. After learning that the CIA had destroyed tapes of prisoners being tortured, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence began an investigation into the CIA’s entire interrogation program. (CIA officer Gina Haspel, who helped destroy the tapes and had personally watched torture sessions, later became CIA director during the Trump administration.)
By 2012, staffers had dug up reams of evidence on CIA malfeasance. They reported not only the specific torture methods, but also that the CIA had tortured innocent people (including a mentally challenged man and two of the agency’s own informants), that CIA leaders had lied to the public and Congress about the program, and that much of the intelligence gained under torture was useless or worse.
For example, the false reports linking Iraq to Al Qaeda, ultimately used to justify the Iraq War, may have come from a tortured prisoner, according to the Senate report. Another prisoner, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, was tortured into making a false terrorism confession. The military held Slahi at Guantanamo Bay for 14 years before unceremoniously releasing him. FBI agent Ali Soufan—whose memoir the CIA also fought to keep secret—alleges that the CIA refused to believe a real confession warning about a real plot in 2002 because it wasn’t extracted under torture.
After the Senate committee finished its investigation, the CIA pushed hard to stop the results from seeing the light of day, arguing that the details must stay classified for national security reasons. When a Senate staffer locked up one incriminating document in a committee safe, fearing that the CIA would destroy it, the CIA proved his fears right by hacking into the Senate’s computer network.
The Senate was finally allowed to publish a 525-page summary of its findings in 2014, but the details remain classified to this day. Even some pseudonyms of CIA officers and code names for countries were censored in the declassified summary, making it impossible to piece together a coherent timeline of many events.
City University of New York law professor Douglas Cox tried a different route: a FOIA request. Although FOIA doesn’t apply to the Senate, it does apply to the executive branch. Luckily for Cox, the Senate committee had provided copies of the reports to different executive agencies, including the FBI, Department of Justice, Department of Defense, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and Department of State.
Cox asked all of those agencies for their copy in December 2016. The Department of Justice argued that, even if it possessed a copy of the report, the document still belonged to the Senate, so FOIA didn’t apply. In June 2017, the Trump administration asked several of the agencies to return their copies to the Senate committee, hoping to prevent this kind of disclosure. Cox decided to sue, alleging that the administration was violating FOIA.
The case dragged on through years of appeals, and the Biden administration continued to fight Cox in court to keep details of CIA torture hidden. This week, a panel of three judges for the 2nd Circuit upheld the administration’s argument. The Senate “manifested a clear intent to control the report at the time of its creation, and because the Committee’s subsequent acts did not vitiate that intent, the report constitutes a congressional record not subject to FOIA,” the judges wrote.
The Senate committee had disagreed on what to do with the report. Late committee chair Dianne Feinstein (D–Calif.) wrote that the report “should be made available within the CIA and other components of the Executive Branch for use as broadly as appropriate to help make sure that this experience is never repeated.” But then-ranking member Richard Burr (R–N.C.) called the report a “highly classified and committee sensitive document” that “should not be entered into any executive branch system of records.”
Feinstein’s statement was “ambiguous over who retains full power over the ultimate disposition of the report,” and “does not clearly address whether the report may be disseminated outside of the Executive Branch to, for example, the public,” Judge William Nardini stated in the Monday ruling. So the torture report is still legally a Senate document, outside of FOIA.
Of course, nothing is stopping the Senate itself from releasing more of the torture report. But ordinary citizens apparently don’t have a right to sue for its disclosure. For now, that decision will have to be a political one.
Matthew Petti
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Death of Osama bin Laden Fast Facts | CNN
CNN
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Here’s a look at the death of Osama bin Laden.
On May 2, 2011, Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed by US Special Forces during an early morning raid at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
– Built in approximately 2006.
– Significantly larger than other homes in the area, and worth a reported $1 million.
– Lacked telephone and internet service.
– Residents burned their trash rather than having it picked up.
– Approximately 24 people lived at the house.
– Surrounded by 12- to 18-foot walls topped by barbed wire.
– Had two security gates.
– Bin Laden and his family’s living quarters were on the second and third levels.
– The third floor terrace had a seven-foot privacy wall.
– Located only about a mile from the Pakistan Military Academy.US forces retrieved numerous items from bin Laden’s compound, including 10 hard drives, five computers and more than 100 storage devices, such as disks, DVDs and thumb drives, according to a senior US official.
2007 (approx.) – US intelligence uncovers the name of one of bin Laden’s most trusted couriers.
2009 (approx.) – Intelligence sources identify the area of Pakistan where the courier and his brother live.
August 2010 – US intelligence sources identify the Abbottabad compound as the home of the courier and his brother, who have no obvious means of affording a $1 million home.
September 2010 – The CIA informs President Barack Obama that bin Laden may be living in the Abbottabad compound. They base this on the size and price tag of the compound as well as the elaborate security.
February 2011 – The intelligence on the Abbottabad compound is considered strong enough to begin planning action.
March 14, 2011 – President Obama chairs the first of five National Security Council meetings to discuss an operation to raid bin Laden’s compound.
March 29, 2011 – Second National Security meeting.
April 12, 2011 – Third meeting.
April 19, 2011 – Fourth meeting.
April 28, 2011 – Last of the National Security Council meetings on the bin Laden raid.
April 29, 2011 – At 8:20 a.m. ET, President Obama gives the order to raid bin Laden’s compound.
May 2, 2011 – In the early morning hours (mid-afternoon on May 1 in the United States), a group of 25 Navy Seals raid the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
– They arrive outside the compound in two Black Hawk helicopters.
– The operation takes 40 minutes total.
– US Special Forces breach the outer walls of the compound before fighting their way through the ground floor of the three-story building. The firefight then moves to the second and third floors.
– In the last 5-10 minutes of the firefight, bin Laden is killed by a gunshot wound to the head.
– Three men, including a son of bin Laden, are killed as well as one woman.
– Bin Laden’s body is identified by one of his wives. Facial recognition is also used.May 2, 2011 – Bin Laden is buried at sea off the deck of the USS Carl Vinson in the Arabian Sea.
– He is buried within 24 hours according to Islamic law.
– The hour-long ceremony aboard the USS Carl Vinson is conducted according to Islamic law.May 2, 2011 – A DNA test is done on a sample from the body, confirming that it is bin Laden.
May 3, 2011 – Attorney General Eric Holder declares the raid “lawful, legitimate and appropriate in every way.”
May 3, 2011 – White House Press Secretary Jay Carney offers new details on the raid. He clarifies that the woman killed was on the first floor, not with bin Laden, and was killed in the crossfire. Carney also says that bin Laden was not armed but did put up resistance.
May 3, 2011 – A congressional source tells CNN that bin Laden had approximately $745 and two telephone numbers sewn into his clothing.
May 3, 2011 – Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mojahed releases a statement, “Obama has not got any strong evidence that can prove his claim over killing of the Sheikh Osama bin Laden… And secondly, the closest sources for Sheikh Osama bin Laden have not confirmed” the death.
May 4, 2011 – White House Press Secretary Carney announces that President Obama has decided not to release photos of bin Laden’s body.
May 6, 2011 – Al Qaeda confirms bin Laden’s death, in a statement on jihadist forums.
May 12, 2011 – US officials confirm to CNN that US authorities have interviewed three of bin Laden’s wives.
May 13, 2011 – It is revealed that a large amount of pornography was seized from the Abbottabad compound during the raid. It is unclear to whom it belonged.
May 13, 2011 – A US military official tells CNN the Navy Seal team who carried out the bin Laden raid wore helmet-mounted digital cameras that recorded the mission.
May 17, 2011 – Senator John Kerry announces that Pakistan will return the tail of the US helicopter damaged during the raid.
May 18, 2011 – Admiral Mike Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates tell reporters there is no evidence that the senior Pakistani leadership knew of bin Laden’s presence in Pakistan.
May 26, 2011 – A team of CIA forensic specialists is granted permission by the Pakistani government to examine the compound.
June 15, 2011 – Pakistan’s intelligence agency arrests several people suspected of assisting the CIA before the raid.
June 17, 2011 – The US Justice Department formally drops terrorism-related criminal charges against bin Laden.
July 11, 2011 – Pakistani security forces detain a doctor suspected of helping the CIA attempt to collect the DNA of bin Laden’s family members through a vaccination drive.
October 6, 2011 – Pakistan’s information ministry says the doctor suspected of helping the CIA target bin Laden will be charged with treason. Also, bin Laden’s compound will be turned over to city officials.
February 2012 – Pakistani authorities begin to demolish the compound.
May 9, 2012 – Citing that it is of national security interest, a federal judge has denies Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information request regarding the release of bin Laden death photos.
May 23, 2012 – Shakeel Afridi, the Pakistani doctor accused of helping the CIA track down bin Laden, is fined $3,500 for spying for the United States and sentenced to 33 years in prison for treason by a tribal court.
September 4, 2012 – The memoir “No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama bin Laden” by former US Navy SEAL Matt Bissonnette, written under the name Mark Owen, is published.
February 11, 2013 – Conflicting information about which Navy SEAL killed bin Laden appears when Esquire magazine reports on an unnamed former Navy SEAL who says he fired the kill shot, not the point man as told in Bissonette’s book “No Easy Day.”
May 21, 2013 – A three-judge federal appeals court panel rejects an appeal from a conservative legal group, ruling that the release of post-mortem images of bin Laden’s body could result in attacks on Americans.
October 31, 2014 – Adm. Brian Losey, head of the Naval Warfare Special Command, releases an open letter warning Navy SEALs against betraying their promise of secrecy. This is in advance of two upcoming interviews from SEALs involved in the bin Laden mission.
November 7, 2014 – Former Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill says in an interview with The Washington Post that he was the one who fired the shot that killed bin Laden.
May 10, 2015 – In a published report, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh contends the Obama Adminstration lied about the circumstances surrounding the killing of bin Laden. The White House later dismisses the report as “baseless.”
May 20, 2015 – The Office of the Director of National Intelligence begins releasing and declassifying documents recovered in the raid in May 2011.
March 1, 2016 – A second batch of recovered documents is released by the DNI. Included in the materials are bin Laden’s personal letters and will.
August 2016 – Bissonnette agrees to pay the US government all past and future proceeds of the book “No Easy Day,” settling a lawsuit by the government for “breach of contract” by violating a non-disclosure agreement.
November 1, 2017 – The CIA announces the release of thousands of files it says came from the bin Laden raid. Among them is the deceased al Qaeda founder’s personal journal.
April 2023 – Newly released photos, obtained from the Obama Presidential Library via a Freedom of Information Act request by The Washington Post, offer a window into the meticulous planning – and tension – among the highest-ranking members of the US government on May 1, 2011.
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Spain Train Bombings Fast Facts | CNN
CNN
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Here’s a look at the March 2004 bombings of commuter trains in Spain, which killed 193 people and injured more than 1,800. The bombings are the deadliest terrorist attack in Spain’s history.
On March 11, 2004, 10 bombs in backpacks and other small bags exploded on four commuter trains. One bomb did not explode and was defused. The police did controlled explosions of three other bombs.
ETA, a Basque group labeled a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, and al Qaeda were the original suspects cited by the Spanish government.
Through anonymous phone calls to Basque media outlets, ETA vehemently denied involvement.
Islamic militants who were based in Spain but inspired by al Qaeda were designated later as the prime suspects.
March 11, 2004 – Coordinated attacks including 10 bombs on four commuter trains at three different stations kill 191 people and wound more than 1,800.
March 13, 2004 – An al Qaeda claim of responsibility is made via video tape by a man speaking in Arabic with a Moroccan accent.
March 13, 2004 – Five people are arrested in connection to the case 60 hours after the bombings. Three of those arrested are Moroccans, and two are Indian. Prepaid phone cards and a cell phone from backpacks found at the bombing site link the five to the investigation.
March 14, 2004 – The Spanish Interior Ministry releases the names of five people detained in connection with the attacks. The men are identified as Jamal Zougam, Mohamed Bekkali, Mohamed Cahoui, Vinay Kohly and Sureh Komar.
March 18, 2004 – Spanish authorities arrest four North Africans in connection with the bombings. The radio report says three were arrested in the Madrid suburb of Alcala de Henares and the other North African was arrested in northern Spain. They are: Abderrahim Zbakh, Farid Oulad Ali and Mohamed El Hadi Chedadi, whose brother, Said Chedadi, was indicted last September by a Spanish judge for links to al Qaeda.
– The fourth suspect is not identified but is described as being of Arab descent.
– The fifth suspect is a Spanish citizen who goes by the name of Jose Emilio Suarez Trashorras. He is arrested in northern Spain.March 19, 2004 – Spain’s National Court charges five suspects in connection with the bombings and remands them into custody after an all-night court session. The Court also releases Ali Amrous, an Algerian man held in connection with the Madrid terror attacks and suspected of being an al Qaeda member.
March 22, 2004 – Spanish state radio reports four new arrests in the Madrid bombings.
March 24, 2004 – A Spanish judge charges two more suspects, Naima Oulad and Rafa Zouhier, in the train bombings, bringing the total number of people charged in the attacks to 11.
March 25, 2004 – A Spanish judge charges a Moroccan man, Faisal Alluch, with collaborating with a terrorist group in connection with the train bombings, boosting the number to 12 suspects who have been charged in the case.
March 30, 2004 – Spanish Interior Minister Angel Acebes names a Moroccan terrorist group, Moroccan Islamist Combat Group (GICM), as the principal focus in the investigation.
March 30, 2004 – Moroccan Fouad El Morabit, who had been released without charges, is rearrested. Court sources also confirm the latest arrest in the case, a man identified as Otman el Gnaout.
March 30, 2004 – Basel Ghayoun, a Syrian man, is charged in the bombings. Hamid Ahmidan of Morocco is charged with collaborating with a terrorist group and a count of drug possession. Three other men are released.
March 31, 2004 – A Spanish National Court judge issues international arrest warrants for six more suspects as the investigation focuses on the GICM. The Interior Ministry says five of the men sought are Moroccans. They include two brothers and a man who is related to other Moroccans previously arrested. The sixth man sought is Tunisian.
March 31, 2004 – Arraignments begin for two men, Antonio Toro Castro of Spain and Mustafa Ahmidam from Morocco.
April 2, 2004 – A bomb found under high-speed rail tracks between Madrid and Seville appears to be made of the same explosives used in the March 11 attacks.
April 2, 2004 – A Spanish judge releases without charges two Syrian men who had been detained in connection with the March 11 Madrid train bombings. He also frees a Moroccan man but orders him to report daily to police until further notice.
April 3, 2004 – Seven suspected terrorists kill themselves and a policeman when they set off an explosion in a suburb of Madrid as police attempt to enter a building. The suspects are presumed to be involved in the train bombings. Fingerprints at the scene later result in more arrests, including Saswan Sabagh.
April 3, 2004 – Spanish authorities arrest two more people but the identities of the two are not released.
April 7, 2004 – A National Court judge charges two more Moroccan suspects, Abdelilah El Fuad and Rachid Adli, in the March 11 Madrid train bombings.
April 12, 2004 – Spanish police arrest three more suspects. One of the three was identified as Morabit, who has now been detained three times. The other two are not identified.
May 6, 2004 – Brandon Mayfield, an American attorney, is taken into custody by the FBI in connection with the attacks. His fingerprints were found on a bag containing detonators of the kind used in the attacks, in close proximity to the blast site. The Spanish Interior Ministry spokesman said the plastic bag was found inside a stolen van left near the Alcala train station, from which the three bombed trains departed. US sources are calling him a material witness, not formally charging him with a crime as of yet, and state that he is a follower of Islam.
November 2004 – Spanish lawmakers launch an inquiry into the train bombings.
January 2005 – Spain’s interior minister says Spanish officials have made 66 arrests in the train bombing investigation.
April 11, 2006 – Twenty-nine people are indicted in a Spanish court in connection with the bombings. Five men are charged with planning and carrying out the plot, and a sixth is named as a “necessary collaborator.” The rest are charged with supporting roles.
February 15, 2007 – Start date of trial for 29 defendants. Seven defendants are considered prime suspects, and they each could face sentences of about 38,000 years in prison for mass murder, if convicted.
March 11, 2007 – For the third anniversary of the bombing, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia dedicate a memorial for the victims at the Atocha station. It is a glass cylinder which opens into a meditation chamber.
June 4, 2007 – One of the 29 defendants in the Madrid train bombings trial, Brahim Moussaten, has been cleared of all charges and is now a free man, a court spokeswoman tells CNN.
October 31, 2007 – Verdicts are read for the remaining 28 defendants. Three men are found guilty of the most serious charges and sentenced to thousands of years in prison. However, under Spanish law, they will serve only 40 years. Eighteen defendants are found guilty of lesser charges. Seven defendants are acquitted, including alleged mastermind Rabei Osman.
July 17, 2008 – Four defendants, Basel Ghalyoun, Mouhannad Almallah Dabas, Abdelilah el-Fadual al-Akil and Raúl González, have their convictions overturned. The acquittal of Osman is also upheld.
December 18, 2008 – A criminal court in Morocco convicts Abdelilah Ahriz of belonging to a terrorist group involved in the train bombings and sentences him to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors originally requested that Ahriz be given a life sentence, saying DNA sampling proved his involvement in preparing the train bombings.
May 12, 2009 – Ten of the 14 suspected Islamic militants accused of assisting the three suspects are acquitted by Spain’s anti-terrorism court. The ruling gives the remaining four sentences between two and nine years for falsifying documents or being part of a terrorist group.
January 13, 2010 – A Spanish court convicts five men accused of Islamic terrorist activities, including aiding fugitives from the Madrid train bombings of 2004 and planning other attacks. Their sentences, on charges of collaborating or belonging to an Islamic terrorist group, range from five to nine years in prison.
February 2011 – Spain’s Supreme Court overturns the lower court’s conviction of the five men convicted in January 2010 for Islamic terrorist activities that included aiding fugitives from the Madrid train bombings and planning other attacks.
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Mass. marijuana shops pay towns hefty fees. Why that might change. – Medical Marijuana Program Connection
… Monday.
Under current state law, marijuana establishments must pay a community … the costs imposed by the marijuana establishment.
“Reasonably related” means there … offset the operation of a marijuana establishment. Those costs could include …
MMP News Author
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9/11 memorial events planned to mark 22 years since the attacks and remember those who died
An annual ceremony to remember those who died on September 11, 2001, is being held in lower Manhattan on Monday, 22 years after the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers collapsed in the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil. CBS News New York will be streaming 9/11 memorial coverage starting at 8:25 a.m. ET with the reading of the names of those who were killed.
How to watch 9/11 memorial events
How many people died in the 9/11 attacks?
Nearly 3,000 people were killed after four planes were hijacked by attackers from the Al Qaeda terrorist group.
Two planes flew into the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in New York. One plane was flown into the Pentagon. Another aircraft crashed into an open field in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back — the only plane that didn’t reach its intended destination.
The painstaking process of positively identifying the remains of those killed at the World Trade Center continues more than two decades after the attack. With advancements in DNA technology, remains of two victims were ID’d just last week.
In addition to the toll that day, the World Trade Center attack exposed hundreds of thousands of people in lower Manhattan to toxic air and debris, and hundreds have since died from post-9/11 related illnesses. The exact number is unknown, but firefighter union leaders say 341 FDNY members have died of illnesses related 9/11, CBS New York reports.
What time did the 9/11 attacks happen?
The first plane, American Airlines Flight 11, crashed into the World Trade Center’s North Tower at 8:46 a.m. ET, killing everyone aboard and trapping people in upper floors of the tower. At 9:03 a.m., the second plane, United Airlines Flight 175, hit the World Trade Center’s South Tower. Both towers soon collapsed — the South Tower just before 10 a.m., then the North Tower a half-hour later.
American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m.
Then at 10:03 a.m., United Flight 93 crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
What happened at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania?
When American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the southwest corner of the Pentagon, 184 people were killed — 64 who were on the plane and 125 people in the building.
Sean Boger was one of the few people at the Pentagon who saw the plane coming in so low it took down a street light.
“I just looked up and, you know, a plane was flying directly at us,” he told CBS News in 2021. He said it was just 10 to 15 seconds before the plane hit the building.
Boger was in the control tower for the Pentagon’s helipad when he saw the plane, which he said sounded “like someone sawing medal” when it hit.
“I just couldn’t believe something that big could be flying that low and flying directly at us,” he said.
Less than 30 minutes later, United Airlines Flight 93 — the fourth plane downed in the terror attack — crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. That plane had been hijacked and was heading to Washington, D.C., but never made it after passengers and crew took action.
They were pushed to the back of the plane by hijackers, then took a vote and decided to try to regain control of the aircraft, according to the Friends of Flight 93 National Memorial. A struggle ensued, and the plane eventually crashed in an open area.
“Countless lives were spared thanks to their heroic actions, but all on board Flight 93 were lost,” the memorial says.
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Democratic lawmakers demand Pentagon disclose findings of investigation into drone strike that may have killed civilian | CNN Politics
CNN
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Democratic lawmakers are demanding that the Pentagon disclose the findings of its ongoing investigation into a US airstrike in Syria in May that may have killed a civilian, according to a letter Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chris van Hollen and Democratic Rep. Sara Jacobs sent to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Thursday.
US Central Command launched an official investigation into the May 3 drone strike late last month after a preliminary civilian casualty credibility assessment determined that there were sufficient grounds to more thoroughly probe whether a civilian had been killed, rather than a senior al Qaeda leader as Central Command initially claimed.
“While we recognize that this specific incident is part of an ongoing investigation, this does not negate the need for you to provide answers to Congress on the processes to implement the CHMR-AP,” the lawmakers wrote, referring to the Pentagon’s Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan.
That policy was developed in 2022 after a botched US drone strike in Kabul killed 10 civilians in August 2021.
“Given the significant public interest in this strike, we urge you to publicly release as much of the investigation as possible,” the lawmakers wrote, providing a deadline of July 19.
In their letter, the lawmakers ask why it took two weeks for CENTCOM to begin assessing whether a civilian was killed in the airstrike. As CNN has reported, a civilian casualty assessment was only launched after The Washington Post presented information to CENTCOM about the strike potentially killing a civilian instead of the intended target.
“[I]t is unclear why CENTCOM waited for weeks to fully investigate this matter, and why the tweet announcing that CENTCOM had targeted a senior AQ leader remains online without recognition that this incident is now under investigation,” the lawmakers wrote.
As CNN first reported, the senior general in charge of US forces in the Middle East, General Erik Kurilla, ordered that Central Command announce on Twitter that a senior al Qaeda leader had been targeted by the drone strike – despite not yet having confirmation of who was actually killed.
“We are particularly troubled by reports that CENTCOM Commander General Erik Kurilla was personally involved in the decision to tweet that CENTCOM had targeted a Senior AQ leader, without confirming the victim’s identity,” the lawmakers wrote, citing CNN’s reporting.
“By announcing the strike before confirming who DoD actually killed and delaying the process of opening an investigation into reports of civilian deaths, CENTCOM undermined DoD’s and its own credibility and commitment to civilian harm prevention and response,” they added.
As CNN reported in May, the episode raised questions about how thoroughly CENTCOM has implemented the military’s civilian harm mitigation policy – a process for preventing, mitigating and responding to civilian casualties caused by US military operations – since the botched Kabul strike in 2021.
CNN previously reported that there is growing belief inside the Pentagon that the individual killed in the May 3 strike – identified by his family as Loutfi Hassan Mesto, a 56-year-old father of ten – was a farmer with no ties to terrorism.
Mesto’s family told CNN that he had been out grazing his sheep when he was killed. Loutfi never left his village during the Syrian uprisings and did not support any political faction, his brother said.
The lawmakers requested that the Pentagon make the civilian casualty credibility report about the May 3 strike public, and to explain why Kurilla ordered the announcement before knowing who was actually killed.
They also requested more information about the department’s “process for verifying the status and identity of an individual targeted for or killed in a strike,” and asked whether it will commit to providing condolence payments to the family of any civilian killed in the strike.
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Malian president’s chief of staff, three others killed in ambush
Rebels linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL have been active in parts of Mali and the Sahel for more than a decade now.
The chief of staff for Mali’s interim president, Oumar Traore, and three others have been killed in an ambush, the government said on Thursday.
The ambush took place in the rural area of Nara in Mali’s southwestern Koulikoro region, the statement said, without providing further detail on when the attack occurred or who was responsible for it.
A driver who was travelling with the delegation is still missing, it added.
Mali is one of several West African countries battling armed groups during the past decade.
Rebels linked to al-Qaeda and the ISIL (ISIS) armed group have seized swaths of territory across the region, killed thousands and displaced millions. In January, fourteen Malian soldiers were killed and 11 wounded in two separate attacks in central Mali after their vehicles struck explosive devices.
Frustrations against the authorities’ failure to quell the violence have spurred two military takeovers in Mali since 2020.
In 2022, French troops completed a withdrawal from Mali as relations soured between both countries due to two coups and the perceived ineffectiveness of the foreign military in tackling rebel activity.
There have also been growing tensions between the UN mission and Mali’s military government following the alleged arrival of Wagner Group operatives from Russia to bolster government forces.
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Isolated Iran finds ally China reluctant to extend it a lifeline | CNN
Editor’s Note: A version of this story appears in today’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, CNN’s three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here.
Abu Dhabi, UAE
CNN
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Shortly before leaving for his first state visit to China on Tuesday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi issued a thinly veiled criticism of his powerful ally, saying the two countries’ relationship has not lived up to expectations.
The first Iranian president to arrive in China on a state visit in two decades, Raisi was keen to tell Beijing that it has not given enough support to Tehran, especially economically.
“Unfortunately, I must say that we have seriously fallen behind in these relations,” he said, referring to trade and economic ties. Part of his mission, he said, was to implement the China-Iran Strategic Partnership Plan (CISPP), a pact that would see Beijing invest up to $400 billion in Iran’s economy over a 25-year period in exchange for a steady supply of Iranian oil.
Raisi said that economic ties had regressed, and that the two nations needed to compensate for that.
The public criticism on the eve of the landmark trip demonstrated the heavily-sanctioned Islamic Republic’s disappointment with an ally that has in many ways become one of its few economic lifelines.
The speech was likely “a reflection of Tehran’s frustration with China’s hesitancies about deepening its economic ties with Iran,” Henry Rome, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told CNN. “The same issues that have constrained China-Iran relations for years appear to remain.”
Analysts said Raisi’s speech was a clear call for China to live up to its end of the relationship, seeking economic guarantees from the Asian power so he can have something to show at home amid a wave of anti-government protests and increasing global isolation.
“The mileage Raisi will get for having a visit is going to be very limited if that visit doesn’t produce anything,” said Trita Parsi, vice-president of the Quincy Institute in Washington, DC. “The Iranians are not in a position right now in which a visit in and of itself is sufficiently good for them…They need more.”
Whether Iran is satisfied with what China offered it, however, is yet to be seen.
“Though more substance may be achieved following the visit, the reality is that Raisi needs both the substance and the announcement of concrete agreements,” said Parsi. He added that China, on the other hand, appears to be inclined to “play matters down” as it balances the partnership with its ties with Gulf Arab states at odds with Iran, as well as its own fraught relations with the US.
In a joint statement, both China and Iran said they are “willing to work together to implement” the CISPP and “continue to deepen cooperation in trade, agriculture, industry, renewable energy, infrastructure and other fields.”
On Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, who accompanied Raisi to China, said that the two countries agreed to remove obstacles in the way of implementing the CISPP, adding that Iran was “optimistic at the results of the negotiations,” according to state news agency IRNA.
Chinese President Xi Jinping also accepted an invitation to visit Iran on a future date.
Raisi’s trip comes as Beijing strengthens its ties with Iran’s foe Saudi Arabia, and as cheap Russian oil potentially threatens Iran’s crude exports to China.
Less than two years after he took power, Raisi’s term has witnessed growing isolation from the West – especially after Iran supplied Russia with drones to use in its war on Ukraine – and failed efforts to revive a 2015 nuclear deal that removed some barriers to international trade with the Islamic Republic.
As Western sanctions cripple its economy, Beijing has helped keep Tehran afloat economically. China is Iran’s biggest oil customer, buying sanctioned but cheap barrels that other nations would not touch.
Tehran’s other ally, Russia, has however been biting into its Asian oil market as China buys more Russian barrels – also sanctioned by the West – for cheap, threatening one of Iran’s last economic lifelines.
The visit is therefore a strategic one, analysts say, and an attempt by Iran pull itself back up from domestic instability and worsened isolation from the West.
“(It) is an opportunity for Raisi to try to draw a line under the past five months of domestic unrest and project a sense of normalcy at home and abroad,” said Rome.
But Jacopo Scita, a policy fellow at the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation in London, said he did not expect the visit to result in much more than a recognition of China’s partnership with Iran.
“Raisi will hardly get much from the economic perspective, except for a new series of memoranda of understanding and some minor deals,” he told CNN.
Iran has also been reminding its people that looking eastward is the right path toward economic revival as prospects of returning to nuclear agreement fade, said Parsi. The government has been keen to show that it has “an eastern option” that is supportive and lucrative, he said.
Scita said that China is unlikely to live up to Iran’s expectations, however.
“I don’t believe that Beijing can offer guarantees to Tehran except a pledge to continue importing a minimum amount of crude regardless of the global market situation and China’s domestic demand,” he told CNN.
How Raisi’s visit will be received back at home remains unclear. If the trip yields no concrete results in the coming days, then Iran’s move eastward could prove to be “a huge strategic mistake that the Raisi government has really rushed into,” said Parsi.
Additional reporting by Adam Pourahmadi and Simone McCarthy
Turkey’s earthquake left 84,000 buildings either destroyed or in need of demolition after sustaining heavy damage, Turkish Urban Affairs and Environment Minister Murat Kurum said Friday, according to state media.
The deadly earthquake – which sent shockwaves across the region – has so far killed more than 43,000 across both Turkey and Syria.
At least 38,000 people died in Turkey, according to Turkey’s governmental disaster management agency, AFAD. The death toll in Syria remains at least 5,841, according to the latest numbers reported Tuesday by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Here’s the latest:
- Since the February 6 earthquake, a total of 143 trucks loaded with aid provided by six UN agencies have crossed from Turkey to northwest Syria through two border crossings, a OCHA statement said Friday.
- Two men were rescued in Hatay ten days after the earthquake struck, said Turkey’s Health Minister Fahrettin Friday. And late on Thursday, a 12-year-old boy was rescued from rubble in southern Hatay 260 hours after the earthquake hit, according to CNN Turk, which reported live from the scene.
- World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said upon returning from Syria on Tuesday that more than a decade of war in the region has left towns destroyed, with the health system unable to cope with this scale of emergency. “Survivors are now facing freezing conditions without adequate shelter, heating, food, clean water or medical care,” he said.
- Turkey added Elazig as the 11th province in the list of those impacted by the quake, the ruling party spokesman said.
- A Turkish family was reunited with the ‘miracle baby’ that was found in the rubble of the quake after they had given up hope.
- A confused woman asked her rescuers “What day is it?” when pulled alive from the rubble of last week’s earthquake after 228 hours.
- After attending the Munich Security Conference in Germany, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel on to Turkey and Greece on Sunday to see US efforts to assist with the earthquake and to meet with Turkish and Greek officials, the State Department said Wednesday.
Palestinian activist beaten by Israeli soldier says he is scared for his life
Palestinian activist Issa Amro, who was filmed being assaulted by an Israeli soldier on Monday, told CNN Thursday that he is physically and psychologically affected by the attack and fears for his life.
- Background: Lawrence Wright, a writer for the New Yorker magazine, posted video of the assault on Twitter. It showed two IDF soldiers manhandling well-known activist Amro, throwing him onto the ground, and one soldier kicking him, before that soldier is pushed away by other troops. The Israeli soldier who was filmed assaulting Amro in Hebron was sentenced to 10 days in military jail. In response to CNN’s interview with Amro, Israel Defense Forces international spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said there was “no justification” for the soldier’s behavior, but suggested Amro had provoked the incident.
- Why it matters: Amro said he is afraid for his life and for the lives of the people in the area, but added that, “unfortunately what happened to me is happening almost every day.” He said he filed many complaints to the Israeli police about soldier and settler violence, but had gotten no accountability. Amro also said he wants the Biden administration to reopen the Palestinian consulate in East Jerusalem.
Protesters set fire to ATMs as Lebanese lira hits 80,000 against the dollar in new record low
Lebanon’s national currency has hit a new record low of 80,000 Lebanese lira against the US dollar, according to values sold on the black market on Thursday. On Thursday, protesters blocked roads across Beirut and set fires to ATMs and bank branches, according to videos posted on social media by the organizers, United for Lebanon and the Depositors Outcry Association, who are both advocating for the release of depositor savings.
- Background: The lira has been on an exponential fall since January 20 when the Lebanese central bank (BDL) adjusted the official exchange rate for the first time in decades, from LL1,500 to LL15,000. Lebanese banks have been closed since Tuesday due to a strike announced by the Association of Banks in Lebanon. Prime Minister Najib Mikati said in a statement Thursday that “efforts are continuing to address the financial situation.”
- Why it matters: Lebanon has been in a deepening financial crisis since 2019. The country moved toward securing an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout in April 2022, but the deal is yet to be finalized.
Iran denies links to new al-Qaeda leader, calls US claim ‘Iranophobia’
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian on Thursday denied claims by the US that al-Qaeda’s new leader, Seif al-Adel, is living in his country. “I advise White House to stop the failed Iranophobia game,” wrote Abdollahian on Twitter. “Linking Al-Qaeda to Iran is patently absurd and baseless,” he said.
- Background: US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Wednesday told reporters that the US backs a UN report linking al-Adel to Iran. “Our assessment aligns with that of the UN, the assessment that you (a reporter) referenced that Saif al-Adel is based in Iran,” said Price during a press briefing, adding that “offering safe haven to al-Qaeda is just another example of Iran’s wide-ranging support for terrorism, its destabilizing activities in the Middle East and beyond.”
- Why it matters: Tensions between Iran and the US have only worsened in recent months, as the Islamic Republic supplies drones to Russia for use in its war on Ukraine and negotiations to revive a 2015 deal remain frozen. The US said it killed al-Qaeda’s former leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in a drone strike on Kabul, Afghanistan last year.
A Roman-era lead sarcophagus was uncovered on Tuesday at the site of a 2000-year-old Roman necropolis in the Gaza Strip. The necropolis is along the Northern Gaza coast and 500 meters (0.3 miles) from the sea.
The sarcophagus may have belonged to a prominent individual based on where it was found, the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities’ director of excavation and museums, Jehad Yasin, told CNN on Thursday.
Yasin said the ancient Roman cemetery was discovered in 2022 “as excavations were carried out at the site in cooperation with Premiere Urgence Internationale and funded by the British Council.”
Premiere Urgence Internationale, a French humanitarian organization, has collaborated on “Palestinian cultural heritage preservation” projects in Gaza under a program called INTIQAL.
The coffin was exhumed from the site to perform archaeological analysis for bone identification, which will take around two months, according to Yasin.
A team of experts in ancient funerary will unseal the coffin in the coming weeks.
While Gaza is a site of frequent aerial bombardment and a land, air, and sea blockade imposed by Israeli and Egyptian officials, the sarcophagus remains intact.
“The state of preservation of the sarcophagus is exceptional, as it remained sealed and closed,” read a press release from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
French and Palestinian archaeologists have uncovered eighty-five individual and collective tombs in the 3,500-square-meter Roman acropolis since its discovery last year, while ten of them have been opened for excavation.
Beyond the rubble of the coastal enclave lay dozens of artifacts and burial sites from the Roman, Byzantine and Canaanite eras.
Last year a Palestinian farmer discovered the head of a 4,500-year-old statue of Canaanite goddess Anat while another Palestinian farmer discovered a Byzantine-era mosaic in his orchard.
In 2022 the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities released their first Arabic archaeological guide titled “Gaza, the Gateway to the Levant.” The guide charts 39 archaeological sites in Gaza, including churches, mosques and ancient houses that date back to 6,000 years.
The ministry expects more archaeological findings at the necropolis.
Further sarcophagi are likely to be uncovered in the following months, said Director Yasin.
By Dalya Al Masri
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US transfers Guantanamo Bay detainee to Belize | CNN Politics
CNN
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The US has transferred a Guantanamo Bay detainee who was convicted of terrorism offenses in 2012 to Belize, the Pentagon announced on Thursday.
Majid Khan, a Pakistani citizen and US resident, who went to high school in Baltimore, was captured in 2003 and was held for more than three years at secret CIA prisons known as “black sites.” He was transferred to the US military prison in Cuba in 2006.
“Majid Khan pled guilty before a Military Commission in February 2012. Pursuant to the terms of the plea agreement, Khan pledged to cooperate with the U.S. Government and honored his cooperation commitment,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “He was sentenced in 2021 to a term of confinement for over 10 years with credit for the years he spent cooperating with U.S. personnel. He has subsequently completed his sentence.”
The Biden administration has promised to close the prison which currently holds 34 detainees, 20 of whom are eligible for transfer, according to the Pentagon’s Thursday statement.
Khan lived in the US from 1996 to early 2002 and was suspected of assisting al Qaeda in planning attacks on the US and elsewhere. Authorities believed he joined al Qaeda after the attacks on September 11, 2001.
He was accused of working for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has been called the mastermind behind 9/11, and conspiring with him to blow up underground storage tanks at gas stations in the US; traveling to Pakistan from Baltimore with fraudulently obtained travel documents; traveling to Thailand to give $50,000 of al Qaeda funds to an affiliate group, which was later used to fund a 2003 bombing of the J.W. Marriot Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia; and recording a martyr video and preparing to bomb a mosque where Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was anticipated to be. The plan ultimately failed.
In 2012, Khan was found guilty of conspiracy, spying, murder in violation of the law of war, attempted murder in violation of the law of war, and providing material for terrorism.
In 2021 a US military panel asked for clemency in his case, saying in a letter obtained by CNN that the treatment Khan has experienced while in US custody over the past almost two decades was “an affront to American values and concept of justice.”
“Although designated an ‘alien unprivileged enemy belligerent,’ not technically afforded the rights of US citizens, the complete disregard for the foundational concepts upon which the Constitution was founded is an affront to American values and concepts of justice,” the letter said.
According to the Defense Department release, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin notified Congress of his intent to transfer Khan to Belize on December 22.
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Kenyan security forces kill 10 suspected al-Shabab fighters
Kenya has suffered attacks for a decade as retribution for joining the peacekeeping force fighting al-Shabab in Somalia.
Kenyan security forces have killed 10 fighters from the Somalia-based al-Shabab group in eastern Kenya, a government official says.
They also recovered rocket-propelled grenades and improvised explosive devices after fighting the group on Wednesday in the village of Galmagalla in Garissa county, Thomas Bett, deputy county commissioner of the Bura East sub-county, said on Thursday.
“The operation to flush out the Somalia militants’ group in the region was carried out by our multi-agency team, … and [it] managed to neutralise 10 Islamist group militants and recovered assault weapons,” he told the Reuters new agency.
Spokespeople for al-Shabab could not be reached for comment.
The al-Qaeda affiliate has made incursions into Kenya for years to pressure the country into withdrawing its troops from the African Union-mandated peacekeeping force helping Somalia’s central government fight the group.
Al-Shabab has targeted security forces, schools, vehicles, towns and telecommunications infrastructure in eastern Kenya although the frequency and intensity of their attacks have declined in recent years.
A 2013 attack on the Westgate shopping mall Nairobi, killed 67 people.
Al-Shabab has been fighting for more than a decade to topple Somalia’s central government and establish its own rule, based on its strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Last week, the group killed four workers from Kenya’s highway authority when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Garissa county. On Tuesday, one person died when a convoy was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in the same region, police said in a report.
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Seven soldiers killed in al-Shabab attack on Somali military base
Government forces and allied clan militias recaptured the base from al-Shabab in October.
Fighters from the al-Shabab group stormed a military base in central Somalia that the government had recaptured from them last year, killing at least seven soldiers, including the base commander, an officer said.
Assailants from the al-Qaeda affiliate rammed the base in the village of Hawadley with a suicide car bomb on Tuesday and then opened fire, Captain Aden Nur, a military officer in a nearby town, told the Reuters news agency.
“We repelled al-Shabab [but] lost seven soldiers, including our commander,” Nur told Reuters.
Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement, saying it had killed “many apostate soldiers and their commander”.
The base is located about 60km (35 miles) north of the capital, Mogadishu, and was wrested from al-Shabab’s control in October by government forces and allied clan militias.
The operation was part of a broader government offensive, which began in August and has made significant gains. On Monday, the government announced it had captured Harardhere, an al-Shabab stronghold on the Indian Ocean coast that it had held for a decade.
As pressure on al-Shabab has grown, its fighters have struck back. They have stepped up gun and bomb attacks on the military and civilians, including in areas where they have retreated.
The group has been fighting since 2007 to topple Somalia’s central government and impose its strict interpretation of Islamic law.
In some regions, residents said al-Shabab’s tactics – including torching houses, destroying wells and killing civilians, combined with demands for taxes during the worst drought in 40 years – has pushed locals to form paramilitary groups to fight alongside the government.
But in other towns and villages, al-Shabab’s courts are gaining widespread acceptance as constitutional courts struggle with backlogs and a perception of being corrupt.
The conflict has contributed to a food crisis in Somalia. More than 200,000 Somalis are suffering from catastrophic food shortages, and some parts of central Somalia are on the brink of famine.
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At least 4 reportedly killed as al Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab militants storm hotel in Somalia’s capital
AP
Mogadishu — At least four people were killed in an ongoing attack by Al-Shabaab militants who laid siege to a popular hotel in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu overnight, a security agency official told AFP on Monday. Gunfire and explosions could still be heard more than 12 hours after the militants stormed the hotel near the presidential palace in a hail of bullets.
Mohamed Dahir, an official from the national security agency, told AFP the gunmen were holed up in a room at the Villa Rose surrounded by government forces.
“So far we have confirmed the death of four people”, he said, adding that others had been rescued from the besieged venue. “Very soon the situation will return to normal.”
Government officials were among others injured, he added.
The Villa Rose is frequented by parliamentarians and located in a secure central part of the capital just a few blocks from the office of Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
Al-Shabaab, a militant group affiliated with al Qaeda that has been trying to overthrow Somalia’s central government for 15 years, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Police said the gunmen rushed into the hotel in Bondhere district at around 8:00 p.m. (noon Eastern) on Sunday and an operation was under way to “eliminate” them.
More than 12 hours later, witnesses near the scene described still hearing loud explosions and gunfire.
“I saw several military vehicles with special forces heading towards the hotel, and a few minutes later, there was heavy gunfire and explosions,” said local witness Mahad Yare.
In a statement late Sunday, the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), a 20,000-strong military force drawn from across the continent, praised the “swift” security response to the attack.
On its website the Villa Rose describes the hotel as the “most secure lodging arrangement in Mogadishu” with metal detectors and a high perimeter wall.
Al-Shabaab has intensified attacks against civilian and military targets as Somalia’s recently-elected government has pursued a policy of “all-out war” against the Islamists.
The security forces, backed by local militias, ATMIS and U.S. airstrikes, have driven Al-Shabaab from central parts of the country in recent months, but it still holds ground, and as CBS News correspondent Debora Patta has reported, that’s one of the factors complicating efforts to save millions of people at risk of starving to death in Somalia’s drought-ravaged south.
The Somali government’s offensive has also drawn retribution.
On October 29, two cars packed with explosives blew up minutes apart in Mogadishu followed by gunfire, killing at least 121 people and injuring 333 others. It was the deadliest attack in the fragile Horn of Africa nation in five years.
At least 21 people were killed in a siege on a Mogadishu hotel in August that lasted 30 hours before security forces were able to overpower the militants inside.
The United Nations said earlier this month that at least 613 civilians had been killed and 948 injured in violence this year in Somalia, mostly caused by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) attributed to Al-Shabaab. The figures were the highest since 2017 and a more-than 30% rise from last year.
The U.S. considers al-Shabaab one of the al Qaeda network’s most lethal affiliate organizations and has targeted it with dozens of airstrikes. Hundreds of U.S. military personnel returned to the country under orders from President Biden, after being withdrawn by his predecessor Donald Trump.
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Yemen Fast Facts | CNN
CNN
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Here’s a look at Yemen, a country located on the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, sharing a border with Saudi Arabia and Oman.
(from the CIA World Fact Book)
Area: 527,968 sq km (twice the size of Wyoming)Population: 30,984,689 (2022 est.)
Median age: 19.8 years
Capital: Sanaa
Ethnic groups: Predominantly Arab; but also Afro-Arab, South Asian, European
Religions: Muslim (99.1%: an estimated 65% are Sunni and 35% are Shia) and small numbers of Jewish, Christian, Hindu and Baha’i (2020)
Unemployment: 27% (2014 est.)
Yemen is part of the Arab League.
Yemen has been mired in political unrest and armed conflict, which intensified in early 2015. Houthi rebels – a minority Shia group from the north of the country – drove out the US-backed government and took over the capital, Sanaa. The crisis quickly escalated into a multi-sided war, with neighboring Saudi Arabia leading a coalition of Gulf states against the Houthi rebels. The coalition is advised and supported by the United States and the United Kingdom, among other nations.
READ: Yemen: What you need to know about how we got here
May 22, 1990 – The Republic of Yemen is created from the unification of North Yemen, the Yemen Arab Republic and South Yemen, the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen.
May-July 1994 – A civil war between northerners and southerners begins due to disagreements between supporters of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, from North Yemen, and Vice President Ali Salim al-Baid, from South Yemen. Troops loyal to Saleh win the war.
September 25, 1999 – Saleh wins the country’s first direct presidential election, with 96.3% of the vote. Opposition leaders allege tampering at the ballot box.
September 23, 2006 – Saleh wins reelection to a seven-year term with 77% of the vote.
September 17, 2008 – Ten people, Yemeni citizens and police officers, are killed in terrorist attack on the US embassy in Sanaa.
December 28, 2009 – A Yemen-based arm of al Qaeda, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), claims responsibility for a failed bombing on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on December 25.
January 2, 2010 – US President Barack Obama announces a new counterterrorism partnership with Yemen, involving intelligence sharing, military training and joint attacks.
January 3, 2010 – The United States and the United Kingdom temporarily close their embassies in Sanaa after they receive word that AQAP may be planning an attack on the facilities. The US embassy reopens two days later after Yemeni forces kill two AQAP militants in a counterterrorism operation.
January 2010 – A group called Friends of Yemen is established in the UK to rally support for Yemen from the international community. They later hold meetings in London and Saudi Arabia.
January 27, 2011 – Protests break out, inspired by demonstrations in neighboring countries. The unrest continues for months, while crackdowns on protesters lead to civilian deaths.
June 3, 2011 – Opposition forces launch missiles at the presidential palace, injuring Saleh and killing several others.
September 2, 2011 – More than two million people demonstrate across Yemen, demanding that the military remove Saleh from power.
September 23, 2011 – Saleh returns to Yemen after more than three months of medical treatment in Saudi Arabia.
September 30, 2011 – Anwar al-Awlaki, spokesman for AQAP, is killed by a CIA drone strike.
November 23, 2011 – Saleh signs an agreement in Saudi Arabia transferring his executive powers to Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, Yemen’s vice president, effectively ending his rule.
January 21, 2012 – Parliament approves a law that grants Saleh immunity from prosecution.
February 21, 2012 – Yemen holds presidential elections to replace Saleh. There is only one candidate on the ballot, Vice President Hadi, the acting president since November 2011. Hadi receives 99.8% of the 6.6 million votes cast, according to the government elections committee.
February 25, 2012 – Hadi is sworn in as president.
May 21, 2012 – During a rehearsal for a military parade in Sanaa, a suicide bomber kills more than 100 Yemeni troops and wounds more than 200.
May 23, 2012 – Friends of Yemen pledges more than $4 billion in aid to help the country fight terrorism and boost its economy. The amount is later increased to $7.9 billion. There are delays, however, that hold up delivery of the funds, according to Reuters.
December 5, 2013 – Militants attack a Defense Ministry hospital in Sanaa. They ram the building with an explosives-laden vehicle and gunmen battle security forces inside. At least 52 people are killed, including four foreign doctors, according to the government.
December 15, 2013 – Parliament calls for an end to drone strikes on its territory three days after a US missile attack mistakenly hits a wedding convoy, killing 14 civilians.
February 10, 2014 – State news reports that Hadi has approved making Yemen a federal state consisting of six regions: two in the south, and four in the north. Sanaa is designated as neutral territory.
September 21, 2014 – Hadi, Houthi rebels and representatives of major political parties sign a ceasefire deal. The United Nations-brokered deal ends a month of protests by Houthis that essentially halted life in Sanaa and resulted in hundreds of people being killed or injured.
January 17, 2015 – Houthi rebels kidnap Hadi’s Chief of Staff Ahmed bin Mubarak in a push for more political power. He is released 10 days later, according to Reuters.
January 20, 2015 – Houthi rebels take over the presidential palace.
January 22, 2015 – President Hadi resigns shortly after the prime minister and the cabinet step down. Houthis say they will withdraw their fighters from Sanaa if the government agrees to constitutional changes including fair representation for marginalized groups within the country. No agreement is reached.
February 11, 2015 – The United States and the United Kingdom suspend embassy operations in Yemen.
March 20, 2015 – Terrorists bomb two mosques in Sanaa, killing at least 137 and wounding 357. ISIS claims responsibility for the attack.
March 22, 2015 – Houthi rebels seize the international airport in Taiz.
March 26, 2015 – Warplanes from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and other countries strike Houthi rebel targets.
December 6, 2015 – The governor of the city of Aden and six bodyguards are killed in a car bombing. ISIS claims responsibility.
December 18-19, 2015 – At least 100 people are killed as violence erupts in the Harath district of Hajjah, a strategic border near Saudi Arabia.
April-August 2016 – Direct peace talks between the warring parties take place in Kuwait, but fail after Houthi rebels reject a UN proposal aimed at ending the war. Yemeni government officials leave the discussions shortly afterward.
November 28, 2016 – The Iranian-backed Houthi movement forms a new government in the capital. Abdul Aziz Habtoor, who defected from Hadi’s government and joined the Houthi coalition in 2015, is its leader, according to the movement’s news agency Saba.
December 18, 2016 – A suicide bomber strikes as soldiers line up to receive their salaries at the Al Solban military base in the southern city of Aden. The strike kills at least 52 soldiers and injures 34 others, two Yemeni senior security officials tell CNN. ISIS claims responsibility.
January 29, 2017 – US Central Command announces that a Navy SEAL was killed during a raid on a suspected al Qaeda hideout in a Yemeni village. The Navy SEAL is later identified as William Owens. The Pentagon reports that 14 terrorists were killed during the raid. Yemeni officials say civilians got caught in the crossfire and 13 people died, including eight-year-old Nawar Anwar Al-Awalki, the daughter of Anwar Al-Awalki. The raid was authorized by US President Donald Trump, days after he was sworn in as commander in chief.
February 8, 2017 – Two senior Yemeni officials tell CNN that the government has requested that the United States stop ground operations in the country unless it has full approval.
May 15, 2017 – Save the Children reports that 242 people have died of cholera as an outbreak spreads through Sanaa and beyond.
October 16, 2017 – US forces conduct airstrikes against two ISIS training camps in what a defense official tells CNN are the first US strikes specifically targeting ISIS in Yemen.
November 4, 2017 – Houthi rebels fire a missile at the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. The Saudi government says that their military intercepted the missile before it reached its target. The Saudis carry out airstrikes on Sanaa in response.
November 6, 2017 – Saudi Arabia blocks humanitarian aid planes from landing in Yemen. The move is in retaliation for the attempted missile strike on Riyadh.
December 4, 2017 – Saleh is killed by Houthi rebels as he tries to flee Sanaa.
December 6, 2017 – Trump issues a statement that he has directed his administration to call for an end to Saudi Arabia’s blockade.
December 21, 2017 – The International Committee of the Red Cross announces that one million cases of cholera have been reported in Yemen since the outbreak began during the spring. More than 2,200 people have died, according to the World Health Organization. It is the largest outbreak of the disease in recent history.
April 3, 2018 – Speaking at a UN Pledging Conference on Yemen, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres notes that, in its fourth year of conflict, more than three-quarters of the population, 22 million, require humanitarian aid. Regarding hunger alone, “some 18 million people are food insecure; one million more than when we convened last year.”
August 3, 2018 – The World Health Organization warns that Yemen is teetering on the brink of a third cholera epidemic.
August 9, 2018 – A Saudi-led coalition bombs a school bus, killing 40 boys returning from a day trip in the northern Saada governorate. Fifty-one people are killed in total. Later, munitions experts tell CNN that the bomb, a 500-pound laser-guided MK 82 bomb made by Lockheed Martin, was sold as part of a US State Department-sanctioned arms deal with Saudi Arabia. The Saudi coalition blames “incorrect information” for the strike, admits it was a mistake and takes responsibility.
November 20, 2018 – Save the Children says that an estimated 85,000 children under the age of 5 may have died from extreme hunger or disease since the war in Yemen escalated in early 2015.
December 6, 2018 – The opposing sides in Yemen’s conflict begin direct talks in Sweden, the first direct discussions between the parties since 2016.
December 18, 2018 – A ceasefire reached in Sweden between Yemen’s warring parties goes into effect at midnight (4 p.m. ET December 17) in the strategic port city of Hodeidah.
February 2019 – A CNN investigation reveals that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have transferred US-made weapons to al Qaeda-linked fighters, hardline Salafi militias, and other groups on the ground in Yemen. The weapons have also made their way into the hands of Iranian-backed rebels, exposing some of America’s sensitive military technology to Tehran and potentially endangering the lives of US troops in other war zones.
May 2019 – A CNN investigation exposes the theft or “diversion” of food aid, some of which is being stolen by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, on a scale far greater than has been reported before.
June 2019 – The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) finds that the total number of reported fatalities in Yemen is more than 91,000 since 2015.
June 12, 2019 – A missile fired by Houthi rebels strikes the arrivals hall of Abha International Airport in Saudi Arabia, injuring 26 people. On July 2, a second attack occurs when Houthi rebels execute a drone strike on the same airport, injuring nine civilians. according to the Houthi-run Al-Masirah news agency.
August 11, 2019 – A spokesperson for Yemeni separatists tells CNN that they have taken control of Aden, which had been the seat of the Saudi-backed government since Houthis took over Sanaa in 2014.
January 19, 2020 – At least 80 Yemeni soldiers attending prayers at a mosque are killed and 130 others injured in ballistic missile and drone attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, according to the UN Special Envoy for Yemen.
December 26, 2020 – Yemen’s new 24-member cabinet, the power-sharing government brokered by Saudi Arabia, is sworn in. The new cohesive government will have equal representatives from Yemen’s internationally recognized government and southern separatists, their coalition allies in the war against the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels.
February 12, 2021 – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announces the removal of Yemen’s Houthi rebels from the US list of foreign terrorist organizations, effective February 16, reversing the Trump administration’s January 2020 designation that faced bipartisan backlash from politicians and humanitarian organizations.
April 2, 2022 – Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis and their rival Saudi-led coalition agree to a nationwide truce. It is the most significant step towards ending the hostilities since the war began seven years ago, and a win for UN and US mediators who for the past year have been trying to engineer a permanent peace deal. The renewable two-month truce is meant to halt all military operations in Yemen and across its borders.
October 2, 2022 – After a rare six months of relative calm, the truce between Yemen’s warring sides expires. The two-month truce had been renewed twice but ends after the two sides fail to renew their deal.
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First on CNN: Top US officials hold first in-person meeting with the Taliban since the US killed al Qaeda’s leader in July | CNN Politics
CNN
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Top Biden administration officials met in-person with the Taliban on Saturday for the first time since al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed by the US in his apartment in Kabul in late July, two officials familiar with the talks said.
The administration sent the CIA’s deputy director and the top State Department official responsible for Afghanistan to the Qatari capital of Doha for the talks with the Taliban delegation which included their head of intelligence, Abdul Haq Wasiq.
After Zawahiri was killed in a strike, the US accused the Taliban of a “clear and blatant violation of the Doha agreement, “brokered by the Trump administration, which said that the Taliban would not harbor terrorists if US forces withdrew from Afghanistan, which they did in August 2021.
After a US drone fired fatal Hellfire missiles at Zawahiri, American officials accused Taliban leaders from the Haqqani network of knowing about Zawahiri’s whereabouts while the Taliban angrily condemned the operation.
Since then, the US has continued to engage with the Taliban, including negotiating the release of US citizen Mark Frerichs. But senior officials had not met face-to-face since a few days before Zawahiri was killed on July 31.
The presence of CIA Deputy Director David Cohen and the Taliban’s Wasiq at the meeting on Saturday indicates an emphasis on counterterrorism. The White House last month called cooperation with the Taliban on counterterrorism “a work in progress.”
Cohen was accompanied by the State Department’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Tom West, who has often led engagement with the Taliban since the US withdrawal last year.
Frerichs was released almost three weeks ago after more than two years in captivity, with help from Qatar. Administration officials said they said spent months negotiating with the Taliban for his release and had warned the Taliban after the strike about harming Frerichs. The best way to rebuild trust, they said they told the Taliban, would be to release him.
At least one other American, a filmmaker named Ivor Shearer, is currently being held by the Taliban after being arrested with his Afghan producer, Faizullah Faizbakhsh, filming in the area where Zawahiri was killed, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Shearer had reportedly been summoned several times by the Taliban for questioning before his detention.
The CIA and State Department declined to comment.
While the Taliban maintains ties with al Qaeda, they are facing an insurgency from the Islamic State offshoot known as ISIS-K. The group has routinely targeted the Hazara ethnic minority in Afghanistan. At least 25 people, primarily young women, were killed in a suicide attack last week at an education center in a predominantly Hazara neighborhood in Kabul. No one immediately claimed responsibility.
“The Taliban are struggling to prevent ISIS-K attacks, making them look feckless, particularly in Kabul,” says Beth Sanner, a former Deputy Director of National Intelligence who led Afghanistan analysis at the CIA. Sanner is also a CNN contributor.
“[Cohen] is likely to deliver a firm message that we will conduct more strikes as we did against Zawahiri if we find that al Qaeda members in Afghanistan are supporting operations that threaten the US or its allies,” Sanner said. “ISIS-K now poses an internal Afghan threat, to the Taliban and to sectarian stability given ISIS-K’s focus on killing Shias, but there is some reasonable concern that ISIS-K could ultimately turn its sights on external plotting if the Taliban is unable to contain them.”
Last month the Biden administration announced it had set up a $3.5 billion “Afghan Fund” with frozen Afghan money to promote economic stability. The funds have yet to be released because the US does not believe there is a trusted institution to guarantee the funds will benefit the Afghan people, two officials told CNN.
Instead it will be administered by an outside body, independent of the Taliban and the country’s central bank.
Administration officials have also repeatedly raised the plight of women and girls in their conversations with the Taliban. The United Nations rapporteur for human rights in Afghanistan last month called the regression of women and girls in Afghan society “staggering.”
“In no other country have women and girls so rapidly disappeared from all spheres of public life,” Bennett said. “Despite this, women and girls remain at the forefront of efforts to maintain human rights and continue to call for accountability.”
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Afghans flee to Pakistan border after U.S. withdrawal
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US transfers alleged al-Qaeda associate from Guantanamo Bay to Algeria | CNN Politics
CNN
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The US transferred an alleged al-Qaeda associate from Guantanamo Bay to Algeria, the Defense Department announced Thursday, part of the Biden administration’s ongoing efforts to close the prison facility.
Said bin Brahim bin Umran Bakush, a 72-year-old Algerian native who has been held in detention in Guantanamo Bay for 20 years, was sent to Algeria after a review board determined he no longer needed to be held to protect against “a continuing significant threat to the national security of the United States,” the Defense Department said. The transfer included a set of security measures, including monitoring, travel restrictions and continued information sharing.
The Biden administration has made it a priority to reduce the number of detainees at Guantanamo Bay as part of the ongoing effort to close the prison facility.
Last month, the US transferred an alleged al-Qaeda bombmaker to his native Saudi Arabia after more than 20 years of detention. Two weeks earlier, the US transferred two brothers accused of running al-Qaeda safehouses to Pakistan.
The latest transfer brings the number of detainees at Guantanamo Bay down to 30, 16 of whom are eligible for transfer, according to the Defense Department.
Umran Bakush was a trusted associate of al-Qaeda facilitator Abu Zubaydah and al-Qaeda trainer Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, according to government records. In the late-90s, Umban Bakush attended basic and advanced training in Afghanistan, later serving as an instructor at an extremist camp, the records said.
He was captured at a safehouse in March 2002, where members were training for future attacks, including US interests, records said. He was transferred to Guantanamo Bay in June 2002.
But investigators were never able to learn more about what motivated Umran Bakush to allegedly join al-Qaeda and participate in planning terrorist attacks, records said, and he never admitted to involvement in extremist activities. He has consistently denied involvement in terrorist activities and shown little interest or sympathy for al-Qaeda or radical Islamic views, according to government records. He has also not shown a strong interest in being released from prison, but he feared returning to Algeria because he worried authorities there would arrest him.
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Exclusive: Senior US general ordered Twitter announcement of drone strike on al Qaeda leader that may have instead killed civilian | CNN Politics
CNN
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The senior general in charge of US forces in the Middle East ordered that his command announce on Twitter that a senior al Qaeda leader had been targeted by an American drone strike in Syria earlier this month – despite not yet having confirmation of who was actually killed in the strike, according to multiple defense officials.
Nearly three weeks later, US Central Command still does not know whether a civilian died instead, officials said. CENTCOM did not open a review of the incident, officially known as a civilian-casualty credibility assessment report, until May 15 – twelve days after the strike. That review is ongoing.
One defense official with direct knowledge of the situation told CNN that some of CENTCOM Commander Gen. Erik Kurilla’s subordinates urged him to hold off on the tweet until there was more clarity on who was actually killed.
Two other officials denied that, and said they were not aware of any staffers voicing consternation or disagreement with the announcement.
Either way, the statement ultimately posted to Twitter from the official CENTCOM Twitter account did not identify the supposed senior al Qaeda leader, raising more questions about what had occurred.
“At 11:42 am local Syrian time on 3 May, US Central Command Forces conducted a unilateral strike in Northwest Syria targeting a senior Al Qaeda leader,” the tweet read. “We will provide more information as operational details become available.”
The tweet has not been taken down and CENTCOM has not tweeted about the strike again.
The episode raises questions about how thoroughly CENTCOM has implemented the military’s civilian harm mitigation policy – a process for preventing, mitigating and responding to civilian casualties caused by US military operations.
The policy was developed in 2022 after a botched US drone strike in Kabul killed 10 civilians in August 2021.
Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said on Tuesday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is “absolutely” confident in the Defense Department’s civilian harm mitigation efforts.
“In terms of CENTCOM’s strike, as you know, they conducted that strike on the third of May. They are investigating the allegations of civilian casualties,” Ryder said at a Pentagon news briefing. “So, you know, I think our record speaks for itself in terms of how seriously we take these. Very few countries around the world do that. The secretary has complete confidence that we will continue to abide by the policies that we put into place.”
CENTCOM acknowledged last week following a Washington Post report questioning the strike that the operation may have resulted in a civilian casualty and said in a statement that it was “investigating” the incident. The civilian casualty review was not launched until a week after the Post began presenting information to CENTCOM suggesting that the strike had killed a civilian.
CENTCOM still has not opened a formal investigation into the strike, known as a 15-6 investigation, defense officials told CNN. The officials said the civilian casualty review first needs to determine that a noncombatant was indeed killed in the strike. Then, a commander needs to decide that there are other unanswered questions remaining about the operation that require a more thorough investigation. A 15-6 investigation was launched less than a week after the errant Kabul strike.
Defense officials told CNN that in the immediate aftermath of the strike, Kurilla and his staff had high confidence that they had killed the senior al-Qaeda leader, though they declined to say why they were so convinced. But they also knew it would likely take a few days to confirm the person’s identity definitively. The US has no military footprint in northwest Syria, an area still recovering from the effects of a devastating earthquake.
But as the days passed, CENTCOM still could not determine the identity of who they had killed. Some defense officials considered that a red flag, they told CNN.
By May 8, CENTCOM still had not confirmed the person’s identity, and began receiving information from the Washington Post that raised questions about whether a civilian had been killed, defense officials said. The Post’s information led CENTCOM to open a review into the strike, and whether it had killed a civilian, on May 15.
There is still some disagreement within the administration about the identity of the person killed, defense officials told CNN. Some intelligence officials continue to believe that the target of the strike was a member of al-Qaeda, even if he wasn’t a senior leader. But there is a growing belief inside the Pentagon that the man – identified by his family as Loutfi Hassan Mesto, a 56-year-old father of ten – was a farmer with no ties to terrorism.
Mesto’s family told CNN that he had been out grazing his sheep when he was killed. Loutfi never left his village during the Syrian uprisings and did not support any political faction, his brother said.
Mohamed Sajee, a distant relative living in Qurqaniya, also told CNN that Loutfi was never known to be in favor or against the Syrian regime.
“It’s impossible that he was with al Qaeda, he doesn’t even have a beard,” he said.
The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, told CNN they arrived on the scene of the strike after being contacted on their local emergency number.
“The team noticed only one crater caused by the missile, which was next to the man’s body,” the White Helmets said, also confirming that the man had been grazing his sheep.
“When the team arrived, his wife, neighbors, and other people were at the location,” the group added.
The White Helmets tweeted on May 3 that they had recovered the body of Mesto, who they described as “a civilian aged 60” who was killed in a missile strike while grazing sheep. CENTCOM was aware of the White Helmets’ tweet, officials said, but the group’s information was not considered solid enough yet to open a review.
The May 3 incident bears a stunning similarity to another CENTCOM operation: a US drone strike in Kabul during the closing days of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, which killed 10 Afghan civilians, including 7 children. The Pentagon initially claimed it had eliminated an ISIS-K threat and defended the operation for weeks, with Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley going as far as to call it a “righteous” strike in a Pentagon briefing two days later.
A suicide bombing at Kabul’s international airport three days earlier, which killed 13 US service members, had added pressure on CENTCOM to act against any potential threats, and officials believed at the time that another attack was imminent.
Austin ultimately decided no one would be punished over the botched operation, even as he instructed Central Command and Special Operations Command to improve policies and procedures to prevent civilian harm more effectively.
Austin committed to adjusting Defense Department policies to better protect civilians, even establishing a civilian protection center of excellence in 2022.
“Leaders in this department should be held to account for high standards of conduct and leadership,” Austin said at the time.
