Summary: Deputy al-Qaida leader Abu Yahya al-Libi has been killed in a U.S. drone strike in North Waziristan, Pakistan. Al-Libi, who escaped from a U.S. military prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan in 2005, was one of al-Qaida’s most influential propagandists and one of its most able leaders.
Pakistan has blocked vital supply routes for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan and demanded Washington vacate Shamsi Air Base, used by American drones that target al-Qaida and Taliban militants in Pakistan’s tribal region, after coalition aircraft allegedly killed up to 28 Pakistani troops at two military outposts along a mountainous frontier that serves as a safe haven for militants.
Summary: Fuel oil tankers destined for U.S. and allied NATO forces in Afghanistan have been attacked and torched yet again by Islamic militants in Pakistan. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 22, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the proposed mosque near the site of the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center drew hundreds of demonstrators to Lower Manhattan in New York.
Summary: The United States has a plan to try to “snatch” Pakistan’s 100-plus nuclear weapons by force if and when the president believes they are a threat to either the U.S. or vital U.S. interests. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 4, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that public support for President Obama’s Afghanistan war policy had plummeted amid a rising U.S. death toll, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, which also showed Obama’s handling of the war in Iraq at record-low approval.
Summary: Ilyas Kashmiri, a top al-Qaida commander and possible replacement for Osama bin Laden, has been killed in an American drone-fired missile strike in Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal region, close to the Afghan border. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on June 5, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that an estimated 200 people attended a Tea Party rally at Lake George in St. Cloud, Minn., organized by the local Republican Party. It featured Republican office holders, including Rep. Michele Bachmann, state and local Republican candidates, and rightwing bloggers.
Summary: Angry over the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden, Pakistani lawmakers are demanding an end to U.S. missile strikes against Islamist militants on their soil and warned that Pakistan may cut NATO’s supply line to Afghanistan if the attacks don’t stop. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on May 14, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Al-Qaida in Iraq warned Shiites that “dark days soaked with blood” lay ahead with a new campaign of violence yet to come.
Summary: As the Taliban spring offensive heats up in Afghanistan, here’s a quick guide to 12 of the most-hunted insurgent commanders on the front lines in the AfPak war. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on April 21, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the two top-ranking leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri, were killed in a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation on Sunday, April 18, 2010, in what Vice President Joe Biden called a “potentially devastating blow” to the terrorist operation.
Summary: A suicide bomber killed the police chief of the northern Afghanistan province of Kunduz, an increasingly volatile area in a growing Taliban-led insurgency. And in Pakistan, the Taliban detonated a car bomb in Faisalabad, Pakistan’s third-largest city, killing 20 and wounding more than 100 people — underscoring the reach of al-Qaida and Taliban in the U.S.-allied nation. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on March 10, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the U.S. House of Representatives, by a vote of 356-65, rejected a resolution by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (R-Ohio) to force withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2010.
Summary: Raymond Allen Davis, an American jailed in Pakistan for the fatal shooting of two armed men, was secretly working for the CIA and scouting a neighborhood when he was arrested — a disclosure likely to further frustrate U.S. government efforts to free the man and strain relations between two countries partnered in a fragile alliance in the war on terror. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 21, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Nancy Carver of Rice, Minn., restored her shoreline on Little Rock Lake to native flowers and grasses and helped educate her neighbors about the importance of shoreline restoration for improving water quality.
Summary: Islamic leaders rallied at least 15,000 people against an American consular official arrested in the shooting deaths of two Pakistanis and warned the government not to cave in to U.S. pressure to release the man, who has been named as Raymond Allen Davis. … Kandahar deputy governor assassinated in Afghanistan. … Deadly Kabul grocery store bombing targeted Xe (Blackwater) employee. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 30, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, in a new audiotape, called for the world to boycott American goods and the U.S. dollar, blaming the United States and other industrialized countries for global warming.