Latest Al Qaeda news

ADEN (Reuters) - A remotely-detonated bomb planted in a military vehicle killed a soldier and a civilian and injured six other soldiers in the Hadramaut region of eastern Yemen on Saturday evening, a local security official said. The explosion took place in the town of al-Shehr as the vehicle drove along a main road, the …

PARIS (Reuters) - Between 180 and 200 French citizens have travelled to Syria in the past year to join a two-year-old rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad, le Monde reported on Saturday, citing figures from France's internal DCRI and external DGSE security services. That number, which is higher than a previous estimate …

NIAMEY (Reuters) - Islamist militants who carried out simultaneous suicide attacks on an army base and a French uranium mine in northern Niger two days ago came from southern Libya, Niger's president said on Saturday. President Mahamadou Issoufou said the raids showed Libya was a source of regional instability, months after …

Iraqi forces mounted a massive operation on Saturday to better secure the country's western desert amid concerns it is being used by Sunnis heading to fight in neighbouring Syria.

A roadside bomb attack on an Iraqi army convoy and a car bomb targeting Iranian pilgrims killed 10 people and wounded 19 on Saturday, security officers and doctors said.

Britain's intelligence agencies came under fresh scrutiny on Saturday following claims that MI5 had tried to recruit one of two Islamists accused of butchering a soldier in London.

By Erika Solomon BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian government forces and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah launched a fierce campaign to seize more rebel territory in the border town of Qusair on Saturday, sources on both sides of the conflict said. Rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad said additional tanks …

The attackers who staged deadly twin bombings at an army base and French-run uranium mine in northern Niger came from neighbouring Libya, Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou said on Saturday.

Weakened by a prolonged hunger strike, Yemeni detainees who have languished at Guantanamo Bay for years see growing hope of finally returning home after a ban on transfers to Yemen was lifted.

Suspected Al-Qaeda militants killed a policeman and a civilian in a grenade attack on a checkpoint in southeastern Yemen on Saturday, a security official and witnesses said.

African leaders gathered Saturday ahead of extravagant celebrations for the 50th jubilee of the continental bloc, with Africa's myriad problems set aside for a day to mark the progress that has been made.

French special forces and local troops raided an army base in northern Niger, ending a hostage seizure by Islamist fighters who had staged twin suicide bombings that killed at least 20 people.

By Warren Strobel WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saddled with Middle East problems ranging from Iran to Syria and beyond, President Barack Obama now faces one that is both old and new: Iraq. Unresolved sectarian tensions, inflamed by the raging civil war in neighbouring Syria, have combined to send violence in Iraq to its highest …

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Syrian opposition talks aimed at presenting a coherent front at an international peace conference to end the civil war faced the prospect of collapse after President Bashar al-Assad's foes failed to cut an internal deal, opposition sources said on Friday. ...

By Abdoulaye Massalatchi NIAMEY (Reuters) - French special forces and Niger troops shot dead on Friday the last two Islamists involved in a twin attack on a military base and a French uranium mine in Niger claimed by the mastermind of January's mass hostage-taking in Algeria. Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a one-eyed veteran of al …

By Patricia Zengerle and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama wants to roll back some of the most controversial aspects of the U.S. "war on terror," but efforts to alter the global fight against Islamist militants will face the usual hurdle at home: staunch opposition from Republicans in Congress. …

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Syria's fractious opposition scrambled to agree a new leadership on Friday in a bid to present a coherent front at peace talks which the United States and Russia are convening to seek an end to more than two years of civil war. A major assault by President Bashar al-Assad's forces …

The fragile security situation in Tunisia, where radical Islamists are blamed for a wave of violence in recent months, makes it necessary to extend the state of emergency, Defence Minister Rachid Sabbagh said on Friday.

By Peter Griffiths LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's security services faced questions on Friday over whether they could have done more to prevent the murder of a soldier hacked to death in a busy London street after it emerged that his suspected killers were known to intelligence officers. Suspects Michael Adebolajo, 28 and …

Britain's intelligence services came under pressure on Friday to explain how they let two Islamic extremists suspected of hacking a soldier to death in London slip through their net.

When Michael Adebolajo was filmed clutching the bloodied knives he apparently used to butcher a soldier, Britons were chilled by the strong London accent in which he spoke of his Islamist motives. How could one of their own have become so radicalised?

Fighters loyal to Al-Qaeda have seized control of villages near the Yemeni port city of Mukalla in an apparent bid to take over swathes of the southeastern province of Hadramawt, the interior ministry and residents said on Friday.

By Dominic Evans TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - A Syrian-born Islamist cleric who taught one of the men accused of hacking to death an off-duty British soldier on a London street praised the attack for its "courage" and said Muslims would see it as a strike on a military target. In an interview in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, …

The Pakistan government Friday repeated its view that US drone strikes in its territory were illegal, after President Barack Obama laid out new guidelines for their use.