Unconventional Conflict

The magazine, produced by al Qaeda's Yemeni affiliate - al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which regularly includes how-to instructions for followers to carry out terrorist attacks in the West - has received significant scrutiny in recent weeks.

Investigators believe that Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev accessed Inspire magazine, and the material had instructions on bomb-making, a law enforcement official told CNN earlier this month.

According to analysts, the explosive devices the Boston bombers built had striking similarities to a bomb recipe in the first issue of the magazine - "How to build a bomb in your Mom's kitchen" - that has been downloaded by militants in multiple Islamist terrorist plots on both sides of the Atlantic....

...Such is the concern about Inspire magazine that authorities in the UK have adopted a zero-tolerance approach to those accessing Inspire. More than 20 individuals have been arrested and prosecuted in the UK in the past 18 months for downloading the magazine, the London Times reported earlier this month.

A Chinese military unit that a private U.S. computer security company accused of launching more than 115 cyber attacks against American companies over seven years has resumed hacking after a three-month hiatus, the firm’s chief security officer said Wednesday.

Mandiant did not identify the companies targeted by Unit 61398, citing confidentiality agreements with its clients. Bejtlich did not say Wednesday where the unit has resumed its attacks, but he said other China-based groups never stopped stealing Western intellectual property.

“They steal a staggering amount of information,” he said.

Bejtlich said the U.S. government should take action against China to force it to crack down on the thefts.

“We’ve been talking with them for a long time about this ... and they have not stopped,” he said.

"Little known a year ago but suspected of having being founded by al-Qaeda in Iraq, they have grown in stature, leading many of the rebels’ most successful recent battles. Last month they publicly declared their loyalty to al-Qaeda’s supreme leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri..."

Continues...

President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi issued his warning during a closed session of the National Dialogue, which brings political, religious and other leaders together to decide on the country's political system before writing a constitution.

The official SABA news agency said Hadi held an “exceptional” meeting, but offered few details on the president's remarks about security in the county. However, three people at the session agreed to relay his comments to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the meeting.

They said Hadi told the participants that Yemen was at a crossroads, and pointed to a “very precarious” security situation in Yemen. One described Hadi's remarks as unusually frank.

Continues...

The first issue of the English-language online magazine, called "Azan", was published on May 5, the SITE intelligence monitoring group said. It compared Azan to "Inspire" magazine, set up by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

Experts advise that call-center staff should be educated about DDoS attacks, in case customers call in about online outages or experience difficulty accessing accounts. And network and security teams should actively monitor Internet traffic on May 7 and take steps to block specific IP addresses.

Anonymous has said the attacks are being waged because of perceived social and political injustices.

..."One shouldn't underestimate al Qaeda," said Musharbash. "At decisive points, al Qaeda has always found ways to re-invent itself. And at the moment we are seeing that again."

In 2009-2010, the Somali militant group al-Shabab controlled most of central and southern Somalia south of the autonomous region of Puntland. Since the February 2011 military offensives by the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), Somali government troops, and Somali Sufi militia forces, al-Shabab has suffered a series of significant territorial and strategic setbacks.[1] Pressures on the insurgent movement increased when Kenya and Ethiopia, together with client Somali militias, invaded its southern and western strongholds in October and November 2011. The Kenyan military’s goal from the onset of its campaign inside Somalia was to seize the vital port city of Kismayo, one of al-Shabab’s most important economic centers.[2] Kenya seized control of that city in October 2012.

CAIRO — The black flag of jihad flies over much of northern Syria. In the center of the country, pro-government militias and Hezbollah fighters battle those who threaten their communities. In the northeast, the Kurds have effectively carved out an autonomous zone.

Canada has become the first NATO country to officially designate the Taliban as a terrorist organization, the government announced on Wednesday as it also sanctioned the Haqqani network.

The armed Islamist groups are responsible for countless attacks in Afghanistan that have slowed the country’s transition out of lawlessness following years of civil war, brutal Taliban rule and al-Qaeda intrusion.

The listing makes it illegal to knowingly participate in, or contribute to the Taliban or Haqqani network, which is based in Pakistan and is allied with the Taliban. Both reject democracy and are fighting to impose their harsh version of Islamic law on Afghans.

Officially, the NATO-led Afghanistan International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is only saying at this time that two of its service members and four civilian contractors died.

NBC News is reporting it has been told by a NATO source that six of the people killed were Americans.

From Kabul, NPR's Sean Carberry tells our Newscast Desk that "the massive explosion shook the capital Thursday morning, and set nearby cars and buildings ablaze. Hospital officials say dozens of civilians, including many children are being treated for injuries. The militant group Hizb-i-Islami has taken responsibility for the attack.

Continues...

Iran's Defense Ministry plans to equip the naval fleet of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) with cruise missiles having a range of more than 300 kilometers.

The cruise missiles have different ranges and have super advanced capabilities, Director of Iran's Defense Ministry's Aerospace Organization Brigadier General Mehdi Farahi said in a Sunday interview.

The precision and range of the new missiles have been enhanced compared with those of the 300 km-range missiles that the IRGC Navy already has,” Farahi pointed out.

On April 27, Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi announced Iran's plans to unveil indigenous ballistic and cruise missiles as well as other new military achievements within the next five months.

Davis’s candor should be recognized for what it is. It’s a message from the front lines of law enforcement to forget about politics, think about the victims of April 15, and, in their names, do whatever we can as a country to make everyone safer....

Two mortar shells struck Israel’s Golan Heights on Monday in the early evening local time. Though the IDF described the mortars as accidental spillover from fighting across the border in Syria, they are bound to deepen fears of escalating violence in the region.

On Friday and Sunday Israel reportedly struck Iranian and Hezbollah assets based in Syria. The Israelis have subsequently made extensive efforts to dampen tensions – IAF jets had conducted the air strikes from Lebanese air space, staying out of Syria – but nonetheless Damascus has been signaling that it may escalate the situation.

Most pointedly, Syrian state TV announced today that President Bashar al-Assad was activating Palestinian groups to retaliate against Israel...

Continues...

This time, a number of hacktivists from around the world, some of them taking on the Anonymous label, have set their sights on the United States' most powerful institutions in an event dubbed "OpUSA."

Anonymous and various Islamist groups claim that they will take down nine U.S. government websites on May 7, including those of the Pentagon, the National Security Agency, the FBI and the White House, along with over 130 bank websites, such as those belonging to Bank of America, Capital One and TD Bank.

The Islamist hacker group Izz al-Din Qassam Cyber Fighters, which states its sole aim is to get the "Innocence of Muslims" video removed from YouTube, has pulled off many successful distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against large American banks over the past six months, but few other groups have managed to muster that kind of firepower.

Anonymous claims the Qassam Cyber Fighters will be participating in tomorrow's attacks; the Cyber Fighters have confirmed only that they support the goals of OpUSA.

Somehow Robert managed to track down Haji-Mara, the Al-Tawhid Brigade's commander, for a rare interview, during which the former-businessman-turned-freedom-fighter espouses the many difficulties the rebels face against the alleged brutality of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

A number of developments from the "greater middle east" to west Africa highlights the varying fortunes of the al-Qaida movement over recent years. In Pakistan and Yemen, drone attacks on al-Qaida affiliates continue with an intensity that is little recognised outside military circles. This week, a senior al-Qaida intelligence specialist, Abu Ubaydah Abdullah al Alam, was reportedly killed in Pakistan, and in Yemen two paramilitary fighters were killed in Marib province, the third attack in six days (see Long War Journal, 21-22 April 2013).

Boston's police commissioner said investigators discovered at least four unexploded devices, including one similar to the two pressure cooker bombs detonated at the Boston Marathon..